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- [00:00]
Michael Boudreau
This is the Cherish podcast and I'm your host, Michael Boudreau. I'll be taking you for an inside look behind the glamorous facade of the interior design industry. At a time when every aspect of the business, from sourcing to trends to marketing to dealing with clients, is undergoing rapid change when it comes to home design, how much tech is too much tech? Everyone wants their home to be up to date, but the history of design is littered with gadgets and innovations that have become outdated almost as soon as they are installed. Everything from in wall vacuum systems to giant stereophonic speakers to curved TV screens. Should everything from closing the blinds to cooking meals really be accomplished at the touch of a button? Do we need video cameras in every room? Do you want everything from our refrigerators to our thermostats to our door locks connected to our smartphones? Is it possible that smart homes will soon outsmart us? How do you advise clients today about the latest technology? What devices are worth the investment? And which gadgets and trends will soon be superseded by newer innovations? Is there any way to tell which products, apps and electronics will actually improve your clients lives? And how do you keep up? I have with me today two designers and an architect who grapple with these questions almost every day. First up is Seattle designer Beth Dotolo. Beth founded Pulp Design Studios in Dallas 17 years ago with her partner, Carolina Gentry. The firm, which is known for creating glamorous and comfortable residences with just a touch of industrial edge, has since expanded beyond Dallas and Seattle with an office in Los Angeles. And the duo are currently at work on residences and hospitality projects across the country. Hello, Beth. Hi.
- [01:54]
Beth Dotolo
Thank you for having me.
- [01:55]
Michael Boudreau
So glad you're here. Toronto designer Cynthia Ferguson mixes bold colors and playful patterns to create richly layered rooms that update tradition with verve. She works closely with her clients on everything from whole house makeovers to room refreshes, always keeping in mind a family's needs and placing comfort at the forefront. And she's making her second appearance on the Cherish podcast. Welcome back, Cynthia.
- [02:19]
Cynthia Ferguson
Hi Michael. Great to be here again.
- [02:22]
Michael Boudreau
For the past 34 years, Greenwich, Connecticut based architect Charles Hilton has been designing sumptuous and elegant homes inspired by classic American styles, including Georgian, colonial and shingle style, as well as stunning gardens, pool houses, gazebos and guest houses. His work has won numerous awards and been featured in many publications, and his first book, Classic Greenwich Houses, was published by Monticello Press. Hello, Chuck.
- [02:47]
Charles Hilton
Hi. Great to be with you guys.
- [02:49]
Michael Boudreau
So this is a big topic that goes from everything from Wi fi, which I think we probably would all agree is essential to every single house in the United States, to all sorts of hot topics like sustainability, wellness, materials that are safe, all of that stuff. So we have a lot to cover. And I know we all are opinionated. Like, Cynthia, I want to start with you. Have you found from your clients our interest in all this tech? The doorbells that can tell you who's at the door when you're 100 miles away, a thousand miles away, 2,000 miles away, to push a button to darken the room or change the light bulb colors? Is this something that's appealing to your clients?
- [03:30]
Cynthia Ferguson
I have to say, actually, in thinking about the podcast today, I was reflecting on all of the sort of automation that we've looked at over 15, 20 years in the business now, and it's really shifted. Initially, I felt that it was really a status symbol. The more bells and whistles your house had, the more luxurious your home. And today I feel this shift really is to simplify all the things that busy lives entail. And I think that shift has come from being showy and a luxurious item and to out tech one another's neighbors, to actually trying to make your life easier and being able to get a head start on things. And I would say today tech for my clients tends to be more driven by the women of the household than the men, where 15 or 20 years ago, it used to be mostly driven by the men, not the women. And I found that that's quite an interesting shift in the practicality of what we're doing today. So, yes, they're definitely interested, but for completely different reasons than they used to be.
- [04:41]
Michael Boudreau
So the men are interested in status and the latest high tech wizardry, and women are interested in practicality. Would you agree with that, Beth? Is that true of your clients?
- [04:50]
Beth Dotolo
I don't think that's true of my clients necessarily, but I totally see where you're coming from, Cynthia. But, you know, a lot of our clients, especially like our male clients, they really just want the convenience. And they have these especially like our executives and our entrepreneurs, they have these, like, wellness routines where they want to, like, set the steam shower while they're finishing their workout so it's ready for them, do a cold plunge, and they want to do all of this over their phone. They're also interested in wellness as far as the lighting, tracking their circadian rhythm, and all that crazy stuff. So I think it's both men and women. And I'm also in Seattle, and we're also working on second homes all over the country. So I feel like our clientele might be maybe a little different. We're in a tech hub and our clients who have second homes, they really want that option to be able to control things from afar, because you have to be able to monitor from afar and chug.
- [05:36]
Michael Boudreau
You do a lot of houses in Greenwich, which is an epicenter of hedge funds and tech people. So I would assume that it's one of the epicenters anyway. I mean, certainly saddle is as well, and. But anyway, I would assume that your clients are up to date and knowledgeable about what's out there, which is not the question, how do they find out? But I would assume your clients are pretty savvy. Tech savvy. So what are they asking for? And have you ever been in a situation where you had to say, you know what, this may be the latest thing, but I'm not sure this is something you're going to need or want three years from now?
- [06:10]
Charles Hilton
Yeah, I think I find most of our clients pretty practical. I mean, I think some of the sentiments that were already said, I mean, there's so much going on in people's lives, they want it to be simple. If it gets too complicated, it gets too hard to control, they shut down. So you always have a few people that are super techie and interested in these kind of cutting edge things. But I think that the things most people are interested in are just kind of practical. Ability to control things in their lives conveniently or mobily, and also to be reliable. A lot of these technologies are not very dependable and they break down or become antiquated in a short period of time. And people have gone through enough replacement generations of certain things where they're like, I'll take this because I know in three years, five years, I'm going to want to replace it with something else. But there's a number of broad categories. Electronics and all the things you think of as high tech, I think comes into play in a variety of different ways. And we can get into all that. H Vac systems and energy efficiency, a big interest these days. Low maintenance, kind of convenient materials. And there's so many new interesting materials and products coming on the market. And certainly like the healthy home and the healthy environment for our families before COVID but even more after Covid is also on people's mind.
- [07:26]
Michael Boudreau
So have any of you noticed, like a big uptick in people who want to have air purifiers installed throughout systems as opposed to sticking one in a room? Have you found that? Is that of crucial, of interest I.
- [07:38]
Cynthia Ferguson
Think here in Toronto, we certainly have had those conversations. I would say that when they were making headlines in the news, they were also conversations in those projects. I would say today we're probably not having as many of those conversations as we had been. I would agree with what Bess said. It was much more. Today is much more about monitoring second homes, recreational properties, making sure the furnace hasn't gone out. Especially here in Canada, where that could lead to freezing pipes. And keeping an eye on the impact of the weather on their recreational homes is something that people, it's really at the forefront of their minds. So maybe not so much air purifiers and air filters anymore as it was two years ago even, but definitely the convenience of being able to monitor activity of additional residences.
- [08:27]
Michael Boudreau
And you all have mentioned practicality, but practicality is a two edged sword because I remember when we met our new neighbors in the country, they took us on a tour of their beautiful new house and they were very proud. And every time we'd go to a different room, they say, Alexa, turn on the lights. And then, alexa, Alexa, turn on light. Alexa. Then you just flipped the switch. And also speaking of furnaces going out, you know, the nest, we have a nest in our house in Connecticut. And every time there's an Internet outage, we panic. And then, or we have to ask the same neighbors will come over and reboot the system or whatever. So yes, it's convenient and it's great to know that the power's gone out. But how do you address those kind of issues? Chuck, do you have your clients that. Is this an issue for them? I mean, you know, okay, you want to open the blinds and you do it via your phone, but you forgot to charge your phone.
- [09:14]
Charles Hilton
They all just go into it and say, look, this is what I need. And a lot of them, same thing, multiple houses, remote locations, businesses where they travel a lot. But they want it to be dependable. So we have those conversations with whoever the vendor happens to be about what kind of technologies are reliable and serviceable and those kind of things. So we try to set the expectations for the client and set the expectations for the vendor about what's going to fly and what's not going to fly. And people get really frustrated when important events are going on and their house is not performing the way they expect.
- [09:46]
Beth Dotolo
I will say too though, the best systems out there are ones that you can control by your phone, but that there's also a wall mount control so that you can manually control it as well. So if there is a Power outage or if there's a connectivity issue, you can still switch the lights on and there's still like a manual control.
- [10:02]
Michael Boudreau
But I would also imagine there's been a huge upswing in demand for generators.
- [10:06]
Cynthia Ferguson
Huge, Huge.
- [10:08]
Michael Boudreau
I mean if everything is electronic, it's true.
- [10:11]
Cynthia Ferguson
And I think we've certainly talk about them frequently here in Toronto where people sort of thought it was a great add on but really won't be used. And we've been lucky, I think that there was a huge uptick after we had massive ice storms years and years ago and people were out for a week or more in a urban center, which was insane. So I think generators were big there in the city, but they're more of a we should have, don't want to need it. But in recreational areas and more rural settings, absolutely. Generators are a must have. Be it that it's hardwired to gas or propane or natural gas or that it's something that you wheel out and hook up as you need. Generators have become huge because they we can't ignore. The weather obviously has changed and is way more impactful on our lives than it ever has been.
- [11:04]
Charles Hilton
I think it's also driving some interest in alternate energy sources too because I think people are saying is the grid always going to be there when I need it and what's going to happen to our sources of energy and day to day costs and those things. But also what if there's an attack and the grid goes down or whatever. And so I see some people, that may not be the only reason, but I could see it enters into the conversation about being self sufficient and having options if the main grid isn't always there.
- [11:33]
Michael Boudreau
Now I want to ask you all about something that Covid had a huge impact on and we saw the results in the real estate and whatever in people's home renovations is of course home offices. Now that people are working from home more than they did before and some people are totally working remotely. What do you think is crucial in a home office? And does everybody really need different zoom backgrounds? What are the things that are not necessarily proving to have been such valuable additions to a home office? Betsy, why don't we start with you?
- [11:59]
Beth Dotolo
I mean we have so many needs and I feel like every person's need is different. We have one client who needs a space for storage for a teleprompter because they use teleprompters in their work often.
- [12:08]
Michael Boudreau
Oh, interesting.
- [12:09]
Cynthia Ferguson
I know.
- [12:10]
Beth Dotolo
I was like, do I need a teleprompter?
- [12:12]
Michael Boudreau
I could use.
- [12:15]
Beth Dotolo
And with that, they need great lighting. We have people who need a lot of storage because they have multiple printers, multiple monitors. We have some clients who don't need that at all. They work off of a laptop. So I think it's just so personalized. We also have clients who have homework rooms for each of their kids. There's such a vast variety of needs, depending on who it is and how they work. But it has become super important. And I feel like we're almost designing around the home offices now as we are. Like the kitchen. Like, the kitchen used to be like the main heart of the home, the big discussion point. Well, now it's like, this is how we're paying for the house, so we gotta figure out where we're working.
- [12:48]
Michael Boudreau
Good point, good point. You know, no, it is funny. And, you know, things change. I mean, I'm old enough to remember when everybody. There was a rush on importing armoires from Europe because everybody wanted to hide their TV in an armoire because they were these big, massive, ugly boxes. Now that's obviously changed. So it's interesting that everybody then needed big desks because your Apple computer, you know, those marshmallow computers from Apple were huge. And now you can put your laptop in a desk drawer. You could put it in the bedside table. You don't even need a desk. So how has that changed? Are your clients, Cynthia, still looking for those kind of traditional things, or are they? It seems like young kids, the smaller the screen, the better, as far as they're concerned. And they'll work, sitting on their, watching tv with their doing their work. It's alien to me. But have your clients become more casual about what they want in their home in that sense, about not having traditional desks?
- [13:40]
Cynthia Ferguson
I think most of my clients still talk about workspaces, flex space, the. What if we all end up back at home again? So I think that there has been a discussion in every project that we do about the fact that we do have a dedicated home office now, which didn't necessarily be the case. However, it is spoken about in a flexible type of way. Not a. Most of my clients, I will say, in fact, I don't think anybody is at home full time working. They're all back in their offices. But the conversation about where to take a zoom call is prominent in every discussion, is if I have to take a zoom call or even for school, if I'm on a zoom call with teachers from my children's school, where's the background? What are we looking at? Oh, we shouldn't do reflective mirroring. We shouldn't do that. You know, it does come into play. And in planning the rooms, I think the other thing that I'm still seeing as well is the discussion around homework space for the kids. And some people, some of my clients, and I'd say we're probably at a 50, 50 split, have their kids work at desks in their home, in their bedrooms, and others are still wanting everybody downstairs, sort of at a dining room table or in a communal area where parents can keep an eye on productivity levels, I'm assuming. And I think that that's always still a discussion. I don't know that that will ever change. I think the discussion around homework space is the same pre and post pandemic. The home office discussion has definitely changed, as has the planning for what if there are four of us at home that all need spaces as well? So maybe it's not a console table behind a sofa. Maybe it's a larger writing desk that could also substitute as another workspace for somebody else down the line. That certainly comes up quite frequently.
- [15:35]
Michael Boudreau
And if you have four people at home working, you really need good WI fi.
- [15:38]
Cynthia Ferguson
You do very good WI fi, right?
- [15:40]
Michael Boudreau
So, Chuck, I mean, a lot of your houses are rather large, and I'm sure your clients can have room for anything. But what are they looking for in terms of their layouts? Do they want big home offices? Do they consider the space more flexible? Do they want to be able to work outdoors? When you do, like a pool house, does that have to have space for working as well?
- [15:59]
Charles Hilton
I mean, the number one thing is great connectivity, whether it's WI fi or a wired setup. They seem to all still want a home office, probably in most cases separate ones for two spouses. And I endorse Cynthia's kind of assessment of the children and their needs there. But people used to be able to share offices sometimes, but not anymore, not with zoom. So the zoom backgrounds and good lighting and camera maybe in the screen so you're not staring off into some weird place and space is all important. That said, most of them are working on laptops and might be traveling around the house or sitting next to the pool or doing something from time to time. So just having good connectivity around the house and outdoors is also really important to them. But they still all seem to have a home base. And these rooms, some are big, but most are modest or perfectly reasonable. But they're just kind of packed with their particular needs for whatever their business or industry is, and quiet off the beaten path where they're not going to be interrupted, and where they can really focus in work in a really pleasant environment. Some of them have a big backdrop of the garden or the pool or something else, but private, but with a good view and a nice place to spend time.
- [17:13]
Ana Brockway
Hi, everybody, and thanks for joining us on the Cherish podcast. I'm Ana Brockway, the co founder and president of Cherish. I'm really excited to let you know that we've just added a major new feature on Cherish. It's called Cherish messaging, and it lets you communicate directly and privately with our sellers. If you have a question on an item, need a specific measurement, want to ask about a seller's price flexibility? You can now speak discreetly and directly to our dealers through Cherish. Shoppers and particularly the trade have been asking for this feature and we've listened and delivered it. So please come on over and give it a try. Now, back to the show.
- [17:57]
Michael Boudreau
What about, like, music? I mean, it used to be a big status symbol that you'd have speakers set in the ceiling of every room. Is that still something? Because now you can take your Sonos WiFi, your Sonos speaker, it's no bigger than a baguette, smaller than a baguette, actually, and you can move it from room to room. So is that still something that's important for your clients, Beth?
- [18:16]
Beth Dotolo
Yeah. And you know what the funny thing is, is like, the more experience our clients have with sound systems and electronics, the more adaptable want it to be. So most of our clients these days, if we're doing integrated sound systems, it's usually Sonos based so that you have the flexibility to use the in wall speaker with the portable speaker. But essentially like everything that used to be like, so hardwired, now they want it to be adaptable because they know that technology outdates itself pretty quickly. And in three years, there's going to be a whole new system that they'd want to upgrade to. So the flexibility and the ease of making it upgradable is really important, especially when it comes to, like the Sonos system or the sound systems in general, or really anything, actually. Whether it's integrated technology in your oven or your steam shower or whatever, they want it to be flexible.
- [19:02]
Michael Boudreau
Well, you brought up two areas that are rife with innovations and outdated technology. Kitchens and baths. Kitchens, it's a little easier, you know, if you get a rice cooker and then you stop using the rice cooker, you stick it down in the basement, the air fryer or the slow cooker, whatever. But bathrooms, things are really installed. So, Chuck, your clients, do they all want integrated steam showers now or bidets, which became very big? Now people want those toto toilets, which I had never experienced until I was just in Southeast Asia and I had my first one. It was like, whoa.
- [19:33]
Beth Dotolo
I took it for a spin.
- [19:34]
Michael Boudreau
Yeah. I was like, oh, this is what everyone's talking about. Is that something that, you know, I always said if I was building a house, how would I know what I want in a house if I don't know what's on the market? And how do you find out what's on the market and available? What systems are out there? What technology? Like, I probably might not have known about the toto toilets. So is this something that your clients, Chuck, really are aware of and desirous of? Do they want to have these latest innovations in the bath? Or you've got glass that goes opaque at the switch of a button to give you more privacy, that kind of thing.
- [20:06]
Charles Hilton
You know, the standard primary bath is two vanities or a double vanity, a water closet, a whirlpool tub, and a shower. Right. Really nice, luxurious shower. Occasionally somebody wants a steam shower. Occasionally somebody wants a sauna. Bidet is a cultural thing, as is the toilet seats. And some people want them, but it's not the most common request.
- [20:29]
Michael Boudreau
Interesting. So it hasn't even taken off even with your clients?
- [20:32]
Charles Hilton
Well, some ask for it, but the Europeans tend to want the bidets, and people from Asia ask for the toilet seats pretty regularly, but not so much from other people.
- [20:42]
Beth Dotolo
I think I'm actually opposite, because I think for years we've been designing with toto toilets. Those aren't really new. We've been doing steam showers. Those are not anything new. But I think what is new is the ability to control a lot of these things from afar. So, like setting your steam shower from your phone or setting the temperature of your shower from your phone or filling your tub to a certain temperature, all from the touch of a button. I think that's what's new. Those are the innovations. I don't know what you could do with your toto toilet from afar. I don't know if there is anything.
- [21:11]
Michael Boudreau
That's a scary thought.
- [21:12]
Beth Dotolo
But our clients have been asking for these for years, and now it's just more of, like, how do we now get it more easy to use with the touch of a button? And we're even doing, like, electrostatic glass for privacy in a shower on these projects in Lanai, Hawaii. So, like, we're getting requests for this all over, and it's actually really fun because it makes everybody's life super easy. Until it's not. Call someone else. Oh, call me.
- [21:35]
Cynthia Ferguson
Ours is the same too. For our clients, I would say it's about being able to go to your home gym and set your steam shower when you're starting your workout so that as soon as you go to the shower afterwards, it's already going. You're not waiting again. Efficiencies, that's what it's about is efficiencies. Being able to turn the temperature up on your pool so that you're using it efficiently and just not heating it all the time. If you've got your little kids coming over and they need a warmer pool and being able to do that from your phone rather than having to remember to go to the pool house and crank the temperature up, I think having accessibility to those things that you can influence your environment from your phone has become paramount for most of our clients.
- [22:18]
Michael Boudreau
Okay, but then I'll raise the question, do your clients actually remember to do this? Like, I know that way too often I forget to adjust the heat on my weekend house and so I got to adjust the nest. You know, it's like, do people put their ovens on while they're driving home to preheat their ovens? Do people think about that? I mean, I'm impressed if they do.
- [22:38]
Cynthia Ferguson
I have clients who do who have very busy lives and who are running from hockey rink to hockey rink with the kids and they want the oven to be hot and ready to go when they get home. Or they've got a programmable five in one oven and they can actually start the cooking from the arena so that it's ready when they get home. I think that some of those appliances have really made quite a difference to the stress level of running kids and lives. I would forget, but I don't have a bunch of young kids hungry at home anymore. So it makes it completely different. If I had had those conveniences when my kids were young and we running hockey rink to hockey rink, it would have been game changing for me. I would have loved it.
- [23:24]
Beth Dotolo
But the beauty of it too is you can also set routines with that woman Alexa you were talking about earlier. I hate to say her name because I feel like everyone's houses are going to be popping off on our podcast. But. But yeah, you can set like routines to have the lights go out at 6 or turn the heat off this weekend. I mean, you can always override em or turn the oven on at five o' clock every day. Cause I know I'm gonna come home to cook. So I mean, that's what so great about it is you can really like completely customize your tech to your life and it actually makes life so much easier. And so, I mean, I love it. It makes me feel like royalty, you know, just to have everything just sort of working around me. I love it.
- [24:00]
Michael Boudreau
That's great. Okay. But also what happens, I think, is that things get so complicated that do people have to remember these passwords? How do they make sure that their smart home isn't smarter than they are? Chuck, do your clients have this issue? I would think they would.
- [24:16]
Charles Hilton
I haven't heard. I mean, I'm sure I know personally there's. I got spreadsheet after spreadsheet of passwords. There's so many to keep track of. So I'm sure they have more than I do. Usually by that point they're signed off handling it. So I don't hear so much about it. So it is nice when things are simpler.
- [24:33]
Cynthia Ferguson
I think for our clients, one of the things that they have mentioned again in the transition from sort of tech, 15 years ago, we used to talk about the whole smart home 15 years ago. And that used to become. It used to be cumbersome really to use that. They had an iPad that was embedded in a wall and they had to figure out how to turn the lights on and off and they couldn't remember the zones. And it was a disaster. I feel today the tech that my clients are asking for is more app based. So it's almost an individual function on an app. They don't need to remember a password because they're constantly signed into their app. So it's a little more user friendly. And when we talk about lighting systems, we really are doing less lighting zones, automated. We may be using a Lutron system for switching so that instead of having five ugly light switches lined up on your wall, you have one plate with five little buttons on it and the buttons are labeled so you're not playing guesswork trying to remember which button to press. So I feel we've become a little more adaptable to making it maybe more single use as opposed to the entire home on one system, which did I know from my clients overwhelm most of them and most of them abandoned those systems. So I feel it's maybe a little more user friendly and maybe we're also evolving and we're 15 years down the tech lifestyle choices and we've really figured out what we can live with and what isn't as important.
- [26:03]
Michael Boudreau
Important And I think the companies have realized that their innovations that they're coming up with, brilliant as they are, are going to be used by people, not other machines. So people aren't going to remember that. But, you know, we are in an industry that's about newness and people wanting to improve their lives and status. So there's always something that comes along and you think, did we really need this? I think of the WI fi musical shower heads. Do I need to have music piped into my shower? You know, I'm not in my shower for an hour.
- [26:30]
Cynthia Ferguson
So.
- [26:31]
Michael Boudreau
Do you ever have to say no to a client when they say, oh, I want this innovation? This is so cool. I mean, not that you would say no, but maybe discourage them. Chuck, have you ever done that with clients?
- [26:40]
Charles Hilton
I have. I try to think of a good example, but sometimes people learn about things and they sound so cool and innovative and interesting. And then you tried it, you've used it, and it's filled with complexities and problems, and a lot of them are educated enough to say, hey, I just learned about this. Do you think that makes sense? And then you could say, well, it is kind of cool. But here's the pros, but here's the cons of things. And they're usually good at listening and following your lead, if they're open to that. I mean, there's a few other things, like electronic shade controls, which in a large house, a lot of these have beautiful views, get lots of sunlight, and then there's a certain time of the day where the shades need to come down or they're away and they're up. Remote control, those things, they can be fairly complicated and. And once in a while, kind of misfunction and stuff, but they are kind of very useful for larger homes. And remote controls. I mean, things like we're doing pre wiring for electric cars. Whether people have them yet or not, we're pre wiring for them right away. And certainly in the lighting controls, there's so many light switches on a wall, there's so many circuits and stuff outside that even though the back end could be kind of complicated, having one keypad to control all your landscape lights and four buttons for four different scenes is really helpful.
- [27:57]
Cynthia Ferguson
So we actually have in Toronto, our building code. You have to. With new construction, you have to put in wiring for battery for electric cars, which I think is great that we're going that way and that we're preparing for it. Well, I think we all know the problems that we're all facing with them as well. But I think that having that is starting to integrate some of that technology or greener solutions into home building is so imperative at this point. We really can't ignore it. And I think, Chuck, to your point too, even about the automatic blinds, we install them frequently in homes that are more modern with more glass coverage for heat control, light control, fabric fading, floor fading. I mean, we can't ignore that the sun does ruin your interiors to a scale that it never used to. I don't think that we could all walk away from summer residences and simply throw sheets over our furniture anymore. And I think that realizing that and having those conversations with our clients is very important because they're investing a substantial amount of money in all of their material selections. And even though we live in places like Toronto or north of here, and we don't have as many daylight hours, we certainly do during the summer. And the sun is not the one that we all grew up with. And you want to protect that investment. And if that means automatic blinds on temperature control or light control, even not personal preference, I think that that's something that we owe to our clients to have the conversation about.
- [29:30]
Michael Boudreau
And that's actually, you make the point. That's a very good investment. It's going to pay off. That's certainly not a musical shower hit.
- [29:37]
Cynthia Ferguson
You know, or themed lighting. I've seen that too, in the shower heads. Also not a conversation.
- [29:43]
Michael Boudreau
The green and the rare orange. Yeah, whatever. That's a party. Let's put it on party mode.
- [29:48]
Cynthia Ferguson
I never knew I wanted purple lights in my shower.
- [29:52]
Beth Dotolo
Still don't. But speaking of investment, I mean, we do encourage our clients to pre wire, like you said, for the electric vehicles, for the shades if they need it. But also we have outlets put installed behind every toilet now because in the luxury residences, because so many clients, if they're going to resell, they want the opportunity to be able to put in a toto toilet. So even if our homeowners don't want.
- [30:13]
Michael Boudreau
It, oh, good point.
- [30:14]
Beth Dotolo
We tell them like it's a drop in the bucket. When you're building a home, it's going to cost you like a hundred bucks or less. Just put the plug there. So that way you can always upgrade later. So just thinking through and talking with your clients about, you may not want it now, but you don't want to have a costly investment later to add it when you could really just invest a small amount now to have it ready to upgrade at any time. So.
- [30:33]
Michael Boudreau
And I think that would be so important to your clients, Chuck, and that you have to really advise them on things like, I mean, I know I'm forgetful. I'll make a list of what I would want in a home or whatever, but I know I would forget. Oh, I didn't put an electric charger. So is this something that you have a checklist in your office that you go through with your clients to say yes or no for this, that the other thing?
- [30:53]
Charles Hilton
Yeah, we do. We ask a lot of those questions and coach them to put in what we think they need. And also just things as simple as a conduit, extra conduits leaving the house, going out to critical points in the landscape, conduits running from the basement to the attic, or from one end of the house to the other, so that when systems and wiring and stuff change, it's easier to pull things through. So we're always kind of pre planning for things we don't know are coming yet.
- [31:18]
Cynthia Ferguson
Actually, that's one thing too that I just remembered. There's new technology as well for flooding, which is huge and is something new to our area. But we now have flood zones as well attached to our real estate titles. So having that technology, the fish put in on your sub pump and being able to have an alert on your phone and whatnot. I mean, the amount of money that it costs to put it in might be $2,400, but that's going to likely be smaller than your deductible on your insurance. And you also get a massive insurance rebate for having it too. So there are also those conversations that we have is with our clients at the very, very beginning, when we're just sitting down with the architects, the builders and our team are what safeguards are we putting in the generator, the water control, the flooding, all those sorts of things. Even for toilet running, it will alert you that there's been a volume change. So I think that those things are really important to consider and they may not be as sexy as lighting and sound systems and whatnot, but again, they're safeguarding your largest investment.
- [32:30]
Charles Hilton
Everything related to security and monitoring is kind of off the charts with the flooding. I mean, you could turn your house water off if the flow is too much and you're monitoring for smoke. But CO2, which that stuff's been around forever, the cameras, I mean, people aren't putting many or any in their house inside the houses, but there's tons outside. And license plate readers for the driveway and security lights tied to the floodlights and other things outside. I mean, everything related to just kind of keeping tabs and monitoring what's going on continues to expand.
- [33:03]
Cynthia Ferguson
Certainly does. Here we have terrible, terrible car thieving going on. I think we're like number one in the world right now in Toronto. So everybody's got added security and cameras and cameras where you can actually speak to the people that you're looking at in your driveway. And it been unbelievable how many cameras people have been adding just to make sure that their car is still parked there in the morning. I used to tease my boys when they were growing up about our cameras and the fact that I was just. They were there just to keep tabs on what time they were coming in, where. Now it really is what we check to make sure the car's still there in the morning.
- [33:41]
Beth Dotolo
But what I love about it is it's so scalable. Like, if you have just like a small single family residence, you can put a couple of like Nest cameras up. And if you have a big luxury home you can have at home integration consultant that can help you with your sound, your tech, they can keep all your passwords for you and come deal with any tech issues. So I just love that in any part of that spectrum, you can still use some technology in your home to make your life a little easier to keep tabs on, more security in your home.
- [34:07]
Michael Boudreau
And these are all really crucial and important things to think about, which is why, of course, you professionals are so important to your clients. But clients also have their own dream, shall we say, and their own fantasies. So. So aside from worrying about flooding and all of that, which is so important, what are clients really dreaming of having in their homes? That's new and different? Cynthia, what about your clients? We'll start with you.
- [34:29]
Cynthia Ferguson
So when I think about what my clients are now asking for, I don't know that it's anything that's new. I will say that they tend to ask me what I'm seeing, what other people are putting in, because they may not be that well versed in what's out there. They may know that they need to put in security and they need to put in CO2 and smoke and sort of the standard things, and that there may be something that somebody has on an app that they saw. So I do find that they ask me more frequently than anything. And I would say at the moment, most of the, oh, that sounds great moments sort of are really kitchen appliances and how quickly the kitchen appliances have really seemed to change everything else. They may have been installing in an earlier iteration five years ago, ten years ago. But the new technology, I would say when they Find out about what their appliances can now do in the kitchen. That's more of a. Oh, gosh, I think I'd love that.
- [35:25]
Michael Boudreau
And Chuck, what about your clients?
- [35:27]
Charles Hilton
A few things that come to mind that they've been asking for more. There's been a lot more interest in induction cooktops with more and more press about the off gassing, you know, of gas ranges and things like that. Steam ovens have become a more popular request. So that kind of takes care of the kitchen. There's a lot of people either aging in place or planning to age in place or with elderly parents. And so home elevators are more and more a request. And even if they're not quite ready for it, we're planning by stacking closets that accommodate a shaft above, you know, in the plan. But going back into some older homes where it's quite difficult, we have to figure out a way to get a vertical circulation through 2, 3, 4, 5 different levels. Some older homes have multiple split level plans and stuff. So that's very important. And I guess on the fun side of things, a lot of interesting golf simulators at home and.
- [36:22]
Cynthia Ferguson
Oh, I like that.
- [36:23]
Beth Dotolo
I was going to say the same thing.
- [36:24]
Cynthia Ferguson
I like that.
- [36:26]
Charles Hilton
Being ready for spring, you know.
- [36:27]
Michael Boudreau
Oh, that's funny. And is there any increased interest on the part of your clients, Chuck, about materials, like more sustainable materials, materials that don't have any top. I mean, we're way beyond asbestos, thank God. But we're hearing that certain materials give off a lot of carbon. Whatever. Is that an issue for them?
- [36:44]
Charles Hilton
Some of this they may bring up or touch on. And then some of it, we kind of instigate the conversation and people seem to be interested in, I mean, on the H Vac front, both for kind of being green, but also for saving money in terms of energy efficiency. If we're not using high efficiency kind of hydro air systems, there's now these air source heat pumps that are a lot more efficient, that are all electric or geothermal. And there was a lot of interest in the larger projects. The geothermal made a lot of sense when the tax credits were in place. Then they went away and now they're back. So roughly, if a standard system cost X, then The geothermal is 1 1/2 times that. But then you get a 30% tax credit, so you're almost back down to the same cost. And the equipment lasts a lot longer and it's a whole lot more efficient. So we're doing a lot more geothermal again. And we've been doing super tight building Envelopes, high performance glazing spray, foam insulation, these air barriers and wraps, heat exchangers and all those things just to comply with code. But for good practice, we have some projects where we've actually done electric co generation where we're making our own electricity on site and then recapturing all the waste heat and using it to heat the building and saving money that way. That's ultimately most of it's a fossil fuel anyway. And then the building materials, anything kind of low maintenance. We use a lot of cellular PVC foam, which isn't the cheap stuff, but the kind of heavy solid material that we use for trim. And it holds up hardly, you know, needs like half or a third of the painting that traditional wood does. It saves in our case, you know, a lot of rainforest wood that we'd use to kind of hold up in the long run. And you have to know how to detail it because it expands and contracts more than normal wood. And these high performance paper wraps and stuff are important because the buildings are getting so tight that you want them to breathe, you want the water to kind of get out of the air. So you have all those on the healthy side, low VOC paints and that are becoming more and more standard and finishes things like porcelain tiles are getting better and better and pretty convincing for a lot of applications. Mudroom floors and they may not want to put it in the master. Some people put them in the master bath. You might not want to, but certainly in the high traffic area areas, they're super durable, really affordable and looking really pretty good these days.
- [39:11]
Michael Boudreau
And Beth, what about your clients? What are they coming to? You saying I want to try this or I'm thinking about this, should I do this?
- [39:17]
Beth Dotolo
I think all of our clients, when we're talking tech, they're always interested in like health and wellness and recreation, really self care recreation, like that whole kind of pocket. And it's really all about just having modern conveniences at home. We're talking like in the primary bathroom they want to use a towel warmer that's like automated. They want to have a whole like system set up from like I'm going to go to my hot shower, my steam shower to my cold plunge and like they want to be able to like set it all and get it ready. We're doing like smart gyms with lots of programmed tech equipment with water fillers in the wall, integrated lighting systems that again track with the lighting changes as it changes throughout the day so that your system's not jarred and it tracks your circadian rhythm. But also golf simulators. We're doing golf simulator, but you know, we're doing a lot of stuff like golf simulators, spa wings, all that kind of fun stuff that is not just for your friends, but it's also for you. So when you have a better, elevated daily experience. But then of course, it's fun to tell it to go into party mode. Hey, Alexa, let's have party mode. And then show off for all your friends. But that's really what it's mostly about for us and for our clients. You know, a lot of the other stuff is sort of just assumed, the security, all that stuff, like that stuff we bring integrators for. But it's really all about like, how do I make my everyday easier, better and elevated.
- [40:32]
Michael Boudreau
Well, this has been fascinating. I guess the lesson we've learned is geothermal and golf simulators. Yes. Musical showerheads. No.
- [40:40]
Beth Dotolo
Maybe.
- [40:41]
Michael Boudreau
Maybe.
- [40:41]
Beth Dotolo
Okay, you don't sing in the shower.
- [40:43]
Michael Boudreau
But I don't do karaoke in the shower. I think it's so helpful to our listeners. I really learned so much and I want to thank my wonderful guests Cynthia Ferguson, Chuck Hilton and Beto Tolo. And thank you. Thank everyone for listening to the Cherish Podcast. You've been listening to the Cherish Podcast, brought to you, of course, by Cherish, which was voted by the readers of USA Today as the best place to shop online for furniture and home decor. If you enjoyed this episode, please tell a friend or colleague. Or better yet, go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review. We appreciate your help in spreading the word and we would love your ideas for future episodes. Please email us@podcasterish.com the Cherish podcast is produced by Mugs Buckley and engineered by Hanger Studios in New York. Until next time.