Interviewer: Welcome back to Ready, Set, Sold. Thanks so much for joining us.
I’m here talking with Jeremy Thompson, now. We just got done talking to Marla Vogt, who’s no relation, with her company. And now we’re going to be talking to Integrity Renovations and Construction. And what I want to talk about Jeremy with, and again we talked about the earlier, off air, of what you can do. And back splashes is really big. And you mentioned something about telephone jacks, and things of that nature. Those little tips there. Maybe you can talk more about that.
Jeremy Thompson: Yeah. One of the easiest things, obviously, when you re-do a countertop, you need something to accent that, as well. And Marla’s really good at picking out the tile, and stuff like that. I’m just the hands behind the operation. She’s the eye.
But, there’s unnecessary things, sometimes. Back in the day, people thought they wanted a telephone hanging on the wall, and stuff. Well, that kind of stuff really doesn’t happen anymore, with the Smart phones, and things like that. So, a lot of times, we try to eliminate some of the cluttered-ness that’s on the wall of a back splash in a kitchen. And they’re relatively easy to get rid of. So, it just de-clutters the wall behind the countertops.
Interviewer: I love that, too, because again, we sometimes forget about technology and we forget about how things have changed, even on phone jacks, and things of that nature.
There was another story that you told me about, too, is how simple that you can make a change. You mentioned a dining room, but there could be other rooms, maybe bathrooms. And that’s one of the things we talked about. We’ve seen wainscotting in bathrooms, that can make a totally different look, and relatively inexpensive, but have a dramatic effect.
Jeremy Thompson: Absolutely.
Interviewer: Go ahead.
Jeremy Thompson: Yeah. So, one of my specialties is trim carpentry. I’ve been a trim carpenter for a long time. And, if you go on the internet, you can order wainscotting, and it can get relatively pricey, because it’s actually paneling that you’re buying.
One simple way to do things, is, say you wanted a more elegant dining room. So, you take some chair rail, run that at 36 inches high. Then you take some panel molding, and you basically make up squares. So, from the chair rail down to the baseboard, you paint that a white or a cream, and then from the chair rail up, you can pop it with some color.
If you want to take it a step further, you add some crown molding. Now, you’ve just turned a plain room into something that, when people walk into the house … Let’s face it, we’re all visual creatures, right. So, people can’t see what’s behind the walls, but they definitely can see what’s in front of them, and you can drastically change somebody’s opinion of a house.
If they walked into a house and said, “Nah. It’s not for me,” and then you walked them into the same house a month later, and you did all these little tricks with the trim work, they may buy the house. It’s those little things that go a long way.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Jeremy Thompson: Touching again on the kitchens, and the back splashes, what we do a lot, too, is, houses that were built back in the day, under-cabinet lighting wasn’t a bit deal. But, now it really adds a lot to a kitchen. So, when you replace a counter, and you decide to do the back splash, we, a lot of times, recommend that you do under-cabinet lighting. And it’s easy to do. You can cut a channel in the drywall, add the lighting, put the drywall strip back in, back-splash it, and you never know that it’s there. And it’s something that really makes the countertop pop, and it really makes the back splash pop out, as well.
Interviewer: You know, Jeremy, I love that. I really do. That’s a fantastic idea. And you are so right. I mean to tell you, when you have that lighting on, in any kitchen, whether you have it just on the countertops, or sometimes you can it up on top, to the ceiling, either way, it makes a dramatic … And lighting is so important. I love what Marla talked about, too … was the lighting aspects become so important. How’s this house going to be seen, painting and things of that nature.
Again, it goes back onto making the wrong mistake. Sometimes, when you want to make improvements, the intentions are good, but you don’t have the professionals like Marla, and also with Jeremy, and it turns out that you’re going to be re-doing it, and paying top dollar again, for something that could have been taken care of the first time. So, that’s why it’s so important to be relying on professionals, such as these.
We’re running out of time on this segment, but I just want to mention again, this is Above and Beyond Designs by Marla. They are located in Columbia, Illinois. And Jeremy Thompson, Integrity Renovations and Construction, also located in Columbia. And they’re like the Dynamic Dual, and that’s even a better situation. Look, with one, you get the other. So, you have 20, 40 years of experience working for you. So, by all means, check them out.
Thanks so much, guys, for joining us today.
Marla Vogt: Thank you.
Jeremy Thompson: Thank you, Bryan.
Interviewer: Okay.
On our next segment, we’re going to be talking about is: What if you don’t have the bathrooms? What if you don’t have those bedrooms? What should you do? Oh my! Should you go out and make new bedrooms and bathrooms? Well … Let’s talk about that. Be sure to listen to the next segment, and we’ll answer those questions. You’re listening to Ready, Set, Sold with your host, Bryan Vogt.
Ready Set Sold with Bryan Vogt #04-03: Marla Vogt & Jeremy Thompson: Inexpensive Updates Can Make a Big Impact
June 17, 2017