Style Sleuth: Bringing down the ceiling in cavernous spaces

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.

Book Report: '50 Plus One Tips When Remodeling Your Home'

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.

Or, you could pick up a copy of "50 Plus One Tips When Remodeling Your Home" by William Resch and get a sampling of pertinent information in a couple of hours.

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 . . .

See more remodeling books

Q&A: How to house hunt with future remodeling in mind?

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.

Big box store installers get lowest marks, Consumer Reports survey says

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

Read the full article by Consumer Reports editors in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Q&A: What is a remedy for our leaky flat roof?

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 . . .

See more Q&A
Got a remodeling question?

House poetry: 'Protecting Solitude'

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.

— Kathy Price-Robinson

Creating a remodeling team, avoiding a horror story

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 . . .

See other SoCal remodels

One woman’s castle is another woman’s shack

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.

As Jeannie and I beheld this house, now designated State Historical Landmark No. 939, we had markedly different responses.

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.

What do you make of this?

If neighbor's trees grow to block your view, whatcha gonna do?

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?

7 signs you're being scammed for driveway paving

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

Read the whole story

(Photo: iStockPhoto)