You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty, Hey, Hi, Am six forty Live, Dreaming and HD Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Dean Sharp The house Whisper Live every Saturday and Sunday morning.
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all searchable by topic. You're our home improvement reference library. It is literally a home improvement reference library at this point, hundreds of episodes, hundreds of them, all waiting for your eager ears as you continue to turn your ordinary house into an extraordinary home today and tomorrow. It is the holiday gift guide that we do every single year, our juicy, wonderful House Whisper Holiday Gift Guide. I want to dive
back in. Also I'm taking calls this morning. We're going to get back to the phones in just a bit, but we're going to spend a little bit of time hitting a couple more items on the gift guide. One of a new entry this year, and I've been wanting to do this in years past, and just we needed to have room for other things. But I really feel
strongly about this. If you are thinking about a screwdriver set for that DI wire in your life, or yourself for that matter, if it's time to get a new set of screwdrivers, and by the way, there is nothing lovelier than a well organized set of tools. And so if you can end up with a full set that's in a nice rugged case that will store away nicely, then good on you for doing that. It's a great idea. But here's I'm going to add something. This is so outside the norm for most di wires that it ends
up just putting you a step ahead. Inevitably, if you are somebody who interacts with your house, you will probably at some point use a screwdriver on an electrical outlet or I don't mean stick it into an electrical outlet, no, I mean maybe you change out a switch maybe you're you're trying to fix an outlet or replace an outlet, something like that. There's a chance that you could use
a screwdriver around voltage. So if you're in the market or the DII wire that you love could use a new set of screwdrivers, then instead of just your run of the mill screwdriver, why not get them a set of insulated electrician screwdrivers. Now you're not going to find these normally sitting with the other tools in the tool section. You will normally find these in the electrical section of the hardware store. Okay, that's the trick. They're usually not
sitting with the other standard screwdrivers. And what are these little babies? They're very simply this. They're just totally regular screwdrivers, Torque's head, Philip's head, flat heead screwdrivers, whatever the case may be. But the handle and extending down the shaft towards the tip of the screwdriver, fully loaded in a fully insulated material. So here's what you want. You want
a one thousand volt rated insulated electrician screwdriver set. That way, just the tip of each of the screwdrivers is exposed for doing just normal screwdriver stuff. And that's the thing about electrician screwdrivers. They're completely normal screwdrivers for every other use. There's nothing that they can't do. But here is what
a regular screwdriver can't do. It can't keep you safe from touching a live wire with that long metallic conductive shaft as it goes probing inside an area where there be be live wires. And so an insulated screwdriver set is, in my opinion, a brilliant buy. Plus most of them come in really nice rugged cases. The one that I've got in the gift guide that you can find the link to, we're talking about a twenty five dollars set. And here is why. There's one handle that interchanges with
a number of different shafts. In fact, I think there are ten plus different shafts. Is at a fifteen piece it's ten piece anyway, multiple multiple shafts and tips with just one handle. So they've saved money there. But this is solid. It interlocks. You will never have an issue with this whatsoever, and it comes in a really beautiful rugged case and well worth it. Twenty five dollars. Twenty five dollars and you give somebody the edge on their
screwdriver usage and everyone will be jealous. Is that true?
Yes?
It is all right. More Campie tean sharp the House Whisper at your service. We are diving into this year's House Whisper Holiday gift guide today and tomorrow. But I'm also taking calls, and I've got some calls on the board. So let's dive hurt for a moment and talk to you about what's going on with your home. Let's talk to Beth. Hey, Beth, welcome home.
And how are you?
Hi?
There? You are? I am well?
How are you here? Doing great? So here's my question. I have a silver machine tree that I planted in front of my condle. Well, now my association wants me to trim it because it's twelve twelve feet all and if I let them do it, they are going to just whack it and turn it into a box, you know, a bush. What is the best to wait to trim it? Because it's such a beautiful tree. I'm by the beach. It dances when the wind blows. I don't want to
lose that. How can I do it? If that's somebody who specializes in this kind of tree?
Okay, So when you say silver chine. Are we talking about the pine or the pittosporm.
Pittus porm.
Ok, everybody's like, what a pitisform? A silver sheene. It's a hedge that can grow tree size, you know. It's a small shrub that can grow up to twelve fourteen feet tall, little tiny flower I mean little tiny flowers, little tiny leaves, and they do. They're beautiful, They shimmer, they make decent hedges and they are, Beth, one of those I'm so glad you called they're they're one of those plants that that that gardeners and I'm using air quotes here, gardeners, the mow and blow guys. They they
just they murder them. They murder and they don't kill them, but they just they'll box them off, they'll flatten them out. And and so that's the thing I always tell people this. Listen, if your landscape personnel, if the only tools you ever see them bring out are these big flat bladed hedge trimmers, then guess what. Guess what you get with a big old flat blade. You get big flat surfaces. Okay, so this goes back to Beth. It goes back to this, and it's a very simple answer to your question, but
I'm setting it up this way. This goes back to this very very basic concept that every garden needs a gardener, garden nerve, somebody who's going to actually engage with the plants in the proper way and bring them to the fullness of what they're capable of. So very much like a a any other wild plant like this, this is an Australian plant, silver sheene, very much like sage and Salvia's plants that just have their own kind of vibe to them. You don't let anybody near them with box
flat cutters. What you do is you want somebody to approach it just with a hand clipper. Hand clipper, not to take out and flatten off the surface and be done with it in five minutes and move on, because that's what's gonna make them all flat and hedgy, but just to thin it out, trim it down and keep those loose wild perimeter edges to it so that it continues to sway and blow and just look as naturalistic
as possible. It's really just about when you've got a wild I don't want to say scraggly, but just this wild feathery shrub or and or tree that you're dealing with, then treat it that way and selectively go in and just hand clip, hand clip some of the branches out to thin it and or to control its height, to
clip its height, but keep it uneven. And believe me, it takes a little bit of practice to do this because randomness, the randomness of a natural look, is one of the hardest things for a human being to replicate, because we just like we like going in just cutting things flat and even and getting done with it. And so you take one branch, you cut it a little higher. You take another branch, you cut it a little lower,
a little lower on the next one. Then you go back high again, and you kind of stand back and you keep looking at it. But you only have to trim it every once in a blue moon. And so taking a little time, taking a half hour to trim this beautiful plant as opposed to five minutes of just we'll make all the difference in the world.
So treat it like a giant bone side.
Yes, exactly, treat it like a giant Bondzie, why you should be on this side of things, just because that was the perfect Yeah, treat it like a giant bonds. I just shape it, take your time. If you love it, spend time with it. And I know that sounds like one of those plant guys I am. If you love a plant, spend time with it, give it the shape that you want, train it, care for it in that way, and it will pay you back, you know, tenfold.
Awesome, Thank you so much.
You are so welcome. Bet, thank you a really really good question. Do I have time to let me see you? Sam is telling me here and he's like, well, yeah, I'll tell you what. We're gonna go to the break and we come back. We'll go back to the phones, and yeah, yeah, sounds good. You are listening to Dean Sharp The House Whisper on KFI. You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM.
Six forty.
KFI live streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, you're Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. Welcome aboard. What am I a skipper now? I said, Well, thanks for joining us on the program this morning. We're talking about our holiday gift guide. We're moving through bits and pieces, not the whole thing, because uh, you know, it's more sizable than two shows can handle. But bits and pieces as we go. And I'm also taking your calls this morning.
I want to go back to the phones and then we'll go back to the Gift Guide again. Let's talk to Laura. Hey, Laura, welcome home. Oh yes, hello, good good morning.
Oh I had you on speaker. I'm like, oh, shoot, she's in my name. I'm so glad Tina is better. I feel for you, guys, and I'm good things for her. And Okay, I'm talking about we made some space to put a water fountain in our backyard and I'm really excited about it. But it's next to our house. It's like now to the wall in our backyard. And I guess wasn't sure. I remember you talking about a store that had all these water fountains that you could see
them work and experience them. And because my husband really just wants to go get one, and I don't want to just get one. I want one that I really like. So I'm just wondering what you recommend, what store we could browse. And yes, that's that's my question.
All right, Well here it is super simple answer, Reseda Discount Pottery and Fountain. You know, and I never remember if it's fountain in pottery or pottery and fountain. But that's it's Reseda. They're in Resita, in the in the valley and uh you, I don't know where you live, but we're.
In the South Bay area.
But that's not that far.
Okay. Yeah, and you know what, there are a few there are a few places. There are a few vendors of special items in southern California where I just tell people, listen, it doesn't matter, it is worth the drive. Just make the pilgrimage because if you're looking for it, I mean, this is a store that literally has and I am not exaggerating, a thousand fountains that are all on when
you walk in. Okay, they're all on. And so a fountain is just one of those things, you know, it's it's very very I never recommend anybody buy one online if you haven't already had direct interaction with it. You need to see it, you need to hear it, you need to size it up, you need to have a massive selection to choose from. If you're not exactly sure exactly what kind of fountain or water feature you're looking for, so receipt a discount pottering fountain, fountain and Potter fact.
I think it's Pottering fountain anyway, great place, great, great place to go to start your window shopping. Bare minimum for a water future or a mountain in your yard. So there you have.
Is there a type of water fountain that is better when it's close to the house or next like you know, right next to the house, as opposed to like in your middle of your backyard. Well, would you know, like if there's a water issue or uh no, No.
I mean as far as water supply goes, they you know, they all have their own internal reservoirs and they all do that, I think from a pure design perspective. So practically speaking, no, I don't think that there's anything that you have to be concerned about. But in placement, whenever you do a water feature, you want to ideally try
and think about a couple of the things. One, the scale of the water feature based on how far away it is from the house, so that as you're looking out upon it that you know it's it brings a proper scale. Now, some people have very very expansive yards and a fountain is just dedicated to a little air
are you don't even see it from the house. But for most folks in mainstream homes, your yard is not so large that you couldn't actually have the potential of seeing it from inside the house or from the back porch or the areas like that, the patio area, So you want to be aware of that. You know, place a water feature in a place where you can maximize its view. But depending on how far away from the
house it is. You also want to scale the sound of the water, So a big water feature with a lot the further the water falls physically, the louder of a noise it makes when it hits when it lands, and the larger the volume of water, So a tiny trickling fountain, which are just beautiful little intimate garden settings. If you've got to set one really really close to a house, like a bedroom window or something like that, then you can get away with that because that sounds
going to resonate inside without overwhelming you. But you don't want to put you know, Niagara falls right outside the kitchen window or the family you know what I'm saying, because then it becomes a level of noise where it's like, okay, turn off the water feature. We can't even hear ourselves talk.
But if you've got a sizeable yard, then you know, Niagara Falls might not be a bad idea on the far side of the yard, so that that sound emanates throughout the entire yard and by the time it gets to the house, it's the right uh, you know, the right volume and scale. And that's why I always recommend that people go and see the fountains and a place like the Discount. You'll see the water running through it. You'll hear how loud it is, and uh and they're
they're super helpful there in that sense. So if at all possible, put a fountain where you can enjoy the sight of it and the water from as many places in the yard and even in the house as possible, and consider the scale of the water being moved so that the sound is the right volume, you know. And some of them have adjustable pumps. That's the other thing, Yeah, to ask you yes, so you can turn a pump up, you turn to higher volume, lower volume, and and so on. These are all factors.
You know.
It's nice to have volume control on a water supply so that you can, you know, change it according to the mood and the needs. A big party you can just have you can just be roaring because it's above you know, it can still be heard above the uh, the the sound of lots of people talking. But if it's just you, uh sitting in your garden, you don't
need that much volume necessarily. So all of these things factors to consider, and I'll just tell you just do your research and remember dreaming and windows shopping is free and so uh you know, just let yourself dream it all through and take the time ahead of time to plan it out before you just go grab one.
Thank you so much, appreciate you so.
Much, oh Laura, thank you so much, and thanks for your well wishes to Tina as well. She loves and appreciate. She's sitting her smiling and nodding at me as she's doing some interweb work right now, babe, Hey, grab your mic real quick and let's before we go to break here. What's the status of the gift guide as far as people accessing it?
Okay, so there are photographs of the actual gift guide on Instagram. There's a link in our bio to the interactive pdf. So if they actually want to download the pdf and click on links to figure out.
In our bio all you mean on the KFI website.
Well, go to our bio on Instagram. Oh okay, good, yeah, and you'll find an interactive link that'll take you to our KFI page and you can download that PDF and you can use it.
And once you download the pdf, those links are live right in the p so you'll just be able to click on them and voomp right to the site where we sourced.
Yeah, and we tried to source like the best prices, you know, we did our best.
Yeah, and they're available in other places. But that'll take you right now.
That's Instagram, and then on Facebook there's a on the post itself, there's a direct link that you can just click it again and it'll take you right to the KFI site where you can download that interactive PDF.
So okay. Or you can just go right to the KFI web page or the page right to our little corner of the KFI web page. So you listen, you go to the on air column and find a home with Dean and it's right there up front, top of the list. Currently you can download the PDF and follow along as as I continue to share with you items off of this year's House Whisper Holiday Gift Guide. We'll get right back to it. Kfi, Dean Sharp, the House Whisper, Welcome the home. Thanks for joining us on the program.
We are moving through our holiday gift guide for twenty twenty four. Today this program and our next episode tomorrow, the Big Show three hours. We will continue with your calls and the gift guide. That's the weekend here, always the weekend right after Thanksgiving, we unveil this year's gift guide. And there's no gift guide like it, really, you know, I find them online. It's not so simple as Best
Tool Buys for twenty twenty four. And it's not just some random gift guide full of you know, coasters and personalized mailboxes and things like that. No, this is all about that maker, that di wire, that person who gets out there and gets things done on your house, and all guided by curated by me, and guided by me so that you understand the value of what these actual tools and gear are, whether they be a stocking stuffer or something more significant. And speaking of something more significant,
I want to end today on a signal magnificant item. Okay, we've had some you know, fifteen dollars twenty dollars items. Now we're going to step up Now, this is not for everybody, clearly, but some of you are like, listen, I've got this special person. They're all about this. I would like to lay out some serious cash on something that will just just be momentous and really say I get you, and that they will love, love, love and want to use for years to come. I've got a
few items like this on the gift Guide. First up, though, in that category A hammer, A hammer, not just any hammer. Now, in years past, I have, in recent years especially, have grown incredibly fond of the Stiletto Hammer Company, Stiletto Tools. Okay like Stiletto, like you know the heels, Stiletto, fantastic, fantastic tool company. But they have specialized in titanium based hammers.
And the whole idea behind a titanium hammer is that it is incredibly durable, super strong, and also incredibly lightweight. And you would think, well, light hammer, Yeah, I mean I want to get some serious hammering done. You don't have to worry about that because you know, physics science will tell you that you don't have to be carrying around all the time for most projects a big old heavy hammer in order to get some really effective nailing done.
Here's the reality, right. Can I share just a little bit of science with you. I'll nerd out with you here. Force force okay. The formula essentially for force, okay, is mad Yes, that's the weight of a thing times velocity squared. Velocity squared okay. So the force of impact on an item that's moving through space, okay, has to do with its mass obviously, and it's speed at which it hits you or hits something. Okay. Not that I want you to get hit with a hammer, but you understand what
I'm saying. But the cool thing about that formula is that it's mass just whatever the weight is. Bump it plugs into the formula just like that, but the velocity is squared. That means if the one thing that you could affect in a to make a hammer more effective, it's the speed at which it moves through the air, okay, because the velocity, every increment that you go up that gets squared into the formula like that gets timed itself. Okay. Mass will always just be massed. So the point is
very very simple. A lighter hammer that can move faster through the air as you swing it can hit with as much, if not more force than a big heavy hammer that's moving slowly through the air because it's so heavy. So the era of the titanium lightweight hammer has arrived, absolutely without question. And right at the forefront of that the tip of the spear is the Stiletto Tool Company, And in past years I've recommended the Stiletto framing hammer.
It's a sixteen ounce hammer, which is way way light for framing hammers, but that's heavy construction stuff. This year, I'm turning the page towards what honestly most di wires are going to use in terms of a hammer, and that's what we in the industry would call a finish hammer.
A finishing hammer. It's a hammer that is not a tiny little thing, but it's medium sized hammer that handles most, if not all, of household chores in addition to all sorts of projects that a finished carpentery would use, moldings, setting doors, door frames, all of that kind of stuff. The Stiletto ten ounce trimbone okay, trim trim bon e trimbone. It has a I mean, this is the Rolls Royce of hammers. I'm just saying, can you buy a fifteen
dollars hammer and get buy with it. Sure, but if this is that special thing that you just want to present to that loved one, this is a two hundred and forty five dollars hammer. But I will tell you this, for those who use them and appreciate them, it's well worth it, because this is literally the last hammer that this person will ever buy for the rest of their lives. I mean, it is titanium, it is strong, it is lightweight, only ten out bounces. It's got all the goodies on it.
It's design a magnetic nail starter. It has a replaceable face that means that even if that smooth faced hammer gets gouged or damaged in any way or worn out, the face can be replaced. It's got trim claws. It's got a fantastic little axe style handle, which is always my preference. It's not a perfectly straight handle, it's like an axe handle. It curves a little bit in your hand. It's ergonomic, it's well cushioned. It is a brilliant hammer.
It's going to handle anything from little four and sixpenny nails all the way up to sixteen penny nails. It's just not a heavy duty, full on framing. Build your house hammer. It's once the house, the wall is up, everything else in the house hammer a very very very useful hammer, a beautiful hammer, and one that is well worth those the investment. For those of you who are looking for something super, super memorable and special for that dr wire in your life. The Stiletto trimbone titanium hammer.
All right, I've got so many more items on the gift guide, both stocking stuffers and significant purchases and everything in between. And we're gonna pick this right up in our next episode tomorrow, the Big Show Sunday from nine to noon. You're not gonna want to miss it. And until then, my friend, get out there in this gorgeous fall day and get busy building yourself a beautiful life. We'll see you tomorrow. 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