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Why are you updating your bathroom? · Mid Mod Remodel

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: This season of the Midmon Remodel Podcast is going to be all about charming bath updates.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not kicking us off with a handy how-to advice episode.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, let's do some renovation philosophizing.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because the most important question in any remodel process is why.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And yet most of the advice we find is focused on how and what.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Starting from a clear why is the first step in my mid-century master plan process because coming back to what matters is how we determine what to do at every stage, even in a space as small and specific as a bathroom.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Why we choose one change over another, preserve a vintage surface here, invest in a bigger modification there, consider sourcing a more durable fixture in this spot.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: All of these questions will help us plan a remodel that really works well for us.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Hey there.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Midmod Remodel.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is the show about updating MCM homes, helping you match a mid-century home to your modern life.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Della Hansman, architect and mid-century ranch enthusiast.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to episode 2501.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And really, welcome back to Mid Mod Remodel, because we've had a little break between seasons, and now we are diving in with season 25.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to be focusing on mid-century bathrooms, how to update them, how to love them, what happens if you feel like you've made a mistake on your bathroom in the past.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to have some practical, how-to, how-based advice, some common recommendations I make for my clients and students, uh, conversations with fellow members of the mid-century remodeling space on what we've done in our bathrooms and whether we regret it, spoiler alert, sometimes we do.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something I want to talk about in the broader sense, how to avoid today.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: But before I get into that, a quick bit of business.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you have larger, grander mid-century remodeling plans floating around in the ether right now, then I want to tell you that right now is a great time to start getting your ducks in a row.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're remarkably booked out this year.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: We've had a very busy spring and looking to have a very busy summer.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: The next open design spot in our queue is for this fall.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that means that actually, even though it's the middle of summer right now, I think that if you're hoping for a casual deepened timeline, more on that later in this episode, to think about what you might want to do, prioritize, plan, perfect, and then make your plans happen in the next year, then reaching out right now to chat about a master plan is the perfect opportunity because it means you're going to get to get cooking on your design homework.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: That starts right away, no matter how long our design queue is.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: The questions that we ask our clients to think about are always infused with a lot of why.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: What matters to your family, what's going to be really important to you, what have you loved in other places?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that I just said the word what a lot, even though I said why.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Really basically, we're seeking out what are the underlying desires you have.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why will making a change to your house make an improvement to your house?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there we go.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Back to the why questions.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, you'll begin cooking on that design homework right away.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then in a few months, jumping in with our master plan kickoff meeting in October, very possibly September for the next person that signs with us.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: But really, that's only if we work remarkably fast or if one of our currently scheduled clients needs a pause in the meantime.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then getting your design schemes back probably in November.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: That will give you a perfect jumping-off point to pull together a final set of schematic drawings with us and then get onto the build calendars of your best local contractor option for the new year.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, it is tank top weather right now.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is summer, it is air conditioning time.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's time to look forward to cozy sweater season and getting things on the calendar for construction in the spring.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you're planning horizons to stretch even further than that, then good for you.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm about to explain why I think that is a fabulous idea.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: But the right time to start dreaming, to prioritize, to research, to contemplate, to kick things around from a design perspective, to see what might work best for you and for your home is always right now.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, long story, not that short.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to chat with you about what you've got in mind for your house, your questions about what's possible, plausible, how a master plan process works, and more in a Zoom call.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you can go on over to the work with us page at midmodash midwest.com to apply to work with us, and we'll get back in touch with you to set up a call as soon as we're free.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Anything else to share at the moment?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't think so.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think we can go on from here.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: As always, you will find show notes with links to the references I'm going to make and a transcript of the episode at the show notes page, midmodest.com slash 2501.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I was recently listening to an episode of Tara McMullen's excellent What Works podcast.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you are not already familiar with her, she generally focuses on the care and feeding of small businesses, or maybe the care and feeding of small business owners.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, her topics apply to me running and creating Midmond Midwest, but I think of her more as a kind of modern-day philosopher.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: She's considering always the way that technology, media, societal expectations, and more affect the choices that we make in our lives and specifically in our work.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Her website, whatworks.fyi.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: What a great web extension, by the way.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's very easy to check out.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: So go scroll around.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was specifically inspired by listening to her recent episode, I think June 4th, on rethinking the long term.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: She begins it with a quote from Alan Jacobs to wit, We live thinly in our instant, and we don't know what we don't know.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: She spends the intro to this episode talking about our penchant for focusing on how in all of our modern life, and certainly in like the productivity economy.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're always thinking about how something could be done.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And when we focus on how, we can value engineer it.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: We can make it go faster, we can make it cheaper, we can make it smoother, we can make it shinier.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: We can do a lot of things that don't actually get at what it is worth to us.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that is very contrary to a lot of the things that I try to pursue in my life, and certainly that I try to do in my work of helping homeowners to plan good remodels for mid-century homes.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: So she puts up against that, or I think she's taking it from this philosopher, Alan Jacobs, the question of why or why-based questions, as opposed to how-based questions, and how that can really shift your whole approach.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: When we think just about how, we focus on tactics, on what we could do.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: But why is a question that opens up broader horizons and certainly seems more in line with my philosophy of remodeling.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Taking a bigger, a wider, uh pulled back approach allows us to be more interested in long-term goals, in the way that our home contains us, for example, rather than strictly what it looks like.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Particularly how questions in a remodeling context often come down to what's possible to change about our homes quickly, easily, cheaply, and right now.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I listened to this episode back in June, and I was immediately on fire over how I could translate it into the context of this podcast.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then I thought, oh no, the next season is going to be about bathrooms and bathroom remodels.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: That is perhaps the most tactical, the most how-based component of a house.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I, as a designer, when I sit and look at a bathroom that a client has given me their marching orders for, the first question I have is, you know, one of dimensions, one of logistics.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: What's what's possible to fit into this space?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very, very, very how-based question that I ask about it.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's not true, actually, because I always begin from a conversation with my client about what is the purpose?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, are they are they trying to make separations between family spaces and public spaces?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, is the bathroom a place where multiple people are trying to cycle through in the purpose of a morning?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Is it a refreshing space or a practical logistical space?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I am interested in the why of my clients' bathrooms.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I think actually, in that sense, this is the perfect season to kick off with an episode addressing the broader philosophical nature of the room.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Bathrooms are perhaps one of the easiest places to make those quick how decisions.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: They are, I could just as easily say, one of the easiest places to make bad decisions.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Bathrooms and kitchens are one of the most commonly remodeled parts of a mid-century house, probably of any house, and unsurprisingly, the most commonly botched parts.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: They are vulnerable to a combination of quick flipping ideas, replacing something old and slightly worn with something new and cheap that looks good by virtue of being fresh and then will quickly fade and fail, and also by being victims of fast fashion in the fashion sense, that is falling into whatever is the current trendy mode for doing your kitchen or bathroom.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: This combination of the two things leads people to replace and landfill beautifully crafted mid-century pieces, even machine-made ones from the mid-century that were solid materials and intended to be maintainable and repairable with cheaper substitutes that hit a moment in time precisely, or maybe even imperfectly, as an inexpensive knockoff, and then immediately begin the process of falling out of fashion and falling into disrespair, starting a stopwatch of inevitability, of disposability at the moment of their installation.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that this is this it's it's so painful and frustrating to me.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I could just as easily talk about this in terms of kitchens.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: When I meet a new client, the first touch point we have is a contact form that I ask people to fill in, and they will give me their address and often share some photos of the relevant areas of their house.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Even if they don't, I can often check out the house on Zillow.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: I also spend some time on online house listings in my own neighborhood and in other places, or when I walk by a house and like the outside of it and want to know what's happening on the inside of it.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Even in a house that is generally a pretty great time capsule, has its original siding still intact, has some obviously visible, charming living room spaces that I can see through the open picture window area.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when I when I look at the listing photos, when I see what's happening on the inside, the most common areas to have been remodeled are always going to be the kitchen and bathroom.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Those spaces are hard wearing, they take a lot of abuse and use in terms of life.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: They get beat up on, they have plumbing accidents in them, but also they just they are victims of fast fashion.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: They are victims of how-based thinking.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I could talk about this in terms of kitchens, bathrooms fall into the same category, and they are perhaps even more at risk of the kind of thinking that says, it's just a small room.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: We've got two bathrooms, so we can use one while the other one gets done.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: We'll just hire a bathroom remodeling company to come in and, in theory, upgrade the space, do the space.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that typically means a replace-in-place remodel with little thought to the best arrangement of space or the current leads of the family.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I see it all the time.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: The result is not great.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: The thinking that anything new is better than everything old hits over and over and over again.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: When I visit a vintage home as part of touring an estate sale, when I meet a new client and see what's going on in their house, or even when I just scroll on Zillow, I see this.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: When you focus only on the questions of how you could remodel a bathroom, you will inevitably fall into a trap of removing and replacing as much as possible of the original space.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you begin from a question of why you are remodeling a bathroom, you may arrive at the same point ultimately.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: You may decide that the layout of the space is awkward or inadequate to your needs, however.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: You may decide that there are elements of the original bathroom that are worth preserving that you want to, for example, um, something we suggested to a recent client.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: They had two complete time capsule bathrooms with relatively generous layouts, one with a pretty charming yellow tile setup, one with a pink and blue accent tile setup that wasn't quite as beloved.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but they were looking at what needs to change in the house.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: The the kitchen layout was dated and very hostile to their sort of family structure, but did they need to change the bathrooms?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't feel a pressing need to do that, and I didn't feel a pressing need to recommend that to them.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: It did seem that the built-ins were a little worn out and they weren't equipped with the kind of easily open and closable doors and drawers that are particularly handy for multiple kids going in and out of a space all day long.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we proposed that they could simply replace the vanity in place in such a manner that would keep all of the original tile.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: They could potentially keep their existing plumbing fixtures and just set them into a new countertop.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: The mirror could be replaced, and I didn't love the way the light fixtures were oriented, but we could set all of that up.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And because we weren't going to move the major locations of pieces and we weren't going to replace the tub or the toilet, we didn't need to touch the tile.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: That could all stay.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thinking about the why of that space led us made a very conservative choice financially and a very preservative choice for the vintage charm in the house.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And even if they change other parts of the house as they go along through this remodel, hanging on to that anchor point of preserving the original tile in that bathroom will help everything else feel a little bit more connected back to what's going on in the lifeline, the lifetime of the house.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Saves money, saves style.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it would be just as easy, I think, uh hiring a contractor without having gone through a design process, they would probably have walked through the house and checklisted, oh, there's failing cabinets in this bathroom.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe this bathroom is due for an update.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do the bathroom.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then rather than a charming but slightly worn 19 mid-50s bathroom in five years from now, they would have an already getting dated mid-2020s bathroom to deal with.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: The clock starts as soon as you do the work.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, on the other hand, sometimes the why questions pertaining to a bathroom lead us to know that we're probably gonna make some fairly aggressive changes to the layout.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: The division of sp of sort of bathroom core spaces between two different bathrooms are not allocated properly for the way that the house is going to be used today.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: I actually have two projects on the boards right now, um, one we're just wrapping up and one we're gonna be kicking off soon, that need more of that approach.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: That we're gonna be testing, is there something we can do to help these bathrooms function better with their current division of shared bathroom versus owner's bathroom?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or ultimately, is the way that the house is about to be used by its next occupants just gonna be so different?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the original division of spaces between two tightly packed bathrooms just awkward enough that it's not worth preserving.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna test both things, but the question always comes up, and we will tell I'll, you know, I'll also be addressing sort of the kind of questions that come up when I chat with people often about bathrooms in a 30-minute design consult.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Is it worth it to change up this bathroom?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: What will be gained?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: What will be lost?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: And in the balance of those two questions, is it worth it to do something as drastic as changing up layout, or should we try to work within the existing footprint, which gives us the opportunity to try to preserve, for example, existing tile?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in the case of a bathroom that has already fallen victim to an aggressive flipper-style remodel, the answer is nearly always that it is worth it to come back and at the very least substitute again some better quality finishes, fixtures, et cetera, for the choices made by someone who was only trying to pay cheaply for materials and sell the house to someone who could only see the value in something shiny or new, or even sadder, perhaps a homeowner who made choices for their own space based on the cheapness of the materials and assumed that it would feel like an improvement in quality simply because it was new.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is also a place where returning to a Y-based philosophy will help us push back on the entire remodeling industry, which, like many other industries functioning under the general umbrella of capitalism, push us to do things quickly, cheaply, and sacrifice on quality.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, let's think about put the slow food movement, the slow fashion movement.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm not too interested in a technical one-to-one comparison here, but just taking it as a as a metaphor, what does it mean to plan a slow remodel?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Not one that takes a lot longer than you hoped, but one that isn't about chasing quick fixes or patch jobs or making compromises to get something done now that doesn't even ultimately serve the purpose that you set out to accomplish.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: If we're gonna go to the trouble of making a change to our home, we want to feel like the change we've made is worth it.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's worth our time, it's worth our money, it's worth our energy.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: And if doing it a little bit more slowly, if thinking about it for longer before we do it can make that happen, then yay, we get to push back on the system of constant marketing that is being pushed in our face by social media, by uh the home remodeling industrial complex, etc.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Capitalism, basically.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the other piece of that capitalist equation that makes it hard for us as owners of mid-century homes who want to make good choices for them is that our lives aren't necessarily as settled as we might like them to be.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Some people have or choose lives where they know they will stay in one place and make other choices in their life around it.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Others find ourselves moving for education, for employment, for family, for opportunity from one place to another across the country or out of the country.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's always easiest to make choices for your home in a long-term sense when the planning window for your life in the house is your life.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: When I work with a new master plan client who tells me that they've bought a house in a neighborhood that they want their kids to grow up in, that they're planning for age and place details, that this house is near three or four of their family members, they think of this house as their forever home.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is very easy for me and for them to talk about the choices that they are going to make as investments, not in the financial value of the house, but in the life that they're gonna live there.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: That means making choices that fit their personal preferences, uh, choices that should last, chosen with decades in mind, installations done with maximum care, finishes that are meant to endure.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: In other cases, folks that I work with know that they might not be able to commit to staying in the house for that long.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: We might be talking about improvements to make for a three-year or a five-year or a ten-year planning window.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: They want to make improvements to change it, to fix it up, to repair it anyway, but the planning math does change a little.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: In some cases, someone who plans to stay may find a reason that they must leave, and someone who assumes they'll move on may end up staying in a house longer than they intended.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: When I bought my ranch and started changing it, I actually thought it was not going to be a long-term place for me.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: I was treating it a little bit more as an architectural project lab, and I definitely wanted to make smart choices for it, to infuse it with good design, both of a sense of personal and professional pride, if nothing else, and to enjoy the time I spent in it.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I admit, I do see the house differently now, both ten years into living in it, and knowing that my window of living here might be very long.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: So this is an important thing to know about your own circumstances and your relationship to your house.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to ponder it too deeply to know the answer, you can simply answer it.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think you are currently living in your forever home?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Or do you have some pretty clear reasons to believe that your time in this house is temporary?
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not for nothing, but also I've been in my house ten years and I've gotten 10 years older in the interim.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: The way that I think about longevity in my mid-40s isn't the same way I thought about it in my mid-30s.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing: no matter how long or short my lifespan is in this house, how long you plan to live in yours, the house is still going to be there.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the choices you make for it have the potential to last or not.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: This reminds me of a great conversation I had a couple of years ago with my friend Susan Holla of Make It Mid-Century.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'll link to one or two of my conversations with her in previous podcasts in the show notes page.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: But we had a lovely conversation about how much we love mid-century homes and why it's important to make good choices for them.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that honestly, there should be an element of altruism in an ideal remodel of a mid century home.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's what we do for ourselves so we can enjoy our lives more, so we can feel comfortable and safe and convenient in our houses.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: But there's also taking care of a mid century house and an act of stewardship.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: This house has been around for 70 plus years and could very easily last.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: 70 plus years again, or well beyond that.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, how can we make choices for our homes that will last?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Not only through our own tenure, but beyond them.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not to say that you might not find yourself remaking some of the choices you made on your home in earlier years.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: My bathroom is a key example of a room I plan to touch again.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't do much to it when I was first moved in.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um it and it it what didn't have much to recommend it.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was mostly a replacement of 90s Home Depot light fixtures and uh vanity and etc.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: I removed the old man toilet with the power flush that's had like a jet taking off and replaced it with a modern low-flow Toto flooring I liked better.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: But as I reflect on those changes now, they weren't the most long-term thinking I could have done, and they were not really in keeping with the original style DNA of the house at all.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Such is the nature of first home improvement projects.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: We've come back around to bathrooms specifically now.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: It is theoretically pretty easy for me to come back and do my bathroom again.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Bathrooms are the smallest and most discreet object space in any house to be remodeled.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: And companies specialize purely in bathrooms.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's possible to come in, take out all the fixtures, scrape off all the finishes, put them all back in fresh any day of the week.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can DIY it, um, or you can hire someone by pointing at a few pictures in their lookbook and making the most obvious of choices and update the bathroom to today's standards and trends without thinking about it too much at all.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: But this is why I'm happy to talk about the concept of why versus how in a remodel at the kickoff of the bathroom season, because it's a microcosm for the greater approach we take to remodeling our home.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: It is neither cheap nor easy to take on a remodel, no matter how quick and dirty you do the job.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to cost money.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to require breaking inertia, letting strangers into your house to make noise and dust.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: It will take a certain amount of time no matter how fast it goes.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: But far too often we prioritize spending a little less time, money, energy to make those quick choices for our house.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then we get to spend the next 10 years thinking, oh man, I wish I hadn't done it that way.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm really going to have to come back around and do this bathroom again.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: We make quick choices when we should be thinking long term.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: So as I crack into the bathroom season and talk through the approach that I take as an architect to layout logistics and material finishes in a mid-century space, let's frame all of it, not as a quick fix, but looking for a solution that can last as long as the house has already lasted.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: For those of us in mid-century homes, that means trying to imagine choices that we could make right now that would be good for another 70 plus years.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, never say never, but I don't think most of those choices are going to be found on allmodern.com.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: So stay tuned for another pithy, relatively focused season where we're going to talk about bathrooms in the context of regrettable choices made in the past and how to fix them.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Tight-space logistical issues, some of the original mid-century design moves that have just not landed as well with today and perhaps need adjusting, and some that are charming and should be preserved at all costs.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Some fun history, some remodeling philosophy, because you know I can't stop myself, some linked sketches and pictures.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a great conversation coming at you next week with my friend Aletha of True Home Restorations in Michigan.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about the personal choices that she and I made for our own homes and how she recently took on a remodel of her bathrooms.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Again, not scraping them back down to scratch, but adjusting several of her original choices made shortly after she moved into her house while preserving some of the others.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: The result is really nice, and I hope you find some helpful advice there for anyone who's listening to this that has made choices in their own home they don't love anymore.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: So to come back around to the question of why questions versus how questions, there are so many things we can do to improve a space that actually make a difference that may or may not even show up in a lookbook of pretty bathroom updates, prioritizing wise investments in long-term maintenance, like a whisper quiet but super effective bath fan to make sure humidity doesn't take your bathroom out earlier than it needs to be.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: I want us to focus on why and on the broader planning horizon of planning a remodel for your house that will last as long again as the house has already stood as a consistent theme for this season, even though the season's theme is also the littlest, cutest, most sort of tile-finished spot in your house.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, let's talk about what it will mean to plan a slow remodel of a bathroom.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's it for today.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can find references in the show notes page.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: So links to past conversations I've had with Aletha of True Home Restorations, of Susan, of Make It Mid Century, and check out the excellent podcast of Tara McMullen, What Works, and some of the things she referenced in her June, ooh, what was it?
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: Her June 3rd episode that got me thinking about all of this.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's really not that much overlap.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of took the idea and ran with it into a different direction.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if you found today's conversation interesting, you will find her separate podcast fascinating.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I will be back next week with more on making great choices for mid century bathrooms.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: See you then, mid mob or modeler.