Where To Get The Most Space for the Least $ - Garages | Hour 1

days or so before it's actually spring. But spring is in the air, there's no doubt about that, and that means that remodeling season is upon us. I thought I would start out that official season with a discussion with you. There's so many things we talk about during the spring regarding your home, everything from pest control because those critters are up and at them again, to gardening and the like.

But I thought this weekend we would start with a little bit unorthodox, uncommon conversation about those of us who are wanting more space, needing a little bit more elbow room, a little bit more room for living in our homes, but just don't have a full remodeling budget or room edition budget to do it. You know, inflation is still out there and it hasn't left. Funds are tight for a lot of people, but so is the house, and so where can we go? What can we do well?

I'm going to have a conversation with you today and tomorrow about two very distinct areas where if we get creative enough, we can find some elbow room in the house. Tomorrow, we're going to be talking about outdoor spaces. Yep, going outside. That's the thing. If you can live more of your life outdoors comfortably, comfortable chairs, comfortable seating, enough shade to stay cool enough, you know, fire or warmth to stay warm, then you really can transform the spacious ness of your home.

That is tomorrow's show because there's a lot of detail to go into there. But today today we're staying inside, kind kind of inside, because we're going into the garage. Yes, the garage as a flex space for your home. It is a oft neglected opportunity because you know what, it's already got walls and a roof and a slab. It just needs some help. Oh, I know your garage needs some help. I've seen your garage. Oh, yes, I have

in my dreams, in my nightmares. Actually I've seen your So let's talk about getting your garage converted into a space that will accommodate some of that extra living that you want to do. I'm not talking about ADUs. I'm not talking about converting it into a bathroom, kitchen, living studio space. Those are other shows for other purposes, and

those are, you know, costlier, that's like a full on thing. No, I'm talking about creating, with a minimal amount of money, a space that you can spend some of your life in willingly and enjoyably. So we're going to do it. Of course, we're also going to be taking your calls. And right now, the legendary Michelle Cube producing the show for us today. Richie is taking the weekend off, Michelle is with us. I am so proud and so happy every time we get to work with Michelle and she

is standing by ready to take your calls. And of course when we take calls, anything is fair game. I'm talking about garages today. You can call me about anything regarding your home, inside, outside, landscape, design, construction, DIY, whatever's got you scratching your head about your house. The number to reach me eight three three two ask Dean eight three three the numeral two ask Dean eight three three to ask Dean. Those phone lines are open now and

Michelle is standing by. Let me introduce you to the rest of our awesome team. Sam is on the board wrestling R not So live studio audience. Good morning Sam, Good morning Dean. I was just marveling at the fact that you have your own phone number and I want one. Come on like eight six six two four Sam something there you go. You know what, Hey, it was not getting an eight hundred number these days not an easy

task to do, you know what. Eight and a half years ago when we started the show, Oscar and I searched for weeks to come up with the right combination of letters and numbers that made sense. So in ours, by the way, is one digit too long? Just FYI? Uh so you don't have to actually dial the end in eight three three to ask Dean. If you count it out, you're like, wait, that's that's too long of a number. Yeah. We just added the n on the

end because it makes sense. Otherwise you'd be dialing a three three to ask Dea, and that is a completely different show. Sam it's a totally way different, so so just dial the in and have fun anyway, Sam, always great to work with you, Bud I Lean Gonzales at the news desk, Good morning, I Leen, Good morning, Sunshine. How's it going. I'm doing pretty good. You're very cheaper today, am I? Yeah? All right, Well it's a good thing. This coffee is good and about two thirds of this

cup is in me already, so maybe that's key. I need some of that. Yeah, sitting across the table from me, grab a mic. Why don't you? What's the deal with you? What's the deal with you? Hello, my better half. You know I say this every week, but it is just absolutely true. I would not tell you if it weren't that way. She is my better half. She is my design partner, the co owner and co founder of House Whisper, and my best friend in all the world. Tina is

here home. Nice pause? I like that. I like that. And you have a friend next to you, Sammy Beagle. No, not the elephant, No, the other elephant in the room. The eagle, the sweet much happier everyone on the everyone who heard the live show, What a couple of Oh the screaming bagel screaming bagel. Sammy pinched a nerve in his neck, which happens to beagles as they get older sometimes, And he was in a bad pain for several days. But we got him all his meds, We got it

all loosened up. He went back to the vet yesterday, clean bill of health. Sammy's feeling much better and much quieter, and which is good for Daddy's nerves. On the show, All right, y'all, we're gonna dive into it. Yeah, I had to wait for Bill to talk there. Dean sharp vows whisper. Never be in a situation. Never put yourself in a situation where you were waiting for Bill Handle to say something. Just a piece of advice in general. Hey, whether your home is a condo or a cottage or

a castle, it doesn't matter. I am here to help you take it to the next level. We're also going to be taking calls today. I'm going to give out the number once again, eight three three to ask Dean, the number that Sam is so jealous of, because I have my own name on my number, eight three three two. Ask Dean the numeral two and then you just spell out ask Dean. So it's a three three two beep, ask Dean. That always makes Tina laugh. I was just making sure she was paying attention a three to three

to ask Dean. All right, let's dive into this topic, shall we. What we're talking about today is very simply this where to get the most space for the least money. Tomorrow, I'm gonna be talking about getting outside, getting some elbow room outside. No, I'm not talking about adding bedrooms or bathrooms today. Okay, we're We're focusing on those of us who have some money to make some changes in the house, but not enough to do a full blown room edition

or anything like that. We just need more space. And you know, here is a situation where the conversation about space and spacious ness doesn't apply so much. I you hear me talk about that all the time, reformulating your space so that it feels more spacess. I'm not really focused on that. I'm actually talking about more space, more square footage, but not in the traditional sense of a room edition, simply improving living conditions in spaces that you

already have but that you haven't maximized. And one of those spaces where we're concentrating today is the garage the garage. Now, there are two obstacles that stand in the way of everything that I want to talk to you about this morning regarding your garage, and I think you know what they are. One is an automobile. It actually is not the biggest obstacle. It is the second biggest obstacle. But an automobile parked in the garage obviously takes up the

space of an automobile parked in the garage. And if you are going to continue to park your automobile in the garage, then that doesn't stop you from moving forward with today's suggestions. It just means that that garage is going to be a flex space, not a permanent allocation,

but a flex space. In other words, that you're going to strategize and creatively work out how the garage can be used during the times when you simply pull the car out into the driveway and then with a little bit a minimal moving around, a little slidiness over here, and moving that over there away from the walls, suddenly we have a different kind of a room altogether. So that's very very much within the parameters of what we're discussing today. And so a garage with a car in.

It does not end this conversation, It just forces it to get more creative. The thing that's really in the way, you know, is all that stuff. You know, you have too much stuff. I can say that safely because we all have too much stuff. It's just and if you're sitting there thinking I don't have a lot of stuff in my garage, then you, my friend, are ready to go with all of these suggestions. But for everybody else, yeah, too much stuff. And how do I know that you

have too much stuff? Because you've got the garage piled full of stuff. And let's be honest and honesty here is the key to mental health when it comes to having too much stuff. This is stuff that you just don't use. You don't get to, you don't dig through it. It's a pile of stuff, and you keep telling yourself, oh, but I might need that someday. No, you listen, it's been years since you've really gotten to all of that.

You have too much stuff. And the very first step and the biggest thing that stands between you and utilizing what is without question, I mean, think about this, an additional four hundred plus square feet. That's a lot of room, a lot of room. What stands in the way. It's all that stuff. All right, when we come back, we'll discuss reasonable efficient ways of storing some of that stuff. But I'm just telling you the rest of it, the rest of it needs to go. You will be so

much happier when it does. All right, we'll talk about strategies for your stuff in the garage.

a couple of things. I know I said some incendiary things about garages in the last segment, and so let me just clarify my thinking here so that you and I are not at odds with each other. I want us to be friends. Here's the thing, I know that I want to explode a couple of myths. Number One, garages are important for cars. They are depending on where you live. Okay, notice I qualified that depending on where you live and what your attitude is about your car

as well. So we have a lot of listeners all across this great nation of ours, and so for those of you who are listening in high snow and heavy winter areas, of course I understand we want to get the car into the garage, all right, because no one wants to wake up and dig their car out of the snow in the morning, nor do you want to wake up to the frozen engine block or anything like that. So garages are critical shelters for automobiles in areas that

have severe weather extremes, absolutely, without question done. For those of you in who live in those areas, we're probably going to take today's lessons and apply them to the basement. So let's just make that little switch of application there and just assume that what we're talking about for that flex space now becomes the basement area, which technically is you know, has not been habitable, but is there a

lot of different purposes. However, those of you who live in areas where the weather does not get that extreme, like let's see southern California, you just need to rethink possibly the whole car position for the garage. Okay, most people just kind of follow suit and they're like, well, deane, cars age more severely if they are not stored indoors. Well, see, that's technically true, technically true. But let's think about this

for a second. The number one thing that ages a car about the outside is not rain, not even snow or ice. It is, in fact, the sun. It is the sun that is that is going to do the most long term damage. And for those of you who work, and I'm assuming most of you do, then I just want to point this out. The sun is out during

the day. Was that a shocker? Yeah, the sun is out during the day, So far more important than parking your car in the garage at night when the sun isn't out anyway, Far more important to the aging of your or the premature aging of your car is finding a shady or covered parking space when you drive it to work. Yes, sitting outside your workplace all day is actually where your car is experiencing the most exposure to sunlight. When you get home, at five o'clock or later at

night and the sun has gone down. Guess what is not happening with your car outside? It is not prematurely aging in the sun as it sits under the moonlit sky. So just a little bit of FYI, okay, now I get it outside inside. And again, our discussion today about the garage as a flex space is is really built around the idea that you're still using the garage for the car. You don't have to, but we still are

assuming that it is. But for those of you who want to take the garage permanently in a further direction, just consider the fact that the possibility you could park in the driveway still be safe and not prematural in your a premature prem to prem aging your car faster than normal. All I'm saying is that now this is one you know, I have nice cars, all right. I

love our cars. We love our cars. Tina and I moved into our little cottage, and it was a very little cottage when we first bought it, and we expanded into what was previously our garage, and we made a decision not to replay place the garage because we just park outside. Now we live in a neighborhood where we're not worried about our car, you know, in terms of safety. But we park our cars in our driveways. We always have and we probably always will as long as we

live here in southern California. Again, inclement weather different story, but out here, and you know what, we'd drive our cars into the ground. I mean, we literally run them until they are two hundred plus thousand miles and just shouldn't go any further. And all of our cars still look lovely. So keep it washed, keep it waxed, and let it live outside. Cars can do that these days. And that allowed us to have our little home a little bit larger because we use the garage for a

permanent space. All I'm talking to you about is the possibility of occasionally setting up the garage so that you can pull the cars out and really use it as a beautiful habitable space. I just want to just want to lay that out there. So now the strategies for storage and how we clean that garage up. That's where we go next. Can't by being charted the house whisper Welcome home, thanks for joining us on the program. We're talking about finding some extra space, elbow room in your home.

And I'm specifically talking today about the garage. Tomorrow we'll talk about getting outside, especially if you live here in southern California or you know, anywhere during in the spring and summer months, getting outside is a place that you can actually get more space for living, living a little bit more outside. Just snowflake, Ah that did I say that. I did not mean that exactly, but sort of kind of. We we really do. We spend way more time indoors

than we need to. And so by making our outdoor space is more comfortable the space that's already there. It's a way of stretching our legs and getting more space, utilizing more of the space we already have. That's really the key. All right, today's the garage. So here is the thing or when it comes to transforming the garage into whatever you want to transform it into. Obviously step one, I'm not going to be labor this point. You got

a GAF to get rid of junk. Okay, purge. I don't want you to throw away important stuff, but you got to purge. And if you're not using stuff and you're not accessing stuff, you don't need it, get it off site, put it in some storage area somewhere that you're going to pay three hundred dollars a month for and forget about forever. Fine, but get it out of your way in your own home. I'd prefer you sell it or donate it and just get it out and

clear it out. But either way, if you're looking for more space, you've got four hundred plus square feet of it sitting right out there now. Garage is coming different, you know, conditions. If you live in an older home, you may still have a bare stud wall garage in

other words, just studs and no dry wall anywhere. That's fine, totally fine, because those of you who have a dry walled garage right now, I want you to embrace and understand the idea that I might might have you taken the drywall off three of those walls, three of them.

What do you mean, three, dean, Well, if it's an attached garage, the wall between you and the house is already insulated and covered in at least five eights thick dry wall because it has to be a fire rated wall because technically your garage is considered outdoors in terms of the building code. So that door that goes into the home from the garage is a you know, a one hour or twenty minute fire rated door, a solid core exterior style door with a closer on it hopefully.

And that wall is either a stuccoed wall or it's a wall covered in at least five eighths dry wall in order to meet code requirements. And that wall is actually insulated because the garage is not a conditioned space. So just a couple of notes when it comes to the garage as far as conditioning the space out there, heating it, or cooling it, it's going to need its own system, okay, which these days is not a big deal.

Put a mini split system in there. We could put a portable AC system in there, We could put portable infrared heaters out there, but the most comfortable would be a built in system, and that would be a mini split its own system connected to the garage. And the reason why it's got to be its own system is because, again for fire safety purposes, we cannot connect and open up a hole between the garage and the rest of

the house. In other words, we cannot just grab an AC duct out of the attic and a hole into the garage wall in order to bring the AC and the heat from the rest of the house into the garage. That is a code violation. It violates the fire wall between the garage and the house, and it's not allowed. Okay, nor is it allowed. And I know some of you

are like, oh, geez. You know, a few years ago I put that attic access door in the garage so that I could just crawl up in a ladder from the garage and get into the attic over the rest of the house. Yeah, that's not good. That's not supposed to be there. There needs to be an absolute floor to top of roof barrier between the garage space and the rest of the house so that fire cannot start in the garage and spread right over the rest of the house. Okay, that's a separation that cannot be violated.

So that means we treat the garage independently of the house. But the good news is the garage doesn't need a whole lot, even at four to five to six hundred square feet these days. A mini split system that's a heat pump system that can cool and heat the room together with just a one cartridge. It'll get the job done beautifully, quietly, relatively inexpensively. If you're getting serious about

making that a conditioned space. So the other reason I said, if we're really really going to transform the garage is I probably want to get to the stud bays anyway so we can move a little bit of electrical around, because that doesn't cost much money to get electrical out that's exactly where we want them. And also I want to finally insulate those other three walls, the wall that the garage door is on and the other couple of

walls that aren't touching the house. Any wall that isn't shared with the rest of the house is probably even though it's dry walled, if you live in a newer built home. By newer, I mean like you know, it's not that new these days, but home built in the late eighties through you know, and beyond probably has a dry walled garage. But if you look behind that drywall, the chances of there being insulation in the walls that aren't shared with the house very very low. If you

happen to have it, great. If not, just understand, drywall is not that expensive. Pull the drywall off, strip the garage down so you can get to move electrical around easily, water lines, anything else that you want to be doing in there, and then popping in insulation, and the insulation I would recommend would probably be rock mineral wool insulation, so that not only you'd get the best R value for in between those studs and stud base, but also

you get the best sound dampening insulation as well. And we have found that mineral wool does much, much, much better than just regular fiberglass insulation. So that's where you know, that's the brass tax of dealing with the walls, okay in a garage space. To take it back to the studs, get the insulation, the electrical and everything reconfigured the way you want for television screens, for cable supply, for whatever

the case may be. However, going to transform this room, media room, gym, storage area, game room, all of these options, and then after that we've got to deal with the slab, and I'm going to talk about that. But when we come back, it's top of the hour. It's time to go to the phones. So we're going to press pause on this conversation, take a couple of calls, and then we'll come back and finish up or continue our conversation about what we can do with the garage to make

it real usable extra elbow room space. You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp The House Whisper on KFI.