2023 Valentines Day Projects

Speaker 1 00:00:04 Welcome to the Weekend, warriors Home Improvement Show, built by Par Lumber when it comes to big or small projects around the home. Tony and Corey, you've got the know-how and the answers to make your life just a bit easier. Here they are, your weekend Warriors, Tony and Corey. Speaker 2 00:00:24 Hey, welcome to the Weekend, warriors Home Improvement Show podcast. I'm Corey Valdez. Speaker 3 00:00:29 And I'm Tony Crookston. Speaker 2 00:00:31 Thanks for, uh, listening to us today and welcome to the show. Today we're gonna be talking about Valentine's Day projects, Speaker 3 00:00:39 Home improvement Speaker 2 00:00:40 Projects. Yeah. Home improvement projects for Valentine's Day. I know it sounds weird, but, uh, you know, what, what better time to get those things done that would make your spouse happy? Speaker 3 00:00:51 Absolutely. No, this is an oppor you sometimes in these situations, you're using this bit of work that you're gonna do kind of as collateral. Speaker 2 00:01:00 Yeah, sure. Is Speaker 3 00:01:01 Lateral, is that the wrong thing to say, Speaker 2 00:01:03 <laugh>? Like, uh, you're, you're building up points like a point system. Speaker 3 00:01:09 Yes. It's a point system. That's absolutely right. This is an opportunity to get tons and tons of points. Speaker 2 00:01:15 Yeah. You put 'em in the bank. Speaker 3 00:01:16 When you think about your home, Corey, on a daily basis, do you think of it as a romantic home? Is it Speaker 2 00:01:23 Romantic? Some aspects? Yeah. Sure. Speaker 3 00:01:25 So just gimme one example of, of an a romantic aspect of your home. Speaker 2 00:01:31 Uh, probably the biggest one in my house is my lighting. Lighting in my house. I, I'm a freak about lighting <laugh>. I Speaker 3 00:01:40 So true. Speaker 2 00:01:41 I have to have every single lamp, every single light in my entire house is on a dimmer. I mean, honestly. Speaker 3 00:01:51 So it's mood lighting at the touch of a finger. Speaker 2 00:01:54 Absolutely. But not only that, I have my en entire, entire house connected to a smart home system. So all of my switches are smart and they're connected to, I use Siri, you know, through Apple Home Kit. And at any given time, I can tell her to dim the lights to 25% or 50%, or I can set scenes, what we call scenes, where you program the lights to a specific routine. Like for instance, uh, I could tell Siri that I'm cooking and I have it all. My kitchen lights turn on bright. I have the kitchen counter cabinet under cabinet lights turn on bright over the sink, and then I have other lights say in the dining room, dimmed down, getting ready for dinner. And I can just tell her that. And she runs that routine. It's called a scene. And I can do the same thing for evening time or movie time. I can tell her to, you know, hey, romantic dinner, and she'll set all of of my lights to the right, you know, dimness. Right. And, you know, she'll even play music. I can have her turn on the jazz channel or something. It's actually, it's very, very cool. And that's probably the best part about my house. It sounds silly, but I use it every day. Speaker 3 00:03:17 Oh, no, I, I don't think it sounds silly at all. There's a lot of other things that come with that. Um, well, that's sort of a thing that you've got going on with dimmer switches around. Dimmer switches also offer more energy efficiency, right. Because you're reducing the brightness of the lights that you're not necessarily needing them to be bright in that room at that time. And that of course reduces the amount of energy consumption being used and it lowers your electricity bill. Yeah. So in your instance, having it throughout the house and using it the way you do, you're actually saving green. Speaker 2 00:03:51 Absolutely. On top of that, and I'll tell you another thing about the lights I have in my house. Um, if all of my can lights or my pot lights or whatever you wanna call 'em, uh, recess lighting, <laugh>, that's up in the ceiling, all of them are l e d, but they are also, you contain change the temperature of those lights. So instead of say a really bright 5,000 K bulb, which is like bright white, I can change them to 2,700 K, which is a really nice warm light. Very similar to select in incandescent. The, I chose that because some rooms, like say in a bathroom, you might want that really bright white Speaker 3 00:04:39 So you can see every Speaker 2 00:04:41 Detail Speaker 3 00:04:42 <laugh> Yeah. Detail when you're looking in the mirror. Yeah. Right. Speaker 2 00:04:45 But in your kitchen or in your living rooms, you don't want that bright, harsh hospital sanitary light. So you pu pull the thing down and you can set it, you can change it, you click it with a click of a switch on top of my interesting can lights. So I have all the ones in the, in the house that set to that really low 2,700 K, nice warm light. And another thing that I have set up in my house is Phillips Hu bulbs, which I can't talk enough about. I absolutely love the Phillips Hu bulbs. Uh, they're connected through the Phillips Hue app, which is also connected to my Apple home kit. And when you talk to Siri, you can tell her to change all of the lights in the house that are connected to, that are on that hue system to a specific color. Speaker 2 00:05:36 So for Valentine's Day, I could say, Hey, make all the lights pink or purple for, uh, you know, St. Patrick's Day. I can make them all green. So it's really fun to wake up in the morning on St. Patrick's Day, which is my wife and i's anniversary. We were married on St. Patrick's Day many years ago. And I can change all the lights to green and it's just kind of like this fun thing to do at any given time of the year. And on Halloween, this last Halloween, we had 'em set up to, you know, they were like orange and, you know, weird red, different colors. And you could just do that with the, the, your own voice. It's very cool. Speaker 3 00:06:15 That is cool. Uh, something else I was thinking about while you were talking, you were talking about re you know, changing the temperature of your bulbs. If you are also not using the bulb to its maximum capacity all the time, if you are having them dimmed or you're setting them low to a lower temperature, that's also going to extend the life of the bulb also saving you money. Speaker 2 00:06:38 I believe it. Yeah. It's, uh, yeah, it's definitely, I mean, dim dimmer switches are probably the single number one thing you can do, in my opinion, to any lighting situation you have in your house. Now when you are replacing dimmer switches with smart switches, they get expensive. I'll be honest, it's not a cheap venture to go in and replace all of the dimmer switches in your house. It might run you a couple thousand bucks to do your entire house. Um, but I love it <laugh>. Yeah. You could never, I will have it for the rest of my life. Speaker 3 00:07:17 I think another thing that just occurs to me when I think about it is like in the TV room where the family's gathered around watching a Disney movie or something, you don't want it to be necessarily pitch black in the room. You're eating popcorn, right? You're doing whatever, but you also don't want it to compete with the tv. And so having dimmable lights in the TV room or the family room, whatever, um, also seems like it would just make it more Speaker 2 00:07:42 Comfortable. Well, and here's the best thing about creating scenes. Like I was telling you with the smart home home kit, you can sit there in play with the lights in the app and say, you know, okay, I like that lamp on, but I want it at like 5%. Yeah. And I want this over here, and I really like it on, but I want that one a little brighter at say 10%. And you can set it exactly how you want it and then save it. And again, you could call it whatever you want movie time, or I'm watching tv, you just say, Hey Siri, I'm watching tv. And she'll set all the lights to the scene that you set up for how you like to watch TV at night. Or you can even have it set it for, if you like to watch TV during the day and you like certain lights on a certain way. It's, uh, it's very cool. And like you said, sitting in the dark with just the TV on is not very cool. But did I tell you about my new toy that I got for my tv? Speaker 3 00:08:40 No. Speaker 2 00:08:41 So if you don't know this about me, I'm a very, I'm sure most of our listeners, if you've been listening to the show, we've been on the air for 10 years now. 11 years. Yeah. Uh, we have, I'm very tech savvy. I really like tech. I'm a tech nerd. Um, Phillips Hue created what they call the gradient light strip that goes on the back of your tv. So it's like a, it's agl uh, it's basically just a light strip and l e light strip and it adhesives on, comes with these little clips that you clip it on the back, and then you go to this little thing called the Huy box. And then your streaming device, we use Apple tv. So the Apple TV plugs into the sync box. The sync box plugs into the tv, and then the lights plug into the sink box. Speaker 2 00:09:35 And then it sounds confusing, but what happens is it lights the lights around the TV against the wall and it monitors the colors that are happening in that section of the television, and it broadcasts the light onto the wall behind it that are, that's going on in real time. Right. So if you have something bright red on the left side of the screen, it behind the tv, like a shadow, it will light up that area in red. Wow. And it, and it's very, and you can set it to different settings so you can have it either really, really intense so it changes really quickly or more slow calm, where it just kind of highlights those colors. And I tell you what, it changed TV watching and movie watching in my house. Interesting. A hundred fold. And it's very, very cool. Speaker 3 00:10:33 That is cool. Uh, I, I think when I think about the way that you have it set up with the dimmer switches and being able to control the temperature of your light bulbs, it feels to me very luxurious. Like it's, it's luxury. And, uh, one, one thing that we know when it comes to the resale value of your hou, of your home luxury items will improve or increase the resale value. So I, I feel like you, again, making you money. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it, I feel like in, for so many reasons, in so many aspects of having controllable dimmable lights in the home, it can really save you and even in some cases make you money. Well, Speaker 2 00:11:18 I feel like in at a certain price point, buyers, home buyers expect dimable lighting, they expect l e d can lights, you know, they don't wanna walk into a house that's 25 years old, 30 years old, and look up and see all these ancient can lights that, you know, darn well use incandescent bulbs or just really old lighting and know that you're gonna have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to get all of that upgraded. Like me. Yeah. I would absolutely walk into a house and take that into consideration. So yeah. Good point. Speaker 3 00:11:57 Yeah, that's, uh, that's very cool. I would say you hit it spot on. That is a ro very romantic element to a home. Something that someone could begin to add in their home, you know, uh, around the Valentine's Day. Speaker 2 00:12:14 Yeah. That's a good, that's a very good project that if you wanted to quickly upgrade and for very inexpensively, you can go out and buy dimmer switches and just swap 'em out. And most, but here's the thing you wanna be careful of. You wanna make sure that the bulbs that you are dimming are dimmable <laugh>. This is very important. Yeah. Because sometimes the light fixture that you have isn't necessarily compatible with the dimmer switch, especially through L E D. So if you have, say, a very inexpensive or cheap can light and you put in a, a decent dimmer switch, sometimes they're just not compatible and you'll get like weird flickering or weird buzzing that's kind of normal. So you gotta be careful. I would definitely read the manufacturer's compatibility list. You can find those online, um, especially if you run into problems. But if you have, if you're replacing it all, so you're putting in new can lights, you can read it right then and there. It'll tell, it'll give you model numbers of what's compatible and what's not. Speaker 3 00:13:21 My most romantic dimmer switch in the house is in the laundry room. Speaker 2 00:13:26 <laugh>, Speaker 3 00:13:27 It's sort of a laundry room slash pantry. Yeah. Yeah. It's really, do Speaker 2 00:13:30 You have a dimmer switch in Speaker 3 00:13:31 There? Yeah, I got a dimmer switch is great. It's really great. Speaker 2 00:13:35 Uh, the other one that I really enjoy having in my house are smart speakers, wireless smart speakers that you can quickly add music to the environment, you know, very romantic. If you're hanging out having dinner, you can start the, you know, and you have sound legend in the background. Speaker 3 00:13:54 You actually have that set up so that, um, you've got a, a smartphone, right? That is not a phone. You're using an old smartphone, uh, one that you've upgraded from. Yeah. And you've got it docked over in the corner of the kitchen mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and you go up and then you put in whatever you want. You can set it up on a, on Spotify or iHeartRadio or something like that mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, uh, have it start to play music over the speakers. How, what does the, what does the smartphone actually communicate with? Is it communicating with a, with a tuner or what is the deal there? Speaker 2 00:14:26 So that particular setup that I have there is separate from my smart speakers. So you might have this situation in your house where you have hardwired speakers in your ceiling. Um, I, many years ago when I did my kitchen remodel, I installed just hardwired speakers in the ceiling in my kitchen. And I wired everything back to a central location at my entertainment center. And it worked great. So I had a Bluetooth, uh, receiver that sat there that fed all of that, um, sound through the speakers. Well, Speaker 3 00:15:03 With phone communicated via Speaker 2 00:15:04 Bluetooth. Bluetooth with that, with the receiver. Okay. Correct. Okay. Now you kind of run into issues with newer technology. For instance, the new stuff that I have with Siri, I can't just tell Siri to play like she does with the smart speakers. You know, if you have a HomePod or a HomePod Mini or an Alexa or something, you can just tell your smart speaker to start playing music. I couldn't do that with the situation. Sure. Uh, so I had to do a little bit of brainstorming and that was the best thing that I came up with, was to install a Bluetooth receiver. And then I just use an old smartphone that's close enough to connect to it Bluetooth, because you know, smart speakers, you don't wanna just go through, replace all your speakers in your house, especially if they're really nice quality. Speaker 3 00:15:54 So you got you, you have two separate situations going on there. Yeah. When, and they seem to work Speaker 2 00:15:59 Good together. Yeah. If you wanna get really technical, I did actually recently replace that setup. Oh, did you? Yeah. If you wanna talk about it. How recently? Uh, pretty recently I have, I struggled because I have all of these home pods in my house, these Siri home pods mm-hmm. <affirmative> smart speakers. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I really like the idea of, of telling her to play something. I can just call out and say, Hey, play this and it's great. But with my hardwired speakers, that wasn't possible. So I would have two situations. E either I would have to use these little mini home pods that sound okay. And they're not, they don't sound as good as my hardwired installed setup. So I got on some forums and I got on some websites and Apple used to make a product called the airport. They don't make it anymore, but if you go into eBay, you could buy these airport express little boxes. Speaker 2 00:16:58 Basically what it was like a router kind of, so you could put it in your home network and then you could plug something into it with an ethernet cable, for instance. Like if you had a printer and you wanted to put that printer in some back bedroom office, but you wanted to share it on your network, you would just plug this little airport express in and plug that printer into that thing with an ethernet cord. Now, new printers these days, and that's probably why they got rid of that technology, most of them are wireless. Right. If you could buy almost any printer with wireless capacity and it connects to your network and you just print to it, you don't need that extra bit of hardware. Sure. But if you find one, especially there's a certain version of them that have a three and a half inch or three and a half millimeter auxiliary output audio, and then they run, um, uh, what's the airplay? So Apple has Sure what's called airplay mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So you plug that auxiliary out into a RCA stereo left and right. Plug that into my receiver, which is hardwired into my home speaker system. Right. So now I can all of a sudden airplay to my home stereo system that's hardwired using my phone using Siri, and then she'll also play on the home pods at the same time. Wow. So I can fill my entire house with music Nice. Speaker 2 00:18:30 Using that little $60 eBay find. Speaker 3 00:18:33 Ah, nice. That is nice. Yeah. I, I agree with you that, uh, home stereo having, um, music or whatever it is available by just saying the word and having it, that is a very romantic addition to a house. I love it. And that, that actually is even easier than, than adding dimmer switches. Speaker 2 00:18:58 Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's a really good gift ideas to get smart speakers. I mean, and if you didn't want the capacity for <laugh> technology to listen to you. Speaker 3 00:19:11 Oh yeah. Right, Speaker 2 00:19:11 Right. You know, cuz Alexa, you put an Alexa in your house, she's constantly listening. Yeah. You know, if you don't like that idea, which is, that's why I went with Apple Apples securities a little better than some of the others. They're not always listening. She listens for the keywords of Hey Siri. But you can, you can get certain products that don't require that sort of thing. Like Sonos, you can get a Sonos system that sets up in your house, that runs all of your, your smart speaker stuff just like that. But it's, they're just not smart. Sure, sure. They're not listening to you. Speaker 3 00:19:45 Right. Right. Well, I agree. That's a good one. That's a good addition. You know, another really great place in the house to do something very romantic is the master bedroom. Speaker 2 00:19:56 Well, of Speaker 3 00:19:57 Course. I mean, that is, that is the epicenter of romanticism. Speaker 2 00:20:01 Like what, what do you, what do you, what would you do in your master bedroom to spruce it up and make it more romantic? Speaker 3 00:20:07 Well, I can tell you what the very last thing was that I Speaker 2 00:20:10 Did. Family friendly. Speaker 3 00:20:11 Yeah. The very last thing that I did in the master bedroom, uh, is we, I just put a fresh coat of paint on the wall. You know, we hadn't actually painted the master bedroom since we built the house in 2006. Wow. And so the paint in there was, well, because I feel like all of the other house, the entertaining portions of the home, the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, you know, those things always get addressed first where you are entertaining and other people are coming to see. And that's the most important part of the house. The master bedroom honestly, has been the last thing to be addressed after so many different things. After remodeling the bathroom and remodeling the kitchen and replacing the flooring and the whole first floor of the house, you know, replaced the flooring twice mm-hmm. <affirmative> actually mm-hmm. <affirmative> and had never still done anything with the master bedroom. So we finally started putting together a list of things that we wanted to do in the master bedroom. And that started with putting a fresh coat of paint on the wall. Speaker 2 00:21:14 That's a pretty good one. I mean, that's an easy one. If you wanted to surprise your significant other, you could get that done in a couple days. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:21:22 You know, they talk about colors, you talk about how colors affect mood and emotions. And I can tell you that whether or not the color that used to be on the walls in the master bedroom, whether or not that's a color that, um, that it brings negative emotion, <laugh>, Speaker 2 00:21:42 Uh, it does not bring joy after Speaker 3 00:21:44 You've been looking at it for 15 years. It brings negative emotion. <laugh>, regardless of what color it is, the same color for so many years will eventually grade on you. And you being able to change the emotional feel or the mood of a room by painting the walls is almost a guarantee. Yeah. Now, it doesn't guarantee that it's gonna get better because it depends on what color you use, but choosing a color with your mate, your wife's husband, partner, whatever it is, choosing that color and deciding on it and then changing the color of the room will definitely make the room more inviting and most certainly more romantic as well. Well, Speaker 2 00:22:25 It's your little oasis. You want your master bedroom, you want you to go in there, you want to feel good, you wanna sleep well. And yeah. I mean, a color coat of paint that's so easy. I will give you a tip. If you're gonna paint in the bedroom, I recommend using low vo o c paint. Vo o c stands for volatile organic compounds. If you don't buy O V O C paint, it's not the end of the world. Speaker 3 00:22:49 But low V Yeah, low Speaker 2 00:22:50 V o c, you know, it's, uh, it's got smell that lingers and it hangs out for a long time and it constantly off gasses these things. So if you're sensitive to that or if you're, you're significant other sensitive to that, buy low v o c paint. Speaker 3 00:23:04 It's funny because years ago on the show, we had a, we had a representative from Miller Paint came on, I remember, and we were talking about all things paint. It was a very paint type show. But he comes on and starts talking about this product that they sell, that you can paint the walls, and it actually is an odor eater. This paint that they put on the wall actually absorbs odors out of the air, making the indoor air inside that room cleaner. I remember that to breathe. And Speaker 2 00:23:38 I thought to make that product, I believe, Speaker 3 00:23:40 I thought to myself, man, that is amazing what they can do. Speaker 2 00:23:43 You're like, I need that for my bathroom <laugh>. Speaker 3 00:23:46 And, and on top of that, repainting a room is something that you can do in one day. And since, you know, Valentine's Day is not actually here yet, starting to plan that, um, very moderate upgrade in whatever room you choose is something you can still do between now and then, and it's not terribly Speaker 2 00:24:07 Expensive. I agree. All right, here's another one. This is one that I still need to do in my house. It's actually the number one thing on my wife's list for me to get done is our fireplace. Renovating our fireplace. Speaker 3 00:24:20 Wait, wait, wait. You just renovated the fireplace. You took two logs and a light fixture <laugh>, and you put a, a fire burning light bulb in it, tucked it into your fireplace, plugged it in, and it looked like from behind the wood, this sort of flickering orange, uh, shadow was coming out. And that was sort of a, something you did right before Christmas. Speaker 2 00:24:45 This was the weirdest thing that I've, uh, come up with Speaker 3 00:24:48 <laugh>. I absolutely loved it. I thought it was great. Speaker 2 00:24:50 I, I, yeah, I basically took a log and I bought some of those, you know, light fixtures that Speaker 3 00:24:58 Like a porcelain light fixture that you'd have in a garage. Yeah, yeah, Speaker 2 00:25:01 Exactly. Like your classic, it Speaker 3 00:25:02 Was a pole string sort of Speaker 2 00:25:04 Thing. Yeah. Just like that. But it did, they didn't have the pollster stringing and they were plastic. So basically what I did was I turned 'em upside down and I got four of 'em and I screwed them down to the log and I wired them together using the, the correct wire and out from that, an extension cord with a little switch on it. And then I bought these, I dunno if you've ever seen them, but these l e d flame bulbs that, that look like flame, right? Speaker 3 00:25:34 Yeah. It's like orange and red sort of, and it's flickery Yeah. Speaker 2 00:25:36 Back and forth. And they just kind of glimmer in their like, like fire. Yeah. So I screwed those into the things and this was like a total idea that I had that I thought would look cool. And I put it together and I spray painted everything, all the, the bases black and the bulbs themselves, they just kind of like blend in and I stuck it in there with some other logs and things and Yeah. And it's my fake. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:26:02 I absolutely love it. I Speaker 2 00:26:04 Remember ambience fire when Speaker 3 00:26:05 You pointed it out to me and I was like, oh, you hadn't had a fire in that fireplace since you moved in here? I don't think. Speaker 2 00:26:10 Yeah. A couple times, but yeah. No, it's, it's like a old school wood burning fireplace. Yeah. It's terrible. Yeah. But here's the funny thing, I also plugged it into a smart plug that works with my Apple home kit, and so I would tell Siri to turn on the fireplace and then the lights would turn on and it would be glowing in the background of the fireplace. <laugh>. Speaker 3 00:26:33 Yeah. That's awesome. So as I think about the fireplace that you have in this is sort of in your dining room off your kitchen area. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, as I think about that, that fireplace, it looks like it's got kind of, um, a very old school white sort of maybe marble tile with some Yeah. Gold flake in it. Yep. It looks aged. Yeah. I mean, not aged, like it's old. It looks antique. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:26:59 It, it's, it's outdated for sure. The, uh, it also has a glass front mm-hmm. Speaker 3 00:27:05 <affirmative> with brass, brass bras, brass, bright brass, which, Speaker 2 00:27:07 And the glass itself is smoked over from maybe from years past Speaker 3 00:27:11 Of Speaker 2 00:27:11 Oh yeah. Fires that have been burned in that fireplace. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:27:15 It's got kind of an undersized mantle up on top. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:27:18 The mantles really puny <laugh>. It's painted white. Yeah. Has like fluted wood that comes down the sides of it. It just Speaker 3 00:27:25 Looks terrible. And then up from the tile hearth, the tile hearth up from that. You painted the brick. Speaker 2 00:27:31 We didn't actually paint the brick. It's not painted. It's actually just brick color. Speaker 3 00:27:35 Oh, is it? Oh, I thought Speaker 2 00:27:37 Original brick color. Okay. Speaker 3 00:27:38 And why I was thinking that it had been painted white. Speaker 2 00:27:41 We want to, you know what's funny is actually the very top, like the top brick layer where it meets the ceiling is painted white. Speaker 3 00:27:49 Oh. Maybe that's what I'm Speaker 2 00:27:49 Mean. And I don't know why, but for some reason it is. Speaker 3 00:27:53 I remember you and I, um, I remember you and I walked through a street of Dreams home years ago, and they had put brick on the wall in one of the bedrooms and painted it white. Speaker 2 00:28:05 Yeah. It looked Speaker 3 00:28:05 Awesome. And I was like, man, that seemed so retro, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but it was brand spanking new mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that was pretty cool. You can have a look. Something like, what, what will your plans be? Have you given this thought Speaker 2 00:28:19 Already? We have been giving it thought. Uh, basically I want to tear off all the whole facade. It's all brick, which is fine. I'll leave that. I may just paint the brick white or something, and then I'm gonna build a brand new heavy duty mantle. Maybe have it stained wood or clear coated wood, something fresh and modern. But Speaker 3 00:28:42 You don't think you will sheet rock over the brick? Speaker 2 00:28:46 I don't think so. I don't have any plan to at this point, but I think, Speaker 3 00:28:52 I think painted white will look really Speaker 2 00:28:53 Cool. Yeah. I think it would look cool. The, some of the problem though that I have is not all brick is the same painted brick. You know, sometimes you get those old bricks that have weird patterns in them. Yeah. And they just look old themselves. The actual brick looks old. Yeah. So, I don't know. I haven't quite decided yet, but that is the next project on my list. I'm not sure I can get it done by Valentine's Day, but <laugh> I'll Speaker 3 00:29:17 Try. So you're gonna, you're gonna paint, you're maybe paint the brick or, or find a way to reface that. You're gonna replace the mantle mm-hmm. <affirmative> with something big and chunky. Yes. And maybe stained, you Speaker 2 00:29:29 Said? Yes. New glass doors you can replace, Speaker 3 00:29:31 Replace the glass doors. Speaker 2 00:29:33 I may in I, what I really want to do is put a gas insert in a gas fireplace. Oh, okay. A gas log. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> log that is down the road. Potentially. Maybe I Speaker 3 00:29:45 Don't, if you, if you were to put an insert in an existing fireplace, is that a project that will require a permit? Speaker 2 00:29:52 A hundred percent. Yes. Speaker 3 00:29:53 Definitely. Right? Speaker 2 00:29:54 Yeah. You have to have a permit whenever you're doing anything with gas. So it would have to be split off from the meter, dug down under, I have a patio there already, a brick patio so that if we'd have to take up patio bricks, dig down, come over, back up, punch it through, and you'd have to have all that inspected. Speaker 3 00:30:14 What if you were replacing it with a fire burning a wood stove, um, and you were using a wood stove insert to put into your fireplace. Speaker 2 00:30:22 So Speaker 3 00:30:23 Require a permit, you think? Speaker 2 00:30:24 Yes, absolutely. Uh, you have to actually have them installed and inspected professionally. Oh, Speaker 3 00:30:30 Okay. All Speaker 2 00:30:31 Right. That's very it. And there's weird rules and regulations on that now. You'd have to definitely check with your local jurisdiction because some jurisdictions don't even allow wood burning inserts at all. Speaker 3 00:30:44 Really? Yeah. Speaker 2 00:30:46 So you have to be like grandfathered in or I don't really, I don't want to get into it. Sure, sure. Cause I don't know the ins and outs Speaker 3 00:30:51 Of it. Right. I'm just asking you what you thought. Um, and, but you did say you're replacing the tile, the hearth tile. Yeah, the tile hearth. Sorry. Yes. Speaker 2 00:30:58 We're basically, we want to redo it just so it looks nice. It's more of a centerpiece of our kitchen dining room area. Speaker 3 00:31:06 You intend to add lighting around it? Speaker 2 00:31:09 No, I don't think so. I already have lights in the ceiling that are articulating or, or Speaker 3 00:31:14 Spotlight. Oh, directional. Speaker 2 00:31:15 Yeah. That we put a piece of art up there and it lights up the Speaker 3 00:31:17 Piece of our Oh, okay. Cool. Cool. Well that sounds like a, that sounds like a romantic upgrade. Speaker 2 00:31:24 It definitely will be when it's done. Yeah. Speaker 3 00:31:28 <laugh>. Well, I'll tell you what my next project a as of course, we've started in the master bedroom and the intention is to remodel the master closet as well as the master bathroom. Speaker 2 00:31:40 Oh yeah. Speaker 3 00:31:40 Remodeling the master bathroom for me is going to be the most romantic project I've ever taken on The bathroom is definitely a place of self-reflection and, you know, it it, or that is to say that it can be Speaker 2 00:31:56 Yeah. Your personal spa. Speaker 3 00:31:57 Yeah. So I'm gonna be looking for a spa-like bathroom upgrade and it starts with a jetted tub. Speaker 2 00:32:07 A jetted soaking Speaker 3 00:32:08 Tub. Yeah. I mean, I looked at just soakers and I looked at jetted soakers, uh, a soaker. Of course, you, you fill it up with hot water and it, it, it is exactly what it is. It's just hot water in a tub, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> a freestanding tub, but you can also get a jetted soaker tub and the jetted tub is moving water in and out of the tub and also filtering it at the same time and reheating it at the same time. Oh. So, you know, in, in a soaker tub, you're filling it up with hot water and it's hot water until it's not. But in a jetted tub, it, it can reheat. That's Speaker 2 00:32:46 Water. You all wrinkled up and it's time to get out. Speaker 3 00:32:48 Oh no. But you stay in the jetted tub for, you know, just like your hot tub. Sure. Except for this is much smaller and goes <laugh> in the bathroom, in your bathroom. Right. Speaker 2 00:32:58 Uh, what about a walk-in shower? Speaker 3 00:33:00 It is, for me, a walk-in shower is a very romantic edition. A definitely a Valentine's Day type project. Speaker 2 00:33:08 Dual shower heads. Speaker 3 00:33:09 Oh yeah. Like rain heads that you've got a shower head on the wall and a shower head on the, on the ceiling and you are just like completely and totally engulfed in water. I, if you want to. I love Speaker 2 00:33:24 That. I agree. What about heated flooring? Speaker 3 00:33:27 The heated, you know, we, we recently did a, um, we recently did a, a, a remodel for my mother-in-law and we added heat to the floors. The project is actually not that difficult and it's also actually not that expensive. I really think that's something I want to do in the master bathroom. We don't have, um, we, we don't currently have tile floors, so we haven't been able to understand what it's about to walk around on cold tile. But, um, having heat in the floor to heat the tile so that the tile's not cold when you go into the bathroom in the wintertime, which it would be almost for sure. Speaker 2 00:34:04 I know I a hundred percent regret not putting in, we just remodeled our bathroom a couple years ago and I regret not putting in the heated floors. I said it over and over and over that I was going to do it, but it became cost prohibitive. We would've had to have had an electrical contractor come out who they would've added wiring, which wasn't easy to do because of where my panel is located in regards to that master bathroom. So I would've had to have torn out sheetrock in multiple rooms just to get the wire ran back there. It just didn't make sense. Yeah. It would've cost me an arm and a leg just to get that done. So we ended up not doing it and I still regret Speaker 3 00:34:47 It. Well, it's gonna be a lot easier for me to do it because I will have all of the drywall off the walls. I'm gonna have bear studs everywhere up there. Yeah. Cuz we're redoing the whole thing, Speaker 2 00:34:56 So. Well, and your electrical, your electrical panel is more accessible. Mine is in a weird spot because of a, a remodel that was done in the eighties right Speaker 3 00:35:07 Before Speaker 2 00:35:08 We bought our house. So they actually moved the panel to a spot that's you fit, you literally cannot get at it without tearing out the entire ceiling. Right. It's dumb but Speaker 3 00:35:19 Dumb. You know, here's something else that you can do in the master bathroom that doesn't have to be a major project. You know, oftentimes homes, especially new homes when they install the mirror, it's just a plate. It's a plate of mirror and it's installed with mirror clips and it's big and it covers, um, a big area, but it's not really romantic, it's just not a romantic thing. If you can go out and buy a ornate, sort of framed mirror that is the size that you need it to be and hang a framed mirror on the wall in the bathroom, it really changes the look of the bathroom and definitely is give you more of a romantic feel Speaker 2 00:36:05 In there. I agree with that. That's a good one. Speaker 3 00:36:07 And here's something that my bathroom does not have enough of currently, and we are gonna fix that. Is storage a place to put, now I'm not talking about a medicine cabinet, I'm talking about a place for towels and washcloths and toilet Speaker 2 00:36:22 Paper. Speaker 3 00:36:23 All of the things that you need in a bathroom. Currently, Speaker 2 00:36:25 Costco, boxes of deodorant. Currently, Speaker 3 00:36:27 If I want, when I go to take my shower, I have to go down the hall to the closet where the towels and washcloths are and carry them back to the bathroom. I'd like to just walk into the bathroom and have all of that already there. So added storage in the master bathroom is definitely a way to go. Speaker 2 00:36:44 Yeah, I agree with that because nothing is romantic about walking in and seeing <laugh> piles of towels and, you know Yeah. Toilet paper stacks. Speaker 3 00:36:57 Yeah. Nothing is also romantic about walking down the hallway to get your towel before you <laugh> go into the bathroom. Speaker 2 00:37:03 Here's a cool one. You could put in your new master bathroom. Yeah. A heated towel rack. Speaker 3 00:37:07 Ooh, that is a good one. How about a heated toilet seat? Speaker 2 00:37:10 Ooh, that's also a good one in a bidet toilet seat. Speaker 3 00:37:13 Ooh. And here's a way Speaker 2 00:37:15 To keep it after the toilet paper crisis of 2019. <laugh> required the day required. Speaker 3 00:37:21 And the last thing I'll mention about the bathroom, when you finish it up and you're decorating the inside and get it all done, add some live growing plants in the bathroom. You have them in the kitchen, you have them in the family room or the living room. Add some to the master bathroom. That was a really romantic touch. I agree. For the master bathroom, and it's good for the Speaker 2 00:37:42 Air quote. And of course dim lighting. Speaker 3 00:37:45 <laugh> and dim lighting. Speaker 2 00:37:45 Yeah. Add a Speaker 3 00:37:46 Dimmer. Absolutely. Speaker 2 00:37:47 All right. Uh, next one on our list is a wine cellar. A wine cellar is, if you're into wine, is an amazing addition to a house. Some people build them in their basement. You don't necessarily have to, you just have to find a nice temperature controlled cool area with very dim lighting to install a wine cellar. <laugh>. Speaker 3 00:38:08 Is that why wine cellars are so often in the basement? Yes, absolutely. Because of no light and cool temperatures. Speaker 2 00:38:15 A hundred percent. That Speaker 3 00:38:16 Is interesting. I never, I'm, I, I'm really, I like whining. I'm not really Speaker 2 00:38:23 <laugh>. You're a Speaker 3 00:38:24 Winer. Yeah. I'm not really into wine, but I like whining. Speaker 2 00:38:27 You're not a Hawaiian no Speaker 3 00:38:29 <laugh>. Um, but it's interesting. I never really thought about that. That's why wine is kept in the cellar cuz it's cool. Yeah. And there's low, low light. What is it about light? Why do you not want there to be light? Speaker 2 00:38:42 The light enters the bottle and des destroys the, the wine slowly. So if you have really good wine and you want to keep it for a long time, you ha you need to keep it out of the light. Speaker 3 00:38:55 Where would you, if you were building a wine cellar in your home mm-hmm. <affirmative>, whether it be in the basement or in a room somewhere, where would you go to buy the racks that you would put the wine bottles on? I think of a wine cellar and it's just loaded with racks. Speaker 2 00:39:12 Yeah. We've been to some street of dreams houses over the years where Yeah, you walk into their wine cellar and it's like, you know, 200 bottles of wine. Do, do you Speaker 3 00:39:21 Make those racks or do you buy them somewhere? Speaker 2 00:39:24 Yeah, I think they're all mostly custom made. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I'm sure you can buy wine racks, but in a situation like that, you see they would go in and make 'em hand make them and install them out of something beautiful like ash or oak. Speaker 3 00:39:39 Um, I, I think if you were going to, okay, so let's just address a couple of things quickly. If you're not putting it in this basement and you're putting it in a room and you're making sure that your temperature controls there, so you have to have AC in there to keep it cool in the summertime and you're gonna be controlling your lighting, so you're don't wanna have windows probably in your wine cellar. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> if it's in, if it's on the main level. Um, what about ventilation? Speaker 2 00:40:05 Uh, would Speaker 3 00:40:06 You add some kind of like a bath fan or something in the ceiling? Speaker 2 00:40:10 Yeah. You, you definitely need them to have proper ventilation and temp, you know, temperature regulated because you need to keep them hum. Humidity down to prevent mold. Speaker 3 00:40:20 Oh, Speaker 2 00:40:20 Okay. The corks on wine is literally just cork. So if they get wet, they will grow mold. Speaker 3 00:40:27 Wait, Speaker 2 00:40:28 Cork is ruining your Speaker 3 00:40:28 Wine. Cork is made out of cork. Cork Speaker 2 00:40:31 <laugh>. It's a natural cork Speaker 3 00:40:33 <laugh>. It's natural from the cork tree? Speaker 2 00:40:34 Yes. Speaker 3 00:40:34 Okay, good. Uh, here's my last question. Before we started this show today, we were talking about a wine cellar and, um, and I ask you if, if there's traditionally an area to taste wine in the wine cellar <laugh> or if the wine cellar was just for storing wine. I believed that a wine cellar was just where you went to get the wine. I didn't think of it as having a table and chairs and a candle and, you know, that kind of a thing. Speaker 2 00:41:03 Well, I think it depends on if you have room. I've seen some wine sellers that have beautiful little tasting areas where you can hang out and enjoy a glass or a bottle with some, you know, food and whatnot and friends. I think that's a really, really cool thing to have. I wonder if you've got a basement or something. I Speaker 3 00:41:22 Wonder if they have candles that smell like a wine cellar <laugh>, like, you know, wine cellar scented candles. I'm Speaker 2 00:41:29 Not sure what a wine cellar smells like. Speaker 3 00:41:31 It's dank Speaker 2 00:41:31 Because I don't usually Speaker 3 00:41:32 It's Speaker 2 00:41:33 A little, well then it's not properly temperature and humidity control. Speaker 3 00:41:36 Well, I think the humidity is high Speaker 2 00:41:38 In there. I don't think you want 'em dank smelling <laugh>. Speaker 3 00:41:41 Well, I don't know. I don't have one, but it does either, but it does seem like a very romantic thing. And we are in wine country after all. Speaker 2 00:41:48 A hundred percent. Speaker 3 00:41:49 I mean that's, uh, that's happening around Speaker 2 00:41:51 Here for Willamette Valley is, we're well known for our pinots. Speaker 3 00:41:56 Okay. Here's another room that's questionable as to whether or not is considered romantic. Traditionally, when I think of the kitchen, I don't traditionally think of it as a romantic type room. What can we do in the kitchen to make it more Speaker 2 00:42:17 Romantic besides dimmers? Speaker 3 00:42:18 <laugh>? Well, of course we've covered dimmer switches. I Speaker 2 00:42:21 Know, I know, I know. Which we, Speaker 3 00:42:22 Which we did Speaker 2 00:42:23 Really good. I mean, any project, I think any project you do in the kitchen to improve the organization and the feel of it. Okay. If you feel, if it feels like a gourmet kitchen, then you can have a romantic dinner there or you can cook a romantic dinner there if it's, you know, new counter, whether that's new countertops or maybe a farmhouse sink. A chandelier. Speaker 3 00:42:48 Ooh, a chandelier is romantic. That much is true. I don't think I've ever seen a chandelier in a kitchen. Speaker 2 00:42:54 I have. Have you? Oh yeah. A hundred percent. Speaker 3 00:42:57 Interesting. Yeah. Uh, chandelier is very Speaker 2 00:43:00 Romantic. If you've got tall ceilings, you know, there's an opportunity there to put a nice chandelier in your kitchen. Speaker 3 00:43:07 Well, you so custom cabinetry as opposed to the old cabinets that are in the kitchen now, depending on how old your house is, but you have custom cabinets in your kitchen. Speaker 2 00:43:20 I do. Speaker 3 00:43:21 They're pretty romantic Speaker 2 00:43:22 Actually. Speaker 3 00:43:22 They're very No, they really are. Yeah. Wells. The kitchen is pretty, Speaker 2 00:43:26 Here's a couple things that we have in our kitchen that I was gonna suggest that I wouldn't call necessarily romantic, but as a, any, like I said, anything that makes it nice and organized and feeling good. For instance, your drawers or your, say you have under your under cabinets are just shelves. You, we have in ours, we don't have any shelves. We have drawers. Speaker 3 00:43:50 Well, you do have one set at the end of the island. Speaker 2 00:43:54 Oh yeah. That's a little shelf, Speaker 3 00:43:55 Just a little, just one spot where you have some lower shelves at Speaker 2 00:43:59 The end of the end. Yeah. Open for like cookbooks and whatnot. Yeah. Yep. But for the most part, all of our lower cabinets when you open the doors are drawer drawers. Full extension drawers. Speaker 3 00:44:08 Yeah. They look like cabinets. Correct. But they're drawers Speaker 2 00:44:11 In there. And that's actually a fairly easy thing to do. You can actually remodel your cabinets that are already there, take the shelving out and install full extension drawers in Speaker 3 00:44:21 There. Interesting. Speaker 2 00:44:22 So I would recommend doing that. Another thing that you can do if you don't already have them are soft clothes hinges. That adds a nice little touch of luxury to your, your kitchen. Especially if you have kids and they're slamming those doors and all you hear is that wack every time they get something out of the kitchen, <laugh> soft clothes hinges. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> won't ruin the mood Speaker 3 00:44:41 On your doors and drawers. Correct. Soft clothes, drawers and doors. Yeah. Here, how about this? This seems like something that it seems romantic. What about a built-in bar? Speaker 2 00:44:53 Yeah, I Speaker 3 00:44:54 Agree. I mean, you have kind of an area where you have just, you know, some types of things. Some glasses and some things. Speaker 2 00:45:00 A little martini shaker. Speaker 3 00:45:02 Yeah. You have a little, a little area, but it's more like a, it's more like a, I don't even know, like a antique piece of furniture kind of that it's sitting on. Speaker 2 00:45:12 Uh, yeah. Yeah. It's uh, it's, yeah, like an old barn and it has some wine racks in it. Yeah. So we keep all of that stuff in there. It's Speaker 3 00:45:19 A pretty cool little, it's kind of like a built-in bars. It's Speaker 2 00:45:22 Like a, that's where we go to fix our, you know, weekend. Your Speaker 3 00:45:27 Cosmopolitan, Speaker 2 00:45:27 Our we our weekend martinis. Speaker 3 00:45:29 Sand in the shorts. Speaker 2 00:45:30 Sand in the shorts. Speaker 3 00:45:32 What is that? I don't know. What's the name of a drink? I Speaker 2 00:45:34 Think, I think you made that up. Speaker 3 00:45:35 I might have. Um, how about your range hood? Would you think of your range hood, which I'm picturing right now as romantic Speaker 2 00:45:45 <laugh>? Well, again, if you're talking about Roman, you know, I equate a romantic kitchen with luxury, right? Yes. You want it, you want it to be luxurious. Yes. Yes. And your average range hood, you know, in a, in a production house or you know, a lot of older houses you would see Speaker 3 00:46:04 Minimal. Well, Speaker 2 00:46:05 The microwave. You would see the microwave. Speaker 3 00:46:07 Oh sure. That's pretty Speaker 2 00:46:08 Common. Built-in slash range hood microwave over the stove. In my opinion, I would make that a dedicated range hood and put the microwave somewhere Speaker 3 00:46:18 Else. Right. Which you have done Speaker 2 00:46:20 That. That we, that was the first thing we did. Speaker 3 00:46:22 I can tell you in our design, the range hood that came out of your old kitchen was not romantic. Speaker 2 00:46:27 No, it wasn't even connected Speaker 3 00:46:29 <laugh>. Was it? Bear wires hanging out of the back of it. Speaker 2 00:46:32 It was bear wires pumping. It was pumping that air up through Speaker 3 00:46:35 'em Right into your attic. Yeah, Speaker 2 00:46:37 It was, yeah. Unbelievably Speaker 3 00:46:38 Terrible. Okay. This is the last one on the list here, um, for the kitchen upgrade. And it is a pot filler, which I can tell you right now. I know my wife wants <laugh>. A pot filler. Speaker 2 00:46:50 Yeah. See that's the thing. Anything luxurious if, if she wants it, I think it's, it's very good. Speaker 3 00:46:57 It's going to make, it's very good Valentine's. It's going to be romance points deposited into my account. Yes. That's what, that's what this whole thing is Speaker 2 00:47:06 About. But now let's just see you get that done by Valentine's Day. Well Speaker 3 00:47:09 Maybe Valentine's Day 2024 <laugh>. Speaker 2 00:47:12 Maybe you, Speaker 3 00:47:13 Maybe <laugh>. Speaker 2 00:47:15 All right, cool. Well, I think we've covered just about everything. Hopeful. We definitely Speaker 3 00:47:18 Talked about some romantic d IY upgrades and a little bit of, you know, potentially maybe needing a contractor, you know, if you're gonna put it in insert in the, the fireplace. That was a very good point. Speaker 2 00:47:30 Yeah. And permits. Speaker 3 00:47:31 And permits. But, uh, but most of this stuff's some DIY stuff and um, if you get out there and get on it right away could benefit you. Speaker 2 00:47:40 Absolutely. Hey, if you like this show, make sure you hit the, uh, subscribe button, turn on notifications so you get about all of our new shows. We're gonna be trying to come out with these every single week. Yes. Tony and I used to broadcast locally on our radio station here in the Pacific Northwest, but now we're straight podcasts. So yes. Hopefully our listeners are finding this. And, uh, don't forget to check out our YouTube channel. We're, uh, we've just busted a thousand subscribers, so we've got tons of videos we're putting up there. YouTube shorts, Instagram, you can follow us, WW Home Show. So go check that out. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time. Have Speaker 3 00:48:17 A great week.