May 10, 2026 • 29 mins
It's Mother's Day and Dean has a very special episode by detailing how small changes can turn 'normal' bathrooms into a 'spa like retreat.' Simple additions like: towel warmers to more extensive options like radiant heat flooring and shower saunas, you can make changes to any bathroom at any level of budget.
Dean also takes listener questions on how to fix single sash windows, the best company to get a home loan for a home remodel, how to fix a Toto toilet that makes a 'water hammer' sound after filling up with water, whether you need to hire someone special to do a bathroom remodel in a mobile home, the best way to clean solar panels on the roof and how to properly install a 'french drain.'
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
house Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. Today,
we in honor of Mother's Day, we are talking about
transforming that old primary bathroom, the old master bathroom into
a true Spali like retreat for mom. And so not
(00:24):
something that's gonna happen by the end of the day today,
but something we can certainly get started, something that you
can just slide into a little envelope and say, hey,
guess what, Mom, Here is your Mother's Day treat. This
is what we're gonna do to your bathroom. And if
you're looking for a little quicker return on that Mother's
Day gift, then I can offer you this too. If
(00:45):
your home and mom would be blessed by a little
personal house Whisper attention, that would be me and Tina
showing up and actually, you know, talking about all the
problems and all the potential and casting vision. You can
book an in home design consult with us, even if
you're out of state. We can do remote consults, we
(01:06):
can do in person consults, whichever one fits your needs best.
You just go to house Whisper dot Design for more
info and Tina told us earlier today. I don't know
what she's got planned, but anybody who books this week
based on a Mother's Day gift consult, she's got some
(01:27):
special gifts to bring with us. I guess when we
do that. So there you go. All right, let's get
back into that bathroom. Where'd I leave off? Yeah, hot water.
We have talked about, you know, bringing you know, a
bridge valve to bring hot water to the bathroom closer
so you don't have to wait forever. But and that's
something I've talked about many, many times before. Assuming that
(01:52):
we're gonna put in a soaking tub, okay, then I
want to talk to you about one one of those
elements that will make the bathroom stand apart and is
often forgotten or not even forgotten, just not even realized
or ignored by homeowners and builders alike. And that is
(02:15):
the fill line for that new soaking tub, Okay, to
be upgraded from a half inch pipe hot water line,
which is standard throughout the entire house. And I guarantee
you right now you've got a standard tub. That's what
you got going to it half inch line to a
three quarter inch line water line, just the hot going
(02:38):
into that tub. And why is that. It's very very simple.
It may seem like a minor change because if you
just think about it without really doing the math, you think, well, okay,
you got a half inch signe. So we're just increasing
the water supply by twenty five percent. We're going from
half inch to three quarter No. No, that's not how
(03:01):
it works at all. If we talk about the surface
area of a circle, and you were to do the
calc from a half inch diameter circle to a three
quarter inch diameter circle, you will find that the flow
from one to the other almost doubles, and depending on
your water pressure, might double. Okay, it's not twenty twenty
(03:22):
five percent more, it's nearly one hundred percent more water
coming in at the same rate.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
So the point is this a soaker tub, an average
bath tub like in your tracked bath five foot tub
that's you know tub shower combo that came with the
house and so on. That's a you know, round about
a fifty to sixty gallon tub of water capacity. The
average soaker tub comes in, even the modest ones come
(03:53):
in at about one hundred gallons. Okay, so twice that
okay to fill a soker tub. For those of you
who've had a soaker tub and didn't upgrade the line,
you know exactly what I'm talking about. To fill that tub,
a hundred gallon tub with hot water from a half
inch water line at just about any normal household pressure,
(04:14):
it's about a fifteen minute procedure. Not only is that
kind of annoyingly long in terms of you waiting to
take your luxurious soaking bath, but the big problem is
the hot water is cooling off the whole time. Fifteen
minutes of you know, it's like, you know, you've just
poured yourself a hot cup of coffee and you and
(04:35):
you start drinking. At fifteen minutes later, you know it's lukewarm. Now, okay,
so you grab your cup and you pop it in
the microwave to get you know, and you don't have
that option of popping your soaker tub in the microwave
to give it a reheat. So the goal is with
a soaker tub is to get as much hot water
in there as quickly as possible, and with a three
(04:55):
quarter inch feed line just for the hot just for
the tub. We're talking about taking that fifteen minutes and
narrowing it down to something closer to six to seven
minutes tops. Yeah, because there are other factors of flow
and speed and so on, and so six or seven
(05:18):
minutes to fill up that whole tub, it'll still be
piping hot, It'll be just the way you want it.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And there you go. Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Now you might think, well, we're gonna get you know,
a jetted tub with an inline heater, and that's fine
if that's your thing. But that's the next item on
the list that I want to point out to you.
We spend most of our time redesigning bathrooms, taking out
jetted you know, jacuzzi style tubs and putting in elegant,
(05:48):
non jetted soaker tubs. Now why is that? Is that
just be Is it a fad, is a trend? No,
it's not. It's actually old school and it has lasted
the test of time for And here is the very
simple truth to it. Not only do those other tubs
have to have a big old platform built around them,
otherwise you see all the piping and stuff and they're unattractive.
(06:11):
But here's the most important thing. You look at a
spread online or in a magazine and you see, you know,
there's a woman and she's in her bubbles and she's
enjoying her glass of chardonnay and zending out to the
peace and quiet of the bathroom. That's all well and
good until you actually hit the button for those tub jets.
(06:35):
And then what you don't normally even notice outside, which
is this, that's what the bathroom fills up with the
sound of jetted bubbles and the whirling of the motor.
It pretty much takes the zen out of an enclosed space.
And so the practical function of a jetted tub is
(07:00):
one that just simply does not bear up under usage
the way you might think. And that's why an elegant, silent,
non jetted soaking tub it's beautiful. It's space savings. It
makes the bathroom that much more beautiful. And the key being,
(07:20):
because there's no inline heater to it, you got to
fill it up fast. And so all you have to
do is upgrade that water supply line. Just the hot
two three quarter inch and done and done.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
How's that sound? Okay?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
More?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
When we return you are Home with Dean Sharp the
house Whisper.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
We're talking about transforming that old master primary bathroom into
a spalike retreat for mom in honor of Mother's Day today,
right in the middle of my list. Let's get back
to it, all right, So we just talked about the
secret of the secret hiding behind the best soaker tubs
(08:08):
non jetted soaker tubs, and why I don't necessarily want
to encourage you to get a jetted soaker tub. You
go for it if that's what you want. But they
just said they in the real world, they don't produce
the zen and the quiet that you're looking for unless
you just don't use the jets. And so what's the
point of paying for the jets if you want to
stay peaceful and not use them. So outside is fine
(08:32):
when it comes to jacuzzi spas, but inside a resonant,
small chambered room not usually the best ideas. So anyway,
let's talk about another secret to a beautiful bathroom, and
that is the glass that is going on around the shower. Okay,
I like to keep the glass as glassy as possible,
(08:54):
meaning that we want to minimize the frames and the
metal and everything that's you know, framing it around like
frameless glass. Absolutely as much as possible. But there is
yet another secret that everybody needs to know about, and
that is there's two kinds of glass out there. It's
all tempered and safe. But when it comes to the
(09:15):
kind of glass that you're going to put in your shower,
there is standard tempered glass and there is low iron glass.
And what is the difference. Well, there is a pretty
decent iron content in most glass. And I'll tell you
how it manifests itself. It darkens and it slightly greens
(09:38):
the view that you're looking through. Now, you may never
have noticed this before because most of the time that
you're looking at glass, you're looking from inside out through
a window to outdoors. And a little bit of tinting,
natural tinting is usually never a bad thing when it
comes to that, and you don't have a point of
(09:59):
reference because outdoor looks very different than inside. But when
you take that glass and you put it in a shower,
here's what happens. Everything. All that beautiful tile and or
stone work or whatever you are lining your shower with,
if you stand back, if that same tile is outside
the shower and both and inside the shower, when you
(10:20):
stand back in the room with standard tempered glass, you're
going to see that the tile inside the shower is
a little darker, a little dingier, with a little bit
of a very faint green tint to it. It's just
not as dynamic, it's not as exciting, it's not as clean,
it's not as bright. That is the purpose of low
iron glass. Low iron glass has ninety percent less iron
(10:43):
in it than the standard glass, and therefore it is,
for all intents and purposes for human vision crystal clear,
which means that the glass goes away more. And number two,
when you're standing back now looking at your tile inside
the shower and outside the shower, they look exactly the same.
(11:04):
And this makes a world of difference in the overall
beauty effect. Now, it's not something that anybody thinks about
when they walk into the Bathroom's not even something that
you consciously think about. It's just that the other standard
glass pulls down that emotional hit a little bit, and
this glass does not affect it at all. This is,
(11:26):
in fact the glass that you would expect to put
in there. So that's the point. The expected effect of
the glass that you're dreaming of is ninety percent less
iron low iron glass. It is not standard glass, So
buyer beware, just aware it's a little more expensive. Yes,
(11:47):
worth every penny. By the way, you know, when you
see the edge of thick glass, you see that green thing,
that green edge, and you're wondering, like, oh, do they
paint that edge? Is that a colorant? That Nope, that
is light refracted through heavy iron glass. And that's the
green tint that I'm talking about. You see it very
(12:07):
very distinctly on the edge. It gets pretty bright green
on the edge. But that green tint is happening all
the way through the glass. And yes, ninety percent low
less low iron glass does not have a green edged.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It is clear there you go.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Okay, since we're in the shower, let's talk about a
couple other features. A bench to be built into the shower,
either built in or a nice teak wood stool. But
this is a very very important component of a shower.
You have to evaluate shower size in order to know
(12:45):
how big the bench could be, whether it's permanent or
built in, permanent and built in or free standing. Either way, though,
even if it's not a place to sit and recline,
it's a place to put a foot, to shave a leg.
All of those conveniences, and so a stool or a
bench inside a shower, if we're making it spake, is
(13:07):
a must, all right. More on the other side, your
Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
It's our special Mother's Day Transform your old bathroom into
a Spaike retreat show. I'm going to get right back
to our critical tips. We are explaining all the components
that can go into a bathroom like that. And you
know things that are quite often overlooked that are critical
along the way, that make a huge difference for a
(13:39):
relatively small amount of investment.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
You just got to know about them.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
We're just talking about shower glass now, and I talked
about a bench or a stool, whether it's built in
and permanent or temporary or movable like a nice teak
wood stool, and whether or not you're going to be
sitting there. Now, if you going to build a steam shower,
then you're gonna want a bench that you can just
(14:03):
sit on and relax and stretch out and be comfortable in.
But if it's just about you know, shaving legs or
that kind of thing. Then you can get by with
a stool. You're gonna have to decide that, but it
should should accommodate one or the other, because that's just
the way a great shower is built into that shower
(14:25):
as well. Niches in the walls in order to you know,
put shampoo, conditioner, stuff and stuff and stuff. And if
it all possible, and sometimes it's not, it's not the
end of the world. But if at all possible, we're
gonna tuck that niche on a wall that maybe you
don't necessarily see from the rest of the bathroom. Okay,
(14:46):
so that just to clean it up a little bit.
It's not the niche that's not attractive. It's just you know,
there you get bottles of stuff there. So we try
and get it out of the way if we can,
and if we can't, and then there it is. And
lighting that niche with a little ellied strip lighting is
a beautiful thing as well. Now when it comes to
shower heads, this is really the wild West these days.
(15:10):
Thank god, I'm no longer contending with this fatish trend
back in the early two thousands of putting in body
sprays up and down the wall. That's something that a
lot of manufacturers they still sell and you still see
it pushed at times. But I gotta tell you, I
can count on one hand the amount of clients I
(15:30):
know who actually use those things. Again, it's kind of
like a jetted tub. It's a lot. A body spray,
you know, two bands of body spray. It's just a lot. Now,
some people love them. But and if you are one, hey,
go for it. It's your shower. But I'm just saying,
generally speaking, the holy trinity of water flowing inside a
(15:54):
shower kind of amounts to a standard shower head. Of course,
especially for women on those days when you do not
want to get your hair wet, standard shower head coming
off the wall, for days when it doesn't matter, and
just to tie fully indulge, a rain head overhead, Okay,
and some people love them, some people hate them, again,
(16:17):
just saying. And then a wand a handheld wand that
does so much more for most people than all the
body sprays. So a wand that you can use to
direct and use as needed an overhead for a full
indulgent you know, rain shower effect, and a really really
nice shower head. And then you've got a diverter valve
(16:38):
that will run the water in between those things or
combo them up. You can do it either way. When
we get out of the shower, there is nothing more
lovely than reaching for a towel and finding that it
is warm, and so a little bit of wiring in
the wall to a towel warmer rack is just a
(16:58):
fantastic and a lot of people use it for other
things like maybe you've pulled some delegates out of the
laundry and you can drape it over your you know,
your towel warmer rack and get them dried up that
much faster. But a warm towel, these little things make
all the difference in the world. Not that expensive and
a little bit of forethought with a little bit of
(17:21):
power run to it, and it is transformative. Inside a bathroom,
every bathroom needs mirrors and mirrors, especially if it's a
bathroom inhabited by a female. We're looking about three mirrors,
typically three different kinds of mirrors, and you know what
they are. A standard mirror, you know they're looking at
(17:44):
with really good lighting in front of the sink. A
makeup mirror, probably magnified, though that would be an individual
item that you would just plan on powering on top
of your countertop. And by the way, way the standard
and the makeup mirror ideally both have multiple lighting effects,
(18:05):
so that you've got daylight lighting to put on makeup
for that situation outside daylight meaning a harsh light you
know you want to put on you know, more intense daylight,
and then artificial lighting nighttime. Going out at night, we're
going to be under artificial lights. Makeup shifts, makeup needs
shift and change, and so we want the lighting to
(18:27):
be able to adapt to those. Uh. The three mirrors though,
the standard in front of the sink, the makeup, and
then a full length mirror. Now you may not think, well,
we don't have room. Every bathroom actually has room for
a full length mirror bare minimum on the door on
the backside of the door. In fact, if you're ordering
(18:48):
that new solid core door, maybe you're gonna make it
a solid core glass door with a glass panel in
the middle. You can order the panel to be mirrored
both sides, so that whether the door is open or
doors closed, you have a full length dressing mirror on
each side of the bathroom. And there you go. If
(19:08):
we are and I mentioned the possibility of transforming the
shower into a steam room. That requires simply this. You
run the tile all the way up the wall, all
the way to the ceiling, and you tile the ceiling
and the glass runs all the way up so that
we completely enclose the space. And then to that space
(19:29):
we add a steam emitter, and that's a unit that
is sized by the surface area of the shower and
the kind of stuff. They size it differently for tile
than they do for stone, and differently for stone than
they do for glass, and so there's a calculation that's
(19:49):
made based on the surface because they those surfaces hold
different temperatures, and you just optimize a steam unit for
that space, and man turning a shower into a a
little steam room. Amazing saunas. I don't have time today
to go on and on about the benefits of sauna.
(20:10):
I'm gonna do that soon though, because it's become more
than just this idea of like this luxury. There are
so many health benefits to sauna. I'm just gonna say,
infrared saunas and traditional finished saunas. It is not at
all difficult to buy a kits in which you can
just simply build them in we can build them into
a bathroom, we can build them outside the bathroom, we
(20:34):
can build them into closets. But I'm talking about a bathroom.
And if you've got a big enough bathroom, we've got
room for a little bit of a sauna action as well.
Amazing thing. Let's get back down to something a little
bit more common and connected, literally connected to your rear
end the toilet. Biday toilets, warm seats, warm water, self cleaning.
(20:58):
They are the future. I'll I'll tell you this, even
if your current inhabitant of the bathroom has no interest
in one, and that number is growing fewer and fewer
and fewer by the day, so you really should look
into it and check it out. Don't be afraid of it.
It is a beautiful thing. It is a sanitary thing,
(21:20):
much more sanitary than a standard toilet. But even if
that inhabitant doesn't have interest in a bidet toilet, you
should absolutely if you're remodeling the bathroom, at least put
an electrical outlet back behind the toilet so that in
the future it would support one. Should somebody change their
mind or should you end up selling the house, that
(21:41):
kind of thing that'll just leaves us with some cabinetry,
makeup vanity, and cabinets with surprises. What do I mean
by that? I'll talk about cabinets with surprises. Right on
the other side of the break you are home with
Dean Sharp the house whispering.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
You're listening to ho with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Thanks for joining us on the program today. Here we
are at the end of another three hours together on
this beautiful Mother's Day twenty twenty six. I hope you've
got great plans to honor Mom today. Maybe you're right
in the middle of them right now. I don't know
why you're listening to the show if you're doing that,
but anyway, I'm glad you're here. Just one last thought
(22:25):
for you on the elements that go into a great,
great transformative spa like bathroom, transforming that old master or
primary bath into a beautiful spaike retreat for mom. And
of course we could go on and on talking about
so many things, but these are the essential list of
(22:46):
transformative items. The last thing is the vanity and or
the cabinets. Now, whether Mom would love a sitting makeup vanity,
a lowered area that's a table height for makeup appliction
or not. That's kind of a coin toss these days.
It's about fifty to fifty with our clients as to
(23:06):
whether they want that or not. That is neither here
nor there. What I do want you to do, though,
is set up a set of cabinets with surprises, and
all that means is truly custom cabinets there which when
you open the drawers you find, you know, drawer dividers
that are specifically set up for specific things, drawers with
(23:28):
power supplies built into them to house the blow dryers
and the curling irons, so that you don't have to
pull those out, plug them in to the outlet above
the sink and unplaced, you know, and put them on
a dedicated drawer for the blow dryer, for the curling
iron with its own heat insulated rests. All of these
(23:49):
are available at the cabinet supply and cabinet maker nearest you.
All right, that is an overview, a word wind overview
of all the things that can go into making a
bathroom truly truly special, a special place for anybody, but
(24:10):
especially for mama. All right, get this frog in my throat.
I'm gotta get rid of that you know, the reason
we work so hard to transform your house into a
home is so it will better serve your life. And
as Tina and I like to say, and I said
this earlier in the show, a truly beautiful home expresses
(24:33):
and blesses the authentic lives of its occupants. That's the
bar your best life, and that's a that's a high
bar to reach to, but it's a noble one. So
all of this is really about you, not your house,
which is why I try to treat you right when
you call in and tend to wax a little philosophical
at the end of the show. And so with that,
(24:55):
I'm going to leave you with this thought. Today it's
Mother's Day. You know, one of the most important components
of a great bathroom, like we already said, is the mirror.
The need for humans to look in the mirror is
far more than a vanity, and actually it's far more
than human. Mirroring is hardwired into the psychological development of
(25:19):
most mammals and birds. Now as I understand it, and
it is a layman's understanding, mirroring is when we begin
to develop our own sense of value and behavior by
seeing it reflected back to us in a parent's face.
And when we're little, mom looks at us and her
face expresses patience or love, or tenderness or joy, you know,
(25:44):
all the good stuff. Then we, without even being conscious
that it's happening, begin to assume that we're valuable. We
see our value in her face, like looking in a mirror,
which makes sense of the idea that behind every child
who believes in themselves is a parent who believed in
them first. Now, moms and mirrors share a lot in common.
(26:10):
They're useful, they're practical. They're also easy to be frustrated
with when they show us what we don't want to see.
Some people hate their own reflections so much that they
take it out on.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
The mirror and or their mother.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Not at all fair to a mirror that is just
doing its job. But one of the great ironies of
being a great mirror is the better you do your job,
the more invisible you become. And when we look to
the mirror, we're not really looking at it, are we
We're looking at ourselves. We're not thinking about the mirror.
(26:50):
We're thinking about us. And that right there is a
pretty decent explanation for why we take mom for granted.
The way that we do taking the mirrors for granted
is simply an unavoidable truth of how mirrors work. So
no judgment, okay, but just a thought on Mother's Day
(27:10):
for everyone who has ever drawn value from that all
important mirror. How about every once in a while, especially
on a day like today, try to see her.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
And not you.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
And to the dads out there, just one bit of advice.
Whether she's the mom of one or a dozen, don't
you be one of her kids. She has her hands
full enough mothering the kids. She does not need to
be mothering you as well. You may not have the
budget to build her a spalike retreat, but you have
(27:45):
the capacity to be one for her. The kids will
take her for granted and will lose sight of her.
That is the way of things. You must never lose
sight of her. You be her mirror, one that she
can look into and see a young girl, a beautiful woman,
a strong independent spirit, with her own set of hopes
(28:09):
and dreams and her own unique value. But never make
her mom to you. And so perhaps the secret of
the greatest gift that we can give Mom today or
any day is summed up in one of the simple
phrases that most mirrors will never hear.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I see you.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Be her mirror today, one that gives her everything she
needs to build herself a beautiful life. Happy Mother's Day
to everybody. I hope you have a great one. We
will see you right back here next weekend. This has
been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Tune into The
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Lie 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 iHeart Radio app. Today,
we in honor of Mother's Day, we are talking about
transforming that old primary bathroom, the old master bathroom into
a true Spali like retreat for mom. And so not
(00:24):
something that's gonna happen by the end of the day today,
but something we can certainly get started, something that you
can just slide into a little envelope and say, hey,
guess what, Mom, Here is your Mother's Day treat. This
is what we're gonna do to your bathroom. And if
you're looking for a little quicker return on that Mother's
Day gift, then I can offer you this too. If
(00:45):
your home and mom would be blessed by a little
personal house Whisper attention, that would be me and Tina
showing up and actually, you know, talking about all the
problems and all the potential and casting vision. You can
book an in home design consult with us, even if
you're out of state. We can do remote consults, we
(01:06):
can do in person consults, whichever one fits your needs best.
You just go to house Whisper dot Design for more
info and Tina told us earlier today. I don't know
what she's got planned, but anybody who books this week
based on a Mother's Day gift consult, she's got some
(01:27):
special gifts to bring with us. I guess when we
do that. So there you go. All right, let's get
back into that bathroom. Where'd I leave off? Yeah, hot water.
We have talked about, you know, bringing you know, a
bridge valve to bring hot water to the bathroom closer
so you don't have to wait forever. But and that's
something I've talked about many, many times before. Assuming that
(01:52):
we're gonna put in a soaking tub, okay, then I
want to talk to you about one one of those
elements that will make the bathroom stand apart and is
often forgotten or not even forgotten, just not even realized
or ignored by homeowners and builders alike. And that is
(02:15):
the fill line for that new soaking tub, Okay, to
be upgraded from a half inch pipe hot water line,
which is standard throughout the entire house. And I guarantee
you right now you've got a standard tub. That's what
you got going to it half inch line to a
three quarter inch line water line, just the hot going
(02:38):
into that tub. And why is that. It's very very simple.
It may seem like a minor change because if you
just think about it without really doing the math, you think, well, okay,
you got a half inch signe. So we're just increasing
the water supply by twenty five percent. We're going from
half inch to three quarter No. No, that's not how
(03:01):
it works at all. If we talk about the surface
area of a circle, and you were to do the
calc from a half inch diameter circle to a three
quarter inch diameter circle, you will find that the flow
from one to the other almost doubles, and depending on
your water pressure, might double. Okay, it's not twenty twenty
(03:22):
five percent more, it's nearly one hundred percent more water
coming in at the same rate.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
So the point is this a soaker tub, an average
bath tub like in your tracked bath five foot tub
that's you know tub shower combo that came with the
house and so on. That's a you know, round about
a fifty to sixty gallon tub of water capacity. The
average soaker tub comes in, even the modest ones come
(03:53):
in at about one hundred gallons. Okay, so twice that
okay to fill a soker tub. For those of you
who've had a soaker tub and didn't upgrade the line,
you know exactly what I'm talking about. To fill that tub,
a hundred gallon tub with hot water from a half
inch water line at just about any normal household pressure,
(04:14):
it's about a fifteen minute procedure. Not only is that
kind of annoyingly long in terms of you waiting to
take your luxurious soaking bath, but the big problem is
the hot water is cooling off the whole time. Fifteen
minutes of you know, it's like, you know, you've just
poured yourself a hot cup of coffee and you and
(04:35):
you start drinking. At fifteen minutes later, you know it's lukewarm. Now, okay,
so you grab your cup and you pop it in
the microwave to get you know, and you don't have
that option of popping your soaker tub in the microwave
to give it a reheat. So the goal is with
a soaker tub is to get as much hot water
in there as quickly as possible, and with a three
(04:55):
quarter inch feed line just for the hot just for
the tub. We're talking about taking that fifteen minutes and
narrowing it down to something closer to six to seven
minutes tops. Yeah, because there are other factors of flow
and speed and so on, and so six or seven
(05:18):
minutes to fill up that whole tub, it'll still be
piping hot, It'll be just the way you want it.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And there you go. Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Now you might think, well, we're gonna get you know,
a jetted tub with an inline heater, and that's fine
if that's your thing. But that's the next item on
the list that I want to point out to you.
We spend most of our time redesigning bathrooms, taking out
jetted you know, jacuzzi style tubs and putting in elegant,
(05:48):
non jetted soaker tubs. Now why is that? Is that
just be Is it a fad, is a trend? No,
it's not. It's actually old school and it has lasted
the test of time for And here is the very
simple truth to it. Not only do those other tubs
have to have a big old platform built around them,
otherwise you see all the piping and stuff and they're unattractive.
(06:11):
But here's the most important thing. You look at a
spread online or in a magazine and you see, you know,
there's a woman and she's in her bubbles and she's
enjoying her glass of chardonnay and zending out to the
peace and quiet of the bathroom. That's all well and
good until you actually hit the button for those tub jets.
(06:35):
And then what you don't normally even notice outside, which
is this, that's what the bathroom fills up with the
sound of jetted bubbles and the whirling of the motor.
It pretty much takes the zen out of an enclosed space.
And so the practical function of a jetted tub is
(07:00):
one that just simply does not bear up under usage
the way you might think. And that's why an elegant, silent,
non jetted soaking tub it's beautiful. It's space savings. It
makes the bathroom that much more beautiful. And the key being,
(07:20):
because there's no inline heater to it, you got to
fill it up fast. And so all you have to
do is upgrade that water supply line. Just the hot
two three quarter inch and done and done.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
How's that sound? Okay?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
More?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
When we return you are Home with Dean Sharp the
house Whisper.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
We're talking about transforming that old master primary bathroom into
a spalike retreat for mom in honor of Mother's Day today,
right in the middle of my list. Let's get back
to it, all right, So we just talked about the
secret of the secret hiding behind the best soaker tubs
(08:08):
non jetted soaker tubs, and why I don't necessarily want
to encourage you to get a jetted soaker tub. You
go for it if that's what you want. But they
just said they in the real world, they don't produce
the zen and the quiet that you're looking for unless
you just don't use the jets. And so what's the
point of paying for the jets if you want to
stay peaceful and not use them. So outside is fine
(08:32):
when it comes to jacuzzi spas, but inside a resonant,
small chambered room not usually the best ideas. So anyway,
let's talk about another secret to a beautiful bathroom, and
that is the glass that is going on around the shower. Okay,
I like to keep the glass as glassy as possible,
(08:54):
meaning that we want to minimize the frames and the
metal and everything that's you know, framing it around like
frameless glass. Absolutely as much as possible. But there is
yet another secret that everybody needs to know about, and
that is there's two kinds of glass out there. It's
all tempered and safe. But when it comes to the
(09:15):
kind of glass that you're going to put in your shower,
there is standard tempered glass and there is low iron glass.
And what is the difference. Well, there is a pretty
decent iron content in most glass. And I'll tell you
how it manifests itself. It darkens and it slightly greens
(09:38):
the view that you're looking through. Now, you may never
have noticed this before because most of the time that
you're looking at glass, you're looking from inside out through
a window to outdoors. And a little bit of tinting,
natural tinting is usually never a bad thing when it
comes to that, and you don't have a point of
(09:59):
reference because outdoor looks very different than inside. But when
you take that glass and you put it in a shower,
here's what happens. Everything. All that beautiful tile and or
stone work or whatever you are lining your shower with,
if you stand back, if that same tile is outside
the shower and both and inside the shower, when you
(10:20):
stand back in the room with standard tempered glass, you're
going to see that the tile inside the shower is
a little darker, a little dingier, with a little bit
of a very faint green tint to it. It's just
not as dynamic, it's not as exciting, it's not as clean,
it's not as bright. That is the purpose of low
iron glass. Low iron glass has ninety percent less iron
(10:43):
in it than the standard glass, and therefore it is,
for all intents and purposes for human vision crystal clear,
which means that the glass goes away more. And number two,
when you're standing back now looking at your tile inside
the shower and outside the shower, they look exactly the same.
(11:04):
And this makes a world of difference in the overall
beauty effect. Now, it's not something that anybody thinks about
when they walk into the Bathroom's not even something that
you consciously think about. It's just that the other standard
glass pulls down that emotional hit a little bit, and
this glass does not affect it at all. This is,
(11:26):
in fact the glass that you would expect to put
in there. So that's the point. The expected effect of
the glass that you're dreaming of is ninety percent less
iron low iron glass. It is not standard glass, So
buyer beware, just aware it's a little more expensive. Yes,
(11:47):
worth every penny. By the way, you know, when you
see the edge of thick glass, you see that green thing,
that green edge, and you're wondering, like, oh, do they
paint that edge? Is that a colorant? That Nope, that
is light refracted through heavy iron glass. And that's the
green tint that I'm talking about. You see it very
(12:07):
very distinctly on the edge. It gets pretty bright green
on the edge. But that green tint is happening all
the way through the glass. And yes, ninety percent low
less low iron glass does not have a green edged.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It is clear there you go.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Okay, since we're in the shower, let's talk about a
couple other features. A bench to be built into the shower,
either built in or a nice teak wood stool. But
this is a very very important component of a shower.
You have to evaluate shower size in order to know
(12:45):
how big the bench could be, whether it's permanent or
built in, permanent and built in or free standing. Either way, though,
even if it's not a place to sit and recline,
it's a place to put a foot, to shave a leg.
All of those conveniences, and so a stool or a
bench inside a shower, if we're making it spake, is
(13:07):
a must, all right. More on the other side, your
Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
It's our special Mother's Day Transform your old bathroom into
a Spaike retreat show. I'm going to get right back
to our critical tips. We are explaining all the components
that can go into a bathroom like that. And you
know things that are quite often overlooked that are critical
along the way, that make a huge difference for a
(13:39):
relatively small amount of investment.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
You just got to know about them.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
We're just talking about shower glass now, and I talked
about a bench or a stool, whether it's built in
and permanent or temporary or movable like a nice teak
wood stool, and whether or not you're going to be
sitting there. Now, if you going to build a steam shower,
then you're gonna want a bench that you can just
(14:03):
sit on and relax and stretch out and be comfortable in.
But if it's just about you know, shaving legs or
that kind of thing. Then you can get by with
a stool. You're gonna have to decide that, but it
should should accommodate one or the other, because that's just
the way a great shower is built into that shower
(14:25):
as well. Niches in the walls in order to you know,
put shampoo, conditioner, stuff and stuff and stuff. And if
it all possible, and sometimes it's not, it's not the
end of the world. But if at all possible, we're
gonna tuck that niche on a wall that maybe you
don't necessarily see from the rest of the bathroom. Okay,
(14:46):
so that just to clean it up a little bit.
It's not the niche that's not attractive. It's just you know,
there you get bottles of stuff there. So we try
and get it out of the way if we can,
and if we can't, and then there it is. And
lighting that niche with a little ellied strip lighting is
a beautiful thing as well. Now when it comes to
shower heads, this is really the wild West these days.
(15:10):
Thank god, I'm no longer contending with this fatish trend
back in the early two thousands of putting in body
sprays up and down the wall. That's something that a
lot of manufacturers they still sell and you still see
it pushed at times. But I gotta tell you, I
can count on one hand the amount of clients I
(15:30):
know who actually use those things. Again, it's kind of
like a jetted tub. It's a lot. A body spray,
you know, two bands of body spray. It's just a lot. Now,
some people love them. But and if you are one, hey,
go for it. It's your shower. But I'm just saying,
generally speaking, the holy trinity of water flowing inside a
(15:54):
shower kind of amounts to a standard shower head. Of course,
especially for women on those days when you do not
want to get your hair wet, standard shower head coming
off the wall, for days when it doesn't matter, and
just to tie fully indulge, a rain head overhead, Okay,
and some people love them, some people hate them, again,
(16:17):
just saying. And then a wand a handheld wand that
does so much more for most people than all the
body sprays. So a wand that you can use to
direct and use as needed an overhead for a full
indulgent you know, rain shower effect, and a really really
nice shower head. And then you've got a diverter valve
(16:38):
that will run the water in between those things or
combo them up. You can do it either way. When
we get out of the shower, there is nothing more
lovely than reaching for a towel and finding that it
is warm, and so a little bit of wiring in
the wall to a towel warmer rack is just a
(16:58):
fantastic and a lot of people use it for other
things like maybe you've pulled some delegates out of the
laundry and you can drape it over your you know,
your towel warmer rack and get them dried up that
much faster. But a warm towel, these little things make
all the difference in the world. Not that expensive and
a little bit of forethought with a little bit of
(17:21):
power run to it, and it is transformative. Inside a bathroom,
every bathroom needs mirrors and mirrors, especially if it's a
bathroom inhabited by a female. We're looking about three mirrors,
typically three different kinds of mirrors, and you know what
they are. A standard mirror, you know they're looking at
(17:44):
with really good lighting in front of the sink. A
makeup mirror, probably magnified, though that would be an individual
item that you would just plan on powering on top
of your countertop. And by the way, way the standard
and the makeup mirror ideally both have multiple lighting effects,
(18:05):
so that you've got daylight lighting to put on makeup
for that situation outside daylight meaning a harsh light you
know you want to put on you know, more intense daylight,
and then artificial lighting nighttime. Going out at night, we're
going to be under artificial lights. Makeup shifts, makeup needs
shift and change, and so we want the lighting to
(18:27):
be able to adapt to those. Uh. The three mirrors though,
the standard in front of the sink, the makeup, and
then a full length mirror. Now you may not think, well,
we don't have room. Every bathroom actually has room for
a full length mirror bare minimum on the door on
the backside of the door. In fact, if you're ordering
(18:48):
that new solid core door, maybe you're gonna make it
a solid core glass door with a glass panel in
the middle. You can order the panel to be mirrored
both sides, so that whether the door is open or
doors closed, you have a full length dressing mirror on
each side of the bathroom. And there you go. If
(19:08):
we are and I mentioned the possibility of transforming the
shower into a steam room. That requires simply this. You
run the tile all the way up the wall, all
the way to the ceiling, and you tile the ceiling
and the glass runs all the way up so that
we completely enclose the space. And then to that space
(19:29):
we add a steam emitter, and that's a unit that
is sized by the surface area of the shower and
the kind of stuff. They size it differently for tile
than they do for stone, and differently for stone than
they do for glass, and so there's a calculation that's
(19:49):
made based on the surface because they those surfaces hold
different temperatures, and you just optimize a steam unit for
that space, and man turning a shower into a a
little steam room. Amazing saunas. I don't have time today
to go on and on about the benefits of sauna.
(20:10):
I'm gonna do that soon though, because it's become more
than just this idea of like this luxury. There are
so many health benefits to sauna. I'm just gonna say,
infrared saunas and traditional finished saunas. It is not at
all difficult to buy a kits in which you can
just simply build them in we can build them into
a bathroom, we can build them outside the bathroom, we
(20:34):
can build them into closets. But I'm talking about a bathroom.
And if you've got a big enough bathroom, we've got
room for a little bit of a sauna action as well.
Amazing thing. Let's get back down to something a little
bit more common and connected, literally connected to your rear
end the toilet. Biday toilets, warm seats, warm water, self cleaning.
(20:58):
They are the future. I'll I'll tell you this, even
if your current inhabitant of the bathroom has no interest
in one, and that number is growing fewer and fewer
and fewer by the day, so you really should look
into it and check it out. Don't be afraid of it.
It is a beautiful thing. It is a sanitary thing,
(21:20):
much more sanitary than a standard toilet. But even if
that inhabitant doesn't have interest in a bidet toilet, you
should absolutely if you're remodeling the bathroom, at least put
an electrical outlet back behind the toilet so that in
the future it would support one. Should somebody change their
mind or should you end up selling the house, that
(21:41):
kind of thing that'll just leaves us with some cabinetry,
makeup vanity, and cabinets with surprises. What do I mean
by that? I'll talk about cabinets with surprises. Right on
the other side of the break you are home with
Dean Sharp the house whispering.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
You're listening to ho with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Thanks for joining us on the program today. Here we
are at the end of another three hours together on
this beautiful Mother's Day twenty twenty six. I hope you've
got great plans to honor Mom today. Maybe you're right
in the middle of them right now. I don't know
why you're listening to the show if you're doing that,
but anyway, I'm glad you're here. Just one last thought
(22:25):
for you on the elements that go into a great,
great transformative spa like bathroom, transforming that old master or
primary bath into a beautiful spaike retreat for mom. And
of course we could go on and on talking about
so many things, but these are the essential list of
(22:46):
transformative items. The last thing is the vanity and or
the cabinets. Now, whether Mom would love a sitting makeup vanity,
a lowered area that's a table height for makeup appliction
or not. That's kind of a coin toss these days.
It's about fifty to fifty with our clients as to
(23:06):
whether they want that or not. That is neither here
nor there. What I do want you to do, though,
is set up a set of cabinets with surprises, and
all that means is truly custom cabinets there which when
you open the drawers you find, you know, drawer dividers
that are specifically set up for specific things, drawers with
(23:28):
power supplies built into them to house the blow dryers
and the curling irons, so that you don't have to
pull those out, plug them in to the outlet above
the sink and unplaced, you know, and put them on
a dedicated drawer for the blow dryer, for the curling
iron with its own heat insulated rests. All of these
(23:49):
are available at the cabinet supply and cabinet maker nearest you.
All right, that is an overview, a word wind overview
of all the things that can go into making a
bathroom truly truly special, a special place for anybody, but
(24:10):
especially for mama. All right, get this frog in my throat.
I'm gotta get rid of that you know, the reason
we work so hard to transform your house into a
home is so it will better serve your life. And
as Tina and I like to say, and I said
this earlier in the show, a truly beautiful home expresses
(24:33):
and blesses the authentic lives of its occupants. That's the
bar your best life, and that's a that's a high
bar to reach to, but it's a noble one. So
all of this is really about you, not your house,
which is why I try to treat you right when
you call in and tend to wax a little philosophical
at the end of the show. And so with that,
(24:55):
I'm going to leave you with this thought. Today it's
Mother's Day. You know, one of the most important components
of a great bathroom, like we already said, is the mirror.
The need for humans to look in the mirror is
far more than a vanity, and actually it's far more
than human. Mirroring is hardwired into the psychological development of
(25:19):
most mammals and birds. Now as I understand it, and
it is a layman's understanding, mirroring is when we begin
to develop our own sense of value and behavior by
seeing it reflected back to us in a parent's face.
And when we're little, mom looks at us and her
face expresses patience or love, or tenderness or joy, you know,
(25:44):
all the good stuff. Then we, without even being conscious
that it's happening, begin to assume that we're valuable. We
see our value in her face, like looking in a mirror,
which makes sense of the idea that behind every child
who believes in themselves is a parent who believed in
them first. Now, moms and mirrors share a lot in common.
(26:10):
They're useful, they're practical. They're also easy to be frustrated
with when they show us what we don't want to see.
Some people hate their own reflections so much that they
take it out on.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
The mirror and or their mother.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Not at all fair to a mirror that is just
doing its job. But one of the great ironies of
being a great mirror is the better you do your job,
the more invisible you become. And when we look to
the mirror, we're not really looking at it, are we
We're looking at ourselves. We're not thinking about the mirror.
(26:50):
We're thinking about us. And that right there is a
pretty decent explanation for why we take mom for granted.
The way that we do taking the mirrors for granted
is simply an unavoidable truth of how mirrors work. So
no judgment, okay, but just a thought on Mother's Day
(27:10):
for everyone who has ever drawn value from that all
important mirror. How about every once in a while, especially
on a day like today, try to see her.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
And not you.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
And to the dads out there, just one bit of advice.
Whether she's the mom of one or a dozen, don't
you be one of her kids. She has her hands
full enough mothering the kids. She does not need to
be mothering you as well. You may not have the
budget to build her a spalike retreat, but you have
(27:45):
the capacity to be one for her. The kids will
take her for granted and will lose sight of her.
That is the way of things. You must never lose
sight of her. You be her mirror, one that she
can look into and see a young girl, a beautiful woman,
a strong independent spirit, with her own set of hopes
(28:09):
and dreams and her own unique value. But never make
her mom to you. And so perhaps the secret of
the greatest gift that we can give Mom today or
any day is summed up in one of the simple
phrases that most mirrors will never hear.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I see you.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Be her mirror today, one that gives her everything she
needs to build herself a beautiful life. Happy Mother's Day
to everybody. I hope you have a great one. We
will see you right back here next weekend. This has
been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Tune into The
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Lie 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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