KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp, The House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app KFI AM six forty and live streaming in HD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Welcome to home, where Every week we help you better understand that place where you live. Good morning to you. I am Dean Sharp, the House Whisper, custom home Builder, custom home designer, and most importantly, today, your guide to transforming your ordinary house into an extraordinary home.
It is a beautiful, blustery, maybe well coolish, but I think it's going to be a slightly warm autumn southern California morning here, Saturday morning, October nineteenth, twenty twenty four. Can you believe it? Can you believe October is more than halfway done? I can't. I don't want that to be true, but it is because we face the facts around here, right, We're not making up our own realities. Just got to face it. But I'm just saying, just
put my vote in. I could stretch October out a good deal further because we're rolling into the holidays and this is my favorite time of year, and I would gladly do a two for one every single day of autumn. Nonetheless, we are here, and I hope you are enjoying the loveliness of this morning. Certainly, pour yourself a warm comfort beverage, and settle in. If you're driving, stay awake, and if not,
settle in and enjoy our time together. Here. We're going to be talking about some news and some views, and taking calls and more calls. That's the agenda for today. I've just got a mishmash of things that i want to discuss with you tomorrow's show, by the way, we're going to be talking about the marvels of the connected home, the monitored home. That is where we'll take the entire show tomorrow. But today we're gonna be all over the place,
most importantly with your calls. By the way, Producer Richie's standing by the phone. Lines are open. He is ready to pop you into the queue. Anything you want to talk about your home? Eight three three to ask Dean eight three three the numeral to ask dean eight three three to ask Dean. It's just that easy. We will go to the phones as soon as the lines start to pop. It on here and if we do this all right, we're gonna bring some light into your morning,
make you feel glad that you were here. The team is here. Sam is on the board. Good morning, Dean, Good morning. Here's Sam taking care of our live studio audience. They are a dependable bunch, those guys. They're so reliable they are. And you know what also nice about our studio audience. The volume control just just be able to like, hey, everybody, get louder, now get quieter, all right, thanks a lot,
total control of our live air quotes. Studio audience producer Richie I said, standing by nowhere near Mike, but he's out. Oh look at that calls flooding in already, So Richie is busy handling all of that. Heather Brooker in the KFI twenty four hour news room with her hands firmly on the wheel. Good morning, Anther, Good morning. How you doing, Bud.
I'm so good. I'm so glad to be here with you.
Are you really?
I am?
I mean, I know, you know, I mean we're friends and it's nice for you to be here. But it's in the morning A sad.
Well, okay, now that you put it that way, I do miss my bed, but I will say I enjoy your show so much. I find it a very like calming and like beautiful way to kind of start the weekend.
So yeah, I'm need to be here.
There are worse ways, like we could start with like murder shows and like crimes.
There are which, by the way, is something Tina would really be in favor of. Oh yeah yeah, and like like the yea through crime Tina is, she'd be like you know, she would She's She's often asked me, is there any way that we can incorporate true crime more murdered? A lot of murders take place in homes, That's true, a lot of them do.
Maybe Robin will come up with a crossover between Home and like Unsolved. There's got to be some kind of crossover episodes there.
Here's what I would love. Here's what I would love, you know what, And I would I would put in an extra two hours of work on on a Saturday or a Sunday if Tina actually hosted a true crime show and I got to be like the sidekick, I'd just been sitting over there occasionally not come in all as she does. What what? Well?
You well, good morning, good morning. Yeah.
I don't know if you noticed, but you weren't here last week very much at all.
Yeah, but it was also my birthday.
Yeah, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, Okay, sitting across the table from me. By the way, my better half, my design partner, my best friend in all the world. You know her is True Crime Tina. I know her as just the boss. Uh Tina, good morning. Wouldn't that be cool? Though? Would you do that? Would you host a Kafi show on True Crome? Not to take anything away from Steve Gregory clearly, who's who's a real journalist. Who's a real journalist, goes.
Into your house and then he's like, oh my gosh, this is terrible. I was like, look at the lighting. He's like, forget it. I'm going to a different house.
He's a serial killer who also does remodeling. I think we're.
Onto something, guys. I'm not gonna lie. This feels good.
We're I think it's on a good sitcom.
I'm just saying.
Home improvement, okay, and I'm going to work on this. I'm gonna come up with a title for this by the time we come back.
Maybe people can like weigh in on what would this crew time?
Yeah, if you're already planning on calling in. Feel free to call in and give me a title for our new show, Sam call it. It should be a sitcom. I think our new show based on the idea of a serial killer who also remodels homes and does it, I mean, does it really well, really well. I'll tell you one thing about it serious, you know what, I'm just wasting so much.
Time, he kills me.
One thing about a serial killer. A lot of them are very clean, you know, and people would appreciate that. They would appreciate stir Yeah. Yeah, you'd appreciate coming home to an instruction site and that's like, oh my goodness, did anything happen here today? And the guy's like, nope, nothing.
You're like, wait a minute, where's the bath?
Absolutely nothing happened here today? Makescept construction, nothing else, I promise.
Why is there that new concrete?
Don't get out the blue light? All right, all right, y'all, we're clearly very tired and losing our minds, and we will be back to discuss some very interesting news on the home building front when we return Your Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper am I Dean Sharp, the House Whisper at your service. Hey, thanks for joining us on the program this morning. We've got so many things to talk about, including the new show that our morning
crew here has in development. We're working on a new show in which we combine a great home design with murder, and uh, we're just we're trying to figure it out. I got to tell you guys this. Okay. First of all, I only came up with one name during the break because you know, it's early, but I thought it would be cool. You know, he's a fantastic decorator by day and a serial killer by night. Welcome to felony or fabulous? What do you think? No, No, that's a pass. That's
a hard pass. That's not gonna work. Okay, all right, crying baby, be quiet.
That feels like it could be a reality competition show.
It would be, it would be all right. So all right, So I regret having a little bit having having even brought this subject up, because I went and I searched and guess what there is on Oh my god, there is there is one.
How is that even possible?
All Right? Tina and I do not watch you know, any any reality or or home improvement television, but here it is murder House Flip it's a show that's been running since it's still running apparently since.
Funny enough, what I watched a true crime episode where the people were going to be on that show.
Oh well, okay, well it's still it's a thing. It's a thing since twenty twenty. It's they're in their fourth season Murder House flip.
I think it's about houses that they potentially had.
They find houses that have had murders in them, and then they decide to renovate them. Well, big deal. But they also talk about the history of the thing, and some people like the idea of living in a murder house. I guess, or I don't know. Anyway, you know what, now we get into ghosts. Let me tell you what's unfortunate about the world we live in. If you've if you've thought about it, someone's already doing it, whether you should or not. Okay, even if you were just joking.
All right, anyway, Hey, we're going to be going the phones when we return from break and let me give you the number again, eight three to three two. Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two, ask Dean. So
just no, we've got room. We've got some calls on the board, but we've got room for you, and I select calls randomly, so you've got as good a chance if you called in right now then if you called in an hour ago, which you know, actually a better chance because the phone lines weren't open an hour ago.
Uh.
Let me give you some news here, a little tidbit of news our homes getting smaller. This was a report out of let me pull up my notes here. Bump, but a bump, bump bum. This was in US News and World Report, an article talking about there is a shift toward smaller homes.
Uh.
And they're almost apologetic about it. They're like, well, you know, there is a shift happening towards smaller homes. But with the right strategy, don't worry. You can still make a big impression. Smaller homes are great, by the way, they're great. And let's just talk about how out of control this has gotten in recent years. When they say small. Okay, During the second quarter of twenty twenty four, single family home under construction in the United States had an average
square footage of twenty three hundred square feet. That's a roomy house. That's a roomy house. Okay. And then now now we're talking that, by the way, is down from twenty four hundred and fifty five square feet during the second quarter of twenty twenty three and twenty five hundred and thirty five square feet the second quarter of twenty twenty two. I mean, okay, we're down a couple hundred square feet off of twenty five hundred square feet. That's big.
If you have ever questioned whether or not a small home is the way to go, let me just stay or this. From a design perspective for you, the advantages of small home are numerous if you are ready to step into one. Number One, they don't cost as much period number because you know, housing prices are still countt largely on square footage prices. Number two, a small home is easier to maintain because there's less of it. A small home costs less to heat, cost less to cool,
and so on. Number Three. From the pure home design perspective, a small home means smaller square footages. Smaller square footages mean that you could afford to buy the better material, the stuff that costs a little bit more per square foot, and plug it into your home and have a much more gorgeous home. Why because you're not using as much
of it. Right, If you've got to cover you know, a flooring, for instance, in a three thousand square foot house, all right, you're gonna have to be pretty conscientious about the price per square foot of the material that you're laying down. But if you've got fifteen hundred square feet half of that, then you can afford to go a little bit more esiar on your materials and live in
a smaller but higher quality residence when you're done. So, I don't think it's bad news at all whatsoever that home sizes are reducing, especially since we're talking about a two hundred square foot reduction and we're already in the mid two thousands of square footage for the average that's the average home being built right now, new homes being built in the US, all right, So much more to come your calls when we return your Home with Dean
Sharp the House Whisper. You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty am, I AM forty live dreaming in ad everywhere on the Iheartrate. You app just like the man said, you are Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. It is time to go to the phones. Let's talk to Henderson. Henderson, welcome home. Oh day, I know, Henderson. Take me off speaker phone, get close and personal. Guy. It sounds like you're in
a giant box. I'm actually on my computer. Uh oh, Okay, we'll do our best, okay, and adorn a new construction.
Are there points in which I should get an independent inspector?
Okay, I'm gonna pop you on hold Henderson because the feedback and the it's just a weird sound. But I did hear your question. Henderson wants to know he's doing a new construction. Is there are there points in which he should get an independent inspector? That is a question I get asked all the time because people are just really unsure about making sure that the quality of the
construction is appropriate. So here is the thing. There are points, especially in southern California and in other jurisdictions, in which an independent inspection of sorts is required. And what I mean by that there are things like, for instance, if you pour concrete now in Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles or Los Angeles County, a deputy inspector has to be hired by the concrete company to be there, or the contractor to be there present during the placement of
the concrete to verify that. And this is structural concrete, not driveways or anything like that, but structural concrete concrete that matters most. They have to be there and sign off on it. There are inspectors that you can be hired to walk through and examine phases of a job, so I don't have a blanket opinion about it. I would say this, The most important thing you can do is number one, to make sure that the job is
being done legally with permits. And that means that the city inspector is going to be there making sure in every phase of the project that things are up to spec As far as quality of workmanship is concerned, beyond just the basics, youve got to trust your contractor. Don't hire a contractor that you don't trust to have a higher standard than the building department. I currently have a
side gig right now for one particular client. I am assisting a particular client in Beverly Hills as kind of an independent reviewer of their project because outside of their control, their parents hired a contractor who is terrible, just terrible. I'm trying to come up with the right word, terrible contractor the kind of contractor who that they thought they
were saving money with. And I don't know why they haven't fired him, honestly, but they're still with him, and he has cost them more money than then they could possibly imagine having saved by going with so. So, yeah, there is a time. There is a time if you lose faith or have hired the wrong contractor, no question, there is a time to have an independent set of eyeballs come in, knowledgeable, professional expert eyes to make sure that things are going right, to basically catch the things
that are slipping through the cracks. But generally speaking, generally speaking, the combination of the building department and an ethical, well vetted, good quality general contractor eliminates the need for that kind of thing because things should be done right. And again, this is not an area where you want to pinch every penny when you're finding your contractor. I know they're expensive, the good ones are more expensive than the bad ones,
but there's a reason for that. You find somebody who's passionate about what they do, who believes in what they do, and who does it well and holds themselves to the highest standard possible. So you don't have to hold them to another standard as well. And that's the best advice I've got for you, Henderson. Thanks for the call, buddy. We will go back to the phones. Gee sharp, the house whisper, welcome home. Thanks for joining us on the program.
You know what, it's almost seven o'clock. We're almost done with the first hour of our fine little program here. We are taking calls right now, and I've also got some news and some tidbits and some interesting stuff to talk to you about. Let's go ahead and take another call, and then we'll move into some of the other material and then we'll go back to calls in a little bit. The number to reach me, by the way, eight three
three two. Ask Dean A three three the numeral two ask Dean eight three three to ask Dean anything you want to talk about regarding your home. Our phone lines are open. Producer Richie's standing by. He'll tell you everything you need to know. Poppy into the queue and then you and I we can put our heads together. We'll figure out what's going on with your home design, construction, DIY, anything at all? A three three two ask Dean. All right,
let's talk to uh. Let's talk to Noreen. Noreen, welcome home.
Oh good morning, Dean, my favorite person on KFI. I'd love your show.
Thank you so much.
I have a question. We have a live in a house probably brought in here, moved in here in the nineteen fifties, and then that part of the house is the old part of the house that the peers under the house are concrete, and they're kind of deteriorating. And I know it because when somebody walks behind me, when I'm sitting in a rocking chair, I can feel the floor bounce. So I called out. Two companies came out, and the one they give me the estimates online on
my computer. One of them says that the peers he wants to put in is going to be made of composite with jack something another I don't know what that means, but I guess it's a still bar that's on like a like a car jack. I guess where they can level the floor up. And he wants to use composite instead of concrete. And the other man wants to bring in concrete and poor peers underneath with buckets of concrete,
and he's even more expensive. I think the one that wants to do the composite that wants sixty sixteen thousand, five hundred dollars, and the other one that's going to use concrete peers. He didn't tell me how many he's going to put in, but he wants about twenty thousand dollars, and I think he wants to put his about four feet apart. Two do they need to be that close together? Do you think? And do I need to use concrete or should should I go with some one that is
going to put thirty peers under six hundred square feet? No, nine hundred square feet of house? A new edition doesn't need peers, right right?
All right? Well, excellent question, and one that opens up a whole category of conversation about how we go about figuring out how to fix or improve or upgrade, especially an older house like your house. So here is the thing.
I don't know for sure whether each of the guys who came out, each of these contractors have their own engineers that work for them, But it almost doesn't matter to me because since they have engineers that work for them, if they do, then they're going to be biased toward their system and toward the quantities that they're suggesting, so they have a vested interest in supporting what the contractor
is going to do. Secondly, a lot of shockingly, a lot of foundation contractors who reading the fine print, they're not guaranteeing that this is all the fix because this is their opinion about what has to go underneath your house to fix it, to restore it, and so on. What I think you should do in cases like this is it's interesting because you know, I answered a previous caller about independent inspector. This is not because you have
a contractor. You don't have one right now. But what I think you should do is you should actually have a conversation with a structural engineer, okay, an independent structural engineer or a foundation company that uses an independent structural engineer. So the point is this, you want an unbiased opinion from an actual structural engineer about number one, the condition of your existing peers, and number two, what also needs
to be done to shore up the house. I can't tell you how far apart new peers need to go. In fact, I can't even tell you that you need new peers. Okay, because quite often what happens over decades and decades is settlement of the soil and the peers, and the reason why a floor may be sagging or maybe a peer appears to be quote unquote failing, has everything to do with the fact that the wood post on top of the pier is now not long enough because the peer has settled into the soil some or
maybe the wood post has deteriorated some. Maybe you have enough peers, but they just need to be recut for their posts in order to jack the floor up and hold it stable. Or maybe there's a need for more. How many that's something truly that a structural engineer would be the best person to tell you. You could call them out. You're going to pay them a few hundred dollars to
give you an independent consult. They'll crawl under the house, they'll take a look around, they'll examine the needs, and they'll be able to give you a full perspective of what is necessary. And then based on that report, based on that structural engineering report, then you take bids from these concrete guide or from the foundation people, so that they're bidding apples and apples. Honestly, Nourene, I'll tell you it. It's a toolbox. Concrete peers are great composite or steal
a screwjack peers. They're great, they just have to be for the right situation, in the right condition. And so it's not like, oh, one's better than other and other. You know, it's all a tool bag and we reach in and we pull out the ones that fit your situation best. How do we know at this point we need to get the real professional, unvested opinion in there, and that would be a structural engineer. You're paying a structural engineer just to look at your house and give
you a suggestion. Therefore, they're not going to be leaning towards you know, they're going to get paid no matter what, whether they say everything is fine and you just need a few little things or whether you need sixty peers, they're going to give you their unbiased opinion because they've got no skin in the game as to what you do next. So that is the best course of action for you and then proceed from there because it all works, But is it too much? Is it too little? Independent
opinion at this point would be the key. Dorian, thank you for your call and for your question, So appreciated. This is why we take calls because they open up these subjects for everybody, and good luck with the proceeding with that, all right, more when we return you are Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on KFI. You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty