Moments With Materials

10/01/2026

Kassy Dieujuste

Discuss your kitchen or bathroom remodel with Moments With Materials in North Hollywood. Call (323) 999 - 1299 for a remodeling consultation.

10/01/2026

https://www.momentswithmaterials.com/

Discuss your kitchen or bathroom remodel with Moments With Materials in North Hollywood. Call (323) 999 - 1299 for a remodeling consultation.

09/13/2026

Linear drain or center drain? Most comparisons start with how it looks. Start with what it does to your tile instead.

A center drain means the shower floor has to pitch in from four directions — four separate planes. Tile has to conform to all of them, which is why center-drain floors are almost always small tile or mosaic. Put a large-format tile over four planes and it rocks, you get lippage, and it reads wrong.

A linear drain slopes in one direction only. One plane. That's what lets you run 12×24, large format, or even a continuous slab straight into the drain. Set it at the wall or at the shower entry — not floating in the middle of the floor.

Linear costs more in parts and labor, and it's the standard choice for a curbless shower. If you love a small hex mosaic floor, a center drain is fine, and cheaper.

Bring your tile pick in and we'll tell you whether your drain plan supports it.

📍 4795 Vineland Ave, Unit F, North Hollywood, CA 91602 · (323) 999-1299 · Serving North Hollywood, Toluca Lake, and greater Los Angeles
Life in everything is a collection of moments.



This video features an AI-generated presenter. Ask Kassy is written and reviewed by the Moments With Materials team.

09/12/2026

"How long do cabinets actually take?" Here's the honest version.
Stock, off the shelf: 1–2 weeks. Assembled stock: 2–4. Semi-custom: usually 6–10. Full custom: 8–12, and complex builds run longer.
The part that surprises people isn't the number — it's when the clock starts. It doesn't start when you pay the deposit. It starts when the final field measure is complete and you've signed off on the shop drawings. Every change after that pushes the date. So do specialty paint finishes, inset doors, and a single back-ordered cabinet holding the rest of the order hostage.
Which means: if you want cabinets in before the holidays, semi-custom needs to be ordered this month, and custom is already tight.
Come in with your measurements and we'll tell you what's actually achievable on your timeline.
📍 4795 Vineland Ave, Unit F, North Hollywood, CA 91602 · (323) 999-1299 · Serving North Hollywood, Toluca Lake, and greater Los Angeles
Life in everything is a collection of moments.

This video features an AI-generated presenter. Ask Kassy is written and reviewed by the Moments With Materials team.

09/10/2026

LVP, engineered hardwood, or wood-look tile? In a photo they're nearly identical. In a kitchen they're three completely different decisions.
Wood-look porcelain tile is the toughest of the three. Water does nothing to it, it will outlive you — but it's hard underfoot, it's cold, and it costs the most to install.
Luxury vinyl plank is waterproof, quieter, warmer, forgiving. Buy a twenty-mil wear layer, not a six-mil, or you'll be looking at scratches in a few years.
Engineered hardwood is actual wood. Best feel, best resale, and you can refinish it once or twice if the veneer is at least two millimeters. But it is water-resistant, not waterproof.
Come feel all three underfoot before you commit to 1,200 square feet of one of them.
📍 4795 Vineland Ave, Unit F, North Hollywood, CA 91602 · (323) 999-1299 · Serving North Hollywood, Toluca Lake, and greater Los Angeles
Life in everything is a collection of moments.
This video features an AI-generated presenter created with the consent of the person depicted.

09/09/2026

"Can't I just pick it from the sample?" You can pick a *direction* from the sample. You can't pick your countertop from it.
Natural stone is cut from a block in the ground, so two slabs of the same named stone can look like two different materials — different veining, different background, different movement. Engineered quartz is far more consistent, but it still runs in batches, and batches shift. If your kitchen takes two slabs, they need to come from the same bundle, in sequence, or the seam won't read right.
Seeing the actual slab is also the only way to plan where the sink and the cooktop land, so you don't lose your best vein to a cutout.
Come stand in front of the stone before anybody cuts it.
📍 4795 Vineland Ave, Unit F, North Hollywood, CA 91602 · (323) 999-1299 · Serving North Hollywood, Toluca Lake, and greater Los Angeles
Life in everything is a collection of moments.
This video features an AI-generated presenter created with the consent of the person depicted.

09/08/2026

Made with AI (authorized digital likeness).
How much extra tile do you actually need? More than you think — and it depends on the pattern.
Straight stack in a simple room: 10–12% extra. Diagonal: 15%. Herringbone or chevron: 18–20%, because the pattern cuts the end off nearly every tile. Add a few more points for L-shaped rooms, niches, and jogs.
The part that catches people out isn't the math — it's the batch. Tile is fired in production runs, and the color shifts run to run. If you come back in three weeks for two more boxes, they may not match what's already on your floor. Order the whole job at once, and keep one sealed box in the garage as attic stock.
Bring us your measurements and your pattern and we'll do the takeoff with you at the counter.
📍 4795 Vineland Ave, Unit F, North Hollywood, CA 91602 · (323) 999-1299 · Serving North Hollywood, Toluca Lake, and greater Los Angeles
Life in everything is a collection of moments.
This video features an AI-generated presenter created with the consent of the person depicted.

09/07/2026

Made with AI (authorized digital likeness).
You've seen the stat: "a kitchen remodel returns over 110%." It's a real number. It's just not describing your project.
The Cost vs. Value Report publishes two different kitchen lines, and the Los Angeles city page is public:
▪️ MINOR KITCHEN REMODEL — about $29,765 in LA, recouping 126.9%. But read the definition: you keep the existing cabinet BOXES and replace the doors and drawer fronts, plus counters, sink, flooring and mid-grade appliances. That is a refacing job.
▪️ MAJOR KITCHEN REMODEL, MIDRANGE — about $86,214 in LA, recouping 56.9%.
▪️ MAJOR, UPSCALE — about $171,369, recouping 37.9%.
Same two words on all three. Eighty-nine percentage points between the top and the bottom. Almost every ROI article you've read quotes the first number to people planning the third.
Two things nobody tells you:
▪️ THAT "RESALE VALUE" IS AN OPINION. The report's own methodology says the resale figures come from a survey of over 6,000 realtors who reviewed descriptions and photos and estimated the added value. No house was sold to produce it. It's a useful benchmark. It is not a measured return.
▪️ CABINETS ARE ROUGHLY A THIRD OF THE BUDGET — which is why the timing matters right now. The Section 232 tariff on imported cabinets and vanities is 25% through the end of this year and is scheduled to double to 50% on January 1, 2027. Domestic-made cabinets aren't subject to it. If cabinets are in your plan, that's a real conversation to have before December.
And skip the cost-per-square-foot rules of thumb entirely. Kitchens don't scale by floor area — they scale by how many linear feet of cabinet you're buying, how many appliances you're setting, and how many things have to move.
Bring us your kitchen and your actual number. We'll tell you which of those three projects it buys.
📍 4795 Vineland Ave, Unit F, North Hollywood, CA 91602 · (323) 999-1299 · Serving North Hollywood, Toluca Lake and greater Los Angeles
Life in everything is a collection of moments.
This video features an AI-generated presentation of Kassy Dieujuste, owner of Moments With Materials, created with her written authorization.

09/05/2026

Made with AI (authorized digital likeness).

"Don't take out the tub, it'll hurt your resale." Everybody says it. Nobody can show you the number — because there isn't one.

We looked hard. What actually exists is:

▪️ BUYER PREFERENCE SURVEYS. NAHB found 78% of buyers list "both a shower and tub" among their top bathroom features (NAHB "What Home Buyers Really Want", 2024 buyer study). That's what people say they want. It is not a discount on your house.
▪️ WHOLE-BATHROOM ROI AVERAGES, which say nothing about tubs specifically.
▪️ MARKETING COPY — a lot of it, published by companies that either sell tub-to-shower conversions or sell bathtubs. Read the "about us" before you read the statistic.

And here's the fact that quietly settles half the argument: under the appraisal definitions used on standard mortgage appraisal forms, a three-quarter bath — sink, toilet, shower, no tub — is counted as a full bath. You do not lose a bathroom on the appraisal.

The defensible rule is narrower than either camp: keep one tub somewhere in the house, usually in a secondary bath. When Houzz studied homeowners who removed the primary tub, the large majority still had another tub in the home. The scenario everyone argues about — removing the last tub in the house — is the rare one.

Now the part that actually costs money, and almost no one mentions it: a tub drains through an inch-and-a-half trap. A shower requires two inches. That means opening the floor — and on a slab foundation, breaking concrete. If someone quotes you a one-day tub-to-shower conversion, ask them what they're doing about the drain.

One more LA-specific note: our shower minimum is 1,024 square inches under the California Plumbing Code. The 900 square inches you'll read online is the national code and it does not apply here.

📍 4795 Vineland Ave, Unit F, North Hollywood, CA 91602 · (323) 999-1299 · Serving North Hollywood, Toluca Lake and greater Los Angeles

Life in everything is a collection of moments.

This video features an AI-generated presentation of Kassy Dieujuste, owner of Moments With Materials, created with her written authorization.

09/03/2026

Made with AI (authorized digital likeness).
Before you buy grout sealer — read the bag. There's a good chance the manufacturer already told you not to bother.
Most grout sold in the last decade is high-performance, and the datasheets say so plainly:
- Custom Prism — "No sealer required"- Custom Polyblend Plus Sanded — sealer only "if the use of a sealer is desired for extra protection"- Laticrete PERMACOLOR Select — "Does not require sealing"- ARDEX FL — "No sealer required" (and, honestly, "it is not stain-proof")
Meanwhile advice pages updated last month still list "requires sealing" as a flat downside of cement grout. And MAPEI — a company that sells grout sealer — published a myth-buster this August with "You have to seal your grout" as myth number five. Their technical answer: "No, it does not need to be sealed. The better question would be, 'Should I seal my grout?'"
Two things that actually matter:
- SEALING IS NOT WATERPROOFING. A shower is waterproofed behind the tile with a membrane. A surface sealer does not make anything watertight, and MAPEI says it outright: "Sealing does not make grout stain or waterproof."- IF YOUR GROUT IS NEW, WAIT. Sealing before it has cured traps moisture in the joint. Give it about 28 days.
Sealing is a reasonable choice for a white joint on a busy floor. It just isn't a rule, and it isn't an annual chore you owe anyone.
Send us a photo of your grout bag and we'll tell you what it needs.
Kassy Dieujuste, owner of Moments With Materials - tile, slab and cabinetry in North Hollywood, CA: 4795 Vineland Ave, Unit F, North Hollywood, CA 91602 - (323) 999-1299 - Serving North Hollywood, Toluca Lake and greater Los Angeles
Life in everything is a collection of moments.
MAPEI, Custom Building Products, Prism, Polyblend, Laticrete, PERMACOLOR and ARDEX are trademarks or marks of their respective owners. Moments With Materials is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by them.
This video features an AI-generated presentation of Kassy Dieujuste, owner of Moments With Materials, created with her written authorization.