Rolling into Comfort: The Best of Around the House 2023

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Foreign.

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Welcome to around the House with Eric G. Your trusted source for all things home improvement.

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Whether you're tackling a DIY project, hiring it out, or just trying to keep your home running smoothly, you're in the right place.

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With over 30 years of remodeling experience, certified kitchen designer Eric G Takes you behind the scenes with expert advice, industry trends, and the latest innovations for your home.

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Home.

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It's everything you need to know without the fluff.

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Now, here's your host, Eric G. Hey.

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There, around the House fans.

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Eric G. Here, and I'm thrilled to bring you a special treat this week.

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John Dudley and I are out taking a quick break to work on some exciting updates to make this show even better.

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Plus, I'm in the middle of moving from my house that just sold, so it's a busy time.

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t of episode from December of: 2023

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Trust me, you're gonna love revisiting these gems.

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So grab a coffee, settle in, and let's dive into the best of around the House.

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And don't worry, next week we'll be back with a fresh new version of around the House.

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And remember, guys, if you have something you want to ask the show, head over to aroundthehouse online.com and just click on that Contact Us page or jump over to social media and send me a message.

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Yep, I read every single one of them.

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t wayback machine to December: 2023

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And we'll see you next week with a brand new episode.

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This is a good one, so hold on tight.

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Hey guys.

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Welcome to the Round the House show.

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This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information and education.

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Thanks for joining us.

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Doesn't matter if you're on the talk media network out there, where we're on the radio all across the country, or the podcast internationally, I am here to help you through your home improvement journey.

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Today we're going to be talking about designing and remodeling homes for people that want to live there through the rest of their lives.

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If it's going to be I'm going to die in this home, this episode is for you.

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Or if you have parents that don't want to go into assisted living or go into something like that, we are going to talk about that today.

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And this is an important subject because if you're remodeling and this is a house that you're going to be into.

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There are some really cool, neat tricks and tips that I can give you.

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And one of those, let's just start out at the front of the house, more people.

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And let me give you a quick background on this before we go to the front of the house.

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This is an important one.

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Most of the time, you can remodel the house for much less than going into a care facility.

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I know care facilities out there.

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They're anywhere from 8 to 12,000 bucks a month.

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And I tell you what, you can do a lot around your house, especially if you're remodeling as you go.

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If you're like, I'm not going to be there for 20 years, what happens if you get hurt?

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What happens if you have to have a knee surgery or hip surgery or something, or even a shoulder surgery?

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These are all things that we can do to your house without making it look like a cheap ADA hotel room that just looks like somebody's hospital.

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That's the last thing we want to do.

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But here are my tricks and tips on this.

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And this is something that I've done for many people in the last 30 years of my design career.

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So this is something that we have done, But I'm going to give you all of my insider tricks and tips today on this.

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So the first thing is when you're outside of the home, if there's a way to do it, when you're doing your landscaping, your front porch, if there is a way to make it where you can landscape and get a pathway up to the front door of the house by just rolling and not having a step, that is the ultimate one.

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Because if you end up getting put into a wheelchair or a walker and you have to put one of those large metal temporary commercial ramps in there that are just a looks like you're out in front of a courthouse, that they put a metal ramp on the side to get people up those big steps.

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Nobody likes that design unless they have to have it.

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So if there's a way to bring that up, that can be key.

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Over the years, garages have been a tough place to manage that way.

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And this is starting to change.

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If you noticed, garages either had to be like 4 inches or 8 inches deeper than the rest of the house.

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And that was because of a couple of reasons.

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One, the main one is gasoline vapors tend to stay down low to the ground.

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So they did not want those gasoline vapors creeping into the house.

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And so you always had a step or two going down into the garage.

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And that's why.

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And that's how it's unfortunately easy way to check out a a garage that has been converted is you walk out of the kitchen, there's two steps down, and guess what?

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You go, okay, this rec room is now somebody's former garage.

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And to me that's always not an optimal situation because it just smells and looks like it.

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But nowadays you're seeing this a little bit more because building codes and fire codes in areas are changing, especially where you see a lot of slab on grade construction.

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So I'm seeing in some areas more and more homes on the same level, which caused a few other little issues.

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Because what happens is when you have a garage and you have concrete going up to it, of course the garage floor, no matter what's, gonna have to be sloped towards the door.

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But here's what happens and this gets a little bit interesting that you can cause some rot on the siding and stuff because you almost have to have the garage coming out because you want to have 4 to 6 inches there between the edge of the siding or the sill place in the ground.

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So now you have to make that garage slope coming up to that really high.

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So something to consider, I like to have that where it's not having that space.

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So you got to be a little careful with that.

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So in my situation that I would much rather see people do is I'd much rather see you have the garage be lower, but being able, if you are, have some ability issues of navigating stairs, you could put a big ramp in the garage that can take up a lot of space.

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But if you're building, it's not a big deal.

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If you're remodeling, it usually is.

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But really if you've got that, where you could roll out of the garage, not use the steps in and go in through the front door, that's a better situation and that's a good one for access.

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Now, the same thing is I'd like to see a electronic front door lock that can be run with an app or something that you can be giving a code to.

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Let's say that you are elderly or you're doing something for your mom or dad or your grandparents or whatever, depending on what age group you're in.

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I like to have a code where you can give the fire department, the police department, someone's assisting you, their own code you're going to remember.

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So I never say use your birth date for a code, but if you're going to do something like that and make an emergency code.

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So if you called the police and I can't get up, I've fallen, I can't get up.

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You can remember and give a code for them to come up to the door without having to break it down.

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So these are great things that you can do with electronic door locks and things like that.

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Or if you've got an app on your phone and that person is hurt but they need help or assistance, they can come in and unlock it.

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So there's many things that you can do just on the outside of the house and that goes to lighting, that goes to you slip proof areas.

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That's talking about just having a nice gentle slope up to the house without that.

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And now that's really part of it.

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The other thing that I would like to see too is a very nice camera system so someone in can't stand up and go see what's going out in front of the house.

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If they hear a noise or they want to look around the perimeter, more people get hurt because especially when they're elderly trying to go out and navigate in the slip soft lawn.

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If you've got a walker or something like that, those are things that can be pretty dangerous.

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So having that camera system is a nice thing.

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When we come back here, we're going to talk about what to do in the bathroom.

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And there are so many cool things.

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You can build a beautiful bathroom out that doesn't make it look like it came out of a hospital or an emergency room.

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And there's a lot of cool tricks we can do.

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And we're going to talk about these that you never see that just look like a beautiful style element or it's hidden behind the wall.

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And he gives you options later because here's the thing, maybe right now you're designing it for you and you're in your 50s and you're like, hey, I'm going to be in this house for 20 years.

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The chance you're getting hurt or needing to do something or change things around is high.

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So I'm going to be able to give you here when we come back the biggest flexibility that you can do things with.

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And that makes a big difference when you're designing this stuff out.

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Because you might not need it now, but maybe you want the ability to deal with it later.

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And having the house built where you can do that is a really nice option.

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All right, guys.

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Hey, when we come back, we'll be talking more about designing that house to make it more accessible for everyone.

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Just as soon as around the House Returns.

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If you got a home improvement question, give me a call.

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-: 4144

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Around the House I'll be right back.

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reat episode from December of: 2023

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Don't worry, Eric and John will be back next week with a brand new episode.

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If you have a home improvement question or topic suggestion for the show, give us a shout out on social media or at our Contact Us page@aroundthehouse online.com around the house we'll be right back after these important messages from our spons.

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Welcome back to the around the House Show.

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best of episode from December: 2023

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Packed with our favorite tips and moments, Eric and John are taking a quick break to remodel and refresh the show.

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Don't worry, they're keeping everything you love about around the House and we will all be back next week with a refreshingly new show.

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Welcome back to the around the House Show.

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This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information and education.

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We've been talking about really trying to design that home so you can make it your forever home.

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And things to think about when you're remodeling your home as you get older, whether or not you're somebody young, you're working on your parents house, your grandparents house, there are things we can do along the way that give us that expandability and capability to make it more accessible for everyone.

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Now one of the most important rooms we've been talking about here is bathrooms.

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And bathrooms are a tough one because they are one of the most dangerous rooms in the house.

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And if you are aging in place and you're like, hey, this is gonna be my forever home, there's a lot of things we can do without making it look like it's a bad hospital bathroom or one of those ADA hotel rooms that make it not look amazing, right?

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You want it to be beautiful, stylish, comfy, and none of those rooms like that really make it feel that way.

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So that's why we're going to talk about some of these things today.

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So one of the things that I like to do is if you're designing out a shower, go ahead and put in a roll in Curbless shower.

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Curbless showers are hot.

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You can walk right into that and the nice thing is you can do that in almost any space nowadays.

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They've come up with a lot of different ways to do it.

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Where you can recess the floor, could have the right slope.

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And then you've got this really nice luxurious shower.

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But if you needed to go in there with a wheelchair or if you're rolling in on a walker, guess what, that will work for you.

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So that is one right there.

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And then if you're designing this space, giving yourself some extra room because you want to be able to get in there, turn around, especially if you've got a wheelchair.

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So larger bathrooms are key.

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So if you can do that in a perfect world, I'd have a five foot space which is a circle that's five foot across.

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You can spin around if you're in a wheelchair and have assistance.

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But that's not always necessary and quite frankly, not always practical.

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So these are things here that you got to be really careful with just to be able to get in there.

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If you've got somebody helping you, get into a space to do that.

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Now one of the things that I like to do is when you're building out the space, let's say you're doing a remodel in it, Whether or not, I don't care if you're 30 years old, go through and put blocks in the walls with your scrap lumber, block it out.

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So you have places to put towel bars.

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That way you've got towel bars, you've got grab bars, you've got safety handles.

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All those things that you do, sometimes they'll go in the shower, sometimes they'll go out in the bathroom as you're getting into a tub shower.

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But if you block that out and then what I do is, and it's great with pictures these days, after you get it blocked out, before the drywall goes up or the tile system goes in, take some pictures of it and get some measurements or at least document what those are.

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If you could take a picture where those are with a tape measure, it's easy, even better.

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And then later on, if you need to add a grab bar, something to help you get into a shower, something to get you into a tub, something to get you over into the toilet, for instance, into that toilet area.

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Those are smart things to do.

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And it really costs you almost nothing.

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You know, short pieces of scrap lumber, you might have the price of a few two by sixes or two by eights, but use big lumber.

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I go in there, block it out, and it looks really good because you won't be able to see it.

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But when the time comes, you're not gonna have to dig into that wall and actually put those block.

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Because anytime that you've got people like that, where you've got the weight of their body, you can't just go into drywall, it's got to go into studs.

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And that can be hard sometimes where you want to put them.

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And that can get in the way.

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So that's another great trick.

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The other thing is make sure you put that outlet behind the toilet for the smart toilet seats, the bidet toilet seats.

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Because I tell you what, as you get older, that bidet toilet seat is something that really helps you have that freedom without having to somebody have somebody come help you.

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That gives you that ability to take care of yourself.

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And there's nothing more embarrassing than having to have somebody come in and help you go to the bathroom.

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And if you can take that step by just putting an outlet back there, that gives you a chance to put up a day toilet seat on that existing toilet later and you'll be good to go.

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Now the next one on here is in super is super important and well.

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And I like this one because what you can do is get a toilet a little bit higher.

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Comfort height toilets are big right now, they're bigger, better on your knees.

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And that's the cool thing, is that when you're sitting down low, it's harder to get up out of that position.

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If you've got, let's say you've had knee surgery, let's say you've hurt your leg or you're not using them very well, those are great in this situation.

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So that's another one of those right there.

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Now the other thing is if you've got a tight space in there, making it where you can actually roll in underneath a pedestal sink or a contemporary styled sink where you've got legs that you could get underne.

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And if that's the case, and it's always good to go underneath there and they make this really cool padding that you could put under there so you're not hurting the pipes, you're not banging into them and you're not burning yourself.

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So those are two great ones right there that you can get done.

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And these are all really easy things you can do in the bathroom.

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Now the other thing is too is make sure you've got a really nice non stick floor in there.

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You want something that you're not going to slide right, you want that, the right surface coefficient there that you're not going to Have a wet floor and slip.

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So those are also great things.

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So polished stone, even some of the luxury vinyl planks out there, be careful with because those can be too slippery, as well as gloss tile.

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Those are things that I really want you to pay attention to because those can be dangerous in this atmosphere.

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So bathrooms are really big like that.

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And anytime that you can do that and get a place that you can get into.

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Now, if you're going to do a tub and you're a year older, sometimes those walk in bathtubs are not a bad idea.

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Especially if you're getting towards retirement age, something like that, and you're worried about it.

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But here's the trick with those.

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When you're getting one of those walk in tubs, let's say you're getting it for your parents, you're getting for your grandparents, whatever.

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And the key with those is to get the power drain.

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And what that does is the problem with these tubs is when you sit down in the bathtub, you've got to let all this water that's very high because they're narrow drain down so you can get out of it.

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Because you have to be able to open the door.

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The power drain makes it so you're not sitting in there freezing outside of the water all wet.

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And that really helps speed that up.

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So make sure you get the power drain option.

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It's a much better call when you're doing that.

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And it's gonna be much more comfortable.

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It's not that expensive.

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It's got a little pump and it will pump the drain the water down and not just use gravity, it'll actually pump it out, which works out really well.

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And that really makes for a more comfortable situation there.

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And then the other thing is just make sure that you've got light switches and stuff are accessible.

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Outlets are accessible.

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They're in the very far back.

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That's not great.

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And then the other one is that to make sure that you've got handles that you can operate.

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Now, handles you can operate means that if you can turn it on with a closed fist, you're heading the right direction.

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So lever handles are good where it doesn't get as great as when you have knobs and stuff that you have to turn.

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And if you can operate it with a closed fist, you're going to be much better off.

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And if you've got any kind of arthritis or things like that, these are smart things because you'll be able to handle it with a closed fist.

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So that's a big one right There we come back.

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We're going to dive into the kitchen and talk about that.

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We'll be right back.

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To find out more about the around the House show, head to around the house online.com if you have a home improvement question or topic suggestion for the show, give us a shout out on social media or at our Contact Us page at around the House online dot com.

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reat episode from December of: 2023

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Don't worry, Eric and John will be back next week with a brand new episode, around the House.

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We'll be right back after these important messages from our sponsors.

Speaker B: 00:23:20

Hey guys, producer Jim here.

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t of episode from December of: 2023

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Eric and John are working on some cool changes for next week's show.

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So enjoy this episode and we will see you next week.

Speaker A: 00:23:36

Welcome back to the around the House show.

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This is where we hope you get the most out of your home through information and education.

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We've been talking about designing your home while you're remodeling, building or whatever or doing those renovations to be more accessible for you and your family.

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And these are really cool little tricks that I've learned over the years through my 30 years of design.

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These are projects that we've taken on and they have really been able to save people money because when you're doing a remodel, if you can do a few of these things, they're going to make it so much easier.

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And if you get into a situation where you get hurt, you have a medical issue or you're just getting older, we all are equally.

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Now here's the thing.

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It's a lot cheaper to do that renovation than it is to go get into an assisted living care facility.

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So these are all great tricks that I've got here for you.

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Here's the thing.

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We're talking kitchens now.

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And kitchens can be really complex and a little bit, a little bit more troublesome to design depending on what you want.

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Now if you're in a situation where you're already in a walker or you're already partially in a wheelchair, you can really design that for that space.

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And there is some great technology out there to do this.

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If you look out there now, there are systems that you see where you can actually hit a button and the countertop will move up and down and adjust it so you can bring it down to be able to get down to that height so you can get underneath that with a wheelchair.

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But let's talk about some of the things that work and some of the things that don't, that don't work when you're designing a kitchen.

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Let's talk appliances.

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I'm a fan.

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If you're in a, if you're in a wheelchair or if you have reduced abilities like you're in a walker or barely getting around, I'm a fan of side by side refrigerators for this because you can get in, get into both sides.

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The problem is that when you've got a French door refrigerator, let's say, or even a top mount with the freezer on top, refrigerator on bottom, the problem is you've got one section that's higher than the other.

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And I like it that you can be able to stack things in there as you need to with a side by side.

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A French door door is okay, but the gallon door storage is usually up higher on the top or top shelf.

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And that's one of those things that, that makes it harder.

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So you can, with a side by side, I think do better and then you can get it open where you can get into it and get into that space a little bit easier.

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And unless you're doing a lot of freezer stuff, you don't have to get there and struggle getting that freezer door open and get in there.

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And that's one of the things too is just to take a look and see how much pressure it takes to open that door, that drawer, that kind of stuff within that.

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And you got to be able to leave enough room there so you can sit there and be able to navigate that.

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So that's one of them.

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I am much more of a fan of an induction cooktop.

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So you've got something that's not getting very hot.

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A microwave down low in a, under a countertop in a base cabinet.

Speaker A: 00:26:30

I want to have a range hood, like what Zephyr makes, for instance, or some other brands where you can control it with your smartphone.

Speaker A: 00:26:37

Those are smart.

Speaker A: 00:26:38

A smart vent hood is great.

Speaker A: 00:26:40

Even one like Miele, where you can turn it on and then program it to turn the fan on as you start cooking.

Speaker A: 00:26:45

That is great.

Speaker A: 00:26:46

And what I want to be able to do is if you're in a wheelchair, to be able to roll in underneath that cooktop and cook so you can get in there and have access to it.

Speaker A: 00:26:55

Now, if you're just planning ahead, that's maybe not the case, but many times you can go in there and take that cabinet out underneath it and go in and do some stuff with it.

Speaker A: 00:27:05

So these are things that, and we have made cabinets in the past too, that Had, I guess the best way to explain it would be flipper door hardware that you would see on an old entertainment center where you can open the doors up and slide them back in.

Speaker A: 00:27:20

By doing that gives you full access underneath there.

Speaker A: 00:27:23

And I've done that with an attached toe kick and it works out really well and it gives you access into that.

Speaker A: 00:27:29

But now, here's the thing.

Speaker A: 00:27:30

If you're just looking to do it so you want, hey, I'm gonna.

Speaker A: 00:27:33

I'm gonna grow old in this place, and this is my last home, then the good thing is you can do it, is you can do a oven that's down lower, like a single oven that's underneath the countertop height, where you're down low with that.

Speaker A: 00:27:46

That's a cool one.

Speaker A: 00:27:47

They make a lot of different oven configurations depending on how you want it.

Speaker A: 00:27:50

You can get them that swing side by side like a microwave, or you can get them to drop down, really depending on the brand and the style of what you're looking at.

Speaker A: 00:27:57

Because there are some nice pro style ones out there that work well.

Speaker A: 00:28:01

So that's another one.

Speaker A: 00:28:03

Now, dishwashers, what I've done with that is it's easy.

Speaker A: 00:28:05

I've gone through and actually raised up the dishwasher.

Speaker A: 00:28:10

I did this in my mom's house and it turned out really good.

Speaker A: 00:28:12

I actually went through raised up that dishwasher.

Speaker A: 00:28:15

And by raising up that dishwasher, it made it where she could sit down in a chair and do the dishes.

Speaker A: 00:28:22

And so I raised that up about another six inches.

Speaker A: 00:28:25

And so by doing that, what it did is it gave us that access where the, when the door was down, it was not 6 inches off the ground, which is really tough to manage.

Speaker A: 00:28:33

So it brought it up so it was almost a foot off the ground, which was a game changer for this.

Speaker A: 00:28:38

And even better, if you do that on an island or something like that, there's a lot of things you can make that work with.

Speaker A: 00:28:42

It's really tricky.

Speaker A: 00:28:45

Now the other thing is, and that way you have a raised up area on the island.

Speaker A: 00:28:48

You can put plants or stuff up there and make it look really nice.

Speaker A: 00:28:51

Now, one of the things I want to talk about is cabinetry.

Speaker A: 00:28:53

And this is one of those things that can be really cool.

Speaker A: 00:28:55

They do make cabinetry that you can control that actually swings down or drops down so you have access to those upper cabinets.

Speaker A: 00:29:03

Because if you are going to be in a wheelchair or in a reduced ability situation where maybe when you're in a walker and you're bouncing between the Two of those.

Speaker A: 00:29:10

Sometimes it's really tough to stand up to get into that, or nearly impossible, if not impossible.

Speaker A: 00:29:15

So really, if you think about it, that's a really great way to go.

Speaker A: 00:29:18

Now, those are all things that you're gonna probably do.

Speaker A: 00:29:20

These aren't really great retrofit things, but they are great when you're designing a kitchen to think about those things moving forward because that's really important there, to be able to do that.

Speaker A: 00:29:31

And so really.

Speaker A: 00:29:32

And then anything that you're putting in, whether it's, I hate over the range microwaves, this is definitely not the place to put them.

Speaker A: 00:29:38

And then the other thing you can do here as well is have that microwave down low.

Speaker A: 00:29:42

If you have a steam oven, have it down low, have everything down lower so you have access.

Speaker A: 00:29:48

And when in doubt, just go grab a dining room chair and sit in the kitchen and say, okay, how am I going to cook with this kitchen?

Speaker A: 00:29:54

Because that's really what you're talking about doing.

Speaker A: 00:29:57

Now.

Speaker A: 00:29:57

If it's something that you're like, hey, I'm going to make this.

Speaker A: 00:29:59

So, you know, I could be, I could have some reduced abilities in 10 or 20 years.

Speaker A: 00:30:05

Then think about doing that cooktop with the oven that's a little bit lower and then just doing shelves above or something like that that you can keep things stored up there, but someone can help you or you can be able to go up and get it.

Speaker A: 00:30:17

So again, there's a lot of details to this, but a great certified kitchen designer can do that with you when you design out the kitchen.

Speaker A: 00:30:23

And there's a couple things out there.

Speaker A: 00:30:25

If you look at the certified kitchen designer, which is old, I think they're the certified kitchen appliance bath designer.

Speaker A: 00:30:30

Now as the new ones, they've combined and combined those together.

Speaker A: 00:30:33

There's a certified master kitchen, a bath designer, which is another one as well as there's people out there that are caps rated and that is a another certification for people that are designing for aging in place.

Speaker A: 00:30:48

So these are all things that really, when you're working on a project like this, it would not be a bad idea.

Speaker A: 00:30:53

I think everybody should sure take a look at that.

Speaker A: 00:30:56

Whether or not it's just your grandma coming to visit for two weeks and you want to be able to have access to make her more comfortable.

Speaker A: 00:31:01

Those are really good.

Speaker A: 00:31:02

And the other thing too is in a kitchen is be careful with your floors.

Speaker A: 00:31:06

I like to have something that's fairly non skid, so it's not too slippery.

Speaker A: 00:31:11

r do I want to see you put in: 1970

Speaker A: 00:31:19

It's really not.

Speaker A: 00:31:20

But what you want to do is be able to not have rugs in there, have your floor down, have your system there and make it so it's easily maintained and then you'll be much better off.

Speaker A: 00:31:30

Yeah, as you can tell, there's a lot of little details here within this space to design it out.

Speaker A: 00:31:35

But these are all great tips if you're really trying to make sure that you're trying to design this out correctly.

Speaker A: 00:31:40

Take the time, plan it out.

Speaker A: 00:31:42

There's a ton of new technology out there.

Speaker A: 00:31:44

And as well, you can have all the lights running on apps so you don't have to travel across there faucets, there's touch faucets, there's voice controlled faucets.

Speaker A: 00:31:51

Now there's a lot of little things like that when it comes to that.

Speaker A: 00:31:54

You can mount the garbage disposal.

Speaker A: 00:31:56

If you get one of the air buttons, you can mount that forward on the countertop so they could get at it.

Speaker A: 00:32:01

And again, making sure that you can control the faucet with a closed fist so you don't have to worry about a dexterity issue of your fingers.

Speaker A: 00:32:09

So when we come back, I've got a few more tips here for you and tricks that'll make this so much easier, including some of the things you should do in other rooms.

Speaker A: 00:32:17

And we'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

Speaker A: 00:32:19

Don't go anywhere.

Speaker B: 00:32:20

Make sure you follow the around the House show on social media and our YouTube channel at aroundthehouse EricG for all of our home improvement videos.

Speaker B: 00:32:29

Hold onto your tool belt, folks.

Speaker B: 00:32:30

We're taking a short break to rewire our thoughts.

Speaker B: 00:32:34

Around the House will be back faster than you can say drywall dust.

Speaker A: 00:32:49

Sam.

Speaker B: 00:34:21

Welcome back to the around the House show.

Speaker B: 00:34:23

best of episode from December: 2023

Speaker B: 00:34:29

Packed with our favorite tips and moments, Eric and John are taking a quick break to remodel and refresh the show.

Speaker B: 00:34:37

Don't worry, they're keeping everything you love about around the House and we will all be back next week with a refreshingly new show.

Speaker A: 00:34:45

Welcome back to the around the House show.

Speaker A: 00:34:47

This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information and education.

Speaker A: 00:34:50

We've been talking today here about making sure that you're planning ahead in your home, to make sure that if this is a place that you're going to live forever, that You've got some options out there to make it more accessible for you or other family members or in case you have a bad accident.

Speaker A: 00:35:04

Things happen in life.

Speaker A: 00:35:06

And when you're doing remodeling projects, sometimes you can do some things that'll really pay off later on in life.

Speaker A: 00:35:12

Here.

Speaker A: 00:35:13

Oh wow, I'm happy I did that blocking in the bathroom 10 years ago.

Speaker A: 00:35:17

That's one of those things that really helps out.

Speaker A: 00:35:19

So those are the things that you can really do to make this worthwhile.

Speaker A: 00:35:23

Now one of the things that I like to do here as well is when you're designing, remodel or designing even a new home, we did this, my parents house is we put three foot doors into every room.

Speaker A: 00:35:33

So we have the same door size everywhere.

Speaker A: 00:35:35

And many times you'll see doors that are 32 inches, 28 inches.

Speaker A: 00:35:40

Going three foot gives you access for everybody.

Speaker A: 00:35:43

And that's a really good thing.

Speaker A: 00:35:44

Whether you're going into the bathroom, into a hall closet, whatever.

Speaker A: 00:35:47

Having those larger doors makes it easier to get furniture in when you're trying to move appliances around.

Speaker A: 00:35:53

Having good egress in and out of a room is key.

Speaker A: 00:35:57

So doing doors, that is a really good way to go.

Speaker A: 00:36:00

Now one of the things too that I like to do is also this is where we put in the smart light switches, the smart blinds, those kind of things.

Speaker A: 00:36:07

So you have good access to that and you can close and open blinds and do it without having to get tangled up into cords and things like that.

Speaker A: 00:36:16

Lutron makes a really nice one that I like.

Speaker A: 00:36:18

As far as smart blinds, they've got part of their casita system.

Speaker A: 00:36:22

It works really well.

Speaker A: 00:36:23

So I've been really impressed with their blind systems.

Speaker A: 00:36:25

They've got it dialed in.

Speaker A: 00:36:26

Now the other thing is to really take into account flooring.

Speaker A: 00:36:30

I'm not a carpet person.

Speaker A: 00:36:31

For most people, if they're rolling around because you have to put a lot of pressure into roll, it's really not that much softer.

Speaker A: 00:36:38

By the time you put a hard surface down, whether it's tile, whether it's a luxury vinyl plank or a vinyl, it's really one of those things that when you look at it, it doesn't Anytime that you do a transition between carpet and flooring, even with a no transition strip type of thing right there, where it's just a hard joint, those are things that wheels get caught up on and they're also sharp edges.

Speaker A: 00:37:01

So I would much rather dial the design off 11 and bring it back.

Speaker A: 00:37:04

So you have each room has a surface to it and if there's a transition chip.

Speaker A: 00:37:08

Okay, there's got to be sometimes, but maybe not.

Speaker A: 00:37:11

If you do it right and the installer knows what they're doing, really putting in that flooring and making sure.

Speaker A: 00:37:16

Now, the other thing too is that I really like to see more natural woods for finishes because they hide dents and dings so much better.

Speaker A: 00:37:24

If you put in a bright, white, beautiful kitchen with a wheelchair, just like with young kids, it's going to get beat up and it's not going to look great after a few years.

Speaker A: 00:37:34

And there's really not much you can do about that.

Speaker A: 00:37:36

So medium tone woods, those look really good because you've got the wood grain, which hides the scratches, dings and dents.

Speaker A: 00:37:44

And those are smart right there.

Speaker A: 00:37:46

Those are things that you can do to really get that taken care of.

Speaker A: 00:37:49

And then the other thing is too, is just making sure that you've got that house planned out as far as where the furniture is going to go, where people can assist you with, you know, and that stuff around the house.

Speaker A: 00:38:00

So these are all super important within that planning.

Speaker A: 00:38:04

And then I really want to see you put in a good, good heating and cooling system in there that can make sure that you've got it comfortable.

Speaker A: 00:38:10

If you've got somebody that has limited abilities and you've got the house completely out of control and temperature where it's in its 90s because it's a hundred outside, that's a really bad, healthy situation that I want to make sure that we don't leave family members in.

Speaker A: 00:38:23

And like I said, there's a lot of little tips and tricks with this whole process, but these are all things that you can really do to make that easier to do that.

Speaker A: 00:38:33

And I think, honestly, a lot of these things just so that you're putting in a outlet right behind the toilet that is so key right there while you're doing the remodel.

Speaker A: 00:38:44

Cost you nothing that way.

Speaker A: 00:38:45

When you go get your Toto washlet, you can plug it in right there and you're good to go.

Speaker A: 00:38:49

So take some time on these things.

Speaker A: 00:38:50

These are really important steps that.

Speaker A: 00:38:53

And you don't have to do it to make it look commercial or institutional.

Speaker A: 00:38:57

We're trying to make it so people can stay in their home so much longer.

Speaker A: 00:39:01

And I think if we did this as a community in building and remodeling, and a lot of these things, quite frankly, can be done without having extra cost to the project.

Speaker A: 00:39:12

Like the blocking takes a guy an hour to knock that out, or a lady, they can go through and knock that blocking out and they're good to go.

Speaker A: 00:39:20

And then you have options down the road.

Speaker A: 00:39:22

So it's something that I see good builders doing down there.

Speaker A: 00:39:26

And if you're doing it on your own project, it's smart.

Speaker A: 00:39:28

It's really smart.

Speaker A: 00:39:31

So that really covers this whole subject here of really trying to things to consider when you're remodeling your home to make it more accessible out there and less clutter, open pathways.

Speaker A: 00:39:44

That is really good.

Speaker A: 00:39:46

Now, one thing I wanted to talk about today, I got to.

Speaker A: 00:39:48

We were shooting my television show and this was a lot of fun.

Speaker A: 00:39:52

And I had the rep, Ben, who's my regional rep for Fine, and he came in and we had such a great time today in the TV studio playing around with their new tools.

Speaker A: 00:40:03

And you know me, I love new tools and it makes just taking on a project so much better.

Speaker A: 00:40:09

And I tell you what, that is the best multi tool I have ever used.

Speaker A: 00:40:14

And here's for a couple reasons why.

Speaker A: 00:40:16

And if you've seen me on my show, I've got a lot of Milwaukee stuff.

Speaker A: 00:40:20

Stuff.

Speaker A: 00:40:20

I've got a lot of Bosch stuff.

Speaker A: 00:40:22

I've got some Dewalt stuff and just a tiny bit of Porter cable.

Speaker A: 00:40:26

But that's really the big ones that I've got right there as far as that.

Speaker A: 00:40:30

But boy, I tell you what, I have not used anything, of course, Saw stop on the table saw.

Speaker A: 00:40:35

But really, tools wise, that's my first find that I've really used.

Speaker A: 00:40:39

And it was a cordless and finds using those Bosch batteries, which is really great.

Speaker A: 00:40:43

They partnered up with them, which is great.

Speaker A: 00:40:45

And that is trick.

Speaker A: 00:40:46

But really, I tell you what, the one thing that I noticed is how smooth of cut that thing gave.

Speaker A: 00:40:53

Now using my Milwaukee and sorry, Milwaukee, it's a great powerful tool.

Speaker A: 00:40:58

But the way Fine builds, there is so much less vibration.

Speaker A: 00:41:02

And they designed it with this floating head that if I'm using that doing a bunch of molding cuts or cutting out cabinets for electrical outlets or whatever, man, I felt almost no vibration through that.

Speaker A: 00:41:15

And it was so much easier on my arms, so much easier on my hands.

Speaker A: 00:41:19

And I made just an absolutely beautiful smooth cut.

Speaker A: 00:41:23

And then I got to play with their, their dust extractors.

Speaker A: 00:41:26

And I tell you what, that was really cool, the dust extractors, man, those things are just finely built.

Speaker A: 00:41:33

And I'm not just saying that, no pun intended, but that stuff is great.

Speaker A: 00:41:37

And the other thing that I thought was really in.

Speaker A: 00:41:39

In amazing and I haven't played with their stuff that much.

Speaker A: 00:41:42

It's something I haven't really got to play with.

Speaker A: 00:41:44

I've played around with probably more festool than anything on the other kind of European brands.

Speaker A: 00:41:51

But I tell you what, they have a blade for every situation, which I like.

Speaker A: 00:41:55

And that's some of the problems that you see out there with the blades.

Speaker A: 00:41:57

As you see a lot of that stuff that the blades just don't do what you want them to do.

Speaker A: 00:42:03

And they make one.

Speaker A: 00:42:03

You go to the hardware store and they've got.

Speaker A: 00:42:05

I got a bi metal blade, I have a wood blade and I have maybe a ceramic blade.

Speaker A: 00:42:09

Boy, those guys have probably a hundred different blades or probably closer to 200 different blades that work really well for the saw.

Speaker A: 00:42:17

And you can cut through stuff I went through and was doing it.

Speaker A: 00:42:20

You'll see it on an upcoming video.

Speaker A: 00:42:22

But I removed grout just like it was a dream.

Speaker A: 00:42:27

And I tell you what, there is nothing faster than taking grout out than that tool right there.

Speaker A: 00:42:31

And then it had a little putty knife that went on there.

Speaker A: 00:42:34

And what was great was is when I was doing all this stuff I could hook the vacuum up to it.

Speaker A: 00:42:37

So it grabbed 99 of the dust coming out of it it which was pretty amazing.

Speaker A: 00:42:42

So that was a really clean tool to use.

Speaker A: 00:42:45

And the nice thing with fine, they invented the power tool.

Speaker A: 00:42:47

They were the first cordless drill manufacturer a century or two ago here.

Speaker A: 00:42:52

Those guys were all over it.

Speaker A: 00:42:54

And of course they were the inventor of the multi tool and they have just taken that again with their newer battery powered stuff to a new level.

Speaker A: 00:43:00

The other thing too is if you're a steel worker, they have gotten into not only into wood but they've got into steel.

Speaker A: 00:43:05

Steel.

Speaker A: 00:43:06

And I was playing with this magnet vise that they have today.

Speaker A: 00:43:10

That wow, that thing was impressive.

Speaker A: 00:43:13

And you could control how much adjustability you have with the magnet.

Speaker A: 00:43:17

So you put it on there and you set it up and you can make it so it has 30% to get things dialed in where you want it on the magnet.

Speaker A: 00:43:24

n when you hit full, it's got: 1700

Speaker A: 00:43:29

You were not pulling it off there.

Speaker A: 00:43:30

I was reefing that thing and you're not going to do it.

Speaker A: 00:43:33

So I'm going to bring them on the show here in a future episode and talk power tools because they have so many great things going on.

Speaker A: 00:43:38

But I have to give them a great thank you for coming on the TV show and that'll be a great segment coming up.

Speaker A: 00:43:44

Well guys, we're going to do another episode here coming up for hour number two.

Speaker A: 00:43:48

But here's the thing.

Speaker A: 00:43:49

We just have that brand new number.

Speaker A: 00:43:50

If you have that home improvement question, are you stuck on a project?

Speaker A: 00:43:53

Is it something that you're stuck on and you don't know what to do, give me a call.

Speaker A: 00:43:58

-: 4144

Speaker A: 00:44:01

-: 4144

Speaker A: 00:44:05

I've also got the number up on our website which is around the house online and over going up on our socials as we speak.

Speaker A: 00:44:11

So that's really cool and that's one of those things that I think is really trick as far as being able to do stuff.

Speaker A: 00:44:17

So we've got another great interview coming up here next.

Speaker A: 00:44:20

Stick around.

Speaker A: 00:44:21

Thanks for tuning into Round the House hour one.

Speaker A: 00:44:23

Hour number two is right around the corner.

Speaker A: 00:44:25

Don't go anywhere.

Speaker B: 00:44:26

Hey, it's producer Jim here.

Speaker B: 00:44:28

Thanks for checking out this best of episode of the around the House show.

Speaker B: 00:44:32

We will be back next week with a brand new episode.

Speaker B: 00:44:35

To find out more head to aroundthehouse online.com.

Speaker B: 00:44:39

we will see you soon.