Here's a cool idea I saw at a SoCal Starbucks for visually bringing a too-tall ceiling down to human level.
In this scene, two squares of warmly finished plywood have been suspended from the tall ceiling, with recessed lights built in. How clever is that?
The reason I bring this to your attention is that so many homes built in the last 10 or 20 years have been imbued with incredibly tall ceilings.
After hearing many talks by Sarah Susanka, author of the Not So Big House books, I'm convinced that most people don't feel very comfortable or cozy in rooms with soaring ceilings. I know I don't, unless there's a big party or gathering. But for an evening at home, curling up the couch with the ceiling some 15 or 20 feet above is not comforting.
With some intelligent, artful design, panels like these could create a sort of canopy above certain areas in a tall room to give them an added human scale.
And speaking of Susanka, she is speaking at the upcoming West Coast Green building conference in San Francisco Sept. 20 to 22, with the conference open to homeowners on the 22nd.
If you want to undertake a home remodel but have no idea how to get started, here's one way to proceed: Type “remodeling” into an Internet search engine such as Google and spend about two weeks reading everything you can set your eyes on.
Want to know the issues in creating a home office? Health and safety on the job site? Doing part of the work yourself? Seeking arbitration? Going green? Resch has done a lot of thinking about these topics and apparently a lot of Internet research.
Despite its title, the book is not really a compilation of tips per se, but is composed of 51 chapters, four pages each, broken down into four sections: the challenge, the facts, the solutions and resources.
Chapters include “Neighbors and Noise,” “Windows and Lighting” and “What Is Hot in Attic Remodeling?” The final chapter, “The Celebration,” is an oddity, sharing recipes such as sausage and egg casserole you can prepare for an open house when the remodel is finished.
The book is one in a series from Chicago–based Encouragement Press and includes “50 Plus One Tips When Hiring & Firing Employees” and “50 Plus One Greatest Sports Heroes of All Time” among other titles. While the cover states that the author is a contractor and builder, the inside bio says he is a project manager for a millwork company and that “he has been in the general contracting and millwork industries for 20 years.” Continue report . . .
Question: I'm getting ready to embark on a house hunt here in Los Angeles. Beyond dealing with the particulars of finding a place to buy, which is treacherous enough, I'd like to get a headstart on the remodeling. Obviously, I don't have specs for my new digs to really plan anything out, but I'd like to gather some ideas of how I'd like my future space to be organized. I know I should be consulting design magazines, but which ones? Please keep in mind that I'm a total design novice with absolutely no budget. Is there a good resource for someone like myself who's just starting out? What kinds of things should I keep in mind as I try to visualize my TBD home? And how do I reconcile my future design aspirations with my current house hunt? I know these are fairly wide and far-reaching questions, but any advice on these matters would be greatly appreciated as I'm starting from scratch.
— Milla
Answer: Milla, congratulations on embarking on home ownership.
First of all, as this is Los Angeles, why not be on TV while you search for your home? A new show called "Good Buy?" is looking for people about to embark on a home search, and it’s being shot in L.A. What do you get? A free evaluation of the homes you’re considering buying. And since the market is so slow right now, you’ll have time to evaluate homes in a leisurely manner without getting outbid! Read "Good Buy?" FAQs. And there’s always the good old "House Hunters" TV show, which is also looking for home buyers to be on TV. You can fill out a "House Hunters" application here.
Before you do that, though, I think it’s very smart to start looking at magazines now, before you look for a house to buy. And here is an exercise I've learned from several talented L.A. designers.
You have several options when hiring contractors or installers to do remodeling work, including:
1. Hire independent contractors from your area 2. Hire contractors through local stores, such as kitchen and bath shops 3. Use certified installers for such products as Pella windows and Corian counters 4. Hire installers through big box stores such as Home Depot and Lowe's
It is this last option that gets lowest marks according to a recently published survey by Consumer Reports that asks homeowners about more than 13,000 remodeling projects. About 40% of homeowners reported having troubles with the big box installers, compared with less than 30% reporting troubles for the other options.
"Contractors not affiliated with home centers," Consumer Reports states, "scored higher than those from Home Depot or Lowe's in the quality of workmanship and materials, speed of work, communications skills and ability to keep costs down."
The certified installers found through manufacturers got the highest scores for getting the job done on time, probably because they were more familiar with the products, the report says.
The survey also asked what these homeowners would have done differently with their projects. Their top responses were:
• done more research • chosen their contractor more carefully • bought different materials
Question: We own an apartment building in North Hollywood that has a totally flat roof. Every few years we install a new composition roof and it starts to leak again. We believe that the solution lies in providing a pitched roof. Would you know of any companies that could install a totally new inclined roof. We sure could use your help. — Karl
Answer: Karl, I spoke with two licensed general contractors with decades of experience each and their consensus was that putting a sloped roof on top of your building would be many, many times more expensive than paying top dollar to get a superior job done to your existing roof.
The advances in roofing technology are amazing. Have you seen mention of “green roofs” lately? These are flat roofs covered with a thick rubber membrane that allows for turf to be planted on top. This is done for insulation value, to cool off the building in hot climates and to provide oxygen to the air. You could take advantage of these new materials to get a better roof than composition material could provide.
I asked Chatsworth general contractor Alon Toker of Mega Builders what he thought about creating a sloped roof over a flat roof, and here’s what he said:
The reframing option would require expensive plans and engineering, and then the framing and roofing. But compared with a quality reroofing of your current roof, the reframing option would be several times more costly. Continued . . .
I live in a house
of transparent adobe
that you cannot see
and you cannot touch.
Just try to come knocking
on my door sometime
when you are drawn
by the music and the light.
You will not hear doorbells ring
though you may hear
the barking of a dog.
I will answer through a metal grate
and we will both be fooled into thinking
you will be entering soon.
You will not.
Instead, the walls will begin to expand
until you are gently pushed off the front porch
and by the time you are standing on the sidewalk
you will have forgotten why you came.
When Patricia Morrow and her two children finally outgrew their two-bedroom North Hollywood home, it was obvious that something had to be done.
I was sleeping in my daughter's room and my son was in the other room," said Morrow, who had bought the house with her then-husband in 1970, pre-parenthood. "It was obvious there was no room for Mom."
But moving to a larger house was never an option for Morrow and her children, Mary and James.
"I wanted my kids to say, 'This is the house Mom brought me home to from the hospital,'" she said. "I wanted them to be near neighbors who would say, 'My, James, you're sure getting big.'"
Plus there was the divorce to consider. "You don't want to displace the kids any more than you have to," said Morrow, a management recruiter. And she didn't want to walk away from the two ash trees on the side of the house that she had watched mature.
Also, she liked the increasingly mixed ethnicity of her neighborhood, which she said is "the neighborhood of the future."
So, it seemed, adding on to the 1950s bungalow was the only recourse. Trouble was, "I'd only heard horror stories about remodeling," Morrow said. Read more . . .
If you have a friend who lives in the arty village of Cambria, as I do, she is likely take you to see the local curiosity called Nitt Witt Ridge, as my friend Jeannie did earlier this week.
Nitt Witt Ridge is the creation of the late Art Beal, aka Capt. Nitt Witt, a reclusive self-taught sculptor and one-time garbage collector of Cambria who cobbled together this rambling hillside oasis over 50 years entirely with found objects and stuff other Cambrians set out with the trash. He used beer cans for smoke stacks and toilets for planters. He also worked at Hearst Castle and there are rumors some items came from there, as well.
I'm thinking: Oh, what a mess. This is why building codes and permits were invented.
Jeannie, on the other hand, thinks I am missing the point, that this house is a monument to creativity, sustainability and resourcefulness.
Indeed, the plaque says the property is a "blend of native materials and contemporary elements, impressive in its sheer mass and meticulous placement ... a revealing memorial to Art's unique cosmic humor and zest for life." Perhaps the bottom photo here of Nitt Witt's kitchen, by Nancy Koren and as shown in the local weekly New Times, brings to life the spirit of the house in a way I could not appreciate from the street.
I'm considering leasing a darling vacation cabin near Bass Lake, but I'm concerned that the neighbor's trees across the street will eventually block the cabin's mountain views.
I guess I could ask the neighbors if I could pay to get their trees topped off to preserve my view, when the time comes. (It may take awhile as the tree most likely to block my view in the future is an oak.)
But would they go for it? Would I in their situation? It seems risky to buy a place whose greatest virtue -- its view -- may one day be gone.
Have you ever asked your neighbors to trim view-blocking trees? How did they respond?
Or, have you been asked to trim trees to preserve a neighbor's view? And did you do it?
Bottom line: Is buying such a cabin too risky for someone who loves a view?
The California State Contractors License Board has been busy tracking down alleged scammers who the CSLB says solicited homeowners for driveway work, took their money and then did slipshod work before disappearing down the road.
Often, the CSLB says, the scammers claimed that they had materials left over from a previous job that they needed to use up and thus would provide the lucky homeowner or business with an amazing discount, for cash of course.
The CSLB suggests that these seven signs indicate a scam may be in process:
• Unsolicited offers to do painting, roofing or paving work • Claims of leftover materials • High-pressure or scare tactics • Reluctance to sign a written contract • Demand for payment in cash • New vehicles and out-of-state license plates • Toll-free telephone contact numbers instead of a local number
Architect Arrol Gellner's essay in the L.A. Times Real Estate section explains that architects don't generally know much about construction. Surprised? Here's what he says:
If there's one complaint I hear again and again from contractors, tradespeople and anyone else involved in the practical end of building, it's this: "Why don't architects have to serve an apprenticeship in construction?"
My standard two-word answer is, "Good question." It would seem self-evident that a person entrusted with designing an entire building should have at least a passing knowledge of how that building will be put together.
Santa Monica decorator Kitty Bartholomew, with whom I wrote a decorating book a while back, has a gift for making big changes on a very small budget.
In the "before" version of this kitchen (pictured below), she was faced with several challenges: dark cabinets, dated gold tile and dated gold appliances. It would be easy to look at this kitchen and say "total gut and redo."
But what Kitty saw were solid, good-quality wood cabinets that really didn't need to be torn out and replaced. Rather, it was the tile that had to go. And so Kitty replaced it with a cheery blend of green and tan tiles, with what I would call an aggressive grout line (not for everyone, but OK here).
She included a couple of specialty tiles just behind the faucet. And if you need just a couple of specialty tiles in a very prominent place, where you'll enjoy them often, why not splurge a little?
At the same time she painted those cabinets, using one of her favorite products, Kilz, as a primer. A good primer is critical when going from a dark to a light color. The appliances were still in good condition, so she just replaced the front panels.
The window box could have been a problem as it has a sterile, aluminum-y look inconsistent with the warm cottage look Kitty likes. But when Kitty added a wooden birdhouse, clay pots and an herb garden, the space was transformed. I think her solution to the hanging lamp — replacing it with a modern can light — was brilliant.
The final touch was a frieze above the window from the amazing Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers company. I invite you to visit this company's website and drool.
After living in her 1950s Woodland Hills ranch home for 14 years, Cathy Nordlund set out to do something she had never attempted before --completely gut and redo one room to her heart's desire.
But because of her pragmatic disposition -- after all, she was trained as an engineer -- Cathy was mindful not to undertake too big or too risky a job. Therefore, the powder room seemed like a good candidate.
It was not only small, it was ugly.
"Spray-painted yellow on fake marble" is how Nordlund described the counter, which sat upon bland white cabinets. The only remarkable thing about the room was that when the door was opened, it smashed into the toilet.
Cathy began by looking through "millions" of decorating magazines. She decided on a Victorian theme, even while acknowledging that nothing else in her house was even vaguely Victorian.
"I was going to do whatever I wanted," she recalled. And, she thought, it would blend fine with the brick flooring that she and her husband Robert had added previously to the entryway, hall and this powder room.
But during her contemplation of fabulous Victorian bathrooms, it finally dawned on Cathy that they all shared a common virtue: "The wonderful light from their wonderful windows."
Cathy's powder room, however, was windowless, and would remain so -- the room has no exterior walls. And she could not add a skylight because of the second story above.
See how the wood fails to line up on this railing?
Would you accept this? But see how it looks in the bigger picture below? Not so bad?
So-called difficult clients will insist the rails be lined up better, even though it's in a far corner of a deck and will soon be covered with vines. Easygoing clients (like the folks who own this house) will say, hey, it's fine, it's not rocket science.
Some people have a lower tolerance for imperfections in the built world and get very stressed out by the ups and downs of a remodeling job, and these people are often labeled "difficult."
You may be a difficult client if you say things like this:
• I am much pickier than most people. • I lose my temper often. • I do not tolerate mistakes. • Workmanship these days is awful. • I’ll be watching these workers like a hawk. • You mess with me and I’ll sue.
You are not a difficult client if you say things like “It’s not brain surgery, it’s a remodel,” or “Remodeling is an art form.” I’ve heard these comments from homeowners, and they are not difficult clients.
If you are a difficult client, it’s a good time to do a remodel. That’s because in a slow market like we’re in now, remodeling contractors are not so picky about the jobs they take on. In a more robust market, contractors find ways to avoid working for difficult clients. That’s because difficult clients cause a lot of stress for a company’s employees, and in busy times it’s easier to find another client than another employee.
If you are a difficult client, you should either do the remodeling work yourself, or hire a company who is known for satisfying really picky people. Don’t get a referral from an easygoing friend. Get a referral from the most particular person you know.
You might even tell the remodeling company to assign to your job the project manager with the most complete set of people skills, not a newbie.
Finally, you might hand your project manager a copy of an article called How Homebuilders Can Deal With Difficult Customers, which came out in the July issue of Professional Remodeler magazine. Here are some tips from the piece:
• Listen to the customers' complaint and acknowledge their right to make it.
• Avoid emotional reactions or phrases.
• Keep the focus of the conversation on the actual problem.
• Ask customers what type of resolution they want.
This last tip is a good one to remember. Before you state your complaint to the remodeling company doing your job, think about how you want it resolved and communicate that clearly.
Who knew? It had seemed counter choices had been narrowed down to granite, tile, composite, quartz, laminate or concrete. Then here comes another worthy contender.
Serra says she has designed slate into many kitchens with nary a complaint from her clients. The key, it seems, is choosing the right type of slate, one that is less permeable than others. And that sort of decision is best made with a knowing designer or fabricator. If the stone vendor you approach about slate countertops says, "Hmmm, that's a new one," keep looking.
It makes sense that slate would perform well on kitchen counters. I mean, it's used for roof tiles, for goodness sake. Those take a beating. And it's used for counters in laboratories, as a whetstone to sharpen knives, on the tops of billiard tables and as old-school writing tablets. According to an entry in Wikipedia, its fireproof and insulating qualities made it good for electric switchboards and relay controls for large electric motors.
Serra gives a nice rundown on caring for slate counters. I really like her idea of ordering a small piece of the slate you're considering and bringing it home for a torture test (my words). You can drop oil onto it, and lemon wedges, and whack it with a frying pan to see how it holds up. If it does, this might be the material for you.
When students imagine the future of housing, it's not surprising their visions are influenced by computers, RFID tracking chips and cars.
That seems to be the trend in a competition that asks students (as well as professionals) to come up with ideas for future housing that figure deconstruction and reuse into their plans.
• The groHome consists of a few modular units with add-ons to customize for extra rooms, much like the basic Scion car is customized to fit individual needs. The students who created this concept also liken it to a computer and its plug-and-play options. When the units or their add-ons are no longer needed, they can be unbolted and moved to another location; each is equipped with an RFID, or radio frequency identification, chip to keep track of where they are and their history. This entry includes a board game.
• Packaged and Living Container Structure aims to use some of the estimated 700,000 unused shipping containers in this country. The structures arrived here carrying goods from places like China, but it's too expensive to ship them back. These students have mocked up complex floor plans using these containers.
• The Sustainable Architecture and Organic Systems proposal states this: "The project specifically highlights qualities of utility juxtaposed with expressive formal gestures and emotive response." I have no idea what this means, but whoever wrote it has a great future as an architect.
There's a whole gaggle of 'em at TinyHouses.net. You know, a tiny house need not be a full-time residence. Here's how this site defines tiny houses:
"They are the structures which resemble our childhood drawings: simple, symmetrical, human sized, single purposed.
Bigger than a shed but smaller than a two-car garage, the one room tiny house might be an office, a study cabin, a little business or a guest room. It might have heat but no running water.
A tiny house, a little house, an itty bitty house, a mini house: any way you describe it, little houses and hideaways are dear to our sense of proportion."
One caution: As we saw in this week's L.A. Times Real Estate section, you probably need to consider zoning and permits when considering an accessory building.
The Los Angeles condominium Jay Falamaki bought several years ago was like scores of others in Southern California.
“It was boring,” Falamaki says of the 860-square-foot condo’s white walls, vinyl floors and beige carpeting. “It was very basic with no character at all.”
But bland surroundings would work for Falamaki, a native of Iran who studied set design at the American Film Institute in Hollywood, and who now works as a freelance designer.
While his peers who own condos tend to put off remodeling until they move up into a house, Falamaki did not want to wait.
“I’m here now,” he thought. “This is my everyday life. I must enjoy it.”
But to get the two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo from where it was—dull—to where Falamaki wanted to be—dynamic—would cost tens of thousands of dollars, which he did not have. So: he decided to do most of the work himself, and to buy materials and hire professionals as his earnings allowed.
Twenty months and $20,000 later, Falamaki created a colorful, elegant and unique home that he considers a fitting backdrop for his life.
Long before he bought the condo, Falamaki had spent hours thinking and reading about remodeling. His favorite magazines are Architectural Digest and Architectural Record.
“You go to magazines,” he says, “you get ideas.”
To start this project--before he moved in--Falamaki hired a general contractor to alter some walls and change around some plumbing. This allowed him to improve the awkward layouts of the two “standard condo bathrooms” into more usable space.
After one bathroom and one bedroom were livable, Falamaki moved in. One of his biggest priorities was transforming the kitchen, which he considers it the “center of the home” where he enjoys cooking for friends. Specialties include such Persian dishes as kabobs and stews.
Because of his modest budget, Falamaki chose to leave some onerous elements in place, including the plastic, dropped ceiling and the shopworn stove. “It was here,” he says of the latter, “and I hate it.”
But by transforming the existing cabinets, and adding tile counters, a tile floor and robust wall color, the new kitchen barely resembles its former self.
To create unique-looking cabinets, Falamaki removed the plywood doors, which had raised panels, and turned them around so the flat side faced out. He then sanded them, stained them yellow, and added a wide rim of flat wood molding and a small “quarter-round” of green molding.
“It’s very easy,” he says of his efforts, and especially so because of the vast home-improvement resources available in this country. In Iran, he points out, “There’s no Home Depot.”
Question: We’re tearing down part of our 1940’s home to make room for an addition, and also gutting our kitchen for a major remodel. I hate to see all this end up as trash. How can we recycle some of this material?
Answer: From my experience interviewing remodeling homeowners, the dread of an older home being demolished and hauled unceremoniously to the trash heap is both practical and emotional.
Of course, nobody wants to unnecessarily top off the landfill. But one might feel tenderness toward the old house itself. Go ahead and laugh at my theory, but I think some remodels don’t go forward in order to avoid the ache of tearing down a familiar structure or part of a structure.
In the Hollywood Hills, Derrick Drymon and Nancy Moscatiello felt that way about a vintage but dowdy house they bought a few years ago and massively remodeled. In order to pay homage to the old house, their conservation-minded contractor, John Sofio, salvaged some of the tight-grain framing lumber (which is much better quality than framing lumber of today) and had gorgeous baseboards milled for the new living room. He also fashioned custom handrails out of the recovered boards.
At another remodeled house I visited, a carpenter made a contemporary vanity (pictured here) out of salvaged framing lumber. And it’s common practice to move the old kitchen cabinets into the garage for storage, and to make garden walkways out of a broken-up concrete patio.
For a contractor’s perspective, I asked Turko Semmes, president of Semmes & Co. Builders in Atascadero, who is known for channeling construction debris to recyclers rather than to the landfill. Turko said:
This is an important issue considering that construction and demolition materials make up nearly 22 percent of what goes into California landfills. Local trash collection companies are under state mandate to reduce the percentage of construction waste, and many of them have recycling stations on site specifically for such materials. Read on . . .
When I posted my bath vs. shower poll a couple of weeks ago, I assumed it would be a 50-50 split and I would prove my point: that we bathers are a powerful voting block.
I was wrong. We got whooped. The totals so far on this question:
Which is more important, a great shower or a great bath?
Shower 77% (190 votes) Bath 23% (56 votes)
Oh, that smarts. I suspect some of those aggressive shower types voted twice. But that doesn't account for the gap. Still, I want to caution the shower takers not to discount the needs of the minority bathers. Why?
I'm going to relate this to the just-ended California state budget impasse. I don't want to get too political, but some say the majority Democrats ran roughshod over the minority Republicans for a long time and so Republicans did what they could to exert power, which meant the budget was delayed until they got what they were asking for. (Read this L.A. Times story: Wielding power from the bottom of the heap.)
Could this happen to majority shower takers who deny the needs of minority bathers? I think it could. I think this tiny minority of bathers could — if not treated well with deep tubs and marble surrounds and Jacuzzi-type jets and maybe a fireplace and a flat screen TV — could well rise up and cause their own impasse.
I'm not saying this is a warning. It's just something to be aware of.
It's pretty late in the evening here, in a completely quiet house, as I troll through my computer's hard drive and the articles I've written, which number in the thousands by now. I come across an article I did last year for Remodeling magazine, an excellent publication read mostly by contractors. The editors there had asked me to find three young people who were being groomed to take over their family's respective remodeling businesses.
As I recall my conversations with Amie Riggs, 31, of St. Louis, Mo.; Chris Gayler, 28, of Danville, Calif., and Edward Lane, 31, of Richmond Va., I am filled with hope. These kids all have infused their family's firms with fresh ideas, lots of technology and the kind of trust you get with kin.
And then it hits me why I feel so good about remodeling companies: It's because I'm sent out by editors to talk with the best of the best: award winners, those honored by their peers, those who are doing good things. For all I know, they are the norm.
Of course, we all know there are plenty of not-so-competent companies who want your business. I wish I could transfer the hard drive in my mind to the hard drive in yours so you'd intuitively know that there are amazing companies to hire, and you'd insist on finding one for your own project.
To get a taste of my world, read these short profiles:
Amie Riggs (pictured), who rose from "lobby girl" to vice president and sales manager in the company founded by her grandfather in 1959. Chris Gayler, who finally found a career that doesn't bore him. Edward Lane, whose professionalism and grace caused his dad, Ed Lane, to say: “Edward joining me in the business has been one of life's most wonderful, rewarding, and successful experiences."
Read these and then tell me, is this a good world or what?
Question: My husband and I were arguing about retrofitting windows the other day. We were out on a walk in a neighborhood with some beautiful little Spanish-style homes. One thing I love about them is their large, arched front windows. One thing I hate is when homeowners upgrade their windows and replace them with those ugly, double-paned things with white dividers, especially when they've got a large, beautiful arched window on the front side of their home. In my opinion, it completely ruins the look of the home. My husband says its illegal to sell a house with those large paned windows because of earthquakes. A recent earthquake prompted me to write and ask: What is the rule on retrofitting windows? — Anne
Answer: Anne, the thing that made most sense in your message was that you and your husband were arguing. That's what people who love each other do, right?
Other than that, though, I think earthquake theory is faulty. Get it?
I wrote an article about just the kind of house you're talking about, a 1927 Spanish bungalow in Del Rey (near Culver City) remodeled by Heide Jenkins and Luis Gonzalez. The original house had a gorgeous arched window, and the couple really wanted to replicate that when they set out to rehab this falling-down and neglected house. But they found the cost of an arched windows way too high for their budget, so they reluctantly settled for a rectangular window with divided panes.
I asked our resident construction expert, Alon Toker of Mega Builders in Chatsworth, and here's what he had to say:
"I am unaware of any earthquake restrictions for arched, picture windows. However, windows do need to be in compliance with certain fenestration guidelines (such as Title 24 compliance for energy efficiency), opening sizes (for emergency egress out of bedrooms) and glazing options (for instance, tempered glass if 18 inches or less from the floor) and so on. "
As I was browsing the Be Jane site — where Los Angeles handywomen Heidi Baker and Eden Jarrin encourage their sisters to take on home improvement projects — I came across an essay called "Throw a Do-It-Yourself Party!" that suggests you ask friends to come over and help you paint or install shelves or do whatever home improvement task needs doing.
I mulled that idea around. My friends are busy with kids and jobs and pets and the need for rest. Why would they want to fix up my house? I don't really want to feel beholden to anyone, or make them think I'm using them for my own glory.
Then, I came across an "extreme roofing" posting on the excellent Constant Craftsman blog (you know, the blog that puts "man" back in "crafts") and the author mentioned how he learned all about roofing and the mistakes you can make by helping his neighbor do a roof. Here's how he put it:
So if your friend asks if you can give him a hand with repairing the roof of his tattered garage, you say, “Sure, man.” Even though you’ve never messed with roofing in your life. Yes, you’re doing your buddy a favor by helping out and it’s the nice thing to do (especially when you’ve been borrowing his miter saw for over 6 months), but in the end it’s pretty much self-serving. After all, you come away with valuable knowledge, skills, and a ham sandwich - all of which you didn’t have before.
So if I could have a party where my friends could learn a cool skill — like faux painting or furniture staining or making a pond — well maybe it would be worth their while. Unlike the Constant Craftsman's gig, my friends won't be getting a ham sandwich out of the deal. But the soy burgers and Arizona green tea will be on me!
How about you? Do your friends come over and help you fix up your home? Do you pay them? Do you feel beholden? Am I just anti-social to balk at this?
This little video, presented with permission from Design2Share, is amazingly helpful. I realize this bedroom is in a New York apartment, and not in Southern California, but I do believe the principles of feng shui (the ancient Chinese art of placement) travel nicely across state lines.
I asked local designer Enid Harris if she could recommend anyone who sold granite counters really cheap.
Here's what she said:
"I don't have any low-budget granite or slab people . . . nor would you want one! The best tip I can offer is the one I used: Ask a stone setter if they'd be willing to sell off any unused portion of another client's job.
The truth is the client has already paid for the stone so it's an incentive for the stone setter to make a little extra money as well as getting another job for the fabrication.
The homework the homeowner should do ahead of time is get the square footage of the counter they're doing as well as the price of the stone they want."
Some students may be breathing easier soon if their school districts purchase "green" modular classrooms from Perris-based Modtech. The green label means the buildings are healthier for the planet as well as the students and teachers who will spend their days inside them.
For instance, these buildings use formaldehyde-free adhesives, have more natural light from tubular skylights, and have natural linoleum.
Here are some green features:
• 4-inch rigid insulation on roof
• FSC-certified plywood
• Formaldehyde-free batt insulation
• Energy Star-rated cool-roof membrane
• Green Label Plus-rated carpet tile
• VOC-free Forbo marmoleum linoleum
• Ventilation controller to monitor and reduce C02 levels
• Duct insulation to reduce HVAC noise
• Tubular skylights to reduce need for artificial daytime lighting
• High recycled-content 6-inch metal studs, or 2-by-6 wood studs
I have a wall in my loft/condo that I need some help with. Since our HOA does not allow us to mount our TVs on the wall I have put mine on a mirrored table. The wall just seems boring. I want to spice it up with color but keep the transitional vibe. Paint is the most economical choice but I'm not sure what color. I've included a second picture of my living room/dining room (click here to see dining room) so you can see my style. Help me!
Do you have a suggestion for David and his TV?
(Do you have a remodeling challenge we can help you with? Send a picture and a paragraph describing your dilemma to podblog@aol.com and we'll see what ideas we can come up with.)
Back in November 2006, writers Paul B. Brown and Allison Davis set out to build their dream home. How hard could it be? Trouble is, they live in Massachusetts and their dream home is on a tiny island in Florida. And, they have never done this before. So, yeah, the learning curve has been great.
We've been able to follow along with the couple's journey on their blog, Dream Home Diaries, which they write for the New York Times. There were many ups and downs as they looked for an architect and a builder, as they learned about local zoning laws, as they tried to discover their own needs and wants, as well as their budget.
Now, finally, they are breaking ground. What I like about the blog is not so much the couple's essays, but the passionate comments from readers, who have tried to guide and educate the couple in their adventure. Much can be learned from these readers, many of whom have built or remodeled a home.
The couple figure the house will be done in six months and for $600,000, but readers have their doubts.
(If you are a writerly type and starting a new home or major remodel and don't mind sharing every intimate detail of your project with the world, I'd love to feature your posts on this very blog. Email me. We'll talk.)
You have to admire architects, designers and contractors who can picture 3-dimentional space by looking at a set of blueprints. I'm not among them, and you might not be either. Of course, 3-D renderings on the computer have made it easier to imagine the corner cabinet or island your designer is suggesting.
But for a real sense of what your tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars will be spent on, nothing beats a scale model. That's the path Christopher King and Barry Jacobs took when they hired architect/contractor John Sofio to build them a home.
With limited funds, they set out to find a hillside lot on the Eastside of Los Angeles. The lot they found was a challenge to build upon, with 88 steps required to go from the street to what would become the location of the front door. The slope plus power lines precluded the use of large cranes to carry in such building materials as the 42-foot-long laminated beams the house rests upon.
To help picture the eventual house, and to play with the design, it was good that the team spent the money on a scale model, which you can see here at top, before the house was built, as shown in the bottom photo.
Also, you can take a scale model outside to see how the sun's arc across the sky will interact with the windows and overhangs, and where the shadows will fall. Scale models cost from several hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the complexity, and your architect or designer can surely recommend some companies who offer this service.
Click below to see more pictures of this striking 1,300-square-foot post-and-beam house and its redwood deck.
As first-time home buyers and recent architecture school graduates, Apurva Pande and Chinmaya Misra got a lesson in real-world construction when they remodeled their own 1,600-square-foot midcentury bungalow in the West Adams area.
At architecture school — he went to UCLA and she to the Southern California Institute of Architecture — the couple learned about light and flow and how to conceptualize space. They excelled in abstract thinking. But their talents were detrimental at times during the building phase of the $100,000 whole-house project.
"Construction," Pande said they discovered, "requires timelines, budgets, prioritizing tasks and communication skills."
During the project, which turned a derelict eyesore into a sleek study in modern tranquillity, the education of the two young designers came slowly and painfully.
"Often the smallest detail would hold up traffic," Pande recalled. "We would often both be working in a chaotic stream of ideas, sometimes wastefully, on the same task.
"But all the contractor really wanted to know first was whether to use a 2-by-4 or a 2-by-6."
Their learning experience started in 2003 when the couple began looking for a house to buy. With perfect credit and $10,000 in savings, it still took six months of rigorous house-hunting, and getting outbid on three properties, before they found their match — a dwelling so sad-looking and termite-damaged that it had sat on the market for months.
But although others had been put off by rotted interior walls, ruined parquet flooring, stained carpeting and rancid fish ponds, Pande and Misra saw what lay beneath their $383,000 purchase — a sturdy cinderblock frame, on a concrete foundation, with wide eaves and a low roof that reminded them of a vintage Palm Springs home.
"It had a really nice feel," said 29-year-old Misra.
Immediately, the couple started mentally reconfiguring the interior space, removing walls and raising ceilings. At first, they planned a simple and limited upgrade that would take several weeks and cost $10,000. But as their ideas spiraled, so did the budget. Using a fistful of credit cards and cash from four refinances as the property gained equity, they ended up spending 10 times their budget over about a year, from August 2003 to September 2004.
Several readers have asked lately whether or not now — while the building, buying and selling of homes has slowed to a crawl — is the best time to do a remodel. I asked four prominent SoCal remodeling contractors for their perspective.
These contractors — Matt Plaskoff, John Sofio, Bob Sturgeon and Alon Toker — have all been around long enough to have experienced both peaks and valleys in the construction business.
The consensus is that now is a good time to remodel, with a caveat.
The benefits to remodeling when construction work is slow is that contractors and subcontractors tend to lower prices in order to get more work and keep their crews busy. In a frenetic market, like we’ve seen in past few years, those crews have swelled, and they need work.
Also, material prices may be lower (though a lot depends on global factors), and shops that make cabinets and factories that make other supplies may not be operating at full capacity, so there may be more attention to quality.
However, the caveat is that while there may be a glut of construction workers, not all of them have experience with the practicalities of remodeling. Those who have come from the production home arena, for instance, are not trained to deal with dust mitigation, daily clean up, noise issues, working hours, working around a family, protection of pets and children, and so on.
My advice: Be extra diligent when selecting the people who will be working inside your home, and let the glut of low-ball bids become a secondary consideration.
Has anyone done work on your home who deserves a "shout out"? An "atta boy" or "atta girl"? A pat on the back?
It's funny how the incompetent people get all the press, while the good ones fade into obscurity. Let's turn that around.
To help create a list of reader-recommended Southern California architects, designers, contractors, subcontractors and landscapers, please send in the following information about the honest, competent, noteworthy people who helped you with your home renovation project:
Type of company or trade: ______________________________
Company name: ______________________________
Contact person: ______________________________
Location: ______________________________
What they did for you: ______________________________
Why you recommend them: ______________________________
Please email this information to podblog@aol.com and I'll create a running list of the home improvement professionals who deserve to get more work. Positive comments only!
Here's a cool idea I saw at a SoCal Starbucks for visually bringing a too-tall ceiling down to human level. 
