Fall 2025 Masterclass Q & A

I love a good Q&A session! 

During the masterclass and design clinics I make (and honor!) a promise to answer every attendee question. This last session lasted AS LONG AS THE CLASS. And everyone stayed up to the end.  It was a great Q & A. So, I'm going to share it with you!

This episode is packed with answers to some of the most frequent questions I get, including:

• Which tile patterns are appropriate in MCM kitchens? 
• Which types of flooring work for mid-century homes? 
• Where to source wood paneling? 

Catch the most recent masterclass right here!

Like and subscribe at Apple | Spotify | YouTube. Want us to create your mid-century master plan? Apply here! Or get my course,  Ready to Remodel.

Transcript

Della Hansmann  00:00
Twice a year, I give a live masterclass, sharing everything I know and believe about making great choices for your mid-century home update one that can fit your life and fit your budget. The most recent one was in September, and while I always promised to stick around after the class to answer any questions, they came up during it, or that people saved for the Q and A. 

Della Hansmann  00:17
That particular Q and A session was remarkable. It lasted a further hour and 20 minutes, just questions kept coming. People had such good things to share with each other across the chat, and we ended up talking about accessibility in mid-century homes, working with design build firms, working with engineers, sourcing specific replacements of mid-century elements when you should and when you don't have to be guided by your existing mid-century features in your house, details on flooring materials, wall materials, finished materials, ceiling materials, plus a quick review of a kitchen layout. I knew it was going to have to make it onto the podcast eventually, because it's just too juicy not to share. 

Della Hansmann  00:52
Hey there. Welcome back to mid modern remodel. This is the show about updating MCM homes, helping you match a mid-century home to your modern life. I'm your host, della Hansmann, architect and mid-century ranch enthusiast. We are listening to Episode 2217, now, before we get into all of those questions, which really, I just I'm still kind of buzzing a month and a half later with how good that Q and A was. 

Della Hansmann  01:13
It really felt to me like one of my monthly Office Hours calls for my ready to remodel students, just such a wonderful high level of questions asked. And by the way, I think no matter where you are in your home planning journey, you're going to find someone asked a question during this Q and A that feels very much like something you have always wanted to know, that collaborative effect, that sense of other people with mid-century homes are struggling with the same challenges, have the same hopes, questions, worries, the same weird features on their houses that you do, and then when they are further ahead in the process, or less far along in the process, you can either learn from them or help them that sense of community makes the whole remodeling process even more rich and fun. 

Della Hansmann  01:56
If listening to this Q and A session gets you fired up to build more of a community like that around yourself, then you might find yourself very at home inside of the ready to remodel program. Ready to remodel is my done with you program which allows me to walk you through every step of the master plan process, through prerecorded lessons with guides, workbooks and examples for every step, and then also give you direct feedback in our monthly Office Hours calls. 

Della Hansmann  02:20
By the way, if you're feeling tempted to sign up by the end of this episode, you should know that the December call won't be the first Monday in December, because that is a little too close to Thanksgiving weekend. It's going to be the second Monday in December. Can't wait to see you there. 

Della Hansmann  02:33
Oh, one more thing, this, by its very nature, a Q and A is always very much more tactical rather than strategic. If you are interested in the strategy of planning a good remodel, well, first off, go check out the free masterclass, which came before this Q A session. You can find that by going to midmod-midwest.com/ready and watch it on demand at any time. 

Della Hansmann  02:54
But also, if you're looking for some something in the middle, some enthusiasm, some moving you past obstacles, a pep talk, if you will. I've got a new video series dropping on YouTube right now. The second video is live as of this Tuesday, and I think you'll find it really helpful, because nearly every single person I've ever worked with in any context of mid-century master planning since I started doing this work six or maybe seven years ago, has this problem. 

Della Hansmann  03:23
They start to look into things online, perhaps specifically on Pinterest, and they fall into complete overwhelm because the internet exists. It's huge, it's sprawling, and everything is technically possible. So this week's YouTube video is going to be all about getting out of the Pinterest panic and into actually focusing your ideas, from what could happen, everything that is possible, to what you might want to do, to what you like for your house, to taking yourself into the specific products and purchases you'll make, and how to do that in a way that's going to cut down on overwhelm and help you feel more in control and calm in the process all the way along. 

Della Hansmann  03:57
This is, by the way, part of what I do for my clients one on one. And it's what I teach in the ready to remodel system. But I've just popped it all onto YouTube. Go check that out, if you are curious. You'll find me at mid mod Midwest over on YouTube, and you'll find the show notes for this episode with a link to that video as among other things, at midmod-midwest.com/2217. 

Della Hansmann  04:15
Oops, oops. I was almost about to throw two let's get into it, but I forgot one more thing. Which is that, hey, next week is Thanksgiving, which means it is our National Week of panic buying, otherwise known as Black Friday. And while I have never and I will never discount the services that myself and my team provide in terms of master planning and advice, I do offer discounts on our programs and courses. So there will be a Black Friday sale. 

Della Hansmann  04:44
Keep your eyes on your inbox for that. It will be starting on Friday and running through the next week. If it makes a difference to your planning. Supporting mid mod Midwest is supporting a small business, a local business and a woman owned business. Just putting that out there. But what I really believe is that this is a discount on design, but design itself is always a discount, because design time spending time or money on thinking strategically about what you could do in your house, what you will do in your house. 

Della Hansmann  05:14
Prioritizing is always going to save you money, time and effort in the long run, on anything you do to your house. It's going to help you make the right choices and the right other purchases for your house. Buying local, preserving more vintage things, working with what you have, are all part of the ethos of everything I do and teach. So yeah, if you're looking for gift opportunities, maybe a gift to yourself, to your partner, to your house, or if discounts are what really motivate you to jump into action, the Black Friday sale is going to be the last opportunity you have to get anything discounted from mid my Midwest until my birthday in June. So this is your big opportunity. 

Della Hansmann  05:53
All right, let's get into this Q and A session. It started off at a good clip and then just kept on rolling. So this is going to be a long episode, but I think you'll find it is absolutely full of fun and really fundamentally useful advice from start to finish. Enjoy. 

Della Hansmann  06:08
Speaking of support. I want to give you some support right now for free. So let's go ahead and just answer all the questions that have come up in the call so far. Rebecca has been gathering those for me somewhere. Let's find out. Let's see. Before I get into that, a couple of questions I get all the time ready to remodel. Yes, you can join anytime. It's an evergreen program, but I encourage you to join now, because we're going to have a bunch of people all getting started. We've had a bunch of people who joined the program recently, and I'm really looking forward to this, this squad, the mod mid modern mod, squad of people who are all thinking about their process at the same time. 

Della Hansmann  06:42
And yeah, I want to talk about some of the things you've brought up so far. If you've got more questions you want answered, by the way, drop them into the chat right now, and Rebecca will just throw them in to the question list as I go. All right, so the first one is from Claire. You've got a basic 1955 ranch in Massachusetts, and you're curious if I've ever done anything combined wheelchair accessibility and mid-century modern restoration. Okay, Claire, are you still around? Yes, you are. Do you want to come off mute and then I can talk to you a little bit more about this?

Speaker 1  07:11
Yeah, sure. Throw one additional thing into that. I'm also mold sensitive, so we've been dealing with housing situations. That's been a big concern for us. Yeah, purchasing now seems, comparatively insurers, you have any moisture control stuff as well.

Della Hansmann  07:31
Absolutely, yeah, moisture can moisture and temperature control can be a big issue in a mid-century house. Not every mid-century house has mold issues, but one thing to watch out for is a house that has had major changes to its thermal envelope, to its siding and windows in the past may be more likely to have mold issues than one that hasn't an original, untouched mid-century house is likely to just be sort of breathing properly so moisture is not getting trapped inside of its systems. 

Della Hansmann  07:55
But particularly houses that have had vinyl siding added anytime in the last couple of decades are more likely to breathing, is a bit of an inaccurate term, but they're more likely to accumulate moisture due to temperature differentials happening inside the wall, and that can create mold issues. The other thing to look out for is, if there's been at any point moisture in a basement, you're probably better off looking for a house with a completely unfinished base, or if it has like a 60s era unfinished basement, you know, the sort of wood siding had it after the fact. 

Della Hansmann  08:24
That is something you might want to check behind, because that if it's not insulated at the same time it was finished, that can be a place where there are moisture issues and then sometimes mold issues. Have you had mold testing done on the house? Have you bought it? Or it's a house you're looking at buying insulation? Yeah, exactly No. I absolutely recommend finishing basements if you want more space. It's sort of secret space weapon rather than in addition, you've got the same amount of square to finish below. 

Della Hansmann  08:44
But when you finish a basement, you really want to think about temperature and moisture control at the same time. So you want to insulate the basement walls, and you also want to air gap, ideally so rather than furring right against the concrete block wall, you want to make an air like an inch space. And so air can always move through that space. And if you're going to put down something on the floor, you ideally want to raise it up a level, so it's got a bit of air movement ability below that too. So anytime there is moisture, vapor in the basement, it's being able to move out and evaporate rather than get trapped, and that's when mold will form. 

Della Hansmann  09:24
You can also do a lot of work to make sure water is being directed away from the foundation. There's a bunch of things you can do outside, but if you're going to finish a basement, it is comfort wise, it's absolutely worth it to insulate it properly. But if you had any mold sensitivities whatsoever, and frankly, we all do, we might not notice them quite as well, but it's dangerous health condition for everybody. You definitely want to make sure that you are actively preventing mold from a design point of view. This is, this is my architect thing. 

Della Hansmann  09:51
But you know, if you if you're worried about mold, you look for mold and Google or mold in the phone book, and you find companies that will come in and put on anti-mold paint and things like that. That's all great. But you also want to think about systems. That are going to prevent the accumulation of conditions that create mold? So that's a great question. I'm so glad you asked. Then the other thing to think about is accessibility. 

Della Hansmann  10:09
And so this is a one level Ranch, aside from the basement, or what's the sort of status of this house? So I mean, it's something I've encountered again and again in mid-century homes is that I often find people who have greater accessibility needs choosing mid-century houses because they tend to be mostly on one level and with a few modifications that can work really well if you're thinking about remodeling. 

Della Hansmann  10:29
There's a couple of I've actually done whole podcasts on this, so you can find that resource online, but you're going to think particularly about how you get into the house. Do you need a ramp to get into it? Do you just need a assistance to get into the house? How do you move around the house? Are there pinch points narrow doorways or narrow hallways that are going to cause a problem? And then, how do the daily use spaces work for accessibility? Do you have roll up access to sinks? Do you have a zero entry into the shower? How have you arranged the sort of spatial circulation patterns in a kitchen so you can get at the things you need? What's the height of the oven? 

Della Hansmann  11:02
A lot of these things, when you're doing a bigger remodel, if you're doing sort of a refresh project, you can bake in accessibility for free, for no extra cost, if you just think about placement. And sometimes you're gonna need an added on system, like a house without a wheelchair user probably wouldn't need a ramp. 

Della Hansmann  11:18
But in many cases, you're just making one choice over another, and as long as you're thinking about at the same time, it's kind of the cost saving effort of the master plan method is to ask about your needs first and then put them into the things. But in this house, particularly, what's this? Is it a more of a time capsule house? Has it been remodeled in the past?

Della Hansmann  11:44
Well, here's, here's what I would say to that, as people have joined the ready to remodel program in the past who are working with a local architect that they want to they use this program, not for me to contradict what they're hearing from another designer, but to give them sort of a sense of through line, because it is sort of inherent, unfortunately, in the greater remodeling industry. I'm just trying to unkept pen on my desk. 

Della Hansmann  12:01
It is inherent in the greater remodeling industry to sort of go through a process of like checklist and not to focus as much on inner priorities. So I think to get that sense of inner confidence, people have definitely used ready to remodel as a place to have another person to ask a question about I heard this from three the contractor disagreed with the architect. What do I do? And also, just to sort of submit your own priorities, go through the process. 

Della Hansmann  12:25
I kind of love the process of collaborating with someone who's local on the ground, who might or might not focus on the mid-century ness of it as much, or who has their own areas of specialty, and then trying to augment that, to make sure we're getting a 360 picture of what is beneficial in this process and when what can be really useful. I don't do mid-century master plans for people who have another architect on hand, although we do absolutely do mid-century master plans for people who are working with a design build firm who is not necessarily well versed in mid-century. 

Della Hansmann  12:48
And that can actually end up being a really nice collaboration, where we kind of go through the first process of setting priorities, goals, workshopping, major layout changes and setting style, and then having someone on the ground who's going to go through and have their in house designer tweak every Final material and sort of put together all the palettes and coordinate with their construction team. That's a really nice relationship we've had before. 

Della Hansmann  13:14
So I guess long story short, yes and no, but I think that giving yourself a chance to sort of consistently reevaluate, reevaluate what you're being recommended by a specialist is a good idea, and it's a nice place to have the again, the sense of community with our mid-century homeowners. So it you'll decide whether it's a good idea for you. But I don't think that it's necessarily contradictory to say I already have a designer. They're going to do it all for me, because sometimes, having been that type of designer in my early career, I think having the client, having the homeowner, feel more empowered to come back and ask more questions, to push back, to give me bigger design briefs, is incredibly helpful, and not necessarily something that's baked into the design educational process or the conventional way to do things. Yeah,

Della Hansmann  14:03
And there's no reason why you have to choose one over the other. Both can happen, as long as you're thinking about it all at the same time. You can put it all in and again, like I say sometimes I'm not going to say that good design never costs money, but in many cases, design thinking helps you do one thing that gives you multiple benefits, which is great, great question. 

Della Hansmann  14:29
Okay, oh my gosh. We've got a lot of questions adding up here. 

Della Hansmann  14:32
Let's see how to work with the pickle finish on the oak doors and trim, and how, if possible, to remove white paint from brick interior walls. Okay, so this is an interesting one, and I don't actually have specific experience with pickle finish. Pickle being something that's not applied to the surface of wood. 

Della Hansmann  14:48
It's relatively easier to get white paint off of wood with a stripper. It's going to be chemically smelly, but it's possible. I think this is going to be something you've got to test samples of. And this is my advice to everyone you know, people. Sometimes ask, I saw a pretty picture in a magazine. I saw a pretty picture on your Instagram. What color paint is that? Sherman Williams and I will never give them that answer, because A, I might not know it, and B, what's great for one place isn't right for another. 

Della Hansmann  15:09
You're gonna have to test paint colors to find out what works best on your house with your brick around your neighbors and your foliage. And similarly, for stains, there's never like a right answer. So you might be able to find a piece of the pickled wood, take it off and do some sampling to put what you're going to want to get it back to as a warmer tone, a honey or color, so putting on a darker or particularly a warmer and oranger stain, you might be able to layer something neck in that works in terms of removing paint from interior brick. 

Della Hansmann  15:38
As I was just mentioning, this is sometimes more possible than others. The reason I spend so much time telling the Internet to please not paint original brick is that it is hard to get paid off of brick. Brick is a porous surface, and sometimes the paint really gets in there. But I know of many examples, and I would point you at first to that August, no October, 2024, haul to hear everything that my most aggressively engineering minded everybody read to model student ever had done on his own home to get the brick back to its original state. He had reasonable success. 

Della Hansmann  16:10
So I think my advice on that is time experimentation and elbow grease is going to tell you what's possible, but it is plausible that you can get it back, and in other cases, you might find that something that has been pickled, if you've experimented enough, and you find you can't get it back towards original state, it might be necessary to replace some of it, or last, yeah, I'm sorry, okay, that is actually an entirely different and also fascinating question of, what do we do, Typologically, when there is an original feature on the house that we're not wild about, but that to change, it would be expensive, and in this case, then my answer is quite different. 

Della Hansmann  16:48
Leave the pickle and think about what you can augment in to mitigate that. So this is actually also a question. You might think about adjacent paint colors. So there might be something you could do to the walls that's going to change the tone that the pickling is reading yellow. And if you put it next to a couple of other things, you could shift it so it feels warmer. You can also respond additively to it. Bring in another wood grain on newer parts of the house. In furniture, if you're changing the flooring, if you're adding a built in that doesn't match it, but complements it, it would be different, but you choose something specifically that does not make the pickle look worse, that makes it look better. 

Della Hansmann  17:26
And again, samples are the answer, testing it in real space. But you're right. I absolutely encourage you to stick with that. I will say also, in my past experience I've had, I've had examples of mid-century finishes that have faded badly. There was one house where all the trim in the house had faded to this, like yellow green that looked really kind of seasick. And in that case, we did experiment with additive options. 

Della Hansmann  17:50
And in the end, the homeowner decided to replace it all, which is a possibility, but I think partly because they also had some, they had some original woodwork that had been finished differently, that kept its warm color, and then the trim had all faded to weird green, so we replaced the trim. We also talked about painting it, but I wouldn't recommend that. In your case, I would say I think that there are things you can do to surround the pickled wood with a color and with other materials that are going to make it feel closer to what you like. 

Della Hansmann  18:17
I'm so glad you clarified, because that's another really common situation that your specific need is underlining and again, this brings you back to the style guide of what are all the different things that are happening in the room that are going to add up to a cohesive look that you really like? Thanks for asking. Yeah, does that help you out?

Speaker 1  18:38
Okay, that was part of what I was already thinking, since I originally thought I was going to paint it, and then I was kind of like, Oh, if I do that, that more time. But yeah, that felt like a little much.

Della Hansmann  18:52
Yeah, ultimately, here's the thing. I mean, I'm talking to you right now from a room with painted trim. There it is. I've got my original doors and painted trim. I didn't paint this trim. It was painted when I got here. And rather than strip it back to its original wood and try to stain it to match the other stained parts of the house, I just painted it again. If you don't have to make the same choice for every part of the house either, and I do not generally recommend painting original wood at all. 

Della Hansmann  18:52
But if there is a place where you feel like you don't have enough leverage to bring in other materials you like. The recommendation then, in that case, would be paint the trim to match the wall so it just sort of blends away and is visually unobtrusive. But I think your answer is going to be in adding another wood grain and stain that helps, and in choosing colors to surround this that show it off to best advantage. Great. 

Della Hansmann  18:52
So you're not required to keep that original sort of fussy. I mean, I mean, I actually found that I think that sounds kind of cool, and I all can also can see how you might not want it to have it on your house, and I might not want to have it on my house. Maybe you keep a piece of it somewhere as art, but give it, give it to somebody else who's looking for that. That might actually be great, but you can meet whatever structural purpose that's serving on the outside of the house with simple columns. Those might be just metal pipe work. They might be wood. You can introduce a new material or pick up an old one, or you can find that actually that wasn't serving any structural purpose at all. 

Della Hansmann  19:38
Okay. Michelle asked a question to get the MCM trapezoidal windows that are offset and fit the shape of the roof, do you hire a glazier or a window company? Okay? Fabulous. Well, this kind of depends on your house structure. This is only going to happen if you've got, you know, a nice elevated ceiling line that gives you a that triangle or trapezoidal place. And. And the answer is, probably there are, there are two ways to go about this. 

Della Hansmann  20:01
You can have your builder custom fit a frame. This is what they would have done in the mid-century era. They would have done it with a glazier. They would have done it with on-site framing. And that's probably the best way to get a custom fit, and honestly, maybe the most cost effective. Because the other option is to go very high end in your window companies, your sort of Marvin ultimate. I'm not sure what the product line and a couple of other window companies would be, but you can get trapezoidal and custom shaped windows manufactured for you, and maybe you want them, but, but it will not be inexpensive. 

Della Hansmann  20:35
So I would say a custom piece of insulated glass is something you can get from a glacier, and that is probably going to be your answer for sort of solving and serving those really cool clerestory windows that happen up above the eye level. Let's see Carolyn asked also a question about decorative grill work on a house. Thoughts on changing examples. You can direct me to Carolyn. Are you here still? Yes, it's you again. What do you mean by decorative grill work,

Speaker 1  21:06
Laurel, it's a heavy, it's, it's, it's actually acorns and oak leaves, but it looks it just, I mean, this is like porch supports

Della Hansmann  21:21
Okay, so I'm gonna give you maybe the opposite answer that I just did, because, again, you've already primed me with what you like, what you don't like, and how this is fitting your overall style, while original woodwork inside the house is kind of an irreplaceable thing, I would say that this kind of ironwork, grill work, as you say, I would not throw it in the land bill. I would take it to your local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. But you're not required to keep every design element of the house, and this particularly gets to exterior updates. 

Della Hansmann  21:51
People will feel like, Oh, well, I have to keep the shutters on the house. They're original. I have to keep this little bit of fence post or this original light fixture. It's original. But the this is the style timeline, style update, style that you're looking for. You might be looking for a more mid mod, a modern version of mid-century than the house originally had. And that's not wrong. What you're going to do instead is you're going to take your cues from other houses that were built in the same era that had a more modern style. 

Della Hansmann  22:48
And you can simplify a house. So I work with a lot of people who houses do have original mid-century elements, particularly on the East Coast, for example, people get a lot of sort of like mid-century colonial that has American Eagle decals and metal work all over it, an American Eagle front doorbell, an American Eagle sort of pediment over the front door, like it's a lot. 

Della Hansmann  23:09
And for the person who designed that, I'm sure they loved it, but someone now is looking for something a little bit more modern mid-century, and so we just go ahead and take all of those off and donate them, so somebody who's looking for a theme can have them, but, yeah, you're not required to keep anything, anything that like doesn't actually bring you joy, and that makes your house more mid-century traditional, rather than mid-century modern. That's an answer that everybody can hear. 

Della Hansmann  23:28
Leah asks, What's the best material for baseboard trim? We have original wood baseboard trim, thin wood trim with small, round piece along the bottom in most of the house without floors, but part of our house has asbestos containing flooring being removed, and we need new trim. Do we need to match the original wood trim or new trim everywhere so that it all matches? Okay, great question. Leah, are you around? Yes. Hi. Okay, great to see you again. We chatted on Monday at the open office hours. So the answer is yes and no. How much adjacency is there between the asbestos floor areas and basically, the front of the house?

Speaker 2  24:10
Which is the dining room, the hallway and the bedroom, all original wood trim, and then the back of the house, where it goes from the kitchen to the family room that faces the backyard. It's that kitchen to family room that's all being kind of redone because it has some kind of a sheet vinyl, something that, when they tested it contained the theft is so between the kitchen and the and the dining room, there's that kind of adjacency. 

Speaker 2  24:34
And then everything, basically towards the back of the house, from the kitchen to the family room, goes towards the back that will need some kind of nutrient, pulling up all this stuff, this sheet stuff, and like the mud room area, might get a little tight. The rest will probably we're matched the original wood and the rest of the house. So we're just trying to figure out how to tie together that front of the house that has original floors and original trim. The back sheet floor is coming up, and we need to select new pile and wood. 

Della Hansmann  24:59
Yeah, so I think the answer here is you can, if you want everything to be completely consistent, you can start from scratch. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that I leave existing original trim in place. You can try to match it, and very likely, you can find someone that'll make a trim profile that's similar to yours. Your local lumber yard will have a bunch of catalogs with similar profiles, and you'll test to find the one that's closest. 

Della Hansmann  25:22
It doesn't have to be a perfect match, either because, again, there'll be a clear distinction. Or you can say there's the original part of the house, the preservationist approach to this would be actually not to match what's original, but to say, here's the untouched part of the house and here's the new part of the house, and we're making a clear distinction between the two of them. 

Della Hansmann  25:39
They're not necessarily arm wrestling with each other, but they are different. So this is going to kind of come down to a matter of preference. If your need for consistency is maximized, then you do want it all to match. But I would say it doesn't. There's a little jump where it goes from like it's three inches to its three and a half inches. Or if there's a little spot where it's slightly rounder profile and a slightly straighter profile, that's okay. It's not going to be the end of the world. I think what's more important is, do you have your original stain on the trim throughout most of the house right now?

Speaker 2  26:08
Yeah, the wood a wood trim with the we, as you recommend, we pulled up the carpet and we found the original hardwood. Oh, right. They're going to need to be refinished and re stained. So then we were like, do we try to make that original hardwood floor get stained. Basically, shouldn't match wood floor with original wood trim. 

Speaker 2  26:24
Or people ask them, should we paint the wood trim? And I know how this topic came up; is we were having a GC come to get both. He said, Well, I can give you kind of that five inch trim. And I went, Uh oh. Like we were either wanting a real slim, like three inch minimalist in the new area, yeah. Then we're asking what material? MD, he was suggesting all kinds of things that I thought, what is the basis for a good material for a new trim? Yeah, play nice together, that's the question. 

Della Hansmann  26:49
So I think when it comes to new trim, I make two references based on sort of cost and preferences. If you want in the new area to go, you could go with a primed MDF trim, I would say in the original profile. No, you don't want a five inch high block. Again, he's, he's recommending something that feels fancy to him and to his other customers. It's not right for your mid-century home. So you match the shape, and you go with a an MDF that's primed and painted for simplicity, cost reasons, basically, or no, you want it to be wood, and you want to test some stain samples again. 

Della Hansmann  27:19
It won't be a perfect match. The grain won't be a perfect match, and the stain won't be a perfect match. But you're looking whenever the universal truth, whenever you're matching grains, you're looking for the same amount of warm it can be lighter or darker a little bit, but you don't want it to be warmer or cooler than the existing wood, so that's sort of what you're testing for. But no, don't let him talk you into five inch high fancy MDF painted. Your instincts are spot on. That's not right. Yeah, it's not a crime to choose a simple painted MDF and then painted the exact same color as the wall, whatever that is, and it'll be, it'll be easier, faster and less expensive, but and then you can just focus on preserving the unpainted wood that you have and let that be original. That's fine. That's not a wrong choice.

Speaker 2  28:04
You think that would play nice together. Simple painted MDF color match for the wall the new part, and then basically, wood and wood floor match to each other. 

Della Hansmann  28:13
And they don't need to be a perfect match either. You don't need to have the new floor refinished to the exact same color. But again, stain warmth is going to be your most important thing. You don't want one of them making the other one look blue. Basically, absolutely. 

Della Hansmann  28:26
So the other things though, that I would tell an engineer, because I had this happen with a client recently who came to me for a master plan project after they had already had of flawed a sagging roof fixed by an engineer putting in a beam, is that the engineer had sized a beam to fit the entire span of the space. The roof was sagging because someone had knocked out an intermediate column in the past. And the engineer came in and saw the problem. They said, Okay, this is how far it needs to span. We need this depth of beam. They put in a big honking beam that came down from the ceiling. 

Della Hansmann  28:26
And when I came and looked at it, I thought, shoot, we should have just put a column in there. We didn't. We didn't need that big of a beam, but an engineer is going to solve the problem that's in front of them. So, yes, them. So yes, get an engineering consult, but also tell them that you're willing to consider a couple of other solutions rather than open spans. We talked about this before. I think that it's nice to have. It doesn't need to be smack in the middle. 

Della Hansmann  28:26
An engineer will also sort of like put a column in the most structurally logical spot. And that's not what you need, but you need to think about how expensive. Expensive. When do you make the jump from What does Yeah, ask them for some sort of tipping points in cost and effort, and then what kind of spans you can get away with if you've got one column, if you've got two columns, if the columns are offset, that sort of thing. Those are really good questions to ask in an engineering consult.

Della Hansmann  28:26
Oh my gosh. Okay, we've got a lot of questions. All right. Michelle had asked about getting a structural engineer to come and preview what's necessary and possible for getting too long along the remodel process. Yeah, Michelle, this is actually, this falls perfectly into the category of, you know, getting your expert information. I think it's not a bad idea to have an engineer come out and look at, look at the space, do some basic numbers for you. This will be an expense, but this is a valuable expense that will save you sort of, I have a big pie in the sky idea, and, oh no, it is completely going to blow my budget. 

Della Hansmann  28:38
Yeah, that's so funny, because you're right. Like, it's like, if you go to the bone doctor, they're going to talk about what you need to fix the bone, but an engineer is going to want to do respond in the most engineering way without the esthetics being part of it.

Della Hansmann  30:27
It sure will. And that's, you know, that's their job. That's what they're hired to do. And when I took structures classes in my master's degree for architecture, that's how we were taught to think about it. And then the designer came back in and was like, Hey, by the way, this is the most efficient way to do this space. But is it the most beautiful, the most logical, the most flowing, like maybe not. So yeah, the best engineers out there will absolutely respond to your design considerations, but they probably won't imagine them. So you've got to tell them what you're asking about. Fabulous. 

Della Hansmann  30:57
Okay. Jenny asks, I'm wanting to replace wood paneling in the that was painted in the dining room to have sources. Do you want to replace? Hi, Jenny, are you here? Great. Do you want to replace wood paneling with more wood paneling or with something else? Okay, so you might be able to source this just from your local lumber yard, not a Home Depot, but you know you're going to look for your local contractor source lumber yard. They may have catalog ability to pull this for you. There are also some mid-century vintage specific sourcing that you might do. 

Della Hansmann  31:25
I think that there are. I'm not going to remember them off the top of my head right now, but there's definitely a company out west that does Eichler specific plywood sources that have some interesting striation patterns in them and that are meant to sort of wrap match specific mid-century materials. And they ship all over the country. So I would start local by finding out what you can just get sourced to you in your area and then go further. 

Della Hansmann  31:43
But it does not, um, does not necessarily be super fancy. You're just looking for a lovely pattern of stain and grain. It doesn't necessarily have to be mahogany or walnut. You can put whatever you want onto it. Pine isn't going to do it for you today like it did back then, because we're not dealing with old growth pine. But yeah, I would say, look at a bunch of samples. Look for thin set plywood, and then and see what kind of specialty options you can get locally. Yeah, I know I have, oh, man, I know I have answered that question about sourcing the past. Send me an Instagram message after this, and I'll see if I can dig up that that link for you about the Eichler paneling that definitely ships everywhere. Cool. Oh, you know what it might be. Rebecca's found it for me@eichlerciting.com I think that sounds like it's it. Can you drop that into the chat? Rebecca, you're wonderful. I love you. 

Della Hansmann  32:29
Okay, Alice asks we're interested in working with you. We're struggling to decide between ready to decide between ready to remodel and applying for a master plan. We're a little worried about the start of the program and then decide we want customized support to have thoughts on how to approach this choice. Okay? And then Michelle asked the same question, okay, well, I'd be delighted to talk about this. 

Della Hansmann  32:54
So the difference between hiring Mid Mod Midwest to create a master plan for you and working with ready to remodel are several. When we work with you directly, we'll actually put you through a bunch of the first steps of the master plan, ready to remodel program. We're going to need to know your dream, your discover. We'll help you with the Discover, but we'll need to know your dream and your distill sections. I can't do that for you. I don't know what's important to you. So in that far, that far, they are quite similar. In fact, we use some of the same I give my clients design homework that is very much, then has been cross pollinated into the ready to remodel program. 

Della Hansmann  33:27
I've actually had you ask, Can you do one in the other? I've had a couple of clients over the last couple of years start in ready to remodel, and then realize that they didn't have enough time, or they just didn't have enough available mental space, or they just weren't ready to handle the project themselves, or they wanted more drawings and then they wanted to switch over. If that's the case, what we generally do is transfer you from one we sort of pause and stop your payments on ready to remodel and then roll you into the master plan method getting a package going forward. 

Della Hansmann  33:53
The difference in result is, ironically, you actually get more of my face. You get more opportunities to ask me direct questions inside of the ready to remodel program every month. And in this case, it's going to be twice a month coming up for a little bit, you get a chance to throw questions at me like this, and I will answer them. But what we can't do for all of our ready to remodel students is custom design clients and our custom design drawings and sort of making all of this sort of well thought out workshop suggestions to people. 

Della Hansmann  34:21
So it's a bit more of a done with you service versus a done for you service. And the right situation for you is going to depend on how much you kind of want hand holding to go through, making the decisions yourself, and you feel like you've got the creativity, but you just don't know the process and you want to simplify your life. Ready to remodel this for you, if you're looking for someone, if you're just feeling stumped on what is even possible or plausible for your house, and you want someone to listen to you carefully and pull out of you what you're looking for and then give you a bunch of suggestions that are tailor made to requests that you've asked. 

Della Hansmann  34:55
And then you can kind of pick amongst them and cherry pick an a la carte menu of good ideas. Is that's what the Master Plan package service is all about. And we've actually had people go in both ways. We've had ready to remodel students switch and ask for a master plan package. And we've had Master Plan package clients decide that then they want to join ready to remodel, so that they can kind of just keep tabs on their project and ask questions once a month, every month, as they go forward. 

Della Hansmann  35:21
We also do offer beyond the scope of our package, once we've created your final schematic drawings for you, which are schematic but comprehensively address all the design requests you've made. For our clients who need more support, they change their mind about something they want to add on something to the scale. They just have contractor management questions. We can do additional hourly services for them, and we certainly do stay in touch by emails, further zoom calls, more design drawings. 

Della Hansmann  35:44
But again, ready to remodel is kind of the best way to efficiently get face time with me. I see my master plan clients at a number of points during their process, but I see my ready to remodel students more. So it's a bit of a question of, are you looking for more encouragement and support? Are you looking for more answers. And basically I just I have these two different ways of working with people, because people have different needs and they also have different price points. The ready to remodel program is far more affordable than a master plan, but I think if you're thinking about the ultimate value in terms of the cost of a remodel, sometimes it can end up being cheaper because I can give you more comprehensive solutions within the Master Plan process than I can guide you to. 

Della Hansmann  36:24
But I really believe that one way or another, what everybody needs to do, even if you just take what you've gotten in this class, is ask yourself these questions go in the right order and think beyond the what is possible? What can I afford? Okay, do it? Set of questions of classic remodeling. Thanks so much for asking about that. That's a good clarification to have in the in the record. 

Della Hansmann  36:44
Okay, another specific one Carmen asks for a kitchen that was unfortunately remodeled in the 2009 era. Ooh, okay. What tile pattern is 1950s the backsplash subway tile is not accurate. The counter has a nice black granite. I'm trying the I'm trying to match the house airing with the existing 2000s kitchen question, do I offer hourly consultations? I'm an architect too, so I also have much of this down already, but I love your position. 

Della Hansmann  37:11
Okay, absolutely. I offer hourly consultations. Actually, I offer half an hour consultations because that's often what we can get through. And I would say, yeah, yeah. If you've got, if you've got a 2009 kitchen, the dirt countertop and the subway tile, surprised me, 0% that was absolutely the idea. My answer to what kind of tile you want to replace it with depends a little bit on where you want to fall on that. Going back in time, versus updating spectrum, what's your feeling on that?

Speaker 2  37:40
Well, probably updating too. Yeah. Okay.

Della Hansmann  37:46
So what I would recommend is you actually can use a subway profile tile, but rather than have it sort of set up in that subway tile, you want to stack bond so you want all your grout lines to align, I tend to think there's a little bit of a distinction between running them horizontally, which to me feels a bit closer to the mid-century era, or turning them soldier style and running them vertically, which feels a bit more modern. But still, it's speaking the same material language as mid-century,

Speaker 3  38:11
What about arabesque shape, like for an accent area. 

Della Hansmann  38:16
Oh yeah. Absolutely, if you're that was mid-century, it certainly was more towards the later part. Towards the 60s, they start to get into more interesting tile shapes. In the early years, you're going to see everything is four by four tiles. And then, you know, four by four on the walls, one by one on the floor. That's it. And as we go further on, we get more bold tile shapes. And so, yeah, you can get into the arabesque design, some interesting hexagons, trapezoids, if you don't already have it. 

Della Hansmann  38:40
I've got a free resource list of mid-century products, books, objects, and I have a bunch of my favorite tile sources listed there. So that's a great thing to grab. Can you put the link for that into the comments, Rebecca? Yeah, but, but the other thing about getting a mid-century appropriate tile is you want to have either a white grout or you want as little contrast as possible between the grout and the tile. You do not want a light tile with a dark grout that's always going to make it feel more modern than mid-century.

Speaker 4  39:06
 Okay, yeah, excellent.

Della Hansmann  39:09
Well, good luck in bringing a bit more of the house's original sort of DNA back into back into the kitchen without, you know, you don't have to change everything. You don't throw the baby out with the bath water. A little bit of adjustment will make a big difference. Excellent. Fun. 

Della Hansmann  39:23
Okay, okay, then we've got Kenneth is adding pocket doors, difficult and expensive. This would be my preference over double French doors or custom folding doors to save space. It's not, not difficult and expensive because, you know, you've got to basically get into the wall format. This is Part of the reason why HGTV always does those silly barn doors. Because you don't have to change anything about the existing structure. You just take off the door that's hung in the frame and put something over it. 

Della Hansmann  39:50
If you think about it, logistically, to get a pocket door in, you've got to cut out all of the wall space that it was holding and sometimes you also need a thicker wall than you would have. Yes, that said, depending on how much of a change you're making in your house, it might be the right choice. It might be worthy. So, yeah, your question was, Is it difficult and expensive? And the answer is kinda but this is where you sort of develop your priorities and ask, is it worth it? In a few cases, it very, very well be. 

Della Hansmann  40:15
And it is the kind of you can roll it into a bigger, comprehensive remodel. Or this is the kind of project that a number of companies are well equipped to come in and do a one off project. They can come in, they have a plan in place for controlling mess. They can just demo the initial wall that they need to install the new door retrim. You will lose a little bit if you've got, like, original trim around your door, original baseboard trim. That may be a casualty of the process, but again, a really competent company can pretty closely match what's going on in the space, such that it won't feel like a really dramatic loss. So might be worth it if it's a major problem of space, but it's something to think about. 

Della Hansmann  40:54
Got a follow up from Claire for pocket doors, how to avoid having them get stuck? Oh, okay, well, are they original Claire, or are they added in, or you're just speculating a problem that's just kind of quality and installation over the time. You know, if pocket doors in a mid to entry house are getting stuck, it may actually be a sign of differential settlement, that the whole house has moved a little bit, or just like something got jammed in the mechanism. It could be a maintenance or a cleaning issue in a new install, I would not expect pocket doors to be jam/to be likely to jam. What are words I've been talking for two hours, but I yeah, I think they're not a bad they're not a bad choice at all for a space saving privacy measure. 

Della Hansmann  41:35
I would say though, I'd choose a pocket door where door swing is a huge problem, like a pocket door to separate a powder room from a narrow hallway, for example, where if you swing it in, you're closing off the toilet, if you swing it out, you're closing off the hallway. But I also know that they have some they're not as good on sound privacy. They're a little bit more complicated to operate. So I'm not a universal recommender of pocket doors, but they serve a really valuable purpose. 

Della Hansmann  41:59
They're also really nice in a space that you mostly want an open doorway, but occasionally you need visual privacy for something like zoom calls. They can be really handy in that case, but, yeah, don't expect pocket doors aren't something that's inherently flawed or going to fail, but they also have some they're not quite the same as a regular door. They don't necessarily operate the same way, and they can be slightly more of a barrier to use. There you go. Opinions for free on pocket doors. 

Della Hansmann  42:24
Okay? Carl asked, How do you deal with mismatched floors when you know some of them are going to be changed? We've got Original hardwood, oak in the upstairs and living room, office, basic textured white 12 by 12 tile in the bathrooms, laundry and sun porch, darker vinyl plank in the kitchen, living room, yellow arabesque tile in the entry. We think that the white tile and the kitchen vinyl are over something else based on levels. Our plan is to combine the laundry with an adjacent storage room, and the tile will all need to be replaced. It connects with the same tile in the hall. How do we choose which flooring to match? So the whole house is into patchwork? 

Della Hansmann  42:58
That's a lot. I'm going to answer it a little bit more philosophically and say this kind of comes back to the question of style guides. And what I like to see is not you don't need to have the same tile or the same floor throughout the entire house. That's unnecessary. You don't even need to have only wood floor and the same tile in every room that has tile, but you do want to kind of limit the overall material palette. It's totally plausible for some people to have, like a fun, different finish in every single bathroom. 

Della Hansmann  43:28
But in general, you want to have no more than three materials that have a typical kind that are appearing throughout a house, and ideally, probably no more than three maximum floor types of flooring in a house. So keep whatever is original hardwood, and then think about how, as you go through, even if you're not going to do it all at once, how can you sort of combine all of the areas that are going to have a tile finish, particularly all the areas that are sort of near each other in the social part of the house with one style going forward, you don't have to get to it all at once, but know what you're choosing and then apply that in multiple places. Do you have a favorite? If you're here, do you want to talk about a little bit more? You have a favorite?

Speaker 1  44:03
We definitely want to keep the original oaks. Yeah. So those are, those are all upstairs. They will probably need to be refinished. Carpet over the top, the padding melded in, yes, but we've only been in the house. Do Yeah. Okay, so right at the end, it's got a little bit of updating, not a lot kind of aiming for maybe a mid 60s kind of feel, yeah, um, but we're definitely, we definitely have to re lay out the kitchen so that floor will need to be replaced, yeah, and making the laundry area more total, because it's just in a little itty bitty, narrow room. 

Speaker 1  44:51
So we'll probably knock out that wall to the room. The furniture next to it can only be accessed by the garage. So it's kind of ridiculous, kind of a utility. Room, yeah, but since all of that runs together, I don't care, like the basic 12 by 12 white tile is, you know, it's just standard tile. I'm sure they put it all in because it wasn't expensive and it's really hard wearing. It's clearly above, like the level is above, like the standard. S

Speaker 1  45:20
o I kind of feel like they all need to kind of flow between that laundry, that new laundry area, that hallway that connects to the to the half bath, but that original oak in the living room and office is actually between the tile and the vinyl plank that they put in the kitchen for the living room. So I kind of feel like if I switch that tile, it kind of needs to at least coordinate with the kitchen. Yeah, I think, do I really want to put hardwoods in the kitchen? 

Della Hansmann  45:54
Like it doesn't, not necessarily? No. And here's the thing too, is you don't have to have continuous, like continental connection of tile. If you've got tile separated from other tile by hardwood. I would think about either having the match, choosing the same product, or choosing a product that feels related, similar color, different scale and shape, or similar sort of pattern, different color. 

Della Hansmann  46:18
But I would, I would make them feel like they were cousins to each other. So it doesn't that will reduce the random factor. Gotcha, I think also, you don't have you don't have to run the hardwood into the kitchen, and you'll have a little bit of a challenge matching your original hardwood with new it's out there, but it's going to be a more expensive option. And what you're probably going to get recommended is an engineered hardwood in the kitchen and the original hardwood and the rest of the house. I don't recommend that. So I would think,

Speaker 1  46:44
ideally, in a perfect world, I find, I find an affordable terrazzo that I could put in my heart loves, whether or not I can afford to put it in all the bathroom, in the kitchen. I don't know that it's possible.

Della Hansmann  47:02
Yeah, and that would be, that would be amazing. And there are also some terrazzo tile options out there that are pretty good. When I'm thinking about that kind of hard wearing space, I always start from the question of, like, are we looking for an ultimately durable floor? Then we're going for a tile or a terrazzo are we looking for a floor that's a little kinder to the things that touch it, like people and drop dishes, then we're looking for something more like cork or marmoleum. Oh, fair enough. It can be sturdy, but I hear you. I've got a big dog too. 

Della Hansmann  47:27
Yeah, marmoleum is an excellent option, and it's going to be more affordable than terrazzo, no matter how you slice it. So that's something you can think about as well. And where are you located? Okay, so you might want to check the shipping rates for there's a, there's a Wisconsin company, Wausau tile, W, A, U, S, A, u wasa. They do a pretty affordable set of terrazzo tile installs that, I think also, if you're ever willing to go there with a, with a U haul truck, yeah, so that's something to glance into and look at pricing and look at options. 

Della Hansmann  47:54
They have some, I think they have some mass rates as well. For you, you're looking for this at a bunch of places, so you wouldn't be looking at their seconds list. But, oh, Thanks, Rebecca, that's the link. But also, think about the more volume. This is also a place. Get your hands on samples. Get samples. See how they feel, see how they look. Scratch them on your dog's nails. You know, that's, that's a real word consideration, right? Exactly, and see how they look next to your hardwood. And again, you want something that makes the existing condition look good, so the color range. You don't want to put in like a really cool blue, gray terrazzo next to a warm, mid-century hardwood, because they're just going to seem like they aren't friends. That makes sense. Yeah? Oh, fun. Well, you've got great choices ahead of you. This is exciting. It's overwhelming. 

Della Hansmann  48:43
Yeah, well, always, you know, come back to come back to your why. That's telling you, you know what kind of choices you're trying to make. And then again, you're not, you're not required to have only two materials throughout all the floors in the house. Three is okay. Four is fine as well, especially if some of them are, are more removed. But through the social areas, especially anywhere where you can, like, stand, look across a different material and then see another spot. It doesn't have to match, but it should feel companionable. They should feel related. 

Speaker 2  49:09
Yeah, great. Thank you so much. 

Della Hansmann  49:11
Excellent. You're so welcome. Let me know what you find out. Shoot an email with your final choice. Okay, and then, okay, Lynn, we've got considering cork click planks for the walkout over top, deep density, purple over the Oh, the purple with dimples, insulation, dry core, yeah, some of the cork flooring is apparently printed with images rather than real cork. Which cork flooring company and product did I use for my own home? 

Della Hansmann  49:36
Okay, so I wouldn't recommend what I use, because I used my basement floors were the second big project that I did in my house, the basement refinishing, and I made some very un-mid-century choices for it. So I chose gray finished top cork. I love the cork. I hate the gray. I can't change it. I have regrets I don't want to share with you, but I do have a company to recommend, and so for that, I recommend green building supply. They are a family based company based out of. Iowa. They ship nationally, and they do a bunch of different cork options. 

Della Hansmann  50:03
For anyone considering cork, go with cork. Colored cork. Don't get any kind of a printed pattern on top of it, or a finish on top of it. You want, if anything were ever to damage the finished surface of the cork, you what you want what happens underneath it to look the same as what's happening on the surface. So you can do a little patch reseal job on that, as opposed to, if it has a printed surface or a color block surface on top of it, and that gets damaged. You're never really going to hide the fact that the exposed material underneath is different than what's going on top of it. Also, cork itself is a very mid-century material. It's a good match, by the way.

Della Hansmann  50:39
 If you've got original hardwoods, and you're like, what new material can I put in next to them that has the same kind of warm honey tone as the hardwood, but is not new engineered hardwood? I would say, go with cork. I recommend it for everyone except people with big dogs. I think it's a great foot friendly surface. It's naturally antimicrobial. It has a little bit of R value, so it's giving a bit of insulation, and it's just a really nice, durable, mid-century, appropriate product. Great. Okay, Leslie asked a specific question, what's the schedule for the monthly calls in the plus version? Great. 

Della Hansmann  51:08
And Rebecca has answered that. Put it in the chat, but I'll just say it verbally for the recording, in case anyone is listening to this after the fact, rather than watching the calls happen on the first Monday of every month, unless there's a weird holiday, we'll bump it a week, and then coming up the next mid modern Mod Squad is going to be calls first Monday of October, 3, Monday of October, 1 Monday of November 3, Monday of November, and first Monday of December. 

Della Hansmann  51:30
And then we'll go back into our regular monthly schedule in the new year. We usually do a mid mod remod squad about twice a year. I never I don't plan my schedule that far in advance, so I don't really know when the next one is going to launch, but probably in the February. Probably in the February, March range we'll do this again, and we'll have another density of calls. And everyone who's in the program is invited to those calls. It's not a one off opportunity, but yeah, for the next two months, we're going to be in calls every two weeks, and they're on Monday at 6pm Central Time. 

Della Hansmann  51:56
If you ever can't make it to a call, please submit your question in advance with as much detail as you've got, and I will answer it just like this. Just like this to a recording, and you can watch that recording, plus all of the other recordings that exist throughout the last five years of time to get your questions answered. Hopefully that helps Leslie, do you have other questions about the Office Hours calls or anything like that that I can answer for you right now? Yeah, no. Excellent. Oh, marvelous, excellent. Thanks. Rebecca, okay, okay. 

Della Hansmann  52:30
Kenneth asks, What's the best attic thermal insulation product to use in a Midwest ranch application based on cost and sustainability to avoid moisture and mold issues? Later, there are a couple of options for that. It kind of depends where the thermal envelope of your attic is going to be if you're trying to keep the attic warm or cool at all. Actually, I dug into this deeply on a ready to remodel call earlier this summer for someone else, and then I put an answer to it also in a podcast episode I published earlier this fall. But the short version is basically, if you've got a ranch with a cool attic, basically, if you've got a roof that is separated from your thermal envelope, then you want to insulate the space right above your ceiling. If that's the situation you're in, is that correct? Kenneth, you might not be here anymore. 

Speaker 5  53:19
Yes.

Della Hansmann  53:24
Okay, so then it’s going to depend a little bit on the pricing options from your various local installers. You could absolutely get away with a loose fill that would probably be the most cost effective way to do it. But what it means is that they're going to do something like, if you've got an attic access hatch, they will build up a little box around it so you can always get up there. 

Della Hansmann  53:44
But why would you basically get up there to check it, to inspect it, and then they just fill in the attic with a bunch of loose, fluffy insulation that gets you to the right R value that can work really well, especially additively, over existing insulation if you don't want to deal with it, the most sort of finitely finished way to do it might actually be to remove any insulation that's already up there, do a full inspection of anything for like, any past creature intrusion or moisture issues or anything like that, and then do a better air seal around all of your existing light fixtures, or can lights or ceiling fixtures, anything like that. 

Della Hansmann  54:18
And then to do like a blown foam solid surface, but this is going to depend on whether you've got good quality install installers local to you, and sort of how much you want to undo work that's already done and do it so there's not this is one of those situations where there's a bunch of right answers, and it kind of depends on your branching pathway of how much work you want it to be, who is handy, and if they are a good, reputable company, who's got good recommendations, and what your sort of ultimate goal is. 

Della Hansmann  54:42
But I think, in general, I think you're sort of going to go one of two ways. You're either going to sort of loosely fill up that attic space so that it's just you don't ever store anything up there, but you've got really good insulation, but it's easy and sort of left alone. Or if you, for example, ever wanted to do storage up there, or you want to keep a finished surface up there, then you'd probably go with a closed. Sell blown, blown foam, but first that would mean cleaning out, removing everything that's there first. 

Della Hansmann  55:04
So I would probably get pricing from both styles and ask them each to pitch you, and then think about what, how those two goals align with your personal values, rather than taking either them at their word that their product is the best, which they will each obviously tell you. Does that feel helpful? Totally. I'm giving everybody a perfectly good tour of the way that I will never give you a this is the right answer, question answer. I'm always going to tell you that there's options and then explore what's good about them, but hopefully this gives more clarity, and we can usually get to the right answer for you after we've explored a couple of pros and cons of different things. 

Della Hansmann  55:44
Yeah, it does depend there, and that's the thing too, is that I think one of the reasons I wanted to create a place like ready to remodel or like this call right now, is that when you talk to someone who sells a specific product or service, of course, they believe that their product or service is the best one for the job, for your job, for most jobs, probably not for every job, if they're a rationalist, but they're going to recommend why that the thing that they offer is a good fit for you. Every now and then, if they're you know, if they're responsible business owner, they will tell you when they don't think that their product fits your needs, but they're going to pitch you on why it works. 

Della Hansmann  56:18
But ultimately, it comes back to you, as a homeowner to figure out whether it is really the right fit for your cost, for your level of effort, for the other things that you've got in mind down the line. Another one more thing to consider in your math is, if you're ever planning to do more work on the house, like if you're going to do a kitchen remodel that might do changing up the lighting or running a skylight or a light tube or something like that. 

Della Hansmann  56:38
Then you don't want to go quite as far with your attic insulation process, or you want to make sure that its planned so that you can make later changes versus if you've done everything else you plan to do in the house, you can come to more of like a completest solution for the attic and maybe invest a little bit more in that insulation than you would otherwise. So that's another, that's another or to consider in this process. 

Della Hansmann  56:56
Okay, cool. We've got a Leslie question. Is it worthwhile trying to strip and restain original dark wood one wall paneling, or to replace it with warmer version. Follow up questions, what's what kind of paneling it is it? Is it solid panels? Is it Pickwick pine? Is it to have kind of a bit of a plasticy finished surface? All of those are real world wood solutions, but some of them are easier to strip and refinish than others.

57:22
It's just dark.

Della Hansmann  57:24
Yeah, well, there's a couple things you can do with you've got a dark woman room with wood paneling, and I would say you can try if there's a place in your in your sort of area that's less visible, if you can do a little bit of experimentation, that's a great thing to try. It may be that it's simpler simply to replace it, although the other thing you can do is just try to change the other surfaces in the room that are less challenging to change. Y

Della Hansmann  57:49
you’ve got a white ceiling above you. I can see a lighter color on the floor, more not white necessarily, but light colored furniture, changing the lighting conditions of the room, all can actually make what had felt like an oppressively dark room actually feel warm and cozy and nice without actually having to change anything about the woodwork at all. I do hear you on this sometimes a house, as we talked earlier this week, your house is full of a lot of dark stain, and sometimes stains darken over time and just become a little bit more grim. 

Della Hansmann  58:15
But I would say you could experiment with stripping, but before you strip it or replace it, I would also think about, what else can you do that has nothing to do with the wood itself, but is surrounding the wood with brighter, lighter objects. Maybe cutting in some skylight or light tube access also might transform the room to be a brighter space in the day. And then the reason people used a lot of wood paneling in the mid-century era was because, particularly in the evening, it makes you feel very like cozy and enclosed and warm. So I'm not going to tell you have to love a surface in your house you don't love, but there might be things you could do to actually make that a benefit rather than a loss as a finish in the space.

Della Hansmann  58:59
Yeah, the other thing to think about is you could change some of the wall finish in the room, and not all of it. So if you find that it's too hard to strip, rather than taking it all down and replacing all of it with new wood paneling, for example, you could take some of the walls and strip off the wood and return them to a drywall surface or a painted surface, or something like that, and then keep one or two nicely. 

Della Hansmann  59:24
It's nice, rather than an accent wall, which I always feel like is a little bit of a flipper show move. It's nice to have sort of an L of space. So you might think about having a cozier part of the room and a brighter part of the room, and that, again, is like you don't have to have an all or nothing solution to this problem. You might choose to change some of the paneling, but preserve some of it as well, particularly if you've done a little bit. If there's a part of the room you think you might take it off of that might be where you do your experimentation, but yeah, thinking about how you can make the room a little brighter without having to change everything about it, will be an easier solution. Certainly. 

Della Hansmann  59:57
Michelle also asks, Is drywall a mid-century material and or not? And do we as mid-century preservers, have some other wall material choices, aside from wood? Also, how does cork work with dog pee? If you have a dog that has accidents, I do not recommend cork on your floors. It's an absorbent material. It should have it should have a finished surface, but it might not be perfectly impermeable. I'd go with something with a good seal, maybe a tile. If you've got an elderly incontinent dog, make your house a home for them and make it easy to clean up. 

Della Hansmann  1:00:25
Drywall itself is a material that was pioneered in the mid-century era. It is indicative of the whole philosophy of engineered materials that can be mass produced to specific specifications, delivered to site and installed quickly and efficiently. Not all mid-century houses have drywall in them, however, and most early mid-century houses, even if they have a drywall, it's often actually not a four by eight sheet mounted vertically. Instead, it's often an 18 inch or two feet wide, high by eight foot long sheet mounted horizontally, and it usually has enough plaster over it. It's not mudded and taped like modern drywall install. It usually has enough plaster over it that it's basically a plastered wall with drywall hiding behind it. 

Della Hansmann  1:01:04
That's because the people that they hired to install the proto early drywall were plasterers, and they just were like, Okay, you want me to put up this little cheap material on the wall? Great, then, then I will plaster over it. So this is true for walls, for ceilings. What's best, what's most appropriate for a mid-century house is plaster as a finish. That doesn't necessarily mean you should choose it. It's a kind of a finicky material. It's very hard to put a nail into. If anyone living in a mid-century house is like, why can I not hang a picture in this place? It's because your walls are plaster, not drywall. I predrill all the holes in my walls, for example. But one of the things that plaster does have sometimes is a lovely texture, particularly on a ceiling. 

Della Hansmann  1:01:40
In a mid-century house, you might see that sort of like scalloped pattern that goes across that is the handcrafted work of mid-century craftsman, a plasterer, and that still, that skill still does exist today, rarely, but it's kind of dying out. So what I would say is it's fine we drywall in a mid-century house. Is not a particularly magical material. It needs to be material that needs to be preserved, nor is it a unicorn that you have to get back to if you're if you're going forward. It's material neutral, in my opinion. 

Della Hansmann  1:02:11
But if you're looking for other things, you can play with, we can play with wallpaper that's a mid-century material, choosing your style. It's also fun to add texture to a wall. There are still some companies that supply grass paper, which is that sort of reeded, vertical texture that can either be painted or left with a natural finish that the original mid-century grass paper exists in houses today, and it's gorgeous, and I always hate to see it lost by General Contractors not knowing how to deal with it in a remodel, because what we have today isn't quite the same as what we did have. It's out there, but it's not, it's not the original material. 

Della Hansmann  1:02:43
Yeah, if you're looking for other wall finishes, I think the brick, tile, stone there are, there are possibilities, but your simple options for reframing a room that you've changed the layout of are probably going to be dry wall, and then you're putting things on them to make them work well for you. 

Della Hansmann  1:03:00
All right. Last question, prime question mark on print, Alice asks, we have a kitchen with a peninsula. We're considering turning the peninsula into an island, but there is a column that will prevent us from putting the island in the ideal place. We're trying to figure out if there's enough room for an island that could be big enough to make sense. The reason to consider it is another access point to the kitchen to move more seamlessly. Okay, this is a bit of a layout Buster challenge question. I can't really answer it perfectly without, Oh, I see you're doing a screen share. 

Della Hansmann  1:03:49
Yeah, absolutely. So there are some rules of thumb around this. And again, this is, this is a bit of a broader question that I can answer verbally here on this call. But I would, I would direct you, actually, if you were looking for an inexpensive resource, I would recommend that you check out my kitchen remodeling design clinic, because I get into some of the rules of thumb about circulation spaces, how to think about Island placement, how to think about where you need pass through access and things like that in there. Rebecca says you signed up into the program, fantastic. 

Della Hansmann  1:04:16
Well, then let's do this as a layup Buster Challenge workshop in November. But to short answer it, I would say, we want to think about that's so exciting. We want to think about what, what is beneficial in the kitchen services right now, where you need storage area, where you need sort of easy passage. And I would ask, they ask you a lot of questions about who's cooking, how many people are cooking at the same time, who's hanging out with the cooks while they cook? So this is going to be one of those questions where my answer could be broad. 

Della Hansmann  1:04:44
This could be that answers are incredibly broad, but I just want to sort of validate for you before we talk again. Don't knock out the column. And in the meantime, I think let's think about, you should spend some time thinking about, where does. Where do your eye lines go? I think you're right to maybe consider pulling down that sort of blocking backer piece for your Peninsula. But also, we'll look at some major circulation questions about how far would you want to walk around to get around an island, versus passing things across an island? And there are actually some rules of thumb about how small an effective island can still be, and the answer is quite small. But we'll think about some of your specific circulation spaces. 

Della Hansmann  1:05:22
Also. Welcome to the program. So glad to have you here. By the way. I wasn't paying attention, but it looks like three of you have just signed up to join the program, and I am so excited to talk to you about your houses, possibly in a one to one call soon, possibly on the next office hours call. This is going to be a delight. Marvelous, great. 

Della Hansmann  1:05:39
Okay, one last question Lynn asks, Is marmoleum a good choice for a mid-century kitchen floor? And I'm gonna say, first, yes, yes, it is. And then second, I'm gonna say, of course, there's pros and cons, as I mentioned before, my go to first sort of decision tree branch for kitchen floors, is, are you looking for a floor that is the most impervious itself, or a floor that is the most friendly to things that will touch the floor? And so marmoleum is falls into the friendly. It's kind of actually a good twofer. It's pretty durable. It is pretty hard wearing, but also it's got squishy, but it's a little bit more foot friendly than, say, a tile, and if you're going to drop a dish on it, something I've been known to do, it's a little less likely to create a shatter than a tile or a terrazzo or something incredibly hard. 

Della Hansmann  1:06:21
So yeah, and again, I would, I would source more volume from that. I don't have a relationship with them, by the way, but I would also source more volume from green building supply in Iowa. They're just like a nice company that has a good line of more volume options. Anybody else have anything else they want to ask? I feel quite winded having been talking for an hour and 18 minutes, and you guys are all still here. Thank you. 

Della Hansmann  1:06:41
This is delightful that you're all excited about making good choices today if you wouldn't mind sharing, if you haven't already, if you wouldn't mind sharing in the comments, anything you've learned today that felt particularly valuable. I find that really helpful when I'm planning future shared content, and for everybody that's just decided to join ready to remodel right now, I'm so excited to have two calls with you and to see you on a week from Monday at the next office hours call and to just welcome you to your journey of planning a great remodel. If anyone else is thinking about it, now is a great time to join us. And if you've got more questions about it, just ask them. 

Della Hansmann  1:07:13
Yeah. I would just love it if you could share whatever you found to be the most surprising or reinforcing or helpful thing I love being able to sort of ponder those and make sure that I'm continuing to deliver them in future workshops. And also just thank you to you for choosing a mid-century house, for appreciating what's great about your mid-century house, for caring enough to make good choices for it. As I said at the top, this is my big mission, is to help people who love mid-century houses, keep what's great in them and not be sort of led astray into making convenient choices for someone else that end up stripping out mid-century character we can't get back. And then how to help people put back mid-century character in houses that have lost it. 

Della Hansmann  1:07:53
So this is this what we're doing right now today. This is me throwing a party for everybody that loves mid-century houses. And so if you're here right now. Thank you if you're watching the replay of this because you weren't available, thank you for caring and watching through to an hour and 20 minutes or two hours and 20 minutes on this call. And just a couple of things people have said, being more open to possibilities. Yes, absolutely. Thinking about the warm, cool spectrum for stains provides a better metric for flow and match than some other choices. Yeah, this is actually and this is true for colors. Just for colors as well. 

Della Hansmann  1:08:23
One of the Michelle, I'm so glad you called that out. One of the most important things about mid-century patterns in general. You can see it behind me right now. A lot of mid-century materials are very warm in nature. They have that sort of organic quality. And a lot of modern materials are a lot cooler. I don't know what the material science or style behind that is, but there's nothing wrong with painting a wall gray if you love it, if you are a millennial, but the gray tone in a lot of modern woodwork is not ideal. 

Della Hansmann  1:08:51
And so yeah, looking for a color tone match as you're matching new materials to old ones, super important. And yeah, oh, the idea of becoming confident before getting contractors involved? Yes, that will help prevent being pushed around. It's a great solution. It's the ideal way to make things go forward. And then Jenny said, You've helped me realize that I'd love to work with you my upcoming remodels. Hopefully I can take a listen. 

Della Hansmann  1:09:13
Well, Jenny, I would love to work with you too. That's marvelous to everyone that's here right now. It's been such a pleasure to have you. It's been such a delight to sort of send you on your way with a little bit more confidence and a little bit more information about what's good for your house and what's good for you and how to make the right choices for yourselves. Okay, that is it for today. That was that was plenty of talking. 

Della Hansmann  1:09:34
Pop over to the show notes page, 2217 Oh, that's mid mod, dash, midwest.com/ 2217 for any links or references, to check out the actual masterclass that was associated with this Q and A. And also pop over to YouTube that's you'll find me at mid mod Midwest on YouTube and check out the first two episodes of my new YouTube series on how to break through any obstacles that are holding you back from playing. 

Della Hansmann  1:10:00
Planning from starting anything, no matter how small on your house. In 2026 you deserve to start and start enjoying some changes to your house right away, and I'm going to talk about how to get you through those barriers. Next week, I'll be back with a shorter, much shorter and sweeter episode. 

Della Hansmann  1:10:17
I'm thinking of this basically as a holiday fruitcake. At this point, we're going to do a reprise of the classic now, how to use the holidays to plan changes for your mid-century home, even when you're too busy to plan. So I'll see you for that. And in the meantime, safe travels. If you're traveling anywhere, I hope you get there smoothly, safely and on time. Cheers.