Wrapping Up Design

Herman and I have been exchanging e-mails over the past two weeks to tweak and fine tune the drawing that will be used for permit application. He is coming out to The Dump tonight so that we can bang out the last few details and wrap it up.

In preparation, I took blue masking tape and taped out where some new windows will be going. What seemed fine and dandy in a 2D birds-eye view is not so ideal in application. I discovered that I had estimated too large for the windows that will flank the fireplace, so, with the help of the tape, I have re-scaled my expectations there.

I also taped out where I'd like the architectural feature of the fireplace to go (trying to add more vertical interest instead of the short and squatty fireplace I presently have. I also taped out where a 40" flat panel TV will go. Y'know, I have to make sure it will fit and look good.... :) It's a bit high at the moment given how close the couch is (hey, the room is small), so I'll adjust it downward and can easily go smaller based on the tiny viewing distance.

Forgot to take pics of my tape masterpiece, so I'll try to do that tonight.

First House Guest and Inspiration

Big brother Tom is in the midst of a kitchen remodel himself, and we've been chatting regularly about it. A Southwest fare sale popped up in early January, so I booked a ticket for him to come visit and help me plan my kitchen.

We got down to business on Saturday--went to Quesco to drop off the drawing for kitchen planning, picked up the list of stoneyards from the Countertop store and trekked on up to a stoneyard in Brisbane. After about two hours of browsing, I found it--the kitchen inspiration I had been seeking. It goes by the name of "Kashmir White":

It's an overall light effect, with the ability to tie in darker elements. I love the white, gray, green, red, black potential of it. I was on the fence about the direction I wanted to take the kitchen, and I think this Kashmir White will lend itself to straddling the contemporary/modern that I'm embracing elsewhere in the house with the more classic look that I can quite let go of completely.

We went to a few other places looking at stone, tile, flooring and appliances and all in all, I feel really good about the information I have gathered.

To top it all off, Tom pried up some linoleum in the kitchen and found oak under it! Yeeee-ha! I'm really hoping it's not totally thrashed so that I can keep all the existing oak in The Dump. That will save me another round of indecision...

Christmas all over again

So, here are the goods. Signs of real progress. I'm so excited, I can barely stop looking at it to type this post.

This is the drawing of The Dump in its current configuration that I received two weeks ago:

They also sent one that had a lot of walls removed so I could go wild and crazy if necessary, but I really didn't want to go down the avenue of a wild and crazy reconfiguration. For the most part, I like the layout of The Dump--it needs to be optimized, not overhauled.

And here is the current plan (click on picture to view it full size):

I have a few tweaks to do before I'll consider it final, but it's really, really awesome to see it coming together.

Moving forward

Howdy all! It's been a month since my last posting and quite a bit has happened. I'll quickly recap before moving onto to the exciting news.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas I furnished my living room because I was tired of sitting on my bed with my laptop perched on my knees to freeload WiFi, watch DVDs, read, knit etc. I wanted a proper place to sit since it was going to be at least 3 more months before construction begins. I knew I'd have space for this stuff in my storage unit when the time came. Here's the living room full of holiday cheer:
Here's the best pic I have of the outside all decked for the holidays:

The first weekend after the new year will forever live in my memory as The Great Flood of '08. The bay area had a whopper of a storm (actually, 3 storms back-to-back-to-back) that flooded lots of places, knocked down redwoods in Marin, killed power to hundreds of thousands of people, and generally wreaked havoc. That Friday was my first day train commuting (my new year's resolution). As I drove home through Atherton, it was quite dark. I passed a street closed down by PG&E--my neighborhood was without power. In fact, most of RWC was without power, including the shopping center across the street where I was going to venture to acquire some candles and a flashlight. Instead, I decided to go to my storage unit since I knew there was a box labeled "candles" readily accessible. Thankfully they had power, but they also had water. I opened my unit (3rd floor with 2 exterior walls) to find my TV and several boxes sitting in a large puddle of water.

I immediately called Mrs. Blanco since she also has a unit on the 3rd floor. She informed me that her yard (in my neighborhood) was under 12" of water because their sump pump can't do it's job without power. At that point I knew I was in trouble at home, but first I had to resolve this minor flood.

I called Kat to see if I could pull a major favor from them and have them come help me move into a new unit. She in turn called Axt and he and his lady Susan rolled over to pitch in too. I have GREAT peeps in my life!!! Blancos, Inneses, Axt and Susan, mom and I set about moving everything into a new unit, which is happily on the first floor, but unhappily, is smaller than my current unit. Putting off facing what was waiting at home, I took everyone out to dinner as a small gesture of my great appreciation for what they did for me.

After that, I went home and found Great Lake RWC in my crawlspace. I had a sneaking suspicion that the submersible pump I found in the shed at the close of escrow meant this would happen, so I was not totally surprised. However, I WAS surprised at how much water I proceeded to pump out of the crawlspace over the next 2 days (the three storms didn't give the ground enough time to drain). I'm fully aware that this issue will be resolved during construction--adequate gutters, french drain, sump pump etc will all prevent this from being a long term problem.

However, all that water must have triggered a massive growth of mold because I've been plagued by a hideous amount of snot for the past two weeks.

Last Saturday I was vacuuming and got totally frustrated by my vacuum's poor performance on hard floors that I went out and bought a new one:

Notice how full the canister is after one pass of my whole house. I have a very hairy feline. Hopefully the new Dyson will help reduce her impact on my allergies since the mold is definitely doing a fine job on it's own (again, I am NOT freaking out about this since the house is going to be gutted in approx 2 months!).

Last Sunday I attended a rose pruning seminar hosted by my local garden center. I immediately came home and pruned my roses that definitely have not been properly pruned in many years. Here's how they look after I was finished with them:
The adorably crusty old man who taught the seminar said that I will likely lose the really thick woody part of the climbing floribunda, but to leave it for this season and let new canes sprout from the base (oops! Mom thought those were suckers and pruned them the first weekend here!). The tea rose has also been poorly pruned, so I'm hoping some new canes sprout up this year and I'll be able to bring it back into a normal shape at pruning time next year.

I fertilized and spread a preemergent weedkiller today and will spray them with copper and horticultural oil next weekend (rain in the forecast for Monday) to see if I can help prevent rust and mildew issues.

Alright, this brings me up to the current week. I figured out how to use my work phone as an internet connection, so I can use the computer anyplace in my house. yay!

Also, I got the drawings from Remy's QC on Friday. SOOO EXCITED! They sent over one version of the floorplan exactly as it is now, and one with a lot of walls knocked out so that I may doodle all over it. We're meeting Tuesday evening to go over it and move forward. It's pretty exciting to finally be doing something that feels like progress. I'll see if I can figure out how to get the drawings up here so y'all can give me some suggestions.

Kickoff meeting

Woah, I'm behind here... work has been pretty busy and there haven't been any major changes at the house of late, so I've been slacking off on the posting.

However, I had my kickoff meeting with my contractor on Thursday, and I really feel that I made a great decision. We reviewed everything we had talked about the first time he was out to the house and discussed some alternate ideas to consider as we move into design.

The tentative time frame is that I'll have drawings of the current floor and property plans within 4 weeks and after that we'll start the design magic of removing walls and moving stuff around. All told, it will likely be 3-4 months before all the permit business is complete to start construction.

Not sure how much I'll be posting for the rest of this year unless something major happens, so have a wonderful Christmas season, and check back in the new year!

Holiday cheer

I toyed with the idea of not getting a Christmas tree this year since I'm still basically camping in The Dump, but then I decided The Dump and I could both use some holiday cheering.

I purchased and decorated my tree last weekend, hung a string of the big bobble lights on the front gutter, and put a wreath on the door as well as one over the fireplace. My halls are suitably decked and it's actually quite pretty! You almost don't notice the cracks in the walls and ceiling, and since I've laid out a rug, the hardwood floors look respectable.

I hadn't been home at that small window of time where there it's dark enough to see the lights, but there is enough ambient light for The Dump to show up in a photograph. I should be able to accomplish that this weekend.

Also on tap for this weekend is to weed my flower bed. I see lots of weeds sprouting up over there! It rained for two days this week, so I hope the ground will release the weeds without too much fuss.

Big Step

Alright, I have FINALLY taken the first big step forward. I have chosen a design-build contractor and am getting down to business of this remodel. We're meeting at the house on Tuesday to go over the contract and plan the schedule for design work, drawings and permit applications before the actual construction start date will be set.

I cannot begin to describe how relieved and excited I am right now. It feels good to have finally made the decision and to be moving forward with purpose.