October 2008

Sunday, I think we set a new record for productivity thanks to Jacob, Stefan, Scott and Vincent… all pending-grads or grads from the Academy of Art's Graphic Design Program.

It's always interesting to see your students (or former students) outside of class… and it was likely interesting for them to see where/how their instructors live. We had this rumor going around when I was in design school that all of our instructors lived together in a farm-house on the outskirts of town… well, Concord might not be too far off, but no communal living here — except for the neighborhood cats that freeload (and tend to business) in our mulched yard…

At any rate, Jacob was wise to wrangle the troops early and I was wise to make coffee as Vincent had insomnia the night before and I'm not sure Stefan actually made it to bed after a Halloween party — he still had traces of hair dye from his costume (some video-game army guy with yellow hair… kids these days: what happened to Dracula or…). Within the hour, though, everyone was swinging a hammer or saw.

By lunchtime, Jacob and Stefan had demoed the hall bathroom (sorry, pirate-chest motif vanity) and Scott and Vincent had removed most of the siding from the atrium and front of the house… by the afternoon coffee break, siding had been hung and primed in the atrium and a few sheets hung on the front. By nightfall, all of the siding had been hung and a good bit of it primed… Again, it was amazing work.

Thanks guys, I'm not sure you quite know how much the offer and follow-through was/is appreciated. It's one thing to say you'd love to help out, but quite another to dedicate a Sunday, wake-up early, show up and lend a hand…

We knew our radiant heat was not top-notch, but the previous vendors assured up (with a leak test) that we were OK and the boiler was safe. Unfortunately neither was true… We got a tip from a neighbor that Anderson Heating were the folks to call and we're glad we did (call them).

They showed up about 5 minutes early, which is always nice, and they assured us that they'd have everything they'd need to do the job with them (and they did). They IDed one problem right off the bat — our boiler was essentially configured backwards… heating the center of the house first rather than the perimeter and plumbed to dump ice-cold water back into the boiler creating condensation that would eventually destroy the appliance (and in our case, prematurely age it a bit)… It only took an hour or so of hustle and effort (I could tell they were hustling a it and appreciated the haste in a situation where "time = money") to get the system configured correctly and stop some small leaks.

Once the boiler was plumbed properly, they blew out the lines and within just a few minutes we heard hissing air coming from the culprit — a cracked copper pipe about 6 inches from the outside wall. Within the hour, the had the area open, fixed and refilled… and then again tackled the boiler to ensure it was clean, safe and within spec (CO2 emissions-wise)… it is now (but wasn't before).

They showed up at 9:00 and were out by 12:30… problem found, problem fixed and system updated and cleaned… I wish we'd have called them in the first place. To date, Glen (the owner and the one pictured below with torch in hand) has been one of the most knowledgeable vendors we've used.

What was once an open stud wall (previously paneled) is now finished. We decided sheetrock was best for a number of reasons — mainly for its ease of install, fix-ability in the future, fire protection, etc.. We also decided to kill the doors between the dining room and laundry room and re-cut the jambs without hinge recesses from new luan stock. We like the open pass-throughs better (and can add a door if we want to later).

With the install of the kitchen countertop, the kitchen is nearly complete — just a bit of finish painting to do (thus the green tape) — and eventually a tile backsplash… perhaps from Heath if we can afford it. Some friends have asked to see pictures and hear details…

Here goes: All cabinetry by Ikea (about $4500K total), Countertops by Silestone (Blanco Maple) through Home Depot (2cm @ $63/sf), Appliances by Bosch, Faucet by Hans Grohe (funny, I've seen this model in sooo many places), Sink by Blanco (Blancospex), breakfast table from Ikea (soon to be replaced with a lower, custom one)… Admittedly, lots of work went into the finishing touches… lots of custom woodwork, trim, etc. which made it (hopefully) a bit nicer than a typical out-of-the-box install.

That said, having a table saw, a steady hand, a good (and patient) helper and an eye for detail is handy… One of the additional steps we took with assembly was to PVA/wood-glue all the dowels as well as glue (liquid nails) all of the edges that join-up in the frames. This made for a bit of extra time, but on one cabinet we had to "re-do", the strongest part was the seams/joints (we had to go a little "Office Space" on it to bust it down for trash-transport). We also caulked the bottom seams once assembled to prevent damage to the frames should water/moisture get in there (it's a kitchen, it's gonna' happen). With all that — plus the extra trim step (flush trim), edging of pieces and a few more "improvements" — we hopefully have a kitchen that will last quite a while.

We also had to get a bit creative when running the electrical feeds to the island. While we have all of the circuits necessary in a modern kitchen, I didn't want to simply have flex-cable running all over loosey-goosey. I was able to craftily run the power in EMT conduit on top of and underneath the island cabinets in a super-tidy fashion. Granted only when you're on a ladder or on your knees would you ever notice such a thing, but it was the "right" way to run it — especially with the open leg design…

On the dishwasher, we hacked some Ikea legs to bolt to the existing leg shafts (see pix below), essentially extending them to the height we needed (which was a bit taller than the dishwasher otherwise wanted to go). This adds a nice finished look to the front plinth area.

Oh, the appliances. Someone asked me how I liked the oven. I don't. The oven takes forrrever to warm up (15 mins), but afterward, it's OK. It was also about 50 deg. off on first install (I had to fiddle with the setting to calibrate it). I need to call Bosch as it doesn't seem like an oven running on 220V should be this wimpy. The cooktop is OK… it's electric and it was what I expected. Hitting 3 different buttons (on >> burner select >> power level) is a bit of a pain when you just want a simple blast of heat, but for both, it beat running gas into the space. We love the dishwasher and the fridge is OK… it's a fridge — it keeps things cold.

If you've questions, please feel free to ask. If it's not obvious, we're pretty candid — hopefully that's helpful to someone.

Edit: Here's a link to the "final" kitchen post — more current info with links to past posts.