Remodeling Repartee

House as Life

2008-03-01T21:14:00.000-08:00

Koontz - I was at a dinner party tonight-lovely evening, with food and wine and conversation and when I came home, I reflected on how my friends USE their homes for the continuation of the things they love.

One of my friends at the dinner party is an artist whose garage was converted, by yours truly, into his work studio. He has recently been working in the medium of gunpowder drawings and my last visit to his house, around December, he staged an exhibition of the creation of a drawing. It was quite a festive event-we gathered out back after dark, the only existing light being the outdoor firebox. Robb, (the artist), had a table laid out with the paper and gunpowder and he directed his helpers and the crowd on what was about to transpire. The fuse was lit, and 20 seconds later, we had Robb's latest artwork at hand. With a few "artistic" adjustments, this piece later hung in a local gallery and now hangs in Robb's living room.

The host of tonights dinner party, Lance, is my work partner's brother and one of my good friends. Lance is a musical engineer, home dad and carpenter who is currently working on drawing the plans for an addition to his home. He knows what he wants to do, he knows carpentry and computers, so why hire someone to do what he can figure out himself? It may take a bit longer, but he'll know it's right. His wife, by day a school teacher, but by avocation a horticulturist, invited me as I left this evening to come by in daylight and she would dig up a volunteer plant she's discovered in her yard that is unusually lovely. This woman could grow a flower in a junk yard, I swear. Every place this couple has ever lived has had a yard to die for, with seemingly no effort on the residents part. I know the no effort part isn't true, but she makes it look so easy you would swear you could do it too!

My partner's sister, Kim, also at the dinner party, told us that yesterday she had the living room re-textured and her beau, also at the party, is trying to figure out how to get the two pillar bookcases removed between the dining room and living room of their house to gain some additional usable square footage in the rooms. Kim and Bloyce have made an avocation out of their house. They've upgraded, re-built, repainted and improved nearly every square inch of their 100 year old property.

We talked about my partner's house, which has a veritable forest for a yard, the reason he bought the house in the first place, but now he has to search for clear space above and below the forest line to get enough sun to grow annual flowers.

What strikes me is that all of my friends tonight speak of their homes as part of how they live their lives. The homes may not be perfect-Robb and Rene kind of wish for a bit more room, Keith and Jody love the forest but could do with more sun, Lance and Pat love their locale but have to fight a bit with the layout of their place. Kim and Bloyce have gone through every room, including the outdoors and the garage and really will have no challenges left soon, and I am not thrilled with my neighborhood, but love my remoteness from neighbors and the street scene.

We all have issues with our spaces, but we also all have adapted and learned to utilize what we have to the utmost and we speak of our spaces as though they are part of how we actually function, in a day-to-day sense. I find that intriguing. Our homes as not just an abode, but as part-and-parcel of how we spend our time.

You imagine that you will have to adapt to a new beau, a child, a new pet...but how do our lives change and adapt because of where we live? And is it a positive or a negative? How does our space make us change, grow, create? And if and when we move---is it because we've exhausted our possibilities where we are? Is that what really makes us ready for change? Interesting....

Bad Loans or Bad Homeowners'?

2008-02-25T07:26:00.000-08:00

Koontz - The latest news from the Association of Realtors addresses one of the big issues with the slew of foreclosures occurring in this new housing market-the soon to be infamous, "refinance option".

This study is possibly a bit self-serving on the Associations side. When things go wrong in any endeavor there is first a need to assign blame and then there is a furious rush to duck blame. The most recent study by The Association of Realtors undoubtedly was undertaken with the hope that it would provide a way for Realtors to pass some of the burden of blame off their shoulders regarding the mess many of their clients find themselves in now. As it happens, and assuming the study is even half right, it was a good call on the Associations part.

What they found is that at least half of the homes that went into foreclosure in the last quarter did so because the homeowners refinanced their homes (on average, twice!), pulling out the equity the high housing market had given them. According to our local Association's president, homeowners used their houses "as the new ATM".

The results were higher loans on houses, no equity in the properties and often, no improvements in the houses. In other words, the equity pulled out was not reinvested in the property. Homeowners instead counted on a continuing rising market, which would have kept their home values at pace with their loans.

But that's not what happened. Instead, the market stalled and then slumped and home values started falling. Now owners have large loans on houses that don't appraise for the amount of money loaned against them and the equity has long since been spent on...what?

Everyone may have the latest flat screen TV now, but soon they may have no where to put it. (are flat screens the latest??? You get the idea, right?)

The dream of owning a home, that 'ole "great American dream", was until very recently, a long-term dream. You bought a house, spent 30 some years paying for it and by the time you retired, if all went as planned, you actually owned your home and when your income necessarily dropped because of retirement, you had dispensed with the largest part of your monthly expense-your house payment. It all seemed to work out.

But something has changed with the next generation of homeowners. Owning a home is seen as a means of increasing income in the short term. It's like a shell game. Buy, sell, buy bigger, refinance, sell, buy yet bigger.

In an earlier post on this blog, my partner, Jodi, talks about when you should remodel a home. She is pretty stringent-telling folks that not until your kids' college fund is financed do you invest money in "the good life" by investing in a remodel. I thought Jodi was too stringent, now I think she was the harbinger of things to come-like the ghost of Christmases to come.

It is never wise, regardless of the market, to exhaust the equity in your home. Your home is literally your port-in-the-storm. There are obvious emergencies where taping into your home equity may be your only option and the point is, you want that option to be there if you need it.

This may be advice that comes far too late for many-but for the few---pay attention. Remodeling is a luxury, not a necessity. We need to get back to that mind-set and be content with analog rather than high def. (Well, as long as they'll let us anyway).

Smart Remodeling Caveats

2007-10-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

Fitzpatrick-I agree with Peg’s previous post on almost all points, but there are some times when putting more money into a house than the neighborhood warrants actually pays off.

The first of these, Peg mentioned; when it’s your dream house and you don’t plan on leaving except feet first out the door. But even then, your heirs and/or caretakers might grumble if you’ve used all your equity to make it comfortable to the point of having no reserves for other things, such as home health care.

The second situation is when improvements will make a huge difference in your quality of life. For instance, if you install a pool and actually swim laps in it every day, thus improving your health and perhaps extending your life, or when you add a guest wing so an elderly relative can move in.

The third situation is one in which I and my husband find ourselves; buying into an older neighborhood that appears to be gentrifying. We’re in our 40’s and we’re the youngest folks on the block, our house was architect-designed, and it's within walking distance of one of the most desirable shopping hubs in town, which is undergoing its own gentrification. We walk to grocery, dry-cleaning, post office, bookstore and many fun clothing and coffee shops, high-end restaurants as well as cafes, and the only Whole Foods within 200 miles. There are very few houses for sale around here, and those tend to be snapped up by younger, hip professionals, even in this down market.

Interest in neighborhoods within walking distance of services is growing, and if you can find a house with architectural integrity in this type of locale, your remodeling investment may pay off. Not only in quality of life, but in actually bottom line net worth. We hope it will, anyway!

Smart Remodeling

2007-10-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

Koontz - The housing industry on the West Coast is all abuzz of late as homebuyers watch their home values drop in a suddenly stagnant market. What does this mean to you if you are contemplating a remodel? It shouldn't necessarily stop your planning, but it should remind you to double-check your plans on your remodel. Are you investing your money in the right places for your home and your neighborhood?

We've talked about this before, but in down-turn markets it bears repeating. Unless this is the dream home that you never plan to leave, don't invest too much money in your remodel. You don't want to end up with the most expensive house in your neighborhood. Having the highest- end house in the neighborhood means you have a smaller field of buyers to choose from if and when you want to sell. As many sellers are finding out now, that is not the most desirable position to be in.

There were alot of people in the up-swing market who bought houses with the intention of upgrading them and flipping them. Much as my partner, Jodi, detests this industry, it's often a solid and lucrative endeavor. The trick though, whether you are remodeling to flip or you are remodeling for yourself, is to choose the right projects, i.e., those with the best return on your investment; and the right materials.

In our area, there was a great boom in the post-war housing neighborhoods during this up-swing. Sadly, the remodelers installed all the wrong, (and overly expensive), materials and destroyed much of the existing value of the houses they bought. Not only did they invest too much in their remodels/rehabs, but they made bad choices about what to improve. Post-war houses typically need upgrades like central heat and air conditioning, automated sprinklers, automated garage doors, additional square footage, (second baths especially), upgraded service panels and more electrical outlets, and for the way many of us live now; more open floor plans.

Instead, these flippers chose to replace tile with granite (WRONG!), put fancy front-doors on simple little porches, yikes; re-face exteriors with pseudo-fieldstone or new lace style dash coats, totally out of era; Replace solid wood kitchen cabinetry with new oak cabinets, (I swear if I never see another oak kitchen cabinet it will still be too soon); and generally, spend too much money on style rather than substance.

Now, when there's not a buying boom driving people to buy in a frantic market, buyers looks at these houses and recognize that they aren't worth the asking price, often because there is still too much investment on the new owners' plate to make the house a comfortable living space.

Whether you are remodeling for you or for the flip, pay attention to the details that make living in a space easier. That's kind of the point to remodeling!

Water pressure

2007-09-24T06:56:00.000-07:00

Koontz - Jen, the reader in southern California, wrote regarding concerns over the water pressure at her remodeling project because she wants to install multiple shower heads in her master bath shower. The sales person for the new shower valve recommends a 3/4" water supply line, the GC on the job informed Jen that her house has a 3/4" supply, but he expects to bring it down to 1/2" to supply the shower.

Jen readily admits that she doesn't know what changing the main water line would entail, and I'm guessing that if she asked her GC about doing this, his heretofore adaptability might be strained a bit. Changing out a main supply in a remodel is fairly complex, very expensive and hopefully, for this project, unneeded.

The main supply is first dependent on the supply size and pressure you receive from your municipality. If they come into your meter with a 3/4" line, changing your house supply to 1", or 1 1/4" as Jen mentioned, is no help.

You can think of the water main in your house like the blood lines in your body. The line starts somewhere (from the municipality) and here it is at it's largest diameter- (my analogy would be your heart). As the line moves through your house, it is sized down appropriate to the fixtures it is supplying. Maximum pressure is related to volume, so as the pipes narrow down, the volume is decreased, therefore the pressure reduces. This is unnoticeable to us in our homes when we are opening up one shower valve, but you put four shower valves in, turn them all on at once, and these sizing differences might create a dramatic difference in how much water flows from each shower head.

Here's a good experiment to see how those four valves might function on your existing system. Open up four separate water valves in the house (or put a 4-way splitter on an outside hose bib and open up all of them), and then check out the pressure. This will be comparable to the shower with all four valves opened up. You can also call your local water board and actually ask them what the pressure is at the main line and then call the manufacturer of your shower system and compare the ratings, but the first experiment is the "quick and dirty" option.

If the pressure is too low Jen, ask your Contractor to keep the 3/4" line all the way to the fixtures-he can do this without replacing the entire main line. He'll pull out the intersecting 1/2" off-shoots to the shower that now exist and run 3/4" pipe or flexible water line in it's place. You won't want to be running the dishwasher when you shower, but at least you can utilize the new system properly.

How to Get a Contractor Like This

2007-09-23T15:56:00.000-07:00

Fitzpatrick-Our intrepid reader, Jen, is busily into month two of the remodel of her SoCal bungalow and is keeping us on track here at Remodeling Repartee.

Jen wrote:

"Our GC is in constant communication with us which is keeping us on schedule with decision-making and ordering materials and has been at our house a number of times I’ve just randomly decided to stop by. I actually dropped by last week and he was watering our yards because our sprinklers had been unexpectedly shut off."

Knock me over with a tape measure. Peg is about the only other contractor I know who would do such things. How did Jen find this guy, how did she know to hire him, and how can you (and me, too) imitate her tactics?

We’ve put a message out to her and hope to hear back soon as to whether being a Virgo had a hand in it, or something else….

Reintroducing Pets to a Remodeled Space

2007-07-01T16:38:00.000-07:00

Fitzpatrick-Our intrepid reader, Jen, from SoCal wrote yesterday with good news:

“Well, we’re finally starting our home remodel, after years of talking about it and months of hemming and hawing and, ultimately, scaling back our plans to a more reasonable level. Your May post was very interesting, as we have 2 poodle-mixes, and I was wondering if your trainer has any advice for reintroducing pets to a remodeled home.

Many things will be different, but quite a few of the rooms they hang out in will be the same (except for new floors). We’re moving out for the whole process (to a home they’re familiar with), so that will eliminate some stress, but they already rough-house so much, I’d love to make the transition as easy as possible.”

First, congratulations on having the wherewithal—financial as well as psychological—to move to another abode while the remodel is underway. I’m not promising this will save everyone’s sanity, but it will go a long way toward preserving it.

I did receive some information regarding moving dogs into a new space (which this will be for them) from our trainer, Vikki Campbell, of Vikki Campbell Dog Training in Madera, California. She’s a huge proponent of “Dog Whisperer” Cesar Millan’s techniques, www.dogpsychologycenter.com, and I’m a recent convert. If I would have had this knowledge when we first moved into our home, it would have helped reinforce my role as “pack leader” and cut down on subsequent difficulties. Jen mentioned her poodle mixes are “roughhouse” ‘ers, so it sounds like they could benefit from a bit of direction. Jen, you could definitely try implementing these suggestions upon your move-in:

1. Upon reintroduction to the property, keep the dogs on leads. Don’t let them dash around willy-nilly on their own. This allows them to think they “own” the property and can do what they wish, when they wish.

2. Keep them on leads in the house for a few days to a week. Tie them to your waist and have them follow you from room to room, so they look to you as the master of the space and the things in it. This helps prevent marking issues. Your new set of cabinets that you spent all that time and money selecting and installing, the dogs may see only as a new-smelling wall they need to make “theirs.” Your new flooring may appear to them to be a gigantic flat cracker treat.

3. This is a good time to create a specific space where they sleep or for “time outs.” You can also move a dog bed from room to room, but they need to learn to stay/sleep on it. This prevents “nesting” scratching of floors and rugs. Keep them on lead when they sleep as well, until they learn that they need to stay there all night (health permitting) until its time for the pack to get up.

4. Direct them, on lead, to a specific place outside where you want them to urinate and defecate. I need to hop on this one right now, as we just rolled out the new sod last week on our landscape remodel—hence the sporadic posts. More later.

To implement these suggestions requires a few days to a week of intense dog-and-human interaction, right at the time when you’re exhausted from the remodel and just want life to get back to normal. You also might not be familiar with, or a fan of, the “pack leader” type of dog behavior training. All I can tell you is that it’s helped our household. Not cured, but helped. If you can swing it, the investment in time to instill these behaviors in the dogs will more than pay for itself in the happiness and harmony of the pack and the preservation of your newly remodeled space.

Again, Jen, thanks for keeping up with our blog and we’re looking forward to reports from the front lines of your remodel.

Pets and Home Remodeling

2007-05-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

Fitzpatrick-I’ve worked on many remodeling projects where the household included dogs, cats, some lizards, you name it. Hitherto, the only trouble I’ve had is making sure the critters don’t claw or eat tradespeople or skedaddle out a gate or door left open or between the legs of delivery people.

I’ve never encountered what I’m going through now with my two dogs. We moved into a house five months ago and the Chow Chows took awhile to adjust. When I would run errands, the younger male would hurl himself at the 50-year-old plate glass sliders in a fit of anxiety that I was leaving him in this strange place. And for Lü, the place was strange for close to three months.

At three-and-a-half months, we commenced full-fledged landscape Armageddon. The Chow Chows were relegated to one 20-foot-by-20-foot fenced space outside, while inside, the multiple glass sliders of this mid-century modern afforded them ample view of the three to eight strange men tromping through their territory every day. Then one came inside to strip wallpaper. Another entered to remove light fixtures. Then—as one of the visiting tradesguys christened it—the Chow Down began.

The trainer called me back after the desperate Saturday night message I left her on my way to the doggie ER with two bleeding dogs and an ice-pack on my own leg wounds. Chows are territorial, she said. The younger male feels helpless with all the strangers around. He lashes out at the nearest creature, the 12-year-old female who raised him. The Empress P.Wei doesn’t take this crap and dishes back some of her own. Muzzles were over-nighted and the trainer is showing up tomorrow to Cesar-Milan their butts.

Dog fights are terrifying. Especially when they’re between the fuzzy ones closest to you. Especially when you get bitten. After the dogs’ snarling and barking ended, my husband and I took up with our own. “You spoiled him!” my husband yelled. “You didn’t have to tear up the yard so soon after moving!” I hurled back—plus a few other things.

As the swelling in my leg wound and my cried-out eyes slowly went down, I began thinking about how remodeling affects household pets. The trainer assured me that she’s seen this before and was in fact currently working with a Shepard who was attacking its housemate in a similar situation. Think about it. For those of us with large, guard-type dogs, we tend to like the fact that they make strangers think twice about stepping foot on our properties. How are the dogs supposed to know the difference between a good stranger and a bad one? How confused, and frustrated, must they be when we tell them, “No, no, bad dog, don’t bark at the five strange men wielding metal tools in the backyard.” Animals remind us how difficult and how unnatural it is—for how most of us live today—for hordes of people on agendas, armed with strange and noisy tools and sometimes yelling at each other, to swarm through our homes.

Remodeling any part of a property is one of the most stressful things you can ever put a household through. An intensive remodel is like open heart surgery; even if it’s needed, it’s a major trauma to the organism. The very spirit of a place can be temporarily scattered and violated. Those of the home’s inhabitants, like pets, who are innately linked to the land and the hearth can feel equally destabilized. It’s important to consider carefully whether all members of the family are in a physical and psychological position to handle this.

Art vs. Design or What's Wrong With This Picture

2007-04-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

Fitzpatrick-An advertisement offering reproductions of artwork scaled and colored to fit your décor, caught my eye the other day. There is something very wrong with this scenario.

I attended the interior design program at California State University Fresno when it was part of the industrial technology department (it’s now a rightful member of the School of Art and Design), so I missed the usual art school interdisciplinary drama over whether art should be co-opted for commercial purposes. The great Fine Artists (painters, sculptors) vs. Commercial Artists (interior designers, graphic designers) battle did not play out as in most art schools, as we were the artsy ones next to the I.T. geeks.

So I’m not sure where I got the idea that design is here to support art, but it might have been from my first employer, Michael Weil of Michael Weil Design www.michaelweildesign.com. Michael’s first career was in theater production and he spent the wild and wooly 70s and 80s between New York and Rome involved in some of the most cutting edge work of the day. Where other designers I later worked for might develop a “theme” or “concept” for a client based on a color they wanted to work with or an inspiring fabric, Michael’s first move was to inquire if the client collected any art, and if they didn’t, if there was some other passion that they held in life. This is where he would begin. For Michael, life is about passion and for him, visual passion culminates in art or objects with such intense symbolism for the client that they should be the visual center of the home.

If the architecture of a home is genuine and it houses art that inspires and impassions the inhabitants, there is very little need for decoration.

The advertisement offers “art the way you want it.” This is backwards. Art exists to do what it wants with us.

Ignorning Building Codes Can Spell T-R-A-G-E-D-Y

2007-02-08T14:17:00.000-08:00

Fitzpatrick--In the wee hours of this morning in our fair metropolis, a house fire believed to be caused by faulty wiring critically injured one four-year-old girl and killed her eight-year-old sister.

The security bars on the windows did not have release mechanisms and the house had no smoke alarms; both current fire code violations. The newspaper article from which I received the information said it was not clear whether the security bars were installed before release levers became requirements of the building code, or if they were installed by an unlicensed contractor who, through ignorance or willful omission, did not include any.

The girls were in the house alone. The adult watching them for the evening was a close relative, who lives with her husband in the home’s converted garage. I’d bet my high-dollar carbon monoxide detector the faulty wiring came from the conversion of that garage by an unlicensed contractor with no building permit.

Who’s to blame here? Poverty? Ignorance? Laziness?

The home is in a poor neighborhood, where folks barely have enough to feed and clothe their families let alone pay for licensed contractors to perform a legal remodel to provide living quarters for an extended family, who might otherwise be sleeping in the cars they displaced from this garage, or on the street. Crime is high there, and while at some point someone scraped up money to install the window and door security bars to keep these angels safe, they either didn’t know, or didn’t have enough to make sure they functioned as protection and not imprisonment. The home had three bedrooms, so in our jurisdiction it should have had four smoke detectors: one in each bedroom and one in the kitchen. Four smoke detectors can be purchased for less than $50 plus batteries; a small price to pay for saving a life.

The poor in this country bear an unreasonable share of building related-fatalities, maimings and other disabling accidents, (such as lead poisoning from old paint), due to substandard housing, over much of which, since they often rent, they have no control. So when I observe folks with enough money to visit Europe and straighten their kids’ teeth trying to circumvent codes and evade the permitting process, I become a bit outraged.

Ignoring the life and safety codes in a remodel when you have enough money to be doing one is the height of irresponsibility.

The Difference Between Good and Bad DIY Information: Fine Homebuilding Wins Again

2007-02-08T14:12:00.000-08:00

Fitzpatrick--The litmus test for whether a Do-It-Yourself remodeling media source is legit is whether or not it chooses to deal with the issue of building codes. I say “chooses” because although a media organization such as BeJane or HGTV may choose to ignore this, the fact remains that building codes govern the majority of legal construction activity in the United States and are ignored at a homeowner’s peril. (See next post).

Fine Homebuilding, the premier magazine of The Taunton Press, once again wins my vote as Best DIY magazine. In my e-mail box today was an offer for 30% off the press’s “Code Check” books. They have one for each major system: Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC and General Building, enumerating the current ICBO (International Conference of Building Officials) construction code. This a great place for a DIYer to start, although each municipality in the U.S. usually adopts its own version of this code, retaining certain points, ignoring others, and inserting their own, depending on geographical conditions that affect the safe construction of buildings in that area, and a homeowner needs to check these local requirements as well.

This is why the only link on this blog to any type of DIY media is to Fine Homebuilding and Inspired House magazines, both Tauton Press products, and once again, head and shoulders above the BeJanes of this world--even in their stiletto boots.

Green Building

2007-01-19T19:27:00.000-08:00

Found this post in the forgotten pile-dated 1/07! Decided it was still worth posting...lol

Koontz - I just finished watching Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. If you don't know about it yet, it's a film on his quest to alert the world to the impacts of global warming. If you know the topic but haven't watched the film yet, get it, it's worth the time.

Political affiliations aside, I've been wanting to see the film because I am a lover of all things scientific. On the other hand, being in construction is often in direct conflict with being "green" and I haven't wanted to set myself up for the fall so to speak. But I spent this week being sick and realizing that I was on the mend, finally, I decided to watch the film before I felt well enough to ignore it for another six months. There is my logical progression and lo the person who understands it!

The idea of "green" construction has finally gotten enough play so that even our local building authority in my town has speculated on building what they consider to be a "green" home. Jodi and I met up at the unveiling of the project and did a walk through of it. The contractor and the sub-contractors were all in attendance along with various city officials and business mucky-mucks and they all wanted to talk about this leap forward in the world of construction, (and their important part in it).

I left before the talks and I left with a bit of a sour feeling. Let me explain why.

Green building is an idea born straight out of an interest in ecology; "the branch of biology that deals with the relations between living organisms and their environment" (Websters dictionary). The idea therefore, to build "green", is to build with a minimal negative impact on the land, the materials, the constructors and ultimately, the residents. You can substitute the word healthy for the word green and you have a better description of what green building is suppose to be.

But we live in a capitalist society and we already have established methods and materials for home building, not to mention established companies who generate these materials, and if you've ever shopped for organic produce, you know that to buy a product with something left out, you are going to pay a premium price. For green building, it's those elements that need to be left out that are important. And it's here that the idea of green building goes all-to-hell, because it's too expensive for the company making plywood, for instance, to leave out those elements (read chemicals), that they've been mixing into their product for the last couple of decades. They would have to go through too much research and development, too much retrofitting of their factories, too much promotion, to make the changes needed to create a "green" product. So instead, somehow, the idea of green building became the idea of an "energy efficient" house. That lets the plywood manufacturer off the hook-that let's everyone off the hook in fact-except the companies who build appliances-and what the hell, we've been on their backs, much like the car manufacturers, for years anyway. Let those companies get more efficient and we can all share in the windfall of a "green" house.

But that's bullshit.

Energy efficiency is certainly an issue in green building, but contrary to what our local building officials claim (and this goes has high as the federal level in the home building industry), energy is only one of the elements of building green.

I believe that contrary to what the EPA tells us, there is no safe amount of off-gassing from the plywood, carpet, floor glue, paint and god knows what else in these materials we use, to be considered healthy.

Don't tell me a house is "green" when I can walk in and smell the formaldehyde rising up from the carpet. Don't tell me you've created a "green" building because you installed fluorescent lighting but you couldn't design well enough to take advantage of a Southern exposure. Don't pat yourself on the back because you used recycled concrete for the poured driveway but you used chemically treated lumber for the foundation of the structure. And don't tell me that because you estimate the residents gas and electric bill to be cheaper, that constitutes a "green" house. In short, don't bullshit a bullshitter.

Bureaucrats and Industry co-opting the verbiage of green building does not make what they do "green". If you really are interested in "green" building, do some research outside the building industry bullshit (I've used that word a lot in this post haven't I?)

How To Be A Good Client? Be A Good/Dog Person

2007-01-07T14:38:00.000-08:00

Fitzpatrick-It’s January, and out here in Central California, oranges hang heavy in the orchards and remodeling projects hang heavy in homeowners’ minds. Now is the time when articles titled, “How to Hire A Contractor and Not Be Taken for a Bumpy Ride Down the Shyster Highway” and “How to Choose a Designer Without Being Wallpapered,” appear in the media.

Funny—they have it backward. The economy has slowed, but you still can’t ring a legitimate contractor or designer today and expect her to show up at your house tomorrow, next week, or the week after—unless she has a cancellation. You don’t have to wait six months—unlike the last four years—but the good people are still busy. It’s still a professionals’ market.

Know what this means? The good building and design professionals still get to choose their clients.

How do I get them to choose ME?

Be a Good Client.

What’s a Good Client?

Someone I want to work with.

Who d’ya want to work with?

Someone I don’t mind spending three months to two years of my life with.

Who’s that?

Most people, if given a choice (as we do in a professionals' market), will pick people to work with who are somewhat like themselves. Peg and I have sliced it, diced it, run algorithms, and what we’ve discovered is that that Good Clients for us seem to be dog owners.

Why?

They’re good communicators: speaking both human and dog.
They’re direct communicators: when the dog wants out, he tells you—and his people tend to behave in the same manner.
They’re conscientious: a person who wouldn’t leave Rex in a hot car will probably also show up for our meetings on time.
They’re used to mess being an inevitable and (more importantly) uneventful part of life: e.g. muddy paws, un-potted plants, accidents, shredded pillows.
They participate: the puppy will not house-train itself.
They’re used to life flowing at it’s own pace: the puppy will not be housed-trained immediately.

I’m not flattering myself that my next week’s appointments will all head for the SPCA this weekend. Remember, being you is the best way to be a Good Client, if not for me then for someone else, who will pick you because you remind them of themselves.

And Cat People, don’t despair, there are professionals out there for you too. They’re aloof, show up when they want to, and never let you forget who the most important person in the room is.

Home Purchases and Arranged Marriages

2007-01-07T13:29:00.000-08:00

Fitzpatrick-My husband likes to recount the story of a recently-deceased uncle who refused the early 20th century Armenian tradition of arranged marriage in favor of a match of his own choice:

“I saw what happened to my sister,” my husband says his Uncle Luke said. “The parents came over. They got the two got in the car. They took a few drives around the block, and it was over.”
In the space of maybe two hours, two lives changed course.

I feel this way about the purchase of our new house. We drove past it a few times. We viewed it online. And since the owners were still occupying, and the husband was convalescing with terminal cancer--in the house--the pass-through with our realtor lasted all of an awkward ten minutes. We were given one hour to perform our building inspection.

After spending less time on the property than I often spend selecting a pair of shoes, we made one of the larger decisions, and purchases, of our lives.

Except perhaps for the terminally-ill owner, our story is not unique. Rarely is a prospective buyer given the opportunity to simply canoodle about in a house, to be present when the sun rises, when it sets, to watch where on the floor the full moon’s beams fall, to feel through which windows the evening breeze whispers.

So like marrying an almost complete stranger, there is a surreal period when you move in. Things reveal themselves: he has a mole on the back of his right thigh, the softest skin on his body is on the tops of his feet; the switch to the garbage disposal is under the sink, the full moon rise from the pool is spectacular. You notice things you can’t believe you missed: He chews with his mouth open and laughs like Woody Woodpecker; there’s a terrarium beside the fireplace— complete with hose spigot and grow light—and most of the electrical outlets are two-pronged.

This is my first home purchase, and being a designer, everyone keeps telling me I’m going to jump right in and make it what I want it to be.

But is this the right thing to do? In this marriage, am I here to make it what I want it to be, or love it for what it is without trying to change it? (Or at least, BEFORE trying to change it?).

Loving the Job

2007-01-05T21:27:00.000-08:00

Koontz - Jodi feels she may have dissed the cat franchise too strongly---but I told her not to worry, I am a recent (1 year and 3 months), cat person... so as the cat partner, let me add my comments regarding being a good client.

Remodeling is an enterprise that reflects something about where a person is in their life. Certainly it reflects on the economic status of the client---being able to remodel is a luxury that not everyone can afford...(see posts regarding the DIY movement). From the professionals side of the equation, this affluence is a given, now we want to know if we can work together with you over the long haul of a remodel...so what colors our decision?

Jodi mentioned an important clue-do you have dogs? Jodi and I both have lived with and loved dogs, and though my work partner, Keith, constantly reminds me that even Hitler loved dogs, Jodi and I do extrapolate about households that don't see themselves complete without one, two or six of these furry additions. I would actually add the cat equation in here too, though Jodi is right about the diffidence and difference between cats and dogs. But the defining similarity is that as a client, you recognize that your wants don't always come first...and you may have to work around the needs of others'.

In the case of a remodel, those needs include the fact that not everything will happen on the time frame you as a client might choose or expect. There are realities to the project that you simply don't know about---the time for a designer to ruminate and come up with the best plan, the delays of suppliers, the efforts by the crew to make the "understory", (all the things you don't see), right, so that the things you do ultimately see are right.

You have to be the kind of person that is willing for things to gel, much like waiting out your kittens clawing stage, or your dogs chewing phase. You have to be a client who recognizes that there is a growth spurt to a job, and that eventually, you'll realize the potential.

And if you're a client who loves animals; dog, cat, rabbit, yea gods, even birds...then for us, you're also a client who recognizes that a real living space takes time, care and love to be all it can be...and you're our type of client.

Know When to Fold 'Em

2006-12-25T18:21:00.000-08:00

Fitzpatrick-Since many blogs are simply repositories for fairly mediocre personal handwringings, I’d avoided posting about my own upcoming remodeling project, and instead bored Peg verbally with it.

My husband and I had agreed we’d put off planning the job until this new year, but being the Type A Aries he is, he goaded me into decisions and materials selections throughout the year and went about hiring his godfather, an 82-year-old Armenian architect, to design an addition and remodel of our existing 1991 tract house.

So we dabbled around and six months and $4,000 in architectural fees later, we sold the house and moved.

Why?

During the planning, we performed the quality-of-life and quality-of-neighborhood calculations many of my clients have done and realized that even with sinking six-figures into the house, it wouldn’t be what we really wanted or where we really wanted to be.

Yeah, we spent four grand, but we didn’t waste a hundred.

Sometimes remodeling and investing in your home is one big card game. You assess your hand, you guess at neighboring hands, then you use your gut. And sometimes it says, “Fold.”

Busy Lives

2006-12-12T17:57:00.000-08:00

Koontz - I can't believe it's been so long since we've posted anything...bad, bad, bad. I happen to know that Jodi has been busy with an unexpected change of address...a wild hair sprung up that prompted her and hubby to sell their place and purchase another. As those things never go quite according to plan, and this was in the midst of a book she was finishing, her time has been quite taken up else where of late.

For me, I've been on a tear regarding construction that has made me want to avoid it on my off hours. A few too many overly anxious clients that have drained me of my happiness in the subject. And that's unfortunate. Improving your space, making something work, coming up with just that right infusion of practicality and beauty---that is what building is about and it should always be celebrated.

The last couple of weeks I've been working on an interior paint job for a repeat client and it has been a restorative process. The client kind of knew what she wanted...but not quite...

So, we bought sample paints, we bought tints, we mixed and applied and re-mixed until voila, one day we all knew that we'd found it! At least for that wall! We were painting two adjoining rooms and we needed a few different colors...we ended up with five different ones it turned out. Least it sound extreme, I should say that three of those colors were used on a multi-stepped ceiling. Still sounds extreme doesn't it? But it's not, it's actually pretty perfect. Completely changed the look of the rooms; from fine, to stunning. It was fun and for me right now even more important is that it was appreciated by the client. It's nice when it all comes together and if you trust yourself a little---let that imagination go and do what you really want to do-it can work miracles.

If you've always wanted a purple room, try it...it may restore you too.

Terminology

2006-11-13T15:09:00.000-08:00

Koontz - A reader sent us a note where she apologized for using the wrong terminology when describing the information she was asking about. It's a common mistake whenever discussions occur within a specific area of expertise and both people are not versed in the terminology.

All industries seem to create their own language. My brother-in-law is a flash animator and programmer and when I call him for computer advice, I have to remind him to speak in the English language, not computer language. In medicine you can't understand a thing if you don't have a dictionary of acronyms. I have a friend who is a math coach and she uses the language of math when speaking about work. I use math alot in my own work, but I don't use the same language she does and I often have to pause her for a definition.

Construction is no different. We speak in our own language and even that can be different depending on how long you've done something and what that something is. So not only is there a specific language, but that language usually evolves with the trade/craft/industry.

In an earlier post regarding heating systems, I used an incorrect term to describe what I call a split-system HVAC unit (there's one of those acronyms---see Jodi's post on HVAC for the real wording). It turns out that a split system unit, technically, is a unit where the condenser and compressor are separated, not where the heating and cooling unit are separated, which is what I meant. It's easy to get terminology wrong.

Speaking face to face, these issues usually get ironed out, but if you're writing note to note, trouble could arise.

As a client, don't expect to know your carpenter, contractor, architect or designers' language and don't feel embarrassed to ask for clarification. And even when you think you do know of what they speak, ask for clarification anyway, it could prevent all kinds of complications later.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

2006-11-12T17:33:00.000-08:00

Fitzpatrick-Or so the proverb goes. I used to agree with the position Peg takes in her previous post, that fences are there to keep people out and are inherently elitist and isolationist. (And who wants to argue with Robert Frost?) That was until I moved within spitting distance of about eight churches. Our current residence is in a Planned Unit Development. It’s not gated, but when the God Squad and the Magazine Militia and the Raffle Ticket Team come through, I certainly wish it was.

I work at home, so here’s what happens when someone rings the doorbell. My two dogs go berserk and don’t stop for quite awhile. The noise breaks my concentration, and if you read any studies about “knowledge workers,” it takes another twenty minutes after the disturbance to get back in the groove. Probably thirty for me. Really, do you think this is what Jesus had in mind? Can you imagine trying to do your job if solicitors had access to your cubicle, your private office, your jobsite? I can’t see how preventing them from ringing my doorbell is a step toward becoming a Stepford Wife.

When I lived in an older and ethnically diverse neighborhood, I used to believe as Peg writes, that these planned communities consisted of generic inhabitants who were only interested in interacting with each other. I was mortified when I married and moved into my husband’s house. But then my perceptions were proved wrong.

Our development contains 61 homes and the most diverse group of folks, racially, culturally, politically and economically. Vietnamese sharecropper farmers and their four kids (the first three in college) live to my right. On the left, a California State University professor of early childhood development with her son and grandson. We have accountants, nurses, pharmacists, teachers, contractors, construction workers, retired folk, Korean-Americans, Mexican-Americans, African-Americans, East Indians, Philippine-Americans and some white people. And because the development is governed by a home owners’ association, we all have to meet four times a year and deal with each other.

This is much more “neighborhood” than I ever experienced in a community without walls.

On my property, I recently installed two concrete block fences. They are easily scaled, and were built not to keep people out, but to keep my dogs in.

To me, this topic illustrates that some of the most sturdy and well-built walls are the preconceived notions we have about them. These are probably the ones that should come down.

Walls

2006-11-10T08:20:00.000-08:00

Koontz -

..."Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down."

Mending Wall by Robert Frost

Jodi and I have a photo-shoot project later today at a site that is part of a "gated community". There isn't actually a gate, at least not yet, but there is a wall seperating the development from the neighborhoods around it. I wonder about this phenomenon.

According to Wikipedia, as of the year 2000, eight million US residents lived in gated communities and from my research, it seems these housing developments are on the rise in all countries save Canada.

The walls and gates have little to do with literal security in US developments. The walls are easily scaleable, and it's no big trick to gain access with your car by tailgating onto another vehicle that enters the area. So I assume it's the sense of enclosure that attracts the residents.

Is it so very scary out there that we need this separation from everyone who isn't just like us?

Apparently so. Walls have a long history all over the world. The Great Wall in China, The Berlin Wall, The Gaza Wall. The idea of separation has not always (ever?) been successful, yet we continue to do it. In China all new developments are required to be gated and in Saudi Arabi, the gated communities where Westerners live are armed. Will I go to visit my brother at his gated community one day and find an armed guard at the entrance? Is the purpose to keep me out or to keep him in?

Everyone wants to feel secure, especially in their home, but I can't help but feel that what we are practicing is exclusion, not inclusion and I wonder what the long-term effects will be on us and on the children we raise in these sterile little neighborhoods. Everyone at the same general income level, everyone with one of three floor plans, everyone with the same landscaping, everyone with their pass-code.

It kind of creeps me out actually.

More Venting on HVAC Systems

2006-11-10T00:06:00.000-08:00

Fitzpatrick: Our intrepid owner of a Los Angeles Spanish Revival has written again with an update on her project, to which Peg was responding in her previous post:

Things are moving along on our little project and my next question is, do either of you have any opinions on installing air conditioning systems in older homes? We’re going to put in radiant heat (can’t wait), and the house has no ducts (of course) for central air “proper.” What’s a girl to do? Mini-splits, High Velocity…I would try to live without as we have been for the last 5 years, but it was 98 degrees here on election day!

Would love to hear your thoughts if you have any on the topic!

Hmmm. As Peg pointed out, HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning—you’d be surprised how long it took me to learn that) systems are a specialty with their own license qualification in California. In fact, on most commercial projects, the architect no longer draws this section of the plans. They are so specialized and complicated with all the energy requirements that she contracts on a design/build agreement with an HVAC contractor.

If we keep to our analogy of a home as a living body, the HVAC person is the respiratory or pulmonary specialist.

Though mostly clueless about the subject, I’ve had some recent experience. I recently viewed a home designed by architect Robert Stevens and built in 1960. The home has a split system HVAC. One portion of it has been replaced (don’t ask me which one) and the other is the original York. The same situation occurred on our company’s office building (1956). The beauty of split systems is they last a long time because you only use the part you need, and the other part gets a rest.

I’m assuming you are talking about a mini-split in the existing sections of the house, which I’d bet are on a stem foundation (crawl space below) and with attic space. I’d opt for the mini-split in your situation, so you get the kind of ventilation and cooling we’ve all come to expect. You said you plan to install radiant flooring. I’m unclear where/how this will go. Are you planning on the addition being a slab with radiant heating tubes within it? If so, you have to be especially careful the elevations are well designed so that this height difference makes sense, otherwise the addition will stick out like me and Peg at a Republican fundraiser. If you’re planning on installing that mesh electrical stuff under wood or tile but on a raised foundation, be aware that that stuff sucks energy like an SUV sucks gas.

But either way you slice it, as one of permanently reptilian toes, radiant flooring is delicious. Be sure also to design the floorplan of the addition to address cross-ventilation (pay attention to where your breeze comes from and at what time of day), and if you are able, site the addition to take advantage of any passive solar you can muster with south-facing windows and conductive flooring (such as tile).

On the interior design front, locate your return air registers and vents with care. Consider not only their aesthetic placement on the floor/wall/ceiling in relation to furniture, windows, art, but also their functional placement; e.g. a vent above the logical location for your desk in a home office—papers flying everywhere.

Also give thought to the design of the registers, the actual grilles. With the kind of detail in those houses, I’d opt to make them decorative wrought iron, copper or bronze. Peg was just giving me grief about my attention to detail on a recent photo shoot for a magazine we write for, but I always address doorknobs, back plates, hinges, hinge finials, doorstops, kickplates and vent covers. I’m always specifying custom vent covers for bathroom fans. (You’re saying, someone please give this woman drugs). The standard white plastic, metal or cheap brass is not going to cut it for this house.

Referencing the home as a living body once again, the hardware is its jewelry, it’s earrings, bracelets, necklaces, toe rings, nose rings. Think how much time we spend on those, eh? All those small details add up to a great effect.

Retrofitting for Air Conditioning

2006-11-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

Koontz - Jen sent us a note asking about retrofitting her older home for air conditioning. What kind of system do you choose when your home hasn't had A/C and it's not just a matter of replacing the old unit? And how is it installed in homes that were not originally designed for A/C.

My first response to you Jen is that you seem to have done your homework already and at some levels, you know more about these systems than Jodi or I do.

Air Conditioning and Heating systems are an interesting mix of simple theory, complex install. The theory of what you want to accomplish is simple, determining the right system for a specific area and specific house and having it work to its optimum is fairly complex though. Because of this, A/C and Heating Contractors are one of the 30 (40?) or so specific categories that the state licenses seperately.

So the first bit of advice I have is to find a really good A/C company. As usual, having a license in the field does not insure the knowledge base of the company. A client of mine had an A/C unit installed while we were working on his kitchen and the system has never performed satisfactorily. There are hot and cold spots all over the place and it seems a simple screw-up of not having sized the vents and placement correctly. Disappointing when you've spent $7,000. to be comfortable.

The next bit of advice; in older homes you typically have the option of attic or crawl space install for conventional heating and/or cooling systems. In my own 1930's home I chose the attic because it was so spacious and I had easy runs to all the rooms. I don't know the area you're working with, or how things were built in your homes' era, but if it's an older home, one of those should be accessible to you. Installing new ductwork is more expensive than simply replacing an older unit, but it's not so pricey that it makes the project un-doable. Around my area, installation of new ducting will add $2,000-3,000. to your project on average.

Good advice on alternative systems is a tougher question to address. I'm all for them, but I know little in terms of real experience to pass-on.

You mentioned High Velocity A/C Jen, and I love the theory of this system. In my area, where 100 degree plus days for weeks on end are more the norm than not, I doubt I will ever have the opportunity to see one of these units unless one of the developers gets on board with it and starts installing it as the standard. Because the system works differently than a conventional A/C it would just be a hard sell to clients who want to feel the cold air blowing. It's a great idea though and if you can visit a home that uses it on a nice warm day and the place is comfortable, that's as good a recommendation as you can get. Obviously the next questions are reliability, life expectancy, and warranty. www.spacepak has a nice website that runs you through the system if you haven't come across them yet.

Split-systems for heat and A/C are a great system, and use to be a standard in building. In these systems the units are seperate and are ducted seperately with heat typically rising from the floor and cool air dropping from the ceiling or high wall. Since hot air rises and cold air falls, it was a logical system. The dilemma with a split-system is that you are literally buying two units, one for heating and one for cooling. Your costs for both install and replacement have just doubled. I don't know about the "mini" systems you mention. Logic tells me that as micro-chips have shrunk in size and expanded in capability, the same should be true of other systems. Often our building systems don't improve because of the lack of demand, but once the consumer demands a better system, changes happen. A good example of this is the conventional water heater vs. the on demand water heater. Again, the proof is in the pudding...can you get inside a home where the system is already in use?

Finally, with respect to radiant heating. Going back to the physics books, this is a system that hasn't become the standard simply through a lack of getting it out to the publics' eye it seems to me. Even passive radiant heating works-a friend of mine did it on his porch enclosure. If he had opted to use dual-glazed windows in that room it would probably be the toastiest room in his house.

So this long winded post is really just going to tell you what you already seem to know; there are options beyond the conventional roof-top or side-yard dual functioning unit and many of those options incorporate better physics than the older conventional systems. Find a good company, look at some of their installs and talk to their clients and see how they like the system and be our guinea pig...I'd love to know what you choose and how you think it works after a season.

Be Jane? Not!

2006-11-08T17:21:00.000-08:00

Fitzpatrick--The do-it-yourself movement has spawned a new species—the “empowered” woman do-it-yourselfer. She dumps her husband, she dumps her job, she remodels her house and resells it for double. Then with no training, skills or proper tools, she launches herself upon the world as a self-professed remodeling guru. Because as Heidi Baker, of the media conglomerate known as Be Jane says, “It’s not rocket science.”

Well honey, maybe not the way you’re doing it.

A few disclaimers; I am a woman, I attended Wellesley college, I am a feminist. I have been professionally involved in design, remodeling and construction for twenty years.

What these women are doing is not empowering: www.bejane.com. It is a scam. Be Jane recently signed with msn to become a media partner. The Janes’ job, like all home improvement media host/hostesses, is to convince women that DIY projects are easy, so they will purchase the products and tools advertised on their site.

It sure beats trying to make a living as a legitimate remodeling contractor.

Note the stiletto boots, the tight white t-shirts, the tight jeans, the tool belts—hanging too high because they’re not fully loaded with all the implements you need to actually do a project. Compare this to Peg’s photo on our blog. She has sheetrock dust on her clothes and on her face. Because she’s actually working.

I would never in my life step foot on a jobsite—not even for a photo shoot--in a getup like the Janes’. It’s a male idea of what's sexy, not a woman’s. I have never felt more powerful than in steel-toed boots and a tool belt. I was only hanging 200 pieces of artwork to complete the interior design installation at a bank, but hey, I felt invincible. And sexy as hell.

And to have a male voice on the Be Jane tutorials? This implies that only men know what they’re doing and we’re still to listen to them. Sheesh. Dear Janes: not a very smart move for budding media moguls.

I used to perform the few odd DIY projects (towel bars, door hardware, painting), when I was tired of waiting on my husband, a professional flooring installer, or my brother, a union carpenter and now general contractor. But as a designer used to working with skilled craftspeople, I was supremely dissatisfied with the quality of my work and unable to justify the cost of the proper tools and materials to adequately complete it.

And what about the legality of these “projects” on Be Jane? Where was this house Heidi completely gutted? Did she pull the proper permits? Was the work done to current building codes? Was it inspected? Did she break the law?

Perhaps this is the fallout of feminism. Remember the old Jean Naté perfume commercial (yes, I’m that old) from the 70’s? The slim, flat-chested woman grinding her hips through the day as she “brings home the bacon, fries it up in a pan, and never, never, never, never lets you forget you’re a man?” Now we’re expected to bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, never let you forget you’re a man, while we remodel the kitchen by hand. Honestly, is anyone besides me more exhausted by these expectations than emancipated by them?

I’m all about women feeling competent and in control of their lives. But I’d much rather see them entering professional apprenticeship programs to actually learn a trade (and to raise the appalling figure of women construction workers—5%) in the years this takes, and receiving the good pay, benefits and respect this entails. It’s pathetic to see women cheering themselves in the name of empowerment because they tiled their laundry room floor (abysmally) after spending twenty minutes on Be Jane.

Be Jane? Not this chick.

UH-LA-LA-critique on "the janes"

2006-10-27T16:24:00.000-07:00

Koontz - Jodi sent me a note about checking out a website that is suppose to be about empowering women in the DIY market. The site is a trip. Jodi remarked to me about the white Tee shirts, which enhance certain attributes of the women do-it-yourselfers, and the ladies pink tool belts...I must admit, when I ordered my tool belt, I choose a lovely teal color, totally diferent from all the guys of course! But really, pink? How sexist do you need to make this?

I am offended by 1). a male voice on many of the tutorials...what's up with that?
2) the generic tutorials. On painting the exterior of a house for instance, they first recommend inviting all your friends over because of course, anyone can paint! Not on my house I can tell you! It's not a bloody social event, it's called work, you geeks! And the example is for a lap-sided house---well what if my house is stucco? AND, the tools they suggest you use are so wrong for a novice! I would never pressure wash a redwood sided house, I can guarantee I'd ruin the siding, and I actually know what I'm doing. Nor would I recommend for a homeowner to use a power drill with a brush attachment to scrape off old paint, are they trying to get you to screw things up?? 3) Though the site claims to be for do-it-yourselfers, they still use construction terminology without explaining it. How many non-construction people know what a "jig" is? Well, you're suppose to use a jig for one of the projects, but they never explain what that is or how to make one, (F.Y.I. a jig is a pattern-which is kind of difficult to surmise from the word...). Like many DIY sites, the advice is only good to a point and then it's wrong---sadly, a homeowner doesn't know where that point falls.

I dig that there's a movement to empower the homeowner, be they male or female-but if you're one of our readers', please take DIY websites as general knowledge and then do more research on how to do things yourself, because it looks to me like many of these sites will have you on top of your roof with no way down...and I don't notice an 800 number listed for rescue!

"Old" Painters

2006-10-26T17:36:00.000-07:00

Koontz - I am ratting out my partner in this post. I can't help it-it's just a cute, sad testament to the differences in my trade that I've seen over several years.

So we're working on an exterior paint job. Kind of an interlude job for us. I scoffed at my partner when he told me he wanted to bid this job. "We don't bid paint jobs", I reminded him. We don't bid paint jobs ever since my closest friend called me one day to ask if it was okay to have some guys paint the outside of her house---they were going to charge her $500.00 plus materials and they'd done the neighbor's house and it looked great, according to her. I told her to go for it if she thought they'd done good work and I resolved to not waste my time trying to bid jobs that someone else would do for less than I charge per day, cause I sure as hell couldn't paint a house in a day! (Turns out these guys can! And it shows! BUT-when you're my best friend and you've bought your first house and you have no money-well, more power to you for trying to do the maintenance).

So, I laugh at my partner and he says, "This guy wants the house brushed and rolled Peg, and he can't find anyone to agree to do it that way". No shit-you can't do a house in a day if you're expected to brush and roll it. The surprise is that someone didn't say they would, then spray the place anyway...

But, I told Keith, "okay", bid it. So we did. And we're on the job. Brushing and rolling, (funny aside, at least to me-the first "on my own" job when Keith hired me-before we became partners-was me brushing and rolling his Meditteranean, stucco house---two stories---took me all bloody summer!)

So on this house, there are several exterior doors that are exhibiting the effects of much use and no maintenance. The rails are pulling apart, the panels are cracked and the doors are basically coming apart.

I come down a walk-way the other day to find Keith glueing-up the rails on the door and putting them back together. I didn't say anything.

The next day, Keith is checking his doors and he's filling-in the cracks with a combination of glue and exterior patch. He's checking his joints that he glued and he's sanding things down. I still say nothing.

The third day-Keith is double checking these friggin' doors and wondering if they are in shape to paint yet. Okay, that day at lunch I causually mentioned that he was out of his mind! "Keith", said I, "I know you can't resist fixing the things you see that need fixing, but let's paint the doors-we really aren't getting paid to rebuild them and the owners' should actually replace them at this stage...don't you think?"

We did paint the doors-they look far better than anyone should expect and thanks to Keith, they'll last another 10 years when they wouldn't have. The interesting thing is that it didn't occur to Keith to leave them as is. Just sand them, paint 'em and call it good. They needed repair, so he did it.

Keith started in general construction but he became a journeyman painter, and though a painters' union rep would have a fit if he found his painters doing carpentry-Keith knew they the doors needed help and so he helped them. His attitude about a house is similar to mine about animals-I don't need another dog or cat, but this one needs me, so to hell with reality, I'll do what I should.

I don't think these kind of guys are around alot in the trades anymore. I appreciate that I work with one, even though it's not always good for the business. If I had to hire someone for my house, I'd feel lucky to find a guy like this.