This Old House

Reassessed!

2011-08-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted, but thought it worthwhile to share my experience with property tax reassessment for our renovation, in the hopes that someone will find it valuable. We live in Santa Clara County, so what I'm about to say may not apply in other counties (and certainly not in other states!).

As those who live in California know, Proposition 13 was passed a couple of decades ago because property values were rising so fast that long-time homeowners were driven out of their homes because they weren't able to afford to pay for the increased tax assessment that came out of the rising home values. They weren't trying to sell their houses necessarily; only to live there. Prop. 13 changed the law so that assessments could only go up a small amount each year as long as the ownership of the property didn't change. Once a house was sold, it would get reassessed for the new owners at the new property value, and taxes would go up to what they "should" be. In years following, they'd creep up at the rate determined by Prop 13 until the next change of ownership occurred.

When a renovation is done, some part of the property can be reassessed. Going into our remodel, my understanding was that the property would be reassessed for the value of the new square footage, that is, the parts that we added on to the house. I also understood that the parts that had previously existed but were renovated would not get reassessed.

Our remodel finished around the time the economy tanked and the housing market plummeted. As a result, the assessors' office was swamped dealing with people who wanted their property taxes decreased, and it took them over a year and a half to reassess our house. Upon reassessment, we were shocked to discover that the value of the structure had almost doubled, especially given that we'd only added 750 square feet to a 3200 square foot house. It turned out that they had reassessed every square inch we had touched in the remodel, rather than just the new addition.

Our remodel finished in October 2007, and I had the assessor out to the house in the summer of 2009. I'd prepare a detailed explanation of repairs and other deferred maintenance we'd done in each part of the house we touched. I also gave him a spreadsheet of calculations on which I based my suggested lower assessment, based purely on the new square footage. He left sounding somewhat unconvinced. Several e-mail exchanges later and we were unable to come to a resolution, so I filed an appeal in fall 2009. In the meantime, we wound up having to pay an escape assessment for 2007-2008 based on their proposed value, a supplemental assessment for 2008-2009, and our property tax bill (new! higher payment!) for 2009-2010. It was a whopper! But pay it we did, as we had no choice if we were to avoid penalties and interest.

In May of this year, almost two years from the time we filed an appeal, we got notice of our hearing date in June. The case has to be heard within two years of filing an appeal or the county has to give you back the extra property tax you paid, and can't up the assessment until the case is heard.

Feeling woefully unprepared and not knowing how they'd calculated their view of the assessment, I contacted the senior assessor assigned to the case to try to get more information. He came out to the house, and I gave him the explanations and calculations I'd given to the appraiser two year's previous. I walked him through the house.

The visit yielded a couple of very useful pieces of information:

Although parts of a structure can be reassessed as "new" if they've been substantially rebuilt, the notion of what's "new" is based on standards of modern housing. Our house suffers from a few building trends from the era it was built: narrow hallways (not up to modern standard), and a low ceiling downstairs (since it was a finished basement). Our remodel did nothing to change those two aspects of the house, which was an argument in our favor.
The assessors' office is judged not on how much revenue they bring in, but how many cases they close by the deadline. At the time our appeal was to be heard, they had a ridiculous number of cases to close. Many of those cases were petitions for decreased valuation filed by people who had bought their houses shortly before the crash. Some were cases like ours. In other words, making it as easy as possible for the assessor to close our case was in our mutual best interest.

As the assessor left, he made an offhand remark that one part of that house (the part that really hadn't been remodeled) was completely out of the picture. So that was something!

A few days later, he e-mailed me to tell me that he was going to recommend for a reassessment based solely on the new square footage. Yay! He simply needed cost information. Although assessment should be about "value" and not cost, I was happy to comply. I prepared a spreadsheet with the costs related to just the new square footage, which included the amount apportioned to the new square footage only. In other words, if I paid $X for new windows, I estimated the amount that was attributable to the new square footage, since some of the new windows were for the existing structure. Amazingly the cost amount came out to what I'd originally asked our reassessment to be. I swear I did not dry lab this!

I sent it off to him, and then got a note a few days later saying that he was going to recommend that the assessment be changed to that amount. It wouldn't be final until the appeals board met, however. The appeals board met last week, and we got our official notification this week that our house has been reassessed. So now it's official! We'll get our refund check for the excess taxes in 4-6 months. I hope it will include interest and penalties!

The lessons for others who are asking for a reduction in their assessment is:

Do your homework. Prepare a set of written arguments that outlines why the assessment should be what you think it should be.
Do the math. Prepare a detailed spreadsheet with calculations if necessary. Include plans if it supports your argument.
Be persistent and don't give up.
Do as much of the work as you can for them, to help them help you. They have a ridiculously heavy caseload, and the less work they have to do, the more likely it is that you'll get what you want.

Spooky!

2008-08-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I went to the Ft. Mason Craft Faire with some friends of mine from work. This is a big exposition where artisans come to display their wares each year for wholesale and retail alike. Some of the people buying are local boutique stores that sell handmade items (like Earthworks in Los Altos, for example); others are members of the general public like myself.

Last year I'd gone to the faire, but because our house wasn't yet finished, I only went to get ideas. This year I went looking to buy, since we now have some big spaces to fill.

We did a tour of the biggest building, making note of the pieces/artisans that interested us. We then went to have lunch at Greens, a restaurant I've always wanted to go to (and it was good!). After lunch, we toured the second smaller building, and then it was time to decide.

In the first building, we'd seen some incredible stainless wall hangings by Bruce MacDonald, a Vermont artisan. (How he schlepped his art to SF is beyond me... the pieces are BIG!). "Spooky" was a 4' x 8' stainless etching (if you can call it that), which has incredible depth and changes depending upon the light. I thought it was perfect for above the mantelpiece, given that the light on that area changes throughout the day and night.

As I wasn't sure whether it would be big enough (or too big for that matter), I had Kurt do a mockup for me and send me a photo. He took some of the leftover cardboard from the sofa packing boxes and made a cardboard mockup that was a similar size. He sent me the photo and I saw it would work. I'd already sent him a picture of the artwork via phone to get approval to transact the purchase.

Our good friends who live in SF were coming to visit us that evening, and they graciously agreed to take Spooky home for us in their minivan, for which I'm very grateful. It barely fit.

But you can see that it fills the space well, and makes a stunning addition to the great room. And now Kurt doesn't have to look at that MOCA poster he was getting so sick of!

I still have a lot of art to hang, including some glass art I bought at the faire. Once I get it all hung I'll post pictures of a whole house tour!

New sofa -- Flexform Groundpiece!

2008-08-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

We received our new Flexform Groundpiece sofa from Intirium.com on August 9th, the morning of my bday party -- what timing! It came packed in three large wooden crates, and in ten or so boxes within the crates.

Before we had the delivery guys unpack it, we had them move the Ligne-Roset Multy loveseat from the family room to the upstairs guest bedroom (where, believe it or not, was its originally-planned destination, even though it had done stints in the old living room, the scraper, and the family room, before arriving at its ultimate resting place), and move our old Roche-Bobois sofa from upstairs to the family room (again, where it was intended to go). Once that was done, we took crowbar to crate, and broke open the crate and ripped apart the boxes, and had them move the sofa inside to its destination.

Assembling the sofa was really easy. Looking at the sofa layout, each identified item was a piece that had to be assembled. The sofa had three "arms," two being leather bookshelves, and the other being a fabric arm. There were three seating areas, and a number of cushions. The entire sofa sits on a cylindrical bar of metal, and each individual piece attaches together by fitting the cylindrical pieces together with fittings supplied with the sofa.

The only problem I had was that I wound up scratching the hardwood floor when trying to fit two of the pieces together. But no matter, we just moved the sofa over the scratched area, and I later got some wood-filling wax to hide the scratch, so it looks just fine now.

We moved the Ligne-Roset Didier Gomez coffee table upstairs, since it goes better with the sofa than the old Peter Maly coffee table, which has gone downstairs with the other sofa. However, the new sofa is big enough that we'll probably have to buy a new coffee table at some point. The sofa also goes perfectly with the Minotti club chairs I purchased on craigslist.org. So the great room is almost complete!

All in all, I've been extremely happy with my purchase. It's the perfect size for the space, it's unbelievably comfortable, and very beautiful, fitting in perfect with the decor. Intirium.com had great service, and the sofa arrived pretty much when they said it would. I saved a lot of money by buying it from them (versus buying locally, or even elsewhere in the US), and their service exceeded the service I've received at most local high-end furniture stores.

Window coverings

2008-06-20T20:01:00.001-07:00

Do you think Kurt is trying to tell me something? The picture at the left shows the window covering Kurt has fashioned for the office window. It consists of some white paper, a "painting", and two Trader Joe's shopping bags. Quite creative and post modernist, really. A suburban collage.

I think he's trying to tell me something, but I'm not sure what. Maybe you know?

Okay, I guess it's really time to order some real window coverings for a few of the windows. The office gets morning light, and it is pretty annoying, esp. in the summer. The kitchen windows get the evening sun, and also need some covers. And I suppose we should get some window coverings for the downstairs guest room. Even though it's very private down there, it's still pretty sunny in the morning. No sleeping in for our guests!

I've gotten some samples from the Shade Store and will try to order this weekend. They carry a lot of really nice roller shades, as well as some panel systems which I will probably use for the downstairs guest room. Again, the decisions are overwhelming -- how much light blockage to choose? what color? what fabric? -- but I'll just have to buck up and decide! I was thinking of going with Chilewich fabrics, but it turns out that the ones I like don't really block enough light for my needs. Plus, the office window is too wide for what's available from Chilewich, so we'll probably choose something else.

It's really interesting how much you can buy on the Internet. The Shade Store will send you samples, and has a really helpful measurement guide for ordering the blinds. Their customer service over the phone has been really helpful. Having been to some local stores where they really didn't have many options for modern design, it's kind of frustrating to find these things locally. You either need to hire a designer (which I probably should do, but again, haven't been able to find someone local with the sensibilities I'm after), or go around to a number of stores and hopefully find someone somewhere who will have something you like that will do the job. OR, you could go on the Internet and search with Google, which is certainly a lot more time and energy efficient!

Form AND function!

2008-06-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

Took most of today off work, so have a little bit of time to post. A couple of weeks ago our dryer went on the fritz. Well, it had shown signs of dying a while back. When we first hooked it back up, the temperature sensing part of the dryer stopped working. But timed dry still worked. A few weeks ago, the dryer just up and quit, right in the middle of a load. Didn't it understand that we had important laundry to do?

Laundry couldn't wait for the dryer to be fixed, and I didn't have much time to dry things as I had an upcoming trip to take, for which I needed clean clothing. To the rescue our outside cable rail! The cables work perfectly as clothes lines; the multiple rows of cables allow you to hang an entire laundry load pretty easily. Binder clips made good temporary clothes pins. The sun and the wind on the patio made for fast, effortless and cheap drying!

You'd think that we'd go completely euro and just dry things this way from now on, but truthfully, a dryer is a very handy gadget to have. We did a little bit of sleuthing, and found that in fact, the breaker had blown, and the wiring needed to be repaired. So we had to get both our electrician AND a dryer repair guy in to fix it.

It turns out that the same problem that stopped the time drying to work eventually stopped the dryer from working altogether. And it was a good thing that the electrical panel did its job with the breaker tripping or the house might have burned down, which would have been both sad and somehow strangely ironic, now that we're done with the construction.

The problem was that whomever initially installed the power cord onto our fairly new dryer (we'll just call him "installer guy" for now), didn't have the right screw for the job. So he used some random screw to affix one of the power-cord leads to the dryer. The act of moving the dryer out of the laundry room, and back to the laundry room once construction was done, must have jarred that ill-fitting screw loose. As a result, one of the power-cord leads was no longer securely attached to the terminal, and some sparking started to occur. At first, this affected the temperature drying circuitry, but eventually, it burned out the insulation on that lead and caused some sort of a short which resulted in the breaker tripping. Yes, they do make those fuses for a reason!

We now have a new power cord in place, and thanks to the appliance repair guy (Mr. Joe Chan, of Chan's Appliances), have the correct screw affixed so it won't happen again. And our dryer is once again capable of drying either through its timed drying facility or through its temperature-sensing abilities, depending on our mood. And although we still have this fabulous stainless steel outdoor drying rack, we've gone back to using it as a decorative railing. But it's nice to know we could hang laundry there again to dry if we ever wanted to.

Hey, it's Friday! Are we done yet?

2008-05-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

The cabinet guy came last Friday and this Tuesday to finish up the install of the kitchen cabinet. We were able to slide the end cabinet over to the left, flush with the wall, and then put a filler strip in between the oven and the cabinet so that you can get to the handle. He also installed the filler strip on the end. He fixed the shelves in the buffet area temporarily by putting little ovankol strips around the ends of the shelves to hide the gaps. Although it looks nice if you consider the shelves on their own, it doesn't really fit with the look of the house, so we might have to go to a plan B. But it certainly looks much nicer than it did before! We have two little problems left (very small missing part of toe kick, which can only be seen (or not seen) if you are on the floor, and a drawer slide that doesn't work well). All in all, I'm very pleased that the kitchen is pretty much done!

The electricians came today and put a power outlet behind the TV so the cord won't show, and installed three-prong outlets in the upstairs guest room -- the one that never gets remodeled. (Last remodel we replaced the track lights with recessed lighting, but that was about it.) We also swapped out a test Lutron touch switch with a Lutron Maestro dimmer switch (that I already had) just to be consistent.

There are only a couple of things left for electrical: remove broken ballast from kitchen light so I can send it off for repair, install remaining undercabinet light, and install missing recessed fixtures in non-remodeled hallway (an oversight).

Furnishings...

2008-04-27T12:32:00.001-07:00

We are slowly refurnishing the house. Prior to and during the remodel, we sold a lot of the furniture we didn't want to keep. So the house has been pretty empty, but slowly I'm filling in the missing pieces.

Back in October, I ordered bar stools from DWR which arrived over a period of several months. In November, I ordered a new Poliform dining room table from Europe-by-Net in a wood that matches the kitchen. It arrived in the beginning of April, in perfect shape. (It's also serving as my new desk!) Sadly, Europe by Net is not selling much to the US any more, most likely due to the weakness of the dollar (they did their sales in dollars, rather than in Euros or Pounds, and probably got burned badly on the currency fluctuations).

I was also able to pick up a couple of nice area rugs from a Roche-Bobois floor sample sale (so they were somewhat reasonably priced). You can see the one that Coda's perched on to the left. She certainly likes it!

I had to go to Italy in late March for a friend's wedding, and during that trip, I picked out the fabric for our sofa, having settled on the Flexform Groundpiece. Prior to the trip I had designed the layout for the sofa, so having picked out the fabric, I was able to get pricing from several stores in the US, Italy and the UK. intirium.com (in the UK) was the winner by far, although there was a lovely store in Ferrara, Italy that was a close second. My only hesitation is that I had to buy it in Euros, so now I'm the one speculating on currency. Hopefully the Euro won't change much relative to the dollar between now and the time it arrives (when I have to make the last payment). The sofa should arrive some time this summer, at which point we'll do the furniture shuffle (sofabed downstairs comes upstairs to guest room, sofa upstairs goes downstairs, and new sofa goes in living room).

Having the major pieces in hand, I bought a lovely B & B Italia accent chair yesterday from someone on craigslist, which is a nice compliment to either the old sofa or the new one. I still need to purchase dining room chairs (trying to decide between Baleri Italia mari' and Zanotta Lia), and a real entertainment unit for downstairs (to replace the $69 Ikea piece I got a few months ago). As the weather's nice, I need to get a small outdoor patio set and a BBQ (will most likely get the small Fuego, since it has a very clean design). Eventually, I want to get a bedroom set for downstairs, but for that I'll continue to monitor craigslist for a bargain. There are so many great craigslist items for sale... you just have to be patient and wait for the right thing to come along.

At some point, I should put up some artwork too. But I'm still afraid to put holes in the wall!

Finishing touches (again?)

2008-04-27T12:17:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for a while, and you may think that the house is done, but of course those last little finishing details take the longest time to finish.

Our remaining end cabinet + filler strips for the kitchen finally arrived a couple of weeks ago while I was out of town. Unfortunately, the cabinet was slightly damaged (again), although it looks like this time the damage is repairable. One missing trim piece fit perfectly, but the filler strip for the end of the cabinets was too wide. But most importantly, there was no room between the end cabinet (a pull-out pantry) and the adjacent set of cabinets with the ovens in them. Since the drawer/door pulls are all recessed, what to do?

The most complex (but correct) thing to do would be to slide all the cabinets over a bit to the right (heck, we've got about 6 inches of space at the end). Unfortunately, that would require moving the electrical, redoing the small backsplash next to the ovens, and overall, be a big pain. Fortunately, there is about 3/4 of an inch to move the cabinet to the left so that it's flush with the wall, and that gives us enough space. Since the end filler strip was too wide, we think we can use what we had to cut off to fill the gaps between the oven and end unit. A new (different) cabinet guy came last week and will come again on Tuesday to finish off the install.

We still have to figure out what to do about the miscut shelves in the buffet, and the cabinet guy is ruminating over that, so hopefully by Tuesday we'll at least have an answer.

On another front, the electricians are coming on Friday to finish their remaining pieces. So by next Friday, I think, I hope, I pray that we will really be done with the remodel! And then it will be on to other things, like landscaping, and finishing the furnishing (see next post on that).

Woofer on subwoofer

2008-02-12T21:51:00.000-08:00

We're completing our home theater system, and I finally got a subwoofer (you'll see from the picture, that we've had the woofer for a while). Ordered it from Amazon on Sunday, received it today with ordinary free shipping! How's that for speedy service?

One more component to complete the setup (a matching center speaker, rather than the random bookshelf speaker I have been using). The electricians are coming on Friday to move the power outlet behind the TV (which is hanging on the wall), so that all the unsightly cords will be hidden. Something we overlooked in setting everything up. Saturday, I should have more pics, as they'll also be putting in the undercabinet lights in the kitchen, and doing a few other electrical odds n' ends that were leftover from the remodel. It should be the last electrician visit. Then, all that's left is to get the replacement kitchen cabinet, and to get the shelves in the buffet area fixed.

BTW, just in case you're wondering, the border terrier did NOT win the terrier group at Westminster yesterday. A Beagle won BiS for the first time ever, tonight! And what a cute beagle it was. But I'll stick with my woofer, and subwoofer, for now.

Is it possible to have a single remote?

2007-12-31T11:35:00.000-08:00

Why, yes it is! My brother and his family gave us a Logitech Harmony 550 Universal Remote, to augment our setup. You can read my review on Amazon.com for details, but the upshot is, after setting it up, it allowed us to dispense with the other remotes and use it exclusively. Initial setup was easy, although I had to do some additional customization before it would operate everything in a logical way.

Having used it for a few days, I still prefer the layout of my TiVo remote, and my consider swapping it for the Harmony 670, which appears to be better suited for heavy DVR/TiVo users. But for now it solves a big problem.

Next up is to get a subwoofer and perhaps replace the center speaker with one designed for the purpose.

Home theatre setup

2007-12-15T08:27:00.000-08:00

The home theater is mostly set up. But it took a little bit of doing, and a lot of cursing. So I'll tell you what I did to spare you some trouble if you're looking to do the same thing.

First off, I ordered my TV (a Sony 52KDLXBR4 52 inch LCD TV) from LCDTVs.com -- I just couldn't resist the name! It was far cheaper than buying it locally. I checked that it was in stock before I ordered (I called them, having been warned in advance that some sites list that the TVs are in stock and they aren't). They upsold me from free shipping (which uses a slow carrier and lands the TV at the curb) to a shipper that specializes in shipping big TVs and will take it to the door. This cost an extra $129, but the total price was still $800-$1000 less than buying it from a local store. The TV arrived about 10 days after I ordered it (or so). The shippers took the TV downstairs, where I turned it on to make sure everything was working okay. And everything was.

Oh, word of warning. When the store verifies your order, they try to upsell you to buy the extended warranty, wall mounts, and other things you might not have researched. Don't bite -- it's just not worth it.

The next step was to get our home theater guy to come hang it on the wall. He also is a dealer for Denon receivers, and we had been planning to get the receiver he recommended: the Denon 2308CI A/V receiver. Craig (Bever Electronics) and his assistant came the next day and installed the wall mount, mounted the TV on the wall, fished the wires through the wall to the outlet below, and set up and configured the receiver. I should have paid more attention to what they did with the receiver, because the Denon manual is unbelievably bad, and the remote control for the receiver is also very hard to use. (Eventually I figured it out... more on that later.)

The one thing that we didn't do during the remodel, which one of the many of us should have noticed, was to put the power outlet high on the wall so the TV power cord would be hidden by the TV. When the electrician comes for the (hopefully) last time to finish up the undercabinet lighting in the kitchen and a few other remaining things, we'll get him to move the outlet so that the TV cord isn't visible.

I moved my two TiVos downstairs, and my Slingbox (which still isn't set up again... and after a couple of weeks of fussing and cursing, I was able to get things set up to mostly use the TiVo remote to control everything. That being said, it's quite clear that I will need to buy a universal remote control (like a Harmony) to control everything the way I want it to.

Here's what I did. First, I borrowed a newer TiVo remote from a friend of mine. This TiVo remote has a 1-2 switch that allows you to tune each TiVo to a different frequency so that you can control each TiVo separately. (I wish I'd known this months ago, because it plagued me when I had them in the same room with the Slingbox.) I was also able to program the TiVo remote to control the volume on the A/V Receiver, and the power on both the A/V receiver and the TV. I set the TV up to operate like an LCD monitor (since we use the built-in speakers, not the TV speakers, and we use the tuners on the other devices, not the TV), and the only time I need the TV remote is if I want to adjust some display property of the TV.

So now, I use the TiVo remote for everything but changing the source input (TiVo 1, TiVo 2, or VHS (like I'm every going to watch a video tape again!)). I use the Denon remote for changing the source input, since I haven't yet figured out if it's possible to set the TiVo remote to do that. It turns out that I still have to use my old TiVo remote to access some functions on the built-in DVDs though. A universal remote would solve that problem. All in all, it's workable, and I think I could even explain to someone how to work it!

It would have been nice to just be able to buy an LCD monitor rather than a TV. Given that we have an A/V receiver, and built-in speakers, a lot of the functionality on the TV we just don't need or use, so we've paid for functionality we're not using.

The quality of the display is good, but I can't help thinking how much better it would be with real HD input (this is the danger in buying a new HD TV). So, come the beginning of the year, I'll "trade" one of my TiVos in for an HD TiVo. And later in the year, once the HD DVD formats settle down (if they do), I'll probably buy a separate HD DVD with HDMI outputs that will output true 1080p resolution. Finally, I will need a universal remote. But I will wait on all these things until after the holidays, as the setup I have now is quite workable.

It would be nice, however, to have some place to sit downstairs, so since the upstairs sofa appears to be months off (at which point the sofa upstairs will move downstairs), I will need to figure something else out, as sitting on the floor or in a hard-backed chair just isn't cutting it! Beanbag chairs are my current thought... other ideas?

Pods be gone!

2007-11-27T19:36:00.001-08:00

Major milestone! We came home and the pods were no longer there. (And yes, we meant to do that.) Slowly but surely, the last vestiges of remodeling are fading away. Next up: clean out the garage and move the remaining furniture back into the house. Maybe we'll try to move the piano back into the living room this week!

Reflections on Living in a New House

2007-11-24T16:47:00.000-08:00

We've been "living" in the whole house for a little over a month now. We just finished unpacking the pods today. The library shelves are almost full, and somewhat organized. And we've even bought a few small pieces of furniture. The ripped Ingo Maurer shades have been replaced. We are still waiting for our remaining kitchen cabinet and trim pieces, for the buffet shelves to be fixed and for the undercabinet lighting, but otherwise we're "done". We've had seven "dinner parties" (more than we've had in the previous four years). We ordered a TV. And we've paid our final bills. So now it's time to take stock.

Did we achieve our objectives? Emphatically, yes. (I will have a lot more detail on what the objectives were in another post. Bet ya can't wait!) I love our new house! Although there were a few things that didn't turn out quite like I'd imagined (the inside railing and the fireplace front, for example), the overall house is really pretty incredible and we are using the house in ways we might not have anticipated. Even the aspects that didn't turn out as expected still turned out nice. And the basic objectives of the remodel (fix the floorplan and make the house more open and livable) were more than achieved.

The breakfast nook area is still my favorite area of the house. I thought I'd take use the dining room as the office, but the breakfast nook area serves the function even better. I can listen to the living room stereo and gaze out at the view from my perch in the kitchen, all the while keeping track of who (or what) is coming down the drive.

The dog, on the other hand, loves the downstairs server room the best. It's dark and cozy and she can get away from all the fuss and bother upstairs. It's like her own ten by ten kennel.

The wall of windows in the great room has really enhanced the view tremendously. I always thought we had a good view, but in the new house it's spectacular, primarly because we now have an uninterrupted 180 degree view of the bay and hills. It's the one aspect of the house that people comment on the most.

The floors and ceiling turned out beautifully. The rich tones of the rose river gum floor really compliment and warm up the neutral tones of the surrounding stainless and quartzite. The stone floor is great for sliding on in your stocking feet, and both floors are very easy to clean.

One thing I also really like about the house is that it's very unassuming from the outside. It looks like one of the many ranch-style houses that dot the landscape in Los Altos. But once you step onto the front porch you get an inkling that it isn't an ordinary rancher. The broken-glass front doors and the eerie blue doorbell help set the stage for what's to come.

All in all, the end result was a success in my book (except for perhaps the stress and the pricetag... but those quickly fade).

As we've been unpacking the pods we've been offloading a lot of our old stuff. Is there really a need to keep 30 mismatched coffee mugs? Or a set of 3 (because we broke one) champagne flutes when we don't even drink? We've taken this opportunity to pare things down to only what we really need and what fits with the design of the house. The temptation to chuck everything is strong, but we are trying to strike a balance so that we'll have something to sit on and plates to eat off of.

We will probably continue the slow process of re-furnishing the house over the next year, buying things slowly as we need them. Although we're a bit tapped from the remodel, we're less broke than I thought we would be. We have already bought stools, folding chairs, and an outside bench from DWR. The stools were originally supposed to be here in February, but we've already received two of the three so far! How's that for exceeding expectations? (Versus our kitchen, which likely won't be complete until February, over a year after we ordered it!) I also finally bought a dining room table (the Poliform Dolmen), which should be here in a couple of months -- our old one really is showing its age (we've had it since 1982!) and only seats four. We still have to settle on/purchase dining room chairs (we're thinking about the DWR Bottega chairs, to match the stools), and buy the sofa for upstairs (either the Flexform Groundpiece or Molteni & C Reversi, and an entertainment unit for downstairs. (If only the dollar were stronger right now!) But we'll continue to do this slowly over the coming year.

I still have dreams that I can get a company like DWR to do a catalog photo shoot in the house (and perhaps leave a spec of furniture or two behind while they're at it). I'd also really like to get the house featured in a magazine like Dwell. But I can't begin to pursue this until the kitchen is completely done, so I'll probably tackle this in the new year. In the meantime, I'll continue to enjoy the new house and have dinner parties!

Movin' in

2007-10-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we unpacked and stocked up the kitchen with everything I could find. I know we're missing things, because I couldn't find any serving dishes. It's possible those are still at the folks' house.

We moved some furniture in. We moved the bed downstairs but then stopped, as it was very muddy on the side of our house, and mud got tracked into the house. Sigh. But at least the bed is downstairs so if a guest wants to come stay we have a place for them to sleep. We already have a reservation for November. I also tried out the new downstairs bath for the first time, and it was very nice. Love the new faucets! We still need a few accessories but this will all come with time.

We had Kurt's folks over for dinner, so that ensured that we at least had to have a dining room table/chairs and a sofa in the house. It's probably a good thing that we moved the old furniture in, because it's a good template for buying new furniture. I now know that I don't want a sectional sofa upstairs; most likely I'll get two sofas which will face each other.

We also need a rug that's big enough to sit the sofas on so the floor doesn't get damaged. We also hooked up the stereo and tested out the acoustics upstairs. (The speakers and amp were bought in 1976... I think it may be time to upgrade!) The sound was very nice, but I probably need a bit more power. The piano will stay in its practice room for a while while we get everything else sorted out. But it's pretty clear where it's going.

Even when you're done you're not done... there's decorating to do! Slowly but surely, we'll move things into the house. But my prediction is that only half of what we have will make the trip. When you have a new house it's an impetus to clean out all the old mismatched stuff that you could never bear to throw away. If anyone needs coffee cups, glasses, etc. holler!

FINALLY! The FINAL!

2007-10-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

Yes, folks, two years + in the making, and we have finally passed the final inspection for our house! This does not mean we're completely done, as there are a few items that need to be taken care of. BUT, it does mean that we can move into the new part of the house, including the kitchen! We can officially start stocking the pantry, the inside reefer, and we can move back to using real plates. HUZZAH! A momentous occasion indeed! Plus, the portapotty is gone, adding to the finished look.

No pictures to post today, but I will post once the handrails are sanded, and maybe after I've moved our temporary furniture back into the house.

Time to party!!!

The final piece of the puzzle

2007-10-03T07:01:00.000-07:00

The railing guys came yesterday and they finished putting the modified railing on the stairs. It looks much better with the modifications, and I think we are now DONE! Well not completely done -- there are some items that still need to be completed/finished before it's done done, but done to the point where the city can come tomorrow and sign off on the project, and then we can move back in! So with any luck, we'll start moving back in this weekend!

Planning final!

2007-10-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

Today, the new head of planning came to inspect our house and do the final signoff. Since we had already had one of the planners come by earlier and remove the requirement for us to plant another tree, we had no problems getting the final signoff. This signoff is a prerequisite for getting the final final building department signoff (after which point we can move in).

The electricians also came and did everything they needed to do so we could pass our final inspection: installed the remaining outlet in the kitchen (they'll replace it later because it's white, which doesn't really go well with the counters); installed the two new lights in the library (and yes, they look FABulous); installed the second GrafikEye controller; installed the Ingo Maurer weights and ripped shades (replacements are on order...); cleaned up old wiring in the garage; installed the remaining outside light. Kurt's brother would be proud. Although he'd probably laugh at us about picking out the Ingo Maurer lights... I mean they are great in theory, but paper shades are, well, a teensy bit fragile. Live and learn!

Yesterday Ed came to install a fireplace screen/glass doors. He found a set at OSH which is suitably good for the final inspection (but not suitable for the long term as it doesn't have the right look). So we'll keep them on there until we get a permanent one. Then we'll take it back or sell it on craigslist.org.

So really, we're ready to go. That's right. The only thing left is to install the stair railing, which could happen tomorrow. We're still questioning who is going to pay for the railing changes. (It's a bit of he said, he said, etc., made all the more confusing, because everyone involved is named "Mike"! But I'm optimistic we'll get it resolved without having to pay more money. I'm not optimistic we'll get it resolved without some hard feelings somewhere. Because ultimately someone will have to eat the cost of it, and we're full. This experience will ultimately go in a lessons learned column somewhere.)

But I'm excited -- we could be done this week! I only have one item left on my list "Install stair railing" so it really seems possible. There are still a few odds and ends that will need to get done, but they don't stand in the way of the final inspection.

So, a cautiously optimistic "hip hip hooray!"

Still plugging away

2007-09-26T20:15:00.000-07:00

We are almost done. Well, that's what I said last post. I had to go on a short jaunt overseas, and was hoping to arrive home to a finished house. But it was not to be. They did make a lot of progress, including: putting the final coat on the hardwood and sealing the stone floors, which are now finally visible; installing the outside deck railings which turned out very nice indeed; finishing installing most of the recessed lights; and other minor little details like the doorbell and door chime.

The big remaining thing is the inside stair railing. They had installed the railing upstairs, but the bottom of the railing sticks out too far into the stairway, which looked dorky and posed a hazard. It turned out that this was the original design, but it had been modified back in July. The architect sent the change over to the fabrication place, but they claim to have never received it. Although they have taken the railing back to the shop to fix it, there is a big question as to who will pay (answer: not us). The railing should be fixed soon, and then they'll be back to install in a week or two. So we'll final the project in October.

Tomorrow the cleaners come, and hopefully the electricians. Then Friday the alarm folks come to complete their installation. And then we wait for the railing guys to come and we can final! There are still a few odds and ends that will need to be done like finishing the breakfast nook bench upholstery and installing the few missing odds/ends for our cabinets, but once we get the final inspection, we can move back into the rest of the house!

Let there be light!

2007-09-11T00:18:00.000-07:00

Today the electricians came and installed most of the remaining plugs, some of the remaining lights and did the light test. We now have light in the house! The office is lighted, the living room is lighted, and the downstairs guest bedroom is lighted. (The other rooms are lighted, but the switches aren't turned on yet so we can't yet use the lights.)

The fan also works, and I had it on all evening to lend a cool breeze.

We have to "burn in" the Artemide Ventanas... basically, we have to leave them on for 100 hours before we can dim them. I'm not sure if we're burning in the lights or the bulbs (I suspect the latter). The remaining bulbs arrived today so that the Ventanas now all work.

The oven receptacles turned out to have the wrong configuration, so they'll install some replacements tomorrow. By the evening we should be able to use the oven AND the instant hot water. Just in time for me to leave for Geneva. Oh well, I'll have hot coffee Wednesday morning from our instant hot water dispenser.

The refrigerator was installed on Friday -- I'll try to get a picture of that soon. The AC guys installed the air conditioning compressor today. So really, it's almost almost almost all done.

Tuesday: remaining custom kitchen cabinets will be installed + electricians will come back to complete the lighting (the GrafikEye controllers probably won't be installed until after the final). The painter may come to do some final touch ups, and the alarm installer should be here to finish the alarm install. The home theater installer is coming to install the speakers in the kitchen.

Wednesday: railing guy comes to do final measurements

Thursday: floor guys come to do final coat on hardwood and seal/finish the stone

Next week: railing guy installs railing, and then we FINAL!

In the meantime, Kurt is a little upset that Coda has taken over what was supposed to be his office, and that I've co-opted the breakfast nook for my office. And I do think that will be my permanent office now, as it's such a lovely little spot! Well, I'm sure he and Coda will figure out how to share :)

More nighttime pictures are available from Kurt's picture site.

A minor victory in a long campaign

2007-09-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

The city planner came this morning, on time, as planned. (I guess that's why he's in planning!) After showing him the yard, and the view of our neighbor's house below from the upper story, he agreed that planting another tree, a stipulation from the planning dept. at the beginning of the project, was unnecessary. Hooray! It's really not that expensive to add another tree, but it is a hassle, and so silly, so I am glad he agreed with us.

The electricians were here first thing this morning, and they finished installing the ceiling lights and a few other electrical odds n' ends. I think they'll be back again tomorrow. Some of the electrical receptacles for the kitchen are still on order (they match the Caesarstone so they're a custom color), but hopefully it won't hold up the final inspection.

Our contractor moved a bunch of his tools out, a clear sign that we're almost done. When they install the house numbers and the mailbox, then we'll really be on the home stretch.

What's left to be done at this point?

Install the reefer -- this had been waiting for decisions on the undercabinet lights and then a wire to be fished out through the drywall.
Finish the alarm install -- alarm guys are supposed to be here tomorrow and the next day to finish
Finish the remaining electrical -- install a few switches, finish remaining recessed lights downstairs, test the system, and connect up and programming the GrafikEye
Install the AC compressor
Install the door hardware on the sliders
Install the railing on the stairs and on the outside decks (this is the biggest remains-to-be-done step)
Install the doorbell and door chime
Install drawerpulls on the downstairs vanity
Install TP holder and hand towel bar in downstairs bath
Add final coat to stone and hardwood floors
Clean!

Piece o' cake.

Watching grass grow

2007-09-03T17:25:00.000-07:00

The last little bits of a remodel are like watching grass grow. The house is getting polished, bit by bit, but the changes are small and not as evident. We have also had some trouble getting the electricians out to finish as they're completely booked solid, so the electrical finish work has been moving more slowly than expected.

Last week, the contractors installed the awning between the two floors. This was an expensive piece of decoration required by the city to break up the 22' vertical wall of windows. It's made of stainless and Trex (reconstituted garbage, just like the deck), and it turned out very nice! It did add something to the look of the building, even if the only people who can see it are in our back yard.

Our server room is now fully outfitted with the patch panel, and all the rooms are hooked up with ethernet, telephone and cable. Some of the rooms also have audio. This has come in real handy, as I was finally able to hook up my printer where I wanted it since we have ethernet everywhere in the house. (Two wireless routers as well.)

The office door got installed too. This is a sliding door on an exposed track, so it slides against the wall rather than into a pocket. It's made out of an acrylic by Knoll, and is essentially a piece of fabric pressed between two pieces of acrylic. It looks very nice.. it's very understated, but its opacity allows you to hide the (anticipated) clutter in the office, while its transparency lets natural light from the office into the hall.

Today on Labor Day, two of the electricians came out and worked all day, and now we finally have the track lighting in the living room and the Artemide Ventana lights in the kitchen. Judging from the grunting and swearing, they were every bit as much of a pain to install as well as they were to order correctly.

I spent a couple of hours assembling the track light fixtures, just to have something to do, and to hopefully save some of their very valuable and hard-to-come-by time. There is one more piece of track they need to install (over the stairs) which is going to take a bit of creative scaffolding and nerve to do.

So now, there are really just a few outside lights to install, and lights to test. They have to finish installing the GrafikEye system (I can never misspell it properly), but they might be finished as early as tomorrow. I suspect there will still be a few little things to do after they leave tomorrow.

Tomorrow the city planner comes and I'm hoping to convince him not to have us plant the additional tree we're required to plant before we get the final signoff.

The only things left to be done before we can final the project besides finishing the electrical are: installing the ever-so-important stair and deck railing and installing the air conditioning compressor. We have a small bit of custom cabinetry to be installed in the kitchen and then undercabinet lights to be installed, but that shouldn't hold up the final signoff (I hope).

The best seat in the house

2007-08-26T22:22:00.000-07:00

In my opinion, the best spot in the house is our little breakfast nook. It's got a fabulous view of the bay, and you can see the front yard as well to keep an eye on the yard and make sure no one is using the portapotty who shouldn't be. It's nice and sunny in the afternoon. Now that the counters have been installed in the kitchen, it makes a great work area for me. Using an extension cord from the garage (where there's power), I can sit here with my laptop and work for hours. It's quite the place to be! Only now, at 8 PM, the sunshine is running out, and I'll probably have to return to the bedroom where there's light. Working from bed just isn't as productive...

Painter was here yesterday, and he finished painting the office (yay!). He's still got a bit more painting to do to finish completely, but he got a tremendous amount done yesterday. He does a really nice job and he's super conscientious, which I really appreciate. He primered the chimney (formerly brick, which stood out like a sore thumb), and will paint it the dark color of the trim. So hopefully it will disappear; if not, we'll stucco it at some point so it will blend into the house better.

Cabinet installer came on Friday and cut the requisite holes in the cabinets for the electrician, and installed the third shelf in the pantry. The shelf had been damaged, but they were able to repair it so you'd never know, so we were able to use the shelf just fine.

Monday, Ed can install the office door (another expensive experiment which may or may not turn out). Monday they should install the awning as well. Tuesday, the electrician comes, and we'll probably have a heated discussion about the undercabinet lighting. Hopefully we'll get all the remaining issues resolved and he can finish installing the remaining lights and electrical circuits, which will make us very very happy. Then, the long pole in the tent, so to speak, will be the stair railing. That's all we have left before we can final the project. (Since when did "final" become a verb?)

Are we done yet?

2007-08-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

Well, no. But we're getting closer! Today we got plumbing! Each sink has a faucet and a soap dispenser, and the main sink also has nirvana... an instant hot water heater that will work and will stay working! I hope we can try it out soon. (The water was off when we got home tonight.) Our old garbage disposals didn't make it, so we'll have to replace them. But the old cooktop fits fine.

The downstairs bathroom is completely done, except for the attachment of accessories. The plumbing fixtures look really nice, and I'm very happy with the way it turned out. The water's still turned on there, so who knows, maybe I'll try out the shower... or maybe I'll wait until we get final signoff, as the water spots will be a dead giveaway.

And, I am communicating over DSL that is hooked up to the downstairs patch panel!

Kitchen Counters

2007-08-22T23:42:00.000-07:00

The kitchen counters are nearly done. There is just one more bit of backsplash that has to go beneath the red cabinet. They will finish up tomorrow.

I had to come home from work early today as there was a counter crisis. One of the pieces had a slightly different sheen from the rest, and I had to make a decision as to whether it bothered me enough to make them find another piece or not. I probably wouldn't have noticed if they hadn't pointed it out, so I decided not.

The counter support is a nice compliment to the Caesarstone. I think they turned out pretty nice.

The other big event for today was the low-voltage wiring. Our main patch panel is almost in, and we should move the DSL down to the server room tomorrow (I hope). The cable too! It's very exciting. They'll have to leave the power on to that room because we'll need 24x7 operation, but hopefully that won't be too much of a problem.

Downstairs, they are working on rebuilding the stairs that lead into the deck below. I'm not exactly sure why they're rebuilding them, but I just know that they are. Probably more rotting boards or something. They're going to build the awning on Monday out of Trex, so that should forestall rotting wood in the future.

The paver folks finished rebuilding the pavers today. They definitely look better than before. All in all, it was a very productive day at the house. The electrical and the stair rail are still the long poles in the tent. I am hoping the electrician will be here again soon to finish up.

Tomorrow, the counter folks will come to finish the counters, the low-voltage guys will come to finish the wiring, and the plumber is coming to install all the plumbing.

Speaking of plumbing, they did deliver it all today. I now understand why the Dornbracht faucets are so expensive -- they are beefy faucets! In the package of deliveries were a few Delta boxes (for the downstairs bath), which is odd, since I didn't order any. Turns out that there is another job for a Segal (not the spelling of my last name), and the plumbing guy gave it to them by mistake. Good thing we caught it before someone tried to install!

One year anniversary

2007-08-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

It's around the one-year anniversary of starting this construction project. It's difficult to know what the true start date was, as we started with more of a whimper than a bang. But we had moved out of the house about a year ago, and the gas was disconnected a year ago. It does feel like pushing the world up a hill at times...

The non-sticking door -- Kurt's objective #3 satisfied!

2007-08-21T21:17:00.001-07:00

Our new front door is in! Woo-hoo! We finally have, for the first time since we've lived in this house, door hardware that works and a front door that doesn't stick. Of course, the only bummer is that the glass in the door is completely shattered. Okay, we actually meant to do that. Personally, I think it looks really cool. Depending upon what time of day it is, the sun hits the glass in different ways, making it sparkle. At night, it sparkles too. It will take some getting used to, though, I admit.

The other big thing that happened today, other than the doorstops and mirror cabinet pull being installed (which are big too), was that the counters were installed. Not completely, but they did a big chunk of it. One of the counter pieces must be around ten feet long... it was interesting to watch them carry it in.

Tomorrow they'll come to finish the backsplashes, and then the plumber will come to install the fixtures and hook everything up.

I can't wait to have real running water with a real sink. (Hopefully we can use the sink before the final signoff, as we'd really like to use a real sink for a change.) And instant hot water. Coffee. Yeah. We could be brewing coffee in the kitchen as early as this weekend! I'm ever the optimist.

The other big thing they did today was to work on the pavers out in the driveway. When the waterproofing was done, they removed a number of the pavers so that the deep ditch could be dug. The paver people are back to reinstall the pavers, which will be nice. I'm still not quite sure how they're going to join the pavers to the new front porch, but I'm sure that Mike has figured it out.

More finishing details

2007-08-21T20:40:00.001-07:00

The floor is darkening in the sun... it looks beautiful (although a little bit dirty at this point). The workmen are very good about taking their shoes off before they walk on the floors, which is nice. It's sad that we have to put a railing on the descending stairs, as it looks really nice open, and the floor serves as a barrier for the upper part of the stairs where you might hurt yourself if you fell. But I guess we can't be trusted not to fall through the cracks.

Many of the lights are in, but not all. The Leucos Ony B lights have been installed in the upstairs entryway and in the family room downstairs. They look really nice, I think. We installed Blauet Mercurio lights in the library, but unfortunately, the fixture is visible because the ceiling there is so low. It's difficult to discern these details when you're picking from a picture. It's also difficult to find lighting stores that carry these lights, so it's not a surprise that one choice might not work so well. So I am planning to move the lights in the library to the laundry room (where I didn't realize we needed lights), and buy another two lights for downstairs (perhaps Leucos Bisquit, which I really like).

The outdoor lights are in, and they look really nice. All in all, I'm pretty happy with what's been installed so far. What's not been installed are: the Artemide Ventanas (aka "the lights from hell"), the Smedmarks undercabinet lights, and the Lightolier track lights. The Ventanas, which are becoming the lights we love to hate, had their ballasts installed smack dab in the middle of the fixture, obscuring the hole into which the wiring must go. The electrician and architect have figured out how to work around that problem. The Smedmarks look fabulous, but the light is designed such that it has to be taken apart to replace the bulb, which would be difficult to do if the lights are affixed to the bottom of the cabinet. OTOH, there really isn't much of a choice as far as undercabinet lights go. Seems like a really silly design. The track lights were spec'd as aluminum track with black end caps. Apparently the black end caps are quite long and it would be better to have them in black. Hopefully we'll get all of this resolved tomorrow so the electricians can finish the lighting install.

One other surprising thing.. the floor receptacles only come in brass. Nice looking brass, I might add, but we don't have a stick of brass in our house. So we're going to get them plated black later, so they'll disappear into the tile.

They rebuild the deck downstairs (where there used to be stairs) and did a lovely job at that. We have to figure out a way to connect the stairs adjacent to the garage to the lower deck, but that should be pretty straightforward. We'll have a big job of landscaping to do once this whole project is over.

Rather than continue this post, I'll start a new one with all the work that got done today. (Today was a very busy day in construction land.)

More floors...construction gives way to a house

2007-08-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

With the floors done upstairs and downstairs, it's starting to look more like a house and less like a construction zone. Please leave your shoes at the door!

Today I took a pass through the house when I got home trying to figure out what they did today. It took a complete pass through before I realized -- heating vents! They put the vent covers over the heating vents throughout the house, which is just one more way the place is starting to look like a house again.

I think the electrician was here and installed the recessed lighting in the upstairs hallway, but it's possible he did that earlier in the week. Because the external fixtures haven't yet been added, it's difficult to tell or remember. Electrical is the next big piece.

They did some work on rebuilding the deck underneath the office. It's a gaping hole at the moment, but they are working on reconstructing it in such a way that we don't have to pay a lot of money to rebuild the walkway that takes you from the upper part of the yard to the back yard. (Long story.) I think what they have in mind should work just fine.

Floors

2007-08-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

The second coat of the hardwood floor finish was applied today. Last week they finished sanding the floor down, and gave us a choice (NOT ANOTHER CHOICE!?!?) of whether to use a water-based or oil-based finish. The advantage of the water-based finish is that it's more environmentally friendly (I think), and it requires less work to apply (I think). Quite honestly, I guess I didn't pay much attention when he was explaining it to me. The oil-based finish is richer and results in a darker color. In the picture above you can see my original sample sitting next to the two possibilities, and there is really no question: oil instead of water. We're paying for that decision by breathing in the delicious fumes.

We stayed out of the rest of the house all weekend as they let the first coat dry. It's very susceptible to dust, so they didn't want us to walk around near the open floor lest it get dusty and they have to start all over again. We used the big door to the "kitchen" (the garage door, that is), and tried to stay out of the real kitchen as much as we could. It also meant that we couldn't go downstairs to see the new carpeting, but such is the price of progress!

The first coat was a little bit rough, as the floor needs to soak up all the finish. Once the first coat was done and the finish dried, they came again today to sand down the floors and put the second coat on. It looks very nice and smooth and even. I'm very pleased with the choice of color of the floor; it really is exactly what I was expecting.

The stairs are exposed for the first time since they were put in (several months ago), and they are quite nice as well. They made cute little plugs to cover the screw heads which secure the stair planks to the stairs. I'll try to take some good pics (or have Kurt take them) tomorrow.

Once the current hardwood coat is dry (tomorrow? Wednesday?), the electrican will come in and start installing the finish lighting. And a happy day that will be! It seems that we're so excited to get to the next finishing piece, but no sooner do we get there, then we are wondering why it's taking so long to get to the next step. I guess that's just remodeling, eh?

I had hoped we would be done by my birthday, but it was not to be. Now we'll have to shoot for Kurt's birthday. Actually, if they finish all the lighting by Kurt's birthday we can all do a happy dance.

Let's consider what's left to do: repair the deck beneath the office (I'll write more about that later, because they've actually made great progress on that, and I estimate they'll be done with it this week), install the front door (Chris, the painter, was here this weekend finishing painting it, so the installation will probably happen this week), install the kitchen counters and plumbing (next week at the earliest), install the office door (which is here .. if they're done painting in the office, they should be able to finish this), install the finish plumbing downstairs (can do this any time) and the accessories (can do this any time), install the awning between the first and second floors, and install the railing on the outside deck and inside stairs. The railing will be the very last thing that gets done, guaranteed (well, if you don't count the damaged kitchen cabinet that has to get reinstalled). I figure we have exactly one more laundry date at the in-laws before our washer/dryer is installed. We're getting close to being done!

Finishing details -- kitchen cabinets, office, floors

2007-07-30T22:08:00.001-07:00

It's been two weeks (or so) since my last post. It's been a hectic two weeks, and any free time I've had has been spent watching the Tour de France (there is only one, you know), and getting over being depressed about my favorite riders getting booted out of the tour. Oh, and also with reading the latest Harry Potter book. But lots has been happening on the house in the meantime, so I'll catch you up to date.

The kitchen cabinets (phase 1) are done. The cabinet installer came back for two more days to install the shelves in the buffet area and to finish installing the remainder of the cabinets. As there were several pieces damaged or were the incorrect size (mostly trim pieces/filler, but also one shelf and the end pull-out pantry unit), he will have to come back to install those once the store figures out how they're going to fix them. The store is trying to repair the shelf, but I'm not sure what they're doing about the rest of the pieces. The pantry will be delivered in October most likely. It's not ideal, but really, at this point what can we do? Of all the pieces to be damaged, it was probably the easiest to deal with after the fact (although I'm not sure my contractor would agree, since he now has to delay putting some of the baseboard on until that unit arrives).

The new ovens and dishwasher are in, and I can't wait to start using them! The hood has also been installed, and the fabricators have come to measure for the counters. So we are getting close to being done.

I ordered some Blum plate organizers for the drawers, but it turns out that the drawers I was planning to put them in have drawers within them (there is a drawer within the drawer), so the plate organizers are too tall to be used in those drawers. I'll have to figure out a plan B. I guess the plates can just stand on their own without being set inside a plate organizer. It's going to be odd to get used to having plates in drawers, but I think it's an idea that makes sense.

Overall, I'm very happy with the way phase 1 of the cabinets came out. (The process was still waaaaaay too stressful, but now that it's over, I'm starting to forget!) Our cabinet guy is in the process of finishing the small part of the kitchen that will have custom cabinets -- some shelves over the sink/in the corner near the sink, and some hanging shelves in between the kitchen/living room, plus the banquette where our upholstered seat will perch.

Downstairs, all the doors and door hardware is in. The carpet guys came on Friday to put down tack strip, and we should get the downstairs carpeting some time this week. Unfortunately, they apparently missed one of the closets in their measurements (how can that be, I ask ya), so I'm waiting for the bad news that it's going to cost more money.

The downstairs bathroom got a sink today and a countertop. We used the same material as we're using in the kitchen -- Caesarstone in the color Pebble (as you might guess, it's a bit gray). I had to switch from Cement (which I'd seen... or was it Concrete?) to Pebble because cement was discontinued. I decided to stick with shiny rather than going for honed, just to save money and the hassle of maintenance. But quite honestly, now that it's in, I'm not sure I like the color choice too much. It's too gray and too even -- I thought there would be a bit more variability in it, but there's not. I'm sure that after I get used to it it will be fine though... I really like the tile I chose, and the vanity looks very nice. The only thing left in that room is to pick out drawer pulls. That should take me several weeks to do...

Upstairs, the hardwood floor guys were here today working on finishing the floor, which has been in for several weeks now. It's acclimated by now, I'm sure. The stone is exposed again (and here I was starting to get used to that paper look!), and I think they're putting the sealer on it now.

The biggest thing that happened today was that they put the fireplace front on. When I first got home I thought "ooh, cool, they've prepped the wall for the quartzite slabs!" but in fact, they had put the quartzite slabs on. The quartzite was honed, and it's so even that it looks like concrete. I was expecting that there would be a bit more variation in the stone, so I must admit to be a bit disappointed. There is not much we can do about it though, as what we have is what we're going to keep -- it's way too expensive to do over. And it's not that it looks bad or anything; actually, I suppose it looks nice. It just doesn't look like I expected it to look. It's way grayer than I expected, and now I fear that it's too close to the color of the countertops in the kitchen and the whole thing may not play together well. It's a good thing we have a lot of colorful art though! I just feel a little silly for paying for stone that looks so much like concrete. I suspect that concrete would have been cheaper.

The office is done, except for the electrical. The office carpeting is in (Interface/Flor carpet tiles), and I think they turned out really nice. I'm thinking maybe we'll use the floor tiles in the other upstairs bedroom -- it would look nice and it might be a relatively easy way to upgrade the flooring in that room (rather than replacing the oak hardwood floor that's there now). But that's later. Much later.

They've been working on the front doors a lot, putting the hinges on, sanding the doors, getting them ready to install. I saw the doors standing up in the light, and I think the broken glass is going to look spectacular in the door -- the sunlight glints off of it in interesting ways. So I can't wait until they've got them installed.

My replaced Artimede Ventana lights with the Lutron ballasts arrived a couple of days ago. So that's the last of the lights! I tried to find bulbs for all these lights, but they're not all so easy to find. Most of the lights take compact flourescents, and they have to be a specific color temperature. I tried getting them locally, but it turned out not to be so easy; no one had them in stock, and I can probably get them cheaper off the web (from bulbs.com!) than getting them locally, so that's what I did. I'm waiting for a few more bulbs to arrive, and then we'll be all set. Hopefully, the electrician is coming tomorrow to start installing the lights/finishing all the fixtures, because that's one of the big pieces we have yet to do.

Overall I'm very happy with the way things are shaping up, but I am disappointed in how a few things have turned out. It's difficult to see how everything is going to play together from little 3x4 samples of materials. Part of the problem with remodeling is that you visualize how it's going to look from these small samples of materials, and in some case, your vision is realized; in others, not. I recognize that some of the disappointment is not that it necessarily looks bad (and I guess it's up to each person to pass judgment) -- it just didn't turn out how I expected it to, so I have to adjust my thinking. In our last remodel, which I have a very hazy recollection of, I think I went through similar feelings, but I really do like how our master bedroom/bath turned out. So I think a lot of this is just normal. Although I will say that it's really important to go see materials in real life before choosing them; things can look a certain way in pictures, but they may turn out differently in reality.

I would say that so far, I love the way the overall floorplan of the house turned out, I love the new deck, the downstairs bathroom tile, the ceiling and the steel beams, the stairs, the windows, the office floor, and the kitchen cabinets. I think I'm going to love the front door when it's in and the hardwood floor when it's finished. The door hardware is very nice. I really like the downstairs shelves a lot. I think I have to get used to the way the stonework came out, but I'm sure I'll like it more after there's a bit more color in the room.

Kitchen cabinets are almost in!

2007-07-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

Chris, the installer, and his assistant worked all weekend to get the cabinets to a state where the stone guy can measure for the counters. They did an amazing amount of work in such a short time. The lowers are mostly in, and the floor-to-ceiling pantry units are in. Unfortunately, a couple of pieces got damaged, including one of the thick shelves being used in the buffet, and the pull-out pantry end unit. The fridge door panels also were not the right size (too thick), so they will need to replace those as well. But all in all, most of the cabinets fit pretty well!

Our contractor was over on Saturday, and we had to get into such fine details as whether the counters should be flush with the cabinets or should overhang (the idea being with an overhang, drips might miss the cabinet faces). In our experience with our old cabinets, where the counter overhung the cabinets, it didn't make a difference, and with the recessed pulls on these cabinets, I decided to go with what I thought was a nicer look -- the flush detail. All these little life-or-death details are enough to drive a person mad! Fortunately, they're nearing an end (I hope!).

Welcome kitchen cabinets!

2007-07-13T22:17:00.001-07:00

The kitchen cabinets arrived this morning to great fanfare (by me)! Three guys brought them in 57 boxes (!). They had to be officially received and checked in by the salesperson from Arkitektura. She had to inspect any with boxes that were damaged, and make sure that everything was all in good shape (in fact, two of the pieces were damaged -- one drawer unit, for which the damage will not be visible and probably can be used as is, and the pull-out pantry, which will need to be replaced).
The boxes are all piled up in the great room waiting to be opened and installed. The installer will come tomorrow to start the installation. Pretty exciting!

On other fronts, the bathroom downstairs is done save for the plumbing and electrical fixtures (oh, and the door). The deck outside is repaired. The floor in the laundry room is finished, and the painters are almost done. Every day it looks more and more like a real house!

The best hot shower ever!

2007-07-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

I just had the best hot shower I've had since well.. back last August. (No disrespect to other hot showers intended.) I never really thought I'd miss good plumbing or a hot shower so much. I missed everything about our shower: the evenness and strength of the spray, the temperature of the water (nice and hot), the smooth and certain action of the Dornbracht faucets, being able to take a long shower, and above all, the heated towels at the end. The heated towel rack is one extravagance we put in our master bathroom that was completely and totally worth it.

If I were to rate showers over the past 11 months, really, our shower comes up #1. Head and shoulders above the rest. Looking down the line, I'd say that Kurt's folks' shower is a distant second: slightly low flow head, water not hot enough, but the plumbing is very solid, and the bathroom comfy. Third place is a tough choice. The hotel in Prague could have been third. Really, it should have been second. But the tendency of the shower head not to stay in place and to spray all over the bathroom knocked it down several notches. Third place had to be the Palo Alto Central condo. It wasn't pretty, but the showerhead was quite effective. Living in a big building also means that you never run out of hot water. Fifth is, of course, the scraper. The hot water lasted for five minutes (if that), and the bathtub filled up with dirty water since the drain didn't work so well.

I am just so glad to be home, especially now that our hot water is back!

We're in hot water!

2007-07-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

PG & E came bright and early this morning and put our gas meter back! We now have hot water again!! (I'm sure everyone at work is breathing a sigh of relief!)

Lots of progress on the house over the past couple of days. When they do the finishing details, at some point things start going quickly (or seemingly so). The tile in the downstairs bathroom is in. I had to pick out grout color this evening (when will these decisions stop?). The hardwood floor is completely in, and they've installed the mantelpiece and the stainless supports for the kitchen (bar) counter. The carpet tiles for the upstairs office have been delivered, and I suspect they'll be installed soon.

The kitchen cabinets are continuing to be the most challenging part of the remodel. I was so excited that they had finally arrived, but it's apparently just not that easy. The installer and someone from the store have to be here to "receive" the delivery of the 56 boxes in which the cabinets will be delivered, presumably to make sure that all the pieces are delivered. But perhaps there is some special handling or fanfare that comes with the kitchen cabinets, and I'm just not seeing it. As a result, trying to coordinate between the kitchen salesperson, the installer, and the delivery people is a nightmare. And here I thought that it would be simple, since we have contractors here all day every day. Nope, that would be just too easy, and of course, you wouldn't appreciate the cabinets as much if it were that easy! Originally, we had scheduled delivery for tomorrow, but then the folks from the store couldn't make it that day. So they tried to reschedule for Thursday, but that wasn't going to work for the delivery people. So the store tried to reschedule for next Tuesday, at which point I had a conniption fit, since the cabinets are the gating factor for us finishing this project, and every day of delay costs us more money. So I think we've worked out a compromise and the cabinets will be delivered on Friday, and the installer will start work on Saturday. Because there is a tremendous amount of coordination to be done with the other trades, every time the delivery date changes, we have to reschedule the tile guys, the hardwood guys and the electrician. It's very very annoying! I do hope that I get firm confirmation tomorrow that the cabinets will truly be here on Friday.

Well, after that rant, I think I'm going to go take a shower now :)

Finishing details -- floor and deck

2007-07-06T22:15:00.000-07:00

The hardwood floor is coming along very quickly. At the rate they're going, the floor should be in by tomorrow or Monday. They took down the outside scaffolding -- a major milestone, since it means the exterior painting is done, at least on the new part of the house.

The tile downstairs is also coming along; they finished another wall (one more wall to go). The gray Xilo tile arrived, so they should be able to put in the floor soon.

And they finished the upstairs deck, so we have a place to hang out (as long as we promise not to fall off, since there are no rails yet).

We have a bunch of floor tile left over from the kitchen/entryway; it might be enough to use for the laundry room, so we'll see if we can use the same material there.

It's just great to see such amazing progress! The kitchen cabinets will be delivered to the house mid next week, and then hopefully the installer can start installing on the weekend.

THE KITCHEN CABINETS ARE HERE!!!

2007-07-05T22:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, this title merits all caps. The kitchen cabinets are here! They've arrived at the warehouse -- 56 boxes in all -- and they are awaiting delivery at our house. I had to scramble to get final payment to them, as they would only accept a check or a wire transfer. The latter proved to be too complicated to do, so I gave a check to one of my friends at work, and he kindly dropped it off on his way home to the city. Turns out he lives a few blocks from the store, so it was quite a stroke of luck! (Plus, I saved the wire transfer fee -- a savings which might be enough to buy me a silverware organizer for one of the drawers!)

Now the trick is going to be to get them installed. We have to wait until they finish installing the hardwood floors, which they started on today. Based on how far they've gotten, they should be done by Tuesday, I think. So I'll schedule the cabinets for arrival on Wednesday. The hardwood guys will cover up the hardwood with paper so that they won't be exposed to light (since the wood is light sensitive). And then all the cabinet boxes can go in the great room while they're waiting to be installed. (At this point, I think we've built the world's biggest store room!)

The installer is quite busy, as the cabinet arrival dates are about as predictable as airline arrival times these days. He's really the only installer for these particular cabinets, as near as I can tell. Because they're modular and put together with a gazillion pieces, you really want to use an installer who has installed the cabinets before. But he has been very accommodating and is going to try to fit us in around other jobs so that we don't wait another three weeks for the install. The cabinets have to be installed before we can get the kitchen counters fabricated, so it's really important we don't incur any additional delays on the cabinets.

The curse of the bathroom tile

2007-07-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

It's truly the case of you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. If you wait to pick something out until close to when you need it, you'll find that it will cost more than you think or might have too long of a lead time. If you pick something out way in advance, you'll find that you're quite wedded to it, and when they can't get it when you're ready to use it, it's difficult to detach yourself from your earlier choice.

The glass tile that I had painstakingly picked out a year ago, only to find out two months ago that it was out of stock, finally arrived on Tuesday. Perfection! The floor tile, which I had also picked out a year ago, and matched to the glass tile, was also sitting downstairs, waiting for the install. The only problem was, it was the wrong color! Argggh! Fortunately, a couple of calls between our foreman and the tile guy set it right, and they're going to have the tile in the correct color on hand either tomorrow or Tuesday. Hopefully from here on in it will be smooth sailing.

They started installing the glass tile in the shower, and it looks mighty nice!

Cooking with gas, almost!

2007-07-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

I may have mentioned that last Friday we got our final gas inspection. The city inspector took pity on us, and had consented to give us a temporary occupancy permit so we could move back into (and protect) our house. We didn't get it on Friday afternoon because there wasn't enough time.

Just before lunch today, Kurt and I went down to the city to get our gas release. We figured we didn't want to rush the inspector. As I walked into the office, there was a gal with her two young kids, accompanied by her contractor, talking to the inspector. It brought on a strange sense of deja vu from last year:

"You know, we'll need to pull your utilities before we can give you a permit."

"But we're planning to live in the house during the remodel. "

"Ma'am, I know you were planning to live in your house during the remodel, but with the second-story addition you're planning, it's just not safe."

"But we planned the whole remodel around having a section we can live in. We don't want to change schools, and we can't possibly find or afford to rent a place during this time. "

Ad infinitum. Eventually, they worked something out so there is a possibility that they can live there if they can get a structural engineer's signoff. But it had such a strong sense of deja vu to where we were almost a year ago. I just sat there and listened quietly until they were done.

When it was my turn, he had the TCO all ready for me to sign. We have until August 27th to final our project or else they'll turn off the gas. We also got our gas release, which, after faxing it to two different PG&E places (because of conflicting instructions from PG&E), and four phone calls to PG&E, we got an appointment to have our gas turned on next Tuesday, July 10th. Woo-hoo! I tried to get an earlier appointment, but it just wasn't possible. I think we can find alternate showering arrangements until then.

Slingbox

2007-06-30T07:35:00.000-07:00

We no longer have a TV. We gave away our gi-normous 200 lb Sony (including the integrated stand), and our smaller tabletop TV, just because we had no where to put them, and they didn't fit in our long-term plans. So the question is, how to watch television for the next 30-60 days while the project is being completed?

We could buy a new TV on craigslist.org... we don't have much room, so it would have to be a small flat-panel TV if we bought one. A quick scan indicated we could probably get one for about $250 or so. Another possibility would just be to not watch TV. That's completely out of the question, since the Tour de France starts next week. There is only one, you know, and there are certain things you just can't miss!

So it turns out there's this product called Slingbox (and some apparently inferior variants) that allows you to watch TV over your home network. The box plugs into your video sources and your home network. The software that comes with it has onscreen remote controls (that emulate your real remote), and you can control the devices with that. The Slingbox Pro handles up to 4 external devices. If you set it up correctly, you can also watch TV remotely over the internet (like if you're on a trip, for example).

We went to Circuit City and I was able to get it there for $149 (the retail price is $250). Not bad! I went home, followed the quick start instructions, connected the RF + TiVo to it, and it worked with no fuss!

I downloaded the software application on my Mac, and watched one of my saved programs. It turns out that the video quality on a "big screen" (my 17" Mac) is only so-so, but it's definitely of acceptable quality for the next couple of months. Since I have to watch TV in a smaller window that I thought (due to the video quality), I will load the Windows application on my PC and see if that does a better job. On the Windows version, they also have an on-screen TiVo remote, so I'd like to get that. They also have a Treo version, and I'm hoping to try that out.

I'd give this a definite thumbs up! It saves me from having to buy a TV until the house is done and we have enough money to buy our 50-60" LCD or Plasma. And it could be that in our quest to get the best technology at the cheapest price, we don't buy it for quite some time!

Home again!

2007-06-30T07:24:00.000-07:00

We are home again, this time for good! Yesterday, the building inspector came and did our final gas inspection. We had three conditions to get a temporary certificate of occupancy: 1) put temporary handrails on the stairs, 2) protect the outside deck from anyone going on it, since there are no handrails (and no deck yet, really), and 3) cap off all the exposed wiring and put protective plates over all the outlets. Our contractor put caution tape on the stairs and across the upstairs sliders, since at this point there is no way to do anything temporary, since the hardwood floors are going in on Monday. All the wiring in the new part of the house isn't connected to power, so #3 also isn't a concern. When I went down to the city to get the gas release, I explained it all to the building official and he was okay with that. He's going to have our gas release ready for pickup in late morning on Monday, and then we'll take that to PG&E so they can bring back our gas meter. We should have gas some time next week if all goes well.

We had thought we would try to get all our stuff out of the condo yesterday, sleep at the house last night, and then come back today to clean. But really, the condo is so small, and we brought so little stuff, that two carfuls did it. Our landlady wanted to sleep there last night, so while she was getting a load of her belongings to bring to the condo, we madly cleaned the place. So we're completely out of there now! We're not completely back in our house yet, but we're getting there. Lots of unpacking/reorganizing yet to do (of just the stuff we have out).

I found out that there were a rash of burglaries at construction sites the night our place was hit. I don't know what was taken from the other places, but it looks like the work of the same person/people who burglarized our house.

Last night I got a great night's sleep -- the first time in a month! No one was coming home late from a bar or getting up early to clean the sidewalks with a portable sidewalk cleaner. I am not sure I could have ever gotten used to the noise. And it was nice to be able to just step out the door to take Coda out to pee. It's good to be back home!

More pictures today, I promise. They are making great progress on the house. They're coming today to build the deck, so we'll probably put it to good use, guardrails or no. Maybe we can put caution tape around the perimeter...that oughta do the trick!

A silver lining

2007-06-29T07:43:00.001-07:00

A lot has happened since the weekend. I'll post pictures tomorrow (hopefully); we just haven't had time with everything going on.

Monday, we went to our various banks and closed/reopened accounts and put all our remaining valuables/important papers into the safe deposit box. I hope I got everything. I also talked with the city, and after hearing our tale of woe, consented to restore our gas service prior to a final inspection as long as we got a final gas inspection. (Hooray!) The gas inspection is today, and if all goes well, we should have our gas restored some time next week. We will be staying at the house tonight, because my fear is that the thief or thieves will be likely to come back this weekend for more. Note to thieves: we're armed, we're dangerous, and we have a vicious attack-trained dog. (Oh sure, she looks cute, but just say the word and she'll be after you.)

On the construction front, a lot has happened in the past week. The kitchen floor is finished, as is the entryway tile inside and out. They're finishing the tile border around the great room today. The ceiling is completely in, and it looks very very nice. It took them over a week to install the planks -- it was an amazingly painstaking job. The downstairs shelving in the library (Rakks system + custom shelves) will be finished today. I am hoping that the glass tile that I am having shipped from New Jersey will arrive today.

They are painting the shear wall in the master bedroom today, and painting the fixed drywall in the master bath. So it will be a little stinky in there tonight, but what can you do?

They fixed the broken door and are reinstalling the lock today. The new door will be much much harder to break into. I hope.

Today and tomorrow we will finish moving out of the apartment we rented. This time we have to clean the place when we leave, however, as our landlady will be moving in tomorrow.

So... everything is coming along, and things are looking up!

Violated

2007-06-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

We woke up this morning kind of late; both of us were very tired from a long week. I finally checked my phone around 10, the ringer had been off, and there were two messages and three calls, which is somewhat unusual for Saturday morning. Our contractor had called and left a message... our house had been burglarized last night. Sigh.

It turned out that the thief or thieves had broken down the door to the locked room which was intended to be the office. The door is in pieces -- they tried to bust through the door first, and failing that, broke the door frame and busted in. They stole selected things in the room, and left other things untouched. It really looked (to me) like someone knew what they were going in there to get, which makes me a little bit more worried. But most of all it's a creepy creepy feeling to know that someone has violated the sanctity of your home.

So now we're in a quandry. What do we do? Should we move back home right away? Or should we just wait it out until next weekend? Should we have all the doors rekeyed?

Monday I'm going to go to the city (again) and ask them to turn on our gas. If they say no, we might just move back and use the apartment as a place to shower and that's it. If they say yes, then we'll move back as soon as we can get the gas turned on.

Finishing details -- floor and ceiling

2007-06-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

Finally, the true finishing details have started! The painting is still in progress, but the ceiling installation started earlier this week, as did the kitchen and entryway floor.

The ceiling must be painstaking to install. They are installing about 1/6th of the ceiling every day, so at this rate, they should be done mid next week. Before they started installing the ceiling, they had to install black strips of wood around the perimeter to create a shadow line.

To get the floor tile to flow seamlessly from the entry into the kitchen, they're installing it in long strips, starting in the entryway and finishing at the office, and then starting all over again. It's pretty cool to watch the installation happen.

Speaking of tile, the glass tile we ordered for the downstairs bathroom was supposed to arrive last week. I called and called and called, and finally got ahold of the warehouse who said we were waitlisted until August (!). Upon further probing it turned out that they had enough of the tile to fill our order in their New Jersey warehouse, so it's being shipped and should arrive next week. (Okay, getting to that point wasn't as smooth or as quick as this narrative might imply.)

The downstairs bookshelves are being installed next Tuesday, and the kitchen cabinets will, with a large dose of luck, arrive the second week of July. I hope and pray.

Everything is taking shape, but there is still so so much to do. Once the ceiling's been installed, the electrician can come in and install all the lighting and finish electrical (uh-oh.. I think we'll have to decide on the color of the wall plates... not another decision!).

More pics can be found on Kurt's website.

Urban living

2007-06-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

As mentioned earlier, we're living this month in a lovely condo in Palo Alto Central, right next to the train station. I like to pretend we've rented a flat in a foreign country and are experiencing a different culture. Okay, it's not really that different, but it is sort of. It's very nice to be so close to everything, and so close to work. I walk either to or from work (or both) every day... I'll miss that when we move home. Kurt was initially worried that I wouldn't want to move back home, but although there are a lot of plusses here (like a gazillion restaurants within walking distance, Izzy's bagels just down the street (which has great coffee of all things), living so close to work, etc.) there are some downsides.

For one, we have never lived in an apartment or condo with a dog. Taking the dog out to do her business is not just a few steps out the door, but down two flights of stairs. And since there's lots of interesting stuff going on outside means it takes the dog a while to do her business. She's just not used to all the distractions! Living so close to others is also a challenge because the dog reacts to sounds in other apartments. We seem to have one neighbor who likes to get in very late at night and another early in the morning, and we have to hold onto the dog so she won't start barking. But she's slowly getting used to it.

There's also a lot of activity outside until pretty late at night. Since it's hot, we have been sleeping with the window open, so we haven't been sleeping as well as we'd like. I miss the quiet of our house.

All in all, it's a nice change of pace, but I'll be glad to get home in a week (which it looks like is where we're heading next).

Interior colors -- which to choose? Opinions wanted!

2007-06-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

The painter has been painting away. The trusses have been painted the color of the new windows (as have our old window frames). Should we go with this charcoal gray color or perhaps with more of a red, to match the color of the kitchen cabinets (there are a few glass doors in the kitchen cabinets which will be red). We're also thinking of painting our garage door a burgundy red to add some more visual interest. What do you think? We need to decide within the next day or so -- no pressure!

The interior wall color is also up for deciding on. Right now, we're leaning towards the sample on the right, which is called something like vanilla shake. I actually like them all, with a preference towards the left-most (which has a hint of green) and the right-most. In fact, the white that the drywall is is also fine with me. I never thought that choosing a color of white could be quite so difficult!

They have made a lot of progress this week. The floors are prepped and ready for the hardwood and the tile to be laid. Downstairs, the bathroom cabinetry has been installed. Painting will continue over the coming week, and the house will continue to look more like a house. I suspect that the ceiling installation won't start until our contractor returns in a week.

Where we are, and aren't

2007-06-09T17:01:00.000-07:00

Last week was very busy -- I was at a conference all week and didn't have time to blog. Last weekend we moved into our new temporary digs, on California Avenue in Palo Alto, next to the train station. We moved a minimal amount of stuff; unfortunately, I had to bring all my business clothes because of the conference, but they can go right back home this weekend. The wireless is now set up as of today, so we are set for the month of June. The place is right across from the grocery store, and about a mile from where I work. So we will truly be living locally this month. I don't know what we'll do for July, however.

I wrote an empassioned plea to the city to turn on the gas at our house in July, but I have yet to hear a response. They're getting tired of hearing from me, I'm sure. I'm very tired of moving, and really would just like to go home and stay there. So I'm not sure what we'll do when July rolls around.

The house is progressing, slowly but surely. The drywall is completely finished. The outside of the house has been painted with at least one coat. The painter painted four swatches of white for the inside so we can choose an inside color (and here I thought we were done making decisions!). So we'll do that this weekend. I'm thinking of painting the garage a deep red, just to add a little bit of visual interest. Gotta choose that color too.

The floors have been prepped for the tile and for the hardwood, which I presume will be installed next week. The ceiling planks have arrived and are stacked up in the office, ready to be installed. The medicine cabinet and the vanity have been installed in the bathroom downstairs. I'm still waiting to receive the tile for the downstairs; it should arrive next week, but I haven't been able to get in touch with the tile people to find out. The kitchen cabinets will not arrive until July, which is a real disappointment. (Don't get me started on the kitchen cabinets -- I'm sure they'll turn out great, but the process of buying them has been the worst part of this entire project.)

Pictures can be found on Kurt's site.. I'm just too lazy to post too many at the moment. I've got lots of catching up on work and other things in life to do, having been gone all last week! At least we don't have to move this week!

Stucco and concrete

2007-05-31T22:17:00.000-07:00

Lots of progress today. The stucco guys were here and finished up stucco'ing two entire walls of the house. The back of the house, and the south side of the house (adjacent to the garage). This encompassed both the new part of the house and the old, so that the texturing would match. I really prefer smooth (untextured) stucco, but it would have looked dorky to do the new part in smooth while the rest of the house was textured. So the compromise was we did one half of the house. The front half is still textured, as is the north wall, but you will never see the textured and the untextured parts together. I think the stucco is now done, because they took the coverings off the windows.

They also poured the concrete for our front porch, so I feel pretty certain that the tiling is also about to start!

I put together a rough schedule for the remainder of the project (since we really haven't had a schedule since the beginning). I think we might be able to finish by end of July, but it will be tight. If we can finish all the finish work in the next month, then we could potentially convince the city to turn on our hot water prior to finishing the kitchen, since the kitchen wasn't part of the original permit.

Which paint color would you choose? Vote early and often! (We've actually already chosen a color, one of the five you see in the picture. But let us know what you think; who knows, we might change our minds!)

More pics for today can be found at Kurt's site -- I'm just too pooped to post any more.

Our new digs

2007-05-28T22:50:00.001-07:00

We spent the rest of the weekend unpacking and getting our house more livable. Kurt's got his office/music room, and I am hanging out in the master bedroom. No TV, no desk (yet, but I am getting one from Craigslist), but we got clothes and lots of 'em. The bathrooms have been cleared away, and we're using the second one as our temporary kitchen. Well, part of our temporary kitchen, the rest is in the garage where the fridge and microwave are.

The house is pretty livable, really. We have to be out of the house early every day this week to miss the contractors, so we don't get in their way. The drywallers will be here this week finishing up with the mudding. Kurt's put up some more pics on his Picasaweb site. I hope that they'll start on the flooring some time soon!

Home sweet (and stinky) home!

2007-05-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

We're home!!!! Well, we're living in two rooms of our house, but even so, we're home. I am surprised at how happy I am to be home, given that our house isn't finished yet. There's just something about sleeping in your own bed in your own house that can't be beat. I don't really have anywhere to work other than my bed, since there is no desk in the bedroom here. But even so, it's nice. I'm typing this blog entry looking out at our view, listening to Elvis Costello, and enjoying a nice breeze. What could be better?

I spent much of the day moving all the stuff we moved out of the scraper into our new cabinets in the garage. I haven't finished yet, but I made a pretty good dent in it. Tomorrow I'll get the garage back into shape so the contractors won't have difficulty moving around in the garage.

We're only here until next weekend, when we move into another rental, but I'm going to enjoy it while I am here.

We no longer own a TV having given both our TVs away. However, we do have TiVo, and TiVo to Go, so I should be able to watch TV on my laptop. That's the plan, because I don't want to buy a new TV for just a week. When we move back into the house for real, we'll buy our ultimate hang-on-the-wall flat-panel TV. By then technology will have advanced and prices will be cheaper, so it makes sense to wait as late as possible to buy the equipment.

Movin' out!

2007-05-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

We are finally all moved out of the scraper, may it rest in peace. We worked all day yesterday cleaning out room after room. The movers (Oasis Movers in SF... highly recommended) came yesterday at 8:30 pronto. By 10:30, they had loaded what's left of our furniture, including the 200 lb TV, and unloaded everything (but the TV into the garage), and then transported the TV over to our friend Phil's house, where we deposited into his living room. (We had determined that the TV was never again to move back into our house.) So basically, two hours to move our stuff to two locations, not bad!

We spent the rest of the day unpacking bags/boxes from the scraper into our beautiful newly installed garage cabinets (the remnants of our old kitchen cabinets). The contractors had cleaned out the garage on Friday, swept it up very nicely, and the old white kitchen cabinets are all installed, giving us lots of nice out-of-the way storage space for supplies and other stuff. We set our microwave up on one of the shelves, and everything is ready for our arrival.

We also got internet working in our house. The DSL had been moved over a week ago, but we didn't have power to turn the router on. Now the 2nd bedroom is set up as an office, and the DSL is hooked up. We gave Kurt's folks our wireless router so they'd have wireless, and we have to go hook up new wireless today.

While Kurt was showing the house to Phil yesterday, I finished packing up every last little bit in the scraper. I'm completely and totally beat today. It was a tremendous amount of work, way more work than I thought it would be. Kurt went back to the scraper last night to move the remainder of the things to the scraper. Now we're both beat.

So, the plan is, we'll live at home for the next week (with the two rooms we're living in powered on), and then next weekend we'll move to a new temporary rental, very near where I work, for the month of June. Come July, hopefully all the really stinky stuff will be done and we can move back in for good.

Taping and stucco

2007-05-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

Lots of progress today. The drywallers came and taped all the seams in the drywall. The stucco guys came and put the first cut of stucco on the outside. So things are moving right along! Apparently the drywalling will take place in phases. They have to put the mud (or whatever you call it) all over the drywall, let it dry, do it again. It's almost like a thin coat of plaster on the drywall. They also need to retexture the master bedroom shear wall; but since we had chintzed out on the master bedroom and gone with a light skip texturing, it won't be as much work to get that in shape. They've also fixed the hole in the master bathroom ceiling. It's a good thing that we saved all the master bedroom paints, because one of the walls is green and would have been hard to match.

Over the weekend I got nine samples of paint and painted the outside wall in an attempt to settle on an exterior paint color. I've narrowed it down to five choices, but I don't have the mental energy to make any more decisions, especially one so important as this. I'm going to let our architect have the final say. Or maybe I'll take a vote. I sure don't know. We only have one more decision -- the carpet -- and then we're DONE! I think.

Moving day is Saturday, and we'll have to have everything out of the scraper by then. It looks like the garage cabinets will be installed by then, so we should have a spot for the furniture.

Trip the ylighting.com fantastic

2007-05-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

And now for the saga of the lights. As I mentioned earlier, I ordered my lights from ylighting.com. I place the order while I was in Prague, over a Skype call, which at the time I thought was oh-so-cool and oh-so-clever. Sometimes too clever is dumb. There was one set of lights -- the office and kitchen overhead lights -- that had changed several times due to decisions about whether we were going to dim them and whether we were going to install a Lutron GrafixEye controller, which we ultimately decided to do. We had finally settled on an Artemide Ventana 18" fixture, which is a very simple glass ceiling-mounted flourescent fixture, with a Lutron dimmable ballast, which is not commonly installed in that particular fixture.

So, when I was ordering my lights, it turned out that I couldn't get them with the desired ballast. While I was in Prague, I got on the phone with the lighting salesguy at Ylighting.com, who also got a VP from Artemide on the phone, to advise about these particular lights. The Artemide lights normally would come with a Universal ballast, but apparently those won't work with the GrafixEye switching system. What the VP advised us to do was to just order the lights with the stock ballasts (which are very inexpensive), then have the electrician rip 'em out and put in the lutron ballasts. Sounded like a good plan, so I ordered them.

Upon return home, the lights had arrived very quickly. In speaking with the electrician about it, he had received a price from his wholesale supply company for those lights which was quite a bit higher than what I'd paid. However, his guy had given him a price with the Lutron ballasts. When I explained to him what I'd been told by the Artemide guy, he had to check into it further. Much discussion ensued between him and his supply company, and between the supply company and the lighting designer/local rep. It turned out that the local Artemide rep was saying one thing "Lutron ballasts can be shipped with the lights from the factory" and the Artemide VP was saying something else "Lutron ballasts won't fit in the fixture, and have to be remoted...". At this point I was getting very confused and frustrated, and by now, the lights were no longer returnable, because the return period had passed.

So finally my architect contacted the Artemide rep, and somehow they got together with the Artemide VP, and it turned out that the VP was wrong. As a result, Artemide and Ylighting agreed to return the lights, and to sell me the lights with the correct ballast! So all's well that ends well. The pricing I got was still substantially cheaper than the price my electrician got (probably about $1000 less in total), and at this point, every little bit helps.

The moral is: wait until you have agreement on specs from everyone involved before placing that order. I should have waited until I had a chance to talk with my electrician before ordering those particular lights (kind of like we did with the Smedmarks). Live and learn!

I also have to make a plug for Ylighting.com. They have been fantastic through the whole process. The salesguy I have been working with has been really helpful, and has helped make sure that I am happy (just like you'd want any business to do). And ultimately they were able to fix the problem. Their prices are the best I've been able to find, and the lights have arrived very quickly. So I'm quite content!

The walls are all up -- it's starting to look like a house!

2007-05-19T08:45:00.001-07:00

The drywall is complete. All the walls are up and ready to be taped and textured. The house is very very white, and quite echoey. But it's starting to look like a house again!

Once the garage wall has been taped, the contractor will be able to install the cabinets in the garage. Not a moment too soon, as the movers are coming on the 26th to move the furniture back to the garage. In the meantime, we've moved a bunch of stuff to my in-laws' garage, which really helps so we don't have to cram everything in.

This weekend we'll be moving more stuff, all the dribs and drabs. We have to finish cleaning out our two-bedroom living area, should we wind up living there. We have been moving things over to the folks' house all week, a little bit at a time, so hopefully we are almost there. We also have to return a couple of our lights (more on that in another post), which will temporarily free up some space. Tomorrow we'll move the remaining things from the scraper to the home. It's exhausting just thinking about it. I knew it was going to be a bad month, and it has been; I'll be happy when June arrives!

The next two months... plans C, D, E

2007-05-19T08:38:00.001-07:00

As mentioned earlier, the city refused to turn on our gas so that we could have hot water when we moved back to the house. Plan B was to rent our next-door-neighbor's downstairs so we could have hot showers, but one of their daughter's is coming back for the summer and would like to have the downstairs, and we really don't want to put them out.

Plan C was to put in an electric tankless water heater. This would have been sooooo nice, killing two birds with one stone: giving us more hot water in our master bathroom so that both of us could shower at the same time without running out of hot water, and allowing us to have hot water during the time we have no gas. However, it requires 220v service, and we don't have that in the place it would be necessary. Since the drywall is now up, it's too late to fish new wires downstairs. (How ironic, isn't it?) So onto plan D. We're going to try to get a tankless gas heater installed instead of upgrading our water heater, as I think that will solve our long-term hot water problems in a better way than making our existing heater bigger.

Plan D is portable propane camp shower. Solar showers don't work, because Kurt likes to shower in the morning, and the water wouldn't be hot by then. But portable propane-driven camp showers could work. So we're investigating using them.

Plan E is to rent a short-term furnished place nearby. I have a line on a couple of places, but nothing concrete yet. It turns out that it's much more difficult to rent if you have a dog, even a cute little 12.5 lb border terrier. Some people consider her some sort of animated toy, but others still think she's a dog. So it just depends.

Plan F, which I hope we don't have to go to, is to shower at work.

Hopefully by the end of this weekend we will have an answer!

The walls are closing in!

2007-05-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

The stairs were just a tasty appetizer to the main course of finish work. (No one said I was a writer!) The drywalling has begun in earnest, and in a day they were able to cover over half the house! We have to get all the "rock" up before the outside can be stuccoed, since the nailing will cause the stucco mud to fall off. So in a couple of days, the mudders will be here too.

Over the weekend we moved more stuff to our house and to the storage pods. The scraper is almost empty; this coming up weekend we'll have a few more dribs and drabs to move. Our landlord was very nice and is allowing our furniture to have a home for an extra week, since his demolition permit has been delayed. This will allow our contractor to finish putting the cabinets in the garage, which can't be done until the wall adjacent to the new office is rocked. So we can really use the extra week! We turned off all our utilities as of yesterday, so hopefully he'll be able to get the gas meter pulled soon. He promised to let us watch the demolition, since we didn't get to witness any bulldozer drama with our house.

We are now housesitting at Kurt's folks' house. It is so nice to be in a house with light, a working bathroom with decent faucets, and hot water that lasts for more than five minutes! The kitchen is close to the bedroom, so you don't have to walk a mile to get a cup of coffee as you did in the scraper. The south Palo Alto location is very convenient for me, so I can ride my bike to work. (That being said, yesterday I got a ride to work, but I did walk home!)

Over the weekend we decided to look for short-term rentals as a possible plan B of not having gas. We found a 3-bedroom place nearby that was okay with pets. It's amazing how having a dog (or smoking) cuts you out of so many places. Kurt says I should start responding to ads that say "No smoking or pets" since we don't smoke. But I suspect they really meant they don't want either.

Our current plan B is actually quite clever, I think. Hopefully the city isn't reading this blog. We are going to get an always-on electric hot water heater installed for our master bath. This kills two birds with one stone: we will truly always have hot water, which has been a problem, since the hot water doesn't last through the two of us showering; and it allows us to bypass the whole need for gas. Since it's spring we can live without heat, but we need hot water for showering. The electric always-on heaters sit between the pipes close to where the water goes. Energy wise, the usage is approximately what it would be for having a gas hot water tank; in other words, the electric tankless heater is approximately the same energy use as the solution we have now. (In the ideal world, we would put in a gas tankless heater, but we don't have gas at the moment, so electric it will be.) We had actually asked our contractor to install a larger water heater in the garage; if we have thought of this solution in time, it's possible that we don't need to do that at all, which would make this a wash cost wise, since it will probably be about the same price (or cheaper) than installing a new water heater. Of course I haven't heard back from our contractor yet as to why this _might_ not work... so the jury is still out.

We'll continue to scan the postings for short-term rentals. If a furnished rental at a reasonable price comes up, we might just jump ship for a while. In the meantime, we continue to clean out the two relatively untouched rooms in our house, prepping it for our arrival. Kurt's folks were nice enough to give us a section of their garage, so we're storing breakables and smaller furniture there, at least until the cabinets get installed in the garage (at which point we may be able to move some stuff back into the garage cabinets).

Deal or no deal??

2007-05-12T00:21:00.000-07:00

The remodel is moving forward slowly. Finishing details have begun, which is pretty exciting! The stairs are now finished (they have put the hardwood on the stairs) -- they look very nice and will look nicer when stained.

A few problems have cropped up (natch). Kitchen cabinets are not arriving until late June (they were supposed to be here at the end of this month). Some of the lights I ordered I'll have to return due to the ballasts that were included. (Yes, going to a graphikeye system is nice, but it's caused all sorts of ripple effects.) The cabinets can't get installed in the garage until the drywall is done, and we can't move our furniture back until the cabinets are installed. I'm getting a bit nervous that we're going to have a problem. I'm not really sure where the safest place is to put our good remaining furniture without worrying that it will get banged up.

And, the biggest problem of all: the city won't turn on our gas unless we sign something that says we won't live there. Which is, of course, the main point. So we'll be living without gas, which could get pretty stinky pretty quickly. Our next-door neighbors had offered to let us use their in-law cottage downstairs, so we may have to take them up on it unless I can find a series of housesitting arrangements.

I am SO ready to be done with this renovation! The next couple of months are going to suck, living without a kitchen, hot water or washer and dryer.

Counting down the days

2007-05-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

We have to move by May 20th. The scraper is being scraped. It will be no more. So we have to be out before then. A lot needs to happen with the house between now and then. We need to get the rough inspection, so that they can start drywalling and we can beg the city to turn the gas back on. The old kitchen cabinets that are in the garage need to be installed in the garage so we can move our furniture into the garage.

The house construction is moving right along. The interior doors are installed, and they just put in all the insulation. They finally sheared up the master bedroom wall (meaning, they closed it up with plywood), and will presumably rock it and finish it within the next couple of weeks so we can move back in.

We had our rough inspection on Friday and failed because we don't have enough floor outlets in the great room. The electrician is coming on Monday to install the outlets, and then the inspector will come back on Tuesday and hopefully we'll pass. As an added bonus, the inspector will sign off on the insulation as well, and we should be able to start rockin' on Wednesday. The rocking will take a couple of weeks, as we moved to level-5 drywall with a flush door detail which takes longer. As soon as that's done they need to tile the kitchen floor, as the cabinets will be arriving soon (early June it looks like now).

I finally chose the new kitchen faucets. We'll go with Dornbracht Elio, the compromise being that we won't install the pot filler. We also chose the Caesarstone color: cement. Or was it concrete? Honed (matte) finish. It should go nicely with the wood and the glass in our kitchen, and with the floors and will be somewhat of a contrast with the fireplace stone.

Yesterday we moved a bunch of stuff out of the scraper and put it in the semi-empty pod. I've packed much of the kitchen, and most of the books and other knickknacks in the scraper that we're not going to need. It's really somewhat goofy to be doing this; I know it's going to take me months to unpack, and I probably will sell or give away most of what I unpack. We have way too much stuff! I found that I packed several boxes of items that I'd moved here to sell on eBay but never did get around to it. Once the remodel is done, I'll occupy myself by selling stuff on eBay, since I won't have anything else to do any more.

Speaking of selling, I managed to sell our Yamaha Clavinova piano and our Ikea desk within two days on Craigslist. Both people came to pick up their purchases in minivans.. they are the ultimate utilitarian vehicle! We borrowed our friends' minivan this weekend to speed the moving process.

Next week we'll start housesitting for Kurt's folks, and assuming the city will let us live back in our house, at that point I will put everything in motion to move the DSL, cancel the cable/electrical/water at the scraper, etc. It's making me tired just thinking about it. I wonder why I've been so tired lately? If we can't move back to our house, we'll have to figure out a plan B.

More pics can be seen on Kurt's picture website. Now it's time to get packin!

Pod people

2007-04-29T16:46:00.000-07:00

We have become pod people. Two storage pods were delivered on Friday by Public Storage. These are 5x7x8 lockable plywood crates with a waterproof covering, suitable for storing your stuff. They will take them away once you've got them packed and store them offsite, or they'll let you keep them at your place.

We managed to completely fill one of the pods yesterday with boxes from our upstairs bedroom and from the garage. Lots and lots of books. Heavy boxes. Aching backs. Once the pod was filled, we found that because the pod wasn't level (and because really, it's just a few pieces of plywood banged together), the door wouldn't close. Disinclined to take everything out again, Kurt took a plane and planed the top of the door (I hope they don't mind!). Then, we hung on the door while trying to close it. We were able to shut it and lock it, and then Kurt and Phil used the car jack to jack it up a little bit so we could put a shim underneath it. Hopefully that will help when we eventually decide to unpack it. Which we may never do.

We filled the second one with furniture from the garage. There's still plenty of space for more, but we ran out of energy. The important thing is we cleaned out all our stuff from the garage and removed all the stuff in our garage cabinets. Our contractor will now remove the garage cabinets and install the old kitchen cabinets in their place (which will in turn make a lot more room in the garage). Our electrician will now come and connect the insides to the outsides to complete the rough electrical.

Making progress!

Objectives #1 & #3: Stairs and Waterproofing!

2007-04-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

The original objective of the remodel was to move the stairs. The stairs were removed months ago (one of the last things to be destroyed), but lots of things had to fall into place before they could construct the new stairs. They had to finish the rough electrical, put up the shear walls and get the inspections on all of that. Then they had to drywall the wall where the stairs were to go and get an inspection on that. So here we are, a month before we're moving back, and the stairs are finally in! Well, really, it's just the rough stairs... they'll be finished with the same wood that we are using in the upstairs great room, and the railing will be some sort of stainless cable rail.

In conjunction with this, they have now waterproofed the downstairs as well. They dug a 10-12' trench, smoothed everything, filled it with drainrock, and then bolted a waterproof membrane to the outside of the foundation. If that doesn't solve the problem, nothing will! In the process, they found two small places where the foundation is hanging over air. Be careful about looking closely into any part of your house -- you could be surprised at what you find. You will be surprised. (And usually, not pleasantly!)

They have also hung all the interior doors. We had a hall closet upstairs which is losing a door, primarily because its insides got taken up with heating ductwork. We will also replace the laundry room door, since it's adjacent to the kitchen and needs to look like everything else. We are still working on getting the front door fabricated with the broken-glass inset.

Last week I was in Prague to help teach a class. During that time I finalized part of the lighting order (thank you Skype!), and the lights have already started to arrive. It turned out that I could get a much better price on the lights than the wholesale price my electrician could offer. So I am purchasing all the external fixtures. I still have to buy the track lights and the outdoor lights, which I hope to do this weekend.

More complete pictures can be found on Kurt's Picasaweb site.

Decisions, decisions, oh wait, new decisions

2007-04-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

Even if you made your decisions ages ago, sometimes they don't work out for one reason or another. Last week we had two instances of this.

Instance #1: We had chosen our tile for the downstairs bathroom aeons ago. Late last summer, in fact. We chose Walker-Zanger Roku Rain Matte glass tile (as pictured on the wall in the image to the left), in a 6"x12" size. It was "reasonably" priced, and was a really nice compliment to the Viva Ceramic Xilo gray tile we'd chosen for the floor (although the image at the right doesn't really do it justice).

Our contractor contacted us early in the week to let us know that the Roku tile in the size we wanted was not available until July (!), and suggested that we might use a gloss finish instead. I thought about it, and the matte finish was particularly important to me for a lot of reasons, maintenance being one, and looks the other. Changing the wall tile would require changing the floor tile, a decision I really didn't want to reopen! However, it turns out that the tile guy goes through some distributor, who in turn goes through the factory. So, once deciding that I wasn't going to change the tile, I called Walker-Zanger, and found out there was 70 sqft of the tile available now (but it's not enough), and a shipment coming in in June. So after some back and forth (they are very busy there!) I ordered 152 sqft of the tile I want, which will come in the June shipment (mid June). This should be plenty of time to install given where we are now, and is certainly much better than July! How much do you suppose 152 sqft of tile weighs? > 600 lbs!!! I guess I'm not surprised, given that the tile samples I lugged back from NYC a year ago caused my bags to be overweight.

Instance #2 (my bad): We had chosen what I thought to be a really cool-looking (and functional!) Franke faucet for the prep sink. We chose the other kitchen faucets based on that particular faucet. I failed to notice, however, that the faucet we chose was 36" high (!) which would certainly look dorky adjacent to an open bar counter. Good thing our contractor pointed it out! So now we will need to change the faucet, and there really isn't another Franke faucet that I like that also has the functions I want (pull-out spray), so we're going to switch manufacturers, either to KWC (which breaks my heart, because the faucet I really want, the KWC Ono, isn't available in the US until the fall) or to Dornbracht. The key is that none of them make an instant-hot dispenser, so we also have to choose an instant hot that will look good with the faucet. I'm going to go look at faucets today and make a final (new) decision. Hopefully I won't goof up this time.

Other decisions we've made are on the plynyl weave and color (for the office and laundry room), and on the office door (which we'll get from Knoll Textiles, rather than from 3-form). I'll get some matching plynyl mats made for the kitchen too.

Decisions still left to be made are: Caesarstone kitchen countertop color (we're thinking Cinder at the moment), and paint colors inside and out. Wow.

And now, onto packing and getting ready to move...

Decisions, decisions

2007-04-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

At this stage of the remodel, there are lots of decisions to be made, decisions which will totally make or break this remodel. Decisions such as: which door hardware to use? What paint color? Which carpets? Level 4 or level 5 drywall? What color/material should the counters be? When the original bid was constructed, it was based on allowances for certain materials. But of course, we don't really know how the things we choose fit within those allowances, since sometimes they include installation and other times they don't. For some of the things, okay, maybe one, we actually came in under the allowable amount. For others, we've gone over.

We've upped the quality of the light switches (from simple toggles, to Lutron Maestro dimmers (which is what's in the rest of the house.. talk about the tail wagging the dog!) and GrafikEye. We already knew that the electrical was going to be more, because the first bid was based on a very rough lighting plan. Now we have a far more detailed lighting plan, plus we added the kitchen and upgraded the switches, so at this point we have doubled the cost of the electrical.

For our door hardware we chose Valli & Valli Fusital H329 in chrome/satin chrome. Personally I would have preferred just plain ol' stainless, but plain ol' stainless is more expensive. We don't have to buy that much door hardware, but it all adds up.

We still have not chosen the office door, but we have chosen the material for the office door. It will be either from 3-form.com or it will be from Knoll textiles (Knoll Imago), which makes a similar product. the door will be made out of an opaque acrylic, of neutral color, so it will let light into the kitchen hallway, while blocking out any clutter in the office. Both Knoll Textiles and 3-Form have an array of possible colors and textures. The products are two pieces of acrylic with a piece of fabric sandwiched in between. So you can make all types of interesting effects. In fact, there are probably too many choices at this point for me.. I'm having a difficult time deciding!

The front door will be a double door with a simple rectangular frame with glass in the middle of each door. In other words, the door will be mostly glass, surrounded by a wood or painted frame. But instead of clear glass, like our front door is now, we are going to use broken glass, similar to what I saw at the de Young museum and the AMA building in Chicago. It turns out that the broken-glass panels don't cost much more than a regular glass panel, so this will give the front entryway a little bit more drama and a little bit more opacity, while still allowing someone to see through to the view. (Sorry, but I have no pictures of this... you'll just have to use your imagination!)

The office floor will be made out of plynyl, which is a combination of polyester, vinyl and polyurethane. Sounds cheesy you say? Well if you think about it, you want something that is very low pile for the office, so your chair can roll over it, and they have some very cool fabrics and patterns that would go well in our modern house. We may also use this for the laundry room floor, but we might go with rubber instead. We can also get mats made out of plynyl, so we will have a few mats made for the kitchen floor out of the same material as the office floor to tie the two together.

Fortunately, the number of decisions left to be made are few. Oft times waiting for a decision can really hold up the pace of construction, and we really don't want to incur even a single day's delay. So I'm trying to be very good about making decisions quickly and sticking with them once they're made.

Progress to date

2007-04-07T09:34:00.000-07:00

The construction has been humming along. Now that the framing is complete, the roof is on, and the windows are in, there is really not quite so much to see. But in the last three weeks, all the rough electrical has been installed, the low-voltage electrical has been installed (this is the home-theater, cable/telephone/internet wiring, etc.), and the HVAC ducting has been installed. So the walls are now ready to seal up and the finishing work is ready to begin. Drywalling will start next week. So we are really making a lot of progress!

Our architect and his wife (who is also our lighting designer) were away this past week. During that time we had a key key critical problem come up. Our electrician was questioning the lights spec'd for the undercabinet lighting in the kitchen, and we had to make a decision whether to change the choice that our lighting designer had selected or not. I won't bore you with all the details, but it turns out that the lights chosen (Smedmarks) are manufactured in Sweden, and their website isn't that good. Typically when choosing undercabinet lighting, you don't care so much about the looks of the lights, because they are typically hidden under a lip in the cabinets and you don't see them. Our cabinets are completely flat, and you will see them, so the looks are important.

Fortunately, one of my friends at work is Swedish, so we had an 11 PM Skype-enabled conference call to the factory the other night to ask questions of the factory. I followed that up with a call to the US factory, who answered a bunch of questions, and also pointed me to the local rep whom I contacted. It turned out that the local rep was quite familiar with my project, having been the one who our lighting designer was consulting with, and was able to answer any remaining questions. In turn I called my contractor, and explained to him why the electrician's original concerns shouldn't be of concern and why these were the lights we had to choose, and everything was all set. Phew! Now I understand more about the lights than I really wanted to, but I'm glad I do.

I've got several bids out to lighting companies, as our electrician is going to allow us to buy the fixtures ourselves (which will save us a little bit of money in that we won't have to pay his markup and then our contractor's profit/overhead). I expect to have to buy them next week. In the meantime, our bank balances are getting smaller... it'll be time to borrow money soon.

Here is a pointer to more pics.

The move-out date is near!

2007-04-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

The end is near.. the end of how long we can stay in the scraper. Construction has started in the vacant lot next door, and we'll have to move out of the scraper on May 20th when the house will be demolished. But where will we move to? Our current plans are to move back to the house, into the two untouched bedrooms. Our house is likely to be under construction until June or July, but I don't want to move twice, and I don't want to pay any more money for rent! Most importantly, I don't want to have to move the furniture twice.

So... I've concocted an elaborate plan which will will have to carry out over the next month:

Move all the boxes in our garage and the upstairs guest bedroom elsewhere (to someone's garage or to a storage box outside)
Pack up everything that's in the cabinetry in the garage
Remove the garage cabinets
Install the old kitchen cabinets in the garage (thus clearing out more space in the garage
Move the furniture from the scraper to the garage, and cover it well
Sell the office furniture (currently in the scraper) since it won't fit well in the new office
Sell the Clavinova so we don't have to move it
Bring the TV to Kurt's folks so we don't have to move it back to the house and then move it out again once we get a new one (it's heavy, and moving it down a staircase is a real effort)

Given that I'm going to be away for a week on a business trip in a week, we won't be able to start on this plan until the end of April, which will give us three weeks. No pressure!

Objective #2: Windows!!

2007-03-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

The windows arrived on Thursday, and the great room windows are big indeed! They're so big, they won't fit in the house through the front door, and they had to lean them against the garage. Ed (our foreman) said we could reuse the supports as a goal post when we were done. Not a bad idea!

A crew from Blomberg (the window manufacturer) came today to install the windows. They were very fast and efficient. By the time we arrived at the house this morning around 11ish, the downstairs windows were already in.

We watched them install the big windows into the upstairs. They had to carry each window around the back of the house, and use a ramp that Ed had set up to walk onto the upstairs (new) deck, and then pass the window on the outside, with a couple guys holding the window from the inside of the house and a couple guys holding the window on the scaffolding. It was awe inspiring! They looked really smooth by the time they got to the third window, but I'm sure they were glad that that was the last one.

We had one slight issue to resolve with the side sliders upstairs (which side they opened up on), so it was good we went to the house today. By the end of the day, all of the window frames were installed, but there are still a few panes in the big windows that need to be installed. Objective #2 of the remodel is nearly complete!

On a very sad note, we learned that the electrician who had originally been slated to do our job passed away. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer three weeks ago, and given a year to live. Our condolences go out to his family.

More pictures can be found on Kurt's picture site.

Scraper Living ... Part Deux

2007-03-12T22:03:00.000-07:00

One aspect of living in a scraper is you tend to let the house decay around you. It's silly to fix anything because the house is going to be torn down. When the water heater broke a few weeks ago, we had to get that fixed, because really, hot water is a necessity (that's pretty much why we're not living in our house at the moment). But a burned-out lightbulb? You're talking major coin. Even so, Kurt finally did replace the porch and entryway lights this weekend, but only because the bulbs had come four in a pack!

But an event happened today that sums up the dilemma of scraper living, and why it really does start to drag you down after the first couple of months, once the "hey, we're camping!" feeling wears off. We have exactly two keys to this place. It turns out that one is a rather bad copy of the original. The keys operate the door from the kitchen to the garage, and the deadbolt to the front door. We have no keys for any other part of the house, including the front door knob.

I had, of course forgotten that we never lock the front door knob, and forgot to warn my good friend Pam, who's here visiting from Oregon (with her dog Sprocket in tow). So I gave Pam my key this morning so she could come and go without worrying about leaving the house unlocked. Unfortunately, not knowing the no-key-for-the-door-knob factoid, she, like any reasonable person, locked the doorknob as well as the deadbolt. She was quite surprised when she got home that she couldn't open the front door.

In the meantime, Kurt had given me his key (the original; Pam had my bad copy). So, when Pam called me, the only way in was through the garage, which meant that Kurt had to drive home since he has the car, and thus the garage door opener. Unfortunately, Kurt had the copied key, which naturally, does not open the kitchen door. So they both had to wait until I got home from work with the original key to open the door to the kitchen. Poor Sprocket patiently waited to be freed from scraperdom. Of course the good thing about the scraper living, is that if Sprocket had had an accident, we wouldn't have cared!

We also realized that if we'd had to break a window to get in, well, really, who would have cared about that either? We just would be getting a head start on the whole house demolition project! So I guess there are some upsides. Sort of.

But right now, I really miss my home.

The Office Door

2007-03-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

There are still a few remaining details to be resolved. One is the material to use for the office door. The office door will be a sliding door that slides on an exposed metal track. When it's closed, it will be at the end of the kitchen. When opened, it will slide next to the wall behind whatever furniture is there. When it's closed, it will sit adjacent to the red glass pantry doors, and the ovangkol (wood) buffet. The floors in the hallway are black stone. So, the door has to be a neutral color that will go with everything. Because it sits next to a hallway without windows (our skylight was outplanned since the roof framing was in the way), we'd like to use a material that will let natural light in from the windows in the office.

We've narrowed the material down to two possibilities 1) A door made of broken glass (as can be seen in the AMA building in Chicago, or in the de Young museum in SF (the former being intentional; the latter not) or 2) A plastic laminate from 3-form.com, called "Courier" (see: http://www.3-form.com/materials-varia-moderna-courier.php for a sample). Both materials are interesting and let light in. The first is a bit more elegant, the second more whimsical. Opinions? (I'm leaning towards the glass, Kurt's tending towards the courier.)

Scraper Living

2007-03-07T23:38:00.000-08:00

Not much is happening with the house. I'd hoped we would have windows installed by now, but we are waiting for the electrician to wire the outside lights. Hopefully next week... (our contractor lost the original electrician and is working on getting another one to fill in, but still it takes time).

So, it occurred to me that what this world needs is a new magazine called "Scraper Living" -- all about living the nomadic lifestyle and hopping from tear-down to tear-down.

Issue highlights include:

Ten ways to make your temporary house feel like your home
Five good workarounds for common house problems
Six great ways to finding the next scraper of your dreams
Living the nomadic lifestyle -- how to make the most of your temporary abode
NIMBY -- how to entangle the planning dept.
How to lighten your load, an eBay primer

Oh I had a bunch of other good article ideas today, but it's late and I'm tired! Tomorrow I'll go find a publisher after I map out the next couple of issues!

Remodeling Objective #1 met: New Roof

2007-02-25T10:05:00.000-08:00

The roofers finished putting the new roof on on Wednesday, just in time for the start of the rainy season! Wednesday morning they started shingling, and by the evening they were done. We have needed a new roof for 13 years, ever since we bought the house, but had been putting it off for this remodel. Now we finally have a new roof! This was one of Kurt's three objectives for the remodel, and the first objective to be completed. (His other two are: front door that doesn't stick, and waterproof downstairs. The front door will be the last to be completed most likely.)

Scaffolding has been erected outside the house to put in the windows. The windows should be installed this week, after which we'll have a completely watertight house.

The big gut-wrenching decision we had to make this week was: to put in motorized shades or not. Because we have steel everywhere, putting in motorized shades upstairs requires drilling holes in the steel in the upstairs moment frame for the wiring, and doing a home run from the wall where the switch would be to the moment frame (although I suppose we could do a wireless remote control). The problem is it adds several thousand dollars to the cost, so at this point, we decided to scrap it (although I wish we had the money to do it, as we could have programmed the shades to be down during the day when it's sunny). We'll get manual shades upstairs, and most likely they'll be up most of the time, except perhaps during the daytime in the summer.

I still have to finalize the faucets and sinks for the kitchen, and we have to finish designing the door to the office. I also need to approve all the electrical (now that we're putting in the Lutron GraphicEye lighting control system, some of the electrical has changed). The kitchen cabinets are scheduled to arrive mid-to-late May. I'm hoping we'll be able to move back into the house in early May.

It'll be great ... when it's done!

2007-02-18T14:06:00.000-08:00

Our motto for this remodel is now "It'll be great... when it's done!" I guess we don't have any patience. I have to say the excitement has worn off (maybe it did a while ago), and we're both anxious to fast forward to it being done. Remodeling stress is threefold: all the life-or-death decisions that have to be made quickly (what color should the roof shingles be? replace the gutters? fur the wall? etc.), the financial pressure related to all these decisions, and the pressure of living in a temporary residence wondering whether you're going to have to move again. I guess living in a temporary house is stressful all by itself... it's not really your home.

I know the move-in day will come sooner than we think, and we're very lucky to have found a reasonably-priced place close to our house, but I still can't wait to move back home! I think I miss our shower the most. And our kitchen. And of course, I miss the view. Kurt misses his piano the most. I miss our bed, however, Kurt does not. I miss all the storage in our master bedroom (and all the clothes and shoes I left behind). Coda really doesn't have an opinion on the matter, however. She's got her chair here in the scraper, and a nice varmint-filled view, so she's probably happier here at the scraper. But really, she's probably happy anywhere as long as we're all together!

New roof almost done!

2007-02-18T13:20:00.000-08:00

Things are moving along! We've been blessed by great weather -- where else could you reroof your house in February? Well, Australia, maybe.

Last week they tore off the old roof shingles, and put plywood sheeting over the entire house (to replace the old skip sheeting). Unfortunately, one of the old boards was rotten and the roofer put his foot through the master bathroom ceiling. Fortunately he didn't hurt himself! (I was kind of hoping that he'd done it in the guest bathroom upstairs, which we don't care about, but unfortunately it was in our already-remodeled master bedroom. Our contractor assures us they'll be able to patch it and fix it as though nothing had happened. Maybe we'll get them to fix all the nail pops while they're in there!)

By Wednesday evening, they'd completely papered the entire roof, with the new shingles perched atop. Regulations require that the chimney be higher, so they're going to add some rebar and brick to extend the chimney before putting on the shingles. All the gutters have now been replaced, and don't they look nice?

Inside they've finished cutting and nailing all the shear walls, so the framing is now done. I think. They'll remove the shear walls (plywood) as needed to put in the electrical and any additional plumbing, then they'll nail them back up. The rough plumbing for both the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom is in, and we're working on getting a gas line strung out to the upstairs deck for a BBQ. Unfortunately, we can't do a wall-mounted outdoor heater, as there is not enough space to hang it. So we'll have to figure out some alternate plan.

Yesterday, we went to the house to find Ed, our foreman, working away, finishing all the final work necessary for the windows. The windows will get installed next week, and at that point, the house will be completely watertight and secure. Once the house is watertight, the HVAC folks and the electrical guys (the electrician plus the security system and home audio/video/server installers) will be able to install all their pieces. It's looking to me like they should be able to start the finish work in mid March at the rate things are going.

Meanwhile, back at the scraper, our water heater sprung a leak on Wednesday evening. Fortunately we were around when it happened so we could turn off the water to the heater. We've been trying to work around as many problems with this house as we can, since I hate to waste money (even other peoples' money), but it's impossible to work around a broken water heater. One needs hot water. Our landlord was able to locate a used water heater from another property and had it installed the next day, so we're all set for now. Based on our discussions, it looks like we're guaranteed to still be in this place until the beginning of May (at the earliest), so I'm quite relieved. I'm fairly certain I can convince the city to let us move back in at that point, even if there is still stuff to be done, which there will be. (Like the kitchen, for example.)

So... that brings us up to date! We are getting a big tax refund which will help defray some of the many many ever-increasing costs of this remodel.

Roof framing part deux

2007-02-04T09:50:00.000-08:00

The roof is now completely framed above the great room, and mostly framed around the office. They've removed most of the scaffolding so you can really feel what the room is going to be like now. When they first took the old roof off, the room felt very big. When they started framing the roof and had all the scaffolding on, it didn't seem quite so big. But now that they have finished the framing and have removed most of the scaffolding, you can really get a sense of what the room is going to be like. And I think it's going to be the perfect size -- I've mapped out where all the furniture is going to go (although I'm not sure that Kurt and I completely agree on the location of the piano... but we have plenty of time to mentally move it from one end of the room to the other).

Our contractor says that we should be getting a new roof (shingles, I mean) very soon -- possibly this upcoming week. The windows are already here (but haven't been delivered yet), so presumably this means that within a week or two the house will be completely watertight! Kurt will have one of his three objectives met so everything is looking pretty good! We've been so lucky to have dry weather. I suspect like last year the rains will start soon, and if the weather is like last year, it will rain for quite a few days. So I'm very thankful that it's been so dry during this period of time.

Kitchen cabinets

2007-02-04T09:36:00.000-08:00

We finally ordered the kitchen cabinets. But it was not without a considerable amount of stress -- possibly the most stressful part of this project. I don't recommend designing a kitchen in a short period of time. It would have been nice to give the process four to six months, rather than the two months it took.

Our architect did a gazillion iterations with the kitchen cabinet designer at the store. The problem with iterating on modular cabinets is that you're making decisions without understanding the total price implications. Even though the kitchen cabinet designer was pretty good about telling us relative pricing tradeoffs, the lack of transparency in the pricing made it a bit more stressful. When we got our final design, it turned out that the information we'd been given about the price differential between the two cabinet models we were deciding between was not exactly accurate. So the cabinets wound up costing quite a bit more than we'd anticipated. But, due to the circumstances surrounding the sale, the store gave us a big break on the price, and we ordered the cabinets. I did think for a moment of scrapping it all, but the thought of having to go through this again just gave me the willies!

Now that the cabinets are ordered, I feel at peace :) I know that they'll be really nice, and I don't have to worry about them any more until they arrive in May. We almost certainly will be moving back in without a kitchen, however. But that's also fine.

If you want to see the cabinets, you can go to http://www.poliform.it and click on Poliform by Varenna, and in their collection, you can look at Matrix, Compasizione 3, which shows the style and the wood (but obviously, not the configuration, since that's kitchen dependent).

I now have to submit a permit application for the kitchen, as it wasn't part of the original plans. But since all the structural pieces (changes to the walls) were already submitted in the original permit, it should take a day to get the new permit.

Roof framing and kitchen progress

2007-01-28T09:45:00.000-08:00

The roof framing is taking shape on the new part of the house. The "great" room is now completely framed. You can really see the construction now from the front of the house, which up until now, has been mostly hidden from view. But as you can see, the new roof is a bit higher than the old one.

Thursday, the crane came again to deliver the steel trusses that support the roof. You can see one peeking out in the picture above. Attached to the trusses is a 40-foot glue-lam beam that forms the apex of the new roof. The new roof still needs to be tied into the old roof, as you can see, but the framing is really coming right along. It's interesting how much scaffolding they have to erect to get the new roof framed, but not surprising when you think of it.

One of the requirements of our insurance company to insure our house for its true value is that we install a central-reporting fire and burglar alarm. We had two people out to bid, and received two bids for essentially the same system. Both firms came highly recommended, but one bid was almost 50% more than the other. So, we chose the least expensive one. It just goes to show you it pays to get multiple bids on things.

While all this construction was going on, the kitchen design continues. We met with the cabinet company at the house earlier this week, which was a bit chaotic. We had our architect, contractor, kitchen salesperson and one of their designers at the house. Although the meeting was chaotic, I think we came out of it a bit clearer as to what was going where, and how specific cabinets would fit in the space available. (As the cabinets we chose are European modular cabinets, one must fit the space to the cabinets rather than the other way around, since the cabinets only come in fixed sizes.) If I had really understood how stressful this whole process was going to be, I think I would have made a different choice; but at the moment it's too late to go back. I know they will be very nice when they're in. Since the meeting, the cabinet designer and our architect have been interating on the plan, spec'ing the exact cabinets and internal mechanisms to go in each place. I think we're closing in on the exact specifications. We have to order the cabinets this upcoming week to avoid a price increase. No pressure! But once the cabinets are ordered, we can relax a little bit... there are very few things left to pick out.

Finally, we also have someone designing our home audio/theater/computer wiring systems. We met with him yesterday to review the plan, and he'll go ahead and do all the wiring now while the walls are open. The system is a bit expensive, so we'll probably wait until later to purchase/install all the equipment, but at least the house will be wired properly! One little thing we have to figure out is how to wire rear speakers in the family room downstairs, as the wires will have to go through steel. Minor details!

More house pics can be found here.

The Sky's the Limit (part 2)!

2007-01-21T09:36:00.000-08:00

The roof over the great room is off completely, and all the oldinterior walls are now removed! The kitchen is now reframed, and I believe this marks a major milestone -- all the destruction of the old house has been done, and only construction remains.

You can now see what the new roofline will look like, as they have framed the side of the house. In fact, for the first time since we started, there is more evidence than just a portapotty at the front of the house that construction is taking place.

The remaining steel (trusses for the roof) will be arriving on Thursday by crane. At that point, they will finish framing the roof, and then they will (hopefully) be able to reshingle the entire house. We continue to enjoy fabulous sunny weather which is really a blessing given that we have no roof!

The kitchen is also progressing. We've chosen the cabinets, and will have the cabinet maker come down on Tuesday to do the final measurements so we can order them. They have a 16 week lead time, so most likely we will be moving back into the house without a kitchen. But we can live on takeout and use the fridge in the garage no problem. We have a few things left to pick out, but we're getting pretty close to being done with all the selections.

We also had a couple alarm companies out to bid on an alarm for the house (required by our insurer), and have chosen the company (there was a surprising difference in the bids, even though they were both for the same equipment). Another company is designing our home media system (video, audio, internet) system for us -- we'll wire everything for that now and implement it some time in the future once we replenish our rapidly diminishing bank account.

So things are moving along!

The Sky's the Limit!

2007-01-19T19:21:00.000-08:00

The roof is finally off! At least part way. The picture on the left was taken a week ago, and as you can see, they have sawed off a portion of the old roof, in preparation for reframing the roof. The downstairs, at this point, is completely framed, as is the office (except for the roof/ceiling). The kitchen is down to 2 by 4s, but they haven't yet removed the half wall that will be removed for the new kitchen.

The weather has held up and been just beautiful for the entire month. We had one small little bit of rain, and it's been really cold. But we've been really fortunate to be able to do this part of the construction in January! Hopefully it will hold out until the new roof is framed and the new shingles are on.

Framing

2007-01-03T08:23:00.000-08:00

The framing continues. The downstairs is now completely framed and the old walls and the temporary walls are gone. There's only one little half wall in the downstairs closet (now server room) which needs to be removed, and then the framing will be exactly as it will be in the new house. The new office subfloor is also in.

New guest bedroom:

Office floor:

More pics on my website.

Kitchen plans b and c

2006-12-21T11:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Habitat for Humanity was to come pick up our old kitchen. Upon arrival, they deemed the cabinets unsuitable for resale (too many of their ilk in inventory currently) so they did not cart them away. However, they did pick up our old windows, appliances, sinks and the old countertops which did clear some space. So what to do with the old cabinets? At the moment, the best possibility is to remove the previous old kitchen cabinets from the garage, and then installed the new old kitchen cabinets in the garage. I'm certainly open to other ideas, however!

On another front, we had been awaiting one more bid from our contractor's custom cabinetmaker. However, he's all booked up for the next several months so we will need to find another local cabinetmaker to prepare a bid. I fear we will not have made a decision on cabinets by the end of the year. I suspect this will mean we will be moving back into our house before the kitchen is finished. With a microwave, a toaster, takeout and the garage refrigerator I'm sure we'll be fine!

Progress on the rest of the house continues. Most of the joists for the upper floor and the office floor are now in. They are trying to finish the flooring for the upper floor so they can then begin the work on the roof. At this pace all the exterior framing and roof should be completed in January. It will be nice to have a watertight house again!

A hole in the floor, no more kitchen

2006-12-17T12:08:00.000-08:00

The first wave of steel is now welded into place. The steel floor supports have been welded in to form the basis of the floor between the first and second floors. In the process, it looks like they decided to remove all the existing wooden floor joists after all. (Given how cut up they had to be by the steel, and how unlevel the original floor was, it probably made the most sense. They'll now need to insert wooden joists between the steel to form the bottom of the floor.) The supports for the new stairs are also in -- two cylindrical supports which will anchor the new stairway. To be honest, I'm not sure how they're supposed to be finished -- it will be interesting to see them in their final form!

Now that all this work has been done, you can really get an idea of the sizes and placement of the new rooms, even though some of the existing interior walls have yet to be removed. The new family room will be a bit bigger (and more intelligently laid out) than the old one. The bathroom downstairs may be a little bit smaller than the original one, but is still of ample size. The downstairs bedroom will be of a good size. The downstairs storage closet (beneath the laundry room) will get turned into a computer storage room, with conduits for wiring upstairs to the new office. It will be nice to have all that equipment out of sight!

There is still more steel to come -- the two ceiling trusses, for example. However, I don't know what's left to do before they can put those supports in. I think the crane will need to come one more time before those trusses can go in. I'm not sure how much of the roof they'll need to pull off before they do that, however.

The kitchen is almost completely disassembled. Habitat for Humanity will come on Wednesday to pick up the cabinets, sinks, ovens, etc. Hopefully removal of the kitchen and other items will clear out some space in the garage and make it easier to move around. We are still working on the new kitchen design, waiting for one more cabinet bid so we can make our decision. We've got to finalize the design before the end of the year to have a hope of not delaying our move-in date. Fortunately, I'm taking the next two weeks off from work, so I'll have some time to work on the kitchen and finalize the design!

As always, there are many more pictures available.

Major Milestone -- no more stairs!

2006-12-11T22:43:00.000-08:00

The crew has been making steady progress since the steel arrived. On Friday, the stairs were finally removed! Now moving between the two floors is a bit more inconvenient unless you want to risk the ladder. But, since the key insight (or, some would say, folly) that started this remodel was the idea of moving the stairs to a different location to allow the kitchen to be opened up, removing the old stairs is a major major milestone.

On other fronts, the steel welding continues. Each steel I-beam has a two by six bolted in, so that drywall, or windows or whatever can then be attached to it. So the steel goes up, then the wood goes in. In some places, like the framing for the office floor, now that it's covered with wood, you really don't realize that the steel is there.

Downstairs, there is a temporary "wall" holding up the floor above. It's interesting how they have to frame up temporary supports as they move the walls around. I'm sure I've said it before, but this whole project is like a big jigsaw puzzle... it's fascinating to watch!

Because our entire house is so poorly constructed, and they're having to redo framing we hadn't intended to do, we've moved to a time and materials basis for the framing (over our original fixed-price bid). I'm hoping that it doesn't turn out to be as bad as it might and that we aren't too much over our original price. Our contractor has been really good about letting us know these things in advance and trying to work it so we can minimize the overruns.

The kitchen demolition is going to happen early this week. Habitat for Humanity will pick up the old kitchen on Thursday... there's no turning back!

For a complete set of pictures, you can go here or here.

Moment Frame

2006-12-05T21:10:00.000-08:00

It's difficult to really capture the enormity of the moment frame with the camera, because we can no longer get far enough back to capture it fully. But hopefully these pictures give you some idea. In the span of time between yesterday morning to the evening, they put together the outer moment frame, and the supports for the new office.

Today they worked on welding more of the steel together; I'll have new pictures tomorrow.

A complete set of pics from today is here.

Steel?? WE GOT STEEL!

2006-12-04T21:54:00.000-08:00

Woo-hoo! The day has finally come. The steel arrived!!! Now, our house is starting to look like a house! I wish I could show you the pictures of the completed moment frame, but alas, all I can show you is the mondo crane that lifted the steel over our house, the raw steel, and all the guys in hardhats working on the steel. As of this evening (when it was too dark to photograph), the moment frame is up, and it is impressive looking! It was hard to see how big the upstairs room is going to be when this is done, but now it's much easier to visualize.

The still have other steel parts to bring in; I'm not sure whether they'll need to bring the crane in again or not though.

I was worried about the crane being a real inconvenience for our neighbors, but big as it was, our cul-de-sac is bigger, and it looked like there was plenty of room for people to get in and out of the cul-de-sac.

Where are those pictures?

2006-11-29T22:48:00.000-08:00

We have been taking pictures, but really, there's not much to show over the past month since the foundation was poured. They've reframed a couple of outside walls that weren't true, and have finished all the preparation for the steel which should arrive any day now. The moment frame and other supports are being welded in the shop, and then will be carted over to the house where it will be craned in. Hopefully, we will get the steel either Friday or Monday, and then the framing should start going a lot quicker.

Scope creep, and then some -- new kitchen!

2006-11-26T09:54:00.000-08:00

If you recall, I was bemoaning the sorry state of our old house construction. Well, it turns out that to make the living room floor level, they will need to have a stepup from the kitchen to the LR/DR, as they cannot get the floor height of the kitchen to match, without losing so much of the cabinetry that we lose the dishwasher. Keep in mind that we've already "lost" the trash compactor, something that I don't really care about. But the dishwasher I do...

So, we bit the bullet and decided that we will replace the kitchen, so that they can get everything to fit right. We hadn't really planned to do this at this stage, because, well, we don't have any money left. But we have a home equity line o' credit, so we'll have to dip into that to be able to afford it.

Fortunately, the timing was good, as I took this whole week off. And ironically, I had decided to go up to the design center in SF to look at kitchens for when we had the money to do it. So I had a headstart on trying to figure things out -- what started as a speculative exercise turned into a for-real one.

I visited about six kitchen places in two days. Two custom cabinetry makers, and two European kitchen makers have copies of our old kitchen plans and are going to give us a rough bid as to how much new cabinets will cost. I did also look at Bulthaup and Poggenpuhl (which I preferred), but they are going to turn out to be way too expensive for us to do. So right now the choices are between custom cabinetry and Varenna, by Poliform (an Italian company). I should get the bids in a week, and then we can decide.

We weren't planning to replace most of the appliances, however, it turns out that our ovens are 24 inches, which is now a nonstandard size. So we'll get new ovens. We can keep our cooktop, and we'll keep our Subzero refrigerator (saving us quite a bundle). The dishwasher is up for grabs... if we can reface it to match the cabinetry, we'll keep it, because it's still in good working condition. Otherwise, we'll replace it. We'll have to get new sinks and fixtures, as well as new counters. We'll also have to upgrade the light fixtures. As much as I'd like to replace the kitchen windows, we'll probably leave them as they are for now to save money.

Replacing the kitchen now, although a bit stressful financially, will be good in the long run, since we can get all the major construction over with at the same time, and since we'll now have a kitchen that matches the rest of the house. If we can get the kitchen spec'd out and ordered by the end of the year, it shouldn't impact the construction schedule much.

And so, the adventure continues!

Life Without Internet

2006-11-26T09:45:00.000-08:00

We lost our DSL for three days in the scraper and our connection to the world. It's pathetic, really, how much we depend upon a connection to the Internet! You'd think it would have been a welcome relief. However, although I took all this week off, there was some actual work I had to do at a specific time on Thanksgiving. So we packed up the laptop and drove down to our local pizzeria to sponge off of their free wireless (the pizzeria was closed, but their wireless was still open). I sat in the car for thirty minutes doing my work, while Kurt took pictures and fetched us coffee from the one open place in town -- Starbuck's! So it wasn't all that bad.

We thought the problem with the DSL was the line to the house. But we didn't really investigate very hard at first. On Friday, Kurt went down to Fry's and bought a new modem, to make sure the modem wasn't the problem (ours old modem was the first generation DSL modem... six years old, so it was amazing it still worked). Still didn't work. So we plugged the modem into the test port on the phone junction box (outside the house), and that did work. So, for the third time, we relocated the DSL, this time to the master bedroom (the opposite side of the house).

We now have both the phone and the DSL plugged into the test port on the outside of the house, and wires strung into the windows. The joys of scraper living! The inside wiring off this place is so noisy, we have given up trying to get it to work for real, and hopefully this solution will work until we have to move out. Despite the fact that it's not our house, we really hate to have our landlord put any money into a place that's destined for destruction.

We had to relocate the office into the second bedroom, which was the room we'd originally planned to set up the office in. So Kurt had to set up the desk, which has been disassembled since we moved in here. As a result, it's starting to feel more like we live here than like we're just squatting. (I'm a bit fearful that this could portend having to move out sooner than later as Murphy's Law kicks in!)

The upside of all this is that the wireless and DSL work much better than they ever have, and I have good wireless in the parts of the house that I frequent. The old setup was at the opposite extremity of the house, and didn't reach well into the bedroom.

To scrape or not to scrape, that is the question

2006-11-18T08:46:00.000-08:00

We are still waiting for the steel to be fabricated and delivered. This is putting us _way_ behind schedule. Apparently the hold up was the wait for the structural engineer to get the revised plans to the steel fabricators. It's interesting... we tried to cut down on the cost by taking some steel out of a place that didn't need it. However, doing so, while saving a bunch of money, has increased the delay. My guess is the delays will wind up costing us money, so the net net won't be much savings. (I think if we'd had a contractor during the all important structural engineering phase, we'd have caught this much earlier and wouldn't have incurred the delays.)

When we met with our contractor this week he pointed out all the places where our house isn't true. The walls aren't quite at right angles, the boards don't run level, etc. I think in retrospect, we might have been better just dozing the part of the house we're remodeling. They've already had to reframe one of the exterior walls (which I don't think they'd been planning to do), and they're going to have to do something about the variation in the run of the floor. I found myself getting a bit depressed at the quality of the crackerbox we live in. There's no question it will be a better house when we're done; I just hope that the poor quality of the existing house doesn't compromise the end result.

Scraper hopping

2006-11-18T08:39:00.000-08:00

Kurt's enjoying the nomadic lifestyle. Our eviction from the house we're living in is probably four months away at this point, and Kurt's thinking we'll just take up the life of scraper hopping. Once we get booted out of this place, we'll find another scraper to occupy and will live there until they're ready to tear it down. We'd be the last people to occupy many a house, laying house after house to rest. It certainly would be a good way to experience other neighborhoods, and would force you to pare your belongings down to the bare minimum. I'm solidly against this however. Moving is just too much work!

In the queue for steel

2006-11-05T09:59:00.000-08:00

The foundation's poured, and there's not much to do until the steel is ready to deliver. They've installed some bolts in the foundation with which to bolt the house to the foundation. They also took the drywall off the inside of our master bedroom wall in preparation for shoring up that wall (because of the structural work in the rest of the house). So now we just have to wait. Steel is supposed to arrive this week or next, and then construction on the new part of the house will really begin!

Foundation trilogy

2006-10-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

The concrete has been poured, and the foundation is complete! Friday they must have poured all the concrete, as we now have a solid floor again. It's exciting that we finally have a new foundation. Coda's not sure what to make of it, however.

Our architect mailed us a note about the soffitting and gutters on the house. I wasn't even sure about what soffitting was, to be honest. Apparently the way he'd designed the finish work under the eaves was to finish them off with stucco. The gutters in the new part of the house were also designed to be nicer looking than the current ones. But since no one can really see the outside of our house, we all realized that this was an unnecessary expense. So, we'll finish the gutters and the eaves the same way they are on the house now (which is basically, exposed eaves, and smallish gutters). This will hopefully save us a significant chunk of change that we can then apply to either repainting the entire house, or to the shear wall reinforcement that has to be done to the bedroom side of the house.

Our architect said in the beginning when we first got the bid, that we should plan that we were going to spend that amount of money, and I think that's right. Any amount that we save in one place seems to get eaten up by either an unanticipated expense or an augmentation to the existing plans as we start to realize what it means.

Foundation II

2006-10-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

As of midweek last week, the concrete for the foundation was ready to be poured. The rebar was in, the moisture seal was on, and everything was ready to go. (I suspect they were waiting for an inspection.)

Wednesdays are our days to have our weekly meeting with our architect and contractor, to discuss any open issues that come up. It turns out that some of our walls are not perfectly square (surprise!) and we had to make a decision as to whether to "fur" the wall of the garage side (which will make one wall of the new office) to make the walls perfectly orthogonal. Since it isn't that important to us, and it's not that far off, we decided not to (because doing so will increase the expense, natch).

We also had to decide whether to do a flush baseboard (this is a really nice detail in a modern house, but it's much much harder to do than an applied base, and in a remodel like ours, it's probably much harder to do and therefore too expensive). So, we decided not to. We did decide to do a flush detail on the door frames, however (no wood trim), since that should look cleaner.

We had a long discussion about whether the front door can be salvaged or not, and I'm not sure what we finally ended up with. Whatever the cheapest solution is, I think. We got a new bid on the HVAC, and it came in a little bit lower than the original rough estimate. The upstairs will be air conditioned (for those few days during the year when it's unbearably hot), and the downstairs will be plumbed for air, but will not be air conditioned yet. In fact, due to the state of our existing heating system, the entire system is going to be replaced.

Our architect and contractor are working on getting us a new estimate of the remaining open items so we can figure out how much everything is going to cost in total. Even though we have a fixed-price bid, there are so many allowances in there that it's hard to get a handle on what it's really going to cost in the end. There are also other items that we don't have accounted for that we're on the hook to pay. It's difficult to pick out the remaining materials without knowing that.

The next thing we have to finish specifying is the electrical and lighting details. For the electrical, we're probably going to put in Cat V-E throughout the house just in case we'll need it. We also have to put in wiring for an alarm (sigh) since our insurance company won't insure the house for what it's worth unless we have that. We'll probably plan out a home theater setup while we're at it, even if we don't put it in for a while. While the walls are opened up, it makes sense to plan for as much as possible!

Foundation foundation

2006-10-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

It's been very busy at work, with no time to post. However, Kurt's been taking pictures, and I've been putting them on my website at http://www.askpolly.com/remodel. For a change, I've been posting pictures quicker than writing blog entries, so if you're curious you can check back there to see the latest.

Everything in the house at this point has been demolished, except for the stairs (which they're using to get between floors), and the half-wall between the kitchen and the great room. I think they'll leave that closed up until we have a real roof on the house, since it will expose the entire kitchen. The laundry room is getting refloored, so they've moved everything out of there and ripped out the floor.

Two weeks ago, our contractor finally got the portable drilling rig to drill the holes for the piers. The holes have to go down quite deep (something like fifteen feet). Access to the back of our house is not great, so they had to bring this machine that works on compression. It sits in the driveway, and then a hose snakes around to the back of the house to power the portable drilling rig. From there, they could dig the holes.

The one day it rained, they drilled inside (there are three piers that will be created inside the house -- two for the new stairs, and one for the new bathroom wall). It took them a couple of days to finish drilling. Then, they had to get a soil engineer out to sample the soil and determine how the concrete needed to be mixed. Then, they put the rebar and concrete in the holes to make the piers. The inspector came out and signed off on that piece of construction.

So at this point we've got piers, and I think they'll start building the foundation next. The steel is being constructed and part of it will be welded offsite. The steel should arrive in a week. The roof/ceiling in the LR has been cut back and is propped on a few two by fours/four by fours. They'll leave it that way until the steel is in, at which point I think they'll be ready to start reframing the new roof.

It seems that the lowest point of our new ceiling is at the highest point of the old ceiling. Which means, we're going to have some really high ceilings! (We can call it the "Grrrrrrrrreat!" room.) It should be a nice room when it's all done. We did decide to plumb the room for air, and our contractor rebid the HVAC part of the contract with that in mind. It turns out that they are going to have to replace our entire HVAC system in our entire house, but this should still come in under the original (very high) rough estimate.

Our architect is now trying to finalize our lighting and electrical plan. I realized at this point that even though we have a fixed bid, I really don't know how much we're going to wind up paying. There are lots of "incidentals" that aren't so incidental, such as the money we have to pay to the welding inspector to inspect the welds, or additional fees for the structural engineer. A thousand here, a thousand there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money! A lot of the pieces of our construction bid were based on allowances for materials; however, now that we've picked out the materials, I don't know whether we stayed within those allowances or not. So... this week we're going to have to get a better estimate of everything in the bid, along with the remaining "incidentals" so we know how much we can afford to spend on lighting. All this money stuff is a little bit stressful!

Construction has begun!

2006-09-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

I've been remiss on posting, but it's been so busy at work I've had no energy. You can find a bunch of pictures from September 23, September 25 and September 28 on my website.

In the last week construction finally began. We had to write our first big check (gulp) to our contractor on Wednesday. As of today, the house is completely dismantled except for the stairs and the roof. They're leaving the stairs in as long as possible so they have an easy way to work on the first (top) floor of the house. The deck has been cut back for the foundation, and the concrete slab on the bottom floor has been cut for the piers. The new bathroom plumbing has been installed (the line to the sewer, etc.).

Because the downstairs plans were initially drawn from the plans that were used to build the house, once they exposed all the walls it was apparent that some of the measurements were not quite right. The concrete pillar that supports the fireplace upstairs is in the way, so the bathroom gets a little bit shorter. (But I figure, it saves us a little money because we'll have to use less tile! Perhaps the guests won't stay quite as long as they did before.)

They removed the cabinets and hood and the backsplash in the kitchen in preparation for exposing the kitchen wall. I sure wish we had the money to redo the cabinets, as they are looking a little bit dated. They moved the stove into the garage and put all the drawers on the counters. This weekend we have to go move all the stuff in the drawers to our new house so it won't get super dusty during the remodel. That being said, they have covered everything with plastic and continue to do an excellent job of keeping the construction site clean.

Where are those darned pictures?

2006-09-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

You're probably wondering why no pix in the past week or so? I just returned from a short (work) trip to Stockholm. Kurt's been taking pictures, but I have had no time to blog.

The house is now almost completely dismantled. All but the plate glass windows are now gone. The fireplace has been destroyed (hurrah!), and most of the drywall and insulation is completely gone. Basically we are left with a shell of a house.

The contracting crew is doing a great job of keeping everything neat. They pile all the stuff up on the driveway according to type of material (wood, metal, insulation, etc.), and then cart it all off when they have enough to get rid of. Fortunately, they also carted off all the crap we took out of our house, saving us a dump run or two.

We are awaiting the arrival of the post hole digger (or whatever the heck you call it) to start digging the piers for the foundation. I think actual construction should start this week.

Some newish pics can be found on my website.

Finally all moved out of the old house (sorta)

2006-09-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

We went to the house this evening and moved all the remaining stuff out of the rooms that are going away. We still have to clean off the counters in the kitchen, but that will need to wait until another day. Getting rid of stuff and moving is really exhausting work!

Although they're still ripping off stucco from the outside, we noticed that today they have ripped out drywall from the downstairs ceiling. So I think major destruction is about to begin!

Tomorrow they are going to rip the windows off the house and barricade the bedroom wing with plywood (so no one can get in while the walls are off.

In the meantime, I leave for Sweden on Thursday, but don't have the right clothing at the scraper. Tomorrow we have to go to the house so I can get some clothes to take with me. And maybe a suitcase to put them in. Fortunately, we have an alternate front door in the bedroom to use during the remodel. Our own private apartment with no electricity or gas.

I will post pictures tomorrow, once I'm all packed and ready to go on my trip!

Peeling off the walls

2006-09-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

The stucco destruction continues. They made much more progress today. I suspect as soon as they've done everything they're going to do to the upstairs outside, they'll then rip up the deck. As I mentioned in my last post, my theory is that they're doing a lot of work to the outside work now while they have the deck in place, because it will be easier to work from the deck than to work from scaffolding. Once they've done that they'll take the deck off and will start the foundation.

Which brings me to... building permit. We have our demolition permit, but we don't yet have our building permit. I think we're supposed to have it today or Tuesday, but to be honest, I'm not really sure! They can continue to take structures down, but they can't actually start to put anything up until they get the building permit. We've already paid money to the city school districts based on the amount of space we're adding. We now have to pay I-don't-know-how-much based on the value of the construction. Everything seems to be based on an increment over whatever else you're already paying, so as your construction costs go up (because of regulations that the city puts in place), so do your costs for the building permits. It seems like there's a bit of a conflict of interest at work here, doesn't it? All I know is that at certain points it feels like everyone's got their hand in your pocket.

Tonight I walked from the old house to the scraper. I walked down our really steep hill, and up the adjacent very steep hill to get over to the cross street to our temporary abode. It was quite a pleasant evening and quite a pleasant walk indeed! A lot longer by foot than by car, but still very pleasant. The dogs enjoyed the walk too. Maybe we'll walk over to the house from the scraper tomorrow morning, and then walk from there to downtown.

Breaking up is hard to do (apparently)

2006-09-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

The big news on the remodeling site yesterday was the arrival of the portapotty! You know you've arrived when you have a portapotty in your front yard. We have ARRIVED!

If you were going to tear down your house completely, it would be easy. You'd just bring in a big wrecking ball or the claw of death and start hacking away at the structure. Heck, you could probably even dynamite it. A few hours or maybe a day and the house is gone!

Remodeling is a different story. Slow going because you want to preserve the basic structure of the house. Plus, you want to shield parts of the house from the elements, those parts which are not being remodeled. So the demolition goes a bit slowly as they peel the stucco from the parts of the house that are being remodeled.

I think what's happening is that they want to get all the stucco off the being-remodeled parts of the house now, while the 2nd-floor deck is still there. It will be a lot easier to do that from the deck than from scaffolding. Because they're not yet ready to expose the insides of the house, once the stucco is gone they board it back up (for protection). At least that's what I'm surmising. (I suppose I could just ask Mike... but it wouldn't be as much fun as guessing.) It's a very interesting process to watch!

Yesterday they made good progress, but there is still more stucco to go. Looking at the house from this angle and without the kiwi vine I'm struck at how incredibly ugly the stucco (and even the house) is. I think we're going to have to figure out how to put a siding on that doesn't look quite so ... dated ... without costing us a lot of extra money.

The wrecking ball pays a visit! Destruction begins!

2006-08-30T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well, the day is finally here. Okay, a couple days ago they tore off the trellis to our deck. But that was just foreplay. Today they finally started ripping up the house. I thought this day would never come!

We stopped by the house after work and were treated to rubble in the front yard, caution tape on the side deck and bare wood framing on the back of the house! They are tearing away the stucco adjacent to where the new foundation will be built. I suspect that tomorrow they will tear off the deck.

We FINALLY get our demolition permit!

2006-08-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

Nothing new happened at the house today, but our contractor reported that we were FINALLY issued our demolition permit! Woo-hoo! Our building permit should be ready in a few days.

Constructions BEGINS! Oh wait... maybe not yet.

2006-08-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the house first thing in the morning and were delighted to see three trucks in front of our house. We even saw lumber!! Mike was going to have his guys dismantling our kiwi plan that had entwined itself around our deck (which was to be removed to make room for house), while he went to pull the demolition permit from the city. We moved a few more leftover things from the yard into the garage, and left hopeful that by tonight there would be some actual demolition.

A little later in the day, Mike called to say that the city had told him that more trees needed to be protected -- trees that sat behind the part of the deck which was to remain (hard to see how they'd get chain-link fence there).

When we stopped by the house after work, there was more chain-link fencing up and some caution tape around the deck. So it looks like we should (crossing fingers) have our demolition permit tomorrow and real destruction can begin.

Today they just managed to say goodbye to the kiwi -- we no longer have kiwi or a trellis on the deck. I think that's good progress!

While we were at the house we saw our next-door neighbors (who had been gone on the weekend so we didn't get a chance to talk with them then). We had a lovely chat and explained a little bit about the project. They might take some of the stuff we're taking out, as our houses are of a similar era and some of the things in our house might fit nicely in theirs. Of course by the time we finished talking it was getting very dark and oh yeah, we don't have electricity, so we'll have to continue the discussion tomorrow!

First get together at the scraper!

2006-08-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

On Sunday night I had some friends from work over to the scraper to eat some pizza and watch a movie. I figured it would be easy, because you just order out for pizza. We soon figured out all the things we hadn't moved from our house: a corkscrew for the two bottles of wine that people brought. Uh, more than two plates (fortunately Kurt was able to retrieve the Chinet from our house before guests arrived... those will come in handy, but I guess we'll have to make a Costco run to have a steady supply!). Maybe some glasses or cups? Good thing we bought canned sodas!

Oh yeah. Chairs. You need more than four chairs if you have eight people. So we used the piano bench, Coda's kennel, the office chair and that seemed to do the trick. Must remember to get a few folding chairs!

All in all we had a great time, and it was a nice way to finish off the weekend. We wound up all being too tired to watch a movie, so everyone went home relatively early so we could collapse.

Moving out is more work than I thought!

2006-08-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

We spent all weekend cleaning stuff out of the rooms that are going to be renovated. On Friday I thought we were almost done; on Sunday I couldn't believe how long it took! The last bits of what has to be moved out are the hardest, because you can't really get help to decide what to keep and what to throw away. Kurt's brother said, just get some plastic storage bins, dump everything in there, stack 'em up and deal with it later. But I was determined to get rid of as much stuff as possible. In the end, I probably did fill a few cardboard boxes with stuff I'm going to get rid of later. My eBay pile at the scraper has also grown considerably (so look for some new auctions soon... once I get some energy back!).

While I decided things and packed/recycled/tossed out stuff, Kurt did recycling runs and other necessary errands. We did find one outlet in the house that actually still had power, so we hooked up our little portable stereo to power, and rocked out while we were packin'. It certainly made the time go by quicker!

Sunday, we started dismantling things as well. The closet organizers and the track lighting will all be salvaged and given away or sold. There are a bunch of other things that I'm certain someone could find a good use for but I'm not sure how to match up the person with the thing (craigslist, I suppose). Hardwood floors, wrought-iron railings, etc. Hopefully we'll find a way to recycle what we're taking out of the house.