The Ins & Outs - Baths, Hot Tubs & Renovation Dilemmas!

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

What you need to consider when you're buying a bath for the inside, or a hot for the outside.Polly hits Jojo with all her renovation dilemmas, while Jojo impresses her piano teacher.Plus we look at when you should be watering your garden during the winter and what colours you should consider for your grout.Pre-order your copy of Polly's book, "How To Design A Garden" by clicking on this link https://geni.us/HowToDesignAGardenInstagramPodcast - @the_insandouts_Jojo - @houseninedesignPolly - @pollyanna_wilkinsonProducer Andy - @andy_rowe_WebsitesJojo - https://www.housenine.co.uk/Polly - https://www.pollyannawilkinson.com/Pod Rowe Productions - https://www.podrowe.net/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oh, that coffee smells good. Can you pass me the sugar when you're finished? Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? That's salt, not sugar. Let's get you another coffee. Feeling distracted? You're not alone. Many Canadians are finding it hard to focus

with mortgage payments on their minds. If you're struggling with your payments, speak to your bank. The earlier they understand your situation, the more options and relief measures could be available to you. Learn more at Canada.ca slash it pays to know. A message from the Government of Canada. Hello Inns and Outs and welcome to this week's episode of the Inns and Outs with myself, Jojo Bauer, and the ever so lovely Pollyanna Wilkinson.

On this week's episode, we've got a jam-packed one for you. We're talking Polly's renovation dilemmas, Pizza Express and piano lessons, to freestanding bath or not to freestanding bath, do we need to be watering in the winter, grout colours, hot tubs, and the quest for the perfect roast tatty. So let's jump on in. Good morning, my old fruit. How are you? My old what? Fruit. My old fruit.

Oh, thanks, my love. What sort of fruit would I be if I was a fruit? Tangerine. Oh, fruity, juicy. I feel so swollen this morning paul do you ever um swollen do i we sort of become a little weekly ritual that we take the kids to pizza express occasionally um every week and uh it's really nice because they're finally at the age where you can actually sit at a table with them and it's not absolute chaos you know they actually will sit and we can talk to them which is really nice yeah and uh but you know in pizza express they do that delicious romana base that really thin base yeah and it's the extra brad and i go for the extra hot so it's the one with all the nadooja sausage and super chili red chilies just scattered all over this thing but whenever i eat

chilies and indeed probably an entire pizza i wake wake up so swollen. I can even feel it in my fingers. Do you ever get that? Swollen? Mmm, swollen. Maybe. Wouldn't put it past me. Is that what gout is? It's a gout when you eat rich food and it's sort of...

Don't you feel like your face and everything just gets very swollen? Do you not get that? No. Okay, let's not go swollen. Let's go puffy. Puffiness. I'm not sure. Next time I go to Pizza Express, I will look at my face the next day and be like, am I puffy?

I don't think it's just Pizza Express. I think it's chili food and I think it's lots of carbohydrates. So funny, this girlfriend and I, we always share like tips on what can we do to our face to make ourselves stay younger naturally. Yeah. And we both ended up on YouTube looking at these facial exercises that you do have you seen it this is hysterical it's like you have to hold your face in particular ways like so do an o so go like oh well like a screaming oh and then you've got to stretch your face into like a

oh that's it and you've got to hold that for 20 seconds is it no it's not a look to saying that as a clip on the social media you've got to hold that that's not going on here you've um you've got to hold it for 20 seconds and do it three times and essentially it's working the muscles in your face right so that you get lifting anyway there's many very very funny funny exercises that you have to do like stick stick the bottom lip out like a gun right and then do and then do like a kissing like you see and then and then oh kissing yeah and then tilt and then do like a kissing like you said and then i mean oh kissing yeah and then tilt and then tilt your chin up to the ceiling and then like you're delightful so then like you're kissing the ceiling with a gun on i look like desperate dan and then

you stretch stretch the underside of your chin and you've got to do that three times for 20 seconds and that's gonna keep me looking young is it i don't know. Look, I've just started it. But I was doing it in the car yesterday just for a laugh. And I called up and texted this guy in a van. And he looked over and he's like, what the fuck are you doing? I was like, look, I'm going to be young forever with this. Yeah, because there's another one that's like you're sort of sucking on a straw. You have to go like, oh, like you're holding a straw between your lips.

And you've just got to hold it. Oh, good look. That's like a cat's bum. That's a cat's bum, yeah. That's a Donald Trump face. Or a one. Do you do, what's it called? You know when they drag marble around on your face,

of course, whatever. Gua sha. Gua sha. I do a bit of gua sha-ing, yeah. Do you? I like a bit of gua sha. Yeah. It feels good.

It makes sense, because I suppose you're draining the lymphatic drain, I do a bit of gua sha. Do you? I like a bit of gua sha. Yeah. It feels good. It makes sense because I suppose you're draining the lymphatic massage on your face. It's good for you. I should have done it this morning because I feel like a giant puffball. You look delightful as always. Now tell me, good to know about Pizza Express. Tell me about piano lessons. Well.

You pay now. Sonata? Wait for it. Yeah. Old Mac now. Sonata. Wait for it. Yeah. Old MacDonald had a farm. That's an absolute banger of a tune. Banger. Well, also because it's now using an unusual, it's an unusual note, which is G.

So I've basically been on A, B, C, C, B, A. This is what you first learn. And then I'm now on G, which is throwing a real like, yeah. I mean, I just dropped the G. Yeah. But anyway, I have to tell you, it's so sweet because it was our third lesson. And I feel like with Ziggy, the penny has just dropped. So she's a little bit behind me.

But now we're practicing in the evening and she runs in and she goes to grab the piano. She wants to learn, which is such a joy. Oh, that's lovely. I wish I could say that was the same with my son. Oh, really? No, in the morning, she jumps in bed with me and grabs the piano. It's not a piano, by the way. She doesn't drag a piano into bed. It's a keyboard that the piano teachers lent us. And she jumps in bed with me. And this morning, we had the piano on our laps, and we're doing the keyboard on our laps, and we're practicing. She loves it. It's so thrilling. I mean, I know she's only six, but to find something that she so loves, that she's really excited about.

I think that's a real gift, isn't it? My littlest learns the piano and he's fine with it, but he's clearly not passionate. And if you're not passionate about something, it's a lot. Was he passionate though? And then he's lost interest because other things... No, it was more the thought that I felt, oh, I'd really love it. I wish I could play the piano and therefore I want to give my son the gift of being a coach. Yeah, no, totally. It's a tough thing to be able to do, isn't it?

I think that's why, but that's why I wanted to do it as well gift of being yeah no totally to be able to do isn't it I think that's why but that's why I wanted to do it as well because I figured if I was practicing and because I've got this real bug now as well I really really want to learn it it's an insane like I come in I'm like oh I get this excitement like oh should I go practice lovely yes I think because we're both doing it together it's like quite a fun quite a fun little thing to do so that's me anyway catch me up on your exciting news my love it's probably far more exciting than pizzas and pianos uh kitchen at the time of this going out will be like three days away from being finished so this is very exciting the pages are in at the moment i had no idea how much prep work there is in painting huge amount of prep honestly this and

i i think i said this to you right at the beginning because obviously they do all the filler all the sort of woodwork gets filled and then they have to sand it before they start painting there is so much prep work particularly as the whole kitchen is clad so there's loads of little pinholes yes so they've got this clever machine which sort of sands and sucks the dust at the same time which is very clever it's slow going but it's it's really exciting and what's really interesting dude about doing the reno tell me is that questions have come up and they're little questions they're not like big things because obviously i've got your wonderful designs but things come up and i've been like oh where do you find this stuff out for example all the light

fittings have gone in in the kitchen this week right which is just what a difference that makes bulbs yes i was suddenly like oh god there are so many different types of bulbs and there are so many different types of i know about light temperature from outside but it was it was sort of like if you have an exposed bulb you know like you've got a nice sconce where you actually see the bulb yeah what bulb should you have i mean i like it i like the look of a traditional edison bulb i don't like frosted i don't like frosted white bulbs, you know, the energy saver bulbs. Good. I'll never use those.

Glad I just bought one of them from Amazon. Good. Oh. Okay. Fine. I wouldn't go down that route. No, because they don't give off a very nice, even if they're nice, a warm light, they affect, to be honest, we use bare bulbs in all our lights.

Sorry, can I just clarify just clarify bare bulbs is that like a clear sorry no i get that but like can you see the filament in it yes you can see the filament exactly it's like a filament can you do that with the led ones where it's like quite a chunky filament as opposed to yes yeah yeah yeah they make those now yeah the bulbs have come on such a long way i remember when obviously the first when they were first sort of taken off the shelves you know the um non-scent energy saver ones and the light was awful and everyone was just in uproar

and everyone was like bulk buying their bulbs because they couldn't bear the thought of these horrible white energy efficient bulbs. They're not like that now. We've got some brilliant bulbs and I know I rave about them, but obviously this Tala is a beautiful plate. They do these beautiful bulbs.

So if you've got a shade, so if you have like a little you've got a shade so if you have like a little um uh i know exactly the ones you mean like a little sort of chinaman's hat those beautiful little shades yeah you're going to see a lot of the bulb underneath so the bulb wants to be the bulb wants to be a sort of you know a piece in itself yes to it wants to it complement the light and if you suddenly have a sort of ugly white frosted bulb that looks a bit i don't know it just doesn't work somehow so but you but you ideally want to get those sort of things on a dimmer which i think you've got dimmers yes great because you can obviously

lower them you will get you've got to make sure that the light that you're buying is a dimmable fitting it has a dimmable um mistake this week too good times did you okay yeah because if it doesn't then obviously when you start to dim the light the light bulb will go so it's got to be a dimmable dimmable fitting light bulb okay so go for a clear one where you can see the filament yeah go for a clear bulb unless so there's if you have a basket shade so basket shades obviously usually wicker and if you've got and i'm i cannot imagine so many people will be going oh my god yes this happened to me if you've got a basket shade and it's up high on a pendant and it's in the middle of your room and then you put your bulb

in and then turn the light on it throws like literally like a spider web on your ceiling yeah yeah and it's not what you you suddenly think shit that's not what i wanted that looks mental and it's not shining the light down you can get these very clever bulbs that have almost like a blocked to half the bulb at the top like a skirt around the top almost like a dark bit that will stop that happening um but that's also where occasionally we would use a nice frosted bulb and again yeah some check out someone like tallah to get like a lovely energy energy efficient bulb that's going to last you years okay that was my first tip thank you i've got two more for you okay the next one is the probably the only room in the house that i haven't commissioned you guys to design is my tiny little

ensuite yes let's try one myself but my question you is, if you've got a really small en suite, should you go for a large format tile or a small format? Because I was looking at like a checkerboard. In controversial, like a burgundy marble. Lovely. I know exactly what you mean. But I couldn't decide whether you go big, and obviously you don't really get much of an impact from it because you probably only got like six six tiles in there or do you go small format because like small in small or big and small in an example where you've got a very small bathroom and you don't see a lot of the floor yeah if you suddenly went big big tile format like a 30 by 30 as exactly as you say paul you're going to see maybe two or three widths yeah it's not going to look great because you're going to have a cut line somewhere or something's going to be dividing that so you're not going to get enough of a feature from it okay and therefore in that instance i would go smaller format so something like a 10

by 10 would look lovely okay so go small in small spaces because obviously it's we sort of often go opposite to that in exactly i think also it's what you're trying to achieve so i think if sometimes if you go into a small bathroom and it's got slabs of porcelain on the wall and slabs of porcelain or stone on the floor, you're actually making the room feel quite characterless. So it's a really nice way to introduce character and make it actually weirdly feel more cozy and more interesting. So you're trying to add interest just as much. So if it's a small bathroom, small en suite, it's sometimes better to lean into the fact that it's small and just add as much character as you's a small yeah so if it's a small bathroom small ensuite you're sometimes better to lean into the fact that it's small and just add as much character as you can into the room so i think it's quite nice to add go go small format all right let's build on that then let's just verbally design this it's more are you am i doing a virtual design for you here this is what

yes sorry let's just bear with no but these are all rules these are principles that help for if you're doing small format on the floor do you also do small format in the shower or is then you've got like loads of small bits no that's it's totally fine you can totally do small format on the walls as well but you could do small format in the same color so it's still going to add character and interest but if you suddenly did a small checkerboard all over the all over the walls you're going to make the room feel pretty crazy and small. Yeah, that'd be a bit nuts. Then it will feel small.

So it doesn't really matter that the format of the tiles on the wall is small if they are all one colour. But as I say, as soon as you go like a stripe or a checker, it's suddenly going to make the walls come in and make it smaller. But you might quite like that. It can be quite fun. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It depends what you're trying to achieve.

It is your en suite, and therefore you're going to be in there every single day and therefore i'd say don't go with something that you think you're going to tire of so if you think it might be a bit of a fad boring maybe go a bit boring whereas i think always in guest guest en suites guest bathrooms you can actually have a bit of fun because you're not seeing it every day so when you do walk in there you think oh that's so fun and your guests are going to say that's jazzy love that word jazzy don't you love it okay good final question go on this is this is one i saw on the old tiktok yeah do you build your doormats into the floor yes we do oh so you open your front door and we have an embedded choir matting yeah which can either be black or you know it's a natural color we do that because you're going to get mats sliding

about the place they're really cheap to do and it's a brilliant way to yes finish off your hallway sometimes you do it to like the size of the door opening as in sort of exactly it's obviously always better if you've got a wall to wall which most hallways do you go wall to wall with your choir matting so the door literally opens on the choir matting and it goes you know skirting to skirting if it's a really wide room you are going to probably have to just box it where you come in and you're going to have a return on either side which we try and avoid but it sometimes can't be avoided so see these things these things are coming up all these little things now i'm living in it also they've now they're completely upstairs

they've ripped out all the floors of my upstairs now i'd say we are in the darkest period now and i've got a curtain instead of a bedroom door it's all a little bit um it's all a little bit red light district now do you hear them coming in in the morning yeah yeah she'll sort of they're dashing about in her knickers yes so when the door goes i go okay i best get dressed now because i don't even have a bedroom door i can just imagine you scuttling around behind the curtain just trying to find your pants and covered in dust it's a tatty old curtain that i'm just like oh quick so what so so you're gonna have a

kitchen done the end of this week and then the idea is that you're sort of going to move downstairs live in the pantry upstairs but i will have one one room but the yeah the builders will still be coming through it constantly to get to the other rooms but hey you know and then it's your staircase then it's staircase bedroom bathroom hallway should we hop into some listeners questions yes quite enough of mine okay i've got a question from sarah hello my favorite designers from your biggest new zealand fan oh new zealand forest flung i think that was australian i just did that annoying thing where i i can't do the no hold on news we should know because our podcast producers andy is from new zealand

go and do an accent difference i can't give me new zealand absolutely not okay i definitely can't do that i love it give that one again bloody love new zealanders they've got such a good sense of humor that's a really dry wit haven't they i? I love it there. Do you know what? When I was 18, I can't quite believe I did this on my gap year. I went on my own to Australia and then New Zealand. And I met this guy. He was lovely. He was a professional swimmer, I seem to remember. And we shacked up together, as one does on one's gap year.

And we got a camper van. And then we just sort of drove around New Zealand shagging and seeing the sights. That sounds like just the most brilliant. I feel like we need to delve into that so much more. What did he do for a living? I think he was like a professional swimmer. How cool. It's what we used to do. Did he have really big shoulders?

Yeah, he did. He had a cracking body. It's like one of those bodies that was like a triangle. Yeah. What was slightly odd is... Like a triangle on a tripod. You're not wrong. God, how brilliant. Did you go to Rotorua? Rotorua? Rotorua is where all those geezers are. You know those geezers, those smelly geezers where it squirts

up from the ground? Yes, I did go to the all those geezers are. You know those geezers, those smelly geezers where it squirts up from the ground? Yes, I did go to the smelly geezers. It's just got all hot under the old collar over here. But what was fun was we were in this camper van, but obviously camper vans don't have a bathroom. So because he was a swimmer, we used to every morning go to a different leisure centre and he would do a swim and I'd have a shower.

Oh, stop. This is... Oh, memories. I want to'd have a shower. Oh, stop. This is... Oh, memories. I want to go into this, but no, sorry. Sorry, Sarah. Sorry, darling. Back to your question. Not all about us.

I'm an outie, but I have a question for Jojo. To freestand baths or not to freestand baths, I'm obsessed with the look of them but worried they aren't practical and I don't have a lot of space either side. What is my best option? Oh, good. Really, really good question. I find that.

OK, so if it's the only bath in your house and you're going freestanding, I just think there's things to consider. They're a real kind of love hate. I find freestanding bars. I think people love the look of them, but they don't consider they love the real kind of love hate I find free free standing bars I think people love the look of them but they don't consider they love the look of them and I think they always think gosh it'd be so romantic and you know cool to have a free standing bath yeah very chic they are very chic but there is a practicality element of the fact that it doesn't have an edge it's not boxed in you've got to think about getting behind it for cleaning so if it is a small space and

you've got a free standing bath and you can't even if it's touching the edge of the edge of the wall behind you'd have to almost seal it to stop water going down the side otherwise you are going to have a problem with cleaning you can't crawl behind a freestanding bath if it's tucked within a space and so often I see this in images where somebody has literally shoved a freestanding bath in a really small recess that you can't access from three sides and then i think well how can you get behind it or if something goes wrong with the bath you've got to take the whole bath out to get to the plumbing behind so it's think about access access is really really important with baths guys it's something you have got to think about um which is why if you have a boxed in bath you've usually got like a sort of panel that you can sort of take

off so that's really important so think about cleaning but then the other practical the practical element is that you if you if you are going to go to the freestanding bath and they are beautiful and we do put them in clients houses it's usually a request clients absolutely love them or if it's a really big bathroom and we can plonk a freestanding bath in front of a window fantastic it looks absolutely beautiful and then we usually put like a little wooden stool or something beside the bath that you can put your teacup on or your glass of wine or your you know your book or whatever you want you know or even you've got to think where are you gonna put your shampoo bottles because those aren't things that you're gonna want to see so is it just think practically are you going to get your shampoo bottles and your bits out every time

every time you have a bath if you're're fine with doing that, I would be. But it's just little considerations like that. So I think if you're somebody that doesn't bath every single night and it's sort of just something because you love the idea of having one, lovely, go for it. But there are practical elements. It's the gubbins, isn't it? It's the gubbins. It's the gubbins. It's where you put your things around the bath.

So when you're in the bath. And actually there is also, because you haven't got that sort of edge on the bath just I I know this is going to sound nuts but go and test drive your bath before you buy it don't just buy a bath necessarily because we know what baths to buy that clients are going to like but when you're buying a bath people think they want to go bigger as bigger is better but if you're five foot six five foot seven and you've bought an 1800 tub you are not going to be able to lean back in it without slipping down the bath you're going to be under the water immersed every time your feet aren't going to touch the end of the bath right i've got i'm i'm nearly six foot tall and i've got an 1800 bath and i can't put my feet only just touch the end

so i can't sit really nicely in the bath. So sometimes you're better going off with a smaller tub that you can actually cock your knees in and then you can actually sit up in nicely and have a cup of tea, read a book, you know. So it's a real, like, please do think about your bath you're buying. And also some baths, especially freestanding baths,

they're sort of, the sides are the same. It's almost like a tub and therefore you can't actually rest your back so make sure you buy a bath that has an end that you can almost like you know lie in that's comfortable and that you can put your head back comfortably on you want to rest your neck back nicely on that back of that bath whilst also being able to rest your feet at the end of the bath so just those things I know it sounds mad but go and get in a bath and test drive if you can consider isn't there I mean I phoned you this week because I wasn't sure whether to have a non-slip coating

on my bath yeah because my bath will also be a shower yes when it's a shower bath yes and a lot of people don't think you've got to make sure you get if you've got a shower over your bath you've got to make sure it's got an end that's flat and then the end that you lie in because you want to be able to stand up in the shower end so it's's got to be a shower bath. God, I hope I ordered one of those. If you're at a point in life when you're ready to lead with purpose, we can get you there. The University of Victoria's MBA in Sustainable Innovation is not like other MBA programs. It's for true changemakers who want to think differently and solve the world's most pressing challenges. From healthcare and the environment to energy, government, and technology,

it's your path to meaningful leadership in all sectors. For details, visit uvic.ca slash future MBA. That's uvic.ca slash future MBA. Oh, that coffee smells good. Can you pass me the sugar when you're finished? Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? That's salt, not sugar. Let's get you another coffee.

Feeling distracted? You're not alone. Many Canadians are finding it hard to focus with mortgage payments on their minds. If you're struggling with your payments, speak to your bank. The earlier they understand your situation, the more options and relief measures

could be available to you. Learn more at Canada.ca slash it pays to know. A message from the Government of Canada. Okay, my darling, I've got one here from Frankie. Frankie is asking, I have a small north facing garden. We have big double doors out onto a tiled patio and I just don't know what to do with that area. Currently it's just an area that we pass through to get to the rest of the garden. We might sit there on a very hot summer's day or on a sunny evening about two weeks of the year when the sun comes around high enough. It gets filthy and green in the winter. Should we just scrap it and fill the area with shady plants,

whack a hot tub out there and be done with it? Issue with something like that is that we'd see it from the inside of the house. Please help. Thank okay so that's a great question it's a really great question and that sort of dilemma of the north phasing north facing shady nooks is always a bit of a tricky one so my reaction to that is if you're if it's sort of not a very usable space and it's not somewhere you've naturally got i don't know like a dining table that you like to sit in the shade during the summer then the first thing I would do is exactly as you said I would have very minimal paving I'd probably have some sort of either winding can't get my words out today winding or a straight path through and then I would fill it with shade plants because I personally think I know people find shade planting

a little bit dull but I love it it's very green and lush if you get them right. And I can give you some plant names. But that way, what you've said in your question is that it's a transition space. It's not really a gathering space. It's a transition space. And anywhere that's a transition, I want to fill with plants, not just be big old load of paving that you walk over. So we'll get to the hot tub bit in a minute. But for me, I would do exactly as you say, get that pathway through. And you could, because it's north-facing, think about what that material is. So you might want it to be gravel, because that's obviously going to get sort of slightly less green in terms of, you know, in terms of your

different choices of paving. I think gravel can be quite forgiving in shadier spaces it gets slightly less gross albeit it's harder to clean or you could go with well with any number of pavings but obviously that's so much less to need to jet wash when it does go green and then in terms of shade planting you could have I absolutely love it when you've got really lush verdant things like ferns right by the by the house I think you can go quite big on them as well there's loads of different ferns that you can choose and you can certainly use more than one or you can even go really dramatic and do something like tree ferns do you judge me the ones i mean i love a tree fern yeah i love them they're always going to be amazing they look like a sort of english

version of a palm tree exactly yeah i absolutely love them and they they look really dramatic and then suddenly you're getting into a slightly sort of green jungly feel which is yeah i love that but you can have things like hellebores which are really beautiful to have by the house because obviously in winter when you're going out there less you can still see them you can have things like my good old favorite grass hackana clover is really lovely in shade as well um i mean there's so many different shady plants but you really lean into the greens and then you can have anemones as well if you want some sort of white and strontias to bring in some sort of white as well but as you say i would do transition space and then you threw in the curveball with the hot tub which it's really interesting with positioning of hot tubs

because i do think as with outdoor kitchens, the more convenient the location, the more likely you are to use them. And so I don't think it's a bad thing to have it near the house. Although I would ideally avoid having it right in your direct view. I don't know your space fully, but I wonder if there's an opportunity for you to, what we really like to do is have doors opening and then plants immediately after that sort of opening. A bit like how we talked about with the doormat jojo the way that when you open the door you have the doormat and then you'd have the tiling here you'd have you'd open the doors and have paving but then beyond that obviously other than the path you'd have plants so i'm wondering if there's an opportunity to bring

planting close to the house that's quite tall and then the hot tub sort of nooked behind that rather than you just staring at the side of a hot tub the whole time so it depends a little bit on your layout as to whether that's a realistic prospect i always think when you see small gardens with hot tubs in people go that sort of super sized square one whereas actually you could just do a nice little round one because then you've got that curve haven't you as opposed to like a solid square it's softer and the other thing you can do well there's two options number one you can sink your hot tub which i do like to do much like we like to sink a trampoline because obviously then it's softer and the other thing you can do well there's two options number one you can sink your hot tub which i do like to do much like we like to sink a trampoline because obviously

then it's lower and you're not staring at a hard surface like a pond it would look like a pond kind of yes which can be quite nice or i always go for the ones which have the cedar cladding that's the one i've got which is called c a cedar clad. It's just more naturalistic. It's softer. They feel less dominant than the big plastic square ones, which can feel quite dominant in a space. And if we go, if for whatever reason the clients have a big plastic square one, we'll try and sort of wrap it with hedging or planting just so that you're not staring at the sides of it. So I do think there is merit in having a hot tub near the house. Just try and avoid making it a focal point. You know, even the prettiest ones aren't that pretty to look at there's lots to ponder there but i i would definitely lean into what you're saying and go with uh maximum planting given i

mean you could always leave a little alcove where you can put two armchairs if you want to sit there when it's sunny in the summer you know just rather than hand the whole thing over to paving, it could just be what, like a 1.2 by 2, 2.5 metre nook where you have two armchairs immersed in the planting, which would be lovely. Nice. Love that one. Thanks, Paul. Okay, I've got a question from Sophie. Hi there, we're building a new house on our farm in Tasmania, Australia. Look at us. Tasmania.

Look at our far-flung business. From New Zealand to Tasmania. Isn't that amazing? That's so cool. I love that. Hello, our far-flung Inies and Outies. Love that. G'day, mate. That one was actually correct. Was it? Yes. Right. Okay. Our house is a modern farmhouse style, weatherboards, double hung windows and traditional interior features. I was having a robust discussion with our amazing builders about beam details in the living room cathedral ceiling. He thought I was crazy to add beams. It was the very week you both discussed the beams in Polly's house. Amazing timing. Thank you for the backup. Now, sorry, question for you. I've chosen tumbled limestone for the boot room laundry

and bathrooms, 700 by 500. I followed along on Polly's grout discussion and I had always thought I would do a light grout colour, but Polly's floor looks amazing. Do I ask for a grey to blend in with the colour of the stone? Well, in that instance, yeah. You've got to think with grout and your tiles, a bit like you experienced, Polly, is that do you want your tiles to stick out individually and if so then you fill it with a lighter grout or do you want them to blend so that it appears to be more like one surface this will make the room feel calmer

and less busy you've also got to consider someone like a boot room did she say boot room or utility? several rooms actually mate she said boot room she said boot room, laundry and bathrooms so also so think about really consider a boot room she said boot room laundry and bathrooms so also so think about really consider a boot room usually a boot room has access from the outside

and therefore when you're coming in with say muddy boots and bringing dirt in if that grout is light over time it will go grubby yes and therefore in a way you're better off going in that instance just matching the color of your tiles. So try and get as close to your tiles as you can. There are so many grout colours available. You get these clever little sticks that you put down next to your tiles and it helps you really sort of match. You might find as well that sometimes the tile company will actually help you and actually recommend what grout colour will go with that tile. There are a lot of tile companies do that. So check with them as well. But then it really does depend on the format and the style and where it's being used. So I tend to go in general,

with a sort of moon white, which I find goes with everything. But as soon as that's the tiles that are quite light, like limestones and light marbles. But as soon as like that's the tiles that are quite light as light limestones and light marbles but as soon as i start entering into the sort of dark grays then i will try and match much closer to the actual color itself definitely you don't want a gray marble a gray limestone with a sort of zigzag of white lines that would not look not. I think with my one, it was obviously a beigey limestone and I think my grout was called beige. Was it beige? So you can't go wrong with that, can you? You can't go wrong with that. Okay, darling, I've got a quickie here from Kelly. Kelly is asking, hi guys, question for Polly. I've been listening to Polly's advice and planting lots of shrubs like Portuguese laurels.

How often should I be watering them this time of year? Thank you so much. Kelly, kiss. Okay, with watering at this time of year, I'm not really watering anything, even the trees that I've planted earlier this year, just because it's been such a wet summer, wet autumn, that the soil hasn't really required it. But if you've got newly planted things, or particularly thirsty plants, then what you can do is water once or twice a month probably maybe twice a month if it's newly planted until the frosts hit but I mean frankly that's basically now isn't it so I've found uh because of the season that we've had I haven't needed to water

this autumn so basically it's sort of all sort of banked down for me from pretty much early October onwards I found that I haven't really needed to water anything. But just keep an eye on your soil. If you've got a really dry soil or you're in a really dry area, then yes, keep going with a really good watering of any newly planted shrubs and trees. You know, a couple of times a month should do it a good water. But obviously, if it's been pouring with rain and the soil is saturated, then you don't need to. Thank you, my darling. That was great. That was absolutely smashing. Well done. Well done us. Thank you, everyone, for sending in questions. Well done us, indeed.

Shall we talk a little on what is in and what is out this week? Yeah, what's in for you? What is in for me? Oh, do you know what? I think just, I i'm gonna say roast dinners oh okay sunday roast tis the season tis the season i get that real sort of like yeah and it's that sort of really fun time when you can start crawling around local pubs and finding who does the best roast it's such a conversation starter isn't it oh have you been to the uh you know so and so no crown up it no no i'm gonna have to fight you on this one my friend actually because i hate pub roast potatoes i think they are shockingly bad yeah well yes however this is part of the uh part of the dialogue when you speak to someone about

a pub roast because it's usually all it really hangs on the tatties i've never had a good one in a pub you need to come out to where i live my love i'm going to take you for some i'm going to take some crispy little tatties i think they're done in duck fat they obviously i find they don't they're clearly not parboiling them because they almost feel like they've been cooked in their skin and then they've got a slightly like rubbery i need them yeah they need to go fluffy and then chucked in goose fat yeah and then you like you have to the trick the trick is parboiling them and then draining them and then letting them cool yes if you then let them cool then put them in the hot fat then they go really crispy but i have never in my life

had a good roast potato right that's the challenge i'm gonna you you and mr mr big are going to come out here and i'm going to take you guys for a roast at our favorite pub that does really really amazing roast patatis okay well we'll see okay yes okay um so that's what's in for me what's in for you my darling i don't have an in but i have an out because i did have an in and I've forgotten it because what my memory this week I yesterday I was planting out a garden uh 3,000 plants I tell you what I almost could not sit down today the squatting alone my god who needs exercise when you can set out plants but I would be like right I'm just off to get the astrantia I'd walk to get the astrantia and I would just stare at the plants be like what was I oh there's nothing that memory loss there's nothing worse it's the most frustrating thing in the world I find I did a lot at home where I'm carrying things and then I'll walk up the stairs to go and get something and then I look down and

I'm still holding what I was meant to put away downstairs and then I've come upstairs and I'm standing at the top of the stairs and I'm thinking I don't know why I'm here holding what I was meant to put away downstairs. And I've come upstairs and I'm standing at the top of the stairs. And I'm thinking, I don't know why I'm here. Because I came up here for something. And now I'm standing here with something that's definitely supposed to go away downstairs. And then you go downstairs and then you go to put that thing away. And then you suddenly remember what it was that you went upstairs for. So it's fun. I have never had that before.

I really hate it. I feel like that, what's that Guy Ritchie film, Memento, where he used to write down things. I feel like I have to have lists everywhere being like, don't forget the thing. Yeah. Yeah. Do you know the amount of times, as soon as I think of something,

I whack it in my notes on my phone. Yeah. And I just have random lists of things I've got to do. And it could literally be the smallest thing. Does that improve with the testosterone or the oestrogen or whatever it is the oestrogen yes it does yeah brain fog brain fog is a perimenopausal symptom for sure is that what brain fog is though is it forgetting things is brain yeah but I think it's probably also just got to do because men don't men suffer from it as well don't they so I don't think it's just

perimenopause men would never admit I think it's just i think it's just getting older well they also don't think about all the things that we do on a daily basis oh quite oh sorry lads sass sorry lads we do love you we love you but um yeah so that's a yeah i'm afraid to say mate you might be joining the old the clan you might be joining the club excellent yeah it's gonna it happens to the best of us it'll catch us all up eventually so that's what's out for you is your memory yeah what were we talking about yeah sorry who are you what am i doing here all right my darling well you've got some begging to do this week haven't you oh actually i did forget to tell you something really funny well my piano teacher turns out she's absolutely lovely. And she, we sort of got chatting and she was walking out the

door and I, she said, Oh, what do you, what do you do for a living? And I said, Oh, I'm an, I'm an interior designer. And she said, Oh my gosh, I'm a, I'm a landscape designer. And I said, you're not. And I said, you must know my friend Polly. She didn't by the way. And I said, well, you should, excuse me. what rock have you been living under um anyway so i told her about the ins and outs and she said she was going to listen but the funniest thing is she said it's because when i explained about the whole you know the ins and outs and what it was all about she said it's a brilliant idea because they the ins and outs the inside and outside is so connected and too many people often overlook the garden and they get

their interiors done and i thought this is just sound like Polly in my ears. And she said, and they use the builders to do the garden. And it is my worst. She said it. She actually was the one that said it. And I was, I was chuckling because she said it destroys the soil. And then we're brought in to do the planting. And I was like, literally, obviously, it's not just you, Paul. So I have already shared it with my piano teacher.

So perhaps anyone out there should do that. Now that feels like probably a small minority of people. But yes, please don't forget to like, subscribe, share, write a review, send us praise. We love that. And we'll see you next week. See you. Bye. Bye-bye. Bye. Whether renting, renewing a mortgage, or considering buying a home, everybody has housing costs on their minds. For free tools and resources to help you manage your home finances,

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