Over the past few months, California legislation has caused an uptick in low-level street crime — we’ve definitely noticed the results citizen-side: more petty thefts, break-ins and overall mischief. Given that our Eichler-built homes have no windows to the street, security cameras have become a great option to not only monitor who’s at the door, but give overall piece of mind.
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It was exciting to get the email from Dwell magazine about a pictorial of the house… and even more exciting to have a former student say "Hey, I saw your house!" (and send the pictures from the iPad version) before we ever got to see it in print. Thanks!
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We recently purchased a set of LG laundry machines from Pacific Sales… our Bosch Nexxt units finally needed so much repair that new ones were in the cards.
In short order, Matt at Pacific Sales got us great deals on new machines and arranged delivery. The sales side was great… not "sales-y" at all (which has been our experience at Pacific Sales — everyone we've talked to over the years have been really great).
However, the delivery and install crew came today. I was not home to oversee and I'm sorry I was not.
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It's depressing to post something that didn't work out, but it happens and hopefully someone can benefit from the experience.
As you might have seen on the blog, we built a pool and a deck. Most is working out fine. The deck wood, however, did not work out well… not by a long shot.
What happened?
After following the retailer's installation instructions — using their recommended (and branded) fasteners, the wood swelled… closing up the gaps and then some. This caused the boards to buckle and eventually push the entire lot of them out on the sides as much as 3/4in. The swelling caused the boards to retain (not drain) water which made it worse. Things got dirty. The wood clearly needed far more gap than the retailer recommended and the design of the clips themselves tended to pull the boards tighter than they needed to be (the screws go in at an angle from a single side — rather than from the top and both sides — pulling each board a bit closer. Had these been top-screwed, it might not have been as much of a problem, but then later sanding and re-finishing would be an issue…
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Wood Woes (Cumaru Decking and AdvantageLumber.com)Read More »
You know our sister-site, right? The one that details the stuff we make versus the things we fix, right?
We've been busy…
In addition to the Integrated CSSU (with built-in speakers), we're seeing a lot of possibilities in the realm of AV and media storage solutions — the latest is the CSSU-LP… a shelving unit designed specifically around the storage of 12in vinyl records.
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Although the air cleaner has been working well, I've been doing more and more work in the workshop lately and I've been needing ventilation in addition to air filtering. Of course I can open the garage doors, but that's not always neighborly or practical.
The previous owners installed a window in the garage and we replaced it with the other windows in the house. Having a window is great, but still not enough.
Last week, I ordered some fans and today, I made a frame to hold everything together to slide into the window frame. The design of the windows makes this quite easy. The flow is great — over 1500CFMs — and when not in use, it can be removed. When in place, a simple window lock (and the adjacent window) keeps everything secure and in place.
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We've been busy this summer… we built a MicroEichler.
We had an opportunity to add some usable space to the yard when we removed a concrete pad that had been heaved by an adjacent tree. We had been looking at many of the pre-fab options like ModernShed and BackyardEichlers, but they not only seemed to expensive, but not quite right for the space (nice, but not for us). We wanted an exact replica of the house… so we created our own for a lot less money.
We'll feature more details about the construction in the next few weeks as well as launching the site MicroEichler.com (in progress)… and in the case you'd like one of your very own, drop us a line.
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We had some interior painting to do today and I used this paint on the interior of a garage… I was simply looking for a low-cost white paint that didn't cost $45/gallon. At $15 — almost 1/3 the price of Behr premium paint — this performed well. I sprayed and back-rolled the walls and sprayed the trim. This was on new drywall which was both prep-coated and primed. I used the flat finish (the picture is a stock one and shows eggshell)… Results: Good.
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Glidden Ultra-Hide 440 Review: Not bad for the price…Read More »
One of the things that Eichler owners are often nervous about is their sliding doors. They're generally original to the house and hard to find parts for. We've got a small stash of handles, but were always under the assumption that the rollers were either impossible to replace or that parts weren't available.
Then Bret and Mary Peyton got their doors repaired and tipped us off to American Sliding Door. Today, Ranko came by to give new life to the sliders. The cost was just under $200/door, but it was worth is as the doors now work like new. Ran did a great job in tuning them up, too — finessing the lock, track and frame… a true "tune up".
Ran took the doors off, disassembled the frame and slid in new rollers. While it looked easy, considering the sanctity of the doors, I'll let him be the expert and do his job. I discussed a few question that some of our readers have asked in the past and he seemed to think he could fix things like locks and handles, etc.
If your sliders are in need of repair, give him a call (and tell him we sent you): 925-285-5443
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Wondering what it's like to live in Concord? Check out Dave Weinstein's article about Concord Eichlers in the latest CAModern.
