December 13, 2005
Hot Mopping
I figured out why hot mopping is called hot mopping. It's mopping with a hot mop!
This is the truck it comes in. Man, tar smells awful. I think it's the worst smell in the world.
First he put in tar paper and the quick-crete. The quick-crete is like a powder which he artfully combs and flattens with a slight slope toward the drain. Then he sprays water on it and allows it to dry. He alternates between the two showers.
The top part of the rough drain is still present.
Here is has been removed and a tar paste is put around the bottom part of the rough drain. ANd then the quick-crete is sprayed with water to make concrete.
now to wait to dry. Work on the other shower.
After the concrete is dry, he puts a layer of tar paper down and staples it like crazy to the wood around the edges.
the mop around the corners first.
The hot mop.
The tar paper covers the shower drain.
He then cuts a hole in it and attaches the top part of the drain. You can see the extra gunk in the center, he cuts it out and discards.
Fiberglass pieces are put in to the corners and over seams for added strength.
The mopping. He gushes it everywhere. The smell is killing me!
It's going on thick.
Complete!
This is the seal they put on after they are finished. It says "No nails below this card."
Here are some shots of the finished master bath with bench.
Posted by dana at 04:13 PM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2005
The last hedge comes out.
The last part of the backyard we knew and loved is gone. the hedge hiding the rundown wood siding. It's history. Bummer. But we had to do it. The siding is coming off and the master closet add-on is getting stuccoed to match the rest of the house.
Posted by dana at 04:30 PM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2005
Going to the PDC
I didnt blog about our trip to the Pacific Design Center to pick out faucets and bathroom fixtures. But it was fun and pretty quick. We liked our faucets and handles immediately. And we agreed on it. So much easier than the tile!
We got the faucets and the handles from Harrington Brass. Classic and clean with nice lines and comfortable in your hands.
The foreman has been asking about the rough hardware for the shower. And as of today we have it! No more excuses. Let's plow ahead.
Picking up at the PDC is kind of cool. Very busy. Interior designers picking up antiques in their Land Cruisers. UPS and FEDEX are permanent fixtures there. Big trucks with day workers. Just a big mix of everything where Chanel meets Dickies.
I picked up the toilets, the sinks, the sink faucets and handles, and the shower hardware.
Posted by dana at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2005
DirecTV is Challenged -- The Second Debacle
I don't think I have the writing ability to properly tell you what happened today. But I can tell you I wonder how these large companies stay in business. The ineptitude of the DirecTV field workers is shocking.
Remember the debacle with DirecTV? Well, it happened again. The crew is getting ready to demo the back patio and trellis, so we again need to deal with DirecTV. The contractor could move the feeds into the dining room no problem, but in order to move the dish, you need this special machine that can detect the maximum signal. So again I call DirecTV and Ironwood Communications.
The prima donna showed up on time. And that is about all that went right in the 4.5 hours he was here. No wonder people get blown off on their appointments. He was there longer than my 4 hour window! Why prima donna? He balked at going under the house, he was scared of the dogs. He wouldn't climb over the grape leaves. He was just a lazy slacker in everyway. He basically didn't want to do anything his job required.
First thing is he asks me how I want to pay for the upgrade. I didn't order an upgrade I just need the dish moved to a new location. I said I would take the upgrade if it were free. It was not free, he said, so he said he would have to move the existing dish. But he wouldn't climb up on the trellis until I removed some of the grape leaves for him. Thank god I am not too old to do that. Would he say that to granny? I climb up there with my clippers and cut him a path. I don't know what he is doing during this, perhaps kicking back with a mint julep? I get it cleared up and then he climbs up to dismantle it.
Meanwhile I call DirecTV to find out why I was tagged for an upgrade when I requested a dish relocation. They had no idea and it took several questions to realize the visit would be $49.95 if I got the new dish or not. Due to the confusion, they waived the $25 Handling Fee for the new dish. Thanks. First I heard of that.
So I call up to the guy and say stop with that dish, I'll take the new one. He was a little put out that he was up there for nothing. What was he complaining about? I was the one hacking away at the grapes for 20 minutes.
He gets the new dish, with three inputs and HiDef capabilities. Cool. He installs it in its new place. I would have preferred he rerouted the cables, but he didn't want to climb under the house, so I let him run cables over the house and around to where they went in before. He spliced old to new. And then he attaches a meter and looks for the signal. He explains that he has a new compass that he doesn't know how to use. HUH? So he wants me to go look at the TV while he moves the dish around. Nothing, nothing, nothing. This goes on laughably long.
I suggest doing the dish set up on the receiver, he agrees. In doing so, the receiver tells me the dish should be set up the following way:
pointing south with an azimuth of 152 degrees, elevation
tilted back 50 degrees, and
tilted to the side 102 degrees.
I ask him if he has done this and he again tells me he doesn't understand his new compass. Unbelievable. I climb up on the roof of the office and decide to just do this myself. "Out of my way." I got a little protractor from my desk, eyeballed the 152 and jiggled it around until his meter gets a full signal. Takes me a minute. Not saying that I am a nuclear scientist, but this guy had a double digit IQ for sure.
I go to the TV and we have picture! I tell him and he is visibly relieved. He then fastens the dish screws and prepares to leave. I go back inside and there is no picture. Turns out he had moved the dish to get to the screws to tighten them. I'm thinking this guy is beyond retarded and am starting to feel rage. You can tell he is starting to feel the pressure and gets to a point where he simply does not know what to do next. He starts to unscrew the dish. "NO! Reattach the signal meter and then we will find the signal and then we will detach it." I have decided that I have to do this.
It turns out, he broke the LNB when he was tightening the screws and moved the dish. Hey Zeus! He gets a new one puts in on screws it on, I get the signal, I detach the signal meter and attach the dish, get him off the roof. and check for signal. We have strong signal and a picture.
And then to top things off he grounds the joint between the old and new cables to a gas line. Given everything that had happened over the past 4.5 hours, I looked and noticed and was not surprised.
The new dish.
Posted by dana at 11:51 AM | Comments (2)
September 04, 2005
Bathroom Tiles
We met with our bathroom designer today to figure out the bathrooms.
Our designer with all of her brochures and samples.
We are going with walker zanger in the master bath. A basket weave with brick walls and lined with mercer molding.
And the vanity is going to be a carrera marble slab on legs that look like this waterworks page but we are having it made by a different vendor for cheaper. The mirrors will be different as well, medicine cabinets.
Then for the hall bath, we are doing carrera marble floors some hex tile, and then a carrera slab vanity. We are using the same tub that was there before. (Reminder -- we need to get that reglazed.)
floors out of this
The two inch hex at top. Still trying to decide shiny or matte.
Posted by dana at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)
September 03, 2005
Visiting the Stone Yard
Today we went to the stone yard to pick out stone for our fireplace. We are going for this look in the pic below. A dry stack that is kind of squared but not exact, with different sizes and a slight variation in color. Also a few "shiners" which are pieces that are bigger than the rest. Below the photo is a sketch of our layout included. The section above and to the left of the fireplace will extend 6 inches in front of the rest of the wall. To give it kind of a floating look. A little asymmetrical Frank Lloyd Wright influence our architect came up with.
Our foreman told us about this place, West Los Angeles Building Materials. It is reasonably priced. And they had tons -- literally! -- to choose from.
We settled on Utah Blonde and Moonlight. These are two different kinds of limestone. And they both come in blocks so the extended corners look authentic.
Moonlight
Utah Blonde
Moonlight blocks
And here are general pix of the stone yard.
Posted by dana at 04:02 PM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2005
We are not electricians
So on Sunday, we get this crazy idea to replace the ceiling lamp in our bedroom. Throughout the house there were these southwestern clay ceiling and wall lamps made by Fabby USA. They didn't fit in with the architecture of the house, but we never replaced them. Actually, if you go to the web site, they don't look southwestern, but they seemed it to us. The thing is, they are expensive -- almost $200 each! We saved the ones from the other side of the house and we wanted to take the remaining three down so we could sell them on ebay!
this is our bathroom fabby.
So we turn off the power on the electrical panel. Good first move, then we take down the Fabby, no problem! Then we install the ceiling lamp from our Master Bedroom. This is easy! We know what we are doing! Afterall, we installed our dining room chandelier, so what if it flickers irregularly!
Then we turn the power back on and turn on the lamp. Everything was perfect except sparks flew out of the lamp and landed on the bed and burned little holes in our duvet cover. Oops!
We turn the lamp back off. Hmmm. Did it get a little dirty from sitting in the attic a few days? Probably. That was it. Let's turn the lamp on again. It works! YAY!
DzzzzT! Pow! Dzzzt! Was that smoke? Yes. This can't be good.
What should we do?
Maybe not think we know what the bleep we are doing.
Turn off power, take down lamp. Notice the fried wiring. Notice the hole in the metal of the lamp base.
see the hole circled in red.
And now we have 75 year old wire hanging out of the ceiling and we dont know if the lamp switch is turned off or on.
An electrician is coming out today.
Posted by dana at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2005
DirecTV and Ironwood Communications debacle
I had an unbelievably bad experience with DirecTV and their out source company, Ironwood Communications.
I had set up an appointment for the 1PM to 5PM timeframe on August 21st. In my gut I knew something was wrong when we got home from the gym to find a "Sorry We Missed You" notice on the door. It doesn’t indicate the time they missed us, since they just wrote "On Time" in the time slot on the slip. We called Ironwood Communications to find out why a technician showed up before 10AM when they were not scheduled to show up before 1PM. All they could tell us was that they would show up between 1 and 5 as originally scheduled. Seemed odd, we thought, but okay.
2:15PM rolls around, and I had a sinking feeling that something was askew. I called Ironwood Communications to check that the attempt had not been recorded. It had not and they reassured me that I was still on the itinerary.
3:30PM I get a phone call from Ironwood Communications advising me that a technician would be at our house between 4:30 and 5PM. "Thank you, we'll be here."
5:20PM comes and still no technician. The sinking feeling is setting in strong. I call DirecTV directly. And here is the real kicker: While I am sitting in the living room, with the front door open, and on a 20 minute phone call to DirecTV, I get a 5:35PM voicemail on the other line from Ironwood Communications stating that a service technician is at my address right now and no one is home. Please call 800-805-8570 for a reschedule. This is while DirecTV is on hold with them trying to find out what is going on. No one came to my house, no one knocked, no one rang the doorbell, and no one left another flyer. I didn't hear them, my dogs didn't hear them. My dogs can hear the UPS guy coming up the street.
So needless to say I was furious. This was an out and out lie. I call DirecTV and get a very unhelpful person named Gwendolyn. She gives a description of my house entered in by the technician as proof he was there. The info was entered into the system at 5:39PM. It was accurate. She booked me for another appointment for Tuesday the 23rd 8AM - 12PM. This morning, I find out that the reschedule is really for the 30th, a whole week later. Gwendolyn was messing with me.
I think the tech noted the description of the house when he dropped off the flyer at 9AM and then entered it to make it look like he was there at 5:35 when he wasn't. I hope he enjoyed his Sunday afternoon BBQ. It was a beautiful day.
This morning, the demolition began and I mentioned to our contractor the frustration I was having. He immediately set about doing the job for us. He kindly moved the satellite feed from the sunroom to the dining room. It took them all of 10 minutes. And on the bright side, I saved the $100 having DirecTV move it would have cost. Plus we got a $20 inconvenience credit. Apparently, that is what they think my Sunday afternoon is worth.
Posted by dana at 02:25 PM | Comments (8)
August 16, 2005
Getting the DirectTV moved
I called DirectTV to get the receiver and the TV moved from the sunroom to the dining room - our livingroom/den for the next few months. the dish needs to be moved from the arbor it is on to the one on the other side of the house. They are coming sometime Sunday from 1 to 5. Love those 4 hour windows. It will cost $49.95 for the dish and $49.95 for the receiver. And the installer gets to charge extra for "custom work" -- whatever that means. I hope that doesn't include going under the house into the crawl space, because that is what needs to happen.
Posted by dana at 01:04 PM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2005
Nice to the Neighbors
We ordered some Godiva chocolates for our neighbors. This will be a little bit of an imposition on them as well. Especially during the framing time. And they will have a big dumpster on their street for a while. So best to let them know we know that their lives will be affected too.
Posted by dana at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)
August 09, 2005
The first entry
Okay -- we signed on the dotted line. And in two weeks from today, on 22 August 2005, construction will begin on our house. It has taken one and a half years to get to this point. Drawing up plans with an architect. We are excited and nervous.
Against everyone's recommendations, we are going to live in the house as the remodel is going on. Why? Because we have no choice. We know it will suck, but we dont have an extra 2 grand a month to rent a one bedroom apartment.
This site will include pictures, lessons, headaches, freak outs, reflections, realizations, and revelations.
While this blog is not starting until the actual work is beginning, we will be doing backstory entries on all that went on during the past 18 months.
We hope you enjoy it. We hope you learn something from it. And we hope to learn something from you!
Posted by dana at 02:00 AM | Comments (1)