Vintage, Antique, Retro, Nostalgia | Hour 3

favorite podcasts are found. And if you're thinking, hey, that's all great, but what we really need is Dean and Tina in our house, well you know what you can do that too. You can book an in home design consult with me and Tea. Just go to house Whisperer dot design. All right, it's top of the hour. We're going to come back to more insights into antique and vintage and retro. But right now I want to go back to the phones and I want to talk to Tim. Hey, Tim, welcome home.

inspect every exterior wall stud bay. Take a look at the condition of the paper that is backing the stucco, the back of the stuck stuck the backing on the stucco and uh and uh you know, get yourself, I mean literally, you can get down and dirty with this. You can. You can get yourself a big five gallon bucket of like red Guard waterproofing membrane. It is. You can find it at the big box store. They're they're they're available everywhere nowadays. Red Guard. It's not cheap, but

it's a wonderful brush on waterproofing membrane. Uh. And what you could do is you can backbrush the backside of all of that paper, fix any cracks. Uh. And it will also go up against the studs and help seal things so that every stud bay would essentially be sealed unto itself before you reinsulate those walls. And that would

do an amazing job. Another option, and this is a little bit trickier, and you're going to hire a company to do this, would be to arrow seal and I say arrow e a E R O errow seal the house while it's in this state of stripped studs. And what happens there is this company will come in. They will basically uh uh seal up all the windows and doors. They will set up a pressurized fan membrane on one of the door exterior door openings, doors or windows, and

they will pump the house full of pressure. They'll pressurize the air inside the house, and they will have these basically kind of like fine calking compound emitters, silicone emitters in every single room, all spraying and making this very fine mist. And what happens is it's kind of like I equate it to like you know those cans that you use to blow up a tire right that has gone flat on the freeway. It's a foam. It goes inside the tire and because of the pressure, the foam

finds the holes and it seals the hole. It's not a permanent thing for a tire, but it's the same concept. So once they pump the house full of air pressure, that air wants to leak out. It wants to leak out every hole, every crack, every little thing everywhere. And if you simultaneously fill a room with this uh calking compound mist, guess what happens. It drives that compound into all of those cracks, they build up and you can air seal, a rodent seal, bug seal the entire house

and talk about energy efficiency. That's a great way to go.

is sealed up. And I applaud you for wanting to do that at this stage, because you know what, once you've stripped down the whole house and you've got all of these stud walls bear, now is the time to do something exactly like that.

resisting heat rising up through the house or anything. But what the foil does is it knocks out a huge chunk of infrared which which brings additional unnecessary heat to the attict. So yeah, it is a it is a proven, uh proven effective building material that that we use every time.

all of that stuff. But once you've got moisture trapped inside this box that is completely sealed up, the moisture has zero places to go, and you raise the temperature inside that box, you're literally creating a situation where mold and mildew, you know, want to grow because it's got enough air to do it. And then some people come back months later and open it up and find, oh my gosh, what did we do. So it can totally be done. Totally totally be done. It's not an issue

of the refrigerator motor at all. Just unplugging and not using a fridge that's not a problem. But you just got to make sure that it's cleaned up on the inside. And some people, by the way, if it's unused, some people will prefer to clean it and then just slightly prop opened the door so that airflow continues in there and it's not completely sealed up. So as long as it's clean and dry, no problem unplugging a fridge for an extended period of time.

the sink. Okay, that's the valve that transitions from the water in the pipes to the hose that leads up to the faucet. Angle stops are notorious for wearing out just as they sit in place, because let's face it, if you know, in an ideal situation, we turn that valve on and you know, maybe twenty thirty years later we go back to do we decide to change the sink out. That's the first time in thirty years that

this valve has been operated. So what is most likely the case is that the valve is frozen, or even though the valve the top a knob is spinning, it's not actually closing the valve down, or I should say opening the valve up in your case, because you're going to it was closed a long time ago and now it's just spinning and it's not opening. But I guarantee

you there's water back there. So what you've got is a situation where totally you can completely get rid of that wet bar if you want, but if you want to reactivate it, you have to shut the maine down for the house and actually replace the angle stops so that it lets the water through.

Why does she laugh at me? I know I'm a nerd anyway, I'm just introducing you to this stuff today and giving you some tips and hopefully some perspective as to what you can do if you are one who leans towards loving antique, vintage in all storms of nostalgic design. So a few more tips for you here, pearls of wisdom. One of the things that you should decide right up front when you are working on a house and you're thinking, okay, what's the effect that we're going to get here. Oddly enough,

not a lot of people think this through. Decide whether you want to create a hundred year old house or a new house with one hundred year old design sensibility. Wait, isn't that the same thing? No, I'm going to say that again. Decide whether what you want to create in the end is the look of a of a hundred year old house, meaning someone looks at it and says, WHOA, this is old, or a brand new house that just happens to look like it was built, you know, one

hundred year old design? Does that make sense? Am I making any sense? What's so? The point is this, You got a lot of antiques out there, a lot of vintage stuff that's distressed. That's like weathered barnwood. There's a perfect example. Weathered barnwood is a very vintage look. Right, So if you're going for that vibe, then somebody walks in and it's like, woh, that thing looks like it's a one hundred years old. That's not the case though, if you are trying to do a hundred year old

design motif that looks like it was just built yesterday. Right, So you understand what I'm saying, so when that barn was built, wherever that weathered barn would come from, when that barn was built one hundred and fifty years ago, it looked brand spanking new, but it is clearly one hundred and fifty year old design and craftsmanship gone into

the barn. So what you've got to decide is whether you want the barn looking brand new circa one hundred and fifty years ago, or whether you want the effect to be this thing's been sitting here for one hundred and fifty years, and you see how weather it is. It's got that patina. A brand new nineteen twenties built has is a house with no patina, Okay, a house who's point and focus is to really give you that Hey, look you're in a one hundred year old room. That's

a room with patina, That's what I'm saying. So that's one of the most foundational decisions you make from a design perspective before you start acquiring vintage and antique pieces for decor, because they need to lean one way or the other. Are they fully restored so they look brand spank and new, or do they look their age? Okay? There you go. Another thing that you're always trying to do if you're striking for that to vintage or antique feel.

And this is regardless of whether you're looking aged or not. In the home is to conceal as much twenty first century technology as possible. Nothing ruins the effect of a vintage room like a big old flat screen TV. Right, But I want you to have your TV in your

vintage living room or family room. I just want you to find a creative way of having it there, so you go out and get yourself like a Samsung frame that is a TV that's specifically designed to look like a painting as it hangs there and not being used. Or we find a way to hide the TV in a cabinet behind bifold doors, whatever the case may be, so that when it's not movie night and TV night, the room really holds up and holds to its vibe.

So hiding twenty first century technology is a challenge, but a great discipline of craft when it comes to creating a new old look. There you go. Craftsmanship in general. Craftsmanship in general is the truest vintage element that we strive for when we're leaning towards vintage and antique. I mean let's face it, the old phrase. You know, they don't make them like they used to. I just try and imagine a world. I mean, I know, find join craftsman today. They are few and far between.

on you. But I think craftsmanship in general is the thing that we missed the most from a bygone era. It's almost as if we really enjoy the comedy of John Mulaney. He has a bit where he's like, oh, you wake up. It's like nineteen ten. You wake up, and you're like, oh, it's the olden times, and what are we gonna do to there's literally nothing to do. There's nothing to do today, and so it's as if

you have nothing better to do. Than to wake up in nineteen ten and do everything slowly with incredible care. That is the byproduct of living in olden times. And I think that just sort of holds true. I'm sure that wasn't the case. I'm sure they had plenty of things to do, but it certainly was a time when you know, we were up in Solving this week. There is a clock store in Solving. I call it a

clock store. I think it's Renaissance antiques. If you get a chance to get to Renaissance antiques, you will be blown away if you are a lover of clocks and music boxes and antiques in general. They have an exquisite collection. But you know, it's the kind of stuff I'm staring at a grandfather clock and thinking how long did the clockmaker take to make this piece? And the answer is usually months and or years, and that is just kind

of an unheard of thing these days. Right. So, ultimately, craftsmanship, the truest vintage element that we're actually going for, that puts us right there in that place. And that means that when you are handling these things, when you are and I don't mean physically handling, I mean your incorporation of these elements into your home. Do them with care, not slipshod, not just you know, just sort of you know,

half cocked as you go. Do it with care. Do it with care, take time, and do the details right, and you will be infinitely rewarded. In the process of acquiring vintage, retro and antique things, take the care and when it comes to fitting it well in your house,

research research, research, research, research. You need to become a student of not only so you can identify antiques and vintage stuff when they come along, but so you understand the original intent of what these things were and you can incorporate them well and not abuse them as they become a part of your home.

You did it you reminded me up on social media right now, we just did a quick video raising the subject of an antique piece. Do you preserve it and don't touch it or can you do stuff to it and incorporate it into your home and honor it? Does it honor it or destroy it? So you got to look at the video and you have to make up your own mind. We just use an example from our little guesthouse bathroom there and you can figure it out. That's on all of our soot, well not all of it.

It's on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. There you go home with Dean. While you're there, why don't you just say howdy and maybe also like and follow us or refer us to somebody else share share the love, all right, I'm not begging. I'm just saying, Okay, last thoughts now on vintage and antique for the day, doing that kind of authentic work.

I touched on it right before the break. I just want to underscore this when it comes to doing this, you know what, if you have a passion for it, then you've just got to dive in and research, research, research, research. It all comes down to research and educating yourself along the way, and believe me, that is a constant process for me. Constant, all right, And I know a lot,

but I am constant. If there's one thing that absolutely everybody could say that is true of Dean is that he is just a consummate student when it comes to these kinds of things. I don't like calling myself a master of anything, but I will proudly tell you that I am a student of a lot of things because I love learning and if you're going to pull off some things, you really really got to understand them from

down below. I remember back in the very I mean, this has been the way it's been for my whole career. In the early nineties, I got the first large research project that I was ever handled at handed as a designer. I was personally in charge as the design director of a build. We were building a twelve thousand square foot eighteenth century Tuscan villa in Brentwood Park. And long before we broke ground, I was a regular fixture at Hennessy

and Ingles. And if you don't know what Hennessy and Ingles is, it is a it's in the arts district downtown. It is I still believe the largest art architecture and design bookstore in the Western United States, and I was like there, it was literally kind of like a hey, dean, you just headed back to your table in the back

yal see. That's how Haffen. I was in there, pouring over every detail, every book I could find, every detail of eighteenth century Tuscan villa architecture, from cornice to columns, hinges, door profiles, you name it. So all of that to say that you know authentic construction or restor and the integration of antiques and vintage items into all of that. It's a tricky thing, right, and when you pull it off, man,

it's masterful. But you can also just toss something in a room without much care and you end up looking like a thrift store just with a bunch of dusty old antiques lying around. I don't want that for your home, right, We're not after that. We're after you know, showstoppers that really really add to the character and the story of

your home. Not even many architects go there. By the way, when it comes to authentic construction and restoration, I think the folks who probably do it the very best, and I actually learned this from them, Hollywood set decorators and

production designers. They are the ones that have to go in because you know, audiences nowadays so sophisticated that you know, if you accidentally put a nineteen thirty model telephone in a house that's supposed to benineteen twenty seven house these days, you're gonna get emails, you'd be like, oh, buddy, I just happened to be a telephone officionado. And you know that's the thing. So I like doing my best to research things to the inth degree so that we can

do things as accurately as possible. But at the same time, I want to integrate. So I would be the guy to take the right phone for the right era. But maybe maybe if it's your thing, paint it blue instead of, you know, to incorporate it onto a blue wall and the blue phone if that's the art piece that we're going for. So you know, it all depends on that sense of artistic flexibility. Are we trying to just create a museum piece or are we really integrating it to

a news story? And there you go, and that's at the heart of what we're talking about today. All right, are you ready for this? Teeny teen is going to videotape this because we've been putting these up online and that's always kind of a fun thing. So here is my closing thought for you today. Definitely not a masterpiece of master craftsmanship, just a thought, and it's just the

thought I had sitting around the fire this morning. I'm wearing my hoodie that I wore at the holiday show with the shoulders that can display a velcrow patch on each shoulder. You see that there's a little veltrope. I don't know if it's cool or stupid, honestly, but I'm having fun with it. And now I have this growing collection of patches to choose from depending on where my head and hard are at on any given day. Today we've been talking vintage, which always makes me look forward

and backward at the same time. So today's patches are, let's see here, my favorite childhood memory is my back not hurting. That's a good one. And then on the other shoulder, it says be rave enough to suck at something new, which I think are two great bookends to what we're talking about today, looking back and looking forward, like it or not, if you're more than twenty years old, you've actually started down the road of becoming vintage. You might only be twenty eight and feeling in the prime

of your youth. But to it, like I said earlier in the show, to a thirteen year old, you're already old and you are headed toward ancient quickly. That's upsetting to me. Oh, our Andrew Caravella, don't worry, buddy, You and I we're both vintage, by the way, I suck at my back, not hurting. Just for the record, There you go. There it is. So there's no turning back the clock. But that's okay. It's not the worst thing to be vintage.

dignity about it. And if we allow time to pry some of the vanity out of our hands, then instead of always obsessing with outward youth, there's more room for the far more important task of becoming inwardly young again. So here are my tips. Don't fear growing old, only fear growing unteachable. Don't fear not being at the center of things, only fear not finding your own center. Don't fear growing old, only fear growing unadventurous. Don't fear inflexible joints,

only fear an inflexible mind. Don't fear growing old, only fear growing sour. Don't fear the presence of gray, only fear the absence of wonder. Don't fear growing old, only fear wasting time. Some people have always been old. I think by that standard, others will never be old. That's who I want to be. That's my hope for you. Today. It's the only day we've got. It's the only today we have. Let's not waste it. And by the time it's done, we'll all be a little older, or maybe

a little younger. It's all up to us live in the past or build ourselves a beautiful life. Well, you all have a great Sunday afternoon, and we will see you right back here next week. 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 iHeart radio Apphi