I'd like to think I played some small part in the fabulous success being enjoyed by Dan Gallagher, a young, hardworking and extremely courteous decorative painter from Sierra Madre.
One day he's featured in the Pardon Our Dust Blog (here, here and here), and the next thing you know, he and his work are featured in print, in the Home Section of the Los Angeles Times.
Above you see, clockwise from top left, Dan admiring the 300-square-foot mural he painted, Dan and mural installer Michael Baughman putting up the mural, Michael applying the adhesive, and another room where Dan applied metallic Venetian plaster.
With this kind of talent, he should go far. And I'm taking some of the credit!
Do you ever feel "terminally unique?" I do. And that's why blending my own glass tile backsplash is so appealing. Oceanside Glasstile of Carlsbad offers an online tool for mixing up the colors you like best. Here's my favorite blend! It feels exciting to my bones. Granted, it's not relaxing. It's not classic. But, it's me.
And oh what a difference grout color makes. Here I show the same blend with (clockwise from top left) gray, green, white and red grout.
And if you're leaning toward green, this would be considered a green choice in terms of proximity to SoCal. These tiles are manufacturered just outside Tijuana. And in most green building philosophies, if stuff is made within 500 miles of your home, that's a good thing.
The father of a soldier who spent 15 months in Afghanistan and then came back to live in horrid conditions at Fort Bragg didn't much like the way his hero son was being treated. So the dad posted a YouTube video of the barrack's mold, rust, peeling lead paint and sewer problems. It worked. According to CNN, repairs are already happening. Also, new housing is in the works, but that project is running behind schedule.
I have to give a shout-out to the the Army, though, for promoting Energy Star and LEED certification for new buildings to, a memorandum on sustainable design and development declares, "reduce the total ownership cost of facilities; improve energy efficiency and water conservation; provide safe, healthy and productive built environments; promote sustainable environmental stewardship; and reduce environmental impact footprint of operations."
I heard some great advice about getting hip with color trends, and I'll share that in a moment.
But first, you have to get current. As David A. Keeps reported in this newspaper's Home section, here's the deal:
"Orange and red aren't quite dead, but the trendiest hues — purple, green, silver, even pale magenta — have a blue streak. The color of the season falls somewhere between turquoise and cobalt."
So here's the advice I heard: When you like a trendy color, don't go out and spend $2,500 on a couch of that color, or tile your backsplash with it. The color trend will be long gone when that couch or backsplash is staring you in the face.
Rather, plop that trendy color into your life with dishes, pillows, baubles and other accessories. In fact, if you're a color-trend fan, it might be a good idea to decorate with a neutral palette so the color of the day can be added, subtracted, changed and modified according to your whims and those of the trendsetters.
This photo shows how the residents of a Westwood condo brought the trendy color of lime green into their home without a lot of expense or long-term commitment.
[UPDATE: After this post ran, which mentions Iris Harrell's Bay Area/Silicon Valley remodeling firm, I got a progress report from Iris. Since the time I heard her speak, she has grown Harrell Remodeling to 47 employees (well, they're more like owners, as this is an ESOP company, or one with an employee stock ownership plan), and so now there is much less of a waiting period to get a job done. If you live in that area, this should be very good news. End of update.]
I spotted an ask-an-expert piece in the San Jose Mercury News and it caught my eye because the expert is Iris Harrell, a super-well-respected contractor in the Bay Area.
Iris used to be a schoolteacher, and then became a contractor. Her company employs lots of women, and I've heard her say that if she senses a potential client will be disrespectful to her employees, she won't take the job. And because her work is of such high quality and her ethics so stellar, there's typically a long waiting list to get a job done by Harrell Remodeling.
So, anyway, this piece is about designing a kitchen for cooks of differing heights. In this case, the husband is way tall and the wife not so much.
Here are some tips:
Design an island with two heights: 30 inches for the cooktop and some counter space, and 36 inches (the typical height of a counter) for part of the island. The lower portion could contain a salad sink.
Avoid a big range hood where the taller person might hit his head, and go for a downdraft-style ventilation system (pictured).
Build a floor-to-ceiling cabinet, rather than an upper and lower with counter space between, so important items (like plates and cups) don't end up in the upper cabinets where the shorter person will have a hard time reaching.
Plus, you might want to consider hiring an actual kitchen designer. The fee you spend on this will be long forgotten while the functionality of your kitchen will be with you daily. Certified kitchen designer Susan Serra suggests 10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Kitchen Designer.
My friend Joni and I have decided to paint all of her cabinets green but leave some chocolate brown (base color) for relief on the kick plates and in a couple of mid-sections on the top cabinets.
Painting the bottom cabinets first gave us a feel for how the green would settle on Joni's eyes. As it turns out, we love, love, love it!
We fortunately have a short workday tomorrow, which will afford us some quality sanding time on the top cabinets, maybe get the primer on and then go shopping for backsplash tile.
Joni saw some tile in a small shop that she really likes and wants my input on. She's attracted to stone. It will be interesting. I think stone sort of dates the kitchen, but ya' know what? It's HER kitchen. If she loves it, that's what's important
Hopefully, I'll be able to post our prime choices for you.
You don't need to share with me the definition of insanity: trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Been there (bought junk), done that (had it fail), still slipping into it.
Specifically, I'm talking about the solar fountain I bought ignorantly and impulsively at Home Depot last October. I paid $225 for this thing, which I was told had been special ordered for another customer who never picked it up. It had no label, no packaging, no instruction manual, and certainly no guarantee.
And worst of all, it had no endorsement from my peers on the Internet. I've come to rely on the "truthiness" of strangers in choosing restaurants, hotels, furniture, my car, you name it. I look at reader reviews on Epinions, Travelosity, The Guide, Edmunds, Consumer Reports, and other websites.
So it came to pass that I abandoned all my good sense and bought this fountain. Once I posted about it, a wise reader mentioned that these things don't usually last too long. But I thought it wouldn't happen to me. Aren't I special? Apparently not. The pump died about a month ago, never to move water again. And it can't be opened up, and it's got no name on it. Pure junk.
So, I've got the panel, which has a built-in battery, and I'm going to see if it can have another life as a laptop charger. But the fountain has been relegated to a bird bath. It's not bad looking. But $225 is a lot to pay for not much benefit. Here's to hoping I end the insanity and stop buying garbage.
Isn't this just the most sumptuous, comfortable, amazing outdoor room? Isn't this why we live in a Mediterranean climate? This lovely outdoor space is in a Manhattan Beach backyard, featured in the L.A. Times' Home section, and I could move in today. See the photo gallery.
My favorite elements: The cushions hanging against the retaining wall on the right. The relaxed look of the family. And that little doggie. What do you like about it? Or do you?
Wall Street Journal columnist Nancy Keates is tearing down her house to build a new one in its place. But instead of taking a wrecking ball to the old house, she's having it "unbuilt" so the items and materials can be reused and recycled. It's taking two weeks longer than a wrecking-ball tear-down, and will cost $4,000 more. What do you think? Worth it? Watch the video clip below and read the story.
Julia and Mark are planning a remodel but are missing one critical piece of the puzzle: a good contractor. Here's what they wrote:
We live at the top of Beachwood Canyon in a cantilevered home circa 1955 and plan to add a second story, go green, add a roof garden, etc. We are not interested in staying modern but want more of a traditional look inside with some whimsy. We have a designer we like and have just submitted our plans to the permit queue. Now we need to hire a contractor. We wondered if you have anyone you'd highly recommend?
How Your House Works: A visual guide to understanding and maintaining your home, by Charlie Wing
About a month or so ago, my favorite table lamp began making a crackling sound near the base. So I unplugged it and pondered my options.
I considered taking it to a nearby electric shop. Then I considered taking it to the tool shop that recently replaced the cord on my power sander. That cost $46, nearly one-third the price of a new sander.
But the lamp would be well worth a fee like that. It cost only $15 at a swap meet, but it's an unusually pleasing blend of red enamel and brass with a mod metal shade and definitely not something to set out with the garbage.
About that time, I picked up a copy of "How Your House Works," a book written by home improvement expert Charlie Wing, and my thinking started to shift away from being rescued by a shop and toward taking charge of my own repair.
There are scads of home fix-it books in print, maybe thousands of them.
What raises this one to the top of the heap are the large, clear color illustrations of what the insides of things in a house look like.
And when you see what's inside a garbage disposal, for instance, you might be able to fix it -- or at least unclog it.
So imagine this: One day you look out your front window and see a gleaming 90-foot power pole in front of your house that was not there before.
You're shocked because you had no notice or warning from the power company, Edison. And that's because Edison has the right of way and is not required to give you notice, according to an article in the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
This house is in Lakewood, on the northeast corner of Palo Verde Avenue and Centralia Street, in front of Bill and Shelby Ranson's home of 15 years. An older, shorter, wooden pole on the corner is not an eyesore to them. But this one, right in front of their home, is not setting well with them. They are livid and want the pole removed. Edison says it's for the greater good.
The Ransons know getting the pole removed is a long shot, and Bill is quoted in the story as saying: "We're humble, little ant-like people going up against this huge, mega-corporation. We don't want to mess with them, but what happened wasn't right."
What if a pole like this landed in front of your house? Would you fight it? Or accept it?
Joni and her friend Patti, nurses in the same surgical clinic, are making good progress on Joni's condo kitchen makeover. They have sanded the sheen off the lower cabinets and painted on a brown primer. Here, Joni brushes on a brown paint/glaze combination, and Patti is coming behind her and wiping it with a sport sock turned inside out. Patti got the sock tip from Rick down at the paint store, who is know by his colleagues as Rick-casso, as in Picasso.
After this coat dries, the team will apply a coat of green paint mixed with glaze. Joni got a little worried about "all that green" in her kitchen, and she saw a kitchen in a book with green bottom cabinets and off-white top cabinets. So it was Patti's idea to go ahead and do the base cabinets with the full green treatment, and then decide what to do on the uppers. That beats holding up the project until the decision on the upper cabinets is made.
A big decision is coming up on the hardware. Patti thinks it should definitely be replaced with something nickel-looking to match the new S track light. Joni could go either way. She likes the original hardware, but could go for something more modern-looking. However, she plans on retaining the bronze-toned hinges either way.
I, on the other hand, think the hardware should not be replaced. I think it will really go with the new colors.
What would you do? Update the cabinet pulls? Update the hinges, as well? Or keep all the originals?
The project so far:
1. Watch a video of Patti explaining the remodel goals 2. Check out Joni's lighting choices 3. See a slide show of the track light going up and the cabinet coming down 4. Choosing cabinet color and backsplash tile
Your fellow home enthusiast Kyla has a design dilemma and needs your help. She's in love with this two-tone couch and ottoman with dark leather on the bottom and milk chocolate microfiber cushions. She's also quite enamored with black Mission-style tables.
And she writes:
Will these two looks be good together or will the black and brown look horrible? If these looks will be a good look, what would you suggest for wall color? Also down the road we will be replacing the floors. I would like to go with wood and I prefer DARK wood over light. Do you have any suggestions? I am at a total loss. I feel like I have lost sense of imagination and can't put a look together for anything. I'm forever second-guessing myself.
Jennifer, a mother of three young kids (who is NOT pictured here), is understandably "freaking out" about the possibility of lead-tained dust in her home. For advice, I turned to members of the newly form L.A. chapter of the National Assn. of the Remodeling Industry. Three contractors responded. Read the question and their answers below:
Question: I have three children under 4 years old, and I am having my living room painted in our 1940 house. The windowsills needed sanding. When I asked about the potential for lead paint, the contractor (who came highly recommended from several sources and is expensive) told me that it was only surface sanding (I painted with latex paint several years ago) and that he would make sure all the dust was cleaned up. Well, there was a lot more sanding and dust than I expected, and now I am freaking out that I took his word on the whole lead issue. What can I do now? Do I test whatever dust I can find? Is there some expert I can hire to have my house evaluated for lead exposure? Any help you can give me would be appreciated.
Thanks for your questions, and I can understand why you are concerned. For starters, federal law requires that contractors who are disturbing more than 2 square feet of painted surfaces give you a pamphlet called “Protect Your Family From Lead in your Home” before any work begins. The homeowner should sign a document saying they received the pamphlet, which the contractor should keep on file. Licensed contractors should employ only qualified workers and follow strict safety guidelines set by their state or federal government.
All homes built before 1978 have paint that contains high levels of lead. The lead from paint, chips and dust can pose health hazards, especially to children under the age of 6, if it is not taken care of properly.
The best thing to do now is have your home tested for lead-based paint. The removal of lead-based paint should only be done by trained, certified professionals who have experience working with hazardous materials. You can call the National Lead Information Center at 800-424-LEAD to find a lead abatement firm in your area. You can also find more information on its website, www.epa.gov/lead.
A more immediate step you can take is to clean up paint chips immediately and to clean all floors, window frames, windowsills and surfaces with warm water and an all-purpose cleaner. If you are still feeling uncomfortable about your children being exposed, you should consult your doctor. A simple blood test will detect of there are high levels if lead. Your doctor can then determine if more testing is needed.
I really want to wean myself from impulsive purchases of junky household stuff I don't really need and that won't last. One strategy is getting clear on the implications of my actions. If my purchases of junky stuff help foul the earth and exploit its people, but I remain willfully ignorant of that, does it still affect my karma? I believe it does.
If it's a group experience you're after, the movie will be screened tomorrow, Saturday, April 26, 4:30 p.m., at the AltBuild Expo at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. See details here.
Now through May 18: Philharmonic House of Design, tour new house with interiors and outdoor rooms designed by the American Society of Interior Designers, Orange County, open Tuesdays through Sundays, $30 to $35
26: Fourth Annual Green Gardens Tour, theme: "Gardening with Intent: Water Management," to benefit the Virginia Avenue Project, a not-for-profit arts organization for kids, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
26: E-Waste Roundup to recycle computers, monitors, printers, stereos, TVs, cellphones and other electronic devices (no furniture, hazardous waste or kitchen appliances accepted), Toyota Way, Lot J, between Van Ness and Western avenues, Torrance, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
26: Green Building Rating Systems, panel compares three systems: LEED (U.S. Green Building Council), GreenPointRated (Build It Green) and California Green Builder, free, part of Alternative Building Materials & Design Expo, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 4:30 p.m.
27: Green Building Tours, hosted by the city of Santa Monica, in conjunction with the Alternative Building Materials & Design Expo
27: Castles to Cottages, self-guided tour of five gardens to benefit Capistrano Animal Rescue Effort, $20, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
3-4: Solar 2008, conference and expo, open-to-the public events include workshops, tours and exhibit hall, $5, Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego
4: Spring Home Tour: Views from the Top, tours of contemporary hillside homes, sponsored by American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles chapter, $75, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Contact info: Lori Derkum, 25422 Trabuco Road, Suite 105-220, Lake Forest, CA 92630, phone: (949) 380-0177, e-mail: lori@dadsconstruction.com or dan@dadsconstruction.com
Years in business: 25-plus
Specialize in: Kitchens, bathrooms, and full interior remodels
Professional memberships: National Assn. of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), National Kitchen and Bath Assn. (NKBA), Western Regional Master Builders Assn. (WRMBA), Building Trades Assn. (BTA), International Code Council (ICC), the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Build It Green (BIG), and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)
Professional certifications: California Licensed General Contractor (No. 802617), Certified Green Building Professional (Build It Green), MBA
Awards: Some of the awards our projects have received:
• 2007 Award of Merit - Pacific Coast Builders Conference Gold Nugget Awards, Best Specialty Project • 2005 Watermark Awards, Builder and Custom Home magazines' "Grand Award" & "Kitchen of the Year" • Lake Forest Homeowners Assn. 2004 House of the Quarter • 2004 Award of Merit - Pacific Coast Builders Conference Gold Nugget Awards, Best Attached Project
How did you get interested in green building? DAD's never "got into green building.” We have always done what is today called "green building”: using exhaust fans in bathrooms, double-glass low-E windows, skylights, insulated water pipes, formaldehyde-free insulation, engineered lumber, low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints, asbestos-free products, florescent lighting, whole-house fans, recycling removed building materials, tankless water heaters.
We strive to build and remodel projects that greatly exceed codes and that will last a lifetime. So how does this help the environment? Tearing out a bathroom over and over again to fix cheap and substandard work generates more waste and more demand for building materials. We want to avoid that. Although the manufacturers may not appreciate this, our customers and the environment do.
I caught up recently with John Park, who, along with his wife Erin, did an addition to their Burbank home and wrote about it at the Park Haus Addition Blog.
Part of the project was adding $14,000 worth of photovoltaics to the addition's rooftop. You can see John here washing off the panels.
John read on the BP Solar website that adding the panels would be like planting an acre of trees, in terms of environmental benefits, and will prevent tons of carbon being released into the atmosphere.
As he wrote on his blog, "It's just the right thing to do."
I want to do the right thing, and need all the encouragement I can get. So I contacted John to find out how it's going:
Pardon Our Dust: How does it feel day to day to have the sun powering your home? Do you forget about it? Do you think about it every day?
John Park: It does feel great to have sun powering the house. We think about it all the time, and talk about it with our kids. Every time we're in the backyard playing we check out the power meter to see how many kilowatt hours we've drawn from the sun that day.
POD: How do you respond to people who don't invest in photovoltaics with the excuse that it would take 20 years to recoup the cost?
JP: I've actually had great, positive response and interest from people who ask about it. They all seem like they're on the edge of getting one and want someone to push them over. I think the cost is lower than ever and going down, thanks to research developments and economies of scale. Given the amount of sun here in Southern California and the rising cost of energy, the recoup equation is quite a bit better than it used to be.
You can read all the couple's postings about their solar panels here.
This wall covering made from tin can tops, as seen in the New York Times, has a certain appeal. But there's something a little creepy about it, as well. Or is it just me?
"Why does a receipt from Lowe's for a single item ($10.95) take almost two feet of paper?"
I wonder that myself. When the cashier at the grocery store gives me a yard-long receipt for one item and asks me if I want the receipt, I have to sift through a series of internal questions:
Should I take the receipt home and recycle it?
If I leave it there will they recycle it?
Is it even recyclable?
Tuesday, when a cashier handed me an Earth Day-themed booklet full of coupons, I kindly handed it back and said "In honor of Earth Day, I'm going to leave this with you."
How many ways are there to greenwash home-improvement products? To make toxic junk sound green? To put lipstick on a pig?
So very many! Here are a few:
• The packaging is made of recycled materials, but the garbage inside is toxic enough to kill a horse.
• The product is not so toxic, but the packaging is bulky enough to choke a landfill. (Costco, are you listening?)
• While the product is grown or made in the U.S., it's shipped to China for packaging.
• The wood product is from a "managed" forest. But what that really means is they managed to clear-cut the forest.
• The label says "ingredients from the earth." Well, guess what, everything on the planet is from the earth (unless it's made of asteroids).
• The label says "contains organic ingredients." But what percentage? Perhaps 000000.1%?
• The product is made of sustainable materials, and the packaging is minimal, and it's made locally, but . . . the factory where it's made has no natural light, bad air and wastes water and electricity.
• The product is made from recycled glass, but the energy used to melt down the glass would power a fleet of Hummers.
In other words, as greewashing proliferates, certification systems like GreenGuard and the Forest Stewardship Council become ever more important for those of us who really want to make a difference with our dollars.
Also, see the Six Sins of Greenwashing by TerraChoice, which found that 99% of 1,018 common consumer products randomly surveyed for a study were guilty of greenwashing.
A new chapter of NARI (the National Assn. of the Remodeling Industry) has started up in the Los Angeles area. There is an active NARI chapter in San Diego and more than 60 chapters nationwide.
Members of NARI include contractors, interior designers, architects, product suppliers, manufacturers and service providers. Several contractors in Southern California have long been members-at-large of the national organization, and some of them will now belong to the L.A. chapter.
According to Claudia Butler, vice president of the new chapter, "NARI’s mission is to promote the highest level of quality, professionalism and ethical business practices in the remodeling industry." Contractors who join must have a valid state contractor’s license or registration, liability and worker’s compensation insurance and must pledge to conduct business in compliance with NARI’s Code of Ethics.
Those interested in joining can call Butler at (310) 591-8846 or e-mail her at Claudia@Remodeleze.com.
Question: My contractor just handed my contract to me, and I’m in shock! He wants 22% of the cost of materials, 22% over the cost of labor, 22% for subcontractors and 22% for labor management crew. I think this is way too much. First, the subcontractors are making a profit, and now the builder wants 22% on top of that for the same job. I feel if he can’t do the job and he has to subcontract out, then it should be no more than 5% for babysitting. That also goes for paying his employees’ wages. I have no control over the employees he hires. What if they are slow and lazy at my expense at $30 per hour plus 22%? No way! What should a contractor charge?
Answer: Oh my, where to start! First of all, I can understand your frustration. Every dollar the contractor charges for markup is another dollar you don't have to upgrade your project. So if you don’t like the markup, don’t hire the contractor. It’s so simple. There’s no need to get upset, just find someone else whose numbers are more to your liking.
That being said, what’s the obsession with contractor markups? What kind of markups do you think Wal-Mart or Home Depot make on that stuff they import from China? I’m sure it’s a lot. And contractors are people from your own community, hiring your neighbors, purchasing from local lumberyards. By the way, subcontractors are not hired because the contractor's employees cannot do the job. Subs are usually hired because they are state-of-the-art experts in what they do. Professional plasterers or masons or plumbers are often elegant artisans in their respective crafts, and that's who you want doing the work.
I think the confusion over markups is based on misunderstanding how a good contracting business works. There is an office and office staff to maintain, and bookkeeping, and employee benefits, training, insurance, licenses, certifications. And there should be money for callbacks when things go wrong. You can find a guy with a pickup truck and a dog in the back who won’t charge any markup. He’s scrambling from one job to the next barely making wages. And if something goes wrong later on with your job, he won’t have time to take care of it.
Also, you don’t want your contractor undercharging and then going out of business. The most important issues to consider when hiring a contractor are the company’s reputation, staying power and quality of work. Focusing too much on saving money on the markup just brings grief. If you think “babysitting” subcontractors is what a contractor does, you might consider acting as your own contractor and hiring those subs. Then you could save the 22%.
Am I being too harsh? From the disasters I've seen when markups are challenged, and sub-standard contractors are hired, I get a little riled up about this topic. Any answers for this person that are more sympathetic than mine?
Here's a clever idea, seen in a Santa Monica garden, for paths in your own patch of paradise. You can reuse old bricks, garden tools, tiles, terra cotta pot bottoms and whatnot to make your green journey a little more interesting.
I guess my friend and co-author Kitty Bartholomew is a visionary. For many years, long before it was eco-hip, she was finding new uses for old things that have served their purpose well and that deserve more than a slow ride to the landfill.
Old leather belts are a case in point. Consider how much service a nice leather belt has given, with countless wearings and outings until one day the belt is either worn at the buckle or too wide or narrow for current styles or simply the wrong color.
Next, consider a wooden chair that has lost its cane or leather seat to wear and old age. While the chair and the belt might ride in the same trash truck to their final resting place, it takes a creative mind to say, hey, why don't you two get together and make something new?
And so I bring you Kitty's belt chair, pictured here.
What you need is a wooden chair with or without a seat. You lay out the belts on top horizontally and vertically, then weave them together and buckle them on the bottom. The nice part about old belts is that the buckle area wears out, not the back, and this is the part that will end up on your chair seat. The smaller the chair, the easier it will be to find belts long enough.
You can find belts really cheap at yard sales and thrift shops. Plus, if you have the unpleasant task of clearing out the house of a loved one who has passed away, and you find a collection of belts, making a belt chair for your home is a way of keeping a connection with that person and his or her life.
Also, hanging on the back of this chair is a quilt made of used men's suits. Did you know that quilting is the latest craze? Combine quilting with reuse of quality fabrics and the hipness level goes off the charts. Happy Earth Day!
The expo is at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 1855 Main St., from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, and it's free. You can check out 150 exhibits featuring manufacturers of green building materials, landscape and water conservation products, retailers, interior design products and furnishings, utility companies, nonprofits and city and state agencies.
Plus, there are green seminars throughout the day. Check out the schedule of speakers. Quite impressive.
Workshops include:
• Back to the Future: Design Buildings Now So You Can Add Solar Later: presented by the U.S. Green Building Council's L.A. chapter, Friday, 4:30 p.m.
• Permaculture Presentation: by Larry Santoyo, Saturday, 10:30 a.m.
• Certification Comparison Panel: comparing LEED (USGBC), GreenPoint Rated (Build It Green) and California Green Builder, Saturday, 4:30 p.m.
Perhaps it was on the same the day scientists figured out how to nanotechnologize (a new word, you read it here first) Dockers slacks to repel all wrinkles and stains that home designers decided we no longer needed a place for an ironing board.
Au contraire! In fact, some of us prefer natural fabrics like cotton, which do, indeed, wrinkle and need ironing from time to time. And so we haul out the ironing board, which has no dedicated home, and retrieve the iron from the hobby room or the workshop table.
Wouldn't it be easier to install an ironing center right between two studs near the washer and dryer? That's where Marley Engineered Products is the answer to a prayer. The company makes the ironing centers you see here, which were named a Weekly Top 40 for architects and designers by Design Journal magazine.
You can get an ironing center with an electrical outlet or not. The full-sized board swivels and has three height adjustment, and there are shelves for various sprays. Plus, the shelf for the iron is adjustable to accommodate larger irons. The doors are sold separately, and you can choose between birch veneer, framed mirror and oak veneer.
You can read installation instructions in PDF to see what you'd be getting into. The center with electrical will run you somewhere north of $300, and the door is an extra $75.
Suze Orman would not be happy with me. If you've seen her show, you've heard her intone: People first. Then money. Then things.
My current lineup is: People first. Then tile. Then everything else.
Back at the tile shop, where I picked up my free tiled tabletop in the alley behind the store, I checked out the baskets near the door where everything is $1 each. There, I found samples of various backsplash tiles in all shapes and colors of travertine, my favorite stone. Some were a foot long by 6 inches, some 6 inches square. The prices on the back were from $18 to $37 per piece.
So I picked out 20 of them and paid the $20 plus tax, loaded them into two shopping bags, brought them home, and laid them out on my coffee table. I had a moment of buyer's remorse when I realized: Stone is out! Glass tile is in! These are outdated! That's why they're in the baskets! But then I remembered how much I don't care for trends. And anyway, these are pure earth. How can earth go out of style?
My first thought was to cover the coffee table in a tile mosaic. But once I saw them laid out, I decided it would be too much intensity for the room. It would not blend. So now I'm placing them around my kitchen backsplash area, noting how each color and style feels and looks. Same with my bathroom. I might do a mosaic right on the backsplash.
I seem to love working with cast-off samples. There's something so endearing about these little bits of matter that already exist, have served their purpose as samples well, and deserve a fitting tribute inside a home.
Question: Your coverage in the L.A. Times and your blog have inspired my husband and I to move forward with purchasing a new house that has everything but one key feature: A Great Kitchen. In fact, the existing kitchen is barely bigger than the one I had in my college apartment. We have a fantastic contractor whom we've used in the past, but we need a design plan and don't know where to start.
Our budget is $40,000, so the idea of hiring an architect, which would eat up a good chunk of the somewhat modest sum, is less than desirable. But we also don't want to make a mistake by not having a plan crafted by an expert. Where to start? Your suggestions and reply are most appreciated. Kind Regards, Tami R.
Answer: Tami, thank you for the kind words. I'm so excited for you. I’ll give you some ideas and invite other home enthusiasts reading this to add their suggestions.
First, I’d say you definitely want professional design services, and that means you’ll be paying for them, anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000. So I suggest when you state your plans from now on, you say something like this: “We have $37,000 for the remodel and $3,000 for the design.” That will help you steer your desires toward the proper price range.
Next, where do you find a designer? If you need major structural work done, you will need an architect or at least an engineer. For the price you mentioned, though, I doubt you could afford to add any new space. So I assume you'll be taking out a wall between the kitchen and dining room or family room to make the kitchen bigger. If it's a simple matter of removing a non-load-bearing wall to make your kitchen larger, I suggest you hire a certified kitchen designer, one who has CKD after his or her name. These people are certified by the National Kitchen and Bath Assn., and from what I've seen, they are talented and knowledgeable. To find one, plug your ZIP Code into the NKBA search engine and find those in your area. Also, read 10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Kitchen Designer, by Susan Serra CKD. You can also get discounted design services at kitchen shops if you buy your cabinets from them. But again, look for the CKD designation. And sometimes you can find certified designers at the design desks at Home Depot and Lowe's. Also, ask your contractor if he's worked with any kitchen designers.
And finally, I suggest you do a lot of research in advance and get familiar with what you like and how much it costs. How much are hardwood floors? Good-quality windows? Glass tile backsplashes? High-end ranges? Most designers spend half their time educating clients about the real cost of materials and labor. If you get yourself up to speed first, you can adjust your expectations and not be faced with either disappointment or going into debt to achieve what you really can’t afford.
When you do approach kitchen designers, tell them your budget and the style you want to achieve. If they tell you any kitchen will cost no less than $60,000 to $80,000, move on and find someone else who can work with your budget. And get someone who knows about green remodeling. Nothing else makes sense.
Do you feel guilty about every drop of water that trickles through your flow-restricted shower head and every minute of light that your compact fluorescent light bulbs produce? You may have eco-anxiety and may need an eco-therapist.
The feeling of anxiety is understandable. We humans are putting so much carbon into the air and so many poisons into the water and land that you wonder how we, and all of nature, are going to survive.
I don’t have eco-anxiety. I'm totally digging my time on the planet. My theory is that I am doing what I can, and doing better all the time, to have a smaller footprint so the earth can heal, and that's the best I can do. I do not eat animals, which I think is my biggest contribution. I did not have children because I decided there were already enough people. I wouldn’t expect others to adopt these two strategies.
On a lesser scale, I don’t drive much. I live modestly. I choose lifestyle changes over medications. I don’t pour toxins into my land, and I provide food and water for nature to thrive on my little plot. I use CFLs and Energy Star-rated appliances and am working hard toward getting photovoltaics on my roof. And I totally connect with nature. That is my therapy. On the downside, I do love my long baths.
The planet can cleanse some of what we throw at it. Such is the miracle and power of nature. But it cannot handle the burden now. I do my part. But I cannot control corporate greed. I cannot control religious zealotry. I cannot control ignorance and evil.
What keeps me calm is that no matter what we do, nature will prevail — cells will continue to divide and bacteria will continue to transform matter. That’s a comforting thought.
How about you? Do you have eco-anxiety? How do you deal with it?
I never planned on creating a gathering place for frogs, known as a froggery. But I did nevertheless.
It started with a simple fountain on my back patio, which I set up in a pot to hear the sound of water. I added some water plants for variety.
One day, as I was adding fresh water to the pot, and letting it overflow onto the concrete, what should come falling out but a dozen or so pollywogs!
Grabbing a stiff piece of poster board, I scooped them up and put them back. I was happy about the frogs because we use no pesticides or other poisons in or around our house (other than something we had to do about ants around the foundation), and I know that frogs are super sensitive and will only thrive where conditions are fairly pure.
Then I got to thinking: What happens when these little fellows grow legs and jump out of the pot onto the concrete? They won't be able to jump back in and will perish. So I went down to Home Depot and got a molded pond, sunk it into a nearby planter bed, and used a tropical fish net to move the pollywogs to their new home.
They grew nicely, turned into frogs, and come back each spring to lay more eggs. Now I have two frog hatcheries, as I now see eggs in a small pot I set out for the birds. Each night, one frog from each station calls out and the other responds. It's like in old-time movies where women hanging laundry talk over the backyard fence.
Yesterday we saw another segment of Kim Myles' new HGTV show "Myles of Style" and I'm wondering: Do you like it now?
So far here, we've had more negative than positive comments.
Carmen wrote: "I think the show stunk with lack of know-how and class." (Read full comment)
Keri wrote about the first episode: "Off white, silver, red, mint green, teal blue. Blech! I hope the next episode is a little better or perhaps I'm just too conservative." (Read full comment)
RLS wrote: "Maybe she 'choked' the first time out. The final product was really bizarre. I wish her better luck next time." (Read full comment)
And today, Jennifer wrote: "If I see another tacky color scheme with cheap-looking painting stripes I may just have to read several design magazines to get that bad taste out of my mouth!" (Read full comment)
Kitchen designer Susan Serra, who writes an ever-inspiring blog called The Kitchen Designer, just got back from the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show (KBIS) in Chicago and offered to share with Pardon Our Dust readers the five big trends she saw:
1. Green: This year, much more than last year, KBIS was nearly ALL about living in an eco-friendly way. Mainstream companies small and large appear to be taking strides in an eco-friendly direction. I cannot overstate this as an overview observation.
2. Healthy: From new steam oven introductions, to refrigerator air scrubbing filters, to hoods replacing bad air with clean air (continually), and BioFresh refrigerator technology, there's definitely a concentration by appliance manufacturers on eating and living healthy.
3. Energy- and water-efficient: This is seen in various ways: LED lighting is now used more frequently in place of less-efficient lighting. Less water is coming through the new faucets. Induction cooking is becoming more popular. And gas cooktops are becoming more energy-efficient.
4. Glamorous: I don't know what the economy is doing, but I am seeing glamour in the kitchen! Lights, color, drama and glitz are seen in hoods, countertops, appliances, tile and hardware. No product category is excluded.
5. A shift in who sets the trends: Decorative trends continue to be seen (loads of browns in cabinetry and metals). But the vast array of choices available in colors and finishes illustrates that trends follow the whims of the public more than the public following the style demands of the manufacturers. Perhaps the tables have turned!
Thanks, Susan! Questions for Susan? Please post below or visit her blog.
You may have read the story about this Glassell Park kitchen remodel. You may have checked out details of the budget.
Now, here's the whole story in pictures, set to music. Enjoy.
And if you're doing a remodel, or will be soon, please take lots of photos so I can set them to music and we can share them with the world. E-mail me and let's discuss.
I'd like to think I played some small part in the fabulous success being enjoyed by Dan Gallagher, a young, hardworking and extremely courteous decorative painter from Sierra Madre. 
