welcome everyone to soul scaife living we're here today to tell you more about how we create beauty in the home function in the twenty first century and of course connect you to the local resources right here in the princeton area so today we're going to talk to christina savage cool showroom manager from fergusons in lawrenceville and tom del monte welcome appliance specialist and i'm so excited to have you guys here you know i'm one of you know your favorite fans over there at ferguson's i love to take all of my clients to this wonderful show room because i actually believe that we need to touch company we have over two hundred eighty stores showrooms nationwide and we specialize in plumbing lighting and appliances and bringing it all together for the consumer so that it's a one stop shop and the best place to go to see it and feel in touch it like you said but also to meet with really good product knowledgeable associates ok so you say you were all over that you knighted states yes how many do you have here in new jersey how many fergusons in new jersey i think we have about twenty of stuff do you display in the showroom we display almost every manufacture major manufacturer that's out there for plumbing fixtures like vanities and toilets faucets we also do all the lighting for the whole house chand bathroom under cabinet lighting and we do all the major may appliances for the home so for kitchen or for laundry outdoor grills or cooking areas as well how big is the show room what kind of square footage do you have there about twelve thousand square foot and it's on the second floor of the mercer mall above the olive garden so we have a nice big open area we have a lighting room that's dedicated it's one of the very few that we have in the state that's concentrated with all of our great priced and obscure in this no ok or trendy lighting fixtures that we have yes yeah you know one of my favorite things about the show room right is is to be able to come in and see all the lights yes appliances we can see everywhere but this not too many show rooms that can really show you the finishes of the lights and for me to bring my client into the show room and to take them to tom for appliances and then to take them to america for lighting and we go from department to department to department and by the time we're done in there i've been in the show room for two three four hours we finished yes we have done with with selections and it makes it really easy for clients to say yes when they're looking at a product it in and person so to speak great we also have working some working appliances too so we can display you know show you how it all works in light you know really  i water and yeah well we work some of these wonderful events that you also host where you show some of the appliances being used and you know and tom you know when it comes to appliances you know the holidays are right around the corner and this is when we really you know come into the home we really start to really take a look at our appliances we want to start to cook our big turkeys and bring a lot of friends in for the holiday season in the heart the home is the kitchen is real definitely the heart of the home so what can you tell me about you know what features do i need to look at when i'm looking at of ins and range specifically the home now like you said the kitchen is the most important part like every time you entertain nobody's hanging out in the dining room or the living room where everybody's hanging out in the kitchen so yes so it depends on the layout of your home if you're going to remodel then you can you've got a pretty much an open floor plan but if you have an already existing stuff that's going to be specific to what we can put in that in that space space sure some of the things like you know some people have electric they're now going to induction induction is a way of cooking that it's a magnet that's underneath the pot or pin and it creates a friction and only where the pin is touching is what becomes hot so it's as controllable as a gas but more energy efficient than gas so people that have electrical of other choices there's a lot of options when it comes to cook tops and ovens and tell me more about induction you know i always heard that gas is the best cooking is that true or isn't duction really the new way realize that duction is as controllable as gas and it will it will simmer probably better than gas and it probably will boil water faster than gas faster so really problem is you can't you know when you see gas you actually see the flame when induction you're looking at a number so it's kind of tough to make that transition so does it does it turn down as quickly as gas in sick is the biggest option we had with electric that takes forever that you would turn it down and the electric would seconds about three seconds wow so that's definitely an a wonderful option yes to someone who has electric to go to induction but for those of us who have gas usually stick with gas but again if i show you this little test that i other appliances and what other feature and appliances should we be thinking about well a lot of ranges will come with convection on convection depending on what you want to do get if you can to do a wall of in your remodel and you could do so we've come a long way with appliances what can you share with us about refrigeration is there anything that's new that we should think about or you know i doubled or as you know fraser on the bottle we've gone  french story fridge or maybe one would be a side by side but you know they have refrigerators that are called counter depth where they don't stick past the cabinets correct and get french doors with water and ice on the outside now a lot of manufacturers are moving the icemaker on to the door so you don't have this big box inside the refrigerator so you know what i mean but i think predominantly french doors are for any doors or to be a good way to get here right now and the water feature is now on the inside of the refrigerator yes and some of them have on the inside and in you can get them on the outside but you know they're all of a are going to be filtered so the manufacturers are filter inside the refrigerator so the water goes to the refrigerator and then a filter filters out the it's it looks like stainless but like almost like an acid trip stainless like a dark colored stainless ok so it has a characteristics of stainless it's not shiny black but that's a lot of manufacturers are coming out with black stainless now that's the newest thing and if somebody is retro companies will offer different colors to where you know you can get you know a whole range of options as far as color right right yeah i know i have a client now who went real retro and she's got a red stone  kind of fun in her kitchen but and so this black stainless do you think it's going to be a trend or do you think it's going to stick around i mean i know one of the best features about it is there's no fingerprint process so that's fabulous yeah i hate fingerprint i think it's becoming more and more popular worm scene more manufacturers are coming out with more products that causing are but a black stainless steel so i think it's probably here to stay you think it's here to stay but there are some manufacturers that do that yeah it's like the shower guard when we do the glass you know that's that's how you when we do shower doors and you also do shower doors in the showroom or door and you do all kinds of stuff at show right even i guess why even some of the kitchen faucets now are coming in the spot have many different lines that we work with a lot of them are going to the smart technology like touchless or you don't have to turn the handle per se but maybe you can just tap it and turn it on and off we even have some faucets in the showroom where it goes by a sensor that is in your cabinet so you can tap your cabinet with your foot and to turn it on so if you have the chicken in your hand you don't have to get you know germs all over the place wow and being that a lot of the faucets are made of solid stainless steel they don't inhibit the growth of bacteria or micro organisms either so it's much more sanitary than it used to be as a louse we are really talking about sanitary in the kitchen are only yes yes that's so important and that touch free touch some of them have infrared sensors so you can wave your hand in front of it or of the sponge mowen does have one where you can put your hand over it and it comes on but they also have one that's just a quick on and off so if you just need to rinse out a class it knows as soon as you pull your hand away it's going to shut off and there is an on and off button for these faucets they still work normally they can run on batteries or be hard wired but you can still use them as a regular faucet and if the power goes out or if the battery is turned out you can still use it as a regular foster i'm not limited to just that feature yeah i remember when the first faucets came out that was touched they didn't have the on and off right and we put it in a client's house and the kids would run over and play with the faucet and she's like i can't turn it off you know a lot of them have cut off too so it's an automatic cut off after fifteen seconds which is adjustable too so if the cat jumps on the countertop and walks past it's not going to stay on all day while you're at work the water's going to run off saying exactly well technology today that's what we're talking about here at home it's amazing how much function we have now in the kitchen and it's just it's just keeps getting better and better and easier and easier all we need is a chef in our kitchen to cook for us hey you know i have a chef my husband loves to cook so he has yeah he was raised by a wonderful italian mother who taught him well you're very lucky so i hope my budget is we have a great dishwasher you anything you want to share about dishwashers tom is there anything new that we should be thinking about  no i mean they go by a lot of people or they come in and are looking for the quiet estates washer and they're looking for what they call the decimal rating so the lower the number the quieter the dishwasher is going to become a lot of this washer still come  with you know you get a would put a wood paneled on the front of it and pick whatever hand you want to write as a mason signs here or you can get a just a stainless steel one with a handle on the front with the controls hidden but a lot of people are looking for that hidden control dishwasher where when don't want to see all the buttons and all the controls right so and that's what brings me to the microwave i have a number of clients i try to convince to use the drop microwave mainly because again you don't see any control there's no pulls there's nothing about this microwave but it is in the base cabinet yes stall correct what can you tell me about the drawer microwave so if people want to do if they're doing a double wall them or if they have a wall other they'll maybe put a microwave over the top of it but you know they say hey you know it's always good to have two options especially around the holidays yes so this is a use for right but then they go they don't know where to put the microwave  writing on the counters of course not the way to go so cameras are free that's right so you know designers used to put the mike was underneath the cabinet underneath the the counter top regular old fashioned i call it swing door microwave and it was really tough to get in and now because you're really down on your hands and knees and manufacturer came out with a draw microwave and it just you know you push a button a drawer comes out you place your food in you push a button it closer so it gets rid of the microwave you know and you know this puts it in a place where it's in conspicuous and it gets it out of the way one of the things i've noticed too is that most of the people who are using a microwave are children yes so and i also find that it's much easier for a ten year old who actually my microwave the door because my kids were so strong and powerful they would pull the drawer so hard the door it actually fell off the hinges so now when you just press a button and  there's less you know strength from my kids to destroy anything but it's all it's all good appliances have come a long way a really long way and so is there anything else you'd like to share with us about the show chrissie in the meantime we have six product consultants on our staff all combined total of sixty years of knowledgeable experience so really they are the heart of our store it's not just about the products it's about the people they have seen it all they have done it all and you can only through too much these guys that they can't figure out and and overcome for you so it really is a great star room to come in and to be able to see and feel and touch but also to be able to talk to somebody who has that knowledge and experience and can help you with yeah you could do this but maybe this would work better for your situation or point you to ri lighting and carpeting and furniture and there's so much for me to learn so for me to be able to come into your showroom and have one of the expert salespeople there help me with my client i mean there 's a thousand and one questions that are constantly coming up and so i can turn to my sales girl erica shout out to eric and say erica what do you think about this i need a light that looks like this but is this s size and she really puts a lot of work and a lot of effort into finding what i need and that helps my job it really makes a difference for me as well as we have great pricing in the showroom so i don't want anybody to think that who you know this is a high end it is a high end show room but you're going to get some incredible pricing is literally them as well we cover all different price points and to touch back on like what you had said earlier the associates are they the technology is always changing so our associates get trained weekly we have different manufacturers come in to give them the training that they need to be able to help the customers the best way possible so really you are you  to know all of those little ins and outs but our people do and that's what we pride ourselves on yeah and then of course you have some great events in the show room yes we do and some of the events that i've been to are the different manufacturers who come in and they you know give us designers some education on the new products and i always find that extremely helpful yes so you know so keep up the the the events in the showroom but i love coming i love you know attending and a level of learning that goes on in the showroom and so you know we together as a designer and a showroom and salespeople and appliance expert we together we could really make a difference in someone's renovating project whether it be a kitchen or a bathroom you know here we are we know everything there is to know about all of these different products and no one of us know it all but collaboratively we can really make a difference and we can really give the consumer the best product for their home so one of the things i want to ask you is there any events that are coming up in the show room right now that you want to share with us nothing specifically planned yet we're getting ready to do our twenty eighteen calendar which for the design enters and the architect's will include continuing education classes for the credits we're going to be doing those once a month now going forward once a month or once a month so we'll get you the schedule as soon as we can but  we try to do something you know every month just something out there whether it be a hands on training a cooking class for kids even just what are you going to do any events for the consumer yes so saturday mornings we usually are well we are going to be trying to do small events for the consumers to come in and whether it be a vendor or customer like yourself who can come in and just talk about certain products or projects or aspects of things that they should as a member of design i think it's really important to come together as a community and know that we are all the village helping each other out yeah yeah so education education education you know i know they're no longer in business anymore but since had the best logo you know the educated consumer is our best customer a fact and so that's what we're here to do is to really educate our consumer to really let them know what products are out there and to really let tell them that they can go ferguson's right here at lawrenceville right off of route one it's a local come in come see chrissie come see tom and get all the experts to help you with your selection so you know i like to ask this question because as a sole scape living i do believe that your home is the soul of who you are and i always love to ask my clients and my consumers what in your home makes you happy so chris what are your home makes you happy honestly it is my bathroom when we moved into our house about four years ago it needed to be completely rehab before we could even move in and so being what i do it was very easy i already had a list in my head of what i wanted to run things yeah there are so i have a great soaking i've got the things that make it functional like i have a hand shower for easy cleaning and writing down i love my hand i love my bubble bath you know to keep the difference that down so it really is just a place where i can go home and even though i do bathrooms all day long this is my space and i can just relax a last of wine and some nice music and a bubble bath so if the kitchen is the heart of the home yes what would you say the bathroom is definitely the polls absolutely both right that's right that's right it is the polls because this is where we bring the poll stem extra this is where we relax this is where we comfort ourselves and nurture ourselves in the bathroom so i love that yeah i love that tom what do your home makes you happy family coming home to family trails because family is really you know that's like that's not a fair answer because we all put family first but again it's the appliances in your home that you love to use on a sunday temperature and then it'll be to let you know what hit that internal temperature so i make and that's already in the oven it's inside the inside so when i want one of the roast beef with doesn't come out dry it comes out pretty good price my husband loves prime rib so this is so wonderful having you both here we all have to go to ferguson's i'm always there on a regular basis i'm sure i'll see both of you there and yeah we're working on a few projects together right now but chriss y thank you so much for being with us here today and i truly appreciate all of your hard work in the show room i know you're constantly doing great things there and keep up the great work and we hope to see you there and holidays and we hope to see you all here at soul scape living come back again and thank you so much for being with us today hopefully you've learned some things about appliances and come see us at ferguson's on route