Here's what I need: an entirely separate room for my Newfoundland mix Zeus -- to bathe and dry him, feed and water him, and give him the high self-esteem a dog gets with his own space.
This story, in the Hartford (Conn.)Courant, is about a kitchen remodel in which half the space was given over to the needs of soap opera writer Megan McTavish's five Bernese mountain dogs, a breed I totally love.
I know, I know, we're supposed to be scaling down our homes, not adding dog rooms. But as a dog nut, I can't fault this.
From the article:
"The dog room has a bank of Shaker-style cabinets that organize all the dog supplies. There's one drawer just for leashes, another for grooming supplies, still another for dog bowls. There's storage space for towels, and recycling pull-out cabinetry. Instead of plastic bottles and glass jars, the cabinets house bins of dog food."
And: "In one corner of the room is a raised grooming bathtub and a fold-away grooming table. The floor was tiled for easy clean-up and durability, and portions of the walls near the tub were tiled as well so they can easily be wiped down when the dogs shake after a bath."
In the afternoon, when the sun has finally started to heat up the indoor air, the Jahnkes open the French doors in the kitchen and the afternoon breezes sweep the hot air through the house, up this stairwell . . .
. . . and out through the clerestory windows at the very top of the home. The design for this house (which was rebuilt after a fire) started at the top to make it compatible with solar panels and natural air flow. And then the rest of the design flowed downward from there. See operable skylights in a contemporary Hermosa Beach home that perform the same function.
As shocking as it may seem to fans of young, hip, cool, midcentury contemporary design, this style will not be popular forever.
Stick around on the planet for a few decades, and you'll understand all too well that today's "modern" is tomorrow's "hopelessly dated."
Whenever I find homeowners denigrating Mexican tiles or avocado green appliances from the 1970s, I caution: Think about your karma. Thirty years from now, in a kitchen remodeled today, a young person may gaze upon the stainless steel appliances, glass tile backsplash and sleek cabinets and declare them "totally gross."
I started thinking about the end of our contemporary era when I studied this photo from Architectural Digest. I'm using this luminescent white kitchen (which is in a New York penthouse) as inspiration for my own kitchen update.
Notice how the living room furniture and the railing on that staircase in the background are very contemporary. But look at the kitchen itself. The beadboard on the cabinet doors, the white-washed table and floor, and those metal, farm-style chairs look suspiciously country in flavor.
In another magazine, I read that poofy drapes are coming back into style. And another article asked if it's not time to reconsider growing herbs.
This is all starting to sound like Mother Earth News to me. And if we are headed for a transition from contemporary to earthy, this kitchen says it all.
Joni's condo kitchen: What to do about the window covering?
Six weeks into the part-time remodel, the two friends and co-workers at a surgical clinic — Joni and Patti — are getting down to the final touches on Joni's kitchen.
So far, they have:
• Taken down a cabinet over the peninsula that was blocking natural light.
• Added a mod s-shaped track light.
• Stripped the cabinets and doors and applied a brown base with a green glaze.
• Chosen, ordered and paid for the glass backsplash tile.
Of all these jobs, of course, it was the cabinets that took the most time. Patti suffered a setback (and suffered is the perfect word) when her "guru" at the paint store told her to sand against the grain when a certain look she was after was not coming about.
Patti knew intuitively that you're not supposed to sand against the grain. But she had gotten so much good advice from this expert that she went ahead and sanded the doors, ALL the doors, in that manner. Big mistake, it turns out. And another paint guy said you should, of course, never sand against the grain. I won't even go into how much extra staining and painting this necessitated, as it would be just too painful for Patti to have to relive here. Suffice it to say: Trust your instincts and question authority!
So, on other side of that debacle, the big deal now is: What should Joni do about an updated window treatment? Above, you see Patti at the beginning of the project explaining the issues, which are: Joni wants maximum natural light with maximum privacy. The way this condo is set up, her window looks right across the front porch and into her neighbor's front porch.
My idea: I'd tackle that wooden trellis separating the two porches rather than muck up the window. Think about it: If she installed a translucent panel over the white grid, just enough to block views but clear enough to allow light through, the window wouldn't need any covering at all. I mean, the only people who could see into the kitchen would be those standing at the door.
SoCal swimming pools don't seem as popular as they once were. Maybe it's the $40,000 to $80,000 or higher price tag?
But how about looking at a photo of a pool? That I can afford. And color studies have shown that we are tremendously affected by the colors we observe. Blues and greens make us feel cooler, while oranges and reds make us feel warmer.
So in honor of today' scorching temperatures, I present you with the pool in the Los Olivos backyard of Michelle Griffoul and Michael Byrne. I feel cooler just looking at this, and I welcome you to use it as a screen saver.
And no, those aren't real stingrays, but ceramic tiles that Michelle made (she's a tile designer and manufacturer) and embedded in the bottom, along with other ceramic critters. If Michelle is not traveling, I'll bet money she's in this pool today.
If this was my house I'd be really fit, and here's why: Every evening, I'd walk back and forth, from street to front door, over and over again, just to enjoy the sensation of this lit walkway.
I'm sure this would make the folks at the International Dark Sky Association happy. After all, this is where you need nighttime light, on the ground, and not shooting out into the sky.
Read the whole story of this Westwood remodel in the Home section.
I'm all for conservation. Really, I am. But what's the real point? Those 70,000 people who could move into the proposed new Tejon Ranch city-sprawl will need some water, and guess who's going to sacrifice for them? Tag, you're it.
The new water-conservation plan calls for fines for watering lawns and washing down sidewalks. And it calls for sending treated wastewater back into the aquifer.
My favorite idea is rewarding homeowners who put in permeable driveways that allow rainwater to percolate down into the aquifer rather than running off into the gutter. We don't yet have a "subway to the sea," but we certainly know how to send our rainwater that way.
L.A. Times readers have even more ideas on how to save water:
— We should all stop eating meat, one reader wrote, as the monumental amount water needed to produce beef is the real culprit. (Another reader said we'd all start eating our pets if the meat was cut off.)
— Control population, another wrote, and heavily tax people who have more than two kids.
— "I'll just dig up my lawn," another reader wrote. "It is not worth all of this."
TV budget design trick: Use exterior lighting fixtures inside
Well, why not use outdoor lanterns inside? There's no law against it.
I saw this budget design trick last night on "Designed to Sell" with Lisa LaPorta. She's a SoCal gal, in case you didn't know.
In this particular show, Lisa wanted to punch up the sconces on either side of a vintage fireplace and add more metal to the room. Lisa calls metal the "jewelry" that completes the look of a room.
But rather than shopping for the wall lamps in the interior lighting section, she perused the exterior lights, which tend to give you more drama for the dollar. The lamp shown here, with a rubbed-oil bronze look, costs $79 at Lowe's, though Lisa said on the show that she got hers for $35 each.
Can you imagine something like this inside a house? It would be especially fitting in one of the small Spanish bungalows we see in these parts.
Scene from the street: What's wrong with this picture?
Out on my daily walk around a golf course community, I watched this Craftsman house being built. I watched it being framed and plastered and sided. I watched the windows go in and the roof go on. (This is the back of the house, the angle I see from the walking path.)
All the while, seeing that it had Craftsman architecture, I looked forward to the day when stone facing would grace the bottom of those distinctive tapered columns, and perhaps on the bottom of the walls as well.
But when the house was finished, the stone did not appear, though a "for sale" sign did. It may have been a "spec" house. The builder may have run out of money. I'm not sure if it ever sold. It sits vacant to this day.
My very strong feeling is that this house needs stone. It's crying out for it. And so to help the owner (who may very well be reading this blog), I've taken the liberty of photographing four different types of stone facing I've seen my walks. They are below.
If this was your house, and you were charged with choosing the desperately needed stone facade, which of the following four styles would you select?
Want an Extreme Makeover? You'll need to answer a few questions
To the list of extremely difficult jobs in this country, I'd like to add the task of deciding who gets a new home on ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," starring Ty Pennington (pictured here). According to the network, thousands of applications are received each week.
Also among the tougher tasks one might take on in life: filling out the extremely long "Extreme Makeover" application form. Not only do you need to submit photos of the family and a compelling video of your home-related needs and desires, you also have to answer a long list of extremely personal questions. Among them:
— Does anyone in the household have a MySpace or Facebook page, blog or website of any kind? If yes, please list all the addresses.
— Do you receive state aid for foster care, disability, adoption subsidy or any other benefits of this kind? If yes, how much and for whom?
— In the event you are selected, will you be able to provide W-2s and/or your tax returns for the last three years?
— Are you current with your mortgage payments? If not, why?
— IMPORTANT: Have ANY members of your household ever been convicted of or been charged with a crime? (It could be as simple as a driving violation or as serious as armed robbery.) Be honest. We will find out sooner or later through our comprehensive background checks. If yes, please describe (include dates).
— Have you been or are you involved in a lawsuit? If so, list date of judgment or settlement and the amount.
— Do you have any debt other than your home mortgage? If yes, please describe.
— Are you friendly with your neighbors?
And there are many, many more. That neighbors item would be important. Imagine living near the ruckus involved in such a makeover operation, with no direct benefits coming to you as a neighbor.
If you're into some full disclosure and want to apply, here's the full application form in PDF.
Ariane Wiltse, the homeowner, is also setting up a blog so she can chronicle her home's progress in more detail than we can handle here.
This kind of reminds me of the 18-month-long Dream Home Diaries in the New York Times, which followed a Boston couple's building of a $1-million dream home on a small island in Florida.
The difference here is that this is not a new home and Ariane doesn't have $1 million. Her budget is more like a wing and a prayer. And all this makes for a more fascinating story, at least to me.
Thanks for voting. If you were among the 11% who indicated this story would not be of interest, I'd like to hear why you voted that way. What is your perspective?
Engineered right here in Southern California by BMW DesignworksUSA, the sleek Ecopod is a compact recycling center that makes crushing cans fun! Just drop one in the top, step on the lever, and c-r-u-n-c-h, it's all over.
The bottom holds the crushed cans while the top holds other recycling.
At Gaiam.com, the regular price is $348, while the sale price is $169.
Or you could use the good old stomp-it-with-your-foot-and-toss-it-in-a-bucket method of can recycling.
Wouldn't it be a major drag if that new giant TV came tumbling down during an earthquake? Or the top of that finely crafted hutch? Or if your house hopped off its foundation?
The planet seems to be in an uproar lately. We're not likely to suffer through a typhoon, hurricane, tornado, volcano or tsunami. But an earthquake? Yeah, that's our natural disaster (along with fires, floods and landslides).
Rather than blogging about it after a SoCal earthquake hits, I'd thought I'd get a head start and blog about it in advance.
The Southern California Earthquake Center — a collaboration between the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey — has put together a free online earthquake preparedness booklet titled Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country.
1. Secure it now: That includes televisions, computers, bookcases and water heaters. 2. Make a plan: This is good for an earthquake or a terrorist attack, the guide says. 3. Make disaster kits: We're talking food, water, flashlights, portable radios, batteries, a first aid kit, cash, extra medications, a whistle, fire extinguisher, etc. 4. Is your place safe? Things to check include: inadequate foundations, unbraced cripple walls, soft first stories, unreinforced masonry and vulnerable pipes. 5. Drop, cover and hold on! Why not practice? 6. Check it out: What to look for when the shaking stops. And I know from a lifetime in earthquake country that the shaking does stop. 7. Communicate and recover: Thank goodness for cellphones and wireless Internet, eh? Back in 1933, when the above photo was taken, this step was a lot more difficult.
3 SoCal contractors named to Remodeling magazine's Big 50
Three SoCal contractors — in El Cajon, Fullerton and San Diego — have been included in the 2008 Big 50 list compiled by Washington, D.C.-based Remodeling magazine.
According to the website for the respected magazine, which has named 50 top contractors each year since 1986, this is an "elite group of remodeling professionals . . . whose exemplary business practices, unique design sensibilities, and exceptional management skills elevate them above their peers."
Design/build remodeling; 22 years in business; 2007 volume: $3.4 million; staff: 5 office, 6 field
Quoted from the magazine: LZ Construction is the relatively rare remodeling company that employs its own plumber, a hire (Larry) Zolezzi made because he couldn't find a satisfactory subcontractor in his market. Pleased with the added efficiency it has brought to his business, Zolezzi says he'll soon add an electrician to his modestly sized field crew.Read more
Full-service remodeling; 20 years in business; 2007 volume: $1.2 million; staff: 3 office, 6 field
Quoted from the magazine: All Pro Builders has most recently focused on implementing standard operating procedures, creating a manual that encompasses all areas of doing business. Paniagua also has what he calls his “bible,” which every employee has on his or her desk, with information about vendors, jobs, architects, engineers, inspection codes, and subcontractors. “We live by this book,” he says.Read more
Design/build remodeling; 21 years in business; 2007 volume: $3 million; staff: 2 office, 8 field
Quoted from the magazine: The Jertbergs match designers and interior designers with each individual client “to alleviate any finger-pointing,” Jeff says, and they partner with a variety of local designers to develop their diverse projects. “With an in-house designer, you can build the same thing over and over again,” Rob says.Read more
So what do you do when your prized market umbrella goes flying off in the wind and breaks two spokes? And what do you do when your avocado trees are putting out so much fruit you fear the boughs will break?
In my case, with this very scenario, I put a free ad on Craigslist saying I would trade organic avocados for umbrella repair.
Five people answered my ad, including one fellow who had a list of electronic gizmos he was trying to unload. Seems he could almost taste the guacamole such a trade would bring him.
I chose the guy who said he had a carpentry shop nearby, and I was to drop off the umbrella the following Saturday. When I couldn't reach him that day, I feared I had a flake on my hands. Maybe barter is too much trouble, I thought.
As it turns out, his pregnant wife had gone into premature labor and they had been at the hospital. This is what happens with barter. Instead of some impersonal clerk at a big box store, you're dealing with individual human beings with real lives. It's kind of shocking. But I think I can get used to it.
I dropped off the umbrella the weekend before last, along with a bag of avocados as a down payment, and went out of town for a few days. When I got back, I e-mailed the carpenter, who said the repairs had been done. I brought another bag of avocados to settle the bill and got a tour of the shop where he makes furniture out of salvaged wood.
My umbrella is home now, with two new spokes made of some kind of salvaged exotic hardwood, and lovely copper nails where the pieces hinge together.
In this uncertain economy, I feel like being more careful with my cash. And with avocados as my new currency, who knows how far I'll go with the bartering?
After this, I think I'll start referring to myself as a writer and a farmer. It has a nice ring to it.
Dispatch from New Orleans: Do you care about this?
I had the occasion to visit New Orleans recently and toured a Katrina-damaged home that had been restored in a green manner, which I wrote about in a previous post.
I also toured the home pictured above, situated in the Holy Cross Neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward, near the green model home Brad Pitt is involved with.
I'd love to follow the restoration of this 1870s home on this blog. But I'm not sure if you would find it interesting and I need your feedback. I'm enthralled with this region and the fact that an estimated 50,000 storm-damaged homes need work. Whenever I see a 100-year-old home that needs help, I feel an almost irresistible desire to fix it up.
This home is a stone's throw from the Mississippi River and is now owned by Ariane Wiltse, whom you see above in the green shirt, talking with contractor Julie Groth. You can also see the trailer on the top left where Ariane will live until the house gets the prized certificate of occupancy.
When the storms hit in 2005, Ariane was in Florida in graduate school, studying to become a foreign correspondent. After graduating, though, she felt she needed to come home to New Orleans and be part of the rebuild. This house was a foreclosure listed for $24,000. A bit of a bidding war ensued, and Ariane got it for $40,000.
At the time, the drywall (which they call sheetrock in the eastern part of the country) was stripped off the lower four feet of the walls. But Ariane wanted to see what was going on with the entire structure, so she removed the rest of it. With a written home inspection and the advice of several contractors, she has decided to make all structural improvements before closing up the walls. Because flooding from the levee failure did not sit for weeks in this house (homes near the river tend to be on higher ground), there is not extensive mold damage and no mold smell.
I could go on. But should I?
I'm curious to find out: Would readers of this blog enjoy following along as Ariane restores this house? And to hear of her struggles as a community activist fighting against the area's rising crime? Or is this just too far from SoCal to be of interest?
You may not often see the words "slate" and "flow" in the same sentence. But it was by repeating the use of slate throughout her Mar Vista remodel that Janet Mitsui-Brown created a harmonious flow through her home.
Above you see the slate used on, clockwise from top left, the living room fireplace, gate posts, family room fireplace, garden deck and fountain, master bathroom floor and walls, and the chimneys.
When I toured the home, a calmness came over me as I experienced the same materials and colors repeated throughout the two-story home where Janet lives with her husband, daughter and mother. There was none of the herky-jerky feeling you can get when every room is different and you have to shift and adjust to each.
She also repeated the use of marble for the countertops in the kitchen, bathrooms, office and a smaller kitchen her mom uses at the back of the house.
And here's perhaps the best part: Janet saved a load of money buy purchasing the slate and marble in bulk, by the pallet, rather than buying a little here and there for each project.
Saving money is good, but the repetition part goes against my nature, which is to mix things up, try new textures and colors, get creative. But I do crave the harmony I feel in homes where there's a theme and repetition. So that’s my dilemma.
How about you? Do you prefer consistency or variety in your home?
Does this bug you, too? You have a pillow, blanket or other textile that is clearly past its prime and too worn for the Goodwill. But you hate to see it take the slow ride to the dump.
Here's the answer: textiles of certified organic cotton and other materials that are designed to be composted when you're done with them. The company's name is Looolo, and its website explains it takes one year for the cushions, blankets and scarves to break down and go back to the earth.
Of course, you'd never want that to happen as the cushions cost several hundred dollars and the blankets twice that. But hey, this is how great things start, and with mass production based on vast consumer demand, the price will go down.
More on biodegradable goods from the New York Times.
Kathy Price-Robinson has written about remodeling for 17 years, focusing both on the process of home improvement, as well as the product. She writes for both consumer and contractor magazines, and her award-winning series, Pardon Our Dust, has appeared in the print edition of the Real Estate section of The Times since 1997. This blog is a spin-off of that column. Kathy lives in a house with good bones and a lot of potential, and shares her life with one husband, one dog, two horses and three quite exceptional stepdaughters.
