It Was Like This When We Bought It Part 3 | Hour 3

joining us on the program today. Here we are at the beginning of the third hour of our program today. What are we talking about? Well, this is part three of our three part series. It was this way when we bought it, when you inherit somebody else's mistakes on the place where you live and how to fix them. And I want to get right back to that. Just a quick reminder that we've got. Tina just walked in. She gave me the look, gave me the eye. She's like,

did you remind them about the holiday home show. She's very committed to this process. Next week, this very program from nine to noon next week will be happening live in front of a live studio audience right here at the iHeart Studios in Burbank, the home of KFI and the home of Home. We're gonna be here live. I'm going to have some very special guests with me as well.

Al Dick Holme has sponsored the whole thing. They're going to be decorating a seven and a half foot gorgeous Christmas tree and then we're going to be giving it away to one of our lucky audience members. Just a ton of fun, refreshments, fun, It's just a great, great time to spend together. And I get to spend three plus hours with you just hanging out doing the show together. You kind of see how the sausage is made, as

it were. It's a good old time. So if if you would like to join us, all you have to do is go to our Instagram or Facebook at Home with Dean. That's it for both Home with Dean. You'll find the Holiday Home Show post right at the top of the page. All you have to do is comment and say I would love to join you. Enter me to win a seat, and then we will notify you via direct message through Instagram and Facebook. And those of you who have already entered you may have a message

waiting for you. Check your messages on Instagram and Facebook. You may have a message waiting for you telling you that you've already won. So today is the final day. That's why I'm saying this so much. It is the final day, and so you need to respond to your message today to let us know to confirm your seat, or you need to get entered today bare minimum if you want a chance to win one of the seats that are left there, you go. Okay, back to the list. I promised you when we left the topic that we

return and we would talk about fireplaces fireplace. Now. I did a fire place show just a couple three weeks ago, so if you want more in depth detail about fireplaces and such, then run back in the podcast and find it there. I've done a ton of fireplace shows throughout the years, this one specifically, though. What we're talking about

here is the problem fireplace. Fireplaces are tricky because they are by nature kind of a vestigial holdover of an earlier age, right, And what I mean by that is that you know, you don't really need your fireplace in the twenty first century to heat your home. That's what they were originally all about. You don't need your fireplace to cook your dinner, all right, But we love fireplaces. I love fireplaces. I love the esthetic of open fire,

open flame in a home. And I don't want to get rid of people's fireplaces, except when I want to get rid of people's fireplaces, and so let me clarify, I don't want to get rid of your fireplace. But sometimes the crazy designer comes in and makes a case for moving a fireplace, or at least getting rid of that thing on the fireplace or that kind of a thing, because there are a lot of weird ones out there. There are. Indeed, are you living with a weird one?

We were just let's see, not yesterday, but the day before yesterday. We're on a consult with a wonderful new clients and they have been living for decades with a fireplace in the living room. Beautiful home, beautiful living with a fireplace that was just well, how do you describe it? Just weird weird. Not the fireplace itself, not the firebox or the chimney outside this normal masonry chimney and beautiful firebox. But on the inside wall all this stuff going on,

you know, weird angles and weird buildouts. And so here's lesson one lesson one. If you have a real masonry fireplace in your home. The lesson one is this, find where the angled edges of the fire box itself, that's where the flames are at in there. Find where those weird angle edges come to an end and transition to

the facing material. Okay, where that comes to an end, You're going to find nine hundred and ninety nine times out of a thousand that the end of that firebox is flush to the main wall that this fireplace is sitting in. That, my friend, is the end of the real fireplace, of the structural fireplace and chimney. It does not intrude into the room any further than the inside face of the full wall. In most cases, of course, there's exceptions to every rule, but chances are yours is

not right. That is where it ends, right there, at the edge of the firebox. Everything after that everything is veneer. And when I say veneer, I don't mean that it's fake and little thin material. What I'm saying is that it's it's a decorative application after that. Okay, So if you have, for instance, stone build up on the inside of your wall, or more bricks on the inside of your wall, or whatever, however the mantle is configured and

all of this is all added stuff. And if that's stuff, and nine times out of ten, it's that stuff that's weird and that you just have had to live with and you've sort of manipulated and fudged and done your best with. It's that stuff that not unlike the lesson earlier, learned about hard escape outside and little planter walls made out of brick out in your yard that you can just pop out relatively easily. Okay, it's a little bit of a mess, but you just need to know that

that stuff can come off. It can come off in a day, I mean literally a day, and you get the chance to start over when it comes to your fireplace, start over completely. So that's less than one on your fireplace. Is just understanding that it's a lot more flexible than you ever imagine. Now when we come back, we're going to talk about it in a more serious sense, and that is, what if it's just something beyond I think the inside face of our fireplace is really weird and ugly.

What if it's maybe the fireplace shouldn't be there, or our fireplace is damaged and we never use.

and a very important one, a very troublesome one. Fireplaces. Fireplaces I love, I love fireplaces, but they have caused so many problems in terms of twenty first century design. And I don't mean because we're trying to transition to super contemporary stuff. No, no, no, no, no, I mean even traditional in maintaining that classic traditional look. Here, here's

the problem with the fireplace. I don't know if you notice, but they're they're huge, and they're made out of stone or brick, and they're hard to move, or it seems like they're they're hard to they're seemingly immovable, and they're sometimes they look weird. We already address that before the break, but more often than not, by today's priorities of design, this is what I mean. A fireplace quite often is just in a bad location, just a bad location. Okay,

not all. And if you are lucky enough to have a fireplace in a good location, then please celebrate it, celebrate it and maximize it in every way possible. But so what do I mean by a bad location? Well, today, in today's design prayer and rightly so, we want to maximize light into a room. We want to maximize your view. So I want you to have a beautiful backyard, a beautiful front yard. I want you to have a veritable

garden habitat out there. And then when you're inside the house, I want you to be able to gaze upon it. I want it to be part of what you're enjoying. You've gone to all this trouble to make it what it is out there, but you still spend most of your time indoors. So I want you to be able to take it in now. A fireplace that was built into a home fifty sixty, seventy or more years ago, fireplaces, you know, they tend to draw the attention of the

living room towards them. They'res the central item. And very rarely are they on the outside wall surrounded by windows so that you can take in the fireplace and the view at the same time. Quite often they're on an interior wall and cawing your attention away from the windows. And so this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. When you sit in your living room to look at the fireplace and these days, maybe quite possibly the flat screen TV above it, are you doing so with your

back to the view. That's problematic, I mean I should say this maybe not problematic is the right word. It's not ideal. It's not as ideal as being able to take it in all at once. And of course, now somebody's saying, Dean, you're really nitpicking. Now you're suggesting that everybody should move their fireplace. No, of course not. But if you are planning or really thinking about transitioning a

room and really remodeling, then yeah, guess what. I also want you to think about the possibility, just the possibility maybe the fireplace is in this vestigial location where it used to be, like, oh, look at us make it central, but by today's priorities, maybe drawing your attention away from the real show. And if we could move it, if we could incorporate it and the view at the same time, fantastic.

Maybe the fireplace is literally on the best furniture wall for viewing the rest of the interior space of your home or that and the outside as well. So you understand what I'm saying. I hope that I'm not pooh pooing this whole idea like everybody should get rid of their fireplace or move it because they're they're you know, they're passe, they're done. Not at all, not at all. It's just the one thing as a designer that I have the advantage of is that I walk into your

home knowing how it's built. As as a builder as well, I walk into your home and everything is editable in my mind, and not everything in your mind is editable. Now, I'm not talking about budgets, Okay, it's irrelevant. We can dream and plan and think without having to spend any money. So my point is we should at least have the conversation, even if we don't follow through with it. You should have the conversation and you should dream the dream of

what's possible about any room in your home. So, yeah, they can be a problem. And certain fireplaces, I will tell you as the final punctuation to this argument, certain fireplaces in southern California specifically do not deserve to live. And what I mean by that is there's a kind of fireplace out there that is known as a rampant general fireplace. Okay, that's literally the company that produced them. It was one of those so called bride ideas coming

out of the sixties into the early seventies. If you live in southern California in attract development, there's a chance that you have a rampart General fireplace. Now what are they? These were pre cast fireplaces and chimneys all in one. They literally this company, I mean, it's an interesting idea. They're like, you know what we're going to do for a major developer. We're going to make the fireplace in

the chimney. It's all poor in place concrete. We're going to set a mold though, for the outside of it, so that the chimney looks like it's made out of bricks, right, but it's not. It's just a brick texture on the outside of the fireplace. And these things were mass produced in southern California and they were installed in developments from let's say early seventy like seventy one, all the way

to nineteen eighty nine. Afterwards, they became so problematic, so many lawsuits, so many cracks and irreparable repairs on these things. And that's really the big problem with them, is that if they crack, if the firebox cracks, if the if the flu cracks, if the insulating shoulder cracks, there's no fixing them. There's no fixing them properly, and so the company's out of business. They're not around anymore because of lawsuits,

and yet the fireplaces are still standing. My in laws had one attached to their home that Tina grew up in, and Tina and I participated together in demoing it out and getting rid of it because it was also cracked and unusable, unsafe to use because you can't you can't run a liner up inside them, you can't repair them

like you would a regular masonry fireplace. Most homeowners who have them don't even realize they have one because on the outside they look like brick, but to the untrained eye they just assume they have a masonry fireplace outside, when in reality they have this rampart fireplace. So how can you identify it? Well, Number one, it's going to be like an off white color unless it's been painted, and you would assume that it looks like it's been painted.

It looks like bricks that have been painted sort of off white. It hasn't been painted. That's actually the color of the concrete that was used, a special kind of concrete that was used. It's a calcium illuminate cement that

was used, so it's off white. It's got a heavy brick texture, more texture than a normal brick fireplace, okay, or a brick chimney like I mean, the bricks and then the grout lines go way in and usually the chimney itself very tall and skinny compared to the base, like skinnier than you would expect most fireplace chimneys to be. That's kind of a dead giveaway for a rampart tilt up fireplace. The it was literally standing there before they built the walls for your house. They tied the walls

to it. Anyway, I don't want to go exhaust the point, but the point is on our list of things problems you've inherited when you bought the house. Fireplaces can get in the way sometimes of the optimal design for the

twenty first century lifestyle lived in your home. You should not overlook them as a possibility, because honestly, a regular masonry fireplace, again designed by demolition, does not take that much to get rid of it, and then to install a much more modular one in another location in the same room a lot of options these days. Don't rule it out. At least have the conversation and at bare minimum, understand that the face of that fireplace can change a lot.

happened to your home. Is your home suffering from post traumatic design disorder? It's quite possible that it is. Let's see what else. How about this one? This is very practical one. Too much molding above, not enough molding below. What does that mean? Well, if you've listened to the show long enough, you probably know what I'm about to say.

And if you haven't, well listen up. Because when it comes to homes with average old eight foot ceilings, and I've got nothing against them, I live in one myself. An eight foot ceiling by today's standards, not a high ceiling. The standard, by the way, for new homes is nine feet, which is lovely. And you know, if you can vault and go taller, great, But if you don't. If you don't, if you can't, if you've got an eight foot ceiling,

here's what you don't do. You don't overwhelm an eight foot tall ceiling with reminders of how low the ceiling is. And what is the number one reminder, Well, probably one or two. Number one would be hanging a large light fixture down in the middle of a room that's already just at eight feet and now the light fixture is hanging even lower not a good idea in your bedroom,

ceiling fan over the bed. You know, it's it's always acceptable, or I should say more ple to hang a light fixture over an object where you can't walk, like a dining room table. It's always fine for the chandelier to come lower. But if the table wasn't there, you know, you might hit your head on it. So the same

with a bed. If you've got a pendant or a little chandelier or a ceiling fan over your bed, okay, but just no, even then, even then, something hanging down from an eight foot ceiling will make the room feel smaller, just will, just will. The other thing that is a constant reminder of how low the ceiling is in a room is if we've put a bunch of crown molding and stuff up against the top. And I get it. This falls in the category that I'm kind of using

this segment four of aspirational decor. Aspirational decor is when you try and decorate something in a way that says, I really really always wanted to live in a bigger, fancier house than this. And so what you're doing is you're taking some of the elements from bigger, fancier houses, shoving them into your smaller space. And I'm just sorry to tell you it doesn't work. It doesn't fit, it doesn't give you the payoff that you were hoping for.

Crown molding draws attention to itself, rightly, so it's beautiful. And so to put crownd molding at the top of an eight foot ceiling, especially a larger ground molding, what you're literally doing is you're drawing attention to the top of the wall. Now, if your wall is fourteen feet tall, not only do you get to show off your ground molding, but you're drawing attention to the fact that your wall is fourteen feet tall. If your wall's just eight feet tall,

that's not something we're trying to overemphasize. If we want a room to feel as tall and roomy as possible, then we want to reduce the amount of molding that's going on up high. I rarely, if ever, agree to crown molding on an eight foot ceiling. I just don't. There are better ways of using Now, don't run off and say Dean doesn't believe in putting molding in small rooms and houses. It's not true. I actually want your baseboard, which is very likely only maybe three inches tall if

you're lucky from the builder. I want that baseboard to be two or three times that size. In an eight foot room, seven inch baseboard, no problem. I'm all for the bigger baseboards down at the floor. This actually makes the room feel larger, makes the room feel more substantial. So the lesson is as I said it at first, and now you understand what I mean. Too much molding above, not enough molding below, too big of a crown, molding up at the ceiling, not enough baseboard down below. So

the good news about this is pull it off. You can pull it off. If you're really thinking about remodeling a room. We're not talking about structural stuff. We're talking about stuff. There are applicats, essentially, they can be removed and you can change the whole vibe of the space. Okay, along those lines of aspirational decor style elements, Okay that the house just can't justify. I have a certain in law who asked me years and years ago, who's always

wanted to live in a castle, big manor house. This is my mother in law, and I love her to pieces. She asked me years ago, Dean, we want to do a major remodel on the house. You're going to be the one to do it. Can you transform my house into a castle? And my answer was very simple, Yes I can, and I will not, because number one, you live in a what is essentially in nineteen early nineteen seventies ranch style Brady Bunch house. That house is not

easily turning into a castle. Number Two, you are surrounded in a lovely neighborhood of the same houses. Your neighbors will hate you. They will hate you if we do such a thing. And number three, castles do not sit twenty feet away from sidewalks in suburban neighborhoods. They do not. And so what we did instead was we made this a gorgeous, upscale English cottage. And she ended up being very very happy with the results, but not a castle.

I wish I was around to give that advice to so many other homeowners in our town and all across southern California, because you know, you can call it gaudy, you can call it misplaced. I call it aspirational decor. And it never works, and so nothing says I'm desperately insecure about my house and really wanna be something else, like a small house with pedestals and lions out in front of it. Yes, I live right around the corner

from one. Uh little ranch house and big steps out front at the mailbox and lions like like it was the New York Metropolitan Library that where like like it was you know, the A Rockefeller Residence in in uh, you know, in in Providence, Rhode Island. Right, Uh, just no, no, just no, all right.

And if you live in a small home and people's jaws drop, it's probably because something wrong has happened and you've tried to superimpose onto it something that doesn't belong there.

the door. Along the spirit of what I was just saying of aspirational design, the idea of like, you know, really trying to put elements onto your house that just don't belong on a house like yours, you know, kind of showing your inner want to be somewhere else attitude kind of leaking through. And I get that, I get that. I just want you to resist that temptation and I want you to make the most of the house that

you have. Okay, along those lines have got to be we can't avoid mentioning the out of character or off character front door. Okay, the front door, the entry portal, and this one is this is a toughie because you may have a very expensive, really lovely front door that has been there as a part of the house when you bought it. Right, maybe it's solid oak, echine, three quarters solid oak front door with sidelights, and there's fancy glass, and there's all sorts of stuff. And this happens all

the time. People they realize what's time for a new front door, and they head out to the to the door place near them. There's all these big, fancy, gorgeous doors, door catalogs, and what they lose sight of is is what exactly matches up with their home. Okay, does this door even work? Do you need a wood stained door on the front of your home or is it best for your heart for your door to be painted paint gray door, maybe even a cool, really cool standout color.

This kind of stuff. So just to just to make sure I hit that on the list. Okay. One of the things that is an issue that a lot of people have inherited are weird front doors that just don't match up with the design and flow of the house. I've seen it so many times that we've got a kind of a contemporary home and it's got a door that looks colonial, just downright colonial. On the front teens nodding like, oh, how many times have we seen that?

So it's something to think about, it's something to consider, it's something to evaluate. And again, you know what, you might be in the enviable position where you agree and you're like, yeah, we should change out that front door. And guess what, the right door for your house way less expensive than the one that's there now. Okay, quite quite possible, very very possible, if it's overconstrued along the way. All right, what else do I have on the list here?

Blocked off windows meaning that there was a window there, and you know, maybe maybe if the room was done right and you don't need that window any longer. Fine, but here's my point. If I can tell from the inside or from the outside that there used to be a window there because the wall's a little bumpy, or we can see the patch, then yeah, that's a no go. That's a no go. Then we need to get it fixed. Okay, we need to get it fixed and do it right

or put the window back quite often the case. Right, So don't accept that, don't accept that kind of finish for your That's literally an issue of somebody rushing through a thing, changing it out and not taking the time to get it right. And here's the last thing. I'll leave you with this because it's a kind of the

culmination of this one thought. I have a very very simple rule when it comes to remodeling, when it comes to room editions, when it comes to any alteration on your home, it is the rule to judge them all by And it's very simply when you're done, when it's all said and done. If somebody like myself who has never been to your home before, can walk through your home and see that something has been done, then it has fallen below the bar. That's a fail. It's a fail,

all right. That includes the stuff that at the very beginning of our list of this series, things like the room edition that just seems like it's in the wrong place. And people are going to be polite, I mean, hopefully people are going to be polite. But if anybody's ever walked in your home and said, oh, you know, that's an that's a I see you've added onto the house. How how how can they see that that you've added onto the house unless what has been added on doesn't

exactly fit with the rest of the house. So our rule for remodeling and room editions and all of that kind of stuff. Any structural and or artifice changed to the house. Is that when it's said and done, somebody who's never been there before should arrive at the house and never give a second thought to the fact that this is how it was built on day one. This is just, of course, it's right. Everything is integrated, everything belongs, everything has the right roof over it, Every wall is

where it should be. That's our goal. That is proof of the right kind of remodel. And if your home has inherited some elements that has fallen short, then now you know where to focus to get your daily experience of your home. And you know all of this advice. This is not so that you know you can show off your house better to other people. This is so that the home that you live in is a full experience for you. That's what I'm about every single week that we are here. All right, here is my final

thought for you today. It's simply simply this. It's just a reminder number one that it's a gorgeous day and that you need to get out into it and make some hay while the sun is shining. As it were, but also one final reminder, because it's important that right here next weekend, we are going to be doing our annual legendary live audience holiday home show right here at

the iHeart Studios in Burbank, and you are invited. How all you have to do is go to our Instagram and our Facebook page home will deem bind the holiday post and just comment, hey, I would love to enter to win a seat, and you're entered to win the seat, and then keep checking, Keep checking today, tomorrow and the

next day. Keep checking your messages because we're going to direct message you on Facebook and Instagram to let you know if you wont And those of you who have entered previously, you got to check your messages because we've got a few of you out there who've won seats and who have not confirmed it, and we're going to give those seats to somebody else. If you don't get back to us, Today is the last day to enter.

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