Where To Get The Most Space For the Least $ - Outdoors | Hour 1

I don't know what the weather is looking like exactly where you may be across this great nation of ours. I know there are some looking at the weather this morning, there are some temperatures in the zero, in the tens, and definitely in the single digits in places I know for you, you're like, uh, yeah, no spring yet, Dean, not yet. It's all right, It's all right, it's coming, right, it is coming. We're only technically, what are we eighteen

nineteen days away from spring something like that? Just no, no, no, I'm sorry, ten ten or eleven days away from spring. That's where we're at anyway. Today on the show, we are going to continue a theme that we started with our previous episode that would be yesterday's broadcast, or if you were one of our many podcast listeners, our previous episode on the podcast. And it's a theme about where to get the most space for the least amount of money.

And this is specifically geared toward a certain demographic in our community, of which I belong to right now just as much as so many of the rest of you. And that is this. You know, you're you need a little more space. Inflation has not left, funds are tight, the stock market, investment portfolio is You're like, what what does that mean? It's not looking as good as it has been in the past, and funds are tight, but so is the house, and so we're looking for a

little bit more elbow room. So I took it upon myself this week to say, well, you know, there are two somewhat I mean, they're not bizarre, but they're just not the typical places we go to in our thinking. Two places to get more space for the least amount of money. One was where we went yesterday, which was the garage. The garage is for most homeowners another four hundred feet of flexible space that is often neglected and

not utilized fully. And here's another space today that we're going to spend even more time on, and that is very simply outside. Outside. There is space, literally all of the space, everything that isn't inside your own skin and the few odds and ends that you have within reach of you in your little cubicle that you live in. Everything else in the universe is outside, and that's where there is unquestionably the most space. Yes, even if you live in a condo and have just a very small patio,

they are still space to be reclaimed. The question is do we want to go out there? Is it set up for us to go out there? And is in a condition or a design condition where we can enjoy outside? Because if you can enjoy outside, then instantly we've got more space without adding on, without hiring a contractor without having to do all the things that we normally think

of doing in terms of getting more space. So today we're gonna be talking about utilizing outdoors wherever we can find it in order to, you know, give ourselves a little bit of more elbow room for living, especially when budgets are tight and they're just you know, we want it we'd love to, we'd love to expanding, but not gonna happen this year. So let's get creative, all right, And we're going to and we're gonna ask the tough

questions too. We're gonna start off with asking maybe the toughest question of all, but I'm gonna set that to the side for a moment so that I can introduce you to our awesome team. Elmer is on the board as always. Good morning, Elmer. Oh, hey, good morning. I missed you last week. I gotta tell you, yeah, I miss you to day. Producer Michelle Cube is with us this morning. She is screening call. Oh she's already busy screening calls, which is the cue for me to tell

you that. And of course we're going to be taking your calls today as well. And the phone lines are open right now. And of course there is no somebody apologized yesterday for calling in on something that was off topic. There is no off topic when it comes to your calls. Whenever I take calls, anything you want to discuss that's got you scratching your head about your home, indoors, outdoors, landscape, hardscape, construction, design, DIY, whatever the case may be fire it at me. I'm

going to help you out with it. The number to reach me. The phone lines are open now and the legendary Michelle Cube is standing by to take your call and tell you everything you need to know and pop you into the queue. The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two, ask Dean give me a call. You can listen to the show while you wait, and who knows, we can put our heads together and figure out what's going on

with your place. Eileen Gonzalez at the news desk, Good morning, Eileen, Good morning. How is this time change treating you? You know what? I actually intentionally slept in a little bit more today and I woke up thinking I had slept in longer than I had nice. I'm like, hey, I got two extra hours. No, no, no, I didn't, I got one. Yeah.

Because this is something that specifically, as designers, Tina and I run into all the time. With folks, and it's gonna make sense when I ask it, and you're asking yourself the question, when is he going to get around asking? Is he gonna just keep teasing us about it? No, I'll do it in a minute or two. No, No, I'm gonna do it right now here.

but you are literally missing almost everything, almost everything. Now, I just want you to consider the fact that it doesn't matter whether you live in a cottage or a castle. When I say this, because whether or not you've got I don't know, two hundred square feet around you inside your little space, or two thousand square feet in the room that you happen to be standing in right now, and my voice is echoing down through the chambers of

your estate. The fact of the matter is it ain't that big compared to literally everything else in the universe. Everything mostly is outside. And so the question becomes, as we can continue to live our ever increasingly small lives, and it doesn't seem that way because you know, those little black screens that people are staring into right now seem like they take you to all sorts of other places and other things, But in reality, where you actually

are located, it's a pretty small, confined area. And so I asked the question, what will it take to get you outside? The amount of money that people spend to stay insulated comfortable in controlled environments is egregious, egregious amounts of money to stay that way. In fact, one of the most common conversations about outside that I have with a lot of clients are started by them saying, yeah,

we want to spend more time outs. We're thinking about a California room, and I'm thinking, okay, well, and by the way, I have nothing against a California room. And if you don't know what a California room is, it's basically a room addition onto your house with a lot

of glass in it. Okay, so a lot of glass, and maybe some of those walls can open up, but essentially it's a room with a full roof and heating and air conditioning and a lot of it's a room so in so many ways, and please again understand me, I've got nothing against California rooms. They're beautiful if you can afford them and have them and so on, but they are not outside. The whole point of a California room is that it's a hybrid of like almost outside.

We just spent seventy five thousand dollars to get almost outside, a little get closered outside. I get it, I get it. So one of the things you know today, we're not talking to people who have the wherewithal to build a California room. I'm talking to you and me. And you know, budgets are tight, but the house is feeling a little tight. And so one of those ways where we can loosen things up and get a little bit more elbow space

is getting outside. But the biggest hurdle to doing that, I would say, the only hurdle to doing that realistically is somewhere up inside your cranium and answering this question, what will it take to get you outside? Now? I can see some of the answers formulating, well, I'm going to have to be comfortable. Well, I agree with you one hundred percent. To get you outside, we need to

be comfortable. I mean, there's no point in finding more elbow space if if we're drowning in sweat, or we're freezing cold, or we're wet, or we're just not, you know, enjoying it. The point is enjoying the outside. And so that's where we have to start breaking things down and instead of jumping to all of the luxuries that get pushed at you in all of the design magazines and websites and everywhere you turn, like, oh, well, you know, here are people who enjoy being outside because they've just

bought a sixty thousand dollars patio furniture set. Okay, well that's not in the budget either, Dean, I get you. I get you. So again, we're going to find the key to this today by continuing to return to this question what will it take to get us outside? It's not just a big open ended question, No, I want to answer it specifically, so that we can find, in a minimalist but effective and efficient way, the ways to get us from inside the house to outside the house

for as little cash out of pocket as possible. If that's of interest to you, then don't go anywhere, because that's where we're headed. We're gonna do it right after.

reset the sundial in the mornings. It is weird. It is weird to feel older, right, And You're like, you had to go. I mean, we still have some regular clocks in the house, but not the ones that we depend on to wake us up and to get us moving, right. So Tina and I were like, where what clocks have to be reset today? Oh? Just go room to room and look around see if there's a clock in there, that's a stupid clock. Anyway, I hope you are enjoying your Sunday morning as much as we are, and we are.

We're talking about finding space without paying big bucks to get it, and today specifically outdoors outdoors, And I've already sprung the most important question on you. Yes, you can count on Dean to ask a somewhat philosophical question, or at least it sounds philosophical to start off the whole design process. And you know why, by the way, it's not just because that's just the way I rune. It isn't. It isn't just that. Okay, not at least from my perspective,

it isn't. It's because you know, the reason we ask the big questions here on Home, a show that's about home, is that home is the place where we live our lives. And you know that has everything to do with I happen to be a designer who believes that good custom home design has everything to do with matching that space to the way people actually live, and that means crawling inside people's heads from time to time and figuring out

what's important to you. Now, I am not here today to twist anybody's arm and convince you if you are an inside dweller, oh, it's a lovely music for us. I'm not here to convince you that you've got to get outside. All I'm sitting here is saying is that outside is where most everything is, and there are inexpensive ways of getting out there. And the key to finding those ways and which ones work for you is asking, what sounds like this big philosophical question, what will it

take to get you outside? Okay, but there's really a deep practical element to it. In fact, I would say the entire root of it is truly practical. I love that Eileen covered this story at the La Arboretum. Right, the La Arboretum is not a place that you would think, you know, there's a certain there's a certain kind of person who goes to the arboretum. Sweetheart, perhaps this weekend we will visit the Arboretum. Right, but but today, what's happening at the arboretum barks and bruise. How do you

get more people to the arboretum? How do you get a different crowd to the La? R read them, well, bring your dog in. There's beer, and you know what that's smart. It's just smart thinking, all right. You know, hey, dogs and beer at the tree Place today. That's the kind of thinking that I would like to apply to outdoors for you. Okay, Now, I don't want you roughing it,

I really don't. But the difference between being comfortable and spending gobs of money on luxuries that go way beyond comfortable and nice, that's a massive, massive, massive difference, and it starts in levels of practicality that quite honestly, you would think as well. He designs customer state homes, he doesn't think like that. Oh yeah, I do, because I live in a very small home and we have a very simple outdoors that we love very much. I also spent a good deal of my life and still do,

enjoying what other people might call camping. I don't really camp. I don't really camp. I backpack and mountaineer. And so for me, the idea of getting outside and spending a night out in the outdoors is throwing everything you need on your back and getting miles and miles and miles away from the nearest automobile or even any road. And when you grow up in that mindset, you really think about what do I need to bring with me to

be comfortable. And it's not a lot because it's got to fit on your back, right, So that's the mindset. I'm just I'm only saying this to reassure you that where I want to go with all of these things and you today is the simplest, most basic, and yet completely comfortable way. So let's start with down. Sitting down

outside comes speaks to a fundamental truth about furniture. Okay, and this is a truth that quite often we have to Well, if you've ever listened to any one of my furniture shows about the inside of a house, you will hear me say again and again and again that the ergonomics and the design of a piece of furniture is so critical to the furniture experience. Unless you're just again, you've just got gazillions of dollars and you're going to furnish a room that you're never gonna sit in, then

who cares? Just whatever it's supposed to look like to you, Fine, they're not going to sit in it anyway. But so many people get led astray when they end up going furniture shopping because they're thinking, oh, we're looking for the thickest,

cushiest cushions. We're looking for the pillowiest pillows, right, because soft equals comfortable, until, of course, you've sat in a piece of furniture that has a really spongy, super soft seat and a really spongy back for more than maybe ten minutes, and you realize, wow, this thing is I just find myself kind of shifting around because it's sort of swallowing me up and it's actually not comfortable. It's

not the right depth of seat cushion for me. My knees are sticking out too far or they're not sticking out far enough. The back is too low, the back is too high, the angle is weird, and so yeah, when we're buying furniture, as a general rule, we always always want to sit in that furniture for an extended period of time in order to verify and as a general rule, and this is really where it gets critical.

As a general rule, the firmer a piece of furniture, the longer you will be able to sit in it comfortably. I kid you not. I want you to think about a car seat, and not a car seat for a child, but a seat in an automobile. Okay, These are not renowned for being super soft and cushy. Okay, they are ergonomically well designed with just enough cushion in just the right places, right right exactly. Okay, not big, overblown, puffy seats, but well designed seats. And so how does this apply

to outdoors? It applies to outdoors and getting you outside because one of the things I know that we need to get you outside is to promise you a comfortable seat for the show. Okay, a comfortable seat can be a piece of furniture that has zero cushions on it, whatsoever, no cushions, because what are cushions? Maintenance issues? What are cushions?

They are luxuries that you not only have to spend more money for, but you also have to spend more time taking care of because no, we should cover them up. Oh it's going to be raining this week. Bring all the cushions in, put them in the garage, Stack them in the garage. Oh now we can bring them all out. Oh they just got dirty because a bird just did

its thing, and so on and so forth. Again, nothing against cushioned patio furniture, but the basic, the basic, the bare minimum to get you comfortably outside, what you could be looking for is something that is simply the right chair and the right chare set in the right configuration with the right ergonomics. Could be a chair, and probably

is a chair that has zero cushion whatsoever. Just a chair that can sit out there in the rain, in the sleet, in the snow, in the heat, and be ready for you at a moment's notice, and that you did not break the bank to buy. Are those chairs out there? Yes they are.

two ask Dean. Okay, we're breaking down the essentials of spending the least amount of money to get you the most amount of space, and that means not getting into a major remodel or room edition or anything like that, but taking advantage of the spaces that you've got. Yesterday I talked about garages and utilizing them more. Today I'm talking about outside and utilizing them more. Them it it more, And no, this is not our only outdoor show. This

is a very special angle at approaching outdoors. During the spring, I tend to talk a lot about outdoor living because that's one of the things that we ramp up with. You know, we're anxious to get out and break loose of cabin fever, and so we will be doing more outdoor living stuff in the weeks ahead, no doubt, before

we dive into other things. But this is a very specific angle, and this is what is the least you can get away with out there to make yourself really comfy and really enjoy the show that's happening outside every day. So we're not jumping to the gigantic spens, we're not junk jumping into the ultimate luxuries. But I want you comfortable,

and we're answering this question as a theme today. What's it going to take to get you out side and right now seating a place to sit, okay, a comfortable place to sit and to watch nature's show unfold before you. Whether it's just staring up at the stars, whether it's looking at the clouds passed by, whether it's just breathing the fresh air, and you know what I mean, I do it a lot. I'm an outdoorsy kind of a person. I spend a lot of time outdoors. We have a small,

small home, a lill small by American standards. We live in what we call a little cottage of a home. It's about thirteen hundred square feet, and that's after we added a lot to it. It started out as nine hundred and forty square feet. But the reason we bought this property is that we're sitting on just a little under you know, a third of an acre, about a third of an acre, So we got a lot of space outside that little cottage, and life just would not be the same here without the fact that we spend

so much time out in the yard and outside. I like it. I prefer it in most cases. You know. Even though our home is fresh and clean and the air is clean and it's all lovely and beautiful, I just none. Indoor air never compares to outside fresh air. And I'm willing to put up with whatever little inconveniences along the way, But to be honest with you, there aren't many. Because we have from a very minimal perspective, taken advantage of it, answered all these questions, well, what's

it going to take to get us outside? So we were talking about seating, and I was giving you a general principle that applies to everybody who's listening. I don't care if you're just thinking about buying a new sofa for your living room. The same principle applies. Always examined the ergonomics of a piece of furniture before you commit to it, because comfort and luxury is not simply about big puffy cushions and soft and soft and soft and soft.

In fact, soft, just like an overly soft bed, can lead you aching and feeling uncomfortable and not enjoying the experience. And so my point is this, I know this as an absolute fact, okay, that a properly designed hard surface chair can be far more comfortable than a poorly or

thoughtlessly designed super puffy cushy thing. Okay, And it just so happens that the best value in patio furniture comes from the fact that if you don't have cushions that have to be monitored, moved, protected, replaced, if you just have a hard surface chair. So everything from that perfect and by the way, I just interrupted my thought without getting it out of my mouth. But that perfect rocking chair.

By the way, I am still in search of the ultimate rocking chair for my deck because I love them the movement, and a rocking chair is a great example a well designed rocking chair you sit down in and suddenly you realize, oh, oh yeah, that's great. Right. For years I had a solid walnut banker's chair sitting in our office that I would design out of, and still to this day, Tina and I sit in two hard wooden chairs in our office for hours at a time.

Why because they're beautifully designed, erbic, ergonomically, and they get the job done and we do not get out of them sore or anything like that. So again, this is an encouragement to you. Okay, now, what do I have sitting on my deck right now around our fire pit? Always has been, always will be some really nice, nicely shaped,

rounded backed Adirondack chairs. Now, Adirondack chairs are not for everybody, but they are a comfortable, reclined a piece of patio furniture that we have never had a guest ever say I just can't sit in those because I, you know, and if somebody has like a lower back problem, they'll just grab a small cushion and put it behind like a little lumbar support for them. But the fact of the matter is these are resin based chairs made out

of recycled materials. They're black, they they don't show dirt well, they weather any weather whatsoever. We never worry about them. This morning, when I came out, they were covered in dew. I just grabbed a little towel and I just wiped one off, the one that I was going to sit in, and I turned on the fire pit and boom, I was there a comfortable chair. I can sit in that chair literally for hours. Okay, so what do you need. What's it going to take to get you outside? A

comfortable chair, A sixty thousand dollars patio set? No, no, no, just some comfortable chairs for you and a friend or a small group of friends. That's all you need to do. You need to know what it is you're really looking for in order to make your dollar go the furthest and it doesn't take much to come up with us.

I think these actually came from Costco, to be perfectly honest, and they have held up really, really well, no end date in sight for these things, all right, when we come back, We're gonna pause this conversation a bit, and I'm going to be going to the phones, and then we will return and we will talk about the next thing it takes to get you outside, and that, just to show my hand a little bit is probably a little bit of warmth and a little bit of shade, okay,

And how do we break those down into their minimums. We will do it all when we return. You are listening to Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on KFI. This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI A six 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