Stone Masterclass with Dan Nelson: Everything You Need to Know About Natural Stone

25:28Super White's one. Oh, Super White's a Dolomite? I didn't know that. What else is a Dolomite?

25:34Dan Nelson:Popular ones. The Dolomites you see out there, most of them you don't. People use them for like landscaping type things. And they're hard and they're kind of. Some people think they're ugly. I don't think any stone's ugly. I think it just depends where you put the stone. Every stone. Application. Yeah, absolutely. So Dan, if somebody's a little nervous, this always happens. You've heard a million times about a marble kitchen. would you say you're going to do a quartzite kitchen then because you don't have to be as nervous and then just use marble in your bathrooms yeah i think you need to educate them on what that means i my wife and i we are cooks like we cook we and we love to cook from scratch and we you know we love italian we love mexican we love brazilian we love i mean things that you know people would typically be messy and I have Kakaroro in my house and I don't, I'm not concerned.

26:26Dan Nelson:Most of anything you can take out of stone, if it's there, this is where I, if it's there, it's there. It's okay. Proof of life. It's a countertop that was meant, and I've always been in love with being in those older homes. Obviously, I spent a lot of time in Europe and there's just, kind of like copper creates a beauty over time and it's patina starts. I think stone has that. And I think what ends up happening is people put stone in a category that it shouldn't be. They look at it as a porce and they look at it as a man-made type product. And so with that, they expect this predictable 100 % to break.

27:07Dan Nelson:Yeah. And it's like, whoa, that's never the case with stone. And so when you think of it that way, I think, can you be a master chef throwing spaghetti around and everything and have marble? Absolutely. They do in Italy. So the question really is, what are you worried about? And they might have a valid point. You might say, yeah, I think for what you're saying, a quartzite would make more sense. Or, you know what, keep it sealed. And I know that a lot of people are like, when do you seal a stone? Yeah, answer that. When do you put chapstick on your lips? It depends. How often do you do your house, Dan?

27:44Dan Nelson:I'm probably, I'd say maybe once a year. Some people do everything. What's involved in that? Are you sanding down the countertop or are you just rubbing sealer on it? So it's a penetrating sealer. It's just applied like you'd wipe anything else down and then you let it absorb in the stone. Sometimes you can do multiple coats of that if you feel like it's important. And frankly, if you're not getting, you know, there's parts of our kitchen that doesn't, you know, that doesn't see any moisture or any other, you know, so we don't there. Around where water's at, you'll do it a little bit more around the sides of your stove, you know.

28:19Dan Nelson:I think your cooktop or whatever, that's where you do it. But at the same time, I don't over-worry about it. Maybe that's part of it because if there's an issue, I'll deal with it. I have an integrated sink in my kitchen. Of course you do. Dimensional objects. Wait, also though, before you go too far, what's your favorite sealer? Gee, that's a good, I mean, I think one that you can get that's great out there is Impregnator 9-11. Say it again? 5-11, excuse me. Impregnator 5-11. Impregnator 5-11. It's made by Miracle. Sounds like, yeah, sounds like a do the job. Some people get nervous when that comes around.

28:56Dan Nelson:So Impregnator. You're like, I've already have enough kids. I'm good. I'm looking for an impregnator. Shouldn't they not do it themselves? Or is that like, hey, hire a professional to do this? No, no, no. You do it yourself. Okay. I've done my own. Can you do it yourself? That's awesome. I actually can't believe you can. Yeah, it's as simple as wiping it on. With what? A microfiber cloth? Yeah, microfiber cloth. If it's not penetrating the stone completely because the stone already has enough or it's already sealed enough, you just wipe off the residue. And a lot of people don't understand that it's not a topical sealer.

29:30Dan Nelson:It's a penetrating sealer. So it kind of bonds itself at a molecular level into the pores of the stone. And what it does is it prevents things from entering the... Now, is it 100 % proof? No, it's not. But to be honest, if you spill something that you're worried about on your countertop, just clean it off. Yeah. It's a great place to start. That's very fair. Yeah. Clean your kitchen. So I think we worry too much about it. Things tend to scratch marbles. You know, soap stones are, I mean, you look at it the wrong way and you scratch it. And I've never been really worried about soap stone. You know, I have soap stone in my home.

30:09Dan Nelson:And I think, you know, that's for the most part easy to just, you know, put some mineral oil and it kind of disappears. But at the end of the day, it is stone. Going into finishes, that makes a difference. If you have a high polish in a marble, yeah, it's going to be like having a black car or the first sign of anything everybody can see. That's why you tend to see people go into more a honed finish, right? Yeah. But there's other finishes, you know, brushed finish or, you know. I was going to ask you what's coming. I feel like Europe always leads the way fashionably and then the U.S. catches on how much longer, a year or two, maybe longer.

30:47Dan Nelson:You know, that's a good question. I think Europe leads in some things. Okay. Americans, they're big enough that they have their own, you know, their own. Point of view. Yeah. Yeah. It's like their own sphere of influence. You get an East Coast, West Coast, South. You get a lot more of that, I think, now than we used to get Europe. However, there are things that I think are more traditional, things that are more lasting that Europe brings to the table. We are very much a trendy country. it's like it's like kings come in and come out come in and come out you don't see that in europe so much but that's a good question what is coming in you know the reality is travertines limestones that are making a real strong comeback okay and i think part of that is is we we do these swings you know we go to you know you guys can go back 20 25 30 years ago where we look and we laugh we're like what was thinking here you know all these weird dark weird colors you know yellows and and anyways, but yet then we swing all the way to where we go into whites and grays, whites and grays, whites and grays and everybody's just until, you know - Until we're sick of that.

32:00Dan Nelson:Yeah, you're like, I can't see another, you know - Bianca Carrera. Right, right. And here's where I feel the misconception is this stone can fit in all of those in the right stone can fit in all those and even stones that you wouldn't think could fit, can fit in those. I'm not a designer, you guys are the designers, But I do believe that the best design, just like food, is the most simple design where you take a few elements and you make a masterpiece out of a few things instead of confusion and of layering and layering and layering at the point. It's like, what do I have? I think it takes a lot more art.

32:36Dan Nelson:And in the stone, it's the same thing. It's like, how do I take these particular stones that are available and make them a masterpiece in the design aspect? And historically, you got to realize that when historically you would go into an area and you knew what those mountains were made of because it was all over there, all over the buildings, all over the homes. And so wherever you travel, even in the United States, frankly, even here, it's like go up here and you're like, oh, yeah, I see. They got quartzite limestone in the mountains. Or, you know, or I love, that's what I love about Europe, even places back East, but I love that Europe because I'm, you know, I'm a stone guy and I just walk around.

33:16Dan Nelson:I'm like, okay, yeah, you know, that's what they have here. And, you know, there's some really cool stones out there that you were introduced hundreds and hundreds of years ago. And they're on, you know, Jura Beige is one of those that I think that you can go into in Germany and you can look, you know, all around. and you can see this limestone in these buildings and everything. And now we're pulling this limestone here. We did the Smithfield Temple with this particular stone. And people were like, oh, this is extraordinary. I'm like, I can take you back to Europe where there's things that are 400 or 500 years old with this same stone.

33:51Dan Nelson:Wow, that's so cool. So the idea really, stone really represents a lot. It represents, in so many ways, it represents, in Europe in particular, that represents the community or it represents where they're from what we see later on in history is stone starts to take its place and becomes more of a so you know some there's stones that become more popular and they then you'd see people transport stone from one place to the next because that represents money and wealth and it's like oh i love this stone here i'm going to put it on a boat ship to you know to so i have it and then you walk in you're like oh this you know this is not from around here.

34:30Dan Nelson:Exclusivity. Yeah. Blowing people's minds. Speaking of that, you know how Calcutta Viola has been having a real moment in the sun. What do you think the stones, the next hero, the next stone hero if you were to call it would be? It depends where. I mean, if you're talking countertops, I think quartzites is at its peak. I think quartzites, they're, I mean, now, someone's gonna find a quarry, open it up and everybody's gonna fall in love with it. How do we know what that is? Nobody knows. Okay. And that's that, you know, so there are heroes that have not been found yet. Let's just say that. There are stones that we will find.

35:10Dan Nelson:And that's part of the excitement of what I do is I'm, yeah, you know, there's literally, yeah, there are stones that I came across or a geologist that works for, you know, a quarry says, hey, look at this. And then 10 years later, it's the most popular stone out there. I do think though um picturing dan in a helicopter and they're like yeah lower him down he's gonna freak out he's like yeah let's cut it all up it's more like me with some dirty shoes and there's a lot of dirt in mine that's actually what it looks like there's no helicopter but but i i do think that uh i do think that some of those i guess if we're going to call them heroes i think they're going to go into those softer tones.

35:55Dan Nelson:I think limestone is going to be a big deal. Are there certain types of limestones that you think, or is it just going to be like the whole game? I wouldn't say your gray limestones. I think your beige limestones. I think limestones that are soft, subtle movement in it. That is just because, you know, I am in the commercial side of things and And I do stuff from Asia to New York. And so people are pulling some of those things back. But that's the same thing in you guys' business. You guys see those things. White marbles, they're always going to be there. You've got your calacadas, your caradas, your tatuarios.

36:35Dan Nelson:Those are always going to be there. I don't think those will ever go out. I think you will never go wrong with any of those stones. Again, I look at stone a little bit different than other people. I like stone to be the foundation of what I'm trying to do, but that's because I'm a stone guy. But I have a good argument that that's how it should be. Yeah. You know. I was going to say there was this one at the home that we just finished with you. We were looking at the fireplace. We wanted to do a carved fireplace in the library, and we had this like really great concept of just like using this kind of – at one point it was in the red-toned marble.

37:11You know, just they wanted to feel rich, very Ralph Lauren. and you know, American kind of thing. And I showed the client and they were just like, ooh, that kind of scares me. And I remembered something that you told me, you were just like, actually the red marble, like that was a status, like as far as like, at least on the East, I think you mentioned like the East Coast or in like prominent homes, like if they had red marble, it was just like the most rare. And so therefore it kind of had that exclusivity of just being like really special. And so whenever I see colored stones of any color that are just like saturated, I'm like, oh my gosh, that's so special.

37:43That's the only one of its kind. How often do you see colored stones? And where are those quarried out of, honestly?

37:49Dan Nelson:Yeah, so we're walking on stone, right? You know, people are like, they're going to run out of stone. I'm like, well, then we would not have an earth here if they ran out of stone. And it's actually being recycled. It's just really slow, but it is being recycled, so for those that care. But that being said, when you're introducing color into stone, okay, you've introduced different minerals into a calcite, a quartzite, or whatever. And so you'll get it in certain areas and you might get it in bigger areas, but it's gone through a process and there's other things that introduce it. So it makes it a little bit more rare, right?

38:30Dan Nelson:Yeah. You know, are you going to, you know, granites, people are like, oh, well, what color is granite? Are we talking about granite, granite? Well, it's actually gray and white. That's what granite is. But when you see all these colors in them, it's because through moisture and mainly moisture, all other elements have been introduced and it's bled into that. And over time, it's changed and created colors. So I would say, you know, I remember that conversation. And what you would see is individuals that wanted a particular stone, but maybe there wasn't access to it or there wasn't as much or they could only get a little bit of it.

39:06Dan Nelson:they would take that part of the stone and they would piece it together part of something else you know it is an interesting thing that over time people kind of wanted to show hey i've got something different i got something unique and i i think that's a little bit of what we want people to understand is and and i'm not saying you know stone countertops are boring and bland they're not but if you go back to when most of us were kids nobody had stone it was like Like the ultra, in this area, ultra wealthy. It's like, who does it? There's like two companies for hundreds of miles that do it. Oh, granite countertops.

39:44Dan Nelson:Well, now it's like, I'm throwing away granite. I don't know what to do with it, you know? And so, and then slab countertops. You see it. Even the nicer colored people see it. And I think there are people, for good or for bad, they want something that nobody else has. And I think what we want people to understand is we can do that. You know, you can introduce dimensional cubic stuff that I think should and can be, should be focal points of a home. And so you walk in and that's going to be there for as long as the structure's standing. When you say cubic stuff, are you talking about like portals going into rooms?

40:28Are you talking or like what are you picturing when you say cubic stuff?

40:31Dan Nelson:Yeah, that's a good question. So I think slab, I mean, it is dimensional. It's two centimeter, three centimeter, right? And then we'll cut that and then glue it together to make something bigger. I'm talking stuff that's a solid piece of stone. There's not a traditional thickness of slab that we've carved something out to for design or for some useful purpose. That to me, you know, you don't see as much of it and you should be able to. I think that there, you know, it does cost money, but it's not, if you prepare, you know, if you plan for it, it's not going to break the bank. Talking like a bathtub or something that's like from a block and you create an object.

41:11A special powder bath sink. Yeah.

41:13Dan Nelson:You've got a grand staircase and you want, you know, turrets and other things to kind of, you want to, you want to do an apron on that that has carved finishes all the way up. There's third party people that can get some of those things. I think what's unique for us is I do have a lot of experience. I know a lot of people in the industry. There's really not a real major stone supplier that I don't have a good relationship. And I'm talking about quarry owner to fabricator. I have access to those things and I see what you can and maybe can't do. That's a big discussion too. I do think that, I think introducing those type of things and helping people open their mind on what we can do here.

41:58Dan Nelson:Let's not just stucco over this. Let's not just paint over this. Let's not, you know, let's not create a facade that's not intended to be that way. Let's be thoughtful. Yeah. Yeah. I'll say the project that we did with you, it was a remodel. And so there were some things in the home that just like were architecturally not awesome. and like by the correction of really intentional design we're able to really celebrate the good things and we were able to fix a lot of the not good things because of the beauty of stone and because of the way we all kind of collaboratively looked at it to say okay we have this kind of weird corner how are we going to shape this over mantle on this fireplace you don't even see any like the irregular architecture just because the stone is such a hero yeah it's so beautiful so i'm like there's yeah the power of stone it does it does pull and even those that aren't educated in the design and stuff almost anybody when they see something that's stone they see it massive they see it thick they see it it's like whoa what is that you know and and even exteriors i you know i think we look over so many exterior elements i'm just like there's it like i said there's a way to get that same look for sure there's a lot of you know there's a lot of precast a lot of things and i and they have their place is is precast like a swear word for you.

43:14Dan Nelson:No, no, not at all. I think, like I said, it has its place. You know, it doesn't make sense to bring it, you know, if you got a small amount of something, you need a piece there, you know, are you going to fly one piece across the world for that? You might as well do it precast. But I, and look, I think part of that goes back to what am I trying to say here? You know, what I try to tell, you know, our sales team, it's like, you need to listen a lot because people are saying things. You may be thinking something, but they're saying something. So it's important to listen to what they're, what the client's really saying.

43:55Dan Nelson:And sometimes clients want something that they can, they can be proud of something that they can kind of like, it's a talking point. and nobody has this, or, you know what, this is unique, or I really like this type of stone. I really enjoy stone. I went to, you know, I was in France, and I loved this, I fell in love with light and so on, so I wanted this in my house. You know, there's a lot of reasons why people do things, but understanding and listening to them and then being able to get them there with a stone, in my case, it's really rewarding because a lot of times people are just starting with a concept that they don't quite understand if they can get there, and getting in there is a big deal.

44:41When somebody goes slab shopping, whether it be they're taking their client or they're going on their own, does the thickness matter?

44:48Dan Nelson:It does in some cases. Because one thing I would say is what edge profile are you looking for? If you're going to do a mitered edge, you're going to end up paying more for a thicker stone. So would you say do 2cm if you're going to do a mitered edge because you're never going to notice the thickness of it anyway? Absolutely. There might be some stones where you're like, you know, this stone's a little bit more fragile. Let's go with the three centimeter because of that. Most of the stones that you see out there, I wouldn't be worried about that. We are unique in this area, though. Most everybody else just does three centimeter.

45:20Really? We're both shocked.

45:24Dan Nelson:Wow. And your norm would be 2CM because no matter what, you're going to do an edge, so you're going to miter it. Yeah. So part of that is because the art of the real fabricator is disappearing. Speak to that. And it's like, when I got involved and even prior to me being involved, but when I got involved, There was a lot of hand, there wasn't a lot of equipment. In fact, the first CNC machines that came out actually came from the glass industry. The glass industry? Yeah. Wow. To do profiles. And so they were introduced into the stone industry. All of a sudden, different profile edges started to come up in there.

46:01Dan Nelson:And so the artist was pushing a button now, not working the stone. And so what you see is companies are running towards automation, automation, automation. And we in some aspects do in our own facility, but the things that we don't automate, we can't automate, is the uniqueness of taking two pieces of stone, cutting them properly, gluing together, making sure everything lines up. That takes time, and there isn't a machine that does that. And so I think because construction has changed before historically construction, you know, was it was long lasting. You built the building because your company needed the building.

46:47Dan Nelson:That building needed to be there for, you know, forever because that was your company and the building was part of that. Now it's a building is just something that you build and you try to sell off or you try to rent off. And so now it's like it's all about building quicker and quicker and quicker and quicker. paying attention to budget all the time. And that's gone into the home building. It's like, how many, you know, who's the big, who's the greatest stone, you know, excuse me, home builders are those that can build, you know, 10 ,000 homes more a year. It's like, oh, great. And that's, I'm not saying that's good or bad, but it requires - I'm saying it's bad, actually.

47:21Dan Nelson:Well, what it requires is - It's quality of home. It requires people to be able to cut and do things. So stone has become a lot more accessible, but it's become a lot more simple and plain. And so three centimeter is a way to get a thick edge. And the stone itself is more expensive, but because you are not doing as much to it, in the long run, it ends up being either sixes or a little bit cheaper. And people like the idea of it being thicker. Yeah. There seems like there's value in it. Yeah. And I think that's a fair thing to say. There is some truth behind that. But if I'm going to build a profiled edge, if I'm going to be building up an edge, we want to spend our money and our time in that yeah yeah also also i hate i hate seeing the seam in between just like a sandwich yeah yeah like between the cabinet and the and the countertop that's on it because the cabin is not going to be perfectly i mean the floor is not going to be perfectly level which means the cabinet won't be and then yeah you're always going to see something there so i think a profiled edge is a necessity honestly i know i'm excited that that is like where people are like they're starting to notice it and they're like because they have to do an edge regardless like you can do an east or we could do an elongated you guys you guys see that those pro those yeah those double og you know yeah those those those interesting you know it feels custom they're starting to they're and they were out for a while right yeah for sure they're coming back the reality is they never left that you guys know as well as i do that there are those people that appreciate understand historical design they understand the the value in these type things and they've kind of been there but like i said there's a majority of people run to the trends it's like everybody and everybody runs there and in and to a certain extent we all have to follow but there are those people that are more interested in long lasting you know yeah that design things that mean something before we get into the lighting round can you is there like a dupe that people should stay away from like oh this is how they try to get you or like don't buy this type of stone.

49:27To avoid words of wisdom.

49:29Dan Nelson:I think if, well, there's different sides of it. As a designer, I would say make sure that you are talking and communicating apples for apples. That is a big problem. There's a lot of, you can say similar things that mean, it sounds similar that are completely different. And so, you know, even just the name of a stone, like there's a lot of mis... I mean, there's a lot of people adopt or steal or whatever you want to say, a name, and all of a sudden, you know, let's talk like Calcutta. So you can buy Calcutta that's like 30 bucks a foot if you want it. Or you can buy it$200 a foot. Is that different in Corrie and different parts of the world?

50:19No, no.

50:19Dan Nelson:No, it actually all comes from the Karada area, right? And what it is, it's very interesting when you dive into that because it is a commodity. When you see a stone that's a certain size, this is what people don't realize is to get a block that is cleaned at a certain length and certain height and certain depth, it's rare. And so guys are constantly cutting stone, and it costs them the same amount to cut one block versus the other. Okay, so on that aspect, it's the same. But let's just say it takes you 20 blocks to get one good block or 50 blocks to get one block that's really... All of a sudden, that one that has that veining that everybody's looking for, that feel, the dimensions, the height, the width, all of a sudden that stone, even though it's sister stone or cousin stone that was quarried a week before in the market has a value of$30,$40 a square foot.

51:23Dan Nelson:But this one now is valid. In some cases, it doesn't have a value because people are going to start auctioning. They're going to auction it off. There's auctions for slabs. There's auction for block. That's pretty cool. That's still an auction. Well, things go up. But yeah, and people are looking for it. There are people that have a lot of money. and italy's unique because you get a lot of that you have people you know you get the sheiks and the you know those oil money come in and then you'll get you know people that have money from where and they're and they're looking for a particular block and and trust me when when a when a quarry owner has pulled out a block that he knows is worth something he's gonna get every dime he can get out of it he's like this one's going to auction for sure yeah and i've been in And call the sheik.

52:12He's like, look at this. Get him on the front row.

52:15Dan Nelson:I remember seeing, walking in, a good friend of mine, his factory, and he had these stone marble toilets. I think I told you about this. What? I've never heard of this. And the pea trap and everything. I'll show you pictures. Oh, my gosh. He made this. They were making these, and he had seven villas. This is Prince of Saudi Arabia. and I'm like, you have the pee trap and everything made out of stone. I'm like, what are you charging for it? And he's like, oh. You don't know. And I was like, what do you, and he's like, well, I'm getting a couple hundred thousand dollars for each toilet. Oh, geez.

52:54Dan Nelson:Crazy, good for him. Yeah, well. Cause where else are you gonna get one? Exactly. Well, in that case, there's more stone, but it was something unique and stone was somewhat rare, but. But when people have - How do they hold that out? Anyway. Well, yeah. Yeah. Anyways, that's an extreme example. But at the same time, I've seen slabs and blocks. I've seen guys hold blocks and hold them out because they can get a million, two million, three million dollars for a block of stone. What would a normal block be? What stone? Let's say the less popular cousin of the Calcutta that's less desirable. What would a block cost?

53:34Dan Nelson:The least desirable probably would be$150 ,000. Okay. I just think it would be interesting because any designers listening that are like, I don't know if my job qualifies for a block or not, but I'm loving this conversation. This is really for those jobs where you have at least a million dollars to spend on marble, would you say? Yeah. If you're considering a block and you're getting in the 20s of slabs. Yeah. And here's the thing. You don't always have to buy a block. Oh, you don't? No. Because they're cutting. They're constantly cutting stuff. And so going in there and looking and just buying it, buying enough because it makes sense in a container, that makes a big difference.

54:11Dan Nelson:And their stones always be, they're always cutting stone because they're trying to sell a finished product because they make a little bit more money, right? Yeah. So I think the idea is first to say, look, how many slabs, what are we trying to do? Go into the block. There is some risk at that. And so do you know how to buy block? Do you trust the person that you get in the block? Well, you're going to buy the block. Yeah. So you're going to go to Dan. Dan's going to buy the block. But yeah, you should probably see it, right? Yeah. But let's say I buy a block that looks really nice on the outside and I cut it right in the middle that there's a big dolomite blob in there.

54:45What do you do? You turn it into toilets. Maybe. No, really, what do you do? You've probably done that before.

54:51Dan Nelson:You use as much as a slab you can and you have to cut around. And so something that may appear to be the greatest block in the world could possibly be a problem later on too. So what you'll see is people, they'll cut, they'll cut, they'll cut, and then you'll see people pick slabs. And that works for slab stuff, right? But when you're talking dimensional stuff, you have to work with blocks. And so we're unique because I buy a unique way. I know what the customer is looking for. I know the dimensions I need. I'm not going to buy too big of a block. I'm going to write the right size of a block. I'm definitely going to take the time to make sure that, you know, as much as I can, that I'm not getting myself in trouble.

55:32Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Lightning round. Let's do it. Okay. Okay. Favorite stone installation?

55:38Dan Nelson:Probably the most meaningful would probably be the Punchbowl Vietnam Memorial. That's cool. Yeah. Love. Okay. What's the rarest marble you can use? You know, that's a great question. I would say the hardest to obtain is a perfect, like a Calcata Borghini that's just perfect. And when I say that, it has the right size of veining. It has the right tones, has the right colors. And it's not that there's not a lot of that kind of stone. It's to find the right block. Polished or honed? Honed. Yeah. Do you think polished is going to come back? I mean, when I think of the 80s, I think of polished things.

56:16Dan Nelson:but polish is easier to maintain yeah that i think maybe for those purposes they'll do it but i i struggle with and i'll tell you mike i started with with polished in my house because i i just i started with polish i'm like i'm just gonna let it play with it and it's pretty much honed now okay value hacks anything clients should know about stone shopping that we haven't discussed If you're doing small areas, go into your wholesale suppliers and ask for rogue slabs. Rogue slabs. So where there's only one left. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's a big deal because they can't sell it maybe enough for a kitchen, but it works for a vanity.

56:59Dan Nelson:Or go into a local shop and say, here's colors that I'm looking for. Here's what you like. And maybe let them know and communicate back and forth. And shops are always cutting stuff. There's always things in it and they're like, okay, I've got to use for this. Set aside, build relationships. That's always important. But I think a big one is look for the rogue slabs. I mean, it's like shopping with the coupon or it's like, you know, the clearance. It's the last few rack. Yeah. And nothing wrong with the stone. Nothing wrong with the stone necessarily. I love it. Okay. Last question that we ask everybody that comes on the pod is how do you define luxury?

57:38Dan Nelson:Luxury is when your expectations are met. I don't think we've ever heard that one I have cold chills Dan Nelson everybody Mic drop We're out Guys I've loved our conversation with Dan This has been so enlightening And I know our design loving audience Is going to love this and want Dan's phone number So let's give it to him Let's go to Italy Yes definitely If you guys are loving the podcast Be sure and click follow on your favorite listening platform and while you're there we'd love it if you leave us a review it's our favorite to sit around and read those if you have any episode ideas please send those to dear alice at alicelanehome.com we'd love to hear from you and be sure to give us a follow on instagram our handles are at alice lane home and at alice lane interiors to see some behind the scenes of the projects that we're working on thanks so much for tuning in you guys we'll catch you next time

58:39Thank you.