My tips to fixing outdated design or design mistakes on a project

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[00:00:26] Eric Goranson: When it comes to remodeling

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[00:00:32] Eric Goranson: you covered. This

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[00:00:35] Eric Goranson: House. Around the House show is brought to you by Pyramid Heating Cooling. Serving in Oregon, the Portland metro area, and Bend, Oregon, they are your one stop shop for heating and cooling and indoor air quality.

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[00:01:08] Eric Goranson: I know people have been dealing with weather all across the country. This last week, we were 102, 105 degrees, which is really hot for us. And my thoughts to all the people down in Texas and everywhere else it's been dealing with. All of the hurricanes and bad weather and everything else, tropical storms going across.

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[00:01:44] Eric Goranson: Or it's just something that you inherited when you bought the house and it was somebody else's mistake that they made. Designs, you can end up with unintended consequences. You're like, okay, this is good. This is what I think it's going to be. And then it doesn't always turn out. [00:02:00] And that's just the one thing with, especially with DIY projects or when you're hiring somebody and they're not great at communicating with you, what you want, these are things that happen and there's sometimes easy or even tougher ways to fix it, depending on what you're trying to do.

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[00:02:31] Eric Goranson: And if you want to have a conversation with me about your project, 8 That number again in the studio here is 8 9 41. And if you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house online. com and then make sure you follow us on social media. And we do have our own closed group over on Facebook.

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[00:03:10] Eric Goranson: And it's, it's a place that I've meant to be just a safe place for everybody to share their projects and good advice. There's people over there that are world renowned architects to designers to contractors you've seen on your favorite HG or DIY network or Magnolia TV show. You'd be surprised who comes on there.

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[00:03:48] Eric Goranson: So there's no bots or anything like that. If you don't check out, you don't come on. It's that simple. Today, I wanted to talk about these projects because it's, uh, one of the most common questions that I get from people is, [00:04:00] okay, how do I fix this? And I had a great question that came in from Kathleen from New York about this.

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[00:04:23] Eric Goranson: Let's go ahead to that call from Kathleen. Welcome to Around the House, Kathleen.

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[00:05:00] Caller 1: I would say three inches out from the cabinet And it's a place where you turn to go into another room and the other piece of granite It's in the kitchen area comes out to about two inches too far So it's really cutting off The walking space and turning space. It's just like me eating at me since I had it done, but you don't realize Living in a place for a while that Granted isn't I just was wondering if it if there's any way I could get somebody into sizes differently But it's you know, it's just a silly question, I guess No,

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[00:05:40] Eric Goranson: It's a good one. And here's what I would say is traditionally like a kitchen cabinet 24 inches deep plus the door. So you're 25. And so the countertop should go about a half inch beyond the face of that door. And when you go beyond that, you run into problems. And so you've. It's got a problem there and that's okay.

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[00:06:14] Eric Goranson: The problem is that traditionally when they cut that stuff, they use water. And so it's, it's very messy because if you dry cut it, then you have problems with silica dust and everything else, which is not good for your health. So I would see if there's someone in your area that does like granite restoration or granite repairs, where they come in and do epoxy work.

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[00:06:58] Eric Goranson: And so you [00:07:00] basically have to, yeah, you have to find somebody to cut it in place, which is going to be a little tough.

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[00:07:08] Eric Goranson: Yeah. It's a tough one. It's a tough one. Because even the. On the 10 years ago, you would see the professionals come in there and someone might do it, but because of all the new silica dust regulations, uh, it's made it really hard for them to do that without water.

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[00:07:30] Caller 1: I know. I understand. It's a, it could be a difficult situation and the piece is pretty large and there's always the other side large.

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[00:07:59] Eric Goranson: that's, [00:08:00] the technology's out there to cut it, but it still makes it the same old mess that it has for a thousand years, if you know what I mean.

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[00:08:18] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. Same old stuff.

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[00:08:28] Caller 1: I enjoy it very much.

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[00:08:50] Eric Goranson: There's just really a tough time, even removing granite countertops. I've only had over the years, probably a 50 percent rate of even getting [00:09:00] them taken back off the cabinets without breaking them about half the time. The next question here, what I want to do before we go out to break, and I'll tease you with this one right here, can you change out those glass door cabinets back into regular storage?

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[00:09:30] Eric Goranson: Just as soon as Around the House returns. Don't go anywhere.

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[00:09:56] Intro: So many [00:10:00] people.

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[00:10:20] Eric Goranson: If you want to find out more about us, if you want to get ahold of me here, you can give us a call at the studio at 8 That's toll free across the U S. 833 239 4144. And if you want to make us a comment or send us a note, you can head over to around online. com and you can check out the podcast there. Of course, the TV show, as well as all of our YouTube videos and stuff.

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[00:11:00] Eric Goranson: So the question I had here that somebody had offered me was, can you change out those glass door cabinets back into regular storage? And the first thing is trying to come up with how they installed that glass in there. Now, if it's just routed out in the back of the cabinet, one way to do this, that can be sneaky is if it's a paint color, you can take that door.

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[00:11:43] Eric Goranson: It could be one of those. And then with them, you might be able to find the right stuff where you could actually go in there and. Get the right name, color number, all that stuff. You might be able to still get parts for it. Now the wood might not match as well, but they could still have it, especially if it's a newer kitchen.[00:12:00]

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[00:12:32] Eric Goranson: Now, if you've got mullions in there, it might not look so bad and it could be a way to do that without doing it. Now, another way to do that. Would be to go in there and put in maybe a smoked glass or something like that goes with everything or a frosted glass. You can't see what's inside. Now you'll still see colors maybe through there, but maybe a frosted glass could do it as well if you don't want to try to match that paint or stain.

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[00:13:10] Eric Goranson: So play around with your options, what might be good for your kitchen, especially if it's an older one. It can be tough to come up with those stain colors and get something that matches. And for instance, if you've got hard rock maple, it's going to have yellowed. So if you get the exact same color, it's going to be too light.

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[00:13:47] Eric Goranson: And you can reclaim that for more groceries. So that's another way to do it. Now, next up here, number three on my list here is how to change bad wallpaper or wall art that is [00:14:00] outdated. Now, this can be a challenge we've seen over the last, Oh, probably eight years or so we've seen people put up. And take 1x2s or 1x1s and they'll staple on a wall, they'll put some pattern on there, and then they'll paint it.

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[00:14:36] Eric Goranson: I'll be honest. If you're going to do this as a DIY project, instead of spending all that time, it might be easier to just put up another coat of drywall over the top of that and call it a day. It might be easier. It might be faster. Most contractors I know of, they do not strip wallpaper off of drywall.

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[00:15:18] Eric Goranson: And now that's the challenge though if you've got, you've taken off those boards And you've got that fish scale design that's now going to show up to the paint. So ways to do that would be to go through and basically retexture that wall. So skim coat and retexture is probably going to be the most cost effective way to do that.

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[00:15:58] Eric Goranson: And the same thing goes, if you're going to be putting [00:16:00] wallpaper up on that again, and maybe it's a textured wall and you're like, Hey, wallpapers back. I want to use it. That's when you want to go through and skim coat that wall. You can put some of these thicker wallpapers up behind it as a backer to cover up that texture and then put another wallpaper over the top of that.

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[00:16:36] Eric Goranson: And, if it's one of the ones that comes off, it'll come off a little bit easier with that paint on there, and it's good just to go ahead and seal that up. So that's a great way to deal with that. So, that's it. That can be a lot of work undoing those things. We had one when I was a little kid, I'll tell you this quick story before we go out to break.

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[00:17:13] Eric Goranson: And they painted all on there with multiple coats. And I remember with my parents, they came up with a good way since I liked posters and stuff, we put poster board on that entire wall so I could hang all my rock and roll posters from the seventies up there in eighties. And it worked out really well.

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[00:17:48] Eric Goranson: All right. Hey, if you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house online. com and we're going to be talking here about all the fixing design mistakes in your home. All those things that are going to happen. Maybe it's that project that somebody [00:18:00] else tackled before you got there, or it's something that seemed like a good idea at the time.

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[00:18:23] Eric Goranson: The time. But can be super dated later. If you're going to hang up some paneling or new something, do something up there. Maybe it's smart not to put construction adhesive up on that wall. Maybe it's safe to nail it. Maybe it's a few more nails are easier to patch. And when you try to take construction adhesive off of paneling, We're putting up these acoustic walls right now that look beautiful.

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[00:18:57] Intro: After[00:19:00]

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[00:19:15] Eric Goranson: I have that in my home and I've had to do changes just because I went, that is not turning out how I wanted to. I did a segment here just for the around the house, Northwest TV show where we are installing wallpaper and this wallpaper. Was so low quality, I tore it down and took it back. Yep, started putting it up there and I'm like, this stuff was no different than peel and stick stuff you'd put in the bottom.

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[00:20:00] Eric Goranson: That number again is 4 1 4 4. Now, one thing if I'm not here in the studio and you call, cause we get. This show gets played on the radio anytime, 24 seven on the podcast. And of course, over about five time zones during the week. So it's one of those things that I might not be in the studio when you call depending on when this is airing, but I will give you a call back.

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[00:20:41] Eric Goranson: So if you have engineered hardwood floors that are pre finished or bamboo, for instance, that are, there's a lot of different hardwoods that you see out there for floors, but there's kind of two main styles. You have your solid plank, which is maybe three quarters of an inch, most likely. And then you have the engineered stuff, which is a [00:21:00] plywood composite panel with a wood veneer on top.

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[00:21:28] Eric Goranson: The next problem is that veneer on many of those are not as thick as the, your thumbnail. So it is so minor as far as you could over sand that and ruin the entire floor. So really that stuff to me is, you know, maybe you can scuff it and put another clear coat over the top of it if you're lucky, but really that floor is not meant to be refinished.

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[00:22:13] Eric Goranson: I wanted to try it out. I wanted to see how it worked and I put it in my living room and in my dining room and I didn't have it in there probably four months before I ripped it out. It just didn't hold up from, I had little kids at the time and just them scooting in and out the dining room chairs with pads on it was denting it and it was crushing it and it just didn't work.

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[00:23:00] Eric Goranson: I think you're just going to be not worth trying to mess with it. You might be better off just putting down new flooring, pulling the old stuff up, pull the baseboard moldings. Unclick together that stuff. Now, if it's glued down over concrete or something like that, it's a much bigger project, but maybe you can go over the top of that if it's a glue down, but really follow the instructions of your new manufacturing and put that down.

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[00:23:47] Eric Goranson: If you've got a good wear layer on the top, maybe. You can do some repairs to it, but really, I think it's just gonna be one of those things. You're probably better off replacing the entire floor. And I know that's expensive. And I know that's not easy to work with, [00:24:00] but unfortunately, that's probably your best bet.

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[00:24:24] Eric Goranson: Maybe you have this beautiful mid century fireplace. And some house flipper came through and sprayed latex paint all over the top of it. And now you got a hot mess because you wish you had that brick back again. And it is one of those things that I never tell people to paint brick unless that's your last resort.

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[00:25:03] Eric Goranson: It is a little bit easier to get it off there because you can take some of the strippers and paint removers and get some of that off there, but you also run a risk of damaging the brick. And so really just about anything you do can damage that brick. So, the first thing I would do is get up there maybe with some orange stripper and try that in a non conspicuous place, not on the front, maybe around the corner on the side, and try to see if you can get some off there.

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[00:25:52] Eric Goranson: I've seen people go in there with wire scrub brushes. By hand, I've seen people go in there with scrub brushes on a drill that are [00:26:00] nylon and using some paint remover and that kind of stuff. Some of the less caustic ones, not the aircraft stuff, but maybe some of the orange stuff and getting in there and doing that.

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[00:26:30] Eric Goranson: Which means it's not going to just come off the top. So we've been fighting this at the beach house. Right now. We've got a brick fireplace that we've tried a lot of different things at it. And since it was done 20 plus years ago, it is not coming off of there. And I think what we're going to do, it's going to be easier at this point because it's just a small fireplace to remove that mid century brick and we have new.

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[00:27:12] Eric Goranson: And so that's another way to do it. But just be careful, Peyton brick out there, guys, especially on these architectural style homes. If you bought this house because it was mid century or Victorian or whatever. Sometimes that painted brick can cause a lot of damage and it's hard to replace. And sometimes they just don't make it anymore.

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[00:27:50] Eric Goranson: So my rule, generally speaking, is please stay away from the painted brick if you can. If you're trying to save something, make it look better because somebody else has done a bunch of damage to [00:28:00] it. That's one thing. But if it's beautiful brick, my best advice is embrace it. And, uh, that way you don't have to go stripping that down later or trying to do it.

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[00:28:30] Eric Goranson: Maybe you put the wrong tile down. Maybe you put the wrong tile down. System underneath it. Maybe you just put it over concrete. You just thought I'd put a little red guard down and lay tile. And it of course is leaking. Like it would, let me come back. I'm going to talk about how you fix that. And what are your options?

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[00:28:52] Intro: back [00:29:00] to

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[00:29:17] Eric Goranson: And now we're going to talk about how do we get back on track with that project. Now this could have been something that happened years ago and you're like, finally, we're going to go fix this. Or it's something that you just got done and went, Oh, how do we undo this? And that's what we're talking about in this hour of the show today.

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[00:29:49] Eric Goranson: And this is one that there's really no great way to go into a shower. And take that tile out and turn around and try to save it. It is just [00:30:00] absolutely brutal taking tile that was laid correctly out, because now you've ruined that system down beneath it, which is really bad. You've got that system behind it, and it's waterproofed, because tile and grout are not waterproof, generally.

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[00:30:34] Eric Goranson: And at that point, you're better off just taking it back to the studs and starting over, which unfortunately, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news. This can be one of those things that can cost you 5, bucks if you're having somebody do it themselves. And that's where the issues run into it with this.

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[00:31:09] Eric Goranson: But usually by that time the water is underneath the tile and it's popping tile up or it's. Busting apart and there's no saving at that point. You really just need to do it over now. Like I said, I've seen some Hail Mary shots where it actually works, but generally speaking, you're always chasing it.

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[00:31:41] Eric Goranson: And just tear it out and take care of it once and for all. So that's the big thing with showers. When you're laying it out, make sure if you're sitting there doing this and you're having somebody do it, or if you're doing it yourself before you get any farther after laying that tile, if it's not perfect, take care of it right [00:32:00] then.

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[00:32:15] Eric Goranson: You just really need to go in and start over. Unfortunately, sorry to be the bearer of bad news. That's just what it is with that. That's a one you can't really save too easily. All right. Now how to fix an ugly fireplace. This can be a fun one because you don't have to actually go through and do a lot of work.

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[00:32:53] Eric Goranson: Really one of the best ones is adding a mantle or building a mantle and doing that, cleaning it up, maybe putting a new [00:33:00] insert in it that is upgraded. If it's a gas fireplace, putting a new insert in, if it's got a log set. There are some great log sets out there, and this is really where you can make a huge difference for not a big spend.

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[00:33:36] Eric Goranson: You can go over and take a look on our YouTube page for that. It's on the KPTV Fox 12 YouTube page. So that's KPTV Fox 12. Go to the Around the House playlist on there. Take a look at the fire logs. It is absolutely amazing. It's super cool and it looks very real because they actually made the flames come out through the logs through little channels in the logs.

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[00:34:19] Eric Goranson: If you want to have some doors, a couple of different ways to go with that. But that's really the little upgrades you can do to update that. Now, of course, if you've got hideous brick up there, it's been abused. I've seen people go in there. And smooth it out and put tile like large format tile on there.

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[00:34:53] Eric Goranson: I've seen people put tile up and it looks really good. So there's ways to do that, especially the large format porcelain tiles. They can [00:35:00] look really like a million bucks. All of a sudden you can change it from that red brick that maybe was painted and you can turn around and take a look. And all of a sudden it looks like steel panels up there.

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[00:35:30] Eric Goranson: But guess what? You can't have something that close to the fireplace that will cause a fire. All right, now let's get to the last one on the list right here. And This is a tough one, guys. This is how do you deal with outdated vinyl siding? Now this can be a controversial subject. I've seen people go through.

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[00:36:10] Eric Goranson: There are companies like Sherwin Williams that make a specific paint for it. But here's the challenges that I see when trying to paint vinyl siding. First off, it is formulated for the color it's in. So if you had a dark green vinyl siding, many times that vinyl is completely different plastic mix than if it was white.

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[00:36:47] Eric Goranson: So you can have some serious problems with the heat coming off a hot summer day. That can be the first problem. Second of all, vinyl, as we know, expands and contracts a lot. So if you're out there on a cool day and [00:37:00] you're doing a drastic color change, that is going to be okay. Let's say it's 70 degrees, you're out painting it.

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[00:37:28] Eric Goranson: Now you see paint stripes around, but it's too cool to paint. So you can see that happen as well. And it's just really hard to make that look good, especially inside those J trims and things like that. So for me, the first thing I would do is get in there and it can pick you a spot and take a look. If you have an older home, you could have a gift hiding behind that.

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[00:38:09] Eric Goranson: They'll say, well, 15 years later, it's starting to look not so great. That company's no longer around or they didn't remember who they got it from at that point where they sold it and somebody's bought it. And there's a beautiful sighting underneath it. So sometimes by unsnapping that, taking a look underneath, you might have some beautiful sighting down there, or you might have plywood.

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[00:38:55] Eric Goranson: So don't be shy to take a look now. That could have also went on when [00:39:00] they did an addition or change that windows. So you might most likely we'll have some sighting repairs to do, but it's not going to be a complete sighting job, but you won't know until you start popping it off. And at that part, you're committed.

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[00:39:26] Eric Goranson: So have that in your budget. And this concludes our first hour of around the house this week. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Eric G and you've been listening to around the house.