Designing the Ultimate Backyard with Wendy Glaister!

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Happy 250th birthday, America.

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It's around the House.

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Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

Thanks for joining us.

Today we've got the band back together.

John Dudley, good to see you.

Wendy Glasester, welcome back to the show.

Hi, guys.

It's so good to see you.

Thanks for having me.

I'm excited about this.

It's always much fun.

And I'm gonna steal that line from Johnny before he uses it.

Oh, yeah, go ahead.

Well, we are going to talk about today, one of my favorite subjects, outdoor living spaces.

And this is just, to me, the ultimate fun.

It's the cheapest addition you can do to your house to gain living space.

No matter almost where you're living, you've got a little bit of time at least that you can be outside.

And there are so many things you can do in the.

The world is your oyster when it comes to great design and your imagination.

That's true.

There are so many fun things that you can do and you can develop so many hobbies and pursue so many interests out there and have so much fun.

Of course, I'm spoiled because I live in California, so it's pretty much four seasons living here.

But I try to maximize that.

There you go.

It's kind of like John and Columbia.

There's four seasons there too, but it's all the same season.

Exactly.

Every day, 78 and sunny.

It might rain for an hour in the afternoon.

That's about it.

Oh, that sounds like great weather, huh?

Yep.

Yeah, that's morning.

Then when I.

When I sit at 10 degrees, that's it.

Nice.

So, Wendy, you just won a big award here fairly recently on an outdoor living space.

Did.

And it was really fun.

I won for ASID and in qba and I couldn't believe it.

I was so thankful you won both.

That's hard to do when your clients do everything you suggest and they never say no to you.

Honestly, you couldn't ask for more, right?

Absolutely not.

It was so fun because they had this big, huge, beautiful home and this huge backyard, but it was very underutilized.

And the layout of their.

Because they had A pergola out there.

But the way it was laid out was strange.

And they had bats that had made a little home over their outdoor kitchen.

And cool.

Not healthy.

No.

The guano is not good.

Not good in hamburgers.

Not good for food.

So we gutted the whole thing and started over and put in this huge, beautiful linear fireplace, a fire table that was custom built by Nick Heckendorf at Metalcraft, which was gorgeous.

Big, huge sitting area with furniture that really sits like a real sofa.

Lee Industries has an incredible line of furniture and they do that.

And then this gigantic double island outdoor kitchen with a alpha pizza oven and all the cooking stuff and refrigeration and the sink and storage and it was really fun.

And then we redid the.

We did a putting green, put in a pickleball court, did all new lighting and landscaping.

It was oh so fun.

And lit the whole thing up with my friend Carrie over at Phillips Lighting.

So it was awesome.

So many fun things.

Wendy, furniture outside has come so far in the last decade.

Yeah, it's not comes like fabrics and design and stuff like that.

I mean, talk about kind of the.

I'm just going to use the brand name because a lot of people know it.

Like the Sunbrella type fabrics that can.

Yes.

Take the abuse.

And that red couch will still look red in five years instead of pink.

Yes.

It's really, really changed.

And there's also inside out, which is one.

And Krypton also has some indoor outdoor furniture or fabrics.

I really got to know the line of Lee Industries when I went to High Point with Tom Slater and they have this really cool.

It's a marine grade furniture and they had this experiment where they dipped it into this soggy bog in the south for 30 days and then they pulled it back out with this crane and used a power washer and it came perfectly clean and white again.

And when you alligator let go and when you sit in it, it sits like a really nice, high quality sofa.

Not like outdoor furniture.

Yeah.

You know, a lot of the outdoor furniture.

And I made this mistake in our first big, pretty outdoor backyard situation that I did.

I ordered it all online, the sectional one.

And it hits you right in the middle of your back.

So there's not a very high back and there's not really support in the cold.

Right.

And it's just so uncomfortable and it looks great.

But I could not get my husband to go out there and sit with me.

It was.

I was so frustrated because I'd worked so hard on that.

But it's really Uncomfortable stuff.

So this Lee industry stuff, the warranty is incredible.

It's all aluminum, and the foam wicks away the moisture and it's fantastic.

So I've been using that primarily in all the different outdoor spaces we've been doing because thankfully, after we won that award, we've been asking.

Been asked to do a lot more outdoor, which is fun for me.

So there's just so much opportunity and to treat the backyard in like, zones just like you would in your home.

So there's a clicking zone, and there's a lounging zone, and there's a games zone, and there's a water feature and the lighting that you choose.

And there's so many opportunities to do really fun, creative things that completely transform your outdoor space.

And there is so much planning that has to go into this.

And we've talked about it before, but it is the necessary thing because you will.

Here's the thing.

I think this is what's different from an outdoor space, from an indoor space, is that space will always be transforming in that plants will be growing, bushes will be getting bigger.

So things change.

And so you have to account for that with lighting.

You have to go, okay, this tree that I'm planting or the shrub is gonna be four foot taller in five years.

Right.

So you've gotta plan all of that stuff in there.

And there's nothing worse than getting the project done and going, oh, we didn't run the wires for the lights.

No.

And we see it all the time.

But it's just, it's that lack of preparation and planning that gets you kind of burned in a little bit.

There's certainly different ways to go about it.

You can do a wildly high end area like the one where we won those awards, or you can do it more on a budget and just inch by inch, it's a cinch sort of a thing.

And so, like, for example, the fire table, that was so fun in that space, you can get a really great little propane powered linear fireplace that you can put on top of a dining room table outside.

And it has such great ambiance, but it's not tens of thousands of dollars.

So it's not like if you don't have a ridiculously huge budget that you're precluded from enjoying a really beautiful backyard space because you can make that happen.

You just have to get kind of creative and be willing to try little different things until you arrive at where you want to be.

I mean, when I did mine, mine was just, I started out with, okay, I'm going to build the covered space.

And I built the COVID and built that kind of did a really cool mid century kind of feel to it.

And then I was like, all right, got the kitchen in and then I went, no, I want to put a pizza oven too.

So I did a little cover edition that I could do the, the outdoor pizza oven in.

And of course I didn't go get like a ooni or one of those kind of things that you do.

I just went and went, wow, okay, I'm gonna build my own pizza oven.

Oh wow, that's cool.

So I got a kit.

We actually had him on as a rerun over the holiday here and had him on there.

But it was from the pizza brick company.

But yes.

Anyway, super yet.

And they send you all.

And this wasn't the brick one but it, it came with fire clay kind of sections you built the dome out of.

But almost like a 40 hour build.

Wow, that's great.

So it was wood operated.

Yeah.

And so you had to build the base.

The base was.

I built heavy duty because you're putting £2,000 of stuff on it.

And I actually built that.

I built a huge like 8 inch thick footing for it and then I built a steel studded wall to hold it up.

To find out more, head to aroundthehouse online.com we will be right back with more from Wendy Glacier after these important mess.

Welcome back to this Independence Day episode of the around the house show.

If you are just joining us, we are talking outdoor living design with renowned designer Wendy Glaster.

Now let's get back to the program.

And kind of made this H pattern so I could have firewood storage and did that.

Yeah.

And I tell you what, if there was ever a hurricane or a earthquake through there, the safe space, climb into the wood storage area, the pizza oven.

Because nothing's going to hurt you in there.

No.

The problem with pizza ovens is though then you dive into the whole craziness of I'm building my own.

It's the world of making pizza.

So now all of a sudden you dive into the pizza oven thing and that is its own deep dive in skill set that it takes.

Yes.

Did you perfect the dough and getting it in the.

You okay?

Because I still haven't.

We have a dual fuel pizza oven and I really appreciate that because we don't always have time on a weekdays to heat it up with.

So here's the secret.

Let it sit on the Counter for four or five hours.

It needs to be room temperature when you do it.

Okay.

If you pull it right out of the fridge and try to do something with it, ain't gonna happen.

Like bringing a steak to room temperature.

Before you sear it.

You need to let it sit out there for three or four hours and get nice and warm and take it out of the plastics because it's gonna be tight in that plastic, but yeah.

Gonna release it.

Put it in a, like a lightly floured mixing bowl and just cover it and let it just rise again in that and get a room temperature.

And then you could make a large pizza out of that.

But if you do it, then you're gonna have this thick crust when it's cold.

This thick crust.

Weird pizza that you can't get the dough, It'll always shrink back.

It's all about keeping that.

Okay.

Because my pizzas end up looking like calzones because you.

I flick it in there and it just flops over on itself and makes this terrible mess.

And so I've been kind of discouraged.

So I'm like, okay, so leave it on the counter room and then practice.

Practice.

Yeah.

Jump on Instagram and start following a couple of the pizza makers on there.

Oh, they'll show you how to make their own favorite dough.

You can go down the rabbit hole.

I have that 00 flour from Italy stuff, and I just.

I was.

I didn't want to waste it, so I thought I need like a weekend when I can devote myself to this craft.

Yes.

But now that we've moved the pizza oven, it's like an open air party barn.

And there's even a chandelier, which I think is funny.

This is awesome.

So we've got it all set up with this big stainless steel work table and the pizza oven and the propane and all this stuff.

I'm excited to get going on that.

We're gonna have all of our neighbors from the other house come out and do a big pizza party.

Be warm.

There you go.

That was John Wayne's idea with the cow on the balcony.

See?

Just bringing them up to room temperature.

So when you built your outdoor kitchen, Eric, did you do like a steel frame?

Did you.

How.

What kind of material did you guys.

It was wood, but I built it stout, So I did 12 inch on center, and I think I did 2 by eights that were 8ft long and then had another header.

And I really built it so you could literally park a truck up on it.

So.

Oh, okay.

The pizza oven was not on the deck, I put that right into the ground off to the side of it.

So that way it worked well.

That way.

Yeah.

And a lot of the composites, they, they, they want 12 inch on center anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

But I just made it heavier duty because I had L shaped bar that was raised at 42 inches that had slab porcelain on it.

And so I had some stuff.

I tried a couple different countertop materials out there.

So the, the.

I used paper stone down on the working surface and in the bar area up top, I used.

That was more exposed.

I used the slab porcelain.

Interesting.

So we use either sometimes natural stone if it's shady, or decked on that ultra compact surface.

That Cosentino.

I can't really use if I, if.

Because we freeze in the wintertime.

So if I use a natural stone that's not sealed, that could kind of blow out.

Yeah.

So.

So yeah, I wouldn't stay on top of sealing that.

Right.

Probably.

Because even if you did in the Northwest.

No.

So it's a rough one.

And the cool thing with the slab porcelain was that I had pictures of it with my temperature gun and the sun before I built that cover where it was 120 degrees on that surface.

And then I had pictures of it with freezing rain where there was an inch and a half of ice wrapped around it.

Really.

So the.

But that also requires a different kind of fabrication.

Right.

It's don't.

It's almost like it's like granite.

Oh, it is.

Okay.

Slab porcelain, whatever you want to call it.

And that was the.

Only had it out for a few years, but I was the launch customer basically for Dupont's version of that.

Okay.

And then all of a sudden one day it was off the website and gone and nobody was speaking of it.

So I don't know what happened.

Interesting how those things go.

We did a really fun one where we did the frame for the kitchen in tubular steel.

Nice square tubular steel.

And then we did laminated glass.

Oh.

Oh, nice.

That was really fun because my husband's a glass and storefront guy and so I convinced him to do this experiment with me.

And it was so pretty and sleek.

And it was funny because in the beginning, actually it was my dad's idea because I was trying to figure out what to do.

And he said, just use.

I talked to my husband about it.

I said, but isn't it gonna get kind of yucky like.

And he goes, well, all these skyscrapers downtown are all glass.

I mean, it's made to work outside.

Yeah.

So it did.

It looks really, really pretty.

So if you have a really high contemporary space, that's sort of fun.

That's cool.

I thought.

I thought.

My favorite.

Yeah, that's really good.

It looks good.

I'm a big contemporary guy and anything glass, I love.

Yeah, yeah.

The coastal house.

I want the entire front of the house just glass.

Oh, perfect.

The other thing that I realized, too, when I was doing mine, and it was a mistake that I made because I had been a charcoal cooking person.

Oh, yeah.

And then all of a sudden I went, oh, I'm going to add a. I'm going to add a gas.

Natural gas barbecue.

So I had to army crawl underneath the entire deck that was like 18 inches high to install gas out there.

And it wasn't as fun as what I wanted to be, but I got it done.

But it was definitely a.

This is tight and there's lots of spiders under here kind of thing.

Oh, no.

Yeah, Spiders find me for.

Oh, no, they.

We don't get along.

Yeah.

But it is true.

Yes.

And I think even if you run the utility out there and you decide not to use it, that's fine.

But at least you have it even with water and drains.

And, I mean, you can use a French drain to some degree, I guess, in an outdoor kitchen, but you really have to monitor that and be careful.

So I think if you're really going to enjoy this space and you know you're going to use it a lot with your family and your friends, it's worth the investment to do it right the first time, because people just really enjoy it.

And I think it honestly adds so much value to a home.

And I don't know if there are really studies on that.

I know that kitchens and master bedrooms sell a house, but I think outdoor spaces more and more can contribute to that as well.

And so that considering I had cameras on my house that we talked about.

So everybody walked out of there, went, I think we need to buy this house just for the outdoor kitchen in the bathroom.

Oh, neat.

Now, that's so in your place.

Looked like a fancy restaurant.

It was super cool.

Yeah, it was impressive.

Thanks.

Legitimately.

The videos you shot with the barbecue guy, I was like, looks like they're cooking in, I don't know, something fancy.

Wow.

It's kind of had a Guy Fieri backyard kind of feel to it with all the kitchen stuff out there.

You know what I mean?

Oh, wow.

So it wasn't.

We had these big trees and.

And one day I was out there cooking a pizza and I couldn't get it on my phone.

My neighbor got it, but there was a bald eagle in her tree that I could see it, but I couldn't just, it was just blocked enough.

But I was sitting there watching a bald eagle flying around and landing the tree.

To find out more, head to aroundthe house online.com we will be right back with more from Wendy Glaster after these important messages.

Me down.

Welcome back to this Independence Day episode of the around the House show.

To find out more about the show, including our giveaways, head to Aroundthe House online dot com.

If you are just joining us, we are talking outdoor living design with renowned designer Wendy Glacier.

Now let's get back to the program.

But I couldn't just, it was just blocked enough.

But I was sitting there watching a bald eagle flying around and landing in the trees.

I was like, okay, this is pretty cool.

Oh yeah, that's amazing.

But science says you need to get outside.

It's really good for your mental health to go outside.

And if you have a comfortable, pretty place that just so happens to have some of your interests right at your fingertips, that's a great thing.

So it's an investment in your health and well being as well.

It's not just, just, just a kitchen.

Oh, yeah.

Just this thing or that.

Yeah.

Well, here's it's.

And the one other thing that I learned too about it is that another mistake that I made.

You can't add enough electricity out there.

No.

You can't have enough circuits.

It's true.

Yes.

Because there's gonna be new and exciting that's gonna come out that you're gonna want to try.

And you, by the time you put.

In, maybe the ventilation for the hood that needs to be over your covered barbecue space that you should have in there to the refrigerator.

And then you've got lighting and maybe some fans.

All of a sudden you've got 1, 2, 3 circuits.

Maybe you need outside, not counting anything else you're doing out there, like a hot tub or a pool or, or court lights for sport courts.

I mean, there's a lot of stuff that adds up quick, but it's worth it.

Oh, absolutely.

It's worth it.

No question.

Yeah.

There's a reason I literally, I never, I cannot work in the house or in.

And I have to work outside or I go batty.

I'm not saying it's not much for my mental health, but I do it anyway.

John.

I don't know what's going to help that.

So there's been searching for years, brother.

Seven moves later.

And then the other thing that I realized too is, is so many things if you don't do it right.

For instance, if you're working on what I Builder grade house.

If you're working on that builder grade house and you're sitting there trying to make the backyard look good, Many times the soil's bad because they put two inches of dirt back there on the rocks.

You know what I mean?

And you've got so many things that you have to fix.

And you really got to plan that stuff out first.

Because I almost made that mistake.

I planned for it at the last minute.

Happy I did.

Because when I went to go do the grass out there, I needed to bring in another four inches of dirt just to get it where I could put lawn in.

Oh, wow.

All of a sudden your elevations are changing and things got really tight.

Those elevations are key to getting that dialed in.

I'm just thinking astroturf in a mini course.

Mini golf course.

Dude, it works great.

This is out of the back of your el camino.

Johnny.

This is actually the.

The stuff looks like grass.

Yeah, Burrito.

But there's one thing that I don't like about it.

Wendy and John, Both of you guys.

It can be so hot in the summertime.

Yep.

Yeah.

And it's hard on your pets, too.

So you just.

You need to make sure you have some shade for them.

That that's where they're.

You know, if you have an 80.

Degree day out there, Most of the time, the grass, even in the sun, if you ran a temp on is like 78.

But that dark plastic just heats up.

And buddy's got a half acre of turf back there in his lawn.

Looks beautiful, but it's smoking hot back there.

On anything over a 75 degree day, you can just feel it.

Oh, my gosh.

A lot.

Yeah.

It might as well be blacktop.

It just feels like a parking lot of the heat.

And so I guess they're coming out with better turfs now that can reflect that a little bit, which makes sense.

And composites can do that a little bit too.

When you're talking composite deck surfaces, you gotta be careful.

Some of those composites that you're doing are dark and do the same thing.

I've always used a couple brands.

One of my favorite is moisture shield on those super sunny decks because that reflects heat.

So if you actually walk across that deck.

And I did this at my house because I Had my main deck with that.

If you walk across that and then stepped onto a wood deck that was kind of down around the corner, the wood was actually warmer in the heat than the moisture shield was because it was reflecting heat.

So that was kind of cool.

For those hot, sunny areas that just aren't protected, you don't get that hot surface.

So the pets are great with that.

Even decomposed granite.

I mean, then at least the water still goes through, and it's somewhat tidy.

It kind of looks like a winery or it's kind of that Napa vibe.

That's so pretty.

It's just you really have to kind of think about all the different implications of the different materials that you're considering using.

Cool.

And they built the frame out of railroad ties.

U ties.

We were just talking about.

We just talked about that.

Yep.

And they had to completely change all of that.

I don't know why that.

How that.

That wasn't a windy feature.

Yeah.

But that's really, really, honestly kind of dangerous to have in your backyard with around pets and kids and all of that.

Because the.

Is it creosote?

Creosote.

Arsenic on the old stuff.

You don't want that in your backyard.

So.

Right.

My mom was like, I want to.

Railroad ties everywhere.

It's probably a lot of people, but not my mom or I. Yeah.

Not the public.

John used to live.

John used to live right in the downwind area of one of the biggest, biggest railroad tire manufacturing facilities on the west coast.

Oh, gee.

And they were going around when that plant closed.

It was a super fun cleanup site.

And they were going for dozens of blocks, going around and digging up people's yards and taking the first 12 inches of soil up out of it to get the arsenic out of the soil.

Oh, because yeah, that circumference had to be more than a mile because I was on 30th and that was all the way in Ruston.

Yeah, it was rusty.

So, yeah, they fanned out probably a mile and a half in every direction.

I mean, luckily for them.

Right.

Ocean was on one side.

I don't know how many that cost, but that was a big problem.

I understand my mental issues, Wendy.

Oh, that's okay, John.

I live next to the Hanford Nuclear reservation, so that brew gardens and rat poison.

Oh, no, I'm just not a fan of rarities.

And I'll go over to people's houses and I'll see.

Oh, you see my new grazed garden beds, and I'm like, you're eating out of that.

Just natural redwood is a great material.

It is, Wendy.

So here's something funny.

You can't get redwood in the eastern US at all anymore.

Really.

So our old co host on the show, Caroline Blasowski, America's healthy home expert, was trying to find redwood, and she's in New Jersey.

It can't be bought.

You can't get that.

They couldn't even get it shipped from anybody.

She was gonna write the check, and I gave her four different distributors and they're like, yeah, we don't take it anywhere near that.

So interesting.

You'd have to privately ship it, then truck it over.

You would have to buy it in.

Like a hot shot runner west coast.

And throw it on a truck.

Right.

And go that route.

She was like, it's like moonshine down and down.

Right.

It's.

I think they did something like that in the seventies with Coors beer in the bandit action.

They're all about that.

Wow.

I had no idea.

Yeah.

She was like, let's do redwood.

I'm like, oh, call these guys.

They'll get it for you.

And then there she just struck out.

There was no place that she could get it without literally calling up California, Oregon, Washington, or even maybe Nevada lumberyard and saying, put it on a truck and here's my credit card for shipping.

Huh.

Interesting.

Yeah.

And they find some wood, ship from there, right?

Yeah.

On the east coast, it's so much more southern.

Yellow pine and some of the cedars.

Sure, I get it.

It's hard to get out there, but I just seem to remember that she had a hard time just finding anybody.

Not even just on the east coast, but anybody anywhere to ship it.

Yeah, right.

Sounds like the west coast is like, no, these are ours.

We're the red.

I mean, there's a limited supply at.

Some point, but I lived in Northern California, in Sonora and even above Sonora and these little tiny legends.

Sonora.

Oh, yeah.

Twain Heart, Soulsbyville, Crystal.

I have a cabin in Twain Heart, and sonora is like 45 minutes from my house.

That's so funny.

Yeah.

Third and fourth grade I was a kid, right?

Oh, yeah.

That's a lot of fun outdoor living.

Mountains, volcano rocks and all that.

Yeah.

Catching lizards and snakes and riding BMX bikes.

There you go.

That's cool.

One of the things with outdoor cooking and outdoor living is I think the.

One of the most important things, before you even start is figuring out what you want to do out there.

How are you going to cook?

Is this going to be a roll around?

Stand around barbecue.

Are you going to build something in?

To find out more, head to aroundthehouse online.com we will be right back with more from Wendy Glaster after these important messages.

Welcome back to this Independence day episode of the around the house show.

To find out more about the show, including our giveaways, head to aroundthehouse online.com if you are just joining us, we are talking outdoor living design with renowned designer Wendy Glasester.

Now let's get back to the program.

But then it preserves the, I don't know, the beauty of it.

And also for the long term, things don't wear down so much, too.

That doesn't get sexy as much.

So that's kind of the fun thing that we've just recently started doing.

And I'm excited about it because being in the valley and surrounded by ag, you kind of need to prepare.

So I've got a trick for you that I like to do.

And what happens is, is you get.

You remember the.

Okay, so think of 70s fireplaces where you've got that coiled metal.

Yeah.

So there's a company called Cascade Coil, and they make those, and they're made out of coiled anodized aluminum.

So you can get them in gold or matte gold or.

Or black.

And you can put those up like a screen.

And what's cool, that it still lets the air go through.

But that metal with the coils doesn't let water come through.

So you could actually use it as a shower curtain.

The water runs down through it, so you can still see through it, but you can pull them shut.

The air still comes through.

And it's pretty cool how that works.

Yeah.

That is really neat.

Yeah.

Really smart.

And you put it on tracks.

They actually sell that for embassies to put on the inside of the windows to use as cutting the sun down.

But it also, if there was a car bomb, would keep the glass from coming through.

Wow.

And it kind of looks like chain mail, which is cool.

Which is kind of cool, too.

But you get all these colors.

That was something I was going to do on mine before I.

Before I moved.

It was just didn't get done.

But that was kind of the next step was to put that up because now it's keeping the flies down.

When it pulls out of the way, it just looks beautiful.

Curtains.

Wow.

I love that.

One of the hardest things.

And you don't have to plan so much about this, Wendy.

But for here in this area, you also have to look and go, where's the wind and the rain driving from here, it's one of those things when it's coming down, it's going sideways.

So if you're in that situation, you know you got 5 or 6ft of deck that was covered by 18 inches that's now wet.

So I really planned because I had a sloped kind of a mid century looking roof that I could do and it was cool.

But the high side, I had it in the on the way that rarely did we get the wind in the rain from, so I faced it that way so I could still get sun in.

But the low side was the side that I had that had the most rain coverage because that's where the weather would come from.

For us.

It's the really, really bad storms, the driving wind and rain comes from the south.

Yeah.

And so many times people want to put French doors on the south facing side of the house without a little porch, without any cover at all.

And that's so tough because that threshold really is not enough to keep the water out when you're using a French door.

And it's just, I hate to crush people's dreams, but it's much better than having your floor ruined or having window leaks.

Johnny.

That's the thing though.

I mean, you really have to get that figured out.

Orientation.

And just like outswing doors are a nightmare sometimes for outdoor living spaces, it sounds cool, but boy, those sure like to leak compared to other doors if they're not built right.

So if you're going to put in outswing doors, just plan on spending 50% more than you probably would because you want something that's going to be designed for it.

Well, like with this party barn idea.

And since Mark, my husband, does all that glass in storefront, I'm hoping to convince him to enclose the sides that are open right now with sliders and then it'll stay all nice and beautiful.

You can use it all the time.

And then the birdies stay out because barn swallows are darling little guys, but they are so dirty, they are pesky.

You don't want that near your outdoor kitchen.

It's like having that stuff.

Outdoor kitchen.

Yeah, yeah.

You really.

It's nice to be able to just enter a space and have it as pristine and as beautiful as when you left it and not have any little beasties taking things apart.

Absolutely.

And then the other design stuff that I say is so important too is what's your point of travel going to be?

Are you walking out?

What's it like to get from the kitchen to the outdoor kitchen?

What's it like to get from the, from the bathroom to the hot tub.

Let's talk about those things because that needs to be a thoughtful process.

It's so funny.

And this is nothing against men, please, not at all.

But some men fancy themselves the grill master or whatever.

And so I have had so many conversations with clients where the wife will say to me, wende, we gotta get this nailed down.

There's gotta be storage out there for this thing and that thing and this thing and that thing.

Because inevitably I'm gonna hear, honey, I'm gonna need a new plate out here when this meat's ready to come off.

Like you don't know, like you've been grilling your whole life, you're the grill master and you don't know you're gonna need a clean plate to take that off the grill.

When I had to leave, my son' my son and I moved in with my parents for probably three years.

It was really generous of them to have us back in, but the first thing I did was I went to my dad and I said, daddy, I want to learn how to grill so bad.

I want to be the very best.

And it was so fun.

And we spent that whole summer experimenting on.

He has a gas grill, a propane grill, not the charcoal.

But it was so empowering to be able to do that.

And to this day, just being able to walk outside and grill a steak or grill some chicken or grill whatever for friends and family and neighbors and have that confidence is so nice.

And you do learn the better grills really are worth the money because they really are better.

I did learn that, yes.

And I have my whole little situation all figured out.

Like at the cabin, I have this little basket and I put everything that I'm going to need in it.

And I am totally self contained.

And now I'm going to do it in the party barn because that just drives me crazy.

And now I'm going to get my pizza dough right, thanks to Eric.

So I'm ready.

Secret, you stinker.

Huh?

Of course.

So we do have those conversations with clients where I hear, please make sure there's a provision for this thing or that thing.

And now after this amount of time working in the industry, I kind of know the list of how he can prepare so that everyone has a good experience outside.

And the other thing is too out there.

And it's just one of those things that I always, always talk about is safety first too.

Guys, we've got to really plan ahead for stuff.

If you're doing the barbecue, gotta Have a hood or something over the top with a covered ceiling.

Because barbecues catch on fire, they get grease and the last thing you want to do is fail at that.

And then all of a sudden you're like, oh, now we got a problem.

Because the roof's on fire because I didn't clean the barbecue right six weeks ago.

Or disposing of charcoal ashes properly.

I'm very risk averse.

I had a client who was a retired firefighter and he disposed of the ashes improperly, burnt half his house down that we had just finished.

Thanks.

Be careful.

Yeah.

No.

Oh, another product you should take a look at too, for decking when you're working on stuff, Wendy, that's super cool.

It comes out of England, but it's available in the states.

It's called millboard.

Oh.

So it is actually a composite, like a stone composite interior kind of with some fiberglass built into it.

But the outside is rubber and it looks like real wood.

Oh, wow.

So anti slip.

Super anti slip.

That's amazing because that's always a concern too.

You spill a little grease on something or kids are running around a pool.

Or in the Pacific Northwest, where I'm at, every January, February, you got a.

Layer of slime that's on everything north facing.

Yeah, yeah, we get.

It just grows on everything from the four or five to six months of rain.

And it's horrible.

So that's what happens.

And that didn't get slippery.

I had it for two years on my deck, really.

And it's a self healing finish, really.

So you can use the little trim, stainless steel screws, send it sink it.

And you have no idea where that thing went.

It's called millboard mil board.

And it looks like they have some stuff too that is built.

And they're not paying me to say this.

I just love the product.

It looks cool, but they have stuff that they molded that looks super antique.

They.

They took.

Wow.

I bet.

Cool.

It's this price of most high end or top tier type products.

But I tell you what, as far as the composites go, hands down, it's gorgeous.

People will go, oh, that's a beautiful wood.

What stain is that?

And it's white oak.

You reach down and you're like, oh, white oak.

And you touch it.

It's like so smart.

Yeah, it's super cool.

Well, Wendy, we are running out of time.

No, I know it.

I'm gonna write that down.

I'm gonna email myself right away.

Exactly.

Thank you.

Someone wants to have you design their outdoor space.

How do they get a hold of you?

I have a website.

Wendyglasterinteriors.com.

You can also find me on Instagram for the same in Glacier, spelled G L A I S T E R.

Wendy, thanks again for John Dudley.

I'm Eric G. You've been tuning into around the House.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone.