Designing the Bedroom |Hour 3

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Thanks for joining us here live this morning for the third hour of our show. It's a beautiful day outside, gorgeous, gorgeous fall day here in southern California, and we're talking about bedroom design. But because it's the top of the hour. It is time to go back to the phones where you get to tell me anything you want about your home. Let's talk to Kelly. Hey, Kelly, welcome home.

just the outside of the foundation. This will help keep them away from getting up into the wall in the first place, and some baits out there. I'm I'm a big fan of Tara just because they've got some really excellent products and they're they're safe for pets and wildlife and all this other kind of stuff. So go take a look at what ant bates and the and the sprinkle prevention on the outside of the foundation around the room. Secondly inside the room. And I want you to do

this carefully, so it's a good idea. Just like hit the breaker, but take off the light fixture or take out the electrical outlet cover. You don't have to pull anything else out other than that. But the reason they actually are attracted to electrical boxes in the wall is quite honestly, because those are little warm pockets in the wall and answer attracted to the warmth. That's happening because those boxes are technically open to the room, so they

are warmer than the other places in the wall. They're not just looking for a way to get into the room. They just are attracted to the warmth there. So if you took a little bit of caulking, Okay, they could do door door window calking or silicone calking, you can do the thing that almost nobody has in their walls, and that is you can calk the edge of the actual electrical box to the edge of the dry wall to eliminate the gap for them to come through. And then if you see any holes or gaps in the

electrical box itself. Put a little bit of calking in those holes as well. To seal the box off so that even though they're attracted to it in the wall, they're not actually using it as a portal to get into the room. And then the final step here would be to actually, while you've got the plate off the electrical outlet, to actually put a little bit of ant bait there. Again, tear is an excellent one to use. You can put a little droplet or two of ant bait there and anyone who gets in there you have

to be patient. But anyone who gets in there, they're going to grab that bait, take it back to the colony, and everybody is going to get sick and go away. Now, that could take two three days to see the results of that. So again, seal them off from the room first, and just as a backup, put a little amp bait in the box, put the electrical cover back on, and you should be golden. It works ninety nine times out of one hundred to keep them from coming inside. That sounds perfect, all.

change in that. Okay, So they're right. I'm assuming that they're on point with this, and they're right about not that the key to a really great HVAC system is not only the quality of the equipment and the size of the system and the proper operation of the system,

but the insulation in the house. Because the whole idea is that once the the heater or the air conditioner has done its job of getting the room to temperature, how hard it works after that has everything to do with how long the house holds on to that temperature, holds on to the heat, or holds on to the cool right because if it leaks right out, then it's got to turn right back on and it's got to

work some more. A really really brilliantly insulated home. All we have to do is get it up to the temp that we want or down to the temp that we want, depending on heating or cooling, and then it holds for a long period of time, and then the AC just nudges it a little nudge, little nudge, topping off, topping off. That's the ideal situation. And of all places to insulate the house because heat rises and cold air descends,

it's the attic. So fortunately it's not expensive. Now I can't quote you a price because it depends on the size of your attic and all sorts of configurations like access and roof pitching up. But I will tell you this, it is not expense. It is a fraction of number one paying for an extra large HVAC system. It will

pay for itself in heating and cooling savings. And we're talking about blown in insulation, and what you're looking for up there is R thirty R thirty levels of insulation blown in across the whole attic, sealing up all the holes, all the gaps, a nice, big, thick, beautiful blanket and you won't have to worry with today's insulation. Blown in insult you won't have to worry about it's settling down

and minimizing itself for decades to come. So that's the thing, and there are all sorts of companies ready to work that for you to clean out the old stuff if necessary. But if there's no let's say, like rodent intrusion or anything like that up in the attic, the simple fact of the matter is that you may not have to clear out the old stuff. It's not like the old stuff is stale or anything like that. They can just blow in right on top of it. It is such

a common thing these days. You can even rent your own insulation blower at places like home Depot and buy the blocks of insulation. I'm not saying you should do it yourself, but I'm just saying that's that's the thing if you're DIY minded. So yeah, have an insulation company come out. And the way to know again what a thing is really going to cost for your particular home is always get two or three estimates from a reputable company.

Make sure they're bi you know, they're bidding the thing apples to apples, And then you look at the numbers and you realize, oh, look at that, Look at they all fall within this range. This is kind of and then there if there's an outlier who's unusually inexpensive or unusually expensive, then you can deal with that. But you will find them clumping from reputable contractors right in one zone,

and you'll find out real quick. So you have the confidence of knowing, like, you know what, I bid this thing out four times, uh, and I know this is what it should cost for my addic. So that's where you go, my friend, and uh, and it's going to be quick and easy. We're talking about a one day deal that's going to radically change the way your whole your whole house holds on to the heat and the AC from here on out. Jane, thanks for the call.

I appreciate the question. Dorive room. Just can I squeeze one more in? Sure? Let's try it. Uh, let's talk to uh. Let's see Jack. Hey Jack, welcome home. Hello Jack.

It is the underlayment underneath. And a cement tile has already been treated to whatever degree that it needs to be treated to not be like normal cement, which means super porous and just a giant water sponge. So there's no additional coating to put on a cement tile that's going to solve the problem if you've got a leak. If you have a leak with a cement tile roof, guarantee that it has something to do with the underlayment

and or the flashings around it. So a qualified roofer needs to get up there, figure out where this leak is coming from, pull back a few tiles, get to the paper and or the membrane underneath, get to the flashing problem, get that fixed, and put the tiles back in place in order to seal you up. It's not the tiles. It's not going to be the tiles, not unless somehow there's no paper underneath whatsoever. But again that's a paper problem, so it's really not your cement tiles.

We don't need to waterproof the top surface of the tiles. We just need to let them do their job. But they have to get the major assist from the moisture membrane underneath the tiles, and where that membrane connects to the flashings. That's the metal stuff on the edges of the roof, and where it meets the chimney and all

of that kind of stuff. All those things have to be tied together in order for the tiles on top, which essentially you could make the argument are just there to look at from the street and to protect that critical waterproofing membrane from the elements like direct exposure to UV, sun, wind, rain, all of that kind of stuff. But the real key is the membrane underneath, and then the tile on top is the cherry on top of the Sunday. There you go,

my friend. Thanks for the question, thanks for the call, Thanks for all of our callers today. It's time now to turn back to you designing our bedrooms.

at now now? I left you dangling when we last spoke of this before I took calls this last hour with the idea of the soaker tub out in the room. I know, listen, I'm a designer, so again I'm giving you, you know, all sorts of different options. Maybe your bedroom, like mine, has no prayer whatsoever of having anything like that in the room, because we can barely fit in

our bed into our bedroom. I feel you, all right, But a lot of folks do these days, especially if you live in a house that was built in the eighties forward. That was a period of time in which all of a sudden, builders, in order to hush it up, started kind of oversizing master bedrooms. And here's the problem, oversizing master bedrooms to the detriment of the bathroom in the master suite. Okay, and now we have definitely turned a corner from that period of time in which bathrooms

have become far, far more important. And yet okay, third point along this line, we live in a time in which most people are really scratching their heads about those oversized jacuzzi tubs in their bathrooms and whether they want a tub or all at all. Are advice are kind of standard, you know. Template advice is that keep a tub in a house somewhere, a tub somewhere, because whether it's you, kids, grandkids, guests, somebody could practically use a

tub resale value. You sell to a young family, they need a tub for washing little ones. So keep a tub somewhere in the house. But if it doesn't work for the primary bathroom, then you know, lose the tub in the primary bathroom unless you are a soaker. Okay, if you're a soaker, if you're a person who just loves that long, luxurious soaking bath and you've got room for it in the bathroom, great, If not, if you've

got an oversized bedroom. What about the room itself? And the reason I say that is because free standing tubs are absolutely stunningly gorgeous. And I could show you one hundred images right now of high end hotel rooms in which the room itself, the bed room utilizes its extra space with a soaker tub out in the room. You think about this that you know the bedroom itself right, maybe the TV is out there, maybe it's the best lighting, and so on, and so many folks these days have

floors that could handle the soaker tub. Now I'm one to tell you that even if you have a hardwood floor in a in a primary bedroom, that it qualifies for a soaker tub. You just have to be you know, adult about it and not have a big splash party in the tub, you know, soaking your hardwood floor constantly. But most hardwood floors that are polyurethaned and well finished. They can handle, you know, a little bit of moisture dropped on them as long as you twel it up

after the fact. But even at that, going beyond that, so many homes have tile in the bedroom or have these days luxury vinyl plank. These are waterproof materials. Okay. So the idea of like right over there in that unused corner, if you're not gonna sit there in a chair and read, if you're going to put a work desk there, think about pulling that tub out of the bathroom, giving the bathroom more space and putting it as a pure luxury decor idea in the corner of the bedroom.

I'm just saying, I'm just saying it's possible. Okay. Also, get creative with closets and closet doors, right, They don't just have to be another sliding mirror door. Now, I don't have anything to have any issues with sliding mirror doors on a closet, especially a smaller bedroom. Mirrors obviously are a way of making a small space seem larger, but they just don't have to be the conventual, the conventional, you know, the little brass framed, you know, full size,

full height sliding mirror doors. You could use louver doors. You could use doors that match the other doors in the house. Literally, you can hang those doors as closet doors and get that uniformity throughout the house. You could use draperes. Don't you go telling me that that's a cheap way out. It is inexpensive, less expensive than most closet door setups. But draperes over a closet can be sexy as hack. Okay, ask Tina, because we've got draperes

in front of our closets. And also, can I mention not only can they be super sexy, but they can be twice as practical as a conventional door. You know why because let's say you've got an eight foot wide closet and you've got two four foot slider doors. You slide one right, nice big opening, but it's not the whole thing, right, because there's always a door covering half your closet. But guess what happens in my draped closet opening.

I can push the whole thing back and there it is before me, the entire closet, all of my options right before me. This is one of the advantages of shower curtains in a bathroom and drapes in front of a closet door. Just an option, Just an option. I'm

just giving you permission to dream beyond the convention. Right You could, if you really want to get funky and fancy, set up closet doors with bookshelves mounted on the front of them, so that you've got bookshelves in your bedroom if it's a reading kind of room, and secretly behind the bookshelves the closet, or if you've got a weird shaped room and a lot of these oversized post nineteen eighty bedrooms, they are narrow and way longer than really

practically they should be. And so you think, well that I'm going to have to set the bed on the long wall. But if the if the bed, if the bed is uh is, can fit on the shorter wall with nightstands and so on, UH, then possibly, if you need more closet space, then slide a wall in and pull the old closet behind the bed. Trick in which you actually build a partition wall in that room with a door access either side and door both sides and uh and actually run a walk through closet behind the bedwall.

Mm hmm, you got lots and lots of options. Okay, finally, uh, some points for you bedroom art. Just know that this is your private gallery. Don't uh, don't skimp on it, because again, it's a place where you are spending your time. The view outside those bedroom windows, make it what it should be. Treat each window like a diorama. Make that view what it should and could be. Landscape the outside to complement inside of the bedroom. Cool colors in the

bedroom make for better sleep. They do. Dark walls may help shift workers who have to sleep at odd times or during the day. Your sleep temperature, ideally for a bedroom, somewhere between sixty and sixty seven degrees. Yeah. That means no, I'm not talking about running your ac all night long, but it means that you know if you can and if you feel safe to do so. When you're hitting the hay at night, especially this time of year, it's time to crack those windows open. Sleep cooler, Okay, the

air temperature. I don't care how snugly you are underneath, that's one of the joys of it. But let the air temperature go a little cooler, you will sleep better. That's just science. Vaulted ceilings, tall walls, all ago for a bedroom, think about it, because the volume in the room, the volume up can make up for a small square

footage space. Okay, and then decorating the bed, of course, you know you've got everything from nice tight, formalized military style bed dreat you know, comforters and so on, all the way to the ever popular intentionally messy bed with big soft pillows and linens and all sorts of fluff

going on, throws, layers of texture, draping. Last thing, last thing for today, don't forget And if this bedroom redo is part of a significant remodel that you're doing to the room, if you're really going to get serious about it. Sound peace and quiet in that bedroom. What does that mean? It means sound insulation in the walls. Now, I'm not trying to protect the rest of the house from the noise you're making in the bedroom, although it does work both ways. But what I'm talking about is peace and

quiet for you in that room. Let it be a sound retreat as well, so that when you sleep at night, you're not having to hear every little thing everything all the time, and the rest of the house can be active and you are still getting a good night's sleep. Sound insulation That means insulation in the interior as well as the exterior walls that your bedroom shares. Does that

all makes sense? There you go. Those are some key guidelines for you, all right when we return, a few extra thoughts on the bedroom and some closing thoughts for the day. So go nowhere.

That's an interesting question. The answer is no, No, design is not going to save you money. But I will tell you this design is going to maximize the budget that you have for what it is that you're doing. That's why it matters most. You're not going to spend less necessarily could. You could, but you're not going to spend less. Don't plan on spending less necessarily because you're approaching the project from a heavy design perspective, but don't

expect to spend more either. What you can expect is the better you design a project, the further that dollar go bang for the buck of the results that you get when you are done. And that's the whole point behind design matters. Most One other comment for you today unrelated directly to bedroom design, and that is something I

alluded to at the beginning of the show. I talked about this yesterday morning at the beginning of yesterday's show, the Saturday Show, and that is permission, okay, around the holidays, which we are now. You know, we are now on track, right, we are, we are in the shoot. We are on our way. Around the holidays, people give themselves permission for a level of creative decor, decorating and playfulness that normal people don't give themselves permission for throughout the rest of

the year. And I am here to tell you because the experience of your home is not just a thing that happens in the holidays, but it is a three sixty five experience. Okay, Uh, give yourself permission to take the kind of perspective that you take during the holidays. And you know what I'm talking about. During the holidays, you're like, where should we put the tree? Where would this look the best? How are we going to get

this homiest? How is this gonna be oh twinkling and ooh that's gonna that's gonna's gonna make us feel really special. I'm talking about taking that attitude and applying it for the rest of the year. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about you being the person who never takes down their Christmas lights'. That's not it. It's not about Christmas decor. It's not about holiday decor. It's just this attitude that you know what creativity is for you

year round. And I would say even more important than the holidays is the rest of the year, day in, day out, your experience of home. Give yourself permission to reach further and to make every space, every angle, every view, every possibility. It does not have to break the bank, not if you make it a lifestyle choice. That listen, I'm in it to win it. I'm in it for

the long run for my home. Okay, A lot of people say, listen, I haven't made any changes to my house because I've just you know, we've been here twenty years and still we don't have the money for a major remodel. Okay, I get that, Okay, But you do have small increments along the way, Okay, And that's ultimately those layers, those small changes, change after change after change after change, gradually, gradually, gradually, gradually, these are the things

that can make worlds, worlds of difference. And if you don't believe me, just think. You know, it's the vitamin analogy. Right, Do you take your vitamins right on any given day? When you take that, you know, you pop your supplements for the day. Whether you take it that day or miss it that day, nothing's gonna change in your life that day, right, nothing. Let's face it. It's not like, ohh,

I took my vitamins this morning, I'm ready to go. No. But day after day after day, increment by increment by increment, as the weeks and months and years roll on, it makes a massive difference whether you've been taking your vitamins or not. Right, same with brushing your teeth, same with every small incremental thing. And you can master design your house the same way more often than not. Okay, got a big budget, great design matters, most don't have much

of a budget. Fine design matters most. There you go, all right, y'all? Well, uh, turns out today this week a lot of birthdays this week. Okay, a lot of birthdays this week. You know. Sitting in the booth right now, Elmer's birthday was this week. Yes, yes, Tina, by the way, is back in studio with me. I am. Turns out I didn't know this, but Tina just informed me Tim Conway's birthdays. Do you share a birthday with Tim Conway? Tim and I share a birthday? There you go? Uh,

today is Tina's birthday. Wednesday was my daughter in law's, Christie's birthday. Just two more reasons why autumn is my favorite time of year. What gifts these two women are to me? They're both on my mind, so I figured i'd give them a joint shout out today. Okay, there is not enough time to tell you how much these two women mean to me. Just know that there are no two human beings more dear, and there's nothing nothing I wouldn't do to see both of them safe and

fulfilled in this life. They are strong, capable women, both whip smart, both utterly unique, both extremely quirky, vulnerable, hard working, devoted and fierce fierce friends, and one of the great blessings for me is that over the years I've had the joy of watching them become the fiercest of friends to one another. And I'm just speaking for myself here, but It's not been my experience that strong independent women tend to bond easily with other strong independent women. Okay,

these two are the exception. They have got each other's back, and I hope they I know they know that I've got theirs. I love them both, of course, but even better, I really really like them. They are each in their own way, both strong and vulnerable, serious and playful, wise and ditsy, mature and childlike. As far as I know, their only true character defect is a shared obsession with true time podcasts. But you know, for the sake of all the good that you learn to live with certain

things in life. Right now, both of them claim it is a fascination with the human psyche, but there is definitely also some bloodthirsty quest for justice mixed in there. Okay, I'm not accepting any other answer to that, which I have to admit is strangely comforting on some level, kind of like that. Nevertheless, all of that pales in comparison with how committed they both are to health, transparency, healing, growing and becoming. In fact, I don't know two people

more humbly committed to becoming Now. Yesterday, Tina received a birthday card from my mom, who, by the way, is a master gift giver, and I thought the sentiment was absolutely perfect for both of these women that I love. It simply said this you're awesome, has layers your classy, sassy and a whole lot kick assy, And yeah, I think that just about sums it up. Love you, Tina,

Love you, Love you, Sparks, Love you so much. Happy birthdays now today, And it may not be the birthday of somebody you love, but that doesn't mean it isn't a perfect day to celebrate your best people. Maybe get together and definitely get out there and get busy building yourself a beautiful life. Everybody enjoyed the day. Go Dodgers,

and we'll see you right back here next weekend. This has been home with Dean Sharp the house whisper Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app