Every now and then, a story in the local press forces me to reevaluate my decision to move back to New Orleans and buy a house in the Lower 9th Ward. Sometimes the story that jolts me from my idyllic rebuilding spirit focuses on leaks in levees and the recycled newspaper found to be stuffed inside of them. Other times it’s stories about the condition of the swamps to the south and west of the city, stories that describe how the land out there is literally falling into open water, and in doing so is allowing the Gulf of Mexico to creep closer and closer to our fragile city.
But today, I’m not fretting over the potential environmental disaster lurking behind the next hurricane. Today, it’s the city’s rampant violence that makes me question my decision not only to move back here after the storm but to sprout roots.
One recent morning, around 2 a.m., a man in my neighborhood was found dead in his home. He had been shot in the head. The man lived a few blocks away from the house I’m restoring, the trailer I’m living in and me.
Although the police have released the barest of details, it appears that the man was murdered in either a drug deal gone wrong or for some retaliatory reason. Typical tit-for-tat street justice meets the cheapness of human life.
My neighbor is merely the city’s most recent murder victim. By the time the summer finally draws to an end, dozens of other people will be dead. In a city long known for its incessant and often random violence, summertime is the scariest time of year. It’s the time when murders become so common that the city guarantees itself the morbid distinction of becoming the nation’s murder capital for yet another year. I call this time of year the killing season. The killings are a fact of life down here or, better put, a cycle of death.
After two of my friends were murdered last year in separate incidents, and my car was surrounded by drug dealers on a sunny Saturday afternoon –- three blocks from my house -- I decided to get involved in anti-crime efforts. I started asking questions at my weekly neighborhood association meetings, and the next thing I knew, I was co-chair of the crime committee. Ask questions? Get the responsibility. It was that simple and unpopular of a job.
Since then, the other co-chair and I teamed up with local grassroots organizations and launched a petition to keep the Louisiana National Guard in New Orleans. Former Gov. Kathleen Blanco deployed the guard in June 2006 after five teenagers were found gunned down. During the last two years, however, the economic strain of paying, feeding and housing the nearly 300 soldiers stationed here has become extremely unpopular in the rest of the state, placing political pressure on current Gov. Bobby Jindal to pull the guard out of New Orleans.
But for some of New Orleans’ most vulnerable residents, true pioneers rebuilding in a post-apocalyptic atmosphere littered with block after block of abandoned houses, the guard provides their only protection. Dressed in fatigues and riding in military Humvees, the soldiers patrol the areas of the city that took the most water and therefore have been the slowest to recover -- neighborhoods such as eastern New Orleans, Gentilly, Lakeview and the Lower 9th Ward. These patrols allow the undermanned and overworked police force to focus their patrols in the more populated areas of the city. Without the guard patrols in the sparsely populated areas, either the New Orleans Police Department would be forced to pull officers from administrative and intelligence departments, effectively bringing investigations to a halt, or large tracts of the city would be left to fend for themselves.
Sensing the post-Katrina political tide in Baton Rouge was shifting, and not in New Orleans’ favor, Jeffery and I, along with volunteers from Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, collected nearly 5,000 signatures asking the governor to keep the guard in the city. Mayor Ray Nagin, Supt. of Police Warren Riley and City Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis endorsed our efforts and made personal requests to the governor.
A few weeks ago, Jindal announced that the guard will stay through the end of 2008. It’s a temporary success that helps me and a lot of other people working hard to rebuild our homes and community rest easier, for now.
But it doesn’t quiet the cacophony of second-guessing in my head. That still comes in loud and clear.
Joni's condo kitchen update is nearly done. (See the project up to now.) Joni's friend and fellow nurse Patti is helping out, and she files this report:
I'm home from the mountains and went to see Joni's kitchen today. It's beautiful! I am thrilled and so is she. (Click photos to enlarge.)
Joni opted to have a friend who is a "tile guy" finish the tiling. She helped him and said that our thin set was definitely too thin. He applied it the same as we did; it was just thicker. We'll never make that mistake again. The tile guy also did the grout work for her and had a tile saw to cut the few that required adjustments. I think she had just had it with the mess we had to clean up after using thin set that was too thin.
We are very close to being done. I think one day or so of clean-up just may do it. We need to finish some drywall work and put a finish coat of paint on the kitchen walls. And then we'll replace the switch plates.
Joni is already talking about how to carry the mood and color palette from the kitchen into the living room. I can't believe the balance that the chocolate-colored panels at the top of the cabinets (see that here) provides to the tile. I really don't know if it's just dumb luck or if there was some intuition at play in the color choice. However it came to us, I'll take it. It's beautiful.
We have one more issue to resolve: how to hang pendant lights from a solid beam over the breakfast bar. I'll be asking your advice in a future posting.
Patti here. Since our weekend tile project, which Joni and I wrote about in a previous post, we have gathered some valuable information.
First and foremost is that thinset should be the consistency of peanut butter! Ours was more the consistency of sour cream, so it was too thin. (Notice the food references; it is a kitchen, after all.)
Second, with this Oceanside tile, we need to make certain we thoroughly cut through the thinset all the way to the wall surface with the quarter-inch notched trowel. That means when we apply the thinset and pull it across the wall with the notched side of the trowel, we should hear the trowel scratching on the wall.
All things considered, I think our problem was that the consistency of the thinset was too thin and we applied it too thickly.
To our credit, we weighed and measured the proportions exactly, to the manufacturer's specifications. But there are variables to consider, I'm sure, and we now know to mix it thicker no matter how precise our measurement. These are the types of things a professional would know.
For Joni and I, a couple of novices, I consider this all well within a reasonable learning curve, and I'm tickled with the tile. It's beautiful and has exactly the right feel to set off the colors and features of this kitchen. We'll keep you posted.
Patti here. I'm helping my friend and fellow nurse Joni spruce up her kitchen. (See the project so far).
Well, we got some tile up over the weekend. Whew, it was a lot of work. With this, as with everything else, there was quite a learning curve. We were extremely careful to plan the placement, have all of our supplies ready and be versed on the instructions before we started (Photo 1).
We cut out a template for placement to make sure we had everything right, then applied the thinset (a thin mortar) with a trowel with one side having quarter-inch notches in it.
We put the thinset on with the flat side of the trowel, then ran back through it with the notched side of the tool, then back over one more time with the flat side of the tool. The reason for the smoothing is that we have some semi-transparent tiles that would show the trowel lines had we not knocked them down.
We placed the first sheet of tile up and had to finesse it into place, which created a lot of thinset oozing through the seams. We didn't quite know this as we had to leave the paper coating on for about 20 minutes (2). We then soaked the paper with water and removed it, much like removing wallpaper.
It was a mess underneath. We moved on to the rest of the wall (3), which is behind and above the stove, in the same fashion. We noticed the tiles slipping down the wall so the margins were no longer matching to the sheet already up!
We tried to hold the sheets of tile in place, which, I can tell you, was not effective. To keep tiles from slipping down the wall, I nailed a trim piece (which Joni had from the cabinet we had removed previously) directly under the tile (4), and I then hammered nails under the tiles themselves through the paper backing, to take some of the weight of the top tiles off the bottom tiles. The problem is that the thinset was moving down all along, even though the tiles stayed in place.
Now I'm not sure if this is a common problem or if the mix was too thin. I do believe we applied it too thick, except that is hard to assess in that the thinset on the top areas was very thin and beautiful and on the bottom very heavy and messy (5 and 6).
Joni worked on the project for about nine hours Saturday and was so wound up and frustrated that she was unable to sleep. I got a very distressed call Sunday that she was just done! She wanted to hire out the rest no matter what the cost, and she thought we wouldn't be able to salvage what was already up, thus wasting $300 in tile.
I assured her the best I could and went over to her house Sunday evening to take a look. By that time, she had discovered that if she applied water to the surface of the tiles, she was able to chip and rub the excess thinset off (7).
I helped her for about an hour and got it almost entirely done. It's vital to get the grout lines clear of all white thinset so that it doesn't show against the darker grout. Joni feels much better about it now.
I think it looks beautiful and that we have the most difficult area by far done. The rest of the job is only five tiles high, just above the counter, which isn't much weight and the tile will have the counter to rest on. Also, we need a few spacers so there is a grout line at the junction where the tile meets the top of the counter. But this is for Joni to decide.
It may be that when I get home from camping this week, the tile job will be done.
I think we've done pretty well for a couple of novices on a tight budget which, by the way, I think we'll still be pretty close to, unless Joni hires out the rest. I think it would be nice to finish ourselves so that we know we can do it, but as I said, that's totally her call.
It looks so good with the chocolate-colored wall above the cabinets (8 and 9). It looks like it was totally meant to be that way. I love it and am still having fun. Go figure.
And here are comments from the star of the show, Joni:
It was blood, sweat and tears over this little area behind my stove. As Patti explained, all the thinset settled to the bottom of the wall and the wood trim kept it there behind the tiles. I was attempting to remove the hardening thinset between the tiles for the grout lines (as recommended) once that was removed.
To make sure the tiles were flat against the wall, and not floating on various thicknesses of thinset, I used a 2-by-4 to gently tap the tiles flat and even. Then, thinset would ooze out between the tiles and I would have to start over again. I'm glad I spent the time to make sure all the tiles were flat against the wall and the nails (about 40 of them) kept the tiles in place. The spaces between the tiles are very close. Fortunately, with the type of tile it is, it looks great.
It turned out beautiful and I love it! I feel good about the job we did. I am getting bids on the remaining backsplash and will let you know what I decide. I love my kitchen and Patti has been great. My kitchen has a great vibe!
Patti here. I'm helping my friend and fellow nurse Joni with the update of her condo kitchen.
We were supposed to be laying the backsplash tile this week, but we hit a little snag. Well, it's a time snag more than anything else, probably costing a week and $100.
As it turns out, we need to move the light sockets and switches up the wall for the tile to be set straight across and without a lot of cutting. A handyman came out today, and he thought he could do the job. He'll also run a wire up the inside of the wall so Joni can hang a pendant light over the eating bar, and he'll fix a fan/light in the kitchen that Joni hasn't been able to use for a couple of years.
We'll have to get the tile up next week because I'll be camping for a week after that and our time will run out. At first Joni was not sure we could lay the tile ourselves, but perhaps because we've had so much success with the painting and other projects she feels more confident in our abilities.
Also, Joni decided to get a tall contemporary dining room table with bar-height chairs to replace the big oak table and hutch she's had for years. We discovered that oak sets like this sell for only $250 or so on Craigslist, so Joni might take hers to the local consignment shop (where she found her tall table) so that she doesn't have to deal with the hassle of potential buyers coming over to the house.
As Joni waits for her new backsplash tile to be delivered, and we all wait to see how it will look installed, clever POD Person* Mike did some computer magic to show us the end result.
Above, on the right, you can see a representation of what Joni's tile might look like up on the wall.
Also, Mike suggests a mustardy wall color instead of the cream or terra cotta colors being considered.
So far, the overhead cabinet that blocked the natural light has come down, and a fun s-curve track light has gone up. The boring wood cabinets have been sanded, painted brown, glazed green and coated with polyurethane.
Plus, the backsplash tile (right) has been chosen, ordered and paid for. It comes to a whopping $641 out of the $1,000 budget.
"We were found to have very expensive taste," Patti noted.
The latest indecision revolves around the wall color, which surprised Patti: "I thought the wall color would be pretty easy to chose," she said. "Well, it's not!"
As you see in the photos (click to enlarge), a coating of a terra cotta/mocha color went up on the wall (center left photo) and Joni loves it.
Patti, though, feels it takes away from the excitement of the green cabinets and of the very expensive glass tile for the backsplash.
So Patti found some cream-colored paint that Joni had used in her hallway and brushed some on to see if it worked better (center right photo). She leaned a sample of the tile up there to see how it looks.
Me? I like the lighter wall color. I think it sets off the tile better.
On the other hand, why not get the tile installed and then play around with the wall color?
Here's an update on the condo kitchen remodel being done, girlfriend style, by fellow nurses Patti and Joni.
The two spent a few hours in surgical bonnets and surgical masks sanding the boxes of Joni's cabinets. Patti took the doors home and sanded and primed them, laying them out on her kitchen counters to dry. Patti said the "sanding/prep work is the most time-consuming with the least immediate reward." It's the painting and glazing that is real fun.
At the beginning of the project, Joni struggled to find time for it. Now, though, she's "on fire," as Patti put it.
One day after work, the two headed out to peruse three tile stores. Joni has settled on the backsplash tile you see here to achieve the funky, arty, coffeehouse look she wants. The tile is called Petrified Forest in the Geologie line of Oceanside Glasstile of Carlsbad. It's a blend of these tiles: Harvest Matte, Olive IridSlate: Copper Quartz and Indian Autumn. Here's another view of it. Joni loves it. They are also considering medallions like you see here, in 2-inch and 4-inch sizes, with the larger ones above the stove area.
The two friends were planning on cutting the 12-inch squares of 1-inch glass tiles in half and installing rows of six tiles each above existing 4-inch laminate backsplash. But these squares have 11 tiles, not 12, so Patti said that's a head-scratcher. As for installing the tile, Patti attended a tile-laying clinic at Home Depot and doesn't think it would be too hard to do the backsplash. Joni's not so sure, and she's getting a price from a pro.
Joni polished a few of her existing pulls and decided they looked great with the glazed green doors and the tile.
Next steps, finishing the cabinet painting and choosing the wall color.
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.
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!
After the overhead cabinet came down in Joni's kitchen, and sunlight from the back yard flooded in, she said: Ten years! I've wanted to do that for 10 years!
With a $1,000 budget, she wants to update and brighten the kitchen, giving it what she calls a coffee-house feeling of comfort. Now, it just looks drab. Joni's friend and fellow nurse, Patti, is helping her do the remodel. The biggest job will be staining the wooden cabinets and maybe replacing the hardware.
With the cabinet down and the new bendable track light up (see top two photos), it's time to decide on the cabinet stain. Patti took a door of the cabinet that came down and took it to the local paint store, where a talented color expert there has been helping her figure out how to get the layered brown and green paint job she saw on a side table at Pottery Barn. The plan so far calls for a dark primer, a layer of brown paint, and then the green paint mixed with glaze.
In the bottom two photos you see the door Patti is playing around with and some of the tile choices she thinks Joni might like for the backsplash. If you've ever looked at kitchen books and magazines, you know there are endless ways the backsplash tile can be applied: a simple strip above the counter, all the way up to the upper cabinets, a mix of large and small tiles.
Joni seems to be conservative in her tile use. She's leaning toward a strip about six inches high just above the countertop. The trouble with choosing one color and style of tile is that you are letting go of all the other beautiful choices. And that's a hard thing to do.
Meanwhile, Patti finds herself having a lot of fun with this project. It lets her express her artistry and creativity in a way her nursing job does not. But she also has to watch that she doesn't spend too much time on it. Intense creative work too late in the day makes it hard to wind down at night. But Patti better get it figured out because other friends are beginning to hint that they, too, would like some help with their projects.
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
For a cool contemporary home, these DIY paintings might be fun and flexible.
These look so sophisticated. But actually, they're simply canvases stretched on wood frames covered liberally with gesso-thickened paint. And where in the world would artists be without the miracle of gesso?
Just moving one colored canvas in or out of a scene makes a big difference.
Other advantages: These canvases are:
• Easy to hang
• Easy to store
• Easy to move
These paintings were included in "Kitty Bartholomew's Decorating Style," a book that I co-authored.
They were photographed in the Westwood condo of a cool young couple.
Patti here, blogging about the kitchen remodel I'm helping my friend and fellow nurse Joni accomplish in her SoCal condo. I blogged about the beginning of this project last week. On Saturday my husband, Gary, and I stopped by to help. And Joni's next-door neighbor helped as well.
I appreciate all your votes on the new light. As it turned out, Joni was partial to the nickel-looking track. I found some "a la carte" pieces at OSH that gave us some freedom to chose different lights, so we chose that option.
The harness box in the old ceiling light was so brittle that one of the screws just pulled out without being unscrewed. Fortunately, Joni had kept all of her parts from other fixtures she had replaced so she had another suitable box which we installed. This took almost an hour since it had to be modified to fit the hole in the ceiling.
The track went up easy enough, and the little lights are very bright. I bought samples of several different lights to choose from. Joni and I liked the same smaller light so we went with that. This job should have taken about 30 minutes but took an hour and a half due to the broken harness box (if that's the correct name for it). So it is with do-it-yourself projects; they always take longer than expected.
We had about 15 minutes to spare in our budgeted time so we ripped out the cabinet. (Click here to read the rest of the story.)
Check out this minute-and-a-half slide show of the day's events (and turn up the sound):
The title of this post is a joke, of course, because there is no charge for clinics at Home Depot, Lowe's and other places. It's just a matter of signing up and showing up.
The clinic I attended today consisted of a talented guy named Zac in aisle No. 7 with a table and some supplies. I expected a production — Lights! Microphone! Chairs! But, no.
Still, it was perfect. With four of us standing around, we got to ask all the questions we wanted. Is that Hardibacker board? (Yes.) How much is it? (About $11 for a 3-by-5-foot piece.) How long does it take the thinset to dry? (About 20 or 30 minutes.) How much is it? (About $10 a quart.) And so on.
The reason I mention all this is that each month Home Depot offers in-store clinics on different topics, and this month includes setting tile. Other topics for April are: selecting and planting perennials, water conservation at home and creating an organic garden.
Today's Guest Blogger is Colleen, a stay-at-home mom from Lake Forest, who finally gave in to my pleading for Guest Bloggers. (Was it the praying cat that put her over the edge?)
Here's her story:
When we bought our Lake Forest townhouse, everything was perfect except the kitchen.
It was beige laminate everywhere (applied over the original 1979 faux-wood particleboard cabinets and the countertop), and the sink cabinet had so much water damage that we couldn't keep a cabinet door bolted in place; the screws would rip out. There was a pass-through window from the kitchen to the dining room, but it was blocked by cabinets that hung down, so I would have to bend over to converse with my family and guests while I was in the kitchen.
So after almost four years of beige, we put together a tight budget and figured out what we could do.
We knew we would be keeping the shape and layout intact, since the kitchen worked well — it was just ugly and old and damaged. We wanted Ikea cabinets, but they come in only so many sizes and we couldn't make them work in our dimensions. We got quotes from big-box stores, but the prices were high enough to threaten the budget.
So we went to Chino Cabinets, which made and installed my parents' and uncles' cabinets, and it quoted us a very competitive price of about $5,000 for custom paint-grade maple cabinets.
I should note that the quote was for unfinished wood. They have finishers they recommend, but we did it ourselves. The only problem we had was our own fault for not being crystal clear enough about a change we ordered. Continue reading . . .
Well, why the heck not learn home improvement from stars? This is SoCal, after all. Home Depot refers to its new celebrity workshop series as "where Hollywood meets how-to." And personally, I could watch the Los Angeles-based Steve Harvey all day long. Anyone see him in "The Original Kings of Comedy"?
In a video on laminate flooring, Harvey says he's laid plenty of floors "back in my day." But now, in his glimmering suit and dapper hat, he doesn't do that anymore, he says, because "well, I've got people." So a helper from Home Depot joins him on the set to share some know-how.
You can get Harvey's four short videos downloaded to iTunes or another reader, or view them online. Environmentalist Ed Begley Jr., host of HGTV's Living With Ed, was the celebrity host for four previous online workshops.
Here's the lineup from Steve Harvey:
Decorate Your Home's Exterior for the Holidays (4:39 min.) Believe it or not, there's a right way and a wrong way to get your holiday decorations up correctly and safely — especially when dealing with lights.
Installing a Dimmer Switch (5:49 min.) Adding a dimmer switch to a lighting fixture can add ambiance to a room. Steve shows how.
Basics of Interior Painting and Wall Prep (5:37 min.) Learn to prepare a wall before you paint it -- you'll get tips on patching, spackling, applying primer and more.
Installing Laminate Flooring (4:30 min.) Steve shows both wood and stone looks.
And the lineup from Ed Begley Jr.:
Creating Compost (2:40 min.) Learn the dos and don'ts of backyard composting. Discover what it takes to make great compost and how composting saves not only natural resources but money too.
Replacing a Toilet (3:28 min) Learn how to remove an old toilet and install a new water-saving, low-flow toilet — a change that can have a huge effect on your water usage.
Making your Home Draft Proof (3:28) Learn how to weatherproof the doors and windows in your home, saving energy and money.
Installing a Programmable Thermostat (2:58 min.) Learn how to remove an old thermostat and install a new programmable thermostat — and why a new one is more energy-efficient.
Should you add square footage with your own hands, hire subcontractors to do it or pay a licensed contractor to oversee the project?
The upside to doing it yourself, as evidenced by this Westchester addition designed and built by an aerospace engineer and his brother, is that you get a bunch of new space for a lot less money.
The downsides come when you don't do it according to code and don't get permits. This engineer did all that correctly, as engineers are apt to do, but other types of homeowners may forgo those details.
If you do an addition without a permit or not to code, or both, here are some dangers, according to a story today at CNN.com:
- The structure could be unsafe for your family and future families. - Unpermitted space could stop or delay a sale. - You might have to tear down or expensively retrofit out-of-code upgrades later on.
But if your new house burns down, and your insurer finds out it included unpermitted space, "they have a way to get out of any of their obligation as an insurance company," Brick said.
What do you think? Is unpermitted space a good idea? Would your insurance company use that as an excuse not to pay a fire claim?
Of interest to me is an estimate of how much fire-protection retrofits cost. Of course, costs depend on how big your house is, where it is located and who does the work. But here are some approximates:
Under $300
• Creating a survivable space • Maintaining your survivable space • Installing fire-resistant signs and address numbers (to help the fire department find you) • Modifying your attic, sub-floor and basement vents • Installing a spark arrestor on your chimney
$300 to $1,000
• Boxing in overhangs and modifying other attachments • Boxing in your eaves, fascias, and soffits
More than $1,000
• Re-covering your exterior walls with a more fire-resistant material • Replacing single-pane glass windows, doors or skylights with dual-pane and tempered glass • Modifying your driveway, bridges and gates to accommodate fire trucks • Re-roofing your home with a Class A roof covering
At this time of year, a home improvement writer's interest typically turns to wet-weather topics like replacing the roof and cleaning out the gutters. But here we are in the heat of fire season.
This graphic in today's L.A. Times (click on graphic to enlarge) gives advice on increasing a home's ability to survive a wildfire. By now, we know to clear brush away from the house and not to install wood-shake roofs. And we're starting to learn that dual-pane windows help resist fire, as well as conserve energy in those moments when a fire is not raging outside.
Here are a couple of other ideas to consider:
• Wire mesh inside vent openings. This will prevent hot embers from getting inside the attic space, and the wire mesh should have spaces no larger than 1/8 inch. This is a simple home improvement project just about anyone could tackle with a few bucks' worth of mesh and a staple gun.
• Boxed eaves. If the eaves are closed up, hot embers will not fly up and under the eaves, where they could smolder before catching the roof on fire. (Overhanging decks present the same danger.) It might take a carpenter to do this job right.
The ultimate responsibility for fire safety lands squarely with individual homeowners. It is their duty to do everything they can to retrofit existing structures with low fire-risk features: boxed eaves, double-glazed windows, ember-resistant attic vents, sealed gaps between roof tiles and deck, and no exposed wood surfaces, including fences and roofing.
I found this DIY concrete countertop on the Instructables website, which bills itself as: "the world's biggest show and tell."
The DIY-er, screen name "doubleabattery," shows step-by-step how he created some handsome counters. Why did he choose concrete? He writes:
So I wanted to redo the kitchen in my 1916 Foursquare and I was bored with all the countertop options. Unless you're getting formica, they all cost about the same as granite or marble, look just like granite or marble, and are as typically typical as granite or marble.
And:
The one material that I found was much more customizable than the other solid surfaces was concrete. The colors and textures are endless, you can mold it into just about any shape you can imagine, and it retains the advantages of solid surfaces. But it's concrete, so it must be cheaper than milled stone, right? If you have a professional do it for you, it can actually cost MORE than other solid surfaces. . . . Do it yourself, and you can save a bundle. I priced granite countertops in my kitchen and they came out at around $4,000. My custom concrete counter tops ended up coming in at below $800, including the rental of the concrete mixer.
But, doubleabattery warns, there are drawbacks to the material, which he lists as:
• This is not a project that can be completed in a weekend. No matter how small the countertop is, there's at least a 10-day curing process for grinding and polishing. • Concrete needs to be properly sealed at the beginning and waxed about every 30 days to avoid staining. • The final outcome might not be exactly what you expected, especially if you're doing it for the first time. The good news is that there are ways to remedy many outcomes that you may not like.
And finally, he highly recommends the book Concrete Countertops by Fu-Tung Cheng, which I also believe is the very best book on the topic. See how it's done. And be sure to read the comments from other readers.
Sustainably speaking, it's probably a good idea to move a house rather than tear it down and haul it to the landfill.
But when your house hits a bridge on the way and gets stranded on the Hollywood Freeway, well, there's got to be some regrets.
According to the story, the owner, Patrick Richardson, was trying to save money by moving the house himself from Santa Monica to the Santa Clarita Valley. I'm not sure this is the best DIY project one should undertake.
You never know when a home-improvement project will find you. Here's the recent experience of The Times' own Real Estate section editor, Lauren Beale:
I had been warned. The night before I left town to take my son, Mike, back to college, his friend Kyle -- arriving at the fraternity house a day ahead -- called with the news.
"Dude, your room is totally trashed and the door is kicked in. And the whole house really stinks. Do you think your mom is going to be mad when she sees this?"
Of all the reactions I could imagine, anger wasn't high on my list. From the familiarity of home, the information raised some concern yet didn't really register. The words held no depth of meaning. There was packing to finish, a shopping list to review, details to see to, a plane to catch, car rental, hotel check-in.
But there's nothing like a visual to bring a point across. In an effort perhaps to spare me some anguish, Mike and Kyle had pitched most of the garbage and pulled the stained and smelly carpet out of the room before I saw it. A kicked-in orange door lay in the trash-strewn hall. Parts of locks and their associated hardware dangled from the wall. Inside the room, doodles and other musings from the former resident and friends were scrawled across lime-green walls: "Warsaw, Warsaw, Warsaw, Warsaw," drawings of elephants and a reasonable likeness of the head of the Pink Panther, advice such as "Get drunk" and several girls' names. A shelf in the closet displayed a collection of empty Crown Royal and Grey Goose Vodka bottles.
It was a stunning scene of discarded rubbish and lack of upkeep throughout the floor and the one below. Astonished, I withheld most of my commentary. Too much to take in and process.
"This isn't that bad," Kyle told us. "You should see Peter's room."
One of the most compelling products to be displayed at the upcoming West Coast Green building conference (San Francisco, Sept. 20-22) will be American Clay plaster, a natural clay application that can give otherwise ordinary walls depth and a warm glow.
Manufactured in and using materials from the United States, American Clay, based in Albuquerque, uses natural clays, recycled and reclaimed aggregates, and natural pigments in three finishes: Loma, Porcelina (smoother) and Marittimo (stronger).
This nontoxic plaster helps earn green buildings a LEED rating (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for good indoor air quality, low-impact packaging and the use of recycled or reclaimed products, or both.
American Clay Plaster can be applied with a trowel over new drywall, painted plaster and firm paints, but it's not recommended for use over OSB (oriented-strand board), tongue-and-groove paneling or any other material that expands and contracts at a high rate due to changing moisture content. It's also not recommended over tile. See more about surfaces.
Plus, you can purchase a kit (pictured) for $36 plus shipping so you can try it at home. The kit includes three small bags of premixed samples of each of the three finishes, three practice boards and a trowel.
Here's one of the latest creations posted on Ikea Hacker blog, where clever people find ways to create cool environments on a budget and mostly with Ikea products.
The coolest thing in this $1,400 bathroom, from my perspective, is the simple wall-mounted sink set into a wooden shelf with a hole cut in it.
This Hollviken sink costs about 80 bucks, and wall-hung sinks start at about $70 at Home Depot. And the Stolmen shelf is nothing special at about $10 to $15. Put them together, though, and you've got a hip, upscale design.
The Duravit toilet is pretty cool, also, and homeowner Matt says he got it from Home Depot for $350.
All materials cost $1,400, plus the labor of the homeowner. Not too bad, especially if you can't get a home equity loan on account of the current mortgage loan meltdown and you need to save up the money for your remodel. At this price, such a goal seems possible.
As a commenter on the Ikea Hacker site warned, the Effektiv storage unit is not meant for moist areas, and so the particleboard should be well sealed.
If you attend remodeling industry conferences (as I often do), you've see Buellton, Calif.-based tile-installation expert Michael Byrne in action.
With his calm, methodical, knowing attitude, Michael demonstrates for attendees (mostly contractors and tradespeople) how to set tile. Sounds pretty mundane, right? But Michael, the author of many books and videos on the subject, is treated almost like a rock star, with every seat filled during his demonstrations and people standing four deep to see and hear this master. At tile conventions, people line up to get his autograph.
And you think: Why is this guy such a hotshot? If you've ever had tile fall off the wall, or lose its grout, or crack or otherwise get messed up, you know there is more to tile installation than slapping down some thin set. And with all the new backer-board, mortar and grout products introduced to the market in recent years, you know it takes some knowledge to match up the right products and techniques for a long-lasting job.
Plus, Michael is an artist. He has dedicated himself to becoming a tile-installation master. So why am I telling you all this? If you are thinking of doing some tile work on your own in your home, you would be well advised to get some instruction from someone like Michael rather than relying on some three-minute YouTube videos or a fleeting glance at a cable TV show.
Michael has put out a bounty of instructional videos, which you can peruse here. And check out his Taunton Setting Tile book. With all the time and money you might spend on a DIY tile project, 20 or 30 bucks for instruction is a good investment. Don't you think?
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?
After a Claremont homeowner designed her new master bathroom and had it built, she felt the dramatic octagonal recess in the room needed a little more drama. So she brought in Dan Gallagher of Gallagher's Decorative Painting and Design (Lic. No. 733972) to add more dimension. First Dan applied paper-thin sheets of copper to the area (a process known as gilding), then did a trompe l'oeil (French for "fools the eye") treatment to make it look as though a blacksmith or sheet metal fabricator had stopped by.
According to Dan, the purpose of his decorative paint work is not for it to stand out and call attention to itself, but to complement and highlight the other architectural elements. He succeeded on that count here, bringing out the warm beauty of the beams and chandelier. And the recess is now luminescent, reflecting a warm glow back into the room.
If you wanted to try some copper leafing at home, Dan says one of the best places in the whole country to buy copper leaf, silver leaf, gold leaf and all those other leaves is right here in Los Angeles at: Easy Leaf Products, 6001 Santa Monica Blvd. The phone is: (323) 469-0856.
When he set out to renovate the kitchen of his West Hollywood condo, Cyrus Deboo discovered more than how to paint cabinets and lay a tile floor. The do-it-yourselfer also found out some things about patience and perseverance.
"The incredible lesson I learned from that kitchen rivals anything I learned in therapy," said Deboo, a part-time actor whose day job is selling shoes.
The lesson in patience started in 1998 when Deboo bought a one-bedroom, 700-square-foot condominium for $110,000. He recalls a friend saying, "Aren't you excited you have your own place? You can do whatever you want with it."
But the purchase left the then-28-year-old so drained financially that he managed little more than a thrift-store outing for a chair and coffee table.
For the most part, life in the 1950s-era unit — with its large windows, hardwood floors, crown moldings and a bathroom floor of vintage octagonal tiles — was sweet.
The kitchen, however, was a sore spot, with its tired linoleum floor and varnished knotty pine cabinets. "It was terrible," Deboo said. He came to deride it as the "log cabin kitchen."
Over the next couple of years, Deboo obsessed over home fix-it shows on TV and dreamed of a better kitchen. Then, one day in 2000, walking through Home Depot, he stumbled on a do-it-yourself clinic on installing ceramic tile. "They made it look so easy," he recalled.
With two years of delay behind him, he began to remodel his kitchen.
"We started out by mixing up ferrous sulfate and diluting it in water. We then strained it into a garden sprayer and just sprayed it on the slab. The ferrous sulfate (iron really) reacts with chemicals in the concrete, and turns it a multitude of colors from yellow to orange to red to brown. We got all kinds of veining and the cracks turned dark and got accentuated, so it looks like marble now.
"The pictures don’t do it justice, it’s very beautiful. Also, we did the great room a little darker (extra coats) and haven’t sealed that area yet (the sealing makes it darker still). Should look very nice.
"The stuff is very cheap. I figure it cost about $5 to do both units. Of course, the acrylic sealer was $87 for five gallons. We computed 15 gallons, but looks like we’ll use far less."
I'm not sure how you would do this to an existing floor with the walls already in place. How would you protect the walls? And for sure, you would need super-duper ventilation. Be safe!
Don’t Use Pure White Paint: You probably know this already, but no one (except me apparently) paints anything pure white — and with good reason. There are endless shades of white to choose from — decorator’s white, antique white, white dove — and any of those would have looked infinitely better. In the end I had to paint an extra coat of an off-white to tone down the icy-bluishness of the pure white.
When Arnie and Lily Richards remodeled the kitchen in their Downey home — doing every single task themselves — Lily's wish list included a custom stove hood. Arnie was a little tired from the months-long process when the job of building the hood came up. But he's a good husband, and so he made it happen.
You can see from this photo that Arnie was victorious. (And, hey, Lily's no slouch. She did all the tile work, among other things, including the granite tile counters.)
To figure out how to make a hood like this, I asked Arnie how he did it, and here's what he said:
"The hood was actually quite easy to build. The guts consist of a rectangular metal box with a high-powered fan, which we purchased from Pacific Sales.
This box is mounted inside the hood framework, which consists of a framework made of 2-by-2s covered with 1/4-inch drywall, and finished with molding. The 2-by-2 framework was bolted to the wall and ceiling before applying the drywall and molding. It was really pretty simple. I also stuffed the inside of the hood with fiberglass insulation to try to cut down on fan noise. It helps a little."
Thanks, Arnie. And to the readers of this blog: Have you done a DIY project you would be willing to share with us?Please email a photo and a paragraph or so telling how you did it, and where you got the stuff to do it with. The email address is: podblog@aol.com.
In this kitchen, the backsplash tile sets the tone. If your kitchen could be jazzed up with tile, installing a backsplash is a good DIY project.
I saw step-by-step instructions for this in a great book from The Taunton Press called 52 Weekend Makeovers, so I got permission from the editors to reprint their excellent instructions and photos for you.
This is a project you could actually do this weekend if you found some great tile. Here are some tile places that have been recommended by SoCal homeowners:
By Ariane Wiltse
