Building Moxie :: The Do Together Daily

a moment of vulnerability or maybe it is just stupidity (aka do I as I do, not as I say)

jb — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

This is a letter I am composing to Nolan D. Archibald, President, Chairman & CEO of Black & Decker Corporation. He made 8.3 million dollars in 2005. Their North American campus, and his office, is roughly five miles from my house. (You don't get that a lot in Baltimore.) I am writing it about 1 1/2 years before I planned on doing so. And now, as I am sitting here, I have a strange panicked feeling. Am I selling my soul; would they for a second consider me as an affiliate? Me with my rough edges. Or is it all just the Building Moxie? A now open letter to Black & Decker (aka it's a lost art form -- try selling yourself in 345 words, or . . . seriously, I am open to thoughts) Dear Sir: As a boy, my dad living in Towson, we frequently drove up the hill at Providence Road, intersection Joppa. Of course, the black and orange sign there prompted question: €œDad,€ I would ask, €œWhat is Black & Decker?€ And in more words than this, he would answer, €œBlack & Decker is a tool company. . . One of the biggest and best in the world.€ I am not writing today, however, to have you read anecdotes from my life. Instead, I am writing to introduce myself. I have both a long-standing local tie to Black & Decker, as you can see, as well as a new-found business interest. I am Building MoxieSM €“ a start-up exploring a space, and targeting a need that is simply not being addressed. As websites pound consumers with overwhelming amounts of information, and as home improvement retailers toggle their focus back and forth between the homeowner and the professional, something very personal is getting lost in the fray. We, as a society, you know, have been quietly moving away from real world contact. The sense of comfort exchanged through simple words of advice, a smile, and a handshake has been replaced by the ping of an email, and the flat text of a how-to article. This has helped, in some degree, to foster a disconnection of the individual from both ones own home, as well as from the feeling of €œhomestead€ that we as Americans once knew. I serve clients that are seeking to reclaim this traditional mindset. I blend support for both do-it-yourself activities, and promote a regained faith in local construction professionals. I will continue to do what I do. But simply stated, I would be proud to both endorse and/or to display the Black & Decker family of brands on all of my products. I encourage you to please look me over at/around http://buildingmoxie.com and http://agentsofmoxie.com. And I look forward to the opportunity to discuss this further with your organization. Thank you for your time today and BMoxie BMore! JB Bartkowiak, Principal Built On Ideas, LLC
More Moxie: In my world, it is true, the first tool I ever remember -- a Black & Decker single speed drill: http://www.bdk.com p.s. -- this post will be hidden by Sunday October 18th

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Barry — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

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Allison A. Bailes III, PhD — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

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John Poole — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

once i saw my grandfather tune an engine with a box wrench (part 1 of 2)

jb — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0000

. . . Agents of Moxie

I know. It sounds like that indy rock band I never formed. I mean, "The Agents of Moxie." And I began thinking about prototypical pieces for this portion of my undertaking. I already knew that this section should be dedicated to stories of persons, places and things that inspire us to expand ourselves. I knew it is about paying homage and giving back. And there they were, after a few scattered hours of thought, ideas. And while there is no question that some of these topics will eventually appear in these pages, as the first article, they came and they went. Except this idea, this one idea came and it stuck. I said to myself, "I will lead with a piece about my grandfather." And in that, I realized the point. The "Agents of Moxie" is for me (or anyone else that writes here). It is in all ways self-serving, and maybe a little bit vain. [caption id="attachment_770" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Cedric Dellone"][/caption]

. . . Cedric Dellone (An Agent of Moxie)

As I reflect on the man, I realize that I really didn't know him. I guess that is just how my family is; we don't really talk about ourselves. In fact, for me, it took my wife, and through her questions to my grandmother, to finally learn what Cedric Dellone did in his lifetime. This isn't to say, however, that I hadn't acquired the basics. I knew that at one point he was a boxer, and I knew he played soccer "semi-professionally." I knew he took my mom "on the road" a lot as a girl. I knew he owned a bar for a short period of time; I knew he had a knack for tinkering with things. And I knew he liked boats and the water. And this story really starts there. As early as I can remember, summers were for going to "the shore." For us, that meant Holly Neck Road; Middle River, MD. My grandfather's family, I want to say, his brother (notice how I am not really sure), had waterfront property there. But I didn't go up to the house enough to know. My time, rather, was spent on the water, at the dock, or in the "boat house."

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I mean, I guess that is what I will call it, a boat house. As I remember it, it was a large garage, probably 2 wide and 3 deep. Filled with motors, miscellaneous mechanical parts and lumber; occasionally it housed an automobile, and more often than not it contained a boat pulled into "dry dock." My grandfather rented this space; it was his shop. He was making a living as a boat mechanic, and this is what I knew. The shop had a heavily lubricated smell. It typically stopped me for a minute on my arrival. But only for a minute, because for me, it was immediately down to the dock. A small single pier, this is where he had his boat tied off. He had a few different boats in the time that I knew him. Each was different, but all were virtually the same. They were relatively big, twenty-four plus feet. They were all built in the 1950's, all had wooden hulls, and they all had "captain's decks." To me, they were "the boat." As a boy, I remember many trips in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. From the boat, we swam, we fished, we ate, we drank, we felt the cool air as we were cruising, and occasionally I got to steer. It was great fun for a young kid. And of all the things I should be thanking my grandfather for, these experiences have to top the list. He maintained this boat for his family, yes, to share with us, but as I reflect, I know he kept the boat maybe more for himself. It was there, on it, working on it, he was captain and crew. It was there that he was most happy. And as any boat owner will tell you, it took much maintenance. As a kid I guess I knew it, but to me the maintenance wasn't what kept the weekend trips afloat. click here for part 2 of this piece

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

My first job :: Mars, the Friendly Food People

six simple machines :: some examples found in the home

jb — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:28:00 +0000

. . . Machines

Not the kind in Terminator or the Matrix. But the ones that some of us might have presented in our first science fair. That is, if you, like me, were passing through grade school at some point in the '70s; they should ring a bell. Simple machines. Simply put, a machine is anything that makes work easier. And a "simple machine" is defined as any device that requires the application of only one force to work. While Wikipedia reminds that there is some contention about this, it is traditionally accepted that there are a total of six simple machines. These are: The Inclined Plane, The Wheel and Axle, The Lever, The Pulley, The Wedge, & The Screw. And chances are that at least one example of each exists somewhere in or around your house.

. . . The Inclined Plane

The most common example of an inclined plane is the simple ramp. But chances are, unless your house is wheelchair-accessible, you will not find a ramp in it. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="While not really a wedge, a good example of an improvised shim -- or maybe that's just a pad (Art by jhritz) "][/caption] My mother's boyfriend recently capped a set of deck stairs with a ramp constructed of plywood, and covered with exterior-grade carpet. Though not the most aesthetically pleasing, it sure makes life easy for my mom's aging canine. She, the dog, simply glides down and curses back up when she is done with her business. If you have ever moved yourself, you probably couldn't have done it without a ramp. Most moving trucks are equipped with that large metal ramp that pulls out from and stows beneath the truck's bed. Further, if you have ever visited a construction site, building in progress, you might have noticed the temporary stairs. OSHA probably doesn't love it, but more than likely it was a 2x12, angled from ground to the entrance. It provides a runner for quick entry. In terms of your house, it is common to see two planes placed back to back. The roof, though maybe not the truest example, certainly has an incline. And unless you live in a house built in a contemporary mold, you have some section of roof that is pitched. The pitch allows the roof to, with little effort, shed rainwater. On a much smaller scale, you can think of a knife as being two inclines set back to back. You use them when you are cutting bread or insulation. You likely have one or more ceiling fans hanging in your house. The blades of these things, tilted at an angle, do a wonderful job with cutting through and moving air. Also, think of some of the surfaces on the outside of your house. When done correctly, your exterior porches and sills (door & window) should have a slight pitch outward. This incline (or decline) allows gravity to do its thing on any water that should find its way to these surfaces.

. . . The Wheel & Axle

I guess it would be silly if I went into a dissertation on the wheel. I mean, in my eyes, the wheel has to be one of the most significant inventions in all of human history. Without it, would over-land transportation be possible? Ok, you got me with the helicopter (uses inclined planes by the way.) But that is not the point of this article.

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If you think about it, and excluding the obvious lawn mower or wheelbarrow, wheels are employed all over your house. They appear in cabinet drawer glides, on the bottom of your refrigerator, on your vacuum cleaner, and in sliding/pocket door hardware assemblies. In each case, the wheel makes movement possible. This one may get overlooked, but have you ever thought that a doorknob is a wheel rotating on an axle. Even if you have leversets on your exterior doors, or fancy lever-handled doorknobs, the internal mechanism usually consists of some sort of axle rotating, retracting the strike and allowing for opening of the door.

. . . The Lever

Basically, a lever, with its partner the fulcrum, is used to assist in movement. There are three types of levels, and each is represented in your home in at least one form. The most recognizable lever has to be the see-saw. I am not certain how many people have see-saws in their yards; they do require space and can be dangerous with younger children. So we'll look elsewhere for examples of the lever. First, there are the levers you might guess: the bottle opener, the crowbar, and scissors or pliers. The last two are actually called "double levers." And it is ironic I think that these are all tools. Then, there are the ones you might not guess: how about a door, a toilet seat, a broom and even your arm or your jaw. Nowhere near as exciting as the wheel, the level is still tough to imagine living without.

. . . The Pulley

[caption id="attachment_780" align="alignright" width="225" caption="An old school window weight pulley found on Flickr (Art by mojoglad)"][/caption] The pulley is probably the most sophisticated of all our simple machines, and it, coincidentally, is the hardest one to provide examples for. Car guys will tell you that pulleys are used in several places in automobile engines. But us house guys have to admit, much less popular in the house. Unless you have older wood windows, there is a good chance that your house currently contains no pulleys. Pulleys working with rope or chain are employed in extension ladders and can be very helpful when transporting material up several levels of scaffolding. That's it; that's all I got. I will say, however, that I am currently consulting on a project in Fells Point, Baltimore. We were looking for ways to make it easier to lift heavier things up to the third floor though a narrow attic access. I suggested, in the spirit of the watermen that built those houses, a rope and pulley system. And while my idea got shot down, I am certain it was the inspiration for this piece.

. . . The Wedge

Of this bunch, the wedge might have the most reason to be thankful. Defined as a moveable inclined plane, does it really deserve its own category? All doubts aside, though, it will be treated with the same respect as the rest. The wedge is used to separate or support two objects. And stopping there, this section is dedicated exclusively to the carpenter€™s good friend and go-to, the shim, an example of a wedge. Especially if you live in a newer home, and since paired shims have become standard building practice with door and window installations, chances are, your house contains them. Shims have so many practical uses, it is hard to imagine the end of the examples I could provide. Instead, let's talk briefly about what materials can be used to create a shim. The most common shim is probably the white cedar shake found at your local lumber yard and home center. Industrious types and seasoned carpenters make their own. And for you, there might be more than one occasion when it is a good idea to make one of a scrap piece of pressure-treated lumber. (Note to self: Good idea for a how-to). Metal shims are manufactured and are used to "shim up" steal beams or retro-fitted lally columns. (Notice it even has its own verb.) Plastic shims can be purchased, and in their diminutive form, can be used for leveling toilets or furniture. A shim can be made out of something as simple as a scrap piece of cardboard or an old playing card. Carpenters use them to change the angle on their miter saws just that discretely. For me, I find these machines indispensable. When trying to make a small adjustment to a door, a window, or a mitered corner, nothing works better than a piece of cardboard. It is recycling & it is usually free.

. . . The Screw

The screw is a mechanical device that. . . Just kidding. I won't even go into it here. To be quite frank, I feel it desires its own homage. So please hang till I can produce that one.

. . . Six Simple Machines

You may be sitting there scratching your head wondering why you read through this blather. Why even write a piece about simple machines? None of this information is really quite practical. It couldn't be used for a 3rd grader's research report. Well, I guess I am of the thinking that by understanding the parts, the elemental mechanics of system, it helps in demystifying the system. And while the goal is always a complete system, in its whole, it is best if you know that this system, our house, is equal in some ways only to the handful of, often simple, simple as 2nd grade, parts that come together to assemble it. Maybe for you, the simple machines may unlock some hidden memory that will get you inspired. Or maybe it might help you work smarter, at least more aware, on your next home project.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Blogger Research :: Wikipedia -- The Free Encyclopedia

Where I learned about the simple machines :: St. Joseph's School -- Fullerton

* Photo Credit :: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mojoglad/ / CC BY 2.0

* Photo Credit :: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jhritz/ / CC BY 2.0

once i saw my grandfather tune an engine with a box wrench (part 2 of 2)

jb — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:42:00 +0000

click here for part 1 of this piece

. . . The Engine

[caption id="attachment_775" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="First mate to captain Chesapeake Bay (circa 1982)"][/caption] I fast-forward a couple of years. I was a student at Calvert Hall, playing football & baseball (skills that I think my grandfather helped cultivate). I was a teenager and the trips to the shore became less frequent. I didn't see my grandfather, well, at least not like I used to. And when I did see him, it certainly didn't have the same value as it once did. It never felt like the time I hooked a catfish, he reeled it in, and I got credit for catching the big one. Then came the summer before the start of my junior year. I felt like I was starting to come into my own. I had a girlfriend, and I was only months away from getting my learner's permit. Needless to say, I had a busy social schedule, and I needed money. I needed a job. And at fifteen, not necessarily the easiest thing to come by. At this point, my grandfather was advancing in age; 76, and the toll of an active life was starting to show, though only a little. I asked, well, maybe my mom asked for me, if he needed a hand. He agreed, a couple days a week for a couple hours a day, $5 an hour. He no longer maintained his shop; I am not even sure if he was maintaining his boat. He was working out of his Ford pickup, and I was going to ride along. He never really said much, and during that summer he didn't really say much, and I didn't say much either. I went out with him a few days a week, a couple hours a day, $5 an hour. I mean, it's not like I was apprenticing to become a boat mechanic; I was prepping for college after all. That summer I did learn what a manifold was, I learned what a bilge pump does, and I learned, I definitely learned what a barnacle is. I learned how he lost his front teeth (he wore dentures); all I was sure I would never need again. Looking back today, though, I remember a few other things. I remember that it was that summer I learned how to change the oil and a tire on a car. I learned, I mean, he made me do it, as he was there watching over, and in those days when we didn't have work, there you have it, Auto Maintenance 101.

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"Don't cross-thread the nut", "Lower left, Upper right, Upper left. . .", he would say. Again, more stuff I would never use. Then one day, I am not really sure what month it was, he decided that the engine on his truck needed a tune-up. He proceeded to grab a large box wrench, and with very little discussion, he went to work in the rather large cavity under the hood. I just stood and watched. He would turn the timing nut (I think it was a nut), and then he would place the wrench, one end to his ear and the other end to the block. I believe he was setting the timing. I vaguely remember something about "top dead center." And he went that way until he was happy with the set-up. Now, I still don't know if this was common practice for a skilled mechanic, but at the time I was simply amazed. Maybe this is how the word "tune-up" came into being. He was checking the engine's pitch and going from there. I don't really remember what I said, but I engaged him on this, and to this day, I remember his response. "If you have work you must do," he said, "Stop. And think about it. Figure out a plan of action. And do it." And there you have it, Life Lessons 101. Well, I have never become proficient in auto maintenance. I never went down that path. I mean, I have changed air filters, spark plugs, even a starter, but I am simply not a car guy. I don't change my own oil anymore; however, just weeks ago, I did have to change a flat tire on my wife's car. And now, with a family of own, I do not spend much time on the Chesapeake Bay. But I do think back to those times, when my grandfather was still alive. He passed in 1993. And I look back with a little bit of regret. Why didn't I push him to talk? He told me a handful of good stories in his lifetime, at least, some I heard. But you know, I can't help but wonder what else this guy, who never finished grade school, could have told me. If I simply would have asked. Such is life, I guess they say; "If I only. . .". And I move on quickly. I mean, as I sit and listen to my grandmother answer my wife's questions about her husband. I smile and silently thank him. Not only was he my grandfather. But he was my first mentor, Cedric Dellone. And I wish I could run as smoothly as he once did.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Many thanks to http://www.garagenotes.com/ for the technical review.

Building a Chase for Split System Air Conditioner Lines

jb — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:52:00 +0000

Requested by John S. (Fells Point, Baltimore)

Procedure -- Padding Pass-thru Attic Prepared for John S.

Estimated project time€“ 4 to 6 hours

Material and Tools listed at bottom. [caption id="attachment_784" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Split system AC on interior wall fed by lines on the left (later concealed)"][/caption] 1. Remove corner beads from horizontal surface and top most portions (8€ from top) on verticals on pass thru opening. (You may have to cut the corner bead on side with Aviator snips) Do this by hitting outside corners of drywall with hammer/hammer claw to crack existing drywall mud. Locate corner bead fasteners, either screws or nails and take appropriate action to remove (be conscious of sharp edges on metal corner bead). Discard. 2. Attempt to identify beam material by viewing the exposed corner 3. On Anne Street side of knee wall €“ cut and remove drywall €“ entire section from floor to knee wall cap €“ measure approximately 8€ (or where you are certain no framing exists) over from corner made on Eastern Ave. side of the house. Start this process by making a plumb line with a level €“ 8€ inches in from the corner. Then score both this line and the corner with your utility knife. (In the corner you actually want to cut the paper.) Cut the drywall along the line you made using the hand held drywall knife. Cut with knife held on angle while remaining conscious of both wiring and the top and bottom horizontal plates of the wall. If you are nervous about this, flip the breaker off before you begin. Your goal here is to make this cut as plumb and perfect as possible. This will facilitate easy repair later. You may have to remove some screws before you remove drywall. If you are neat about this task, we can re-use, otherwise discard drywall. 4. Frame ladder that will pad beam downward. Well, you saw how we constructed a ladder before. I would choose to assemble with screws, and be conscious of the fact that drywall will cause this opening to finish a ½ inch lower. The only note I have on its construction is this€“ when installing the €œcripple€ studs that will make up the ladder rungs. Turn the studs perpendicular to the rails and install on the outside edge of the rail. In other words, turn the stud so the wider 3 ½ inch side provides the face for screwing mounting bracket, drywall, etc. On the Wolfe Street side of the ladder, space all cripples at 16€ oc. with two being 8€ from either side of your center point. On the opposite side, (Anne Street Side) 16€ on center and turned, but €œstaggered€ from those found on the Wolfe Street side. They should NOT line up. You will be using twice as many rungs, yes, but with studs turned and staggered; you will give Mike an area to weave his Freon lines through. If you follow €“ good, if not - ask. 5. Install ladder at top of pass thru. Try to hold the ladder exactly centered in this opening. This will give you a better finish on the drywall. If the beam (from step 2) is in fact dimensional lumber (not engineered lumber or steel) nail it to the top €“ you may have to improvise a way to hold it up there until you can get first couple of fasteners in. You can nail or screw, but if I were to come, we could shoot it in with my framing nailer. If the existing beam is engineered lumber and or steel €“ you should glue it at the top and nail to the sides. Be conscious of wiring for lights.

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6. Build pocket for lines €“ This will occur on the Eastern Ave side of pass-thru. Despite what I said earlier, you are going to use 2x4s and span the width of the opening. In other words, the 3 ½ inch side will point at Wolfe & Anne (can€™t figure a better way to put this). Cut to size and nail 1st 2x4 to the Eastern Avenue side of the opening. Next cut another to the same size and install 4 inches inward in the Bank Street direction. This will form your pocket. (Later we will in insulate for sound). Fasten using screws or nails €“ you might have to €œtoenail€. Screw the interior 2x4 at both the top and the bottom. 7. Use the Sawzall to cut out 2x4 stock that blocks our path €“ This is the same technique framers use when framing a doorway in a new wall. I want you to cut out the 2x4 that appears between the 2 studs in our line pocket (Step 6). It should essentially be a 4€ length of 2x4 €“ With that Mike will have an unobstructed path in our framing. You are cutting out a portion of bottom rung in the €œladder€ you just built, and a portion of the top plate in the knee wall that is already there. You can do this and get away with because the 2nd €œinterior€ 2x4 in the €œpocket€ is now providing some €œstructure€. Later, we will come back and put another 2x4 and construction adhesive in the knee wall before we patch the drywall on the Anne Street side (step 3). It is the quickest way to pull this off €“ and trust me; this step will make you feel like a real construction dude. 8. Install new drywall and corner bead €“ Only on Wolfe side and bottom of the new framing. Let me know if you need some tips on this. 9. Finish newly installed drywall €“ Again let me know if you need some tips on this. Note: When it came time for our hvac guy, Mike, to install the line set and condensate line, he did not use the horizontal portion of the chase described above (steps 4 and 5). He opted to poke thru the wall instead, and we will finish later with a manufacturer's specified trim kit. His reasoning; with the interior end of the split unit -- the lines and their connections to the unit must remain accessible for easy service.

>> More Moxie (Related Links and Additional Info) :

old house web : Ductless, Split-System Air-Conditioners

Material

(5) 2x4x92 5/8 (if cost dictates) 2 1/2 inch deck mate screws 16d framing nails Drywall (enough for patch) 1 1/4 to 1 5/8 in. drywall screws (2) 1 1/4 inch drywall corner bead €“ 8ft lengths 1 3/8 drywall nails 1 tube liquid nails Caulk gun Drywall Mud Drywall Tape

Tools

Hammer Aviator Snips 4€™ level Punch/Keyhole/Drywall Saw Utility Knife Tape Measure Pencil Miter or Circular Saw Screw Gun Sawzall Drywall Tools

A DIY Home Inspection :: for a Bank-Owned Property

jb — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:22:00 +0000

House Health

A short checklist prepared for Jeff B. (Lanham, MD) -- 9.08 Overview: With the housing market as it is, some us may have opportunity and/or desire to take a look at a house that is on the market as a foreclosure. Unfortunately these kinds of sales are often "as is" sales and do not allow much time for a proper home inspection. Note: While this list in no way replaces a home inspection from a licensed professional, it does present a couple of things to look for from a guy that has bought and sold a couple of houses and who has done work on all of them.

Tools: 1. Digital camera, 2. Good flashlight (w/ fresh batteries), 3. Flat head and Phillips head screw drivers 4. Mold testing sticks (available at Home Depot for few bucks). Note to Jeff B.: This assumes that you have seen the house, and are happy with its (potential) make-up: Number of bedrooms, number of baths and the condition all; etc. This also assumes house has public water and sewage. For lots of reasons, make sure that the main house water and power supplies are on or can be turned on! [caption id="attachment_819" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Lots of termite damage -- near sill (wiring crossing joists)"][/caption] -- Basement: Start in the basement. For the most bang for your buck, find the €œmechanical€ room. Locate furnace/boiler, hot water heater, etc. Labels on most tell when an appliance was manufactured or installed (part of the serial numbers sometimes). Check on the inside of covers, in breaker box, etc for as much information as possible. [caption id="attachment_817" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="A look behind the wall -- hallbath tub"][/caption] -- Try to the note, if you can, the type of plumbing supply lines. If it has (smaller tubing) copper, plastic good €“ silver galvanized steel or iron bad (will eventually need to be replaced and not to be confused with galvanized (most times black) gas lines). -- Try to note, if you can, type of electrical wiring €“ This probably won€™t be an issue considering age of the house. But you want to see modern €œRomex€ [caption id="attachment_818" align="alignright" width="150" caption="12-gauge wire began coloring yellow in recent years"][/caption] wiring (term misleading for number of reasons, but don€™t worry about that here). -- Look up. Try to locate some exposed floor joints near outside walls. Inspect for noticeable termite damage. If you see signs of termite treatment, that is good. (Anyway, even if you don€™t see damage €“ or if you do not have any reason to believe there is a problem, still might be a good idea to budget in the near future for a professional treatment $800 to $1200.) -- If you can see the foundation, do a visual inspection. Try to note type. Long vertical cracks can be bad especially if you see anything that would indicate water penetration (discoloring, mold, dirt, soil, clay, etc.) Foundation cracks may not be the end of the world, but look for areas where the material has shifted out of plane (could indicate a structural issue). -- In general, look for signs of water damage/penetration, etc. €“ signs listed above. Is there a sump pump, does it work? If yes, this is good. Roof: Try to head to the top floor and look up at the underside of the roof. Are there any signs of water damage? Moisture, discoloration, etc? Interior:

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-- Check a couple of the plumbing fixtures, under sinks, etc. Are there signs of bad pressure, leaks or anything like that? Rusty or dirty water may not be the end of the world €“ especially if the house isn€™t occupied. -- Do any of the floors show signs of €œsignificant€ deflection? Dips bigger than an inch? -- Does Heat and Air Condition work? -- Are there any extremely large cracks in walls? -- Check a couple of windows and a couple of doors to make sure they open and shut and lock, etc. Use your common sense. Note anything unusual. Outside: -- Quick visual inspection of the roof, siding, and the trim around it €“ You can tell a lot from looking at the roof from the ground. Missing shingles, aluminum/vinyl siding and trim €“ sure signs of water entry. -- If there is an air conditioning compressor €“ check its sticker. -- Check the grade around the house. You want fall away from the house and the first floor separated from the earth. These are good things for many reasons.

Good Luck. Checking these things out can help you prepare for a lot of things. Check back with me at BuildingMoxie.com if you have further questions or pictures to provide.

Installing Underlayment for Carpet in a Hurry: How (Not) To

jb — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:55:00 +0000

:: aka kinda like shaving with a collared shirt on.

. . . You know you shouldn't do it, but sometimes it works out . . . And . . . sometimes it doesn't

Notes from the week of November 17th [caption id="attachment_825" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Staged remodeling -- Luan complete"][/caption] You know when you live in an unfinished house, and when you are the only option for bringing multiple families together for Thanksgiving, things can get a little crazy. As many of you may know, my wife and I have been working aggressively on the rooms in the rear of the house. This includes: the powder room, the original kitchen, which we are converting into a laundry room, and a small breakfast nook, which we now use as a home office. That's were this week's notes have me. In the "computer room." Soon after purchasing the house in mid '05, and when we had a dumpster here, I tore out old 'brick-patterned' linoleum floor (you know the one). I usually don't like tearing out anything until I am near ready to replace it. But this flooring was just that hard to look at. The exposed, damaged plywood underneath was just that much better. And really, only a little showed out from around the area rug we threw in there. With TGiving approaching, and with the work progressing, (toilet in, trim done and everything mostly painted) I was at an impasse with my radiant baseboard heat. I mean, I know there is no door on the powder room, but now was the time to take a crack at getting ready for the carpet in the office. I mean, our guests didn't need to see that, and I could squeeze that work in, finally put all of the heating system back together, and still have time to hang the door. Everything was in line, I had some quick-setting leveler, the kids were going to be sat by my mother over night, and there was beer in the frig. I could work late and get up and finish in the morning. I had all the lauan and nails I would need. Never mind that they were forecasting lows in the 30s for that night. I got a decent start to the day; about 9:30 (this is early when you have a 3 and a 5 year-old, mind you). I just needed to bring a low spot in one corner up with a little self-leveling compound before I went to work on the underlayment. As I do before mixing anything, I did a quick check of the label on my product. And there it was; under the section labeled "Drying Time", "Most floor coverings in 12-14 hours. Ceramic tile in 2-4. . . Walkable hardness in 2-4. . . ." Well anyway, as we all know, Thanksgiving was coming, and I didn't have that kinda time. I turned to my wife and said, "I don't care -- I am going to go for it. As soon as the leveler is dry enough. . ." I mean, I could give up 2, 4, even 5 hours. I had other things I could do during that time.

I mixed my leveler, poured it exactly as I wanted (using scrap pressure treated lumber as a screed at the edges) and it was done. I just had to wait. I got busy doing a few other things: finished the connections on the pedestal sink, removed some glazing from a window pane and replaced a piece of broken glass. I did some work to get ready for the reassembly of my heating system. All the while, checking the progress of my leveler.

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The leveler didn't seem to be drying quite as quickly as I would hope. I mean, it couldn't have been that I mixed it too thin. I am pretty exacting with that. It must have been that it was so cold (that area, a converted porch, is exposed underneath) and, well, there was no heat on to help it dry. At this point, the sun was down, it was cold (inside the house); I knew it, because my wife was telling me. I took measurements at openings and along the walls. Never mind the stress of the thought of not having heat on such a cold night. I cut my first piece of lauan at about 6:30. "Test fit?", I asked myself quickly. My response, "I don't need that; I don't have the time. Anyway, this house is only 130 years old; I am sure all the walls are true. It'll go right in." So there I went, my can of construction adhesive. I marked out some quick "working lines" and went to spreading. My wife, at this point upstairs, and her painting done for the day, she was cleaning one of the less visited rooms in the house. And I was finally going to make it happen. I brought my first cut piece of lauan in from outside. All the way through the house, door wide open; and I laid it down into the adhesive. Man, "it doesn't quite fit . . . . I guess the walls aren't totally square after all." Alright, I said, "no biggie" -- just need to run and grab my belt sander. I'll pull it up before the glue starts setting up, and it'll be alllll good. So I pulled the panel up; "Wow -- that glue gets pretty tacky pretty quick," I thought. I took my best guesses on where and how much, and began nibbling. "Jenny!" I yelled. "Can you give me a hand?" No answer. Anyway, I was ready; I put it back down. "Man, that didn't quite do it." So I picked it up again -- "sh. . t". That glue is sticky. It f. . .ing pulled my precious leveler right off the floor. "Jenny!!" I yelled louder. Alright, I am going to have to be a little bit more aggressive -- need the circular saw, and I ran and got it. "Jenny!!!" I yelled louder. Big clumps of my leveler are sticking all over the underside of my panel. "f.." I yelled. I mean I can't have that. "Where is my 5 in 1 tool? Can you hold this." I yelled. This time though she was right there. And at that point -- needless to say, I was freaking out. So my wife says, "why are you freaking out?" So I yelled something like, "My floor leveler was perfect, the cards were in line for today -- just hold it!" Then she says to me, "I know this is going to make you mad, but. . ."

*******

Anyway, that piece of lauan did eventually go down, and it went down well enough (I have one low spot I am going to have to deal with before carpet covers it). And we didn't have heat that night (probably wouldn't have had it with or without the agitation), and our bathroom door didn't get hung. And Thanksgiving is still coming, and remodeling right before entertaining is never a good idea, and rushing is the devil . . . .These are things I should know by now.

For good or bad. And I'd like to think I do more things better than not, but it is just these things, the things that I should know better about, that seem to weigh a little heavier.

Anyway, in my stupidity on this one, I hope you learn a little something you can use (or not use) on a future home project.

A Bi-Fold Door Fix; a Bi-itch. (part 1 of 2)

jb — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:32:00 +0000

. . . "Replace Hardware" on a Bi-Fold Door

Notes from the weekend of November 29th 1. Remove door by lifting and tilting bottom out. 2. Replace hardware 3. Vertical adjustment *For vertical adjustment: lift and rotate adjusting wheel. Doors should just clear header. 4. Horizontal adjustment *For horizontal adjustment: lift and slide into new slot. Adjust so have an 1/8" gap between pair of doors at center or jamb in 2 door opening. 5. Snap-in snugger (spring stop) The instructions as they appear on the back of a package labeled: Bi-Folding Door; Replacement Hardware. €œReplace Hardware". Seems simple enough; doesn't it?

. . . A Part Time Landlord

I know, I am trying to dedicate this space for babblings about work around my house, but this weekend I was assigned to our rental property in 21224. It recently turned over. This go around, however, we had a few things to do. And this time, the carpet had to go. And I guess directed by prevailing taste, we picked a frieze (and it's complete disregard for phonics) to go on the floor of this unit. It would be replacing a low-riding Berber that had given us many years of service. As always, when this apartment flips, my property manager (read: my wife) had a short punch list of items for me to complete. On this list was an adjustment to the bi-fold closet door. You see, the carpet guy had removed it, and it was kinda just laying there in its track. I mean, I don't blame him; he had to get it out of the way as he ran the floor covering into the walk-in closet.

. . . Making a List and Checking it Twice

As I usually do with the apartment, I made myself, well, a punch list, in Excel. On it, I was thinking ahead. . .bullet point -- Replacement Hardware for a "bottom-pivoting" bi-fold door. Now, I didn't have a ton of experience with these types of doors; I try to avoid them when at all possible. But from my time with the builder, I had gotten accustomed to making minor adjustments to them. So, I do know a thing or two. And I knew that there was a "replacement hardware" pack. . . It would contain everything I could possibly need.

. . . Hollow Core Doors are Stable and Light

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="400" caption="Image borrowed from BiFold-Doors.net (credit in the More Moxie section)"][/caption] This set of bi-fold doors was manufactured in August of 1993; I knew this because I pulled them out, as per step 1 noted above (ok, I improvised on that slightly). Anyway, the date was clearly stamped on the bottom of them. Made by a company called Craftmaster. "I don't know, it sounds familiar; ah, they're probably still around," I thought. A few other points of note: These doors brushed at the bottom even with the Berber in place AND they were tight at the header; they were hollow-core and they were big -- 24 inches each. The largest possible for this type of installation (or so I have read). That said, I went to work. I figured I'd have to trim it a touch, at the bottom; I'd have to -- if I wanted it to clear the carpet.

. . . A Part Time Handyman

I had a good bit of experience cutting down their kind -- "the inexpensive hollow-core door." (I even know what to do if I have to cut beyond the solid wood edge that holds it all together.) I knew, it'd probably be smart to start small, and go from there. So, for my trim cut, and with doors already on my mind, I picked the standard bottom clearance of 3/8". And under less than workshop-worthy conditions, I took it off; 3/8s of an inch, perfect. And there I went, I ripped (well I know better than to rip) into my replacement hardware pack. First, I went to work on the bottom panel at the pivot-side. The pre-drilled hole at the bottom of the door, and mind you, I didn't have my larger bits on me that day, seemed slightly smaller that the plastic sleeve I held in my hand. "Should I ream it out a bit?" . . . "Nah" -- The sleeve was tapered; it was close enough, i thought. The tapering was probably intended to allow the sleeve to slip in but snug up tight. And I tapped it in lightly with a 10 oz hammer. It went in nicely. No issues. Then I went to work on the top two pieces from my pack, called the "top pivot" and the "guide" respectively. There were similar sized holes on those edges of my door panels. Unfortunately, the old hardware still plugged them. The pivot was easy enough -- I grabbed it with a pair of channel locks and wiggled it out. The guide side, however, presented a little bit more of a problem. But with a little mind over matter, it eventually broke free. And broke, it was -- I destroyed it. I inspected my new hardware -- strange I thought -- that the plastic casing for these two springed parts was slightly smaller than the sleeve I just installed on the bottom. Yet the holes they were going into were the same size. No matter, I gloobed up the pivot side with some acrylic caulk I had loaded up and laying around. I slid them in, working, carefully, as not to destroy their spring loaded mechanisms. I used my 5-in-1 painter's tool pushing gently against the outer edge of the plastic sleeves.

. . . One Size Fits All -- Sometimes

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Before I went to push the guide in, I did think enough to check the size of the roller guide and whether it would fit in the existing track at the header. Damn. Too big, "Nothing is easy." Nonetheless, I don't need that now. And I went to sitting the door back in place. I lined it up, that is, from experience I knew you need to fold the door up, place the pivot guide home in the bracket at the floor and place the top guide inside the track. Then and only then swing it up towards the top bracket, which I was replacing too, at the other end. Once I got roughly over the bracket location with the top of the door, I slid the bracket towards me just that slightly. Man, this is going to work out nicely, I thought. I gently slid the bracket back in place -- and there you go. Just need to hold it here and tighten up that set screw. Easy does it, easy does it -- ok -- Its all good -- gonna tighten it up. I was getting excited, the bi-fold door adjustment off my list. I gave it a quick test, unfolding it into the opening. Man, it still drags a little on the new carpet. Ok -- I am going to have to adjust the door upwards a little.

. . . A Part Time Lover

Now, at this point I am not actually sure what happened, but it happened. Bam -- the door seemed to jump from the pivot bracket on the floor. No biggie, I'll compress the spring-loaded guide, and slip it back out. Snap -- the guide just flopped down into the housing. It broke. "Good thing I saved the original." So I finished removing the door, intending to make the needed adjustment. But to my surprise when I looked at its underside, there it was: a long skinny zig zagging of a hair line crack running from the predrilled hole that I just stuffed the bottom pivot into. The solid block at the bottom of the door had collapsed slightly to reveal exactly how much of it were left after I cut the door down. About 3/4". Now from my experience with the standard hinged hollow core door, you typically have at minimum about 2" of solid blocking at the top and bottom edges. But why not here, where this block would actually be required to bear some weight? With that realization, and I wasn't too surprised, I decided to put it down for the day. I had other things to do; and I'd have to run to the home center, again, anyway. click here for part 2 of this article

> > More Moxie (Related Links):

What is Freige? (not exactly courtesy of the wise geek, but thanks): http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-frieze-carpet.htm

Your information source for BiFold doors: http://www.bifold-doors.net/

Craftmaster Interior Doors: http://www.craftmasterdoors.com/

A Bi-Fold Door Fix; a Bi-itch. (part 2 of 2)

jb — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:11:00 +0000

click here for part 1 of this article

. . . "Replace Hardware": Step 2, again

So with my next visit to the hardware isle, I bought every bi-fold door part in sight, different styles and different sizes, tack-in types; ones for different track widths; ones with plastic sleeves; ones with metal sleeves. It really was surprising to me how few, in fact only two, had any sort of sizing information on their outside packaging. Before pulling out, though, I spotted a "bi-fold door repair bracket" -- 2 sizes, and I grabbed them both; I could always return the unneeded one. I checked out and headed on my way. While I was in my truck, I thought to myself, "Sweet" -- now I don't have to try to flip the door over, or move the pivot to the other side.

. . . Home Improvement is Not Brain Surgery, Thankfully

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="This is a product similar to the repair bracket I had to use (photo borrowed from http://www.maintenanceengineeringspecialties.com -- credit in the footer)"][/caption] I never lost my cool at any point during this install, I will tell you that trying to retract flushed plastic sleeves from a bi-fold door is not necessarily an easy proposition. In all cases, I had to trim off the sleeve's flange with my five-in-one tool and then push the balance of it down in the doors' hollow pockets. (No one will ever notice the rattling of carcasses I left buried in these doors that weekend.) Anyway -- to make this fix finally happen, I installed a "repair bracket" to the cracked portion of the door bottom -- adding a little wood glue earlier in this process. Before I went to work on it, I did notice the instructions on the packaging (see how I am always trying to double check instructions). Kinda smart how the labeling on the package, when folded and sealed inside, makes for a great place to store more detailed instructions. While the instructions were very similar to those I noted in part one of this article, they did have this one little additional tidbit:

"If your bi-fold door has been damaged, it may be necessary to drill out the existing pivot pin hole . . .to allow the new pivot pin to slip through the large hole in the bracket."

For a moment, I thought to myself maybe I should have heard about this a little earlier in my reading. Nah, instead, I took some blame for it, and thought that I should have had a little foresight and incorporated this bracket into my original action plan. After a few tests with the varying hardware I bought, I had it nailed. Step 2 -- done. I was finally ready to move to the elusive steps 3 and 4 . . .again.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Bi-Fold Door Hardware by PLPCI?: http://www.plpci.com/ Photo credit :: Repair any bi-fold door in minutes -- http://www.maintenanceengineeringspecialties.com/

Working with an HVAC Contractor in an Emergency Situation

jb — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:14:00 +0000

:: aka "either you want me or you don't"

Notes for the week of 12.1.08

. . . The Back Story

The early part of this week found me down in 21224, again. You may remember from the last post that I was getting one of our units ready for a December 1 "delivery." And I won't go into it too much; Thanksgiving weekend, and how exactly I found out that the heat wasn't working down there. Nor will I waste time telling you how exactly I assured myself that we needed a specialist to fix the problem. I will tell you, however, that the new tenant was emailing, "Is it ready?" The answer, of course, "no.€

click here to see what has been going on at the apartment

[caption id="attachment_859" align="alignright" width="300" caption="This was the little bugger that got replaced"][/caption] Now, I don't want to rant on this too much, either, but let's just say that of all the guys out there, I am pretty apt to side with your small business contractor. I mean, despite all of what a builder might tell you, and despite what seems to be general consensus, these are the guys that are out there doing it; gettin' er done. They are typically good at what they do; they work to put their kids through college. All, while fighting back complaints of how much they charge, only hoping to squirrel away a little money for retirement. But this guy, this guy.

. . . Boiler Guys and What I Know

Basically, there are two types of gas or oil-fired residential heat. Forced Air and/or Hot Water/Steam Radiant. Now, I have said this frequently, I mean, you can't hardly walk down the street without bumping into a Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning guy that knows his fair share about your Forced Air furnace. The boiler guy, however, is a little bit more of a rare breed. His markings, with four wheels and the words on the side paired as such: "Plumbing AND Heating.€ They are really not that different, the boiler and the furnace. Both require air for combustion, both vent noxious by-products, each requires electrical service to power electrical components, and each is a delicate appliance filled with gadgets and sensors. And in the case of our boiler, and on this weekend, it appears that a small sensor had failed.

. . . Loyalty in Relationships

Between my wife and myself, and with the work week coming, we decided that she should coordinate the fix. But first, I made calls to some guys I know. Unfortunately, and with a tight deadline, these calls didn't bare fruit. So we moved on to our next options. We decided to call a Plumbing and Heating company that we had used previously. Several years had past since the first time they visited, and I can't really remember how exactly we came to connect with them. But that time, they did average work, efficiently, at a price that was doable. We decided to call. And this is really is the target of this story. This guy. Now, I am not going to out this company, but they are local, 21234, and they have been in business for some 20 years. On paper, it seemed like a pretty good option: I mean, it had been some 4 years, BUT we were repeat customers.

. . . The Verbal

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We had called them late on Sunday night, so we were surprised when they returned our call early on that Monday morning. And he was free later that morning. He warned us that 21224 was "slightly beyond his typical service area", but he agreed to do it. Great. And my wife made the appointment. He was on time as scheduled; came into the apartment, and quickly made his assessment. He gave my wife the verbal. Something like:

You are going to need a new flame sensor, and a new damper control. And I am not sure if I can actually find these parts. So we will have to order a universal part. And with universal parts, it always takes a little longer. It is probably going to take the good part of the day. And it is going to be over $1000, definitely. . . .But I will call later to confirm.

. . . The Formal Quote

And he called as promised, a few hours later. And there you have it. $1500 for x, y and z. Now, if any of you know my wife, she is a fairly cool character, and, yes, she had already been on the phone with me several times that morning. She understood the situation, and realized she needed to keep this guy on the hook -- just in case, what he spoke was, in fact, our only option. But $1,500 -- it seemed like a lot. So, she dialed me up again. She says, "$1,500 - it seems like a lot." And agreed, but I have to admit, I was at work, generally numb about the apartment, and, well, what could I do? -- I had already called my guys. For my part, though, I figured I'd call this guy -- to see exactly what he was charging us for. Before I call, I try to put myself into his shoes. As a guy, myself, that has worked up quotes, I know from experience that it is usually better to err on the high side. And, you know, this thought definitely did not cross my mind -- "Did he maybe see a cute woman, pulling up in her cute car to a rental property, on the first of the month. She probably doesn't know anything about boilers, and she probably is desperate.€ Though I didn't think that this guy actually thought that, but if he had, he would have been right; my wife doesn't know a thing about boilers. What she does know, however, is -- to always call in for assistance. For her that means "call her parents". My in-laws, her parents, and though I generally don't give them enough credit, have 30-plus years of property management experience. Needless to say, they know a thing or two.

. . . The Second Opinion

My mother-in-law, specifically, has a knack for saving money, and well, her husband, can pretty much ghetto MacGyver anything. It's a good resource to have. So, at the same time I am placing the call to this guy in 21234, my wife is on the horn with her mother. My mother-in-law's first response, "Oh, no!", or something along those lines. And she, in turn, gets sucked in on the fun. Now, I am not exactly sure of how this transpired, but my mother-in-law got on the phone. She's dialing one the guys that I had called earlier (and coincidentally hadn't heard back from). She got through. She had contacted a guy I call, Mike the HVAC guy. Now, Mike, and I won't, for various reasons, go into this, is a service manager for a larger HVAC company. And he is exactly the type of guy you want to work with if given the opportunity. He does side-work, he has lots of experience, he is friendly, loves what he does, and he generally cares about houses and the people that live in them. And this time, he agreed to give us a hand.

. . . A Call Picked Up Somewhere in 2123?

As my mother-in-law is coordinating with Mike the HVAC guy, I'm on the phone. I have some experience dealing with contractors, and usually know how to ease in, but this time, there was none of that. I go right into, "Man, $1500 seems high; what are you charging me for?" This guy, nice enough, and I remember this from working with him four years ago, proceeds to tell me what exactly he is replacing. Not only is he quoting me $500 for two small parts, but he tells me that he also expects a full day's work at $120 an hour. Now, $120 an hour didn't set me back; it certainly seemed near a fair market rate. But it was what he said next that dumbfounded me. He intended to bill for the time that it took to estimate, research, and order the parts we needed, approximately 3 hours ALSO at $120 an hour. I guess I have grown insensitive to the marketing pitch, "Free Estimates". But come on, I know a few things about "billing rate" and at $120 an hour -- this certainly should have included the overhead, the legwork associated with this job. So I thought on these things for minute, (or maybe a little longer, babbling away) until I finally came to this conclusion -- "You know what," I said. "Put those parts you've ordered on hold; I want a second opinion." His response something like:

I've been in business for twenty years. And I say this to people all the time. . .either you want me or you don't. I don't need the work. . . .

. . . The Resolution

I did have to take the time to meet Mike the HVAC guy at the apartment a few nights late. And I won't go into too much, but one of first things that Mike said, and like most will try to avoid trashing their kind, he said, this particular boiler, a Columbia, is still manufactured and, believe it or not, right here in Baltimore. He would be able to get the exact replacement part, and we can forgo all of this "universal" part talk. And yep, it was the flame sensor. A little plug-in solenoid switch, with a mercury tube on one end, and electrical connections on the other. And it was done. The boiler fired right up. About a half-hour of work, and even with Mike chit-chatting, and talking me through what he was doing, "$205 please." Now, are you kidding me -- I paid him gladly. Even gave him a little extra. And he was pleased.

. . . The Point Really

I'm not accusing this guy in 21234 of doing anything unethical and/or predatory. It was certainly within his right to charge what he wants to charge for his services. But I am saying, as a homeowner, you need to watch out, especially if the desperation of an "emergency" situation tries to overtake you. Get a second opinion, there is usually time for one, and there are always second opinions. Funny, (and here is my shameless plug) but it sure is nice having a support network. Now, if only there were some company out there that would offer to make calls for you, help you research and weigh your options, and give you the support to get it done, all without blowing a wad of cash, wouldn't you use them? But alas, we are left waiting.

> > More Moxie (Related Links):

Columbia Heating Products: http://www.columbiaheating.com/

PS: That little metal line in the picture above made for a great "temporary" replacement hanger for a christmas tree ornament. Props to Evyn, my five year old, for that idea.

DTV is coming :: Installing a DTV Converter Box

jb — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 01:24:00 +0000

[caption id="attachment_939" align="alignright" width="300" caption="A pic from my last house -- "Sit & Spin Gram""][/caption]

. . . For my grandmother, god love her, it might as well be the apocalypse

Notes from the week of December 8th I'd have to say the weekly calls started about 10 weeks ago. I'd pick up the phone most nights late, after I was already into the nightly routine with the girls. "Jaaaaaay," she would say, "when are you going to have time to look at my TV, you know my TV won't work soon, and . . . .€ Now, notice how I say "weekly calls". She actually started calling me about this, I don't know, in early May. You see, for an 89-year-old woman living alone, TV is a pretty essential part of her day. And the thought that there was going to be a change, for reasons she really didn't understand, it was enough to lose a couple nights of sleep over. While I never was dismissive about it, I did gently brush it aside. I mean, come on, I knew it wasn't supposed to go down until early next year. We had time.

. . . For whom the bell tolls

It's sad but true. I still haven't gotten to those doors at my house that I so critically need to do. Instead, little things just seem to keep getting in the way. This week, it's just been little things around here: replaced some lamps in my wife's car, removed a window air conditioner, ran down to the apartment for a bunk electrical outlet, and replaced some burnt out under-cabinet fluorescents in the kitchen. But also, I did it; I scheduled it for this weekend, the ultimate honey-do. I was going over to Gram's to take a look at her DTV converter box

. . . Grown men

Mind you, my mom's boyfriend, plus my Gram's brother had already been down to take a crack at hooking these things up. Their conclusions:" These boxes are defective." So, needless to say my Gram was really counting on me to make something happen. With a little foresight, I knew enough to ask my Gram for the specs €“ the instructions that came in the box that held the box. Through my wife, she got them to me. Before my scheduled visit, I was going to take the time to see what was up. I dialed up some information online. In a nutshell, and as I understand it, it appears that TV stations, mandated by the federal government, are going to cease analog transmission of their signals on February 17th of next year. You see, Homeland Security, or some other government agency, wants to claim that spectrum, using those frequencies so they can build out a more robust "Emergency Broadcast System". So what does that mean, "cease analog transmission"? Well, for my Gram using an older TV paired with a "through-the-air" antenna, she would be out of luck. She would either need to purchase newer digitally-equipped TVs, begin subscribing to a premium service such as cable or satellite, or she would need to install these converter boxes. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="A nice logo I borrowed from dtvtransition.org and Apts.org (thanks)"][/caption]

. . . And the written instruction

I am certainly no multimedia guy. Never was in the A/V club at school; don't have the funds to do any sort of elegant set-up at home; but hell, I can hook up a DVD player. That said, I have to admit, and after a little light reading, I was a little nervous about this one. I mean, two grown men, smart guys, had already taken a crack and failed. So, what exactly was this going to entail? I pulled up the Support folder at Jasco Products (a subsidiary of GE) and checked out the FAQs for the product she had purchased, the "Digital Converter Box 22730.€ In almost all cases, the last line of action for all things troubleshooting was - "Try adjusting the antenna." €œGreat,€ I thought. I was going to have to climb up on the roof (I am sure they didn't do that), and adjust the antenna.

. . .The ultimate honey-do

Going into Saturday I knew enough to try to clear as much of my schedule as possible. And I have to admit, I was kinda looking forward to spending some time with my Gram. Saturday came with a total of three tasks: make the converter boxes work, install a "Telemergency" telephone (actually a very cool little product for a woman of her age), and hang a new vanity mirror in her bathroom. Nothing too complicated, but, you know, troubleshooting electronics can take time.

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So using my head, I set my priorities and decided to tackle the TV in the living room first. Having read the instructions and following the little "Ikea" diagram in the manual, I quickly made the connections. I set the little switch on the back of the box, turned the TV to Channel 3 and guess what? That little thing went to converting. It started scanning for signals, and a full three minutes later, it was done. Most all of the TV channels that she once had, in fact, all but your budget-challenged PBS stations, were identified and coming across crystal clear.

. . . For such a snappy title, I was really hoping for a better story than this

I mean, it was that easy. Hook it up, plug it in, turn it on, and set the box and TV to Channel 3. That little piece of equipment just did the rest. Ok, it doesn't make for a great story. But I do find the desire to highlight a couple of points that this article should gently suggest. First, Take the Time to Make the Time. (Or is that Make the Time to Take the Time?) Second, I learned early on - you need to respect "instructions." You read 'em all (well, at least skim them) until you understand "the story." Then and only then, proceed through the steps. I mean, there is someone out there that gets paid pretty decent money to assemble these things. And guess what? You paid for them, the cost included in your product purchases. So use them. Third, some guys (and gals too), it seems, can't get their heads around point two. They can't seem to check it at the door. I mean, everyone's life would be a lot easier, sometimes, if you (general) just stopped and simply read or asked for directions.

. . . The PS

I left that Saturday feeling I accomplished everything I set out to do. My Gram was happy and I don't mean to throw anyone under the bus. I did, still, get a call yesterday; "Jaaaaaaay", the voice on the other line said. ". . . ." And I said, "Gram, you need to keep your TV on Channel 3. Except for turning the TV on, you need to forget that remote exists." And here lies the issue. It wasn't necessarily the conversion to Digital TV, in and of itself, that was the challenge. It was something even simpler. They just couldn't set their heads aside long enough to believe that, yes, all the channels now will be coming through Channel 3. In this one case, they couldn't give themselves over to the instructions, written by someone that might €“ just might €“ have been smarter than them. I mean, you laugh, you veterans of cable TV and other devices. We accept this as sure as the sky is blue. But I ask, €œWhat did it take you the first time you had to hook up something like this?€

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Info on the "Transition": http://www.dtv.gov/

Jasco Converter Boxes FAQs: http://www.jascoproducts.com/support/faqs/afmmain.asp?topicid=&faqid=

Where to point your antenna (very cool): http://antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

A Door Layout Fix :: the Situation and Options

jb — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:55:00 +0000

. . . aka it's really about how you swing (part 1 of 3)

Requested by Dave S. (Perry Hall Farms) Dave and Kirsten, in my mind, throw a pretty decent Christmas party. The spread was very impressive; we all marveled at the impeccably decorated tree, some new faces, some young, some old. (Never mind that the Ravens collapsed again against that team from Pittsburgh.) And I will be honest; Dave did not really request this article. I am not really "on the job," but I am taking it upon myself rather to give him some thoughts on a situation he will eventually address. I am not quite sure how long he has been in this house, but it has to be going on four, five, or six years. And in my opinion, he has done a fantastic job of managing his home. He has made all the right home improvement decisions: finished basement, expanded pool deck and patio, upgraded floor coverings, trim, and paint. These things add comfort and value. All feats made more marvelous by the fact that he has four children.

. . . The situation

[caption id="attachment_943" align="alignright" width="225" caption="A photo I call the "Roadblock""][/caption] Dave and his family live in what is called an "Executive Line" home. All major production builders (as opposed to "custom builders€), it seems, build in this line. And like most in recent years, the interior greets you with a two-story foyer. The foyer, with a large "living room" and study spilling off, eventually funnels into a hallway that directs you to a kitchen with a breakfast nook and an ample sunken family room. In my opinion, and most would agree, a very good floor plan. Dave is not the original owner of this house. Sure, he sometimes thinks about blowing out the kitchen, but to be honest, he has pretty much accomplished all of what he had "needed" to do with this house. His major improvements aside, he now has some time to turn his thoughts to smaller things. As things are, and in this hallway, he has a situation. And I have to admit, I had always noticed the awkwardness of it, but I guess I just never dedicated any real thought to it. You see, in his front hallway, the one noted above, you will also find his powder room and the entry to his basement. The problem: their doors. Each 32" wide (that's 2-8 in builder's speak), exactly opposing each other. Both swinging outward. And in their fully opened positions, they create a virtual road block if opened simultaneously. (Maybe Dave would be so kind as to send a pic to help me illustrate.) Needless to say, whether entertaining or not (remember four kids), both of these doors get lots of action.

. . . The trim load

The trim load is a big day in the building process. And with most builders, this is the day that all the interior trim, including the interior doors, are delivered. Usually coming off a flat-bed or 18-wheeler, it represents the beginning of the end. As you can imagine, it marks the point exactly when "finishing" can begin. The first to be applied from this load are the interior doors. In the case of Dave's house, and with any production builder, a trim carpenter and crew have been hired to install them. Before these guys go to work, however, the builder "stages," prepping for their installation.

. . . The superintendent is responsible for layout

[caption id="attachment_942" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The foyer of Dave's Executive Line home -- note the custom trimwork"][/caption] I will try not to digress too much here. I mean, out of all the jobs I can think of, a position as a superintendent with a production builder has got to be one of the most stressful jobs in the world. There are not many positions you can find (barring maybe the president of the United States) where the job is -- to control, in so many cases, the totally uncontrollable. In this case, and if my guess on who built Dave's house is correct, the superintendent there was spread across several communities working on several different job sites. This is mainly why I don't blame him (or her). One of the superintendent's primary duties is to ensure before, during, and after the installation of things that the builder's and/or architect's (with final approval from the homeowner) vision is executed. With interiors doors, and while the task of layout was probably delegated, it is the superintendent's duty to ensure that they go in "per plan." Unfortunately, it appears, these did not. After some thought, I am now about 95% sure that these doors got mixed up. The powder room door meant for the basement, and vice versa. And until right now, it seems that everyone has missed it. If executed as planned, the door on the powder room should have swung inward. Further, I am going to assume that the basement door should have opened away from the main entrance of the house, orienting towards the kitchen.

. . . So what?

I am sure that when Dave brought it up, in passing, at the end of the party on Sunday, he certainly didn't think that I would put this much thought into it. But oh well, I guess that is how I am. And I'd like to give him some input on how to address it. Now, mind you and I got sucked into this too, the first idea - we can move one of the openings. A couple of quick taps on the drywall around the openings, and really more like the chest beating of the male gorilla, we spout, "Load bearing" -- "Load bearing." While modifying load bearing walls really isn€™t that big of a deal, common sense, in this case, will prevail. And based on what Dave told me next, he does have another idea. To him, and not to criticize, he presents it, though, as his only option. I am here to expound on the contrary. In fact, the number of options I could present here in this case would be way more than you would be willing to read.

. . . Ok, jb. So what's your idea?

Well, I am going to start with the most unlikely (based on Dave's perceived "home plan") and lay out a few for him. These are the ones that pop quickly to mind:

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1. What about a "pocketless" door for the powder room? Like a pocket door without the pocket. Hung on a track inside the bathroom, it would slide over the opening when occupied. He does have limited wall space in the bathroom, and not enough maybe to conceal the total width of the door. I am ruling this out. He would possibly have to shrink the opening, disturbing custom paint and custom trim work. And while the cost of the hardware isn't prohibitive, he would probably have to buy a new door "slab." 2. What about a mini-French? Paired, hinged doors swinging inward, the phrase being borrowed from Dave's new brother-in-law. I have never shopped for French doors this small. And I feel that if you could find them, they would carry a steep price tag. Considering the cost of the door unit (though another option may be a salvaged door cut in half) and needed modifications to the frame -- probably out. 3. Why not just make it right? Switch the basement door and the powder room door, frame and all. While minimal cost in material, probably more work then he needs to commit to. 4. Why not just flip the hinge of the door to make it swing inward? This is the option Dave is leaning toward. While obviously the least invasive, the abandoned mortises in the existing frame leave a problem (or is that a solution?) that may not be desirable for house of this age. Still on the table. 5. Why not replace the door, frame and all? Buy a matching door unit and replace it so the door swings inward. This is the option for Dave that I like the best. While there will be some "surgery" involved with removing the existing door. It can be done, and as long as he has retained the paint used in the vicinity, the door should be able to be matched at a cost that won't put a hurting on him. Note for Dave -- Let's get interactive Now, in almost all cases I would recommend using an experienced handyman to execute this fix. But being how I am all about imparting information, I'd like to write at least one of these procedures for you. I feel that my loyal readers (lol) would be interested. So Dave, please advise. While you may not decide to tackle yourself, you may. And in having the information associated with it, you'll know exactly what to expect going in.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Production builders vs. Custom builders: http://ezinearticles.com/?Choosing-the-Right-Home-Builder-For-Your-New-Home&id=1535155

cats, a mouse, and the old house

jb — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:04:00 +0000

. . . Some thoughts inspired by Tom and Jerry

I don€™t know about you, but throughout my childhood, after-school cartoons were a staple. More frequently than not, the viewing schedule included afternoon reruns of €œTom and Jerry€; it just seemed that this cat and mouse were always playing around somewhere. And today, it strikes me as odd that my daughters are so taken with those same misadventures. Through On Demand programming (provided by Comcast) we can select €œTom and Jerry€ cartoons anytime we (Read: they) want. And setting aside any judgments of my parenting skills, please listen as I spend a little time on cats, a mouse, and the old house.

. . . Snack time

We give the girls a light snack before they hit the bed. Set up in a centralized bedroom we call the €œplayroom,€ the girls can sit (well, they don€™t always sit) and eat a snack of cookies, cereal, or whatever as they watch an episode or two of their favorite television. And if you have kids, you may chuckle. I mean, trying to get two independent, strong-willed sisters to decide on a single program to watch can be a very challenging endeavor. With On Demand, and through either Boomerang or the Cartoon Network, you can find five or so €œTom and Jerry€ cartoons in the menu at any given time. Each title contains four €œshorts€ compiled from episodes created throughout the years. On average, the airing, uninterrupted by commercials, runs about 25 minutes. Surprisingly, it is one program I can typically get them to agree upon. Sometimes, when I am not brainstorming business schemes or helping my wife with something, I sit and watch with them. I mean, after all, it kinda takes me back; plus it is always good occasion to think about and/or to discuss things.

. . . The art of animated short film, and the tie-in

Tipping my hand a little, and in typical blogger fashion, I dialed up the Wikipedia page. I needed to do some research. And let€™s be honest: I really can€™t claim to have a special knowledge or insight into €œTom and Jerry€ and/or into cartoons, in general, for that matter; I am simply a recreational viewer with some thoughts. While I have to think that making a cartoon is a relatively labor-intensive task, I was still surprised to find just how many hands had been involved in the production of these cartoons. Just think about it -- all the writers, all the artists, the musicians, editors, directors, producers, and all the studios. You see, ownership of €œTom and Jerry€ has changed hands several times, but €œTom and Jerry€ has been in production, in one form or another, almost consistently from 1940 €“ nearly 70 years. It is, in fact, quite an impressive volume of work. But for this article, I will focus specifically on those shorts created between 1940 and 1958, then under the direction of team known as Hanna and Barbera.

. . . Tom, the tomcat and Jerry, the house mouse

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="An image of T&J found on Flickr (art by MÑ.Î‘„“Ð¼Î±Ñ•Ïƒ Brb)"][/caption] In the shorts of this era, comic, unreal violence is set counterpoint to your typical American home. And this is how I land at my point. As an old house owner myself, it strikes me to see just how accurately the house of that time is usually drawn. Is this the appeal? I mean, my daughters, three and five, and as they look around, they see the traditional 3-part colonial baseboard, the exposed wooden lath in some locations, and 2-prong electrical outlets fed by corrugated electrical wiring. And as the compilation rolls from one short to the next, and as they watch usually speechlessly, one or more of our three frisky house cats may grab their attention as they pass through looking for a place to rest for the night.

. . . Our cats

Marz, Foof, and Lulu are really quite different from one another. Each has their own unique personality. None are pampered; they are indoor/outdoor cats (again, please refrain from throwing any judgment my way). There is at least one litter box on each of the four floors of our house. They enjoy a regular diet of Fancy Feast. And it seems that they are never engaged in any of the shenanigans that we would associate with Tom. That is, at least not on inside of our house.

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While they are subject to being grabbed by the girls at any given time, they pretty much roam free. They can go in and out as they choose. (I even installed a €œcat flap€ in a T-bar screen door to make that passage just a little bit easier.) While the cats rarely spend the night out, I am often greeted in the morning with the carcass of a mutilated field mouse. While most mornings, and especially on work days, I dispose of things quickly. There are times, however, especially in the yard during the summer when the girls come across similar sights. It just can not be avoided. Evyn, my five-year-old, will usually call her sister over, pick up a stick, and begin probing. This usually provides a good fifteen minutes of entertainment. And when I walk over to join the fun, our conversation almost certainly turns again to €œTom and Jerry.€ I say, and they understand, €œHe really doesn€™t look quite as cute as Jerry; does he?€

. . . Common house mice

Chances are if you own a house, at one point or another you will have to at least make some sort of consideration for the mouse. They really are pesky little things. Small in size, I have heard that they can enter the home through an opening smaller than a nickel. And unless you are really conscientious, chances are the exterior of your home has an opening or two around that size. Exaggerated when you live near wooded areas or in winter months, these little guys will try to make their way in. It is their nature. Now, I am not saying that it is difficult to take care of a mouse infestation. In a lot cases, as I suggested above, it may be just as easy as sealing the penetrations in the exterior of your home. Please don€™t think that spray foam or steel wool will completely take care of this problem, though. I mean, you need to think like a mouse. Better solutions are to cover an opening with wood or metal, call a professional (there are many in business to serve you); think mouse traps, poison, or simply -- get a cat.

. . . Back to the show

[caption id="attachment_952" align="alignright" width="225" caption="The girls and the infamous cat flap, which . . . I need to replace"][/caption] As we sit and watch our cat and mouse go at it, the German clapboard siding and full-round downspout rolls by during a fevered outdoor chase scene. Jerry then stuffs Tom€™s tail in an electrical outlet. I explain to the girls, €œYou don€™t stick anything into an electrical outlet. It will kill you.€ As Tom gets thrust into a plaster wall, exposing the wooden lath underneath, I know my girls know it all too well. The girls know that daddy does construction, and that he is always working on the house. And in our house, we still have a lot of plaster and lath. As we sit and talk, I teach and I laugh; I hug them and tell them that I love them. But always in a moment of reflection, I come back to one thought: €œHow much of a master carpenter is Jerry?€ I mean, just think €“ in the 1940s, how difficult it must have been for a guy of his size to cut such a perfectly uniformed arch in a baseboard at the floor.

. . . Making a mouse house door

Suspend disbelief for a second. I say this for two reasons. One, I know it is only a cartoon. Two, I am little lazy with my research for these pieces. I can€™t at this time make an accurate assumption about whether or not Jerry would have had access to power tools. But for this piece, let€™s assume Jerry did cut his hole by hand. Today, though, to make something like Jerry€™s mouse house doorway, it would probably be a combination of both: On an interior wall, possibly already probed with a stud finder, I guess I€™d probably grab a drill. Having removed the shoe molding and being careful not to damage the floor, I would drill two, I don€™t know, 1" holes where the baseboard meets the floor. These holes would be spaced maybe 3 1/2€ apart €“ and they would represent the base of my arch. I would then probably grab my compass (remember from geometry). After finding the center point between the outside of edges of both holes, and holding the fixed point off of the floor slightly, I would scribe the arch in a dark pencil line. Being how a common jigsaw and/or other reciprocating saw would be hindered by its guards, guides, and fences, I€™d have to then reach for my keyhole saw (a fine-toothed, thin-handled detail saw). I would cut carefully along my line trying to make sure that the saw blade was absolutely perpendicular to the surface of the baseboard. This would get me most of the way there. If I were careful, I could probably leave myself a pretty good rough cut. I€™d follow behind with first a round file (or rasp) and finish with two subsequently finer grits of sandpaper. What do you think -- do you think this is how that little mouse pulled off such an elegant doorway?

. . . One last thing before the iris-out

Houses built before or during the period of production for these cartoons employed a framing technique called balloon framing. All but totally outlawed in some municipalities, this technique had its benefits over previous techniques, but fails to rival today€™s standard -- platform framing. With balloon framing, and unlike today€™s platform framing, the wall studs were typically attached directly to the house€™s sill and run in some cases uninterrupted to the roof rafters. In this configuration, the floor joists were nailed to the wall studs, and the subfloor, or in many cases just the finished floor, was then installed. Only after, was the final wall material (typically plaster and wooden lath) applied. With today€™s platform framing, building occurs in a more modularized fashion. Exterior and interior walls are built as units and are then assembled to bring the house up from the ground. In this technique, walls are typically built lying down and are later raised. These wall units are capped with a piece of lumber at the top and the bottom. They hold the whole thing together. They are known as plates. Why do I bring this up? Well, you see, if Jerry lived in a house of today and if Hanna and Barbera were still making this cartoon, every time Jerry quickly entered his home, we would have to jump over a 2x4. Either that, or he would have to also cut it out.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Photo credit: . . . I am sure someone is breaking someone's copyright: Tom and Jerry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_and_jerry

Pest Control: http://doyourownpestcontrol.com/mice.htm

Wilson, Shane. "Handsaws." 20 March 2007. HowStuffWorks.com. 05 February 2010.: http://home.howstuffworks.com/handsaws.htm

Balloon vs. Platform Framing: http://www.hometips.com/diy-how-to/house-framing.html

Tub/Shower Faucet Stem Repair Procedure (3-handle faucet)

jb — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:35:00 +0000

Prepared for: John L. (Halethorpe, MD)

Overview

John is a first-time homeowner with questions about basic home maintenance tasks. He has a patient, highly analytical nature. So when he asked if I thought he could tackle a leaky tub faucet, I said, €œAbsolutely.€ His first-floor bath, which he uses primarily as a powder room, is actually a full bath. It includes a standard 5-foot tub/shower that had developed a slow drip at the spout. You see, with stem-type compression faucets, small stem washers wear and fail, and allow for dripping. These gaskets must be replaced. Shower/tub faucets, those that service both a tub and shower head, come in 1-, 2-, or 3-handle configurations. Of all, the 3-handle configuration is probably the most common, and is relatively easy to repair. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="This soft blue bathroom fits the lack pics in the post orginally (art by mrbill)"][/caption] In preparation for the repair, I lent John one my library€™s most popular books, €œBlack & Decker€™s Complete Guide to Home Plumbing€. It contains the exact procedure that John would be performing, minus some key information that may be important to a newcomer. To get him ramped up, and to help illustrate some of my points, I gave him a quick demonstration on a diverter valve that I had removed some years ago.

Costs:

Professional Repair €“ I estimate cost for a professional plumber to fix this type of leak in a tub faucet at approximately $180-$220 (including trip charge). John€™s Cost €“ two to three hours on a weekend afternoon, approximately $3 in materials, and my fee: $75, which included a hands-on demonstration, access to literature and the required specialty tools, this expanded procedure, and on-call access to me during the procedure. Do-it-Yourself Savings -- $180-$78 for an overall project savings of $102.

For John:

Note if you can, before removing handles, the manufacturer of the faucet. (Sometimes on the handles.) Rule 1 with plumbing €“ Don€™t force anything. Rule 2 with plumbing €“ Use two hands. Rule 3 with everything -- Don€™t do more than you have to.

Biggest Risks

(John had asked me up front what I thought his biggest risks were.) Well, damaging the faucet, of course. 1. This could occur when attempting to either €œbreak€ or re-install the faucet€™s stem. It is important to stay on top of the stem when removing it trying not to apply any undue lateral force. 2. Another big issue would be cross threading the stem when reinstalling it. (I simply told John to avoid this if he can.)

. . . The Procedure:

o Try to determine if it is the hot or cold side leaking. -- This may be hard if you do not have dedicated shut-off valves for that faucet. If you do, shut each off independently and see when the drip stops. -- You may get lucky enough, however, to feel that the drip is hot water. If so, just repair the hot side. If drip is cold, I wouldn€™t trust it, plan to do both sides. o Cut the water off for the repair. Open both sides of faucet to drain excess water. o Amendment: Bleed the system. Many systems are equipped with stop and waste values. A waste valve, in this case, allows you to drain excess water from the plumbing pipes. Failing this, and thinking that you probably do not have an eye for this type of value, I suggest opening a spigot at both the lowest and highest points in the house. This will create a venting effect that will allow you to drain most of the water from the lines. o Place a towel in bottom of tub to prevent damage to the tub. A second towel will come in handy for excess water. o Remove handles. (The plumbing book might have a depiction for the use of the handle-removal tool €“ otherwise, read instructions on the back if you need to.)

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o Remove sleeves, if present. Try to avoid using a wrench. If you must use a wrench, place a towel under the wrench to minimize marring of the finish on the sleeves. o Note type of faucet. If similar to the demo, move forward. Otherwise, hold off for another day (pictures are helpful). o Ensure that the stem is in the fully opened, full left, position. -- I am on the fence with this, but I would say try to avoid removing the bonnet nut if you don€™t have to. You should use an adjustable wrench on bonnet nut if you decide to do this. o From above, spray lube with Liquid Wrench -- let sit for one minute. o Remove stem. -- Ensure that you have matched your chosen wrench to the stem exactly to prevent stripping of the threads. -- Use two hands and try to ensure your force is exactly €œsquared€ on the stem. -- If you have to strain to get the stem to break free, a few light taps of a hammer on the tool's handle may be helpful. Helps vibrate it free. -- If you feel like you are straining too hard and might break it, you will break it. Stop. Call JB. o With the stem in hand, go to the home center. This is usually the hardest part of this job. Try to go on an off hour if you can. Look for the faucet repair aisle, and ask for help. They will ask you if you know what kind of faucet it is. (manufacturer) --While you are there, pick up some thread sealant (also called pipe dope) -- this is for the €œjust in case€ scenario. [caption id="attachment_1742" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="image by b"][/caption] o Unscrew and replace stem washer. It may be necessary to clean the €œseat€ with a wire brush to remove any caked-on debris prior to placing the new one on. o Lightly clean threads of the stem as per photos in the procedure provided. o Reinstall stem. -- Ensure the stem is still in fully retracted position. -- Don€™t cross-thread the stem, square it up and it should screw in with little effort. -- Hand-tighten till snug. (This is a change from my earlier tune.) -- Using the stem tool, give it another quarter-turn. -- Do not over tighten. -- Close the stem, fully right. Do this by temporarily placing the handle back onto the stem. o Turn water on and check for leaks at the stem where it meets the faucet body. -- If leaking, turn water off and try to tighten a touch more. -- If still leaking, call JB. o Reassemble sleeve and handle. Call or email at http://www.buildingmoxie.com if you have questions. Or call if you need help once you get into the middle of this.

Summary:

In tackling this job himself, John is acquainting himself with the fundamentals of home plumbing repair and the anatomy of faucets, which together will apply to all faucets in his house. While John has yet to execute this procedure (January 13, 2009), I will surely let you know how he does. My apologies for being so lazy with supporting photos. (Maybe John will supply some.) Note too, that I will not bill John until he has completed and is happy with the fix.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrbill/ / CC BY 2.0 Black & Decker€™s Complete Guide to Home Plumbing: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-Complete-Guide-Plumbing/dp/1589232011/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231858049&sr=1-6 2- and 3-handle faucet repair (The exploded view is useful here): http://www.stemdoctor.com/stemdrcom/default.aspx?pg=ae72f874-a56a-4911-9a95-68c1335aa569 (bad link) Here is a great how-to with photos; I discovered it in the most amazing of ways (courtesy of Charles and Hudson): http://www.charlesandhudson.com/archives/2009/03/how_to_fix_a_leaking_bathtub_faucet.htm

Tub/Shower Faucet Repair (Follow Up): Stop and Waste Values

jb — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:38:00 +0000

. . . A critical step in any supply side plumbing repair

I picked up a message from John L. late yesterday afternoon. It seems that everything went as smoothly as we laid out. Almost. It appears, and I am kicking myself now, that I missed a fairly crucial step for him. After cutting the water, and since his tub repair was happening on the first floor of the home, I should have suggested that he bleed some additional water from the plumbing lines before beginning work on the faucet's stems. After he removed the problem stem, a steady stream of water ran from the faucet body for about five minutes. What happened here? Well, after shutting the water off, and while it did stop the steady flow of water to fixtures, it did not remove any of the water already in the lines. Therefore, gravity went to work. And it appears that water in the lines from the second floor chose this location for its outlet.

. . . How could this have been avoided?

First, maybe, I could work on not being such a dumbass. And second, we needed to have him bleed a little bit of the water out of the system. This is usually accomplished by a matter of elevation. And yes, I do mean elevation, that is, the elevation of a fixture above sea level. When shut off values are equipped with a waste outlet, you can open these little grooved nuts, and drain uphill water at a safe location in the basement, usually into bucket. While many older homes are not equipped with these types of values, there are other less hi-tech options. While it is not totally necessary to drain all water from the system, if I simply would have suggested that he opened the lavatory faucet in the bathroom he was working (at a higher elevation than he was working), he probably would have fared a little bit better. A more thorough job of draining the system could have been accomplished by opening both the highest fixture and lowest fixture in his house. In doing this, it creates a kind of venting effect that will bleed a majority of the water out of the plumbing system.

. . . As with a lot of things, it is really only a matter of physics

I encourage anyone that has a better concept of these matters, and I know there are many of you, to please write in. If you do not wish to comment on this blog, you could instead email at experts@buildingmoxie.com.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

* Photo Credit: Image of the stop and waste valve borrowed from here: http://www.allproducts.com/search/categories/pTOP.shtml

I tried to find a quick overview on stop and waste valves. I could not find anything specific to the topic (even at my go to locations). Failing that, I can give you this link so at least you might know what they look like: http://www.nibco.com/assets/StopWastePV.pdf

Pocketless Door Experiment (1 of 3) :: the backstory -- Design & Process

jb — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:33:00 +0000

. . . The backstory

I end up getting a lot of questions about this: "How did you learn to do home improvement?" And more often than not, my answer starts with. . . "Well, long story. . . ." First off, I really have never learned how to do home improvement; I am certainly not a tradesman. I mean, I think even for those highly specialized professionals out there, do you really ever fully learn how to do anything? Home improvement, like everything else, is an ongoing process of building knowledge and learning. (Notice the present participle.) Sure, I had a grandfather that was very handy, I worked with a general contractor for a couple of years, I spent some time with a production builder, and I have actually done some remodeling work professionally. While I have had the opportunity to learn from some skilled individuals, I can really only attribute what I know to two things. Trying and Doing.

. . . When we bought the farm

When my wife and I bought the carpenter-style farmhouse a few years back, did we really know what we were getting into? No. It's true; we knew virtually nothing of its insides, and, well, we knew even less about its history.

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It turns out, this house, in Baltimore's Lauraville area, was built in 1889. Living locally, we had admired it for several years. We would pass by it on long walks with our dog, Gia. We knew it had been abandoned for a few years running then. And as dabblers in both real estate and renovations, we felt for its lack of love. So when it came on the market, we jumped at the chance.

. . . The backstory (cont.)

A couple other things that you should probably know about me and my habits: I am pretty much a traditionalist. What I mean is I usually let the style of the house dictate what I should do in certain situations. I always make an effort to match new work to details that may remain elsewhere. While I am conscious of style, I am also always mindful of materials and finishes, and the cost of all. As my wife would surely point out, being a traditionalist, however, can be an albatross. At times, especially when working on older homes, it can be difficult to adhere to a certain sense of historical correctness. That is, at least without blowing a boatload of cash. I love to reuse things; that is, I am a proponent of something I call smart salvage. It really is a relative term though. [caption id="attachment_1181" align="alignright" width="300" caption="2000"][/caption] What I mean, I always ask myself, €œWhat would it take in time and money to purchase this or that material new?€ €œWhat kind of time will it take me to save this or that and will it be worth the effort?€ €œWill I see the character, will my visitors see the character, and, most importantly, will the next perspective buyer see the character?€ That said, and as much I try to respect my wife€™s wishes (I mean, as much as I try to fight it), I usually end up on the wrong side of the restoration battle, choosing the long way on more things than I€™d like.

. . . When we bought the farm (cont.)

[caption id="attachment_1182" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="2005"][/caption] I should point out that my wife, Jennifer Ingool, is a real estate agent. So when this place hit the market, and with our renovations nearly complete at our last property, we were able to make a move quickly. We knew this place was special, but how special, we would soon find out. Now, I am not talking about poltergeist special or anything like that, but as the story of this property started to unfold, we (well, I really should say I) decided that we had to be somewhat true to its history. It turns out that this house was originally home to a dairy farm that encompassed ten city acres. It is the second oldest house on our street. A large outbuilding was the original home of a cabinetmaker, and later, the original location for a now defunct operation called Saks (sp?) Lumber. It has character, and well, it contains a lot of wood. [caption id="attachment_1183" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Original location of Saks (sp?) Lumber"][/caption] As these facts were revealed to us, it explained a lot. The house was built (at least as far as I can tell) in three parts. I have to tell you though; its heyday had long been forgotten. Cast iron and/or brass eagles had replaced decorative finales, door knockers, and I don€™t know what else. You see, I am a big fan of timeless style. And all the eagles certainly helped date the not-so-recent renovations.

. . . A lamb in sheep€™s clothing

While I do call myself a traditionalist, I have to admit; at times I struggle with this property. Built in stages beginning in 1889, this house is pretty Victorian. While my wife and my mother-in-law completely love it, I can€™t say that my feelings are the same. I respect it, but it is really not my taste. I guess this may come from being a guy. But my sense of style leans more to the straight and simple lines of the Craftsman movement and at times flirts with all things more modern.

. . . Is home improvement really a little bit like a surfing?

I do things. And that€™s what I do. What I mean, for me, home improvement is 50% know-how and 50% sheer will. I always try to remember a simple sentiment that one of my former bosses used to tell me. €œHome improvement is not brain surgery,€ he would say. And maybe one of the most beautiful things about working on your own house is that it€™s usually ok to make mistakes, and most all things can be undone. But trust me; I don€™t go at things blindly. I usually have that thought tucked somewhere in the back of my head. I am always sure to leave myself a little room to wiggle. That said, I do tend, at times, to leap before I look. I can be lazy with research, unless someone is paying me to do it. I often times just try things. Things I probably wouldn€™t try on other folks€™ houses. I try to be slick and cut corners if I can, but only if it won€™t affect the end product. This is all especially true now that I have begun thinking about this in terms of a business. I mean, I could blog about installing a simple pre-hung door, for example. But hey, that may not be interesting enough for these pages.

. . . The half bath and a doorway

Early on, and you may have read already about this, I gutted the half bath. [caption id="attachment_1184" align="alignright" width="150" caption="The only before I have of the half bath"][/caption] It was in bad shape. It had taken a good bit of water damage. The full bath, you see, is stacked immediately above it, and it appears that the tub/shower had been leaking for years. So when we had a dumpster on site, I tore it out. I peeled back layers of wall finish to reveal partition framing covered with a black, hairy growth. Not that the smell hadn€™t been tipping me off already, I found mold €“- and lots of it. So I pulled the framing out too. There it was €“- a completely gutted half bath. And then, staring at it, the planning began. I noticed almost immediately, and remembered as anyone would have, that the full-sized hinged door was bumping the toilet when it was swung fully open. [caption id="attachment_1185" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Gutted with temp bracing"][/caption] I ruled that out almost instantly. The cast iron closet flange (the plumbing apparatus that your toilet sits on) was in good shape €“ I wasn€™t going to mess with that. I was not going to move the toilet. After all, I do like making things somewhat easy on myself, sometimes. I decided instead to adjust the door framing, and/or I would simply modify the door slightly. When I finally re-framed the opening, I made a conscious effort to shrink it a little. Later, I would know to choose an elongated compact toilet over a full-size rounded one. But still, those things would not affect my plan. You see, I was going to take the existing door and cut it in half to make a more elegant mini-French.

. . . And that was my plan, until. . .

We roughed the bath in with new plumbing lines and new electric. I re-routed some of the copper tubes associated with the baseboard heating, installed ventilation, and re-framed the opening. I added an extra layer of rigid insulation before installing the drywall on the outside wall. I made my own trim and used a unique trim layout. I did this so that I could incorporate a wainscot that I had salvaged, with the help of friend, from the un-insulated basement ceiling. This material was old. It had a nominal thickness of 7/8 inch (a little thicker than the ¾ inch stock I was using to make my moldings). Because of the way I had to finish at the window, it was necessary, in my eyes, to install a cap at the top of the wainscot. And this cap protrudes a good 1 ¼ inches from the wall surface. While the cap on my paneling wasn€™t really an issue within my original plan, it became an issue after I watched the movie, €œBaby Mama.€ Not that Tina Fey or anything else about the movie inspired me. I was in the 23rd hour; the only thing left in the powder room was my door. But I saw it, in her bathroom, in her expertly selected Manhattan apartment, a wall-hung or pocketless door. And this is how this experiment came into being. Please look for Part 2, Coming Soon

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

For your real estate needs in the Baltimore area: http://jenniferingool.lnfre.com/

A shout to "Baby Mama": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0871426/

Pocketless Door Experiment (2 of 3) :: Hardware

jb — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:30:00 +0000

. . . How I roll and . . . swivel

Now that I have you up to speed on me, my wife, my house, and how I think most of the time, I€™d like to tell you a little bit about what I did in my powder room last weekend. As mentioned in the last post, my plan for the powder room door had me installing a mini-French door set-up. (You might have noticed my note about this internal debate in my weekly notes found in the right side bar.) This plan got derailed, however, after I saw the fine cinematic production, €œBaby Mama.€ [caption id="attachment_1174" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Try to slip into this opening?"][/caption] There are a few shorter scenes towards the front end of this movie that show the bathroom in main character€™s apartment. While some were comedic, I instead focused on the door. In her bath there, and only in one brief scene, was a wall-hung or pocketless door.

. . . What is a pocketless door?

Now it€™s not like I haven€™t seen them. Essentially, a pocketless door is a pocket door without a pocket. While a pocket door in tucked back and hidden in the wall framing, a pocketless door, on the other hand, is hung on a track from the ceiling or mounted to a wall. In this configuration, they are also sometimes known as €œbarn doors.€ The hardware you find at the home center for this installation is not that different from what you find for sliding closet doors. Most closet doors are paired, hence, two tracks and two sets of rollers. With the product that I bought, a Pocket Sliding Door Assembly, it allows for an €œalong the wall€ installation.

. . . Instructions and my half bath

As always, I read over the instructions. There was a good bit of general layout information. They were fairly thorough.

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Step #4 read like this, €œAlong the wall door application: Door panel needs to measure the finished opening width plus 1€ (25mm). Sure, fine, I can handle this. But not surprisingly, there was no detail on what I would encounter in my installation. As mentioned in my last post , I had installed a cap on top of a salvaged 7/8€™€™ thick wainscot (a form of paneling usually adorning only the lower portions of a wall). When I say cap, what I mean in this case, is that I molded the long edge of 1x stock and laid it flat at the top of the wainscot paneling. Doing this allowed me to transition neatly around the window in the bath. While adding little extra depth and interest to the wall treatment, it did cause the wall surface to finish roughly 1€ beyond my flat door trim.

. . . The first hurdle

[caption id="attachment_1175" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The cap -- I may still add an apron underneath it"][/caption] At this point, I was squarely fixated on the idea of trying to do a pocketless. I carried this around with me; I knew I had this hurdle to deal with. If I installed the door along the wall, when it passed in front of the door opening it still would come to rest a good 1€ from being sealed tight. This, I figured, was not desirable in an oft used powder room. So I carried it around some more. Would there be a way for me to pivot or swivel a pocketless door as it glides? In usual fashion, I began seeking out possible solutions. A couple quick Google searches revealed no hardware specifically designed for this application (though I still felt that some point somewhere it gets done). Had anyone been blogging about this, or could I find it on a home improvement site somewhere? I don€™t know. At this point however, I had given over and was dedicated to making this thing work. I discussed it briefly with a fellow at work. He too has a house he€™s fixing up and we sometimes discuss doors. Now, not that my mind wasn€™t already wandering here, he says to me, €œYou know what would be cool . . . if you could make the door glide, swivel and then suck down into the opening.€ I mean, bam, if it hadn€™t been on the table already, it certainly was then.

. . . Where there is a will, there is a way

Again, how could I make a swivel work? So I set aside some time, as I sometimes do, for a visit to the home center. On these trips, I just go and spend some quality time. What would the options be? I checked near the hinges first, and then I combed the area around the mending plates. Then, I passed the casters toward the top of the aisle. You know, casters, those little wheels you mount to boxes or other things that you want to make a little more movable. Some were fixed to allow only for rolling in one direction, others, however, pivoted a full 360 degrees. Those that rotate are set on a series of ball bearings that allow them to swivel. My instinct, of course, was to shoot for €œthe smaller the better.€ When I took a closer look at these, I noticed that their wheels were pinned in place and not removable. No Good. So I move a few bins up the aisle. And there they were, shining like the sun, two-inch casters with racing wheels. Sure I liked the way they looked. They were pretty sporty, but this wasn€™t the only reason that they caught my eye. You see, they were sturdy, and they had removable wheels. Only a tiny nut held the axle in place. [caption id="attachment_1176" align="alignright" width="150" caption="casters"][/caption] As I stand there for a few minutes, it comes to me: why couldn€™t I take two sets of these things, oppose them, and attach them together. This way I could hang them, and they could be mounted on flat surfaces. They would pivot at least 180 degrees, which is what I knew I needed.

. . . Building bridges

Ok, with that figured out, I was going to need a way to attach my pivoting assemblies to the hangers (the hardware with the rollers). I figured I could do this with a wooden block. In this case, as I always have scrap on hand, I picked a piece of five quarter (5/4€) board (actual thickness 1 1/8th inches). The 3/4€ screws provided, and I always use the screws provided, would have surely poked through your typical 1x. So this was the way to go. [caption id="attachment_1177" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Now that I look at it; it was kinda ugly"][/caption] I would attach the hangers to the top of the wooden block and the rigged-up assembly to the bottom. The entire assembly measured a good five inches in height when completed. It pivots in its full range of motion for the top caster€™s center points-- approximately 1 ½€.

. . . Hanging the track

This assembly would allow my sliding door to hang unobstructed beyond the one-inch projection of my cap molding. Check. But now that I finally held the contraption I visualized in my hand, I realized I would need a good bit of clearance. As I revisit the instructions for the hardware here, I notice the track must be mounted at minimum of an inch and three quarters above the door panel. My instincts tell me here that I could probably give myself just a little bit more wiggle room. Time for some math; I need the distance from the bottom edge of my rig (I knew that I should allow the panel to overlap the opening a little) to the top of my mounting block, plus a little more than 1 and ¾ inches. Right now, I can€™t remember what that dimension ended up being, but I knew because of the hanger€™s adjustability that I would probably have a little bit of room to play with.

. . . Building a header and the point of no return approaches

As the pictures will hopefully illustrate, I used a unique trim layout throughout this area. Without going into too much detail here, I routered a cove in the inside edge of 1x stock. I then used this molding set on thicker plinth blocks to make up the legs of my door trim. At the header, however, I took a discreetly ripped 1x4, and ran it all the way around the room at header height. (I ripped the 1x4 down to help keep a sense of scale with the wainscot.) The header trim had a top edge of about 78€. [caption id="attachment_1178" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Installed -- Plans later to skirt the track with a facing"][/caption] With the top edge of my head trim finishing here, only appropriately 3 ¼ inches above the door opening, I knew I would have to build it up some (as the instructions did suggest). I was going to need a header board placed above my head trim. And it might need to be just a tad thicker as to assist with the clearing of my cap molding. For this, I choose again a piece of 5/4 board. I took this, and ripped it down into two pieces one 2 ¼€ wide and the other 1 1/8€ wide. (I lost an eighth of inch off the total thickness to the kerf of my saw blade.) I then glued and nailed the resulting pieces in a step fashion. This stepped header would give me a place to conceal the track, the height and overhang that I would need, as well as enough meat to screw through into the wall. I slapped it on top my casing, check it; it looked good. So I screwed to the framing. I dropped my roller assemblies into place and then stopped to think. Time for some tests. Please see last and maybe not so final installment of this piece coming next week.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Johnson Hardware (note the header on this page): http://www.johnsonhardware.com/wmindex.htm

Flipping Hinges and Lockset on a Door: A Door Layout Fix

jb — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:19:00 +0000

. . . aka it's all about how you swing (Door Layout Fix) part 2 of 3 -- Where we€™re at

Ok, where did I leave off? Seems like forever since I€™ve visited the topic of Dave and his doors. And after several missed attempts at a photo shoot, we finally nailed it this past weekend. In a nutshell, Dave has a situation in the hallway leading from his foyer to his kitchen. The basement door and the door on the powder room, immediately opposing each other, both swing outward. When opened, they collide, causing not only damage but also an impedance to normal traffic flow. [caption id="attachment_1163" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Make an outswinging door inswinging"][/caption] In the last post on this topic, I had asked Dave which one of an array of options he would want me to expand upon. After my most recent visit, it was discussed, and we decided that I would provide procedures for two possibilities. From the last post : 4. Why not just flip the hinge of the powder room door to make it swing inward? Or 5. Why not replace the door, frame and all? Buy a matching door unit and replace it so the door swings inward. Because I am usually open, at least in theory, to all possible options, and since I am out only to recommend the best option as it fits my clients, I choose to describe first the most inexpensive and minimally invasive option available to him. In this case, €œflip the hinges on the door.€

. . . Overview

I will not go so far as to describe the tools needed specifically, nor will I estimate the time it would to take to perform these procedures. Knowing Dave€™s skill set, I would almost certainly recommend an experienced handyman if either procedure is to be performed. He simply does not need all that information.

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I will use this space, rather, to expound on the topic in the hopes of giving Dave a clearer picture of what is involved, and an idea of how the end product will appear.

. . . The other five percent

As mentioned in the first post, I am 95% sure of why these doors ended up this way. The 5% of uncertainty, I will address here. I will admit that our mythical construction manager from part one may have known what he was doing. It is possible that he was required to install these doors as such to avoid issues with an in-swinging bathroom door. Maybe the door, 32€ wide, would have been obstructed by the originally selected toilet. To ensure that this is not now an issue, Dave should check this. There is nothing high tech about this test. Dave needs to simply grab a tape measure, unfurl it to about 30€ (the tape measure€™s body is typically about 2 ½€), place its butt at the hinge-side jamb, and swing it towards the toilet roughly at the height of the toilet. Does it hit the toilet? If no, we are moving forward. Note: As with any repair to a painted surface, make sure that there is matching paint on hand. If not, go to the home center and match it, exactly.

. . . Back to it

Procedure 1

€“ Flip the hinges on the powder room door to allow for the door to swing inward. [caption id="attachment_1164" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Rounded radius brass hinges"][/caption] --Remove the door -- I am a little old school here. When working with hinges, I always try to use a good old-fashioned screw driver. If there is a scrap piece of plywood or some shims lying around, place them underneath the far edge of the door. These will help support the weight of the door when removing screws. Once all the screws have been removed, wiggle the door hinges free. Accumulated paint may make this less then straight forward; be conscious to cut (and yes I mean cut with a utility or a putty knife) any paint that may have glued the hinges in place. This will help prevent any undue damage to the jamb as we remove the door. --Remove the hinge-side stop -- Working carefully, remove the stop from the hinge side door jamb. Again we may need to cut paint and/or caulk prior to slipping a putty knife underneath the backside of the stop. Work the tool down the length the stop. The goal here is to get just enough daylight to then pry the stop out of its resting place. To make sure we do not mar up the jamb, have another scrap piece of wood handy. We place this underneath the heel of our pry bar as we work to push the stop outward. Note: don€™t force anything; we may be required to rock the stop back and forth as not to damage the miter at the header€™s stop. -- Mark new hinge locations -- This probably can be done most efficiently by marking a straight line across the jamb using a small torpedo level. While the relationship to the previous locations may not be of absolute importance, the distance between each hinge, however, should remain exactly the same. [caption id="attachment_1165" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Mortising jig (my house)"][/caption] -- Cut new jam mortises (Specialty Tool Alert) -- While this may be accomplished using a sharp chisel and mallet, the most efficient way I have found to do this combines a plunge router with a mortising jig. Porter-Cable makes a plastic form, or jig, that is adjustable to various hinge sizes. It is simply tacked to the intended mortise locations, and using a provided straight router bit allows for plunge cutting of perfectly rounded hinge mortises. While I believe most specs call for a depth of 5/32€ for this cut, I always try to stay a little shallow, because of the router€™s tendency to rock when held against an upright surface. -- Cut new door mortises (Unsightly Work Alert) -- Since our door slab already has mortises cut in it, attempting a new rounded hinge cut may not be best. When I have done this in the past, I square off the existing mortise and carry it across the width of the door slab. Take a square and draw a transfer line across the door edge, then use a utility knife first (to score the surface) followed by a sharp chisel. Mortise out the door edge completely square. [caption id="attachment_1168" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Level lockset - We're gonna have to flip that too"][/caption] -- Swip swap the door€™s lockset -- Most locksets are reversible, even those that are lever- style. Check for a small slot on the underside of the handle. When depressed, this will allow for removal the handle. Switch it. You will also have to remove the striker on the door€™s edge, and flip it over so that the articulator is set to swing with the door. Note: if the lockset is in fact not reversible, it€™s time for a trip to the home center. Pick a lockset that matches the hinges in finish. -- Separate the hinges by removing the hinge pins -- Before separating hinges, note which way they are oriented. Mark the upward side with a piece of tape or something. A nail punch or even a finish nail can then be used tapping the bottom of the hinge pin to free it. Once it has moved upwards enough, the hinge pin can either be grabbed with a hand or a pair of pliers. Be careful not to mar the head and especially not the shank. -- Mount the separated hinges to their respective locations -- Part of a grand conspiracy; hinges are typically mounted with #9 screws. Hold the hinges where they are to be set, and mark hinge hole locations with an awl, a finish nail, a #2 pencil, or even the tip of a drill bit. We pre-drill holes using a bit slightly smaller in diameter than the hinge screws. DO NOT DRILL ALL HOLES AT THIS POINT. DO NOT FILL ALL HOLES WITH SCREWS. By leaving some of the holes in the hinges empty this will allow us to make minor, possibly necessary, adjustments later. -- Install the door -- Set the scrap ply or shims used in earlier steps in a location that will allow them to support some of the weight of the door. An extra set of hands can be useful at this point. Be careful when moving the door itself, especially passing through the doorway. Align the hinges, and with at least one hinge pin in hand, mate mounted hinges. If they do not slide together smoothly here, back out the screws, part way, in at least one of the hinges. Again attempt to mate the hinges. Once set, install the hinge pins. Don€™t push the hinge pins all the way in at this point though, they may have to be pulled out again. If hinge screws were loosened, hold the door firmly in place and reset the screws. -- Check the door swing and make minor adjustments -- Minor door adjustments could be an article unto itself. Hopefully everything works out as expected here. Watch out for binding at the hinges and for the minutest rubbing at the door jamb as the door closes. If the door frame is square, if hinges were mortised to the correct depth, and if the door operates as expected, we should be home free. (If you do have issues here, you could always contact us at http://www.buildingmoxie.com for guidance.) If everything checks out though at this point, install the balance of screws, and set the hinges pins fully in place with a handful of light taps on their heads with a hammer. -- Mortise for and relocate the striker plate -- This will require the drilling of a new hole in the latch-side jamb. It will also require new mortising for the strike plate. I am assuming if we have made it this far, there is probably not much need for instruction here. --Install Dutchman(s) in the vacated hinge mortises (Master Carpenter Work Alert) -- This is the part I don€™t love about this procedure. We have flipped our hinges. Now, however, we have the original hinge locations to deal with. To address this, we are going install what are called Dutchmen in these locations. A Dutchman is essentially a patch for wood made of wood. Start by squaring off the corners of the original rounded hinge mortises. Do this using a utility knife and/or a sharp chisel. We will need to find or make a wood patch that is larger that mortises we are staring at. Our Dutchman needs to be about 5/32€ or so thick and it should overlap just slightly the mortises that we have. Once we found the material we need, we hold it in place over the mortises (as we would in preparation for a drywall repair). Score using a utility knife around the outside edges of our Dutchman. Clean any material out of the way so that the Dutchman will slide neatly in. Once satisfied with the fit of the patch, glue it in place using wood glue or an adhesive caulk. Tack it in at least one location at the top and one location at the bottom. Use 3d finish nails for this, pre-drilling as not to slip the wood. Repeat to all mortises are filled. Let the glue set up. The Dutchmen should finish just above the surface of the jamb. Once the glue has set up, come behind with a palm sander and sand the Dutchmen down flat. -- Reinstall the hinge-side stop -- Then finally touch up paint

Summing up

And you have it, what€™s involved with flipping the hinges on a door. This really is not my number one option for Dave, and I did intend to dictate the steps required in his house to replace this type of door. I have simply run out of space here. Depending on feedback gathered from him or others, I will try to detail that procedure in an upcoming post.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

For a little added info on setting hinges in a door slab: http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/hi_tools/article/0,,diy_13936_3459168,00.html

Having difficulty finding the round hinge jig, so here is the butt hinge rig. (Both are available at the Home Depot.) http://www.factoryauthorizedoutlet.com/porter-cable/products/59370.asp

Pocketless Door Experiment (Part 3 of 3) :: Shut Down

jb — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:01:00 +0000

click to see part 1 of this post click to see part 2 of this post

. . . Now, don€™t get me wrong. . .

I do know who I really work for. I told my wife what I was going to try. We discussed pros and cons, and I did get approval. As I have hinted at this several times previously, I am really not sure if this kind of set up has ever been attempted. So picking up where I left off, I am standing and staring at it a little. Will this work out? [caption id="attachment_1154" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Header trim mimics exterior elements"][/caption] I knew going in there was going to be a second area of difficulty, the plinth blocks. In my bathroom, again 5/4 board, routered with a forty-five degree on three sides. The variation in depth here not only adds visual interest, but also makes the wood€™s tendency to expand and contract over the years a lot less noticeable. But there you have it, another 3/8 inch protrusion at the door frame. What could I do? I could rip out the plinth blocks and alter the trim, I could add a 3/8 inch edge to all but the lower inches of the door panel, or I could try for something a little different.

. . . The power of visualization

I start by the cutting the door to the correct height and set it in place. I then swing my rollers over to the top of the door. I notice that I am going to have an issue with what I have done already; I was not going to be able to mount my pivoting assembly to the top the door. The height of things wouldn€™t allow for it. I didn€™t kick myself too much, though, for not selecting a wider header or for cutting the door down this early in the process. I knew beforehand I would be adding some girth to the door panel. You see, I was going to have to swing my rollers to the far side of the door.

. . . Again with the impulse

Not liking the options as they presented themselves, I remembered what my co-worker said, and the impulse came again. Could I make this thing slip down into the opening? What would I have to do to make this happen? Cut the door down to fit into the opening, of course. Since it involved a cut, I marinated on it a little.

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I mean, what could it hurt? What is my back up plan? Well, in this case, even though I have time invested and a built-up header screwed to the wall, my secondary options continued to be the more traditional, hinged installation. For these, I€™d have to cut the door down anyway, so I did. The next decision that needed to be made: how exactly I was going to attach my rig to the door. Based on the way that everything was falling in line, I knew I was going to have to mount the plates on the far side, or the inside, of the door. There were issues however with the €œframe€ of my rigs; it couldn€™t reach too far over the door€™s top edge. Time and space wouldn€™t allow it. With some very exacting eyeballed measurements, I determined I needed a block that was approximately 2 ½€ thick. But what kind of stock could give me that kind of thickness? I checked both major home centers, and it would figure the one farthest away had the goods. A 3x3x36 (actually 2 ½ by 2 ½) piece of poplar was perfect, and I grabbed a handful of carriage bolts. I mean, I was going to attach this block to the door to pad it out, and if I did €“ it was going live there forever.

. . . Hanging the door

I started by attaching the bottom of my rig to the far outside edge of my block (I had since bolted the poplar block to the door panel). It required a little strength, a steady hand, and pre-drilled holes. I made sure not to fill all the holes in the bracket, just in case I needed to make an adjustment. Then, there it was, hanging. I slid the entire assembly down toward the door opening. Wow, it is operating very smoothly. I notice very quickly that my cap molding, detailed in the last post, is acting as a built-in guide. But having attached the brackets to the far side of the door, it had become tilted out of balance. It was pitching inward toward the bath just that slightly. [caption id="attachment_1155" align="alignright" width="150" caption="The cap on my wall treatment pushed the door out"][/caption] The door was no longer centered directly below the rollers. Some adjustments were in order. I had to un-hang my hung door.

. . . Equal and opposite

One thing you learn rather quickly when working with doors is that it seems you often end up doing the opposite of what you are trying to accomplish. What I mean is, say for example you have a hinged door and you are setting it in an opening, and you want the door to move up; well, then you have to move the hinges down. [caption id="attachment_1156" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The law of gravity"][/caption] I want the door to hang perfectly perpendicular to the floor, so what do I need to do if the door is tilting inward into the bath? The answer: move the rollers back toward the wall. As a little added insurance, I also picked up a flat bar. I cut down a 2-inch wide piece of galvanized steel and screwed it to the outside of the door. It helped balance things out just that much more. I reassembled the set-up and now it hung again, but this time perfectly.

. . . Operating the door

With everything back together, I tested it some more. I slid it back and forth to and from the opening. Looking pretty good, but I did not notice it wasn€™t quite squared up with the wall along which it hung. Working it back and forth like a bobsled team getting ready to begin their run, I then slid it down to the opening, and dropped in it. Whoa! The base of the door is kicking back into the bath pretty good. This is going to be problem. Nonetheless, I push it down into the opening. Pretty good fit, but the one side is not sitting quite flush. To fix this, and again the equal and opposite law of doors applies, I moved my mounting brackets back and forth by fractions of inches to ensure that everything was right in alignment. To be honest, this process did take much more time than I would have hoped. But with everything in order and hanging just as I wanted, I took another stab at dropping it into the opening. Perfect. If I give it a little push at the bottom with my foot and tug at the brackets at the top, success. I know; that is a little troubling. Nonetheless, I have a few ideas.

. . . Inspections

At this point, I had been in the €œcat bathroom€ (as my girls sometimes call it) a good part of that Saturday. What did they think? €œCool€ they said, as they slid the door back and forth on its track. They liked it. Great. But we all know, their inspection really doesn€™t account for much. Shortly behind came the big boss, my wife. She stepped into the bathroom and with one look, there it was a look on her face I knew -- she hated it. So I said, €œWhat? You knew I was going to do this.€ So after of a few seconds of hesitation, she let it fly. €œI hate it.€ My response, €œWhy?€ Then she continued, €œBecause it doesn€™t fit. It looks like something you€™d find in an auto body shop.€ I mean at this point I couldn€™t stop her, €œYou took my dainty little bathroom, and you add this big, industrial looking thing in it. I don€™t like it. It doesn€™t fit. Why didn€™t you just do a normal door? This is something you would see in a [caption id="attachment_1157" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The wife called my rig industrial and clunky -- maybe she was right"][/caption] row home in Canton. Not here; this house is Victorian.€ After it was all out, I got some words in, €œBut . . . we discussed this; I told you I thought if I could pull it off. It really would be pretty different and cool. . . .Something to write about.€

. . . What€™s next?

Now this isn€™t the first time something like this has happened to me. Not only did I have a few challenges to overcome. But we, wife and I, were at an impasse. By my wife€™s account, I am not moving any more forward with this. Plus, I needed my swiveling rigs to pivot when I wanted them to pivot. I needed to have some way to push and/or pull on the bottom of the door. (Yeah, I was a little concerned about how the track and rollers would hold up against this €œunnatural€ lateral movement. But believe it or not, they seemed to be working perfectly under these newly added stresses.) And . . . I needed a way to latch the door into its place. What do you do when this happens? For me, I have learned. At this point, it is an easy decision. Let it sit. And move onto the next project.

. . . Not the last you will hear from me on this

I have some ideas. I am convinced that this set up is going to work (I won€™t tell you because I don€™t want to blow all the suspense at this point). I did wake up this morning with a few new thoughts in my head. I€™d probably need to provide instructions with the operation of this door. And you know what? It will probably be difficult for my young daughters to operate. Yikes! I could always roll back, pad the door, and allow it to hang simply over the opening. I could scrap the whole thing and return to my original plan, and do a mini-French set-up. I don€™t know, my point is €“ for everyone€™s sake, it is time to let it sit. My feeling with this is, and it may sound a little corny, but only time will tell me my best course of action moving forward. But I won€™t dwell on it. I didn€™t make any mistakes; I just tried something a little outside the box. Would you have? And I am not the only one in my house I need to please. So, with that said, I move onto some drywall work as I wait for the gods of home improvement to point the way. I will follow-up with you on this when I know more.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

What is a carriage bolt? http://www.thefreedictionary.com/carriage+bolt

How to Texture a Ceiling :: One Example

jb — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:01:00 +0000

:: aka a textured ceiling helped me find myself on a map and . . .

. . . Sometimes you detour before you even hit the road

Sooooooo the time in the program came when we had to address the office ceiling. The ceiling as it was had been finished with a fibrous wall board, a panelized product made of compressed fibers. My only hope was that this product was picked to provide added insulation and, well, that it did not contain asbestos. It had been installed many years ago. As always, I explored some options €“ some with my wife €“ but in the end decided that I would simply skim coat the 7x12 area, and we then would finish it with a textured paint. The skim coating went as well as planned. As we had done this in other locations in this house, I hit it with two coats of lightweight compound, the second drastically thinned. Monday morning, President€™s Day, and as my wife is my painter, we decided that she would work on the ceiling. It just made sense; my upcoming goals include finishing the office flooring. [caption id="attachment_1148" align="alignright" width="150" caption="A classic stipple in the adjoining dining room"][/caption] We were not that familiar with textured surfaces. There was a heavy textured swirl on the some the ceilings of our last house; in our current house, we had a stipple in a few rooms. So from those angles, it worked. I had a good bit of experience with knock-down spray texture (thanks to the builders of the early €˜90s) but otherwise, we had only ever done one other textured surface, again a ceiling. But that time, it was a sanded effect. With that, you add the product to some paint and just roll it on. I bought the right product, briefly skimmed the instructions, and mixed up a test batch. And it was time for my wife and me to convene. The girls, with Mom and Dad home and no school this day were beginning to act up, but nonetheless we held our planning meeting.

. . . And sometimes the detour is far more scenic

I can€™t say that I know everything. I can€™t say when it comes to home improvement that I can do everything. And I admit, as much as it makes me want to grind my teeth, I may be nothing more than a weekend warrior. You have heard a little bit about the daughters, Evyn and Eva, five and three, and the wife, who while she is an active and sometimes busy real estate agent, does a pretty good job of holding down a full time job as Mommy. I have a full time job too. We bought this house, as we seem to buy all our houses, on a whim. And it has been quite overwhelming at times. It is a project, and while many of my peers seem to buy houses that don€™t quite require as much maintenance, we welcomed the challenge. Sometimes we embrace it; other times, and let me be frank, it feels like it has ruined our lives. While other folks spend weekends picking up, you know doing normal household upkeep stuff; it seems that we instead are doing home improvement. We get great satisfaction out of it most of the time. Sometimes, though, typically after an unnecessary meltdown, we do have to step back together, and realize that what we are doing, what we have done, only helps to build a strong family. I mean, after about 10 years, we actually have some net worth. At 38. Good, right? And while we still do plenty of things with the girls, including involving them to some degree in our home projects; I think in the end they know why we do what we do. Even though, we do have to put them off sometimes.

. . . And sometimes even the detour has some potholes

The office ceiling: you may have noticed this highlighted in the side bar for the last couple weeks. It was one of those things. It was one task that I wanted to take the short way towards. I mean, come on, why does anyone put texture on a ceiling. . .other than to take the short route with drywall finishing and/or to hide something? [caption id="attachment_1149" align="alignright" width="150" caption="The wife practices texturing patterns on a scrap piece of drywall"][/caption] I set my wife up with the test mix, grabbed her a couple of pieces of scrap drywall, and we met so she could practice. I told her what I envisioned. She proceeded to lay the drywall out on the floor and began going to town. Starting with a three inch brush, he covered the entire surface, and then she began to play. She started with zig zags, first, short stroked then longer. That looked awesome. But we discussed it, it would be difficult to keep that pattern uniform across the entire length of the ceiling, even with working lines. So we scrapped it. Next she tried swirls, I liked it. After a little more discussion, we decided that that was the ticket. [caption id="attachment_1150" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="A zigzag pattern that was ruled out"][/caption]

. . . Done, discussed, decided. . .detour

€œOk, Babe. Have at it, I am going to take the girls out to the playground,€ I said. She replies, €œBut wait.€ €œYou€™re not going anywhere. I know how you are,€ and here it comes, €œYou€™re not even happy with your own work; you are not leaving me here to do something I have never tried. I don€™t care if they are in there killing each other. . .you are staying right here until I at least get some of this ceiling done.€ Yeah, I don€™t know. Her words caused me, right at that moment in time, to snap. I mean, I have no idea what I said, and that probably doesn€™t really matter, but it was how I said it. And it wasn€™t nice. I just wanted her to make something happen without me just once. Don€™t get me wrong, she does a lot, but as the construction manager on this job, I usually have to at least help her get set up, e.g., tell her where primer, drop clothes, etc. are. I said, €œCan€™t you just make it good. And get it done?€ So a fair share words were exchanged, and there we were. I mixed up a full batch, Polly Pockets spread over every inch of the living room in the mean time, and she did a trial for me. Using a thick napped roller, she applied my special textured blend to the ceiling. And then, she swirled.

. . . Some roads are rockier than others

Let me step back. I had all but removed myself this Monday; the wife was gonna paint and I was going to keep the girls out of her hair. That said, while I thought about sanding off the ceiling that I had skim coated, I decided against it. We were already using this room as an office/computer room, and hey, we were going to apply a textured finish €“ it would hide any imperfections, right? We discussed it and we didn€™t even prime (Not the point of the article, but we probably should have).

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As her sample coat went on, and with the texture still sitting near the top of the mix, it went on fairly heavy. And swirls were working out well. But it, the technique, as it was, wasn€™t really hiding the imperfections enough. We discussed some more, this time a little more nicely, and we decided that she did need to sand off the rest of ceiling a little. And I was cleared to take the girls. So I did, as her test strip, ending abruptly about 3 feet from the laundry room wall, sat there drying.

. . . Going the down the road feeling bad

There I was on my way, with the girls, heading out. We eventually ended up at McD€™s on this glorious day. In their €œFun Land,€ it was fun. They had a marvelous time, and I read the paper. I have to admit though, I lingered a little on my house, all the work I need to do, and the interaction that went on just less than an hour ago. €œI€™m a freak,€ I thought. €œAm I really that hard to please?€ I believe especially when it comes to houses that it€™s always the whole over the part, if you know what I mean. No one is looking at the perfection of texturing technique; they are looking to see rather that you have a home office. And we do. So I let go a little, but still reflect. Do I really project like she says? I have tile floor, and please remind me to tell you about it one day, that I am not super happy about, but generally €“ I think in this case I would have been pretty happy with anything.

. . . Some say don€™t use the cell phone while you€™re driving

So I get the call. €œHow€™d it turn out?€ I ask. She says, €œPretty good, except for one thing. . . .Do you want me to tell you?€ I said, €œNo.€ We closed down Fun Land that afternoon, and as I made my way home, I remained pensive. What awaited me?

. . . Back on track, the final destination

So I walked into the office, and looked up. Wow, it looks fantastic; I can€™t really see any of the imperfections in my drywall. €œDo you see it?€ she asked. And first I couldn€™t. And then there it was, as pavers would call it, €œa cold joint€. You see, when pavers are paving, if the asphalt isn€™t delivered in enough time to do the pour in one shot, it creates a very noticeable, and undesirable, seam in the work. And that€™s what it was. A seam right were she had stopped her test run to sand off the ceiling. Man, I really screwed her, I thought. She set me straight real quick, though, and in her positive way, she says, €œCan€™t you sand that off, and work to blend it in a little more?€ I said, €œWell, do you have more texture?€ She said, €œA ton.€ And I said, €œSure.€ The "cold joint" can be seen faintly at the bottom of the picture above.

. . . Man, a GPS system would be nice

I know that was a lot of words just to tell you about our 7x12 textured ceiling, and I really did milk this driving parallel, but I learned some lessons that day: [caption id="attachment_1151" align="alignright" width="150" caption="I shot these at 5 am for the post -- lighting makes it hard to see"][/caption] When using an admix texture product, make sure to keep the texture mixed with the paint throughout the process of applying it. Apply the paint evenly. (You can notice some pitting in the ceiling, spots where the maybe the coverage of the texture was not as good as it could have been.) And do it in one pass, regardless of what is going on around you. Now, chances are most anyone that has found their way to this piece, was looking for just that information, right above. But hey, bigger lessons in here. . . . Zero, know thyself. One, as much you try, you can€™t always remove yourself from your past actions. Two, there is personality, or more than one, associated with every home project. Three, it is only a house. Four, and final, your wife and your kids are far more important than item three above; that work can not be undone. As always, thanks for reading; I will keep you abreast 2.19 -- Jenny, my wife, sanded off the "cold joint" yesterday; it took her about 15 minutes. She applied touch up to the ceiling and it looks perfect.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Litex Wall Texture: http://www.litexinc.com/PDF/WallTexData.PDF

An overview of texturing techniques (as always from first page google results): http://www.onlinetips.org/drywall-texturing-techniques

How to Replace a Pre-Hung Door: A Door Layout Fix

jb — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:53:00 +0000

:: aka it's all about how you swing (Part 3 of 3)

Let me start by saying that the procedure I provided in the last post may be simplified by replacing rounded hinges with squared off €œutility€ hinges. In this procedure, a router and jig is replaced by simple chisel work.

. . . Caulk and paint make a carpenter what he ain€™t

In my last post, I detailed how to switch the swing of a door for Dave in Perry Hall Farms. While this is probably the most minimally invasive option available to him, I think this operation produces unwanted side effects for a house of its age. This procedure requires the installation of what is known as a Dutchman. (See the section Moxie Mouth in the right side bar for a definition.) A Dutchman can be patched in and made to blend (thanks to caulk and paint) into the original woodwork almost seamlessly. And the patch will look great for a few years until the wood from varying stock begins fighting, expanding and contracting, against each other. [caption id="attachment_1141" align="alignright" width="150" caption="A dutchman! (my house)"][/caption] As the earth spins, you see, the patch will become more and more noticeable as a fix to an earlier mistake. Because of this, I present a second option for Dave and his house. Why not switch the door, frame and all, with one that swings inward?

. . . How to hand a door & other terminology

When speaking of doors, you often need to know whether a door is left-handed or right-handed. Throughout the years, I have been taught, there are several ways of which to determine this. The simplest for me is as follows: Place your back against the door€™s hinge-side jamb (the jamb into which the hinges are screwed). Then ask yourself which way is, or do you want, the door to swing. Become the door! If you swing out your right arm, it is then a right-handed door. If you swing out your left arm, it is then a left-handed door. When shopping for, or communicating, about doors, there is some other terminology that you probably should familiarize yourself with. Consistent with today€™s building practices and often when we talk of doors, we are often talking about pre-hung doors. In other words, the door panel itself, when purchased, is already routered and screwed to the jamb with hinges. This entire assembly could also be known as a door unit. Any door unit pre-hung or not, has several elements that make up the whole. First, the door, or what we know as the door. In this case, I am speaking about the door panel, frequently known as the slab. Some door installations require the purchase of only a slab. Some slabs come just this way, as a door panel completely unaltered. Others may be bored (the hole for the lockset is already drilled) and/or routed (the location for hinges already mortised) or both. With these factory-worked slabs, you will need to know what hand the door is (see above). Some other parts that make up a door unit include: the jamb, the stops, the hinges, the latch, and the casing. While the hinges of the door and the latch I think are pretty self explanatory, there always seems to be some confusion surrounding the other parts.

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First, the jamb. When speaking of door jambs, we are talking about the flat piece of finished wood that is mounted directly to the door opening€™s rough framing. Hinged doors are mounted directly to the jamb, and the side on which the hinges appear could be called the hinge-side jamb. Conversely, the side on which the latch and the partnered lockset appear could be called the latch-side jamb. The jamb makes up simply the finished opening into which the door fits. Door stops, in most cases, then are mounted to the jamb. With today€™s pre-hung doors, the stops are installed almost seamlessly (they are even sometimes split). When painted, they almost become part of the jamb. However, they are, in fact, an individual part of the unit as a whole €“ the place where the door contacts to create a closed door situation. Lastly, you have the casing. Now, even this has some gray area associated with it. For the term of this article when I speak about casing, I am actually talking about the door trim. Yes, the trim that is attached both to the jamb and the finished wall surfaces around the door to create a finished door installation. Many pre-hung doors come with the door casing already attached.

. . . In particular, doors

In Dave€™s house, he has a standard six-panel composite door. Popular with builders for more than 20 years now, this is actually a door made not out of solid wood but rather of a composite material. They are not hollow core which is the cheapest of the bunch; they instead are solid-core made of high density fiberboard and finished with a wood veneer. They are pressed usually with a wood grain pattern to create the raised panel look that has remained popular from the early part of last century. These doors can be found at home centers or lumber yards. Suppliers carry models made by different manufacturers, but almost all can be ordered by each. At times, and unless the painters who were involved in building the home were overly conscientious, the manufacturer of a door can be determined by removing the door and looking for a stamp on the bottom of the door. In Dave€™s case, he is looking for a left-hand paint grade door that is bored and routed. He will be shopping for a 2-8 door (in other words, the door is 2 foot 8 inches, or 32€, wide,). Inexpensive models that would probably match closely enough price out at a good bit under $100. To match the doors that exist in his home exactly, he should expect to do an order through a millworks desk somewhere, and plan on spending around $150.

. . . Other particulars and risk

As you may have noticed in some of the pictures that I have added to this blog, Dave has custom trim and paint added both to his hallway and foyer, as well as to his bathroom. These details are fantastic; they look great and they add value to the home. In this particular case, I happen to know the dude who did this work, and I know that he didn€™t just slap this stuff up. Custom chair rail was made on site, shadow boxes were added, and a three part monochromatic color scheme was applied to the new wall divisions. Obviously, removing and then re-installing a door in this location carries some risk. However, in practicing patience and applying skill, this job can be performed while barely [caption id="attachment_1142" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The powder room door in discussion -- 2nd door on the right"][/caption] disturbing these fine elements. The door casing found in Dave€™s house, and in many others, is a traditional 2 and ½ colonial trim. While we will attempt to salvage the trim that is already installed in this location, it is always a good idea to plan for the contingency. We may damage the trim when we attempt to remove it. Don€™t worry though, this profile can be found at all area home centers and lumber yards. It has a Wood Molding profile number of 371.

Procedure 2 €“ Removing and replacing the door with a matching door that now swings inward.

Note: Before proceeding, Dave should ensure that he has a match for both the wall and the trim paints on hand. -- Remove the door -- Pop the hinge pins out of the hinges and remove the door. Store the door in a safe place if you would like to reuse it elsewhere. Remember selling the door, too, is always an option if it remains somewhat intact during this process. -- Remove the door€™s trim -- I probably could write a separate article on various methods for removing trim. I am going assume anyone that is attempting this has some experience removing trim. Use your head and move slowly. Always first €œcut€ paint or caulk prior to attempting to move the trim you are working on. I find that a utility knife with a somewhat dulled blade makes great work of this task. Once the pry bar or another demolition utensil comes out, try to place a scrap piece of wood under the heel of the tool to displace any damage that may occur to finished surfaces. Remember always work to €œpull€ the trim, that is work by pulling the tool€™s handle toward, not pushing it away from, you. If you do this carefully, while miters may be glued or nailed at the top, you will probably be able to salvage and reuse this trim. For Dave specifically: You should carefully remove the trim from both the inside and outside of the opening. You have to be especially careful working around the custom chair rail that is on the outside of the bath. -- Remove the jamb -- Of course, the jamb is nailed in place. I find that the easiest way to remove a jamb is by cutting the nails behind the jamb. This can be done using a mini hack saw or a reciprocating saw. If you use the power tool, I recommend having a spotter close by to steady and/or catch the frame as it comes out. Select a metal blade, place the saw on a lower speed, and set the saw€™s guide right on the jamb as you cut. -- Remove the door and the trim from the new pre-hung door €“ Remove the door from the door unit by popping its hinges. (See above) Some pre-hung doors come with their casings attached. On cheaper models, this trim is usually attached with staples. With these types of doors, I have gotten in the habit of removing the casing from both sides. I guess that just comes with working more frequently in older homes. In newer homes, it is possible to get away with removing the trim from only one side. And this may be the case in Dave€™s house if the rough framing of the door way is plumb and square, and if the original installation did not utilize excessive shimming. -- Center the door frame in the rough opening -- Hopefully for Dave, in a newer home, out of plumb walls should not be too much of an issue. The standard 6-8 or 80 inch door should slide right into the opening. The goal here is to line the door as such that it is centered on the framing and flush with the surrounding wall surfaces. While a four-foot level may help set your mind as ease, this might be one case where you must simply trust yourself. -- Starting with the hinge-side jamb, plumb the door -- I have heard various call-outs on this, but we will be using 16d finish nails to install the jamb. Start by tacking (nailing just enough of the nail into the stud as to hold the door in place €“ Do not set nails.) the bottom of the jamb flush to the finished floor at the hinge side. Now, we have all seen that phantom door that opens and/or closes by itself. This of course occurs because of gravity, and, well, because the hinge-side jamb is not perfectly plumb. To ensure that this does not happen to us, this time, we do break out our four foot level. Once satisfied with the vertical positioning of the door jamb, place two nails €“ one each about an inch inward from the outside edge of the jamb, into the top of the jamb. -- Shim the hinge-side jamb €“- When we shim the hinge, we are going to partner a set of cedar shims inserting immediately behind the hinge locations. Partnered shims allow us to raise and lower the jamb laterally in equal proportions. Align the shims using your eyeball €“ you are looking to ensure that equal portions of the fat side of shim remain exposed on each side of the jamb. Under the bottom hinge, push the shims in lightly so that they begin to lock into place. Use just a little force here. At the top, do the same. Do not overdo it; we do not want the jamb to bow outward. Once the shims are sitting in place, use your level to ensure that the inside surface of this jamb is perfectly plumb. Drive the finish nails a little deeper; we are trying to drive the nails into the framing, but again do not set the nails€™ heads. -- Shim the latch side jamb & the header jamb -- we will now nail these jambs using virtually the same methods as described above. Ensure again this side of the frame is centered in the opening. There should be no need to check the plumb here inside the opening. On this jamb, we want to set the shims and nail directly through them. Do not set nails all the way below the surface of the jamb. Do not set the nails. -- Install the door -- Set a scrap piece of plywood or shims in a location that will allow them to support some of the weight of the door. An extra set of hands can be useful at this point. Be careful when moving the door itself around, especially passing through the doorway. Align the hinges, and with at least one hinge pin in hand, mate mounted hinges. If they do not slide together smoothly here, back out some of screws part way in at least one of the hinges. Again attempt to mate the hinges. Once set, install the hinge pins. Don€™t push the hinge pins all the way in at this point though, just in case they have to be pulled out again. If hinge screws were loosened, hold the door firmly in place and reset the screws. -- Check the door€™s swing & install lockset -- If the door is operating correctly, that is, not binding anywhere around the frame, install the lockset. Again check the operation of the door. If everything is working correctly, set the heads of the nails using a nail punch. Set the hinges pins fully in place with a few taps on their heads. -- Install the door casing €“- Prior to installing door casing of course, you will have to cut off the exposed ends of the shims with either a sharp utility knife or a hand saw. -- Touch up drywall (if required) -- Touch up paint (if required) And Good Luck!

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Great overview on the anatomy and types of doors available: http://www.bobvila.com/HowTo_Library/Interior_Door_Basics-Subject_Doors_Interior_Doors-A1785.html Using a chisel: http://www.ehow.com/video_4419340_use-wood-chisel.html

Installing a Tile Landing: aka No Tile is an Island

jb — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:32:00 +0000

. . . Preparation is 75% of the job

When working in older homes, you must always be conscious of the build up of flooring. As the years pass, it seems, we (in the general sense of collective humanity) always opt to cover old with new. And in this case, I was following the herd, but first I had just a little prep to do. In our computer room, we had a plywood subfloor that was intact enough. This floor had to be sound enough too. So I went to work with a box of decking screws, and after about an hour, it was. For a little added insurance, and well for some comfort underfoot, I also chose to install a ¼ inch thick Luan as an underlayment, glued and fastened with roofing nails. You might have read about my Thanksgiving week€™s battles with this Luan, but never mind that, I was punched out and ready to go. In the computer room, we have an exterior door that leads to one of the house€™s five porches. While we have oak flooring throughout the house, and now a tiled laundry room floor, we have decided to go with a wall-to-wall carpet here. For me, however, there was no way I could rightly butt carpet up to an exterior door. I was going to start by installing a tiled landing here. The underlayment down, and with the landing going in, I had to raise the threshold on that exterior door. In this, you find the biggest consideration that must be made when flooring in rooms that spill to the outdoors.

. . . Raising the bar (threshold)

As hinted at above, our farmhouse has five porches, and hence five exterior doors that lead to and from them. Each door on the house is constructed of solid fir, and has been there for a handful of years. The door here that faces the back of the property is 1 and 3/8 inch thick (the thickness of a standard interior door). It is contains 15 beveled panes of glass. If you are following along at home, you get the significance of this. As the floor level comes up, so must the clearance at the bottom of the door. And thankfully in our case, we have a wood door with which to work. Not only do I have to raise the threshold, but I must shorten the door. And in the case of this job, I will cut it at its bottom. I am not saying that it is impossible to cut down a metal or a fiberglass door; I am saying that this proposition instead is much easier when you have a wood door to work with. Raising a threshold, I will be frank -- isn€™t always an elegant endeavor. In my case, it wasn€™t like I was going to dig into the existing door sill. This, more than likely, would have required neat saw cuts, potentially pulling back decking, and replacement, ultimately, with an inferior material.

. . . The step before the step

To raise bottom of the door enough to clear not only the added height of the underlayment and the new floor covering, I had to first calculate how far the threshold must come up. I came up with a working measurement of 1 1/8€. This number was derived by adding: * ¼€ for the thickness of the underlayment, * 1/8€™€™ for the leveler I used in adjusting a low spot at the door, * 1/2€ for the tiles€™ thickness (including a mortar bed), and * ¼€ for general clearance at the door€™s bottom. Before I set anything in motion however, I did make sure to check for high points in the floor within the arch of the door swing. [caption id="attachment_1133" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Pressure treated lumber used to elevate the threshold"][/caption] This particular door configuration employed what I consider to be an old school weather stripping technique. It couples an adjustable brass (or maybe it is bronze) rail set on the door€™s sill with a grooved aluminum flange that, in turn, is rabbeted into and tacked to the bottom of the door. When joined male/female, these parts create a virtual air tight seal. To give me the elevation off the sill I needed, I found a scrap piece of pressure-treated lumber. I ripped it down to the exact thickness of the door €“ 1 3/8€, and put a slight bevel on both the inside and outside edge at the top. Because I live in an old house, and because the sill had settled a bit out of level, I had to make two passes at cutting this piece to the height I needed. (There ended up being a full 1/4€ difference across the width of a 32€ door.) On my second attempt and free-handing on my table saw €“ I almost nailed it. A little power planer work and I was good to go.

. . . No tile is an island; it€™s more like a lily pad

With the build-up to the sill screwed down, the threshold€™s rail installed, and the door re-hung, I was finally ready to tackle the tile work. I was using a 12x12 (actual size a little smaller) porcelain tile that I used in the closet, and as part of the border in the adjacent laundry room. It very much had the look of a polished slate. My wife assured me it was going to look stellar here.

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To start my layout I found the center point of the door opening and placed a little mark at the base of the door. I then made a corresponding hash on one of the tiles I was using and married it to the mark on the door. Working from that point, I continued to lay out a total of six tiles €“ two deep and three across. (My wife and I had agreed earlier that this would be an appropriate size for this landing.) I used ¼€ tile spacers (the same ones I would use in installation) to ensure my layout was perfectly stepped. [caption id="attachment_1134" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Use working lines, a square and spacers"][/caption] In an old house, and I confirmed this earlier when installing my Luann, walls are not necessarily always square. I had this in mind of course, so to check myself, I pulled some quick measurements off the wall immediately opposite the exterior door. It turned out that the distance between that wall and the edge of my landing was off by approximately 3/8€across the width of the 36€ pad. Ok. So what€™s the adjustment? Well, as you often have to do in an old house, I eyeballed. I sited the island from the laundry room doorway, I sat in my chair here at the computer (yeah the island I speak of is sitting about four feet away from me right now). I stepped back and looked at it from the doorway of the adjacent dining room. €œHell,€ I said €“ no one will ever notice that minor irregularity. As long as the tile landing is squared with the exterior door, I€™m good to go. I grabbed the pencil from behind my ear and marked out some thick lines around its perimeter.

. . . Tripped up at the step

One last hurdle to overcome. I had talked earlier about built up flooring. Well, guess what? In an old house, you sometimes need to deal with built up wall surfaces as well. In this particular room, and I know this from working previously on the electrical fixtures here, there was a ½€ wallboard hidden discretely behind our ¾€ floor to ceiling paneling. The end result, of course, a slight recess in the wall at the exterior doorway. Now, how to address this? I dabbled with a few ideas. First, and intermittently mingled trips to Facebook, I neatly notched the outside tiles of the first course, and set them in place. I stood back and looked. Did I like this? The answer, €œNo.€ Ok, so I wasted a couple tiles here, but oh well, sometimes it is worth it to make that visual in your head all that much more real. Next, I toyed with the idea of a wood filler here. How about the scrap oak that came off the saddle threshold I installed a few weeks earlier? No, that wouldn€™t work; it would simply be too tall at 1 1/8 inch. How about piece of scrap pt? Nope €“ too Spartan. I had some marble thresholds lying in the garage, so I walked down this path a bit. I ripped a long strip on my budget wet saw, and set that in place. I surveyed again. . . €œAh, I don€™t know.€ It just didn€™t look right. It came up a little too high at the bottom of the door, and in reality, it just added another place to trip. [caption id="attachment_1135" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Economy wet saw works great on notch cuts"][/caption] So I simplified. I had some 4x4 ceramic left over from the border in the laundry. I decided to cut these into thirds and set them in place right at the sill. They looked marvelous. They fit surprisingly well with the slated porcelain, and there was no change in elevation at the door.

. . . Trimming the island

Let€™s not forget that we need to butt carpet up to this tiled landing. Through the years, I have seen this done in various ways, and to be honest, some of these have been far less than elegant. So in preparation for this moment, and actually several weeks in advance, I had the foresight to ask the question of my tile supplier. And his answer was, €œUse a squared off joint spacer.€ €œSweet,€ I thought. I already had a ten-foot strip of this material on hand. It was brass. While I do tend to shy away from bright brass finishes for several reasons, it was free, so I was using it. I was going to encase the perimeter of my landing with this material. [caption id="attachment_1136" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Joint spacer cut on a chop saw"][/caption] To work the joint spacer, I cut it with my miter saw. Any good carbide blade loaded into a chop saw can handle these types of materials. I thought briefly about mitering the corners, but because of the miter saw€™s tendency to tear out when working with metal, I shied away from it. I instead did a butt joint at the corners. I made sure to extend the most high profile edge, that visual from the dining room doorway, over the others. I will point out that these corners probably would have finished a little more nicely if they were mitered, but in this case, and knowing that carpet would creep up its face, I decided to move on.

Inspection and installation

I assembled the whole thing and had my wife in for a look. After a brief objection over the brass edging, I got approval, and was good to go with installation. I pulled the tile up and proceeded to install it as I would with any other floor tile. I had about a third of a bucket of pre-mixed thin-set mortar lying around. Despite my aversion to using pre-mixed batter anywhere, my frugalness took hold and I simply went for it. I slapped the mortar down with a margin trowel and then followed quickly behind with a ½€ square-notched trowel. I made sure to stay neatly within my working lines, and just like that was done with my mortar bed. I dropped my tile in place and quickly finished with my edge. A couple quick taps with a rubber mallet, I made sure to flush up the corners of my tile. I checked to make sure my spacers were in perfect placement, and I finished by giving the whole assembly one big squeeze. I then dropped a 2-foot level on top. Perfect, I am happy. The whole process setting my tile and the cut spacer took about 25 minutes or about 25% of the total time on this job. I will return in the near future to finish with the same epoxy-fortified grout I used in the laundry room.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Overview of Door Sills (& How to Replace): http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=howTo&p=Improve/ReplaceThreshold.html

Jolly Joint Spacers (Working with Tile Edging): http://www.tilesecurity.com/home.php?cat=24

Installing a Self-Rimming Sink in a Postform Laminate Countertop

jb — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 03:46:00 +0000

You guys know I like to talk, and further, I feel that most how-to writing can be restrictive. I usually try to put some thought into these articles. I try to pick jobs that are interesting enough in their own right, but hope always to tell a narrator. I try to communicate tips and lessons learned, unfiltered from some "ready for print" ideal. Home Improvement can be challenging, and as with everything in life, we can be defined by how we confront and overcome challenges.

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Most of the pieces you will find here, while I hope are informative, focus usually on the human element. The "home" in home improvement. That said, I am working on other things currently, but do have the time and want to post pictures from my most recent project.

. . . Post-form countertops are always an affordable option

Ok. We are still working on converting the original kitchen in our house to a laundry room. We (my wife and I) had decided early on that we were going to keep the built-in cabinets that were in place there. While spartan, for the most part they were usable. A new paint job dressed them up nicely enough. We needed a new counter though. And in order to avoid a dissertation on counter options, let me simply say we quickly decided on post-form laminate. These durable surfaces are perfect for areas such as laundry rooms, and fit nicely into any budget. > The total material cost for this counter job was approximately $110. And the counter itself, was easy enough to install -- including the time to cut in and install the sink, it took me about 6 hours.

. . . Installing a self-rimming sink in a post-form laminate countertop

I decided against taking space here to walk you through the process of installing this type of counter. Many good tutorials can be found online, and most basic carpentry books provide excellent coverage on this task. In the grand scheme of things, it is fairly easy to cut and install a post-form (I always think they should be called "pre-form") laminate countertop. Instead, I have decided to walk you through the more daunting task of cutting the sink hole in the once installed counter. Note: for the sake of efficiency, I have chosen to group photos in threes and will make comments on each block immediately above them. 1. Begin the job -- While some say the hardest part of a job is starting, for me it's not an option, either I do it or it doesn't get done. With a skillful cut and a handful of shims the counter went in easy enough. My wife and met at Home Depot one Friday with the primary purpose of purchasing a sink. Luckily, that day we passed the marked-down aisle. As you can see below, we found this beautiful double-basin sink at a 75% discount. The lesson here: ALWAYS CHECK THE CLEARANCE AISLE AT THE HOME CENTER. To start the install, I need to know where the sink is going. I found the center point of both the sink base cabinet and the window sill immediately above it. I do this by halfing the distance and drawing short hash marks at both ends. [caption id="attachment_1106" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Counter set; time to cut"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1107" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Woot!"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1108" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Find your center"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1109" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The template shows the exact size of the sink"][/caption]

2. Use the template provided with the sink -- Sink manufacturers supply an actual size template for the needed cut out. Use it. While instructions call for the installer (you) to trace or script the cutout line, I decide instead to tape it down firmly. I had a little indecision about where I should set the template front to back. I decided ultimately that I wanted a little space at the back lip, and that I needed to make sure that the front edge of the bowl would just clear the front edge of the cabinet frame.

With the template lined up with center lines from above, I drilled 1/2" starter holes around the perimeter of the cut out line. I followed behind with a jig saw loaded with a down-cutting laminate blade. With a steady hand and moving deliberately, I gave myself a pretty good rough cut. [caption id="attachment_1110" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Starter holes"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1111" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="You can cut right thru the template"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1112" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Support the cut from underneath"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1113" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The belt sander is perfect for this job"][/caption]

3. Fine tune the opening using a belt sander -- I try to make sure, and I wish I had a second set of hands sometimes, that the waste would not fall into the new opening. This would damage the surface of the counter. To prevent this, I propped a piece of scrap lumber up under the opening to catch the cut as it was being completed.

To get a finished edge on the opening, I used a Sharpie to straighten the edges. I then used my belt sander loaded with 100 grit sandpaper, and worked up to the outside edge of the Sharpie line. The belt sander is the perfect tool for shaping a laminated surface. [caption id="attachment_1114" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Finished edge; blocking underneath"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1116" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Stage the sink"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1117" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Swivel the head to balance it during install"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1118" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Hand holds"][/caption]

4. Install the fixtures before installing the sink (if this is sensible) -- As per the manufacturer's instructions, and/or on the recommendation you would hear from a familiar plumber, assemble as much as possible before installing the sink.

Notice the picture below how I swiveled the large pull-out kitchen faucet around on itself. This balanced the faucet very nicely while I tightened it up from below with two hands. I chose in this case -- with a heavy cast iron, double-basin sink -- to leave out the strainers at this phase; the drain holes made great hand holds that I could use to grab and lift the sink up into place. 5. Install the strainers and apply 100% Silicone -- Now with the sink set in the counter cutout, I installed strainers (no garbage disposal in the laundry) into both drain holes. This procedure can be found in many plumbing books. I regret buying budget strainers for this job; they bent slightly when I was cranking the lock ring up into place from underneath. Installing strainers after the sink is in, while it requires some flexibility, is not super difficult. This is especially true if you have access to an assistant. Because self-rimming cast iron sinks are heavy (I did supply additional blocking for support underneath the counter), they do not require clips to hold them in place. The manufacturer, in this case Kohler, recommends finishing with a 100% silicone caulk. Once cured, the caulk glues the sink in place. This subject could be a dissertation in itself -- I installed a fat bead of caulk and finished/smoothed it with a wet finger. Hopefully the pictures below show this. [caption id="attachment_1121" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Handheld silicone behind sink -- while difficult, very important"][/caption] 6. Caulking behind the sink can be trouble & final plumbing connections -- With the sink eyeballed and set perfectly in place, the caulking underway, I finished the caulking on the back lip of sink with a squeeze tube of silicone (the matching equivalent to the one loaded into a caulk gun can always be found). Getting a good bead of caulk at the back of the sink is of the utmost importance, because it is, of course, the most likely point of entry for water. Final connections on the plumbing undersink can be made once the caulk has cured. I usually give caulk 24 hours to set up before attempting this. Note: For me, on this day, I did hook up the plumbing prior to applying the caulk; however, these pics are not included here, because 1. I feel that they might be a little too tangential and 2. they were not really that good.

. . . Bonus Coverage: installing an end cap on a post-form laminate counter

As a guy who tries always to the account for the "what if", I saved the installation of the end cap until after I was absolutely satisfied with the installation of the sink. This procedure, while not necessarily difficult, may require the practice of patience. Note: Instructions for this task can be found right on the back of the end cap packaging. 1. Pre-glued end caps are applied with a household iron -- A matching End Cap product is sold. It contains the required fill blocking and two (left and right) pre-molded end profiles designed to match the laminate. These end caps are have a form of contact cement applied to their backs, and are attached to the counter using a clothes iron. [caption id="attachment_1122" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Yes a household iron; iron the cap on"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1124" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Cap will be larger than counter; form by filing down"][/caption] To start, I usually attach the end cap to the counter with a single piece of masking tape. I do this so the cap doesn't slip as I apply the hot iron to it. Run the iron over every nanometer of the surface, moving deliberately. Don't linger in any one spot for too long; keep the iron moving. I usually give this surface the iron for two minutes or more. This allows the glue to melt. I come behind quickly with a damn cloth or a sponge. This cools the surface and allows the glue to harden and bond. As hopefully you can see with the picture at right here, the end cap is sized just larger than the counter itself. The end cap must be shaped to finalize the install. 2. Shape the cap using a file and a sanding block (pretend you are waxing a surfboard) -- As a general rule, I tend to overprotect surfaces. Before I began the finish work on the cap, I made sure to tape off at the top of the counter as to minimize the possibility of scraping on the top of the counter. Shaping an end cap can be a slow and meticulous process. I have tried using power tools for this task, but still see the file (and its partner the sanding block) as the safest and most craftsmen-like option for this job. [caption id="attachment_1125" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Tape off to protect the surface"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1126" align="alignright" width="150" caption="File and sand the end cap"][/caption] I usually alternate between the file and one or two grits of sandpaper. I generally seem to be happier when I am putting a slight bevel on the top edge of the cap. This seems to give it a better finish. I included an additional picture below, the one at right, which includes some products and tools that you may not associate with this job. As you are filing and sanding, glue residue may accumulate where the end cap contacts the counter. While your finger nail can typical do a pretty good job of cleaning this up, following behind with a straight razor, and some quick evaporating cleaner, like rubbing alcohol, can help this process along. The Sharpie is included in this picture below; because it is perfect when discrete touch ups are needed on a laminated counter. Check out Sharpie's palette when you get a chance and plan ahead, because chances are you'll find a color that will work well with your surface. Summary -- Anyway, thanks and good luck. I hope this helps.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Installing a post form countertop: http://www.easy2diy.com/cm/easy/diy_ht_3d_index.asp?page_id=35743498 Essential tool of the trades -- the Sharpie: http://www.sharpie.com/enUS/Home/default.html Installing a kitchen sink strainer: http://www.askthebuilder.com/Kitchen_Sink_Strainer_Video.shtml While postform counters are great diy projects, there are actually many more options in laminates available. Here is a great overview: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/laminatecomeback

pics of Greater Lauraville's 'lows, yo!

jb — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:33:00 +0000

In preparation for next week's post, I have been doing some legwork, some research. I spent a few afternoons driving around Greater Lauraville snapping pictures of bungalows in the area. While I tried to include some diversity in this survey, I was also looking for repeatable house types by neighborhood. Note: This is the first time I have worked with Picasa and it really hasn't gone as smoothly as I would have hoped. I think if you click the picture below you should be able to view a gallery.

http://picasaweb.google.com/j.bmoxie/LauravilleBungalows#

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

The Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville: http://www.greaterlauraville.com/

plumb, square and level :: if Albert Einstein was a builder

jb — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:44:00 +0000

. . . PSL €“ Plumb, Square, and Level

When you say €œPSL€ around here and maybe in your city too, everyone€™s first thought goes to €œPersonal Seat License.€ You know that ridiculous fee you must pay that gives you the right to buy tickets for events at a stadium near you. In this case, where I come from, I am talking about the Baltimore Ravens and M&T Bank Stadium. No, I won€™t let this turn into some diatribe about what us Baltimoreans know as the PSL, instead let me drop right into my topic for this piece. When I say PSL here I am using it instead as an acronym for the construction ideal of Plumb, Square, and Level. When you live and work in home improvement and/or building, these three things are your friend. Every nanometer that you move closer to these states, your life and the balance of it become much more true.

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Ok, that might have been a little over the top and maybe even a little €œmystic€, but the point is: When constructing anything you are very dependent on who, what, and how things came before you. Let€™s for example say, while it is not totally impossible, it is certainly much easier to install a perfectly level tile floor over perfectly level subfloor. And it is much easier to install a perfectly level subfloor over joints that are true and perfectly level, and. . . ., well, you get point. But let€™s run with that. Plumb, Square, and Level are really only relative states. And this becomes all the more clear when you live and work in old houses. (I will get back to that in a bit.) But let€™s think about it. Aren€™t these ideals really just judged in relation to, well, the earth and the movement of time?

. . . The earth and the world we live in

Plumb, for example, is the state or description of being perfectly vertical or perpendicular, yeah, to the earth. Level is the state or description of being perfectly horizontal or parallel to the earth. These things are true. But as Einstein might want to tell us, these things are also totally relative. For us, our time-space curve here is drawn on a very localized scale. So stop. Think about it; Einstein was right. Everything, including those things we measure with tools and instruments, is relative, and must be viewed with that knowledge in mind. Plumb and level: there, that takes care of two planes for us. Oh, but wait, there€™s a third. That€™s right, square. As if there wasn€™t enough pressure for your home project already: Plumb, Level, and now Square. Yep, in my big monster truck voice, €œIt€™s in 3D Dee Dee Dee. . . .€ As level and plumb as you can make things, they won€™t be right unless they are also perfectly square. And what is square? Well, other than that cat who doesn€™t smoke cigarettes, of course, a square is a shape. A square is, in fact, a polygon (meaning it has multiple sides) for which all angles are 90 degrees. These angles are called, strangely enough, right angles. Enough with the geometry, and in the fear that this might turn into a study of etymology, I move on. Square for our purposes is when two surfaces (usually with some substantial vertical definition and hopefully plumbed) oppose each other at exactly 90 degrees. Simple enough, right? (It€™s rhetorical.) Well, not when you live in an old house, and especially not in mine.

. . . Props to Einstein

In my line of work (I am trying to be funny there), I get this question occasionally. €œJB,€ people ask, €œI live in an old house. Should I be worried that the floor (in this or that location) sags a little?€ My answer usually starts with a question of my own, €œHow much does it dip?€ The answer usually is something like, €œWell, I can feel it,€ or €œI can see it, but what do you expect; my house is 70 years old.€ [caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Einstein (art by Brad Montgomery)"][/caption] That€™s right, what would you expect? At this point, I always bring up the case when I was tasked with installing a mirror above my youngest daughter€™s dresser. Equipped with my screw gun, my drill bits, some hollow-wall anchors, and with a two-foot level, I went to work. I found the center point, leveled my hangers, and hung the mirror €“ perfectly level to, well, the earth. I stepped back as I always do for a look. Man, it looked off, but the mirror was perfectly level. What is the problem here? Well, you see, the floor in my daughter€™s room was, guess what, out of level. In the back corner of the house, it pitched downward by about a quarter of an inch or more. The floor sags there. And with a mirror -- perfectly level, hung in relation above a dresser sitting on that out of level floor, the perception was that the mirror was €œout of whack.€ This really was an easy enough fix. I guess I could have propped up the dresser, but for me on this day, I instead threw my level aside and simply measured from the top of the dresser. I aligned the hangers, that€™s right a full 1/4€ out of level. I re-hung the mirror and I stepped back. That looked perfect.

. . . The gravity, or is that the gravitation, of things

This effect is referred to by engineers as deflection. For a textbook definition, deflection is the degree to which a structural element is displaced under a load. In this case, with the saggy floors in our houses, this is the force applied from what is called a dead load, and a certain unrevealed weight. Some of you reading this might say, €œOh, settlement.€ Yes, settlement, that uncontrollable phenomenon that occurs pretty consistently throughout the life of a house. Most commonly, settlement, not to be confused with the expansion and contraction of wood products, manifests as cracks in wall surfaces and in doors that no longer seem to close just right. Settlement. Settlement is the product of course of a force that we sometimes take for granted: gravity. Gravity, oversimplified, is the effect or phenomenon by which objects of mass attract each other. And as smart as we the builders are, we still have not quite figured out how to neutralize its effects. We simply plot against it, and sometimes, as is the case with my mirror from above, just have to roll with it.

. . . PSL €“ Perfectly Sensible Livability

[caption id="attachment_1094" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="My daughter's out of level dresser and mirror"][/caption] When I was doing service work for builders, I found myself saying this frequently; I was trained to do so, €œThat€™s within tolerance.€ Whose tolerance, what tolerance; I mean, I am pretty sure that there is not a section in the International Residential Building Code labeled Tolerances. Ok, I guess what I mean here is that in construction there are certain deviations from the expected ideal of Plumb, Square, and Level that are, well, tolerable. Of course, if you slap a wall up (and again relative) on an unlevel surface, and don€™t focus on plumbing (making vertical) that wall, you might be at the mercy of the center of its gravity and some lateral movement in the future. Over time, that thing in theory could fall over. With our deflecting floors, though, what are the options? Deal with it, or not. And what does the €œor not€ mean? Well, I really haven€™t expended that much thought on this topic, but I have to assume we are talking something like €œhouse jacking.€ Yep, jacking the house up and addressing the issues. In cases, of course, where you cannot access framing members, this might mean the removal of wall, interior or exterior, and/or ceiling material. In extreme cases, this of course may require the participation of a structural engineer. And structural engineers, these people are smart. And smart people usually make good money. So. . .as always, me and with my wallet, I will usually choose to live with something like that sagging floor.

. . . Jacking it up aka remodeling

In remodeling, however, you usually get opportunities to square things up. Make them true, usually by adding to a problematic area. With an out of plumb wall, for example, this may mean adding additional studs; with a floor, this might mean installing a sleeper system (define), and so on. The point here is that it is usually a good idea to plan and budget for (what I usually write into my schedules as) €œFloor Prep€ and/or €œWall Prep€. Though it usually is the most labor intensive and the most frustrating portion of any remodeling job, I just can€™t skip this step. I know that so much depends on what came before, and/or what is immediately below, in front, or perpendicular to us. And so if Einstein was a builder, his postulate might read: PSL is relative. We, as members of all collective humanity, are really the only items that need be Plumb, Square, and Level. Take one for the team, and always, always, trust your eyeball.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradmontgomery/ / CC BY 2.0 For an overview on choosing and using squares: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,403568-2,00.html One of my favorite tools -- the plumb bob: http://www.bobvila.com/HowTo_Library/The_Plumb_Bob-Hand_Tools-A2055.html I have heard that the inventor of the modern day level was the founder of this company: http://www.empirelevel.com/

Bungalows :: a Look at a Lauraville Bungalow (Part 1 of 2)

jb — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:01:00 +0000

. . . The original efficient home

For Lauraville Maybe you have seen what is happening in Lauraville. The Red Canoe, Zeke€™s Coffee, The Chameleon CafÃ©, and others dot the main street landscape. Sure you have, you have seen it. As you quietly make your commute to and from wherever you work in the city of Baltimore, you notice the changes along Harford Road. Harford Road has always been one of the primary corridors into and from downtown Baltimore. But here, now, you are seeing it, along this strip of roadway: revitalization. And on your next trip through, just past the Safeway and before you hit the park at Herring Run, turn your head to the right. You will find Overland Avenue. Up that road lined with tall maples, and follow me with a Google-mapping eye, you€™ll get a 100-level survey in one of our area€™s earliest suburbs. You€™ll see Gothic and Colonial revivals, French and Victorian-detailed cottages, your classic foursquare, and a few house styles that I can€™t squarely categorize. [caption id="attachment_1085" align="alignright" width="150" caption="The Lauraville 'low"][/caption] And a little ways up and around the bend, packed in a short row of houses that look strangely similar, a breed of house different from the others you have just seen. There, set atop a pitching lot, the windows under a shed dormer stare. They look down on you at the street and proudly say, €œI am an American bungalow.€ Continue to zoom, though, moving through to the other side of the front door and in through the living room, passed the dining room, and into the kitchen, you will likely find AJ and Kenneth sipping coffee at the table in their breakfast nook. Or, at least, this is how I found them on this rainy Saturday morning. This Saturday, you see, I joined a representative of the Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville (NOGLI) with designs of discussing this bungalow and AJ€™s and Kenneth€™s remodeling of, their work on, it.

. . . If houses were to have names, we€™ll call this one €“ Anneth

Quickly, I took these guys as renaissance men. AJ€™s Lucinda Williams t-shirt said, €œI am a musicologist.€ It was only few minutes later that this was, in fact, confirmed. A musician and a guitar builder, AJ teaches 3D woodworking at one of city€™s prominent private schools. AJ bought this house in 1997, and he is quick to take the lead. Then, it is Kenneth€™s turn. I don€™t recall what exactly he said first, looking up from his iBook laptop, but oh, British, I think. My eyes peel back over his left shoulder, from the garden at the rear of the yard, up the steps of the large multi-tiered deck, through the bank of windows that wraparound the addition there. Then, I focus. And after a few preliminary questions, I ask, €œSo. Is this it? Is this the house?€ Kenneth answers, €œPeople always ask,€ and he pauses, €œif you could go anywhere, right now, where would it be?€ He quickly provides the answer to that question. €œI always say, right here,€ he said, €œLooking out from this table in the morning, I am happy just watching the birds.€ Oh, and it hits me: Scottish. And they do have several tall bird feeders planted in their yard often gathering birds with earnest.

. . . Developments in the Northeast (The year after Anneth was built?)

I have read it: I have read Eric Holcomb€™s City as Suburb, a well-written history of our place here in Northeast Baltimore. It winds through the years of farming and gentrification, from the time of country retreat, to the full evolution into city suburb. The year was 1918, and it€™s in there; it€™s in the book. The year after Anneth was deeded. The country was becoming more industrialized; building systems, too, were finding a new level of standardization and repeatability. With it, Baltimore grew. She expanded into her outlying areas. Easily accessible home designs were delivered on the backs of improved over-rail and over-road transportation. And Lauraville, annexed by the city that year, was ripe for an explosion of single family homes. One could make the argument now that the development occurring here may have been America€™s first housing boom.

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As the foursquares began to pop from pages of pattern books and mail order catalogues, another house style was irrevocably affixing itself to the local landscape. With international roots and a strong contingent of vocal proponents, the bungalow was just there beginning its journey to American icon. At that time, the bungalow turned a modest man€™s hope for a little plot of land and a house of one€™s own into, well, reality. For many, it symbolized the good life. The bungalow, in 1918, was the embodiment of the New American Dream.

. . . The bungalow €“ or the €˜low for short

The bungalow by definition is a one- or one-and-a-half-story house; they are still built today. For me, it works. Bungalows or €˜lows (a memory tool) are horizontal, and are low to the ground. They spread typically under a low-pitching roof and overhanging eaves, with most of its mass running from the front of a property to the rear. [caption id="attachment_1089" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Forward facing living room"][/caption] Most are adorned with at least a front porch. All are draped with ample windows for air flow and light. In principle, the idea of the bungalow, at least in its day, was to fit as much living as possible into a relatively small space. Typically, as with Anneth, this meant a forward-facing first floor living room and one or two bedrooms nearby. The bungalows, at the time of their proliferation, were practical. Their practicality, though, in cost of construction and in scale, seemed to extend beyond its physicality. No space designed without purpose, these bungalows lock into their surroundings like few home designs before them. The idealists would say: This is architecture communing with nature. With foundations built often of indigenous materials, and many meant to stand like they are almost naturally exiting the earth, the exterior dimensions force themselves indoors to create cozy settings for family bonding and other activities.

. . . AJ meet your new old home

Was it an arranged marriage? No. AJ admits when he was shopping some twelve years ago, he was drawn first to row homes elsewhere in the city. Some of these, you may know, have been maintained with a preservationist€™s hand. Others, as AJ points out, are tattooed with cheap paneling, and fail horribly at hiding their years of neglect. With many of these, you get a downtown setting, stretching up three floors. It can be appealing, especially if the price tag is right. And in 1997, for AJ, it may have been. He was ready to go, but he also had some thinking to do. With three floors come stairs; maybe a few more than one guy needs. You see, AJ knew some things. He knew more house, of course, means more to furnish and clean, more to upkeep, more to heat and cool, and more square footage to use for the calculation of taxes. More house, in general, means more money and more long-term expense. Were there row homes that were priced right? Maybe. But were these economical for AJ? Maybe not. Then, on the recommendation of his real estate agent, he turned to Lauraville. Was it in the right location? Well, yeah. Close to downtown, and close to Towson. Still only a five-mile drive to work for AJ. This bungalow on Overland Ave. was perfect for him. But still there was a little room to grow.

. . . Home as extension of self

As an employee of Constellation Energy, and working with BG&E specifically, I think Kenneth dropped it first, and my thoughts quickly rolled with it that morning. The discussion turned briefly to the word €œEfficiency.€ And this piece follows. And here with Anneth, AJ and Kenneth make a great study. This bungalow suits them well. Efficiency with them has been about designing, and implementing a home plan that flows with their lifestyle. Not just energy-efficient, but totally efficient. [caption id="attachment_1091" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Sitting area master bath"][/caption] €œIt€™s about freedom and choice,€ Kenneth said, €œNot being tied to your house and its financial demands.€ For him, the Lauraville bungalow gives them the flexibility to travel and to recreate. AJ adds, €œYou always want to keep an eye on value; you know, you never want to overbuild.€ As they proceed to list of some of the work they have done, (and we will discuss in the 2nd part of this article) it appears these thoughts have never been too far from the backs of their minds. The decking, the retrofitted AC units, and the bathroom and kitchen remodels all fit into the overall goal of making this house a home, and an efficient, energy and otherwise, one at that. So here, I again ask myself: doesn€™t all renovation, and further any home, start with the person(s) and the sensibilities they bring to the various home projects?

. . . The best of both worlds

Holcomb tells us that when Lauraville and communities that surround her were developed, large plots of land were sub-divided and sold to builders in small tracks. (This explains a lot in our area.) Hence, as I have suggested above, some house styles were often repeated one next to the other. But does this mean that Anneth is cookie cutter? No way. Sure almost identical houses appear on either side of it, but AJ and Kenneth have made this one their own. Then, or now, it has always been about taking it and putting a unique, personalized touch on it. Through the years, the bungalow€™s exterior has been dressed with elements from almost every significant architectural movement. With Anneth, these guys added a large multi-tiered deck stepping down to a well-groomed garden. A great investment, in style, and Now, of course, but that project in all ways exemplifies the early architects€™ vision of house connected with nature. But let us take it just one little step further, and provide the 21st century urban take. Kenneth continues, €œIt€™s the best of both worlds. Community and Privacy.€ House connected with not only nature, but also with community. And in Lauraville, you will find that, not just on Overland Avenue. Note there is a little uncertainty surrounding the year that Anneth was actually built. If new discoveries come to light, I will provide. Please see Part 2 dedicated to what AJ and Kenneth have done and still plan to do (Coming on or around May 1). Thanks to Kenneth too for providing pics. Next in this Series: The Bridge :: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/2009/05/a-look-at-a-lauraville-bungalow-the-bridge/

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

*Greater Lauraville Home & Garden Tour (June 13th, 2009): http://www.greaterlauraville.com/HGTour09.html *Eric Holcomb's book -- City as Suburb: http://www.upress.virginia.edu/books/holcomb.html *For a Great Overview on Bungalows: http://www.ambungalow.com/AmBungalow/home.htm *Your Local Lauraville Agent: Jennifer Ingool -- jennifer.ingool@longandfoster.com *Google Maps -- Street View: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Efficiency (a short rant on)

jb — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 13:06:00 +0000

. . . This was a short outtake from the Lauraville article -- (guess it was the mood I was in)

It seems today that as with the current economic climate, and thanks to years upon years of replacement window talk, our collective mind seems to scroll to and tries to plug in a word here. Many would have us corralled, and I will say it, into believing that €œEnergy-Efficiency€ is nirvana. Now, you may sense where I am going here, and don€™t get me wrong, part of being house smart and responsible, or may I dare say being €œgreen€, is being energy-efficient. But there is so much more to it. How energy-efficient are you, after all, if your house well-insulated and caulked, sits a long commute from where you work. How house smart is it for us to put up new homes in new communities when there are so many gems still begging to be uncovered and reclaimed? Efficiency, for our purposes here, is about knowing yourself and knowing your surroundings. It€™s about being part of the reality we live in. It is about making efficient, hence economical, decisions to match your home and life plans.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

I do still intend to do a post on energy tax credits -- though I am sure you can find this in several places now. . . Here is a link to an article in July 2009 issue of Chesapeake Home. Props and thank you: http://www.chesapeakehome.com/2009/06/04/going-efficient-without-breaking-the-bank/

Bungalows :: a Look at a Lauraville bungalow (the bridge)

jb — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:35:00 +0000

My apologies. There is so much good material I have to work with for part 2 -- I have decided to break things out into a third. For part 1 of this article, click here: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/2009/04/a-look-at-a-lauraville-bungalow-part-1-of-2/. And please hang tight for part 2, coming next week.

. . . Revisiting Anneth

In part one of this article, we met AJ and Kenneth. They live in Lauraville; their house for the sake of the article, I have dubbed Anneth. They both work in Baltimore. They are active in their community association, NOGLI, and they have been gracious enough to open their home up to us. [caption id="attachment_1078" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Anneth"][/caption] While I spent a good bit of time, providing history, contextualizing, the primary purpose of my visit was to get a sense of what it takes to remodel an €œof-era€ American bungalow.

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There was a little uncertainty surrounding when Anneth was built. AJ tells me that one set of papers points to 1917 as the year the plot on Overland Ave. was deeded. Other paperwork indicates that the house may not have been built until 1933. Without extended legwork, the amount of which is beyond this piece, there may be no quick way to tell for sure. (More discussion on this coming in an "outtake".) Regardless of the date it was actually constructed, this home, Anneth, was built squarely within what can be called the €œbungalow€™s day.€ Most historians technically place this in the period running from 1900 into the 1930s.

. . . When remodeling, know what you have and . . .

You have probably heard it said, €œThe house has good bones.€ Good bones, typically refers to the structure of a house; it means, in other words, the framing is solid, the house is standing upright, and that it, generally, is in good enough condition to accept whatever finish one might apply to it. This house on Overland Ave. has good bones. Yes. In fact most houses built in that era are rock solid. These houses were built by builders €“ craftsmen (not to be confused with the architectural movement). Anneth, as with most houses with good bones, had pretty good skin too. [caption id="attachment_1079" align="alignright" width="150" caption="The rusticated block foundation"][/caption] AJ bought the home in 1997. When he did, the original plaster walls (the prevailing finish of the €œday€) were in good shape; the foundation was intact, and even some original wallpaper lined her closets.

. . . The house as living document

As impeccably maintained as it can be, a house is still at the mercy of time and usage. Most building technologies, today even (think about it -- roofing, siding, and the mechanicals), can at best offer 30 years or so. Add to that the emergence of new technologies, changes in prevailing styles, and changes in, well, priorities (including other dynamics) it is difficult to find a home unaltered from its original look. Houses change with our needs, and most can be viewed as a document of such. They are a document of our (in the collective sense) movement through time. [caption id="attachment_1080" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Likely original doors opposing and painted"][/caption] In the remodeling of Anneth, and not limited to AJ€™s and Kenneth€™s work, original 5-panel doors and some Arts and Crafts door casing remains. This woodwork is painted now. I bring this up, because these elements may not have originally been painted. While that is a discussion with someone more qualified, painted woodwork is nonetheless now written into Anneth€™s history, and the woodwork remains. The original porch still offers a welcoming extension to the street. The unaltered and intact stamped block foundation still stands tall. (For a great little aside, ask AJ for a personal tidbit about this now retired technique. And please, if anyone has additional insights on this type of foundation and/or this technique please email, j.bmoxie@gmail.com.) Roofing materials, of course, have been replaced or covered, and asbestos shingles currently clad Anneth.

. . . Start with what you know

The bungalow, I have read, was the first mass marketed home without servants quarters. As mentioned in the first piece, no space within was designed without purpose, and there was certainly an efficient use of space. Often areas of the house were divided by intended usage between the public and the private. [caption id="attachment_1081" align="alignright" width="150" caption="There was originally a doorway on the right wall"][/caption] What I mean by this €“ for Anneth and in her day, the point of public gathering, i.e. household assembly or entertaining was the living and/or the dining room. Sitting toward the front of home, the large front porch was designed to spill right in the living room €“ This was the location for welcoming and gathering. Other locations in the home were designed more with private living in mind. The original kitchen, AJ himself categorizes it as a €œgalley kitchen€, was set, almost hidden, in the back of the house to allow for private preparation of the food. Serving and eating meanwhile occurred in the forward rooms of the first floor. In Anneth, a centralized staircase lead up from the dining room to sleeping quarters, only. Initially, two bedrooms were to be found at the top of the stairs €“ a doorway lead to one room on left, and a doorway lead to one room on the right.

. . . The stage is set

Please return next week for Part 2 €“ the Remodeling of Anneth Part 2: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/2009/05/a-look-at-a-lauraville-bungalow-part-2-of-2-the-remodeling-of-anneth/

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

The quintessential book on American Bungalows, American Bungalow Style by Robert Winter and Alexander Vertikoff (pgs. 148-149 "Houses by Mail"): http://www.amazon.com/American-Bungalow-Style-Robert-Winter/dp/068480168X

Happy Mother's Day, Jen! Let's re-finish the porch

jb — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:17:00 +0000

:: aka Refinishing a Mahogany Porch :: Working with the Wife

First, I hope you know I have been working on other things. But I did take some pics of our work around the house this weekend. Second, I never claim to be perfect. I admit that unless I am getting paid for it, I am usually pretty lazy with my research. Third, I won't hide things in these pages -- good and bad. Promise. I am a try-it-yourselfer and sometimes -- I try things, just to try. [caption id="attachment_1055" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Mahogany is pretty"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1056" align="alignright" width="150" caption="This urethane was about 2 and 1/2 years old"][/caption]

. . . Mother's day at my house

No, the laundry room is not done. Something tells me that would have been the best Mother's Day gift I could have ever given my wife. Well, honestly, I know because she told me. But alas -- the laundry room is not finished. We made arrangements to send the girls over to my mother's house this past weekend. They were going to spend the night with their Gram. For her, my mother, that's the best Mother's Day gift ever (who knew). This was good for Jenny & I, because it freed up some time to address something that has been weighing rather heavily on us: A mahogany porch that was not 4 years old yet, and in need of re-finishing, again.

. . . The porch in question

A few years back, and you probably know, we had a little time with this house before we moved in. During that time, one big area of immediate need was the exterior porches. The guy we had working with us, well, I don't like talking about him too much, suggested mahogany. I know a little bit about wood. I do. I knew that fir was the most common selection for porch decking, but since the mahogany was available for a penny a foot cheaper at his lumber supplier, I said, "Make it so." And he did, but it was our job to finish it.

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The decking went down, and straight up, it looked beautiful. We made the right call. I asked my guy how to finish it, i.e. how to protect it. . .he said, "Poly it." So I looked around and thought about it a bit. I had collected several cans of clear exterior grade spar urethane over the years; it seemed like a good choice on a covered porch. Forget the fact that the can said, "not intended for flooring"; I had Jen, our painter, put it down. That too -- looked awesome. And it did for awhile.

. . . Take two

Problem was -- about 18 or so months in -- we noticed that the front edges of the boards, though, were starting to loose their finish, flaking and peeling away. I mean come on: Couldn't have that. . .the spar urethane had to go. I asked a neighbor, a guy who works with boats, about it. He said -- he didn't know why the finish was failing, but he did suggest, however, that what we were seeing was probably not only an effect of water exposure, but also due in part to the sun. I guess it made sense. UV rays are a bear, and my Douglas fir siding can attest to that. Did he have a solution? No. [caption id="attachment_1059" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Previous attempts"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1061" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Again -- red mahogany"][/caption] I began to look elsewhere. I pulled a copy of This Old House, the mag, out of my archives. And I read: Two ways to go, the article generally said. I don't recall the exact terminology, but: Way 1 -- hard shell finish -- like a urethane, or Way 2 -- an oil-based treatment -- like a Thompson's Water Seal. With a couple quick Google searches, I targeted a product, Penofin. Pricey and hard to find, I searched on. Then I came across Australian Timber Oil. I didn't really read anything that told me that this was the product for decking, but available at the Lowe's, and at around $21 a gallon, we'll give it shot. So my wife re-finished part of the side porch. That too -- looked awesome. And it did for awhile.

. . . Once, twice, three times a lady

The problem was -- with the Timber Oil -- on a high traffic porch, it simply wore off. Wear was even and it appears that the boards were still getting some protection. But dirt was getting rubbed in, and some of the boards were starting to cup. That wouldn't do. So . . . we took this weekend. It was a few nice days of bonding. I removed the porch rails so we could do the re-finish for reals. Jenny worked the belt sander, and I the random orbital. We had the porch completely stripped in about 6 hours of work. It looked awesome. This time, and we had been using this product a bit on our fence, we were going to give it a go: Flood's-UV5. We brushed it on in about an hour. That too -- looks awesome. And hopefully it will for awhile. [caption id="attachment_1062" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="3rd times a charm"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1063" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Treated"][/caption]

. . . Bottom Line & Lessons Learned

From the limited research I've done: There is no way to avoid the re-finishing dance. If you like the look of natural wood on your exterior porches, be prepared to re-finish the surface frequently. This Flood product, for example, only offers three years between treatments. So . . . hopefully, this time, we will actually get that full three years. I'll let you know.

For me, lessons learned: 1. It is wise, sometimes, to check your contractor's advice. & Pay attention to labels. 2. Do your research, always. Basically, and what I have gathered, pick a product, since you are going to have to treat the surface repeatedly, that does not require extensive preparation before application. That's why I am on this oil-based wood treatment kick right now. Hopefully, in third years, it will be powerwash and reapply. No sanding needed. 3. Re-finishing a porch is a great way to spend a weekend with your significant other(hopefully mine felt the same).

Attic Remodel :: Fells Point

jb — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:45:00 +0000

:: aka stairway to heaven (or at least a pretty decent hide out for my buddy John) -- Fells Point

Overview: Here are some noteworthy pics from a job I did with my friend John S. When I say "with" -- I mean "with". He and I worked part time on it for several months. John had this great space in his attic that he wanted to convert into a home office. The space was already pretty well complete i.e. subfloor down, drywall finished, etc., but . . . for years he had difficulty finding a good contractor to wrap up the whole thing. There were some inherent challenges with this project. First, there was a set of attic pull down stairs, you know the kind; he, of course, wanted something a little more permanent in place. Second, and to complicate matters, the home's heating/cooling unit sat in the attic immediately to the left of the opening. A knee wall sat immediately to the right. The end result, and if you consider the hallway below -- not much room in which to fit a staircase. [caption id="attachment_1039" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Attic pulldown"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1040" align="alignright" width="150" caption="HVAC unit below window at left of landing"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1041" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Eventual location for new custom bookcase"][/caption] Shameless Dual Promotion: Let me point out that John functions as a high level homeowner. He does his research. He is capable of most home maintenance tasks. I have watched him work, and he does right by his investment. For this job, though, I tried initially to hook him up with a guy I knew. That just didn't work; that dude ended up bailing. So . . . with no formal contract, I promised John I would dedicate time (and for the record - he did pay me) to help him get this project done. I was going to help him with this attic, and he, whether he knew it or not, was going to help me define a key element of the business plan I was working on. Key Elements & Key Players: With John's commitment, and through the ideas and execution of some outstanding pros, we pulled off a fully functioning home office/hide out. Here are pics and some props.

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We knew going in we would address the attic stairs, we would install a bookcase in an alcove created by the peak of the roof, and we knew we wanted to try to conceal the furnace. (All of which would require custom woodwork.) We knew we needed phone, cable, and additional electric up there. Early on, too, we decided that we wanted to install a dedicated split system air conditioner in an effort to take some of the load off of the whole house system.

Step one, we needed a good electrician. And while the pics really don't do him any justice, I rang up Todd Borz at Milton Electric. They simply got in and got it done. (Funny aside on this -- John and Todd occasionally run into each other at the gym. Who knew electricians worked out? Anyway. . .) Step two, install the dedicated mini split. For that guy, and this is the power of the internet, I will write his name here only after he comes and does the service check he promised us some 14 months ago. We placed the air handler on an inside wall (above where John's desk now sits). We ended up doing something pretty cool with the refrigerant and condensate lines -- I posted on this earlier -- click here to see more. [caption id="attachment_1044" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Pull down gone opening expanded temp access in place"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1046" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Mini split installed"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1045" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Framing around the furnace; screwed not glued"][/caption] Step three, spec and prep for built-ins. To start, I suggested that John pick up a Built-In ideas book. The one he choose was called the New Built-Ins Idea Book by Taunton. From this, he was able to determine that he wanted maple cabinets, stained Early American, with raised panel, full-overlay doors. We knew we wanted to do a bookcase, with storage below, at the peak of the roof. But we also needed an enclosure that would neatly hide the home's mechanicals. For this, and with servicing this unit in mind -- we framed around it using 2x3s. Our cabinet guy, Steve Van Meter of Steve's Custom Cabinets, came in and applied panels to our framing. John later detailed the front of the enclosure with decorative brass grills (like the one you would see on a radiator cover). Not only does John get a little extra storage here, but if the furnace ever needs to be replaced -- this assembly, screwed together, can be removed. (You can see some this hopefully in the pictures above and below.) Step four, with work progressing (John and I did the trim and drywall work ourselves), it was time to spec out and find someone to build the custom stairs we needed. I made calls on this, but with little luck. Then, I turned to John Neiswender at Precision Millwork and Carpentry. He too came out and just got it done. (You can see what we came up with below.) It, too, is in maple, has an integrated grab bar, and allows for permanent access into the attic. Later John N. fitted the opening above with a sturdy sliding door that when closed allows for service of the heating unit when work is needed. John S. himself uses this platform to access storage at the far end of the enclosure. Step five, carpeting and other details. John coordinated the carpeting of the whole house. Before this, he went through and punched out the subfloor throughout. Later he hung a hi-def TV and finished with some of the furniture you see below. [caption id="attachment_1047" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Custom built maple stairs (by PMC)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1050" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Almost there (split's trim yet installed)"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1051" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Maple bookcase"][/caption] Bottom line-- This job took a while; I will give you that. (Hey, we were doing it part time.) It was not free of hiccups, in fact I am hearing now from John that one of the corner beads I finished along the stair opening is now pulling away. (I have promised if he wants me to repair, I will do so.) We did this thing together. John was involved and engaged at every step of the job. From that, I hope that he got pretty closely what he wanted. I think he learned a few skills along the way (or least who to call when he needs to borrow a tool). Sure, there are some, "coulda, shoulda, wouldas", but what I see -- is a space elegantly finished, at a price that allowed him to upgrade some of the key features. On site built-ins and stairs turned into custom cabinets (installed the way he wanted), a custom set of stairs, and a custom door on the attic opening. Anyway. . .Thanks John for letting me participate; it was a pleasure. And by the way, I will be called Mike Dawson, the HVAC guy, today.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Built-Ins Idea Book by Taunton Press: http://www.amazon.com/New-Built-Ins-Idea-Book-Crannies/dp/1561586730

Bungalows :: a Look at a Lauraville Bungalow (part 2 of 2 -- The Remodeling of Anneth)

jb — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:01:00 +0000

For Part 1 of this post, please click here: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/2009/04/a-look-at-a-lauraville-bungalow-part-1-of-2/ For the bridge, please click here: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/2009/05/a-look-at-a-lauraville-bungalow-the-bridge/

. . . It€™s in the water

They always say put the money where the water is. In other words, you as a homeowner often get the most from your remodeling dollar with work on the kitchen and on bathrooms. AJ and Kenneth smartly adhered to this rule. [caption id="attachment_1021" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Anneth from the yard at sunset"][/caption] The kitchen, remodeled: As hinted at previously, remodeling is often guided by changes in collective lifestyle. Today, and if you are up on the trends, you know that the kitchen has taken a more prominent role in living. No longer just a place to prepare food, the kitchen now is a gathering point for coffee, meals, and daily planning. The bungalow€™s original design did not necessarily accommodate this. So, what to do? The answer -- modernize. In Anneth, AJ and Kenneth removed a wall at the rear of the house, which originally divided a somewhat cramped kitchen space from an enclosed sun porch. (If you remember from the last posts, the space taken from outdoor living here was later replaced with a multi-tier composite deck.) This interior reconfiguration was made possible by installing an engineered beam at the point where an outside wall once stood. The beam substitutes for the support, or the bearing, that this wall once provided. It allows for greater flexibility in the designing of interior space. [caption id="attachment_1022" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Bank of windows at the back of Anneth's kitchen"][/caption] The removal of the outside wall more clearly reveals a bank of windows (which were also upgraded), giving fantastic views of the yard. These windows are a testament to the builder€™s intention to provide ample light, ventilation, and a sight-line connection with nature. With this annexation came an eat-in-kitchen, including an informal breakfast nook. For AJ and Kenneth, this new space now is not only a great place to eat and drink, but more importantly, a location from which to watch the gathering of birds at bird feeders. Baths, one to two: Bungalows in their original design typically placed a single bathroom between two first floor bedrooms. In today€™s fast paced world, often with several competing schedules demanding bathroom time, the need for multiple bathrooms is amplified. [caption id="attachment_1023" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Anneth's new second floor bath"][/caption] At the stair landing upstairs, AJ and Kenneth removed the doorway to the right and sheet rocked over it. A partition wall that split the two bedrooms was also removed. A new partition was built; the door with door casing and trim was salvaged and later transplanted in it. A once small secondary bedroom was converted to a master bath, complete with sitting and storage areas. This configuration in essence turns the second floor into a sweet master suite. Refinished heartwood pine floors, barely touched through the years, run from the newly created bath into a comfortable area for sleeping. [caption id="attachment_1024" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Rounded shower -- a space saver in the first floor bath"][/caption] The placement of this bath is not insignificant. It is stacked immediately above the original bath, itself reworked during the upstairs bath installation. This stacking, a builder€™s term, allows for easy, efficient, and cost-smart installation of new plumbing lines. AJ and Kenneth were on an extended trip to Europe as these renovations were being performed. This adds to the story of Anneth. AJ continues, €œWe frequently entertain friends from Europe.€ For the original bath, the five-foot tub/shower was replaced by a more space efficient rounded corner shower. Now multi-tasking as a guest bathroom, overflow for the guys themselves on busy mornings, and as a powder room, AJ says of the bath, €œOur European friends are accustomed to this type of arrangement.€ The house main: Around Lauraville, like many the older neighborhoods around the city, you will find some galvanized steel buried some 36 inches below the earth. For Anneth, the house main, that is -- the main supply line that runs water from the city meter into the house was installed as galvanized steel. Brian Marvel, at Forster Plumbing, confirms this. While appropriate for the time, as this material is strong and easy to work with, steel in this type of application is at the mercy of oxidation, calcification, and rust. Decades of willful service lead to diminished water pressure, or worse, catastrophe.

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This operation, the replacement of a main house supply, requires trenching from the curb to the house€™s foundation. Once exposed, this piping is then replaced with a more functional, and long lasting, copper line. Often requiring the use of heavy machinery, this job does carry a relatively steep price tag. When moving into an older home, it is wise always to inquire about and/or to prepare for the eventual replacement of this. For Anneth, and with AJ, it topped his list of priorities. He performed this fix shortly after he arrived. Radiant baseboard heat (hot water heat): While it is fair to say that forced hot air is the most widely used form of residential heating, it simply was not an option in the early parts of the last century. According to Jerry Fitz of Fitz Mechanical, bungalows in our area were typically fitted with a coal-fired boiler system. €œThese systems,€ he says, €œwere often converted to run on oil, but were later swapped out altogether in favor of gas-burning systems.€ AJ and Kenneth, with efficiency of space in mind, and resistant to the idea of adding bulky ductwork to the home, replaced the original free standing radiators (fed probably by larger and less efficient 1 inch plus piping) with a more streamlined and sleek baseboard system. While it is arguable whether these systems offer a more efficient means of heating the home, Jerry says, €œThey are certainly comfortable, and are very practical in homes of this age.€ Run along outside walls, and concealed by covers, copper lines transport heated water throughout the home. They are easy to maintain, and distribute, or radiate, heat evenly throughout the space serviced.

. . . It€™s in the air, too

In seeking modern comfort, a renovation often includes the installation of integrated air conditioning. A relatively recent invention and certainly not employed widely at the time Anneth was built, whole-house central air conditioning could have been chosen to replace the conventional units that exited windows around the house. Mini-splits work well in conjunction with hydronic systems, and . . . : In a smaller home, and in keeping with the plan of maximizing livable space, AJ and Kenneth decided instead to go with dedicated mini-splits. While relatively new to the US, and very similar to central air conditioning, the mini-split or €œductless split system€ has many advantages over its brethren. [caption id="attachment_1025" align="alignright" width="150" caption="One of three or four mini-split compressors"][/caption] Most of us living around Lauraville have, at one time or another, employed one or more window air conditioning units. Let€™s be honest, these puppies are not attractive, they diminish the security of our houses, and they are, in fact, energy hogs. Expensive to operate, they often lose conditioned air right out the same windows in which they sit. [caption id="attachment_1027" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Heat pump in the "igloo""][/caption] Central air systems, while more efficient, require the installation of ductwork. AJ and Kenneth knew that ductwork would not only encroach on an otherwise finishable basement space, but it would also be difficult to elegantly run to the second floor. Perhaps guided by their HVAC contractor, Fitz Mechanical, they chose instead several ductless split system air conditioners. Offering the quiet operation of a central system AND the luxury of zoned cooling, they are considered very efficient. They not only provide cooling like a window unit where and when you need it, but there are no joints in ductwork through which to lose cooled air. They are easy to install, and some, as the one found in the master suite of Anneth, double as heat pumps. AJ and Kenneth eliminated the radiators that originally serviced this room, killing two birds with one stone. These radiators, prior to remodeling, were fed by iron pipes run at and exposed in the rooms at the front of the home. AJ puts it like this, €œUgly,€ he says. . . . Implement a cooling plan: €œWe love sleeping with windows open slightly,€ AJ says. And if you hang on with him for a few minutes, AJ will proceed to describe an elaborate dance by which he harnesses the natural effects of cross ventilation. [caption id="attachment_1028" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Cooling plan :: open windows can be great for cooling"][/caption] I won€™t go into too much detail on this here, but AJ is simply maximizing one of windows€™ primary purposes. Often overlooked in today€™s workaday world of comfort-controlled buildings, the guys will coordinate open windows in the day and night, with cooling cycles in the evening. The end result is comfortable and efficient living, and a cooling bill that will not break the bank.

. . . Insulate, Insulate . . . Insulate?

Homeownership and priorities attached to it have changed throughout the decades. And as I have hinted at throughout this piece, these priorities may now be shifting more dramatically in response to a slowing economy and rising energy costs. [caption id="attachment_1030" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Asbestos shingles, rusticated block foundation, etc."][/caption] AJ and Kenneth have, in the course of owning Anneth, taken many steps to help minimize the cost of powering her. They insulated heating lines and installed replacement windows. These windows (look for low-e, Argon injected) insulate the home from heat loss and solar gain. In other words, they help lower energy costs. But these steps are by no means the end of what these guys would like to do. To put it clearly, and as I often say -- insulate, insulate, insulate. An area of challenge that may arise for many bungalow owners is the task of insulating above what AJ terms, the €œigloo.€ As a one-and-a-half story house, the roof right tight to the second floor, it is often difficult to intelligently insulate there. To complicate the matter, Anneth has a ridge vent installed at her roof€™s peak. Great itself at moving hot air out from under a summer-sunned roof, it is a ventilating apparatus whose effects could be totally neutralized by a poor or unsuccessful attempt to insulate. While insulating crawl spaces and/or exposed joists in basements is easy enough to do yourself, retrofitting a home with insulation may be a task more suited for a professional. Because of this, I enlisted the help of Brian Walsh at Carroll Insulation. With 20 plus years in the field, he is what I would term an insulation expert. Here is his advice on insulating bungalows, and what we discussed about Anneth specifically (and forgive me if I don€™t quote him verbatim):

With bungalows, I really take it on a case by case basis. I approach each one differently, but first I always want to check to see if the ceiling of the second floor is insulated. Many of these of-era bungalows have knee walls (fitted with doors) that homeowners now use for storage. If we can assess the joists there, we will blow in a full 13 inches of fiberglass material to get an R38 insulation value. Similarly, we will insulate the outside walls incorporating netting that holds our material in place. Many of these bungalows had gable vents originally that by themselves provide decent air flow off the roof. Homeowners may add an attic fan or a ridge vent to this set up. In these cases, when attempting to insulate under this roof, it is important to incorporate StyroVent or some other attic ventilation chute. From inside the knee wall, you can attempt to slide these up between the rafters and blow in insulation up to the collar tie. However, slipping these things in is no easy task; they often get hung up and torn by roofing nails. With people more concerned with lowering their BG&E bills, many are looking into insulating this area of their house. Generally my feeling is, though, that if it ain€™t broke don€™t fix it. These houses were built tight, and part of what you pay for when you buy them is not today€™s energy-efficiency, but the charm of an old house.

Many of these houses were not insulated originally. Ironically, before we hung up, our discussion turned briefly to the exterior. AJ and Kenneth had mentioned previously that they had intentions of eventually re-siding the house. I passed this information on to Brian. [caption id="attachment_1026" align="alignright" width="150" caption="The "igloo""][/caption] €œIn these kinds of situations,€ Brian said, €œwe will typically come in advance of the siding guys and drills holes around the house. We then blow insulation into the stud cavities from the outside.€ He continues, €œMind you, this job runs at about $1.50 a square foot. But it is a very effective way of insulating an older home.€

. . . On the side

As mentioned previously €“ Anneth is clad with asbestos shingles. Asbestos shingles were used widely on residences from the 1930s through the 1970s. Installed on a home, they are not dangerous. Ironically, they provide superior fireproofing and insulation over many of today€™s products. But it is AJ and Kenneth€™s intention to eventually address their siding. Because these shingles only become a health hazard if they are disturbed, many siding companies are experienced at installing new siding right over these old shingles. Before new siding is applied, the house is wrapped with a layer of 3/8 to ½ inch rigid polystyrene, or foam, insulation. With these rigid panels, the home gets an additional 3 to 5R of protection. Most siding professionals demand it; not for insulation value, but because they simple need a completely flat surface over which to place their new siding. The added benefit of lower energy costs goes to you. For more discussion on siding materials (including asbestos shingles), please see the €œOuttake€ below.

. . . Efficiency in remodeling and there is always a wish list

In many ways, AJ and Kenneth are your prototypical bungalow owners. I would hope they would give me that. I am grateful, too, to have had the opportunity to use their home as a bullet point in the bungalow€™s story in North East Baltimore. [caption id="attachment_1031" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Refinished heartwood pine floors"][/caption] For AJ and Kenneth, the bungalow€™s significance is not lost. They know what they have €“ a classic American home set in a one of Baltimore€™s more active areas of reclamation. While the traditional bungalow itself was designed with efficiency in mind, it, like all homes built in its day, has gone through changes not limited to its physical appearance. Efficiency, today, seems to mean something just slightly different than it did then. While a flat economy and raising energy costs seem to govern our (collective sense) home improvement choices now, more elemental human needs, however, always remain. Home not only as shelter or investment, but as extension of self. AJ and Kenneth have efficiently maneuvered the course of fitting this home to their needs. Does work remain? Of course. Sure, these guys have thought about blowing out the roof of the second floor and/or installing more elegant French Doors on the rear of the home. House wise and efficient? Maybe, maybe not. Is the now the time? Maybe, maybe not. With the smart salvage, intelligent usage, and mindful budgeting, I have faith that these guys will make the decisions that work for them. Maybe it was Jerry Fitz, our HVAC contractor, who unknowingly put it the best. €œEfficiency,€ he says, €œis viewed as output vs. cost to operate.€ He, of course, was speaking about mechanical equipment, but again I will run with it. AJ and Kenneth, with Anneth are simply getting a high level of output from a home they are not killing themselves to afford. Efficiency €“ not just energy, but total. For every dollar in (though surely reclaimed one day), they get a little bit of living out.

*******

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

*Carroll Insulation: http://www.carrollinsul.com/Welcome.html *Fitz Mechanical: http://www.fitzmechanical.com/ *A Local Lauraville Plumber -- Forster Plumbing: http://www.forster-plumbing.com/ *A comprehensive resource on asbestos shingles: http://www.ehso.com/ehshome/asbestoshomeshingles.php *For more info on split systems, here is a great article: http://www.oldhouseweb.com/how-to-advice/ductless-split-system-air-conditioners.shtml *BG&E's Energy Savings Center: http://www.bgehome.com/energy_saving_center.php

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Outtake

It€™s almost as if we, in the collective sense, aren€™t happy enough to find a house, that not only has character, but that has been well maintained. But we, AJ too, are lucky that some have been touched with only a gentle hand. And the fact that this home was generally well preserved on the inside, makes me turn my thoughts, if only briefly, to the exterior. Wood, vinyl and asbestos shingles as a siding material: Original siding for many of the bungalows built in the Anneth€™s day took the form of cedar shake or German clapboard. Wood, of course. And wood as we know expands and contracts, wears, and generally must be treated with paint or some other coating to perform its best. Manufacturers of vinyl siding, further, and the leagues of individuals that sell it €“ offer a relatively maintenance free alternative. Both have pros and cons; both make a very acceptable method for wrapping a home. With Anneth €“ an asbestos shingle on it: It too is wrapped appropriately. But, can this cladding actually help in dating her? Asbestos shingles, fire resistant and inert (don€™t be mislead by your own misgivings), were a very acceptable siding material. Many of us recognize them; asbestos shingles were installed widely on homes from the 1930s till the end of the 1970s. 1930s? Is this a tip? Was Anneth, as the second group of papers seems to suggest, actually built in 1933? Does the answer lie in her siding? I don€™t know. I tend to think not. My instincts tell me, and inquisitive homeowner might pursue, that the shingle was a replacement to/cover up of the earlier wood. That said -- the asbestos shingles certainly have been serviceable for Anneth and others. AJ tells me that there are only two coats of paint on them. This, of course, is a direct result of their make-up. Asbestos-fortified cement board, the asbestos shingle is very stable, in other words, it is resistant to both water and temperature changes. It is strong and difficult to damage. In general, as AJ suggested, many years from now all that may remain from this house is this now outlawed siding. We are now, of course, aware of the health risks that any product containing asbestos present, hence, its total discontinuation globally. But asbestos shingles, if left undisturbed, represent no health or environmental risks. (For more information on asbestos, please see the More Moxie links above.)

home improvement is a little bit like Easy*Baking, and

jb — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:46:00 +0000

. . . Social networking is a little bit like Easy*Baking

Right around my birthday last year, I let myself get coerced into signing up for this thing called Facebook. It may have been the onset of old age; or maybe it was just time, at 38, to check in. You know, to see what some old friends were up to, and in turn €“ to let people know what I have been doing.

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I had been generally resistant to joining the social networking wave. I mean, with a 3- and 5-year old, and not much on my mind other than potty training, children€™s television, and, well, home improvement, what did I have to offer this world? But . . . I played with it for a bit. I liked it; fb is fun. And my statuses changed each day from one cryptic nothing to the next. €œJB Bartkowiak is JB Bartkowiak.€ AND €œJB Bartkowiak is redacting (or is that redacted).€ AND so on. . . . I'll admit it; I wasn€™t usually doing anything €“ so I simply put up whatever quirky little thing I found in my head. Then, on December 26, 2008 €“ I still remember the day, I changed my status. It read, €œJB Bartkowiak just spent 2 hours making 2 cupcakes €“ 9 more hours of Easy Baking to go.€ With that, I was officially a user.

. . . The day after Christmas is a little bit like Easy*Baking

True story -- that status from above: the day after Christmas. I would keep the girls busy that day €“ they were very excited to try out their new bake ware. My wife would take an obligatory day for shopping and returns. [caption id="attachment_1015" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Evyn brown-nosing:: from a recent easy bake session"][/caption] And let€™s get this straight: the girls didn't just haul in the Easy*Bake Oven (you know the classic from Hasbro); they also scored the Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker and various other frosting applicators. Good times, much to try for sure. And I was looking forward to spending the quality time with them as they broke in this new arsenal. So . . . the day after Christmas, I easy*baked.

. . . Designing a business is a little bit like Easy*Baking

If you have taken the time to look at the side bar over here, you may have noticed that this BlogSpot is of one of three total. Life, Jobs, Home; part of a larger business plan. That€™s right €“ I am starting a business, but I also have a home, and at times €“ I try to have a life. And while I don't speak specifically about my wife, my kids, or even my house in the pages of my business plan €“ they are written in there. In between every idea and every line of projected income is exactly how I am going to make this thing happen within the framework of my current dynamic. I ask myself every day: how am I going to execute a service-focused venture without loosing the one and only full-time day job that our family has? It has been at forefront of my mind for several weeks now. A source of what seems to be extremely high levels of (yet hopefully short-term) stress.

. . . Cooking is a little bit like Easy*Baking

That Easy*Bake Oven hasn€™t seen much action since the day after Christmas. We haven€™t easy*baked, but we have cooked. [caption id="attachment_1016" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Easter eggs -- the process is very similar"][/caption] You should know: Evyn loves to cook. And Eva, well, she loves to do anything that her big sister loves to do. So when I get called upon to make dinner (every now and then), it seems always that I have an assistant or two. And it is a good thing; it is fun. I especially appreciate the distraction that they offer. You see, I will be honest; cooking kinda stresses me out. I don€™t know if it is simply because I don€™t do it much. Or maybe it€™s all the multi-tasking -- the figurative several irons in the fire. But inevitably, I almost always feel flustered, confused, rushed, or simply one step behind at some point in preparation process. We cooked together the last two weekends, and I had been hearing it pretty consistently throughout. €œDad, can we easy*bake?€ Evyn asked. My response, €œNo, not now; it takes too much time.€ Cooking is one thing, easy*baking is a whole €˜nother thing. Or is it? You must set aside time for it.

. . . Home Improvement is a little bit like Easy*Baking

Our home, maybe you have read -- is a project. It needs a lot of work. And in this market, and with not much of a working budget, it is me €“ part time €“ all the time. And I will admit it; when I am confronted with a task that I haven€™t performed, I feel some level of stress. Reality is €“ how can one man be master of all things? Sure, I know how to lay out a project. Sure, I can cut and install wood. I can even lay some tile. I do all of this; I work and I help raise two beautiful daughters.

. . . Easy*Baking is a little bit like home improvement

I finally broke down and we easy*baked the other day. [caption id="attachment_1017" align="alignright" width="150" caption="There are my girls"][/caption] If it has been awhile since you have easy*baked yourself, let me refresh your memory. The Easy*Bake Oven is a stand alone contraption, plastic knobs and stickers on the front, two slots one on each end of it (yeah €“ like the one you€™d find at Quiznos). Items are baked individually by a 100-watt light bulb (not soft white or long life €“ to this, not super easy to find these days). Two not highly engineered metal doors close down around the heating chamber. There is a yellow tool then that can be used for inserting and retrieving baking pans €“ it actually works.

. . . Our Easy*Bake project: flower-shaped sugar cookies

We pulled out the oven, cleared the kitchen table, put on their aprons, and opened the package. Along with 2 packets of cookie mix, 2 packets of frosting, and some nonpareils, a four-page instructional booklet slipped out. So I read €“ working as we went. We have two pans, but the recipe for a single cookie mix packet is laid out for three cookies, and only one pan fits in the oven at any given time. In this process €“ easy*baking -- it works: mix, prepare, bake, cool; mix, prepare, bake, cool. (Kinda like a round in singing class.) [caption id="attachment_1018" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Eva enjoys the yummy goodness"][/caption] And we mixed, according to the instructions, adding the precise amount of water. While I usually let Evyn mix €“ I intermittently get my hands dirty too. We added the exact amount of water, I swear €“ yet our mix didn€™t quite look like dough. So as I would with any cementitious home improvement product €“ I added just a drop, didn€™t want to over-hydrate and ruin the mixture. This time with a delicate hand, I nailed it. We then took our dough and kneaded it in some flour (wow, what a mess). We now had to take it and split it into 3 equal parts. What the instructions didn€™t count on was that the girls had been hitting it up for minutes. They systematically licked everything clean, the bowl, the utensils, while simultaneously consuming any piece of dough not firmly attached to our mound lying there. We didn€™t have enough to make three cookies, despite what the instruction said. But two would do; just the number we needed. The cookies went into the oven, came out and cooled. (Evyn had enough self-restraint to wait for her sister's to complete.) They iced them, and they consumed them, gorgeously decorated and personalized.

. . . Blogging is a little bit like Easy*Baking

I will be honest €“ some of these words, as with many you will find on this blog, may be intended for no one other than me. My point, and I try to be transparent, is at times when you have a job, an idea for a business, a home to work on, and a family to help operate, i.e. several things going on -- things may spill into each other somewhat. It can be a very good thing, if you are of right mind. For me, I often find that I must look to seemingly unrelated aspects of my life to find inspiration I may need in others. It helps, too, for me to have a place to dump my thoughts . . . read or not. You just trust yourself (whether you are designing a business, cooking, doing home improvement, blogging, or easy*baking) to lay it out, knead it and make it into something good. * my apologies -- should have taken some pictures of us easy*baking, but hopefully Easter Egg pictures from Facebook are close enough.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

The Classic EASY-BAKE Oven: http://www.hasbro.com/easybake/ The Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker: http://www.thisnext.com/item/D970FA20/Girl-Gourmet-Cupcake-Maker

Making a Bi-Fold Door :: Pocketless Door Experiment: a Reprise

jb — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:48:00 +0000

Part 1 of this article: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/2009/01/the-pocketless-door-experiment-1-of-3/ Part 2 of this article: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/2009/02/pocketless-door-experiment-2-of-3/ Part 3 of this article: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/2009/02/pocketless-door-experiment-part-3-of-3/

. . . The reprise

[caption id="attachment_1001" align="alignright" width="150" caption="I thought it was going pretty well"][/caption] I had my fun, and free reign to try anything I wanted with the door on our newly remodeled powder room. I posted previously, in three parts, and lost you as I blathered on not only about the door itself, but about my methods and my means, my history and my place. Back story I will call it, and a way for me to come clean. I did leave you hanging, like my door suspended there in the bath, but -- no more. Straight up -- the pocketless door experiment was a failure. I think once I slipped the last hinge pin in this past weekend, I finally can confirm that. I still maintain that the pocketless door experiment might have worked, somewhere, but not in this house; not as the powder room door here.

. . . More than a door

Several space considerations had to be made early on in this project. Even before we began gutting, we noticed the original door when swung open slapped the bowl of the sky blue toilet here. (I always wonder how something like this happens €“ poor planning, I guess.) Knowing that we didn€™t want to get involved with moving any part of the cast iron plumbing, we decided that I would simply cut the existing door in half and mount it as a €œmini-French€ €“ two smaller doors hinged one each from both jambs. Functional, unique €“ a perfect fit for this house and our style. The plan from the beginning. With this detail decided, we proceeded to rough-in the space. We placed electrical switches and outlets just out of a half a door€™s reach. I set the plumbing for pedestal sink where I wanted; it would not be affected by this door configuration, and vice versa.

. . . The stack attack

Another feature of our powder room -- the stack. Yes, the house€™s main WV (waste & vent) stack, in cast iron too, comes right down and through this bath. In these situations, and you find them often in older houses, this 3€ pipe would eventually be concealed with a chase.

. . . Every inch of wiggle matters

I gutted and re-framed this door opening. I could have shrunk the opening a little, calling for a 28€ (2-4) door instead of the 30€ (2-6) door that I had on hand. While I did have this idea (plan B) in the remote outskirts of my mind, my course decided upon €“ it didn€™t get the priority that maybe it should have. So the framing went in, and while I gave myself about an extra ¾€, I would be wishing later that I framed instead for a standard-sized 28€ door.

. . . The toilet & other matters

The placement of this toilet was very limiting. It was in clear shot of a standard door€™s swing from one side. On the other, it was confined by the chase for my WV.

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To complicate matters, I wanted that chase to do double duty. I wanted it to hold custom cubbies. To do this, I would need to frame it up in 2x4 as opposed to 2x3. (The 2x3s of course could have given me up to an inch more in usable space.) The cubbies were being built into the recesses of the blocking here €“ I would need the additional depth provided by the 2x4s. I explored the idea of using a 2-inch offset flange on the toilet. This would have given me additional clearance off a 30-inch door. In the end, though, I was opposed to this mainly because the openings on these offsets themselves shrink. And hey, living with a three- and a five-year-old, you never know what could go down, or get stuck, in a toilet drain.

. . . I really do love my wife, and I think she loves me . . . (Jen, Jen . . . anyway)

As I mentioned previously, I had gotten approval to try the pocketless door. It was a hair. . . .You know. Because I installed the wall treatment as such (and I won€™t waste any more time on that here), I would need this door to slide outward and inward just slightly along its glide. Plus, I was really going to push the bounds of psychics, and try to slip this panel down into the opening. Doable -- I know it. And I got it to the point where it would have required only a little -- additional engineering. [caption id="attachment_1003" align="alignright" width="150" caption="I guess my rig was a little too clunky"][/caption] And in lies the breakdown: my wife simply didn€™t think the look of the bulky hardware I employed worked well with this dainty little powder room. Maybe she was right. In the end, for me, though, it was watching my girls that broke me. The girls were having difficulty sliding the door back and forth. It was just too much for them to handle. And like that, after mauling it over for about a month €“ the pocketless door was out. The €œmini-French€ was back in.

. . . But we don€™t speak French

When it finally came time, my wife and I met again to discuss the pros and cons of different door configurations. Yep, and guess what €“ the toilet I ultimately installed was still in the way of a hinged door€™s swing. So that was still out. Because of a minor obstruction created by the wall treatment, the sink-side portion of the mini-French would probably not swing a full 180 degrees. This translates, here, to less than textbook clearance (21€ by code, 30€ in design sense) at the front of the sink. While we thought this would be easy enough to live with, we continued to discuss other options. Then it was said: €œThere is always the bi-fold.€

. . . So . . . making a bi-fold

[caption id="attachment_1004" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Hung not painted"][/caption] To make the bi-fold, I started by cutting my 30€ (less a few fractions of inch from previous work) door in half. I did this by placing it on my temporarily work bench and clamping a straight 2x4 over it from both ends of the table. For added insurance, as is often necessary with long €œguided€ rips €“ I placed a drywall screen down through the 2x4 into the door€™s center rail. (I would putty it later.) I attempted to find the exact center by taking measurements in multiple locations along the door€™s height. Since, however, this door had been worked even before I got to it, I could not depend on these measurements. I quickly scrapped that idea and used instead measurements off of the doors raised panels. I made marks in 3 places along the door and ran a line up the door€™s center stile. [caption id="attachment_1005" align="alignright" width="150" caption="A solid door's innards"][/caption] Using my circular saw, I made a straight/flat rip cut along this line. This cut revealed the large wafers, biscuits, which hold the door€™s panels in place. (Hopefully the picture at right shows this.) The fear all along with cutting a door in half (I haven€™t done this one before) is that it, in the end, would simply fall apart. To neutralize risk of this €“ I made additional cuts at the inside edges of the door pieces, and added 5/8€ S4S. I glued and tacked this to the edges. With just a little sander work, I had two equally sized door panels.

. . . Even a bi-fold has hinges (a little technical)

[caption id="attachment_1006" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="s4s (square four sides) applied to cut edges"][/caption] For the fold, I could have chosen non-mortise bi-fold door hinges. The main benefit of these hinges is a €œcut-out€ in one side allowing the two hinge plates to mate perfectly. Fearing this style of hinge would not be sturdy enough to hold my fir door, I instead chose to mortise for and install three 3 1/2€ square corner hinges. To do this, I flipped my radius corner mortise jig over. This allowed for squared cutting across the entire edge of my door panels. (This door coincidentally was a non-standard 1 and ¼€ thick.) For this procedure, I always try to remember that you should recess the entire face of the hinge. (You can mark your depth on your door panel by holding the hinge up next to it.) I have trained myself especially with my low-end plunge router to go a little shallow on these cuts, at about 3/32€ of an inch. [caption id="attachment_1007" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Router and jig"][/caption] I paired my doors, marked for my mortises €“ 7€ from the top, 11€ from the bottom, and at a distance splitting them for the center -- and made my mortise cuts. I assembled the doors and found that in this case I went a little too shallow. There was light passing through the center where the doors met. This would not necessarily be desirable for a bathroom door. So I went to work with a one-inch chisel, beveled-side face up €“ as to take minimal amounts out of the recesses. This took some time, but generally it worked. If anything I might have went a little too deep here. Later, when the door was finally hung, it was kicking back just slightly when shut. [caption id="attachment_1008" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Some light passing thru -- mortise a little deeper"][/caption] €œOh well,€ I said to myself, with all I have gone through with this door, and even today €“ still searching for pivoting pocketless door hangers, €œgood enough.€ I added an additional surface-mount bolt latch at the top of the door just to the €œlatch€ side of the fold.

. . . What of the abandoned backing on the slider set-up

Now, the wife happy, the experiment resolved, the kick back rectified, and the door painted, I post. For now, the abandoned backing for the slider remains. Our original intention was to add shelving in this room. With the backing boards I had added, hey, I have a built-in shelf. And that's my story and I am sticking to it.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

*Non-Mortise Bi-Fold Door Hinges (for illustration): http://www.hardwaresource.com/Store_ViewCatLevel3.asp?Cat=129&OrderID *Toilet Anatomy (cool site): http://www.toiletology.com/anatomy.shtml *American Standard's Cadet 3 Flowise Collection: http://www.americanstandard-us.com/searchResults.aspx?c=71&p=3

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Bigger, Faster, Stronger, Better (an outtake) I had a salvaged toilet on hand throughout this entire process, and I did intend to use it. I placed my cubbies at the exact height at which the toilet€™s tank could not reach them. While I took the time to ensure this would not be an issue, I did not, in the end, account for the toilet€™s handle placement. Whoops! On this particular model €“ the flush level was on the left-hand side of the tank. If I installed this toilet, the lever would have been right tight against the chase. RATS! That would not work. So . . . I had to find another toilet. But what I found instead was that I simply screwed myself. Most narrow toilets compensate for their size with added height to the tank. (32€ or more from the floor for most.) Because of my chase, my tank could be no wider than about 19€. But for me, my total height also couldn€™t exceed 29€, any taller and the toilet tank would have hidden my precious bottom cubby. Thank the plumbing gods, though, for Cadet 3, an offshoot of American Standard€™s most popular line. As compact as this toilet was, the tank measuring at 17 1/4 inches wide, a full door swing would still just lightly touch the lip of the toilet tank lid. Nonetheless, on a day that I had set aside to purchase and install a toilet €“ it would do. I had special plans for the bath door anyway. Right? And it was only a few months later, on a trip to Lowes, when we found an even slimmer Cadet 3 Flowise €“ a one-piece unit measuring only 15 ½ inches wide. Did I overlook this? Did I not shop enough? Was I in too much of a hurry? I don€™t know €“ but I did hear it from my wife that day. A toilet of this size would have given me enough wiggle room to install a full size door. And as I have mentioned previously, it is always good to have wiggle.

The Free Estimate :: it might be obvious but at least . . .

jb — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:34:00 +0000

It€™s Free!

See, I bet I got you €“ you are reading this sentence now. From what I have heard, and maybe you have heard this too, the word €œfree€ in printed material is like a magnet. Advertisers know you throw an exclamation point on it and you are almost assured of grabbing a reader€™s attention. And yes, some things in life are free. I have heard that said too. Love, a smile, happiness €“ you could argue in favor of these things. These things, one could say, are FREE. In other words, you have a right to indulge in them AND they come with no cost attached.

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Stop though; this article is not intended to be a discussion on semantics and/or promotional strategy. I do not want to explore existentialism or other advanced thoughts on this matter. I simply want to state simple truths about common business practice.

. . . Or is it?

Free is good. I like free, and I think you are on board with me on this one. Unfortunately, however, what I find is that most things are not free. The cost (and in this discussion it can take a couple forms) to negotiate, manufacture, manipulate, and otherwise process a commodity is budgeted and accounted for at some point down the line. This is true of every piece of swag ever handed to you. Whether it€™s a set of crab knockers you receive for being one of the first ten thousand in attendance, a pen bearing your bank€™s brand, or wifi access at a local coffee house, these things have been bought and paid for by (or should I say for) you. The thing is -- the cost of these perks is hidden. It€™s hidden, in these cases, in the ticket price, in the monthly service fee, or under the whipped cream on your mocha latte. These things are free of charge because you do not trade money for them specifically, but they are far from having no strings attached. Included - maybe; Free - no.

. . . You have to spend money to make money

So . . . is using the word €œfree€ in promotional material false advertising? Is this business practice deceptive? By no means; it€™s just smart business. And smart businesses are in business to recoup every dollar spent and more. It costs money to be in business. This is a truism. And part of being in business is reaching a market, or audience, that is willing to pay for your services. Almost every business, large and small, has some sort of advertising or promotional budget. This is money that must be spent on the business to stay in business. While the use of the word €œfree€ could remain open for debate; this strategy, in principle, is an efficient, effective and proven means of executing promotions. And -- it should be said -- efficient promotions, i.e. maximizing output with minimal input, in theory, helps keep cost down €“ for both the seller and, well, the buyer.

. . . I think you knew where I was going with all of this: The Free Estimate!

[caption id="attachment_640" align="alignright" width="300" caption="image by b"][/caption] A quick search using Google€™s Timeline feature shows the words €œfree estimates€ in classifieds and other advertisements as early as the beginning part of last century. And while I am tempted to explore this, the history of it and how it evolved, I will not. I will leave it simply at €“ the free estimate, by now, has been offered, by many, for a looooong time. And let€™s put ourselves in the contractor€™s shoes. Say you are in business in the home improvement field, do you charge for your estimates? Of course not, and this is one case where you fold to peer pressure. I mean, everyone is doing it; so guess what, you have to too. You offer Free Estimates and you promote that. But you are not in the business to give things away; you are a professional. And professionals make money. So what do you do?

. . . Time is money

They say, the collection of all humanity, €œtime is money.€ This statement is no truer than when used to characterize an individual working and living as a small business home improvement contractor. Time and/or labor are integral parts of what he/she charges for. And just because €“ they may not be hammering a nail, installing a light fixture, or designing a kitchen €“ doesn€™t necessarily mean that he/she doesn€™t or should not bill for it. The time it takes to examine, price and otherwise estimate a job is, if you find that contractor€™s proposal agreeable, ultimately passed on to you. Free €“ Think again. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It is smart business. And smart businesses stay in business. He or she has accounted for the time it takes to estimate and sell jobs. It is factored into his/her overhead cost, and is later calculated as part of his/her hourly billable rate.

. . . If it€™s free, it€™s on me

As a home improvement consultant, I say use them €“ get three or four. They are a great way to meet people, and further a great way to get various takes on a given project. There is, from my experience, sometimes a wide price range generated across a collection of estimates. This price variation is itself usually traced to the businessperson€™s methods and means. And it may even tell you something of their work. Not only does the proposal period on a project yield a menu of services to choose from, but, think of it this way, it also gives you the opportunity to get free consultations from qualified experts. While every estimate received may not nail exactly what you are looking for, it does usually help in defining what you are looking for. It gets the creative juices flowing and you begin to hone your communication surrounding what you envision for a project.

. . . It€™s a slippery slope though

As someone that has given estimates a handful of times, I know, as well as most of my contacts in the construction field, when a homeowner is just working it €“ the system. Using an appointment to collect ideas, or to establish a baseline without any real intention of considering the services being offered. And this, to be quite frank, is not cool. As I said above, time is money. Not only is the time it takes to estimate on a contract that is won factored into a contractor€™s billing, so too is the time taken on contracts not won. Blatant disregard for this €“ in the end €“ has, and I am a believer in the butterfly effect, potentially distasteful ramifications. It does nothing but drive up prices. For a small business contractor, especially in the current economy, this can be potentially dangerous. We are talking -- loss of work, loss of jobs, loss of tax revenue, and so on. And in the end, the homeowner, the one flapping the wings, will most likely find that it will only eventually come back around on them.

. . . Is free a good value? (aka I really don€™t care if it€™s free €“ I just want value.)

You know Blogger is amazingly free. It€™s the Web 2.0 mentality €“ If you want to fish, you need fish €“ so, just build an ocean. Sure, I have to fight back the urge to add Google Ads to this site, but I do because it is simply not the way I roll. And in the end: Am I the one working the system? Maybe. Surfing the internet, you see, is really not that different from viewing broadcast television. You don€™t have to pay to watch this show, but you are going to have to sit through these commercials. Is that a little bit like the free estimate? AND Is that freedom? Ok, I will save that for another day. The point here instead is €“ it is not a bad idea to understand the contractor€™s process. And further to have a general understanding of common business practices. It can lend peace of mind, and give you a picture of where that service company is coming from.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

*google timeline search on "Free Estimate": http://www.google.com/search?q=%22free+estimate%22&hl=en&tbo=1&num=50&ei=Hwk5Spq8KJC0tgerqezcDA&sa=X&oi=timeline_other_dates&ct=timeline-other-dates&tbs=tl:1,tlul:1920,tluh:1930

Oh. . .Lauraville!

jb — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:06:00 +0000

This Old House names Lauraville one of the Best Old House Neighborhoods 2009: First-Time Buyers If you were wondering where I live, and yes -- I do love seeing the neighborhood get its props: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20283038_20633930,00.html.

Deck Refinishing :: 2 quick posts on refinishing

jb — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:04:00 +0000

Deck Refinishing -- Crofton

A few years back, 1995 to be exact, I was living in Fraser, CO. I lived in a condo that my mother had purchased. It sat at the base of the Continental Divide. Me, I played and I waited tables -- the rent, let's just say, was paid on a semi-regular basis. It was a pretty sweet set up for sure.

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On my end though, and through unspoken stipulation, I was required to do my part for the condo's upkeep. When you live in a condo and under the umbrella of a condo association, this really does not amount to much. For the two years that I lived there: painting, light trim work -- and, on notice from the HOA, refinishing of the deck.

. . . Paint by any other name still smells as sweet

I couldn't help but think briefly of this when my buddy Mike H. in Crofton wrote me. As a first time homeowner, he wanted advice on the upkeep of his decks. As mandated by his condo association, he needed to have two small enclosed porches (one would later be clear sealed) washed and re-finished by the end of the month. He had a bid from a local contractor for power washing. Together we looked at the size of decks and the quote provided, and determined that every thing was in order. So, he moved forward. His guy came out and power washed them clean. [caption id="attachment_994" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Powerwashing can remove solid stain"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_995" align="alignright" width="150" caption="The way the finish feathers into boards makes me think it is solid stain"][/caption] I don't remember Mike's exact reaction to the job, but it went something like, "Wow! I didn't know that power washing could do so much. But. . .," he continued, "it stripped almost all of the paint off of one of the porches. . . .What should I do?" "Paint," I said, hmm . . . send me some pics." Our conversation continued a little down this path, and it was clear that he was worried about concealing the rough edges of the remaining paint. Of course, one option would have been to continue the removal of it, but generally: probably out of the question. So, that day, I recommended priming/sealing with a "hi-build" product before painting with something -- flooring-specific. My thinking: that would -- if the right products were found -- prevent the original coat from showing through.

. . . A picture is worth a thousand words

A few days later, Mike emailed these pics €“ [caption id="attachment_996" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Deck refinished to meet condo association mandate"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_997" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Original finish can be seen flashing through slightly"][/caption] Once I saw these, I realized I shouldn't have been distracted by the word "paint". One case where I should have known to question. You see -- what we are looking here is not paint -- but instead solid stain. The contractor he had been working with had, in the mean time, suggested using a solid stain. I, with this new knowledge, approved wholeheartedly. The revelation: I think a lot of us, especially when we are new to home improvement, don't think about these types of products. We see continuous color and we think "paint." Stain -- on the other hand, has more opacity. It is reserved for times when we want -- semi-transparent. However -- stain, both here and at that condo in CO, is a very appropriate selection. Solid stain - for exterior wood, gives you the best of all worlds, including: the colors we like, good hiding properties, breathability and ease of refinishing. What do you think?

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

No Sherwin-Williams doesn't have me on payroll -- Exterior Staining tips:http://sherwin-williams.com/do_it_yourself/staining/exterior_stain/

Sherwin-Williams Exterior Primers: http://www.sherwin-williams.com/do_it_yourself/sherwin_williams_products/exterior_house_paint/primers/

Rail Refinishing :: 2 quick posts on refinishing

jb — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:18:00 +0000

. . . Rise over run

Me and Carolyn A. go way back. Well, at least to 1999 or so, and it is actually my wife that knows her better. Jenny and Carolyn went to grade school together, and they have been friends ever since. Carolyn and I have worked together on and off over the years -- in the software field. We currently are working the same day job, and she has even been known to help with editing some of the longer pieces I put up here. Two summers ago, I helped her with her kitchen (you should see some of these before and after pictures -- wow. For now, see the picture at right -- I snapped it Sunday when I was over). That summer -- I noticed the railing that ran to her upstairs was in horrible shape. You see -- Carolyn is sometimes known for starting projects that she never finishes. In this case, she got the idea to strip the paint from this railing. She applied paint stripper, but got side-tracked, and never removed it. What was left was a mangled, melted mess.

. . . A penny borrowed is a penny earned (in business)

Some of you know that I have been designing a website for sometime now. Needless to say -- I work part time at this venture and have money coming in, well, irregularly. So . . . when it came time for me to hire out a portion of the site design, I needed $200 and fast. I negotiated a deal with Carolyn A. where she would front me this money, and I would come over at a later date to work on said rail. She's good like that. And Sunday was the day, finally, that repayment was due.

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Rail Refinishing -- Dundalk Let me make this clear: as a guy who lives in a 120 year-old home, and considering we have decided to save the original clapboard siding on that house -- I am somewhat familiar with stripping paint. To be honest -- for this task, I have used every means conceivable, including but not limited to -- chemical strippers, mechanical means such as planing and sanding, and physical means like pull scraping and wire brushing. And anyway you look at it -- stripping paint is one nasty job. BUT. . . I also feel that it is something that given time is simply unavoidable. Once a layer of paint fails - you must strip. This day, and on this rail, I go with my weapon of choice -- the heat gun. And all things being equal, and considering the risk of sanding painted surfaces in a older home, it is simply the safest, cleanest and most efficient means possible at removing paint.

. . . First and second thoughts

[caption id="attachment_973" align="alignright" width="150" caption="When using paint stripper work in small managable sections"][/caption] I hit it hard. My hope was to get the entire rail stripped clean that day. But it didn't take me long to realize that this in fact would be quite a project. And even for me -- equipped with contour scrapers and all, I adjusted my short-term projections. I knew going in, any flat surface -- no problem. And of course the rail cap, even with a detailed profile, would not be that difficult to address. It was the balusters, instead, that would be the beast. And -- to complicate matters, Carolyn's stairs have an unusually steep pitch. The result of this -- steeper angles at the intersection between picket and the cap. Again to be honest -- I do not recall having encountered this baluster detail previously. And I let Carolyn know up front -- yes -- this rail was definitely worth saving. At about the three-hour mark -- I will admit, I wavered. This thought popped into my head: Would it have been easier to simply remove the rail and drive it out to get it "dipped?" Whew! Now that was crazy talk. This rail, tight at the stringer, had been assembled on site (some years ago). To remove it would require disturbing the very steady newel posts, and in the end destroy quality craftsmanship. So I burn and I scrape. And I continue that way for a full eight-hour day. Now, the shafts of the balusters were not that difficult. It was the "turns" that proved problematic. Contour scrapers were not working efficiently enough. I tried the cup of a 5-in-1 tool (you know the part for cleaning roller covers). In the end, though, I abandoned these in favor of a simple paint key . . . yes, used for opening paint cans. And it worked well, but it surely was slow going. [caption id="attachment_974" align="alignright" width="150" caption="6 hours with a heat gun and . . . a paint can opener"][/caption]

. . . Caution:

Heat guns, AND the heated paint they produce, are extremely hot. Burn yourself a couple times and you will learn quick enough how to work them. I think Carolyn was happy with my progress that day. We were square. I got approximately 5/8th of the rail to a pretty good place. However, those "turns", the fine detail on the baluster, must still be revisited. Here, chemical stripper may come in handy. My thinking is -- a box of Q-tips. I will be sure, and knowing Carolyn, to come equipped with them the next time I have to visit for debt repayment. And . . . As things are -- I think Carolyn may agree when I say -- if this paint was originally intact (i.e. not failing, flaking, pealing, etc.) it was probably better left untouched.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

This seems like a cool site -- a graphic showing handrail anatomy: http://www.scribd.com/doc/13780072/Handrail-Anatomy Wagner Paint Tools -- Heat Guns: http://www.wagnerspraytech.com/portal/heat_guns_landing_spray,43297,747.html Lead Paint & the risks: http://www.epa.gov/lead/

Washer and Dryer Shopping :: Sizing Considerations

jb — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:04:00 +0000

. . . To install a washer and dryer you must first purchase a washer and dryer

There is probably nothing that makes me feel more like an adult than shopping for appliances and . . . I am repeatedly amazed by my experiences with Sears. With all that has gone wrong in the business world recently and I know that this company went through some tough times in recent years €“ for me it is one, this company, that has always re-invented itself €“ changing when it must. Sure €“ I do feel like I am stepping onto a used car lot when I am in their appliance department. But . . . everything is clearly marked, the salespersons are knowledgeable, they have in-store informational tools, buyer€™s protection, and on I could go . . . .

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Zero-percent interest-free financing (like competitors), ease of pick up (automated now), and, well, they have their Sears support systems, including online tools like Parts Direct. For me, Sears (an American institution at that) is just a joy to work with. And no, I am not on payroll, yet.

. . . The spin

As with everything in our house, there is some sort of space consideration that must be made. Because we converted the original kitchen into a laundry room, and because this portion of the house was built as an addition, and for the purpose of cooking only, the space within which the washer and dryer combo was going to sit was, guess what, limiting. The wall and it€™s interaction with the nearest window measured at approximately 29 ½ inches. This space was designed to receive a standard free-standing range and a countertop. (Standard counter depth, as we know €“ is approximately 25 ¼€.) Any appliance much deeper than that would have concealed a portion of the window€™s trim there, and I didn€™t want that.

. . . You would think that she was a kid in a candy store

To be fair €“ Jenny has, for the 18 months that we have lived in this house, endured the long, cold, dark walk into the basement. Down there, next to the utility tub, sit the appliances that conveyed with the house. Antiquated and not well maintenanced, at times, you would think she was using a washer board and her hot breath to pull off a load of laundry. It was not surprising that she was eager to pick out her new washer and dryer. Plus, she knew what she wanted €“ front load on a pedestal and in a color that matched her eyes. . . Ok, I am just throwing in the part about eye color. . .but she did want a color to add a little zing; something to coordinate with the paint, and other surfaces found in this, and adjoining, rooms. But . . . there was that depth requirement. These things couldn€™t stick out in front of my window -- that would be poor design.

. . . Due diligence

[caption id="attachment_689" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Photo courtesy of Your Appliance Specialist :: Warners' Stellian"][/caption] So we broke out our double Ds: Due Diligence and we did our research. We humped it up to Lowes. What we found was that most full-sized units, that is €“ 4.0 cubic whatevers for the washing machine and 7.0 cubic thingamaspace for the dryer made these appliances slightly too deep. For the record -- some measured, including their thick bubbled doors, around 30 inches, more, though, were closer to 33 inches in depth. So, we had to fine tune our search. We narrowed it down to two models: Whirlpool€™s Duet Sport and Frigidaire€™s Affinity Series. There were others, including a Kenmore (Sear€™s signature brand) that were ruled out because they were only available in white and/or black. The Whirlpool and Frigidaire however both had a blue that we liked. These smaller units -- 3.5 cubic and 6.0 cubic respectively, were originally designed for second story installation, and apparently do well when stacked. (I sure do miss the second story laundry room we had in our last house). For me, in and of itself, this trait is one of the greatest advancements in washer and dryer technology -- this century. You either set these fancy machines side by side, or get this €“ on top of one another. From there €“ we pulled up Consumer Reports on each model, noted that these units as a whole (especially the high speed turbine washer) have a tendency to walk and, well, to smell. We (well Jenny) weighed pros and cons, read comments and reviews, but in the end decided that it was six or one and half dozen of the other. That decided, we were going to go with the Frigidaire; the wife liked their Glazier Blue a little bit more.

. . . Target acquired

Once we had our minds made up, and this is how we often proceed with things like this; we had to find the best deal. I will admit -- I am from the school of thought -- it is a delicate balance -- you can waste precious time on the internet, and/or driving from dealer to dealer trying to save every couple of dollars. That kind of madness does not necessarily make for the best deal. Time is money after all. For us, we started at the Sears Appliance Outlet on York Road. If you live in the Baltimore area and if you have never been there when shopping for appliances or other fixtures (huge array of tractors), it is a must. We walked in that day, a Saturday, I called first, and there it was €“ the dryer we wanted, including two, count them two, matching pedestals. Now, what exactly this appliance went through to get to this scratch and dent location €“ I am not sure, but that was not what had mattered this day. What matter was that this dryer €“ which of course would sit on the right, had only moderate damage to its sides. AND it was gas; just what I needed. Our plans -- stuffing it tight to the outside wall, and pairing it with a washer as a shield, it would do just fine. $1050 to $790. . .and just because I asked, $690. I don€™t bring this up because I think I got an amazing deal, but it did make me and the wifey feel good, and I am sure the appliances guys were still well above margin. Win-Win. We completed are set by visiting the nearest Sears location and purchasing the washer new. That new shiny bright blue machine would be the first thing that most will see when they enter our laundry.

>>More Moxie (Related Links):

Your Appliance Specialist :: Warners' Stellian: http://www.warnersstellian.com/ Sears Appliance Outlet: http://www.searsoutlet.com/d/index.jsp

Side Venting a Gas Dryer :: Close Quarters Connect

jb — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:25:00 +0000

. . . Pick up

I gave Sears their props. I was happy with our purchase. Sure €“ we had to settle for the smaller capacity equipment €“ and yes I do risk going with a scratch and dent dryer in a color that may not be matched in a few years. But for now €“ they looked great and we (read: the wife) was extremely happy. Of course, we opt to pick up the new appliances ourselves (read: me & saving the $65 for each appliance). A little cardboard, some ratchet straps, an appliance chart, and timely help from neighbors €“ no problem.

. . . Prep

[caption id="attachment_978" align="alignright" width="150" caption="The adapter used to prepare a dryer for side venting"][/caption] Any time I make a major purchase, I try to get my hands on the installation instructions long before the fixture goes in. I didn€™t really have that luxury this time. (I guess it is because the project manager on this job is really running things loosely.) But €“ shortly after we loaded in the dryer, I opened the included booklet. I guess it makes sense, but still I was surprised and taken aback to note in the instructions that gas dryers (the flavor with which I was working) could only be side-vented out of the right side. Electric models could go both ways. . .it was the gas inlet, here, that would interfere with attempting this in any other way. [caption id="attachment_979" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The knock out"][/caption] I was aware going in and I had learned (not in any certain terms) that for side-venting on a dryer, some models could be configured using an off-the-shelf duct. In the case of our Frigidaire, a model-specific adapter would, however, be needed. To order this, I pulled up Sears Parts Direct €“ $20 charged to my card and five or so business days later €“ I received it in the mail. I was surprised that this attachment was nothing more than shorter version of the heavy gauge steel duct already fitted to the unit. You see, it had a mounting clip welded to it.

. . . Setting the pedestal

[caption id="attachment_980" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Gas inlet"][/caption] To start, I removed the back panel of the pedestal. (I hope this doesn€™t destabilize it as a platform.) My hope was to slide my gas stub up into the back of it. In reality, however, this really only gained me a fraction of an inch. I was hoping for more, but because of the gas inlet, and where it was placed on the dryer. My gas line later would butt the wall. With this pedestal set in place, mounting hardware installed, and leveled as per instructions, I began work on the back of the dryer as sat in the center of the floor.

. . . Configuring the venting outlet

I removed the back cover €“ and accessed the situation. I installed the new attachment, fitted it with a full swivel duct 90, and added a 48 inch long, 4€ round steel extension to the elbow. The extension would bring the venting out of the side of the appliance. [caption id="attachment_981" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Pedestal slips back to the wall"][/caption] That€™s not exactly the order of the events €“ at some point in there I had to address the knock-out in the side of the dryer. Similar to what I would do with some electrical applications €“ I whacked the head of an old screwdriver with a rubber mallet. I moved around the perimeter of it and in a matter of moments my path was cleared. I held my duct extension in place and took a rough measurement. I had to shorten the extension that I purchased. As opposed to attempting this cut with a pair of aviator snips or with a hack saw, I set the assembled tube on my miter saw and whacked it off. I visited the rough edges with a fine file. I joined everything with foil tape €“ (love this stuff) folded and torn, not cut €“ and replaced the back access panel on the dryer.

. . . Close quarters

[caption id="attachment_982" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Reconfigured -- back opened"][/caption] I knew I wanted to come out the side of the unit and right out the side the house. I purchased a €œclose quarters€ connect, an offset aluminum assembly that slides back and forth from zero to six inches. I did stop to wonder, and since I was right tight to the outside wall, about bringing the louvered vent straight into the unit. Yes, I€™ll admit, this thought did make me a little nervous 1. because I am not certain if there any code limitations with this and 2. because coming straight in with the rigid dryer vent sleeve left me no margin for error. So. . . in the end, I did choose to use the offset. This would push me out from the wall a little, but in close quarters €“ I felt if I could also bring it forward a little, it would ease finishing of the connections.

. . . Committing

I wasn€™t overly exacting with my measurements. I moved the hole forward of the dryer outlet by about 4€ (within the zero to six inch reach I mentioned above). I start this portion of the task by probing the location €“ I always probe before breaking out the hammer drill and hole saw. My choice for this is a 14€ 5/16th bit (well, because it is the only long bit I have). I use my cordless drill to take this through to the outside of the house.

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Down into the basement and out the basement door for a look. It couldn€™t have centered much better than it did. On lap siding, I try to place the louver as such that it will rest on two courses €“ one for mounting at the top, and one for mounting at the bottom. Next comes the 4 1/2€ hole saw €“ yes 4 ½€ for a little wiggle €“ the lowest setting on my drill. A new bit (though at $35 a pop) cut through my siding, sheathing and interior wall surfaces like butter. (And yes €“ I do start and work the hole from each side.)

Insert tab a into slot b

[caption id="attachment_983" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Installed not taped -- siding work remains"][/caption] My hole complete, gas line connected at the back, and the close quarters vent installed, I grab my wife and her muscles. We lifted the dryer up onto the pedestal €“ setting it inside the mounting brackets as diagramed. I inserted the few machine screws provided with the mounting brackets, and we slid the dryer over and out. I made the final gas connection. (I won€™t go into this today €“ pipe dope and TWO wrenches.) I eye balled my house hole, lining it up with the vent (fitted with a temporary flexible extension). It€™s here that I was thankful for the close quarters connect. It glided easily on itself €“ as I gently skidded the appliance backward and over. The additional space that was created for/by this connector would not only be needed for finishing the vent, but also allows me to reach to the back of the pedestal for adjustments to the leveling legs. Because I have plans on replacing the section of siding where this vent now exits €“ I hold off on fitting the vent flap to the duct, and on taping the corners of my close quarters assembly. I will admit, this is the first time I have used this type of connector. I will let you know how it performs. The offset (as with a toilet offset) may have a tendency to capture things. And lint stuck in a dryer vent may not only hinder a dryer's performance, but it may also be a real fire hazard. I am going to have to check in a few months €“ maybe you will remind me.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Sears Parts Direct: http://www.searspartsdirect.com/partsdirect/index.action

set in stone: diy tile (Part 1) :: laying it out

jb — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:31:00 +0000

. . . To steal a phrase from my artist friend €“ Jack Pierce; Meta-History

I really do not have much formal training; here€™s the resume: 1. My grandfather (from the very first post), a machinist and boat mechanic by trade, with whom I worked in my teens €“ taught me how to try to think and, well, to try. [caption id="attachment_1339" align="alignright" width="150" caption="me"][/caption] 2. I worked with a small general contractor in and around San Jose, CA; I was a punch out guy in the late €˜90s. While I did do a little bit of work with drywall, and doors, on plumbing & electrical, and with wood, what this job really taught me was how to fix some things on the quick. 3. I worked with a production builder as an asst. /finish-end construction manager; they taught me the basic construction process €“ about selections and scheduling, about frustration and expectations. This job taught me how to overcome challenges. The rest of what I know about houses comes through trial and error learned doing not insignificant work on four properties. Combined, there is really no home system that I have not performed, at least, a repair on. And I will admit -- some tasks have been accomplished with more success than others.

. . . Out on the tiles

[caption id="attachment_1336" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="client Karen R. bath"][/caption] At this point, and I did occasionally watch the work of experienced tile setters when I had spare time with the production builder; I have left my signature on five tile floors now. Still €“ I don€™t know and I pray for the day €“ that I get a floor where I could put down backerboard or equivalent underlayment €“ and set some tiles without a thought to level, plane or other horizontals that the eye may catch. [caption id="attachment_1335" align="alignright" width="150" caption="client Carolyn A. bath"][/caption] My signature €“ though at times sloppy is still readable. Yes in each case, I can find slight imperfections in all of these floors. The thing that gets me isn€™t the layout, the cutting, or the grouting. It is the setting of the tile. Probably the most mindless of all the tasks; and I ask myself €“ why is this? I am perfectionist €“ but I am far from perfect almost every time. [caption id="attachment_1338" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="client Joan W. bath"][/caption] I always wonder, too €“ what I might learn if I were to attend one of Home Depot€™s free weekend how-to clinics. I always see it on the board. How-To Tile: Floors and Walls €“ every weekend for years; I see it on the board outside the store €“ 10 to 11 . . . Saturday. Me €“ I learn (yes present tense) how to install tile, as I do with most things, by, one, reading an article online, in a mag, or in a book, and, two, by just trying it. Here, I spin back up to the last paragraph; would they show me how to monitor myself in the process of an installation? In an hour, too, could I expect that they would cover all of what might be encountered during the process of laying a floor of tile? My houses always seem to have floors/substrates that require lots and lots of prep. And as they say with everything, it is all in the prep. Would this be covered? More to come on my floor soon.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

It looks like Home Depot is revamping their How-To clinic strategy -- new look on the homedepotclinics.com. Interesting: http://www.homeimproverclub.com/

set in stone: diy tile (Part 2) :: it takes many tiles to make a tile floor

jb — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:00:00 +0000

. . . More Meta-History

As many of you know, I have been working on my house. I had spent lots of time, in recent months, converting the original kitchen into a laundry room. This area, along with an adjoining powder room, represented one (there are others) yet finished portion of this house. These rooms had been gutted and had waited for me for about 2 years. As with most of my larger projects, early in the process, I set down a program. On the schedule, we (my wife & I) had planned an upgrade to the brick patterned linoleum tiles that must have sat in the area for decades.

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For the task of tiling, in particular, I was excited €“ it was gonna cost me virtually nothing. A few years back, I had gotten my hands on six boxes of very decent 13x13 porcelain -- the surplus from another job. At about 15 sf a box, though, it would be tight trying to cover the entire footprint of the space, approximately 95 sf total. I knew going in, I was going to have to improvise, incorporating possibly, a 2nd tile into the layout. Yet €“ I was looking at a fairly inexpensive tile job.

. . . Just give me the honesty truth

Old houses are renowned for their pitching floors. It gives them character. . . hazzah! This tile job was to start with what I have come to know as €“ floor prep. But I knew too that this one would be a challenge. To give you an idea: running from the powder room to an adjacent wall in a hallway, the floor dipped over a span of 8 ft by a full inch and a quarter.

. . . You can€™t handle the truth

Leveling floors is surely a dissertation in itself. But since that is not really the focus of this story, I will try to keep it brief. What are the options? Build a €œsleeper€, jack up the floor, remove the existing sub floor to address or even replace the joists, build a dry set mortar bed like a specialist might, or reach for €œSelf-Leveling Compound€. Ahhh. . .the trumpets blow. I mean come on, how could I resist a product that is going to install itself? And I have had a handful of moderately successful experiences with this solution. But don€™t be fooled €“ it doesn€™t really do all the work for you. Just because these products seek their own level when poured, does not mean necessarily that they do not need your assistance. Custom€™s QuikLevel (which I selected for this project), LATICRETE 88 Latilevel, and the like all still require you to mix them correctly, in an amount that can be practically applied (working time 30 minutes roughly). They also require you to make sure you direct the compound to where it must go. For this job though, I was willing to participate. I mean, after all, look at the other options.

. . . Prep and prep again

I tried, as I always do, to estimate the number of bags that would be needed, and let€™s be honest, I mean at 30 bucks for a 50 pound bag, I do try to stretch it a little. I won€™t mention, too, that for this job, I had decided to incorporate a Sun Touch Warm Wire system into the floor. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="301" caption="Install of Warm Wire :: Borrowed from http://heatedbathroom.com (click to visit now)"][/caption] By my calculations, I was buying eight bags of this compound. And just like that €“ my inexpensive tile job went from $0 to $250. But hey, I was saving on the tile, right, so what the heck. I started by mixing four bags and I poured them out over the backerboard I had already installed. I installed the heating system and poured out the remaining four bags. This process took all tolled, and with my busy schedule, about three working days.

. . . Making choices and living with them

So there it was €“ my leveled floor. Well €“ it wasn€™t perfectly level. I could see it. I didn€™t need a long-footed level or a laser to tell me that. There was a belly right in center of the floor, the most visible area. Now €“ I have dealt with this before. I just didn€™t calculate for enough leveling compound. So what do I do? Buy more compound? That seems like the most logical choice. Well, I guess, logic doesn€™t always win with me. I mean, after all, and my wife the real estate agent has beat this one into me, I am not getting paid, here, for a perfect job. I am just trying to make a functional space that will add a little value to my house. So what did I do? F €“ It. I started laying out the tile. I just needed to build the low spots up with a little extra thin set mortar. I had done this before and I could do it again. I just didn€™t want to spend the money, and I definitely did not want to take the time. More to come on my floor soon. Titled: the painful and humbling truth.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Here is the link to Sun Touch's Warm Wire system. I really enjoyed working with it. It gave me the flexibility to put the heat were I wanted it, in multiples rooms. As a diy job, again all in the prep, and it was easy enough. But I may suggest having a second set of hands handy if they are needed: http://www.suntouch.com/warmwire/

set in stone: diy tile (Part 3) :: tile by the mile

jb — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:04:00 +0000

. . . Where's the level (aka I'm not quite ready for the painful and humbling truth)

There it was, game day, time to lay my tile. The first step, as with most projects, consult with the misses. What I had in mind was to lay the tile out, straight and simple. I did already have one box of a second porcelain that probably would have filled in nicely for any shortage, loosing/using that tile in the laundry room€™s closet or as an inconspicuous border somewhere. Well, I ran this plan by my better half, and this is what she said. €œSince you are already saving money on this floor, why don't you add a border to it . . . to make it pop?€ She probably did not have her head around how much I had actually spent on leveling this subfloor. And though I do think she sometimes overlooks these kinds of costs, I did not put up a fight. Like a good husband €“ I shook my head up and down, took a quick measurement and carted myself up to our local discount tile center, sample tile in hand. This jaunt yielded a couple of acceptable choices. I bought enough to complete a border in one of two ways. Option one -- a 12x12 glazed slate-like porcelain (which would need to be cut). Option two -- a 4x4 alternative. Both reasonably priced, and there in Home Discount Tile, I warmed to the idea of a border.

. . . Let the race begin

I raced home, and started laying out. I was eager to get it started that day. Now, you may ask €“ why didn't I stop to draw out my layout on paper? Well, answer €“ as with some jobs €“ I didn€™t really know what I was going to do until it was time to actually do it. I figured first that I really liked the slate, the 12x12, so I started by cutting a few into perfect 3rds.

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Something told me, too, that I had to square up working lines for the border, and then go from there. I mean, old houses are renowned for their precariously out of square walls. Couldn€™t count on them; so I sat some cut border tiles as Ls in the corners, and took diagonal measurements across the floor. I used my framing square to make perfect right angle pencil markings at these locations. Later with chalk lines snapped corner to corner, I began the layout of the field. Now remember €“ I knew I was going to be pushing it with the porcelain I had originally, but hey, the border would alleviate some of that problem . . . right? Soon after beginning to place them, I had an idea. Those 4x4 tiles that I had bought for the border potentially €“ I thought to myself, €œWhy don€™t I alternate them in the field to create a pattern.€ The pattern I picked ultimately came from a reference book that I had on hand; it was sitting in the office adjacent to this space.

. . . Tile floors are in the eye of the beholder

I centered on the most prominent opening €“ the point of €œintroduction€ to the laundry was the doorway at the office. I laid down a few tiles in my picked pattern using a 1/4 inch grout spacing. If I were running a straight and simple field, I would have run one row up and one row over to make a T. In this case, a little different -- I set a few tiles down, stepped back and looked. I had to ask myself €“ how was this pattern going to fall when it nears the most visible areas of the room? Further, how would it look at the far end of the powder room, and/or at the base of the cabinets here in the laundry room? I didn€™t have this layout drawn on paper, and I am certainly not great with advanced mathematics. I felt, these points considered, I had to run the pattern all the way out to where it would be going. So I did, and I was glad I did €“ because on the first attempt, my layout fell as very thin slivers near the laundry cabinets. I had to make an adjustment, three inches toward the powder room.

. . . If at first you don€™t succeed try, try again

Just so you know - accounting for time to discuss with my wife, pick up and pick out the tile (as I place it), and the time to cut some, I was now into my second day of layout. After my adjustment, I found that I didn€™t now like the way it landed on the side wall of the powder room. I was going to have to compromise, split the difference. In the end, and the third time is a charm €“ I moved the whole pattern back into the laundry room by about an inch and a half. And there it was; I had might layout -- nailed. Now, as is the case almost always with me, I was working alone. Sure, I grabbed my wife for approval on the layout, but that€™s it though €“ me and me alone. She liked it, the layout, but she did admit that she couldn€™t quite totally visualize it. No fault to her really, most folks can€™t fully visualize how something will look unless they have a drawing, or until it is all done. I have to admit too €“ in this case €“ I really didn€™t see it just yet either. So . . . I spent the rest of this day laying it all out, cuts and all. When I was finally happy, I was ready then to set it in stone.

. . . Setting in Stone

I mixed up some thin set, and installed the powder back into the hallway, damn. . . and there it was -- my hump/dip. Perfect so far, and it looks great. . . but what to do about that hump. More to come on my floor soon. Final installment: or is it?

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Shouts to Tile City (for providing us cyber surfers such great graphics) & to Robin at Home Discount Tile Center (for help with planning for my border). My two-tile pattern. Home Discount Tile calls it Pattern 89 (or thereabouts). Tile City calls it Pattern 2-A: http://www.tilecity.com/layouts.php Home Discount Tile http://www.homediscounttile.com/

set in stone: diy tile (Part 4) :: the big mistake, aka

jb — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 09:35:00 +0000

. . . Is that a hump on your back?

Ok, there was a hump in my floor where the hallway met the laundry. This was due in part to the fact that I mixed up too much self-leveling compound, pouring it out one night in low light after a long day of work (ask my wife to recount this experience). I know, "Excuses, Excuses," €“ This hump only accentuated the fact that I couldn't get it where I needed it to go. The compound dried too quickly, and a low spot took its place in the center of the laundry floor. So what did I do? Well, I mentioned previously that I had installed under-tile heat in this floor. I was reluctant, because of it, to address the hump with my angle grinder. (If you have ever done this, you know what I mean; it makes a crazy mess.) Instead, I grabbed a tile stone, threw gloves on, and started rubbing. Self-leveling compound, in the grand scheme of concrete products, is relatively soft; thankfully, I was able to knock that hump down. At least by enough, to proceed. I was back on track and picked up tiling at the far end of the laundry room €“ later this run would intersect with where I left off in the hallway. I guess with all my focus on that little hump, I all but forgot about that dip in the center of my floor. . . spreading and setting, spreading and setting, about 10sf at a time. I used a level when needed.

. . . On a roll now, slapping it down

I got a few tiles in that second day, and I really started to roll. I was feeling confident, maybe even a little cocky. I guess over night I assured myself that any irregularity in this floor would be hidden in some part by the more than simple pattern I was using. On a roll with tile, for me, was still slow going. I was taking special care, depending more on the tile spacers themselves than on a jury stick or any other working lines, to set the tiles perfectly in pattern. I was trying to ensure too that the corners of my tiles were aligning with the edges of each adjacent tile. After a couple of hours like this, I stepped back. And it looked good. It was time for lunch & well, this day €“ I decided to grab a beer.

. . . Back to it and finishing it out

It was a hot day last August, and I was feeling good about my job. I ran out the rest the floor pretty effortless. As the natural light faded €“ me, yes, a few beers in, and my daughters started tugging at me the minute they arrived home from the pool. I told them to give me a few more minutes, as I assessed my job.

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I thought to myself, €œI really kinda did away with my level about part way through the day. But . . . it looks, ok, from here.€ And I put it away; I decided instead to hang with the girls. "Amazing . . .the exact perfect number (I am not kidding) of field tile I needed was in those first six boxes . . . . Amazing." I would grout a weekend or so later.

. . . Set in stone (aka €“ do as I say not as I do)

Anyway, that was my tile job. And here comes the painful and humbling truth. I mean, I could have been something; this tile job had all the potential to make me a superstar. But the truth is €“ I simply blew it. . . . And I have told my wife this many, many, many times. I skimped just a little too much on prep, drank beer at critical time during the project, and totally and completely forgot about something called a level when . . . I really, really needed it. When working with wood, mistakes like these are really not a big deal; with tile, however, it set in stone. Any corrections, adjustments, and/or tweaking in any manner is generally not easy. I am talking -- grout saw, hammer and cold chisel, a mess and much sweat. And yes, I have tried once already on that spot, the dip in the center of my laundry floor. I have already ripped up and replaced some tiles. Is it passable, now? -- Maybe. But I shamefully admit, when we entertained a few weekends ago, I actually pulled our cats' food mat over into that location. (It hid the imperfection rather well.) My wife does her part, though, she tells me, "You are a not tile setter, and it looks great," and she continues, "It won€™t hurt us when we go to sell the house." Still, I can barely look at it. I failed and . . .in this case, I have no one to blame but myself.

. . . Sometimes it is hard . . . to chalk it up as a learning experience:

The points here, with all these words, are numerous, and are in list form below: 1. I failed because I forgot the basics; I was more concerned with the radiant heat and the pattern than I was with square one, setting the tiles down properly. And Yes, it was a little painful writing this article, but I had to get it off of my chest. 2. I have received several sincere complements on my floor, but still I struggle with it. I mean, in the afternoon light, and in the evening, you can hardly see the area I speak of. But . . . in the low-angled light of morning, typically around the time I am writing to you about home improvement €“ I see it, sitting there and taunting. AND it drives me crazy. 3. I think of all the how-to stories that would have made great "how-not-to" stories. 4. I think that I should never, ever, take any little bit of skill I have acquired for granted €“ I am still required, always, to use my head. 5. You (general) can do everything exactly right for 99% of a job, but just that one percent €“ (and this is where it all deviates from writing) can really screw you. 6. Floors are not only for looking at; they are for walking on. 7. Everything on a house can be undone or re-done (even tile work). It€™s not brain surgery. If at first you don€™t succeed €“ try, try again. And you know, I will. 8. I wonder if this job would have turned out better if I had someone, anyone, there to assist me. 9. I am not a tile setter €“ I am a facilitator. It is me, Building Moxie. Thank you for reading as I exposed some of my shortcomings, and I still can not bring myself to post some shots of the floor. Please think of me as I await my next opportunity with tile, with mayb a fix and more pics for this. Slide show pics hopefully tomorrow. Thanks again.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

With tile, there can be issue with lot (as a friend of mine -- you know who you are -- can tell you), you know, variations with coloring and thickness. This is especially true when you consider that the manufacturing of some tile can just cease.

For me, I was lucky enough, all out of tile, to have a go-to for my needed fixes. Where others said, "We can't get it." These guys said, "No problem.": http://www.ctmarble.net/

pics from the laundry, powder room & office -- finished . . .

jb — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:56:00 +0000

Almost

I'll admit -- we still have a little punch out on the electric, some touch up painting, and I do intend to add shelving above the "picture rail" in the powder room. Plus -- there are some adjustments I would like to make (if for no one else other than myself) to the tile. There really was not anything truly inspired about this project (it was not without its share of issues). I am proud, however, to say that most materials (including those used in rough-in) were either salvaged, saved, reused, begged for, or taken from my own surplus, except: * Some building materials (carpet pad, leveling compound, and probably a few other things), toilet, laundry sink, cabinet hardware, and floor boxes from the Home Depot. * Surface-mount light fixtures, and post-form laminate countertop from Lowe€™s Home Improvement. * Sun Touch's Warm Wire from Mosaic Tile: http://www.mosaictileco.com/ * Accent tiles and grout from Home Discount Tile Center: http://www.homediscounttile.com/ * Carpet (an area rug) from Ollies Bargin Outlet: http://www.olliesbargainoutlet.com/ * Exterior door hardware from Clement Hardware: http://www.clementhardware.com/ * Washer & Dryer from Sears. Total cost of materials (not including washer and dryer and some miscellaneous supplies) right around $2000. (I could do the math for you from my books if you like.)

Pics

My apologies, this is one area of the house I had very few before pics of. But trust me -- it was wreck. View the album on Picasa clicking on the pic below. Thank you for visiting & BMoxie BMore!

Building Moxie (an outtake) Two things that woke me up in the middle of the night last night

jb — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:58:00 +0000

The Best Thing to happen to Home Improvement since the Hammer I recently signed up for Twitter. You know, it, Twitter, has been all the €œtweet.€ I signed up with the sole purpose of tweeting back to the website that I recently put up, http://www.buildingmoxie.com/. With a little widget there, I can keep my visitors in tune with my €œstatus.€ I really don€™t know how to use it yet, I will admit, RT and @ = confused. I can€™t really provide assurance on when exactly I will start using it for its intended purpose. But its value, beyond my status, is already tremendously clear. If you care, my handle is @BMoxieBMore (and yes I use it as a salutation) About a week or so in, I had some free time, so I started to dig a little. First, I was amazed by the number of tweets that were actually about Twitter (or other social networking vehicles) €“ Meta-tweeting, I'll call it. Second, I figured I needed to follow a few others. I started by searching for a few organizations that I really respect; This Old House, Fine HomeBuilding, etc. Then I figured I should look a little closer to home, here, in Baltimore; The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Magazine, etc. It was during this rally that I stumbled across @BaltimoreHUD -- Baltimore HUD Homes. It worked -- #Houses, #Baltimore = Follow. Now, @BaltimoreHUD likes to tweet. I mean, I know I am only following like 30 some people/organizations, but already there have been several times when these folks have filled my entire home page. Every five minutes, all day long, it seems. Link, Link, Link, Link . . . . Sure I am interested in some of the things they want to present, but come on €“ I am this close (can you visualize me holding up my fingers?) to blocking them. And . . . I have heard (but have not checked the validity of this claim) that some organizations are tweeting their heads off simply to decrease the amount of money they must pay Google and other search engines for sponsored placement. I guess, in the end €“ I don€™t know their motives, and I will not begin to explore their organizational structure, but right now, reality is -- they are just noise to me. I don€™t even look at their posts €“ and it is a waste, because I am certain I am missing something useful.

More Moxie: Baltimore HUD Homes: http://twitter.com/BaltimoreHUD

Building Moxie (another outtake) Two things that woke me up in the middle of the night last night

jb — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:47:00 +0000

The internet and the opposable thumb My junior year of college, 4th year in real time, I was at Towson State University and I had settled on English as a major with a loose concentration in Writing. At this point, I was writing some for the school paper, I had a full-time waiting tables gig, and I was of course keeping up with my course work. My second semester at Towson, Style in Non-Fiction (or something like that) €“ and one point applies. I don€™t recall the total number of papers we were responsible for during this class, but the year was 1991. For, let€™s say, the middle project that semester, I submitted a poorly conceived and poorly executed article on technology and the opposable thumb. The broad premise of it was this: as technology advanced the population in general would move away from doing things with their hands (in the traditional sense), and that, in some ways, was not desirable. Now, with only a 100-level anthropology class under my belt, could I have possibly been qualified to write such an essay? No way. In these cases, most good writers will turn to experts in related fields to provide credible info and perspective. Did I in this case? Nope, not a good writer I guess. I got a C on this paper, and if I remember correctly that was probably generous. Still, I got the impression some way, some how that the prof was somewhat put off by the idea. I guess €“ her professional interests might have overruled her first love -- the game of tennis. I wonder if today, being of the same physical capability, she dedicates more, less or the same amount of time actually doing that endeavor that she loved so much. Writing is re-writing and . . . The question really is -- has technology freed up time for you, or has it taken time from you? Let me know what you think. Can technology, over the past 18 years, and the most widely advanced child of it, the internet and its mobile offshoots, be credited with a diminished use of your hands (in the traditional sense)? Don€™t mind your one thumb that probably isn€™t doing anything much as you do not comment below. Sorry about side tracking. I will be back on the story of Building Moxie, sprinkled with a little more about home improvement and the internet, tomorrow.

More Moxie: Props (though maybe unrelated) to @Make (Make Magazine) for their €œLost Knowledge€ component: http://www.makezine.com/ The school formally known as Towson State University: http://www.towson.edu/

Building Moxie (part 2 of a few) aka -- it really is all about me . . .

jb — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:46:00 +0000

Click here to see part 1 And . . . Proceed At Your Own Risk Right around August, 2004, I moved into a position (coordinated by a friend) in Baltimore. My title €“ Process Analyst. I know, it sounds a little made up, but that€™s what I did; I was charged with documenting and exploring organizational throughput. I was qualified for this mainly because I had worked for a stint as a quality assurance analyst with a global web-software provider. It was the documentation part that made me right for this job and it was that aspect, in fact, that I always liked the most.

Change, as in the Incredible Hulk or Mr. Hyde

Right around the time, November or so, I finally got into really pouring over their accounts, something strange began to happen. . . (Heartburn maybe). I found that I was somehow looking at things a little more analytically. And, guess what, I started to look a little deeper at myself, too. Was this Mr. Miller€™s voice popping into my head? And I asked myself, €œAre you happy?€ I mean €“ You can imagine -- Is this really what I want to do for the rest of life? Will this be my legacy -- a bunch of unread help files and some flow charts? Blahhhk. And I didn€™t like it. Something had to change, and I literally figured that out overnight. Change starts with where you're at (aka you must find point A to move to point B) By this point, we (my wife and I) had successfully completed do it yourself renovations on our first house (second property), a Federal-style row home in Upper Fells Point, Baltimore. We had bought a larger cedar-shaked €œColonial€ (loosely categorized) in the North East Baltimore neighborhood of Lauraville. Our daughter, Evyn, had just turned one. The house, in Lauraville, though mostly re-finished (Scott P. who came before us had done a good job), still needed some work in the front rooms, in the kitchen, and on the exterior. And I was ready. At this point, I was pretty well locked in. TOH had been nightly reading for years, and I was now set up with TIVO. It would record any Ask This Old House that might pop up. In general, I was studying. I was exploring books of all sorts under the category of Remodeling. It didn€™t end at home though; you might know how it is €“ you sit behind a computer and sometimes you stray. And there, at work, as a Process Analyst -- it began; my search to carve a niche in something that made sense for me. I guess it started as simply as putting one and one (and one) together Step 1 €“ Look at myself. What can I do? Well, I accessed. 1. I knew a little bit about the internet. 2. I can write how-to or help documentation. & 3. I can do a few things on houses. Step 2 €“ Figure what line of work fits the basic skill set provided by Step 1. Step 3 €“ Find a point to start: How-to websites. Elementary! So I began collecting data and analyzing. How-to home improvement websites €“ the first few weeks of looking Now, plugging anything I needed into Google wasn't anything new to me. I mean, while no "cybrarian," I was pretty good at filtering through results, finding what I needed. But this was the first time that I looked at things in this way. I wasn€™t looking for information, per se; I was looking instead at what sources of information were available. Whether I knew or not, I was looking at a market niche. My first instinct, as it is probably pretty obvious, was to try to find places where I might make some submissions. I had tried freelancing previously; though published a few times, I was generally unsuccessful. I just didn't have the make-up, I guess. So I moved beyond that pretty quickly. I, instead, began looking for holes. What I found was -- and again, pretty quickly -- that there were really not that many . . . even in 2004. eHow, About -- Super sites; outlets overflowing from other media -- TOH, Home Again, HGTV; DIY sites and forums -- DoItYourself.com and many, many more. But still €“ there must be room for me. How-to without enough know-how Now, having some experience both as professional, and, on the other end of it, as a do it yourselfer, I felt like I was in a pretty good position to do something. But what, how, and did I actually have enough know-how? I mean what would qualify me to either write or host a site on home improvement? N

othing really -- was the answer I came up with at that time. So, I knew I would have to learn more . . . but how?

Then, one night probably March the following year, with our second child abrewing, I found myself at a dinner party in Columbia. We bumped into one of my wife€™s friends. I knew Missy, of course, but I never knew that she worked in the regional office of a large, respectable, national builder. . . . And by May of that year, it was done. A job as a Construction Manager, and wringing my hands, I was really going to learn. Unfortunately, what I ultimately learned -- really wasn't what I expected. More soon. And I warned you. Click here for part 3

More Moxie: TOH: http://www.thisoldhouse.com

Building Moxie (part 3 of a few) - me and the Big Builder

jb — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:45:00 +0000

Click here for part 2

May, 2005 €“ I quit my job and started as a construction manager with a big builder. Sure, it was a little risky. And married to a real estate agent, I certainly wasn€™t numb to the idea of the bubble-bursting, new reality that was headed our way.

We (my wife and I) had our second child, Eva, on the way, and we had just completed the purchase of our second property in Lauraville, an 1880€™s farmhouse. (It can be categorized as a €œfixer upper." LOL.) And . . . Ok €“ I wasn€™t the Construction Manager for our site; I was one of two assistant construction managers (I did not have experience in this field after all). The way our work duties were divided, more of my responsibilities fell to the finishing and service portions of the construction schedule. To spin it, I was a finish-end construction manager. Stop here €“ I definitely have mixed feelings about my time with the big builder. And I am not sure exactly how this will all come out. But . . . I do not think it is wise for me to be overly critical of either the company I worked for, or of any of the people that worked with them. What I have to say, here, probably, is more indicative of the industry as a whole.

Just add water

This organization, a one-time Fortune 500 company, really seemed to have their act together; from the top, almost down to the bottom. They held (and probably still hold) a butt load of land, most of the material for certain building systems was integrated and generated internally, and they had an in-house architectural department putting out simply excellent floor plans. To the public, to investors, and to prospective employees, this all added up to one hell of a bulletproof operation. They were leaders in what I like to call instant community. (Just add water and it grows.) The site at which I worked, to put it one way €“ was choice. It was choice Baltimore County property, a perfect location for a Luxury home line.

Building on paper (aka the formula)

I don€™t want to get hung up here too much. They did what they do well. (And I did have enough experience to fit nicely into their system.) They were/are €œproduction home builders€ and that€™s what they did: they produced houses. How/why would I have thought that that was anything less than the ultimate goal €“ I don€™t know? I guess, I did have a few preconceived expectations. No, I never thought that I was going to swing a hammer. Did I think I would learn the nitty gritty of how home systems actually work, and why things are done they way they are done? Yes, Yes I did €“ and I did learn a little bit about this and that. Did I think I was going to learn how to build a house? Yes, I did, and I did €“ just not in the manner that I expected. You see, within the formula of production home building, clients pick their home site, a house style they like, and fill in the myriads of selections in a blitzkrieg of meetings that ultimately ensue. My immediate boss, who I count as a friend and a mentor, did an excellent job of working with €“ to be fair, even if you read this, a €œhard to please€ clientele. Generally, the whole process (at least in this organization) was guided by top notch professionals. With all these systems in place, you might think, the houses could build themselves

Quite frankly, this was a very stressful job. (And I think everyone that encountered me in that period of my life probably knew.) Did I like it? Yes; was it stressful? Yes; was I good at it? Well, maybe not. And I guess it was all in the management of things; Am I good at managing stress? Sometimes, No.

And sure on paper, you knew the selections, usually you knew what and how everything was going in €“ on what schedule. (This too comes from a guy who had spent some years managing €œpaper.€) But maybe the problem (at least for me) was the disconnect -- I mean, the communication tools were there, even service requests. This is a good way to be; I am in fact an advocate of getting things, and seeing things, in writing. But I ask, does everything in construction actually happen as planned, as it is laid out on paper? What do you think? Paper doesn€™t build houses, and paper doesn€™t make new homeowners happy, people, and the things they do, do. (I said do do.) And in lies another point at which I begin Building Moxie.

Laid out and laid off

I mean €“ you think I was in grade school again, not building million dollar houses. He said, she said (as much from the organization) €“ like you wouldn€™t believe. And when push comes to shove, it really is the money that makes things happen. Again, I try to resist the urge of hammering any individuals; we all have our own stresses, strains, and others to answer to. I really wasn€™t that surprised when I got the word the day after Labor Day, 2006. Yes, I got laid off. Was it performance-related? Maybe, I kinda sucked. I was a little too soft with sub-contractors, and found that way too often (in a business sense) I sided with homeowners despite documented procedure. I mean, I took it as a relief. It meant I could pursue other things; not least of all €“ working on our newly acquired fixer upper. Of course, I had thought about it previously, and as any good cast off construction manager, I thought to myself, "This might be my opportunity to pursue a business as a home improvement contractor." My wife, however, was not so optimistic. More Building Moxie soon. Thanks for reading. Click here for part 4

More Moxie: I actually grew up in Perry Hall; Baltimore County, MD: http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/

Building Moxie (part 4 of a few) aka you have to do what you need to do before you can do what you want to do

jb — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Click here for part 3 (I might have to trademark the "un-post")

I was hanging a door, when I got the call. At some point after being let go, I must have put my resume up on Career Builder dot com. And that€™s how they found me, I guess. My former company (remember that global web-software provider) called and said, €œDo you want to come back?€ I said, €œLet me ask my wife.€

Well, and I almost laugh out loud, it had been a tough year €“ you know €“ not getting thrown into a new thing. Not having to dig up clients; not having to pay for health insurance; not having to pay taxes; not having to rehab a house, and definitely not having to figure out how to estimate and bill for the work I was doing. What do you think my wife said? Well, . . . you know. As with most things in life, I feel that I do more right than wrong I consulted with my former boss (a one time custom home builder) before I jumped in. I said, €œI guess I am just going to work for myself.€ His initial response, €œJust don€™t make any mistakes.€ Sound advice, I thought. Did I make a mistake or two that year? Absolutely; actually I probably made a few more than that. And yes, some were . . . work related. I was hungry, after all €“ taking anything I could get my hands on, and just giving it away. A couple of the jobs I took on €“ well, I really didn€™t "nail." And when you (as a new small guy trying to do right by clients) don€™t hit expectations for quality and/or expenditure, it is tough to have billing power. Do I regret some of the decisions I made? Absolutely not. (I mean, by now you should know me; I was . . . .) And I did learn a thing or two about myself that year. Most notably €“ that I, not as contractor, move slowly. I also learned that the jobs I felt most comfortable doing, the ones I excelled at €“ were the larger ones, the ones where the client & I could engage each other early . . . in the planning phases. These jobs did not produce the pictures below (among some others):

Anyway, back on the horn

Financially, it was getting tight. Though the real estate market was slumping, we had funds left over from the sale of our most previous property. My wife, though, not working full time as it were €“ was getting even fewer leads and prospects, and we were burning through that cash quickly. The girls two and four then €“ were starting pre-school, and it was time to pay. So, as any good head of the household, I sucked it up, negotiated a slightly higher salary, and, well, went back to the desk job I had abandoned four years earlier. And . . . as you might have guessed €“ I currently work that job. To make that decision sit, though €“ I told myself (and my wife) €“ I am going to take this time to finish that business plan, started back in August of 2004.

I mean, this was the only way I was going to possibly keep my sanity (or loose it).

Jobs do not make a career I always squirm (especially now) when I get the question: What do you do? And I answer as best I can, €œI am a software analyst,€ my head nearly exploding. I mean, don€™t get me wrong. I really do like the company I work for, always have. I am proud of the product I work on, and of my contributions to it. I even own stock. And yes, I am risking myself by putting myself out here like this.

Though I do most of my research, development, and writing before I enter the workplace . . . well, to be honest, sometimes it is unavoidable €“ I just need a fix . . . .

I convince myself it is OK. Others surf YouTube, play fantasy football, and do this, that, and the other thing. I instead focus on my baby. And by September of 2007, I already had a name picked out; I was calling her €œShow-How.€ Building Building Moxie :: Some Methods and Means

More Moxie: Career Builder: http://www.careerbuilder.com/ The most fantastic school in the world: http://www.dulaneydayschool.com/

Building Building Moxie (developing a little business idea) aka . . .

jb — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:35:00 +0000

Click here for last I have done a few things; open a Lemonade stand wasn't one them So . . . September, 2007 -- maybe under the cover of delusion, and definitely silent, I settled into the regiment. I would rise some mornings as early as 4am. I was going to knock out this business plan. I had downloaded a template from sba.gov a few years back, and actually started working on it, then. It was a sample developed for a fictitious magazine publisher. For me, it seemed to work. My goal €“ already decided upon -- figure how to develop the better home improvement how-to. It had been agreed upon, already, that since my wife really couldn€™t contribute substantial household income until sometime around . . . September, 2009 (then, two years off), I had some time to work on this. Carry on luggage I feel in some ways that I have a slightly unique view of houses: 1. For me, they are very utilitarian; form and function, yes €“ but function over form, always. & 2. We (my wife & I €“ perpetually stepping up) simply have a high tolerance for the unfinished project. All projects eventually get completed, and these projects add value (this last point may only be true if you invest time and money wisely). And they tell you that all business plans are based to some degree on, in my big monster truck voice, ASSUMPTIONS. And yes, I made some. Beyond these as I will tell you €“ I pretty much emptied my head of everything else. Some people I have talked with do discount the idea of writing a formal business plan. SBA says something like only 15% of businesses have them, but, again, I simply had that time. Writing for me has always been an incredible thinking tool, and, now with a business plan drafted, I can say with absolute certainty that it, the writing of it, was a fantastic way to corral a gagillion ideas.

The plan, in form

The template I was working with contained the following sections: Executive Summary, Venture Summary, Management Summary, Industry Analysis, Market Overview, Strategy & Summary, a Products section, a Sales Strategy section, and a space for Financial Analysis. (I added two additional sections later; these were called BuildingMoxie.com and Implementation/Exit Strategy.) I started with some free writing under the heading Business Description. And I found quickly that I was still carrying some additional baggage. You see, having pored over many how-to articles through the years, I did have some preconceptions about them. How-tos, no matter how well written, and except at either the highest level and/or at the lowest level . . . are merely starting points. I can€™t tell you how many times €“ even with some assembly instructions €“ I read and I followed, in the end, just to discard them because they did not fully apply, because I felt I could think of a better way, or because it felt as if the writer, simply a writer, had not actually performed the task. Anyway, Band :: Guided by Voices, I moved forward It was easy to complete the Management Summary portion of the plan. I assumed early on it would be me, and just me, managing this thing in the short term. Because of that, too, I would later assume that I simply would not have a lot capital to play with. But with a draft for the Venture Summary completed, I moved onto the Industry and Marketing portions of the plan. Again, I highlight, I had no budget and was developing this in my free time. (I assumed -- Access to real market intelligence was either buried at the library, or simply out my reach, financially.) Ok, Let's take off The industry, that is the home improvement industry, typically divides its end users into two camps €“ do-it-yourself and do-it-for-me (you can throw buy-it-for-me in there if you want). These audiences of course are addressed through three main channels: in the real world via suppliers and/or service organizations, through traditional media (print and television), and via the internet. Industry research (aka. . . one simple truth) The home improvement industry had consistently been growing for years and years and years, cool. (Remember: researching in 2007 €“ and we are seeing a little hiccup now.) The population had been growing: These people will eventually need a place to live, cool. The market had been expanding: Houses, especially in my locale, continue to age, cool. Generally there was nothing that I saw that persuaded me to end this pursuit. One fundamental assumption was not disproven: As long as there are homes, there will be need for . . . home improvement. Getting scientific (almost) I guess, they say, you need an offering that is unique from others, and you need someone who desires it. So for me €“ I started with a look at the lay of the land. What and who was out there, and what was missing. I mean, I already knew my target €“ Anyone who owns a house around Baltimore, Maryland (just kidding, I know a little more about my demographic than just that). But that will have to wait for the next post . . . My research on Home Improvement websites, click here for that post.

More Moxie: Helpful resources for small business owners: http://www.sba.gov/ These guys are smart: http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/index.htm And these guys have a lot of statistics: http://www.census.gov/ Ironically -- This DIY Workshop opened less than a mile from my house this past August -- and I have yet to speak with the proprietor, though I intend to. It surprised me, yet offered validation. I wish her luck: http://www.bethsdiyworkshop.com/

How to Adjust an Exterior Door :: Building Moxie style

jb — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:10:00 +0000

. . . Its not shameless self promotion if you have nothing to promote

When John S. contacted me about his front entry door, I told him what his options were. His front door, solid wood, had for years been swelling in the summer months. I have worked with John previously (see the attic remodel post here), and I know his story well. He lives in a three-story Fells Point Federal; he has been there for about 10 years. Like many today, he is looking to save a buck on home repairs, but never at the cost of an inferior job. So I laid out some options: 1. I could refer him to a handyman I know, Steve at the Pfing Group, 2. I could give him a detailed set of instructions so he could tackle the fix himself, or 3. I could come down, and we could do it together. I asked him a few additional qualifying questions, including what he had tried. It was there that he assured me he wanted a professional to take a look. Could I come? I said sure.

. . . There is no science to a door fix like this

Well, there is some. With this door, wood, it will expand and contract with changing weather conditions. And for John here -- and though all six sides of the door seem thoroughly painted, the humid summer months of Baltimore mean an expanding door, and a slightly sticky fit. They say you should always be able to fit a coin between the edge of the door and the jamb. I was always taught 1/16" at each side on installations. (OK for an exterior door -- you might want to use a dime.) And at his latch-side jamb, we certainly couldn't get a coin in there (quarter, nickel, or dime). So we had to take some action. With door fixes, I always start at the hinges. In this case, the screws seemed snug. I had come with a bag of 2 1/4" #9 (and will someone please tell me what the deal is with #9 screws for hinges -- conspiracy). We were going to take these longer screws and set them in the middle holes of each hinge (jamb side). The hope was to suck the hinges back just that much to give us an extra fraction of an inch of clearance. Did it work, in this case, maybe the width of a hair. Better, but . . . .

. . . To plane or not to plane that is the question

At this point, I told John -- something had to give; it's either the jamb or the door. And I went through the operation, talking out the options. With that, we stepped back and took a look. The door itself had a good bevel on it, and had not previously been "worked." The jamb, however, was a little wavy. I could see it with my eye, and once I pointed it out -- guess what, he could see it too.

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This tells me that the jamb (maybe not property nailed, poorly installed to begin with) was possibly the element that was moving. We would place our attention here. Now, the barbarian fix, and not wanting to get into removing the door trim and resetting the jamb, would be to cut the caulk at the door casing, and give the, then freed, jamb a couple good whacks with a block and a hammer. Later, we could hide some inconspicuously placed screws in the reset jamb. As with many of the houses in Fells, a neatly set transom above, and the jamb running all the way up overruled that thinking. So in the end -- and since we only needed to gain the smallest amount of clearance, we decided it was preferable to give the jamb some light sander work. (This worked for me mainly because I could see the irregularity along the door casing's reveal.)

. . . Another un-job

As I was just about to run out to my truck to grab my sander, John stopped me. "I can do this," he said. "Anyway, I need to make sure we have paint before I do anything." And there you have it, building moxie. You see, John is totally capable; I know it. He has a good eye . . . . He just needed someone to come out and re-assure him that he could do it. Not an issue of skill, but of confidence. My charge for the day -- $0. The chance of assisting when he goes to do his planned kitchen remodel €“ priceless.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Here is a good article by neighbor's One Project Closer heralding sanding/grinding w/ a flap wheel over planing: http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/fix-stuck-doors-that-wont-close-or-open-a-quick-and-dirty-solution/ Historic Fells Point (In the early part of the decade, I lived a few blocks from John): http://www.fellspoint.us/ Follow me here as I work on my revenue model; feel free to email comments and/or advice to j.bmoxie@gmail.com: http://www.agentsofmoxie.com

Building Building Moxie (an outtake)

jb — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:19:00 +0000

no more writing on this this week . . . coming next week 8.9, I promise (I removed this from last because it flows better without it). Great weekend. jb A lay over I want to point out that I did look at other things -- Not just how-to websites. I explored several business models not limited to, but including -- 1. diy workshops 2. diy clubs 3. Owner-builder operations. Each was ruled out for their own reason, and guess what, here they are: 1. I felt that a diy workshop was not viable unless the space being used was doubling also as a shop for a contractor or a craftsperson. I have seen several go by the wayside in the last two years. Does Home Depot have the market cornered? Maybe not, but I figured I could do better. 2. Diy clubs were interesting -- and while I still envision hosting and/or proctoring one eventually, I moved on quickly; I did not feel they presented a strong enough nucleus, in a business sense, from which to build around. 3. Owner-builder services -- and there are franchising options. While these operations are probably doing a great job at assisting with the construction of new homes, it appeared that the framework many were using could not scale.

Front Load Washers :: One Way to Fix the Walk and Dance

jb — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:41:00 +0000

. . . Step down from the soapbox, please

I know we are a little late to the hi efficiency front load washer party. Fashionably late we will say. And yeah, we had heard we needed to be prepared for the wash and spin, walk and dance of these funky machines. Maybe you read recently of the C- tile job I did in my laundry room (trying to be a little less critical of myself), and going a little further back, you might have also read some of my rantings on grown men and instructions (this is a good one: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/2008/12/dtv-is-coming/).

. . . Trying very hard to convert past regrets to knowledge (or something like that)

The first time we fired up our new Frigidaire Affinity washer -- despite logic, I let it in, a little bit of despair. You see, after that first wash, it, the washing machine, ended up about 12 inches from its original location. My thought -- maybe these machines really do require a perfectly level floor. The machine, at the time of install, was perfectly level, I assured it -- the floor, on the other hand, was not.

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Anyway, I fought those thoughts back, and I tried leveling it up again. My wife ran another load. This time, the machine, at approximately 20 minutes in, shook and shaked and vibrated the floor making its way back toward the wall and then out again. Me, with the fear of the diy gods in me, went straight for the pedestal's feet. I did my best to get them extended tight to the floor. My efforts did do a little something. And with me as spotter that load actually finished. But what the f. . . . I told my wife I was going to have to look into it. And this really wasn't what she wanted to hear.

. . . The internet is community (or something like that)

Fortunately, this phenomenon, possessed washing machines, is well documented. And it didn't take me long to find the solution that most individuals have chosen, with marginal success: Anti-vibration pads or mats (like these: http://www.gviinc.net/). But on further reading, and having already re-visited the installation instructions, I found this -- a well written lick that I choose now to re-post here:

. . . Having sold our older home, where we used the same trusty Kenmore top-loading washer for 25 years, I bought a very cool Frigidaire Affinity W/D front-loader set . . . . I did not read instructions, because men don't need to read instructions. Big yellow tags on the back of the washer? That's for simpletons. And women. Us men just plow ahead, even 50 miles and 14 turns after we know darn well we're lost. No map...maps are for wusses. Shipping bolts. Meh. Stupid little detail, those four long bolts with either a big red or yellow bushing pointing them out, on the back of the machine. Mr. Blockhead did not remove those before using the machine. Mr. Blockhead complained about the insane noise and shivering dance the washer did every time it went into spin cycle. Mr. Blockhead cursed the name of Frigidaire Affinity!! (If yours is doing what ours was doing, your problem is just like it says on the huge yellow tag bolted to the back of the washer. You know the tag...the one you tore off when you were hooking up the H & C hoses and drain hose? The one you thought was just about some stupid safety warnings? Nope. That note told you to remove those four big, fat shipping bolts that hold the inner chassis in a fixed position so the vibration-isolating mounts don't let the drum slam around during shipping.) So. The problem is that some folks don't read instructions. That problem can't be cured with spacers, pads, or special floors. Wives: please understand, the front-loading washer industry is rife with complaints about this problem; most of the manufacturers have this terrible situation. It's just endemic to the front-loader industry. The problem has no solution; it is apparently one of the impossible vexations of the universe. Men are from Mars. Anyway, fellows: I love our new front-loading Frigidaire Affinity set; smooth as silk, and after I removed those four long shipping bolts in the back? Boy howdy, this thing is as quiet as a sleeping new-born mouse. Go in there when the wife's asleep, and remove those bolts. Next day, tell her you figured out an intricate dynamic balancing formula, and made several fine adjustments and, by God, you finally fixed the thing. She'll think you're such a stud!

These words of wisdom can be attributed to someone, somewhere with a user name of dmzuniga (unfortunately this was/is the only comment he has left on this particular blog, and without a real name). He was dead on. I went home last night, and removed the shipping bolts. We ran a load of the girls' clothes, and I swear, you could have placed a sleeping baby on top of it. I am going to include the pics below as they applied . . . to me (hopefully they will help someone); and I will not resist, first, firing off a quick gripe at Frigidaire, and to all the technical writers around the world. Sure, it was clearly in there, in the instructions, under the section Unpacking, right between items five and seven. And maybe on a yellow tag too. (Note to self :: read the yellow tags from now on.) But come on, an experienced instructions reader skimmed right over it. And I usually do depend more on the instructions -- as you might have guessed. I mean, if this text was online, I'd probably have to have it blinking. You see, those little bolts, and while seemingly minor, could have caused damage to the unit, other property, or, worse, even some bodily harm. After all -- I know it'd probably be too much to ask of a washer manufacturer to work in a fail-safe for these units. This is one case, I am sorry, where there simply should have been more emphasis placed on the importance of this step.

. . . Mad Props, I shout DMZUNIGA! Digression Done

[caption id="attachment_902" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The yellow shipping bolts"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_903" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="This step was clearly labeled - but missed"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_904" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="A hefty bolt"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_905" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Shipping bolts replaced with plugs"][/caption]

>> More Moxie (Related Info and Links):

Now I am in no way suggesting that my issue is indicative of what everyone else is experiencing. Certainly, there are many causes for excessive vibration with these units. The vibration-retardation pads I highlighted above certainly seem to be a fairly acceptable solution especially when the problem is noise being generated from upper-story set-ups.

Here is the blog entry on which I discovered dmzuniga's post. I am certainly glad I didn't have to take some of the measures suggested by others in this thread (almost worth the read in and of itself): http://www.houseblogs.net/community/account.php?u=3583 (bad link)

Building Building Moxie (the internet and you -- one of maybe two)

jb — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:51:00 +0000

click here to see the most recent post in this series

The online landscape

May 2008 -- I needed a place to start, a starting point, for a systematic review of the online landscape. And I found that rather quickly in http://alexa.com. Plugging in phrases like €œHome Improvement€ and €œHow-to,€ boom, bam, like that I had a great point from which to begin my exploration. Focused only on US-based websites, these initial searches yielded a list of about 400 sites. And . . . off I went asurfing the internet. I will point out again that I wasn€™t necessarily reading content per se, or viewing galleries, at this point, I was looking, instead, at 1.What these sites were offering their visitors, and 2. How these sites were making their money. I am not suggesting, no way no how, that just like that I had a comprehensive list. I am not certain that any list of websites could ever be totally and absolutely complete. The online landscape changes frequently. Even recently, the Twittosphere has turned me onto http://www.homesavvi.com, a great site out of the Northwest, as well as a very promising community-oriented site in http://www.homedigz.com. On the ground and running, though, banner, Google, and various other ads guided me down the right avenues. In the short term, my list grew . . . later, it ebbed.

Pondscapes (to borrow the name of a friend€™s business)

First impressions -- well, since my first look, back in 2004, the online world had changed . . . a little; I was not oblivious to that. While not yet linked into the social networking scene, I was still aware of the movement towards €œWeb 2.0.€ With video streaming smoothly at that point, the online delivery of how-to video content was not only possible, but being done. Nonetheless, I wouldn€™t let that distract me. Technology had evolved a little, yes, delivery methods were maturing, but the audiences still there, were the same; right? Chiseling (or is that raking and aerating) I started first by systematically eliminating websites that were tightly tied to a product and/or a brand. In this category, http://www.benjaminmoore.com/ and http://minwax.com/ -- Great tools and tips available at both these and other locations, but not necessarily within the scope, and/or in the spirit of, my venture. Mind you, too, that Alexa did not at the time have much focus on the blogosphere, and frankly I didn€™t give it much credence either -- the irony in this of course is funny. For me, blogging has been liberating, and certainly, there is great content being served up using better blogging tools. Strong and fluid voices are coming out of destinations like http://homefixated.com/ and http://www.younghouselove.com/ . . . to name a few. But alas, these sites were not included in my research. And ultimately, I dwindled my list down to approximately 130 websites. These 130 sites, in the period between May 2008 and August 2008, were actively generating €œhow to€-oriented home improvement content. Warning again €“ I am not suggesting that my list was anywhere near complete, nor on the other end, not overstated; but I did feel that it offered a large enough slice to allow me to do some significant analysis. In the words of D.Boon . . . Enjoy the detour In the five-month period that I researched, I categorized and I explored and I documented my impressions. There were four websites, however, that had a course-changing impact on what and how I wanted to do my thing. I will talk briefly about three of them here: http://www.angieslist.com/, http://www.servicemagic.com/, and http://www.managemyhome.com/. First, Angie€™s List €“ I don€™t think that there is anything more that needs to be said about this operation. Frankly, their growth strategy is tough to punch a hole in, and I admire, among other things, how they got that thing off the ground (shout to Angie Hicks). This service obviously has great value, and has gained many supporters/subscribers over the last few years. Next, Service Magic €“ The near perfect home improvement website -- They balance equally do-it-for-me matchmaking with very robust, and intelligently-generated, support information. It was tough for me, when looking at this website (as someone who has worked in web development and who also understands their business model), not to simply drool all over myself. But . . . I didn't, and I will stop there. The Spotlight Dance And then, there it was . . . MMH €“ Manage My Home €“ I will call this website, flawed perfectly like a flower, the stunner (you know, that incredibly beautiful woman that walks into the room, stopping hearts, and spilling drinks). In fact, if I were designing a website, this would be the website that I would want to model mine after. It€™s the level of interactivity, laid out for those that like words, as well as pictures, for those that respect the AJAX, and for those who don€™t like to click much -- that does it, all backed by expert experience and a vibrant homeowners community. That said, though, they had me way before that: The one thing about MMH that really stood out for me -- their focus on the €œyou€. Countless numbers of great tools (synced with email reminders) just waiting to help you get things done around your house . . . with efficiency. And yes, I have occasionally referred my friends here. This site is simply a pleasure to visit and use.

Coming on like Vincent, the kid that tricked Elaine into bringing him vodka, cigs and a R rated movie (aka at this point, you might be saying, so what jb -- you haven€™t done anything yet)

And it is true €“ I am in the early stages of slowly implementing my business plan. And with me, it is for practical reasons . . . this battle between ego/superego €“ ok no, it is a battle between sharing and guarding. Bottom line is €“ I know what I want to do, I think -- thanks in part to the exploration above -- I know what I think my market might want, but I just don€™t know fully how I am going to go about supporting it. Maybe, I might write more about this in my next post, and thanks for reading. click here to see the next in this series

More Moxie: Understand that I can be overly verbose, poorly edited, and it was written by someone who is sometimes called a technical writer, but I would be willing to send the full copy of my Web Market Report to anyone who asks. There might be something useful for someone in there. Email: j.bmoxie@gmail.com -- Anyway, BMoxie BMore.

What is Building Moxie (an outtake)

jb — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:47:00 +0000

House keeping (or something like that) For the record: I am a do-it-yourselfer. Always have and always will be, and that€™s me. Because it is right for me, and despite all philosophical discussion that could be had on the meaning of the words, does not necessarily suggest that I would ever prescribe this for all. That simply would not make sound, practical advice (financial or otherwise). Many, many factors (esp. skill, time, and money) come into play when deciding whether or not to do a specific home project for yourself.

big head dave

jb — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:25:00 +0000

I mean, I am certainly not a master builder, I don€™t have a big head like Dave Lupburger (ok, snarky, and, yes, a stab at the mega site that employees him), I admittedly do not have my contractor's license (file under :: when the money allows), and I really have no budget at all.

Building Building Moxie (the big boxes and you)

jb — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:02:00 +0000

click here to see the last post in this series Repetition is the key :: This is true in strength training and in music and probably in a few other things €œyou can do it we can help.€ Wow! When it comes to tag lines, they really don€™t get much better than that. And I do not know much about retail; it is true. But any discussion on the home improvement industry, I know enough, really isn€™t complete without first visiting the Home Depot, and spending a minute or two talking about its impact on, well . . . all of us. When Home Depot first appeared on my scene, I€™ll admit €“ the only houses that interested me were those that contained a keg. I was aware of course of the idea of the home improvement €œwarehouse.€ I was often sent to the one that preceded HD €“ to retrieve this, that, and/or the other thing. However, while others faded from my local landscape, the big orange box repeated itself. Eating, Drinking and the Home Depot At this point, it seems that trips to the Home Depot are as base as eating, drinking, and sleeping. Ok, they are really not that frequent; they probably can be equated more with say trips to the grocery store . . . Once weekly at least. I mean, I know my local Home Depot (same one for about seven years now) like the back of my own hand: In and out most times in five minutes or less. And it probably wouldn€™t fair to at least mention their chief competitor €“ Lowes Home Improvement (fewer, and farther between). I like Lowes too -- especially for certain things €“ but not the point of my rambling here. I will save that for another time. Big things come in big boxes So . . . Why did the Home Depot thrive where others failed? I have spent a little time on this recently. Sure, they brought almost any product that you possibly could ever need for a home project together under one roof €“ economy of scale, buying in gigantic quantities €“ and delivering it all through a myriad of locations. But that's not it alone. And I must give credit where credit is due -- They took the intangible, what your local hardware store had been offering for years, bundled it, packaged it, and presented it for easy consumption. Service with a smile -- Ok, no €“ the products with the know-how you need to get your project done. €œYou can do it, We can help.

Your Do-It-Yourself Home Center

USA Today formatted microbytes of just-in-time literature served up where and when you need it -- immediately above the items you are choosing from, at the initial point of sale. Good, Better, Best €“ just look up. Couple that with free weekend how-to clinics, and they empowered us to do it, do-it-ourselves. Now, I know do-it-yourself was nothing new. My grandfather, your father, our ancestors throughout history didn€™t €œdo-it-themselves.€ They just did it, and it was done. But at this point in history, I tend to think that the population simply bought in. Markets shifted, maybe? And hard data may not support any of this, but again my intuition tells me that a new pulse of the do-it-yourself thinking was thunk. Home Depot helped to create a culture where even complex do-it-yourself projects were possible.

The try reflex

Now, you might be saying, €œCome on, jb, out of the 1287 trips I have made to the Home Depot €“ why then is it so difficult to find a sales associate when I need help.€ Answer -- You are not only one fighting for their attention; many have bought in. Plus Home Depot, physically, is a big store. Marketing, pseudo-psycho, and other analytical terms aside €“ and whether or not Home Depot actually shifted market mentality, converting more do-it-yourself activity, they did make an impact on the American consciousness. They fostered, along with a few other factors, an effect that I sometimes call the €œtry reflex.€ I know this from being immersed in it, and having spoken with handfuls of friends. The thinking here is . . . €œHey, can I do that myself?€ Most times, in the demographic of my friends: late 30s, young families with above average incomes -- larger tasks actually in the end get hired out. It is true, and hence the need for a service like ServiceMagic.com. But, and again whether or not real data supports this, at least the impulse seems to be there . . . always. Big boxes and little windows It€™s unfortunate really that Home Depot has never translated/addressed this, at least for me and others like me (hi-functioning do-it-yourselvers), to/in the online arena. There is a disconnect here. And as much as I want to resist going here again €“ they are just missing one opportunity, one vehicle through which to support their clients, and better their sales. Maybe they feel they don€™t have to €“ or the feasibility studies just don€™t point to the immediacy. In comparison -- take a look at Sears and the plethora of online tools and tips, as well as general access, that they offer in support of their customers. To highlight one in a suite of many -- and they are twitter friends, Manage My Home dot com. That said, though, it happens to be another big box store, and the way they have done things in recent years, that I repeatedly come back to. Ok, one or two more posts in this series, then I will get back to managing the delicate balance between supporting both home services firms and do-it-for-yourself activity -- More than likely next week sometime. Here's the next.

More Moxie: Home Depot's Clinics' website got a new look at some point in the last year: http://www.homeimproverclub.com/ And my fav for online home project management: http://www.managemyhome.com/

Welcome to the 'hood

jb — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:34:00 +0000

The 'hood

I live in Baltimore, Maryland. Within certain circles, the area in which I live is known as the 'hood. Short for neighborhood, of course.

The 'hood encompasses an area of North East Baltimore framed on its north by Baltimore County. It is made up of the communities represented by the Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville, or NOGLI, and runs along the Harford and Bel Air Road corridors. I have written about Lauraville a handful of times here within the Agents of Moxie.

The 'hood is famous for its somewhat liberal views, its relatively diverse population, and its stock of great old houses.

Agents of Moxie :: 'the hood

As a name, it works -- thanks in part to the rep BMore has received from such fine theatrical works as the HBO series the Wire.

The 'hood, the blog, -- fills a need I have. It is a place for me to write stuff about houses that I have not worked on, and place to post stuff submitted by others.

My focus is not on the 'hood (as defined above) alone. I will include stories from all over Greater Baltimore (Harford, Howard, Anne Arundel, etc. Counties) -- hopefully some being generated through the "contact form" I placed on http://www.buildingmoxie.com/.

Please read and comment. BMoxie BMore!

More Moxie:

Great organization here :: Live Baltimore -- http://www.livebaltimore.com/neighborhoods/list/lauraville/

Lauraville Improvement Association --
http://www.lauravillemd.com/

the curious case of the exploding toilet :: a True Story

jb — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:20:00 +0000

. . . Welcome Home

When Steve B. returned home from a seven-day vacation -- this is what he found: Approximately 2" of water in his basement. A saturated master bedroom carpet. 2 full sheets of sheetrock lying on his bed. A recent wallpapering job peeled down . . . and . . . He found the source of the damage listed above -- a toilet in his upstairs bath had apparently exploded. Ok, it didn't explode -- the toilet, its tank had developed a rather large crack that ran from its base all the way up to the flush handle.

. . . The worst nightmare

Steve lives in Ellicott City in a 2500+ sf contemporary that he had built in the '80s. This particular toilet sits in a second floor bath immediately above his master bedroom. Living alone, it is not used frequently. At this point, we do not know why and how this happened. And I really do not want to speculate on it too much. My immediate feeling is -- it is possible that a small crack had gone unnoticed from the time the toilet tank bolts were cranked down. [caption id="attachment_663" align="alignright" width="300" caption="6 Liters aka 1.6 gallons per flush :: image by b"][/caption] Was this the original toilet? I am not sure. The reality is that regardless of how or why it happened -- it happened. And if you ever wondered what kind of water a toilet inlet, unrestricted by a fill valve, can put out in a week -- this is your answer. Enough water to cause thousands of dollars worth of damage. Did the crack begin to stretch before he left for vacation? I am not sure. My guess is - the condition appeared shortly after he pulled out of his driveway on his way to fun, sun, and relaxation.

. . . Fred Flintstone

This has got me thinking -- how could this have been prevented? I mean, if you are like me -- five o'clock Friday the week before vacation, I am packed and ready to slide down the dinosaur's back. Arrangements made for all ours animals -- with our cats, someone is always paid to come in, feed them, clean the litter, and to check for anything weird around the house. With that little tidbit worked out -- mail on hold, windows and doors locked, security system engaged, and a few strategic lights turned on -- We are out the door without a second thought to the oven or the ironing board.

. . . A Vacation Checklist

I did a quick search of both Google and Bing this morning, and came up with a few decent articles on "How to prepare your home for a vacation." Surprisingly few results were actually returned, but I will link below to a pretty comprehensive list provided by doityourself.com.

[ad code=6]

Outside of the basics (mail, security, yard, plants, pets, and plugs), these are the first two things that pop into my head. 1. Most traditional hot water heaters have a vacation setting on their thermostat -- why not use it. 2. I usually set my heating/cooling thermostat by season (override programmables) to a position that won't melt my pets in the summer and/or freeze my pipes in the winter. And this is the advice I would typically go with. But Steve's situation has caused me to rethink my short list: What is stopping you from shutting off the house main when going away for anything more than a day or two? An irrigation system might have me revising this advice, but I think -- nothing. Only takes a twist of a valve. Further -- where gas/propane/etc. applies -- why not shut the gas main off (only in the summer months of course)? Sure you will find yourself possibly re-lighting pilots, but -- most newer appliances are equipped with automatic pilots, and this process probably wouldn't take more than a half an hour at start up. Besides this inconvenience -- can you think of any reason not to?

. . . Clean up

Yes, I was on vacation with Steve last week. He is my mom's long time boyfriend. And this is how I come across this story. Amazing really and I know I (with my limited knowledge) have never heard anything like it. When my wife and I got the call after we arrived home, all I could say was -- "Wow! Take pictures, call the insurance company, and start drying her out." The problem here -- Steve was not sure whether or not his policy would cover this kind of water damage. Double Wow! Anyway, I will try to get my hands on pictures and keep you abreast of the restoration process.

>> More Moxie (Related Thoughts and Links):

We have all heard or seen condensating toilets. Could this have been a factor advancing a small crack? Possibly -- but I will stop there. What do you think? Preparing Your Home for a Great Vacation :: doityourself.com: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/hotelgetaways

What is Building Moxie (aka they say when starting a small business it is better to follow then lead)

jb — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:02:00 +0000

Part 1 of 2 -- click here for the last post from this series In my best Costanza . . . Aside from my wife, my attorney, and a guy (yes, a guy) I call my Director of Visioning, no one knew. And it took me a year, but I did it. I wrote a business (read: life) plan €“ 120 pages all totaled (if you include the embedded attachments, and various worksheets). I learned a little bit about the players in the home improvement industry (both national and local), a lot about marketing in general, and I might even have learned a thing or two about myself. Thank you, Good Night! Ok, just kidding . . . . Going in, I knew it would be fluid; I guess that€™s just how I am. What I mean by that -- my efforts, even if I just filed that document away -- never to touch it again, would never go to waste. From now on -- I would land correctly. Among other things, some might say -- I now have that much of a leg up on about 75% of the general contractors out there today (if I ever wanted to try that again). Plus, I would be just that much more capable at helping my friends, and/or at executing work around my own house. Networking (minus the social or something like that) I guess I am fortunate really to have some bright people around me. In my camp, within my immediate circle, I have several marketers, entrepreneurs, and small business people. I have access to a prof in Hopkins' Business program, access to a vc (the biggest naysayer of the bunch), and I have access to an mba, who in my eyes, is a sales guru. So . . . I spoke with them, September to November, 2008. I won€™t go into too much detail here, but generally what I heard was, first, this plan is too long €“ €œyou need to break it up,€ they said. So I did. I divided it into a short-term and a long-term plan. Now down to an 18-page PowerPoint presentation €“ the short-term portion details what I feel I can realistically accomplish before 2012.) And second €“ this is what I heard across the board €“ €œYou will kill yourself if you don€™t at least try AND . . . you won€™t really know until you do. Those who cannot do -- teach, and those who cannot teach -- consult It didn€™t take long to find out that there was actually a name for what I was proposing . . . There it was €“ and probably not that distant from what most owner-builder operations are doing -- €œCheckpoint Consulting." But still . . . not widely documented and found almost exclusively related to the software industry. This method of implementation €“ as I understand it -- says, €œOK, I will help you do that; I will come in and partner with you . . . you will pay me for my time (whether I wear a < toolbelt or not) at checkpoints along the process. And if you fail €“ I will be there to bail you out.€ Really doesn€™t sound all that earth shattering, and especially considering I really don€™t have the need, under my current revenue model (the two inseparable), fully gauged. But that€™s what I came up with €“ in my eyes, a better how-to. (You know €“ kinda like a human-driven diy insurance policy, with a few other add-ins.) Now €“ of course my vc friend objected all over this. . . . €œThere is so much free information out there,€ he would say, €œAnd how do you know there is even a need? It is going to be tough for you to find people to pay you." And I understood -- so the plan evolved, a little. Subscription model . . . hmmm . . .ad revenue? No, well, Ok maybe eventually, Subsidies always welcome! I knew going in, and even though I was starting out only on a local scale, that I wanted both a strong online and offline presence. At this point to me, most solid, lasting organizations -- have both working in concert. There should be no division between the two. Practically speaking, it, my website, was one asset I was willing to invest in. And of course, I did consider generating how-to content for it. But . . . there are heap loads of it (some better than others) out there already. Some very excellent writers and personalities are staffing some very well-run websites, publications, and productions; others are working alone. Serving it up . . . and more is coming everyday. So . . . those things considered -- I just didn€™t see the point (tongue in check) . . . of diving in on that immediately. In general, I just let the information come, and I evaluate -- picking and choosing what we need. So . . . why write? I€™ll admit €“ I think I drew, with my last two posts, a little more attention than I actually probably want, right now. It's true -- I am not planning any sort of general launch until about March of next year. I mean -- Baltimore doesn€™t really even know I am here. Just you, and the 40 or so friends I have told. Do I love my brand? Yes €“ it is very personal. (A montra. In fact, I wanted to name my first daughter Foxie Moxie). Is it the best for my business? Maybe not. Is my business plan complete? Nope €“ it never will be. Those things said, though -- I do believe in the traditional values of truth, trust, and transparency. And if there is one thing that my professional career has taught me -- it is always best to know from where exactly someone is coming. And I offer it up €“ now, so you will know -- where I am at, and where I am coming from. Plus . . . Who knows, maybe you will help, or maybe you could learn . . . or maybe . . . you'll tell me, "jb, you're a lune," and that I should just stop now. Thank you for reading. Feel free to comment.

Next (and last in this series) --Short term obstacles and an action plan. click here to see the next in this series

More Moxie: I know it is not hard to tell -- and while I did not do-it-myself (I hired out the scripting & have an artist friend who helped with graphics and layout), I did teach myself enough html and css to slap a site together. For now, it fits my needs - and if you are wondering, it was about the 6th design I had on it -- each subsequent mock-up scaling back. Thanks for visiting and BMoxie BMore: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/

His website is currently in rework. Thanks for all your help so far -- the Artist :: Jack Pierce -- http://studiojacko.blogspot.com/

hacker-style shingling of a short hipped ridge (Job Notes for Dan H. :: Lauraville)

jb — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:20:00 +0000

Staging (lay ridge shingles out in the sun -- prior to installation)

Dan H. is my neighbor. A teacher, and his daughter recently "cat sitted" our cats. She did a great job; we could tell -- she went above and beyond by leaving us a daily journal, notes on her experiences with our pesky trio.

That considered -- I was a little taken aback, though, when Dan knocked on our side door the other day. I had been working on the computer and was in the middle of a revery, set off by the online work I'd been doing. So . . . when he said he needed a hand finishing out the roof shingling on his pool house, I was like "Sure . . . no problem."

I mean -- I want people thinking of me especially when they need help finishing out home projects.

The way my mind works (aka I have been known to overthink things)

I will admit -- you have to go back to the '90s to find the last time I did any significant roof work. My first instinct, though, was -- "ah . . . it will come back to me." I certainly don't have a problem with being up on roofs, and I was almost certain that even with guys that I know, no one would want to touch this.

You see -- Dan, as he proceeded to tell me, had worked with his boys to get a majority of the work complete. But . . . with school starting back (for both him and the boys), he was concerned about getting it knocked out before the next heavy rain.

I scheduled him for Sunday and I told him I wouldn't charge him more than $75 for my time.

Off the hip

I swung by on Friday to see what I was dealing with. Dan's pool house had a near "four-square" roof -- four hips inserting into a short ridge. I couldn't remember doing one, but still I thought, "No problem." He and the boys had done a great job thus far.

In an ideal world, I would have prepped with a little light reading on the topic (remember :: it had been awhile). A jam packed calendar, however, this past Labor Day weekend prevented that. I was going to have to go with what I knew.

I mean, I know basics -- it's instinct. I always say: when roofing, you've got to think like wind and water. That said, three rules to live by: 1) prevent water penetration by any means necessary; 2) prevent wind lift by any means necessary; & 3.) try to make it aesthetically pleasing, i.e. straight lines and "coursed" correctly.

A great job has all three of these elements.

Rushing back like water (Job Notes)

When Sunday arrived, here's where we were: see the pic at right. Dan himself was ready to go. He had already begun the ridges at the hips, and had many of the three-tab shingles cut down (tapered at the top).

He asked me, "Do you want a hand?" (you know, to feed shingles). On this day, I said "No."

I was going to warm up by doing the hips on the back side of the roof. A good place start. I was eager to get going, and I began slapping them down. I nailed a few in before I remembered I needed to peel the protective strip from the pre-tarred portion of the back of the shingle. Doh! In this case, I would correct myself moving forward, and would simply come back and "tar" these down -- to compensate (Appropriate enough -- I think).

I thought briefly about snapping a chalk line, but in this case I was going to trust my eye. I continued with the standard five-inch coursing that they had started. (Shingle manufacturers make this easy.) And I went that way up all four hips.

The tip of the iceberg

And that's really what it looked like, an iceberg -- the ridge. It was short ridge, no more than three feet long, so I wanted to try to keep symmetry in mind. What I mean with that -- I wanted it to look the same when viewed upward at either short hip.

I probably could have broken out some simple mathematics here. But didn't -- I decided to test and to just lay it out by hand -- trial and error.

Just about this time, I realized that the courses on the back side of the building ran up slightly higher than those I had on the front. Excuse: If I had this in my mind, instead of my rusty weak knees and my heavy feet, I might have caught this inconsistency and fudged a few shingles at the top side of the back hips. But alas -- I didn't, and all things being equal, I didn't want to undo that work.

To compensate for this, I decided to hold the ridge shingles here down a bit -- starting two courses below the ridge proper. Playing a bit, back and forth I went until I felt the "reveal" was roughly the same on both sides. In general, was this a good call? Honestly, I am not sure. But this made the the offset of the back hips look less noticeable, at least to me.

I combined v-notches with cuts and overlaps to get across the ridge. But even with two attempts (yes, I tore my first attempt out), things were not falling correctly on the point at the far end of the ridge.

Ultimately, I came up the other side, and capped it all with the hack pictured here. If I was going to get one thing right -- I was going to insure no leaks at that end of the ridge.

Did I love it? No -- And I told Dan that. Was Dan happy? I hope so. Plus . . . he knows where I live.

A view from the road

Honestly, I have thought a lot about this work the last few days. What would a specialist have done in these circumstances? I mean -- how do you get those cute little edges at the end of hipped ridges?

If I had been more conscious of the coursing, I probably would have "capped" each end of the ridge with a small cut shingle, heated, molded, and tarred down. And I will admit -- at the moment, I still don't know if this is what the specialists would do.

And hence the reasons for writing: 1) To give Dan a full record of what I did; & 2) Honestly, I would love to use this as a learning experience -- How would you have worked this?

As far as my work that day, and for Dan -- I will probably ask if I can pop in this weekend to double check my ridge (you know, I am neurotic like that), and I will be sure to ask if he is happy enough with the work.

For the record: I look forward to my next opportunity to do roof work. And . . . Thanks for reading.

More Moxie:
Here is a good little article from Lowes' How-To library: http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=howTo&p=Build/ApplyingAsphaltShingles.html

Roof Remodeling 101 from Twitter friends, CertainTeed. More on the science of roofing: http://www.certainteed.com/learning-center/roofing/?qid=155

Exterior Restoration and Preservation :: Siding Paint and Windows

jb — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:36:00 +0000

:: aka if there is such a thing as a personal hell - mine would be filled with painted hinges: Part 1

. . . The Paint Roller

I know it is nothing new, what I am doing here (in this section) €“ that is, blogging about the work I am doing on my own house. But frankly, College Word :: I would be remiss if I didn€™t write about at least some of the projects that I have going on.

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And before I dive into my next few posts (regarding paint and other work on the front of the house), I wanted to summarize some of what I have told you thus far: * Our current home is a 1880€™s carpenter-style farmhouse that originally held ten city acres. * It ironically has a lot of wood: from oak to cypress, from cherry to fir, and so on. * This house had been abandoned for 2 years prior to us owning it. (One day, I€™ll break out pics of the yard & the massive termite damage.) That said -- some decisions made early on have guided much of the work I am currently doing. [caption id="attachment_931" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="With exerior paint selection test test test in a location that gets both sun and shade"][/caption]

. . . Six of one, 1/2 dozen of another (Siding)

We decided almost immediately that we were not going to remove or cover the €œnear original€ german clapboard siding. (Did replacing it cross our minds? At that time, honestly, no.) We had a decent painter, who had just done our other house, and with him, €œwe€ decided initially to give it a quick paint job. It was needed to hide years of flaking and peeling. While it looked good after completion, this decision, here, has spawned years of contention. You see - it is my duty now, slowly, and sections at a time, to strip and repaint the exterior. I have a guy who helps me every now and then.

Six of one, 1/2 dozen of another (Windows)

In conjunction with our call on the siding, we decided to try to €œlive with€ the €œnear original€ two-over-two wood windows. Yes, that is right €“ we decided not to go with new replacement windows. And . . . there were several reasons why I could live with this: [caption id="attachment_930" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Curb-side clapboard in progress"][/caption] Though the house, at the time we acquired it, had 26 broken panes, much of the "near original" rolled, and imperfect glass remained. I had most of the €œnear original€ wooden screens (mounted from the inside of the window). I had almost all of the "near original" shutters & shutter hardware. I even had some of the €œnear original€ window latches. At the time, I had a guy, too, working with me. He systemically went around, and broke down these windows. He replaced most sash chords with chain, and got them fully operational. While he could have done a better job at removing paint from the €œpockets€ and window stops, he did do a fine enough job with glazing, and with the painting of the sashes themselves. Before it was time to exit for another gig, he got about 60% of our windows done. The rest, and yes I am still working on them, I have been doing myself. Off-the-shelf weather-stripping has done, and later new storm windows will hopefully do, a good enough job at keeping them almost air tight. While I will ultimately install new wood windows in the kitchen, and other less expensive windows in the attic, the cost (monetarily) has been far less (approx. $250 a window) than say the installation of all new windows -- in a line that this house would deserve.

. . . To restore or not to restore that is the question

So that€™s where I am at €“ and for the record: I was never shooting for any sort of historical tax credit; I am not preservationist nor am I particularly €œgreen€ (though I do think preservation is probably the greenest method available to us, right now). I guess in some ways I am just an idealist: restore rather than replace €“ despite the chagrin of my budget-minded wife. And with that €“ I roll on. Next: Painted Hardware

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

My house may not be the truest representation of the "carpenter-style" but as I understand it, basic exterior elements reflect the structure and the interior - hence "carpenter-style": http://architecture.about.com/od/periodsstyles/ss/gothicrevival_7.htm An overview on clapboard siding: http://www.calfinder.com/library/siding/types-of-siding/clapboard-siding

Restoring Hardware :: Common Reasons Hardware is Painted

jb — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:47:00 +0000

:: aka if there is such a thing as a personal hell - mine would be filled with poorly painted hinges: Part 2

If you have lived in or worked on an old house, you probably know exactly what I mean. There is almost nothing that is more frustrating than having to work the paint from the slot(s) of a screw head. Look at the alternatives though: Trying to retract a screw found in this situation without first cutting or chiseling that paint away makes for sure stripage, failure, and further insanity.

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€œCurses!€ We try to avoid this by any means necessary. So . . . with the precision of a gemologist, we cut, chisel, scrape, and pry.

. . . Why does hardware get painted . . . .?

There are three common reasons I can think of: 1) Design aesthetic €“ it certainly has been a trend in recent years to paint switch plate covers, hvac return louvers, etc. in a color that blends them into surrounding wall surfaces. In this category -- too, some will paint cabinet hardware, etc. just for a change . . . in color. And fortunately better info reaching more informed "users" has given us the tools to do this the right way. Though not my design instinct (I like the contrast offered by these elements even in white), I do not disagree with this, and it works for many. This technique falls outside the scope of this article. 2) Shear laziness €“ I mean, how often have you seen someone just paint right over door hinges? I am not talking about a little smudge or an accidental drip, I am talking about just running the brush right over them. Design instinct -- I find that hard to believe. And in my eyes, it's indefensible. It only takes a few minutes to remove most hardware completely. Fine, if it feels like you don€™t have the time to dig that deeply into prep, it is easiest enough, still, to take short strips of 1 ½€ painter's tape, placed over a hinge (for example), and later cut neatly at the edges -- to protect these surfaces. Worth the time in my opinion. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="A painted screw found in Flickr's Creative Commons (art by gigmum2008)"][/caption] 3) To hide rust €“ A few years back, and we have all done it, I hired . . . a €œguy€ to paint my shed. As far as guys go, Ed did a fantastic job -- except for one thing . . . . He decided to paint the hinges on the shed doors with the same latex paint he had been using on the shed's trim. When I asked him why he painted these hinges, his response was plain and clear. He said, €œThey were starting to rust . . . .€ €œCurses!€ I guess I really never got this. Why, if we all know metal rusts when it comes in contact with water, would you want to paint over metal with a water-based paint? Ok, I don€™t know all the technology that goes into manufacturing this stuff, and while there may not be any real risk in doing this, still . . . it just doesn't sound, well, right. Next: prepping rusted hardware for paint . . . the right way.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32192133@N02/ / CC BY-NC 2.0 This looks like a pretty good article on painting switch plate covers. Since you are removing covers anyway for painting the walls & because you don't typically want to paint your outlets or switches -- this process if usually performed when the plates are not on the walls: http://www.ehow.com/how_4967675_paint-light-switch-covers.html Here is an outstanding article from Manage My Life on removing stubborn screws and nails: http://www.managemyhome.com/mmh/articles/authored/removing-nails-and-screws

Paint Removal :: Using a Professional Re-Finisher

jb — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:17:00 +0000

click here for last

. . . A bridge :: aka if there is such a thing as a personal hell - mine would be filled with poorly painted hinges: Part 3

So . . . you might have read my rant on hastily painted hardware. And maybe you have stayed with me long enough to know that I have a tendency (with this current house) to restore rather than replace.

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While I intend to write about removing rust now, in many cases, I had to first remove paint before I could even get to the rust. (chuckle) I have tackled this task, and I have made this claim elsewhere, of removing paint by almost every means conceivable. And . . . I do know some methods are cleaner and, in a pre-1970s house, more €œresponsible€ than others. For me, now, working on the front of the house, I want to talk about two places that rust has been a problem: 1) on the €œnear original€ shutter hardware that I intend to re-install & 2) on the base/feet of the €œnear original€ porch columns. (We have 5 porches.) But now as I am working on the front of my house €“ my wife says to me €“ Do you think we can get the shutters back on so we can see what they look like? My answer usually, €œah . . . maybe.€ And really -- we will see. Before winter hits, I do have several other things I want to accomplish on the outside of the house.[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Not my house! Exterior restoration underway in DE (image by b)"][/caption] One effective why to remove paint from your pieces is to take them to a professional. Early on, when we had that decent painter, he was nice enough to remove the shutters from the building before painting its body. Twenty-four windows on the house proper makes for 48 individual shutters, 96 hinges, which themselves when broken down gave us 192 hinge parts. With both the shutters and the shutter hardware off the house, and I had already been doing some restoration on our other property €“ It was a no-brainer. I was going to take these parts to get €œdipped€ (see the Moxie Mouth at right for a definition of this). I use the guys at Baltimore Finishing Works (Howard Street) for this type of stuff. They have been good to me, and they certainly seem to care about preserving pieces from our past. I'll admit -- some of the hinges I delivered to them did not make it out the removal/paint stripping portion of the program. And I am certain that I do not have all of the shutter swing arms that I will need. Next: I swear -- removing rust and prepped rusted hardware for paint.

>> More Moxie (Related Info):

Baltimore Finishing Works is located at 2509 Huntingdon Ave; Baltimore, MD 21211-3108.

Removing Rust from Hardware

jb — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:55:00 +0000

:: aka :: if there is such a thing as a personal hell - mine would be filled with poorly painted hinges: Part 4

click here for the last

. . . Rust Never Sleeps

[caption id="attachment_909" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Not all things can be removed from the house for easy rust removal"][/caption] No . . . this isn€™t the first time I have tackled rusty hardware. Sure, probably like a few of you, I have worked rusty hinges with either steel wool and/or sandpaper. In extreme cases, I have even loaded up my detail sander, and went at it that way. There are a few logistical problems with these methods however. First, if you are working with small parts, such as window latches €“ it is difficult to secure the piece as you work. What I mean -- trying to isolate the workpiece on a workbench, in a vise, etc. can become frustrating, simply because you must often re-set the piece. Most times, in the end, I just grab what I am working on, find a seat, and get to, well, rubbing. There is another problem here, of course. With this method of rust removal, you can certainly expect "scuffing." Yes, the action of even a fine sandpaper or steel wool will work marks into the surface of the metal in places that the enemy may not already inhabit. [caption id="attachment_910" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Shutter hinges after a little time in a rust removal bath"][/caption] These marks can typically be polished out, and . . . I have had longer term success with these methods €“ especially if the once cleaned surface gets a good metal primer and a glossier top coat. But . . . in locations where water/moisture may be present, say on an exterior, this option will not always hold up as well as you typically would like.

. . . Other options (aka let your tools do the work)

When removing rust from hardware, we do have other options. For my shutter hinges and column €œfeet€, this phase of my program, I chose Krud Kutter€™s Must for Rust. Now, I have used other rust neutralizers; they are easy enough to find at your local auto parts store, and I have had some success with them. [caption id="attachment_912" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Before after rust removal solution"][/caption] The Must for Rust, however, is a little different, and some keys points jumped right out at me. First, as a remover and an inhibitor, I am not required to apply a top coat of paint within a short period of time. This is good for someone who admittedly has a hard time finishing what they start. (Come on -- I know I am not the only one.) Also, and this is where it dazzles €“ I can dilute the Must for Rust down into a solution, and I did 50/50, for submersing and completely covering the hidden nooks found on my hinge parts. Don't get me wrong, you have the option to apply right from the bottle in a spray or a stream. The available foaming action is perfect for clinging to upright surfaces, such as . . . . say immovable column feet. [caption id="attachment_913" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Must for Rust may be diluted and used as a bath"][/caption] The fact that Krud Kutter's products are bio-degradable are just bonus; a fact that makes me feel a little more comfortable about the accidental, yet inevitable overspray.

. . . Must for Rust in action (aka I do my thing, it does its thing)

Let me be clear €“ I am multi-tasker, and as your classic weekend warrior (grrr), I often only get one day a weekend to get a lot accomplished. As I was working on the front of the house, often up on a ladder, I was bouncing to the back patio to do some of this work. With a new product, as product manufacturers often suggest and for reasons I have learned, I wanted to do a test with the Must for Rust. Yes, I planned always to apply it to my freshly stripped column feet. But just to see how it handles, I set up a station on my back patio. Here I could try it out on a few of the dipped, yet still rusty shutter hinges. (You can see some of these pics throughout this article.)

. . . Back to work

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These hinges, and the pics may not reflect this, were very pitted. A result, I am sure of rust€™s savagery. I gave one set of hinges two coatings with the spray, while following the product guidelines closely. Because this first test didn't quite get me where I wanted to be, I decided to mix up a solution. [caption id="attachment_914" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Another shot of post bath -- using aluminum foil"][/caption] After about 15 minutes in this bath, I pulled them out, and gave them a light rub with some balled up aluminum foil (which I did grab off a baking pan my wife had setting on the counter). Krud Kutter and Reynold's Wrap, who would have thought, and as you see above -- no scuffing, and a hinge perfectly free of rust. Now, I was ready to go at the column feet on the front of the house. And €“ no offense to Krud Kutter, as it is safe on most surfaces €“ the aluminum foil got me thinking. What a great (reusable) way to protect hard-to-protect surfaces. I placed a protective layer around the base of my feet and applied a foamy coating of the Must for Rust, and . . . it just did its thing . . . again.

. . . Ready for paint

In the end, and as the exterior on my house is a work in progress €“ I will ultimately paint these surfaces. For now though, I can feel comfortable that this work from that day will hold up until I can get around to selecting the right paint and making the time to apply it.

Thanks, Must for Rust.

Next: Reynold€™s Wrap as toolbelt essential? Or Flashing: Salvaged and New.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

My favorite part of Krud Kutter's website :: dilution ratios -- http://www.krudkutter.com/dilution_ratio.asp Greening your kitchen with recycled Reynold's Wrap: http://www.reynoldsrecycled.com/

Old House Web's Blogger Contest! I entered

jb — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:16:00 +0000

In a highly unorthodox move, I submitted my Tom & Jerry piece for Old House Web's Blog Contest: http://www.oldhouseweb.com/blog/Announcing-Old-House-Blogger-Contest/ Please vote for me. Thank You & BMoxie BMore!

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

A leader in community-based (old-house) home improvement information for more than a decade (I think this is a relatively new look) -- The Old House Web: http://www.oldhouseweb.com/

Paint Removal from Copper :: and Other Uses for Aluminum Foil

jb — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:37:00 +0000

click here for the last

:: aka if there is such a thing as a personal hell - mine would be filled with poorly painted hardware -- part 5 and that's it for me

[caption id="attachment_871" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Reynolds Wrap and Krud Kutter for removing rust"][/caption]

. . . Copper & Aluminum (Elemental Building Products)

When I left off, I was amped because I had found a way to incorporate a common household product into a home improvement task. Yes, the Reynold€™s Wrap I had grabbed slyly from the kitchen counter worked very nicely as a light abrasive on my now rust-free shutter hinges. Later that same day -- I employed more aluminum foil (freshly ripped from the box) as surface protection for my field-stoned front stoop. It worked very nicely as I fitted it around my column feet. By keeping it slightly long and folding it over the ends of the "deck" €“ its fit to the contour of the stone actually gave it its bite/hold. Then, I re-used it. [caption id="attachment_872" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Aluminum foil did a great job masking over field stone"][/caption] Now, as I think of the alternatives, it was actually a time saver. No plastic or tape to deal with. No awkwardly folded drop cloth to fight. It just worked -- in this situation. But, you know, this got me thinking €“ What else could I possibly use Reynold€™s Wrap for, and is aluminum foil actually a €œtoolbox essential?€

. . . Cu . . . rses!

As I have been detailing, I am working on €œfixing€ the paint on the front of my house. And probably from reading the title on these posts, you might guess that I have a distaste for the ill-advised painting of hardware/metal. And here lies yet another point in this case: The pseudo-step flashing found at the intersection of my portico€™s roof & the house proper. As I found it -- that is, when we bought the house, it had a nice glazing of pale yellow paint on it. . . . Expertly done, and this paint was performing nicely. At the time, I guess, no one knew that there was actually copper under there. That said, I don't blame our house painter who had no problem just running a brush right over it . . . again. This still left me slivers of paint on the surface -- but this day, I could live with that.

. . . Copper in context

[caption id="attachment_873" align="alignright" width="150" caption="More original copper step remains -- newer step flashing slid up and underneath (maybe?) "][/caption] I mean €“ OK I understand the aesthetic reasons, and yes if anyone heralds the "sealing" value of paint, it€™s me €“ but come on. It is copper flashing! You don't need to paint it. Sure, copper cannot currently be found on any other part my house. I have removed the once present 3€ copper downspouts (which were also painted). This flashing does still fit, though, with the beautifully patina-ed steeples found on the elementary school across the street from us. OK, maybe a stretch, here, but the fact is -- there are few building products that are, well, so elemental. Copper, though a finite resource, lasts -- and it is effectively recyclable. It has been used from ancient times on exteriors. And it has even done a pretty excellent job of carrying, what, water around many, many a house.

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Copper in its newly installed form is beautiful. Copper in its weathered and oxidized form is beautiful. (It's ironic really I have heard that copper's patina, or verdigris, actually adds protection, against corrosion, to the metal.)

. . . Reynold's Wrap is a little bit like coil stock

I knew going in, and having had some experience working with the removal of paint from metal €“ my trusted heat gun would not work quite as effectively as it does on wood surfaces. (Is this because of metals' conductive properties?) But I tried it; I "burned" for a bit. The slight wave of the installed sheet material was unfortunately making it difficult to remove the paint without digging into its surface. [caption id="attachment_874" align="alignright" width="150" caption="More uses for aluminum foil -- This was later reused"][/caption] A little time like that and I, ultimately, opted for some chemical paint stripper. But wait €“ there would be a problem here. How was I going to protect the surface of the asphalt shingles I want to save, at least, for now? Hmm . . . coil stock . . . ? Yes, and that is kinda what it is. The Reynold€™s Wrap €“ a light-gauge coil stock. OK, again maybe I am stretching here, but you see where I am going. An excessive application of paint stripper would certainly break down the shingles' granulated surface. So I stretched it out along the edge of the roofline at the house. (You can see this in the picture above.) Again, its workability allowed me to fold it up and under the roof's edge. The aluminum foil holding tight -- I brushed on the stripper . . . 30 minutes, and we will see what it does.

Getting a little cocky

As usual -- I was bouncing back and forth that day; cutting caulk at trim boards, a little light sanding, and then I thought, "Do you think that balled up RW that worked so well on my shutter hinges would work now . . . for removing softened paint?" Hmmm . . .I would try. And on this, I will not hold you in suspense . . . It didn't quite work. Ultimately, to remove the paint -- rags and two grades of steel wool. First, a #2, and then, a #00 (spoken as double aught). Curses!

. . . Cleaning the brushes (aka righting the wrongs)

[caption id="attachment_878" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Even more uses"][/caption] What is his point with all of this? -- you might be asking. My point is . . . there was a time when home improvements, especially when performed by under-informed home owners, often involved applying paint where it simply doesn't belong. Today, we, as defenders of the earth and the keepers of the architectural past, are left to clean up these mistakes -- to right the wrongs, if you will. And to do that, sometimes we must think "outside the box". So . . . to answer that question -- Is Reynold's Wrap a toolbox essential? Maybe or maybe not. But it certainly does help every now and then when you need to improvise in a pinch, and when you want to use something readily re-usable. Thank you for Reading & BMoxie BMore!

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Outstanding information about flashing from Twitter friend's Old House Web: http://www.oldhouseweb.com/how-to-advice/roof-flashing-details.shtml & Of Course -- Reynold's Wrap: http://www.reynoldspkg.com/reynoldskitchens/en/home.asp A cool resource focusing on copper I was recently turned onto -- Copper.org: http://www.copper.org/

the curious case of the exploding toilet :: an Update

jb — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:20:00 +0000

Click here for the incredible true story

I saw Steve last night. We had dinner at my mom€™s, and ok €“ the toilet didn€™t actually explode. To get you up to speed: about a month ago, and when Steve returned home from vacation, he had found that the toilet tank in his 2nd floor bathroom had developed a rather large crack. This mysterious crack, as he tells me now, was approximately 1/8 inch wide and ran from above the flush handle, down and all the way around to the back of the tank€™s base. It was large enough, as he estimates, to spill about a gallon of water every 15 minutes . . . . And over the course of week, it dumped enough water to cause lots and lots of damage. $10,000 worth of damage, to be exact, or at least this is what the insurance company has given him for the repairs. The restoration is now underway.

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. . . It could happen

I mentioned in original post that he initially feared his insurance policy would not cover this type of damage. Luckily it did. And as Steve tells me, the insurance adjuster did in fact mention that this type of disaster is not as uncommon as you would think. The toilet was, I confirmed, the original toilet in the house -- 25 years of dedicated service €“ just to fail like this. And I asked him €“ did you take pictures? Steve said, €œNo, no, I didn€™t." I guess I really can€™t blame him €“ and he now promises that he will send a pic of the now completely uncoupled piece of china. I guess, when disaster strikes, recording events is sometimes the last thing on one€™s mind. Nonetheless €“ and I asked him €“ do you think you will every go away on vacation again and not shut off the water main? His answer, €œNo way.€ Just today €“ he and the contractor he is working with are going to try to figure a solution for a set of first-floor joints (one almost as much as ¾ of a inch) that appeared to have deflected under the weight of inches of water. He has some options with this €“ all of which, as I discussed with him, are, well, challenging.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Steve tells me that ServiceMaster €“ a leading damage remediation company, and recommended by his insurance carrier €“ did a fantastic job of drying the place out. A total of 12 air movers, plus fans, were used in his case: http://www.800respond.com/

Mike Hines :: Building Moxie and Your Role in Sustainability

eXapath — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:06:00 +0000

Note from the host: When Mike and I started emailing back and forth, a couple of things came pretty clear pretty quickly. You can tell almost immediately that Mike is a guy who has not only put a ton of thought into what he is doing, but that he is also more than willing to, well, talk about it.

In a lot in a ways, we are a lot alike. So then, it hit me; and I say to him, "Mike, would you want to do a guest post on the blog?" He said, "OK." And without further ado, here are Mike's thoughts on moxie's role in our movement toward sustainability:

A Post by Mike Hines

Recently I€™ve come to understand more deeply that what brought our country to greatness revolves around innovation, risk-taking, motivation, and the freedom to make things happen. But nothing, however, happens without force-of-character, determination, and nerve. In short, it takes €œmoxie,€ and it seems that this characteristic is sometimes a rarity. Moxie is difficult to define, though, in a philosophic sense. It holds different meanings for everyone, and its importance and utility will vary by individual. To this, defining sustainability is equally evasive. Sustainability, like moxie, is a broad topic, for sure. It is subject to interpretation dependent upon frame of reference. Its meaning to an architect differs from that of a wetlands expert, which varies from the product designer, which is dissimilar to the viewpoint of a homeowner, etc. So why connect moxie and sustainability for this discussion? The connection, I believe, is that moxie and sustainability are both lifelong journeys, and I find no downside to pursuing either or both. These are odysseys in which everyone has the chance to both participate and contribute in additive ways. In aggregate, then, enormous positive change becomes possible.

*******

It seems, too, that jb (your host) is building a repertoire of skills . . . much like our parents and grandparents did. These are tips and tricks most homeowners shy away from today, largely as a result of "throw away" societal habits. But I believe a growing portion of our population is primed to change this; and "building moxie" may be just the catalyst to ignite such a movement. We have all heard, read about, or even participated in this €œthrow away€ society. Now, however, we are beginning to see the leading edge of change on a grand scale. It€™s encouraging to see many companies shifting to a reduce, reuse, and recycle model where their products and services provide opportunity for us, the users, to participate, too, in sustainability. This shift may seem inconsequential on paper. In reality, though, this idea must permeate organizations to the level of each person, continually encouraging them to thoughtfully consider the choices they make. Yes, it comes back to individuals making deliberate decisions, learning about sustainability, and assuming greater responsibility for their affect on our environment. It€™s refreshing to witness the intellectual energy being applied to developing these better processes and practices, and it is gratifying to see these efforts affecting positive change for all. JB€™s tips and techniques are not new, but his approach to restoring individual confidence very definitely is. Through his blog, he€™s reawakening the idea of moxie while fanning the flames of sustainability. He prompts the basic questions we all should ask. Why discard and replace that widget rather than repair it? With ingenuity and elbow grease, we can avoid growing the landfill and the ensuing environmental problems. Why not think longer term, build for lasting value, and consume only for immediate needs? JB practices reduce, reuse, and recycle. He€™s applying what he learns, vetting what works and what doesn€™t . . . and then edifying his readership through knowledge sharing and connection. He builds the confidence required to continually try new things . . . the moxie necessary to use and then share knowledge for the greater good. Practice building your own moxie, find your own role in sustainability, see where it takes you, and encourage others to follow suit. Collectively, huge improvements will happen for all. ~ -- Mike Hines is co-founder and CEO of HomePath Products. He and his Connecticut-based team have developed the eXapath system. Building for the foreseeable future, this smart product is integrated into traditional building systems, and allows for the efficient upgrade of buildings' communications systems. -- Here is a link to Mike's latest post discussing the implications of Intel's Light Peak technology: http://www.homepathproducts.com/blog1/?page_id=44

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

For more information on HomePath and the eXapath system, visit Mike's website here: http://www.homepathproducts.com/homepath/introducing.php

Baltimore Neighborhood Energy Challenge (Shouts to)

jb — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:41:00 +0000

Thanks to Facebook and some forward-thinking friends, I saw the news announcement. This piqued my interest, but, really, it wasn€™t till this weekend that I found out what it was all about.

The Baltimore Neighborhood Energy Challenge (BNEC) is a nine-month pilot program currently targeting eight neighborhoods in Baltimore City: 1) Mt. Washington 2) Reservoir Hill 3) CARE (or Banner/Middle East near Hopkins Hospital) 4) The Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville 5) Park Heights 6) Fulton Ave in Sandtown 7) Ten Hills & 8) Roland Park This innovative program is being launched by the Baltimore Office of Sustainability in partnership with the Baltimore Community Foundation. It is backed by several prominent organizations including Baltimore City Civic Works, Rebuilding Together Baltimore, The Coalition To End Childhood Lead Poisoning, and the Baltimore Housing Weatherization Program.

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The primary goal of the program is two-fold. First, the push is . . . to reduce city-wide energy usage by 15% by the year 2015. The program will promote simple techniques to do this; i.e. turning lights off when leaving a room, setting the thermostat to 68 degrees in the winter and 78 in the summer, wrapping the home's hot water heater, etc. Second, and in the words of Shaine Griffin, BNEC Program Assistant for our Greater Lauraville area: €œWe want to establish energy conservation as a social norm. We are empowering the participating communities encouraging them to join together in an effort to change their own energy habits.€ Central to this effort is the organization€™s €œpledge,€ a simple vow to reduce energy usage. By taking the pledge, individuals gain access to a clearinghouse of information on local auditors, contractors, grants, and subsidies, as well as, and get this, low and/or no cost products and services. In tandem with this, the organization provides everyone pledging with a free pledge kit -- full of energy-saving products. This kit is set to include: a reusable grocery bag, carbon monoxide alarm, toilet tank bank (man I need one of these for my 1931 Standard), an exterior-rated CFL (compact fluorescent lightbulb), draft stopper gaskets, and an energy-savings informational booklet. Further, BNEC is recruiting 10-20 individuals (per neighborhood?) to act as €œenergy captains€ within the targeted areas. These captains are asked to participate in a two-hour energy event, and are to act as leads in spreading the word. These captains will not go unrewarded; they too will receive perks, including a visit from Civic Works Project Lightbulb. This service is essentially a free two-hour energy upgrade. It includes the installation of a carbon monoxide alarm, two faucet aerators, a low-flow showerhead, up to 15 CFL's, a hot water heater wrap, insulation for up to six feet of hot water pipe, and a check/adjustment of the refrigerator's and the hot water heater's temperatures. The program, if successfully in these eight neighborhoods, will ultimately launch city-wide within the year.

*******

To take the pledge or to become a Neighborhood Energy Captain €“ Visit the website at http://www.baltimoreenergychallenge.com/ or call Reed Schuler at (410)-575-3413. For those within the CARE and Greater Lauraville communities, contact Shaine Griffin at shaine.griffin@baltimoreenergychallenge.com or call (415) 999-8934. For those within Park Heights and Roland Park, contact Whitney Petty at whitney.petty@baltimoreenergychallenge.com or call at (361)-798-6273. For the remaining neighborhoods (this will soon be changing) contact Alice Kennedy at alice.kennedy@baltimoreenergychallenge.com or call at (410)-960-9803.

> > More Moxie (Related Links):

Baltimore Office of Sustainability: http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/government/planning/sustainability/

Baltimore Community Foundation: http://www.bcf.org/

Baltimore City Civic Works: http://www.civicworks.com/

Project Lightbulb: http://www.civicworks.com/projectlightbulb.html

Rebuilding Baltimore Together: http://www.rebuildingtogetherbaltimore.org/

The Coalition the End Childhood Lead Poisoning: http://www.leadsafe.org/

Baltimore Housing Weatherization Program: http://www.baltimorehousing.org/ps_ohep.asp

six of one, half dozen of another

jb — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:06:00 +0000

. . . and is there space in between?

Sometimes . . . I think, I'm an enigma even to myself. On one hand, and personally, I can be fairly impulsive. And when you work around homes, in construction, this probably is not a good way to be. In fact, it is the antithesis of what I preach. Building Moxie, I have hinted at this, is about doing your homework and making smart decisions. So there, on the other hand €“ professionally €“ I have a way of breaking things down, well, systematically. I find that by looking at €œdata,€ organized by task or system €“ you can set yourself up to analyze efficiently . . . and, hence, allow yourself to make good decisions. I can help you with this, and this is what I bring to the table.

. . . Some are big . . .

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Back briefly into the way-back machine, I think about my time when I was €œright out of college.€ I was working for the League of American Bicyclists as a part-time editorial assistant. After about nine months of doing this, and at 23, they offered me a full-time position. Doing what? I honestly don€™t remember. Conditional. Now, at 23, I looked at myself. Was I ready for a full-time job? I don€™t know €“ I guess I had a decision to make. So I did. That flowchart, and its path, lead out to Winter Park, CO for sun, fun, and one of the most beautiful parts of our country. Wow €“ what an impact that decision probably made on my life. Good? Yes. Bad? Yes. Good/Bad, Bad/Good. Yes and No. In retrospect, that time, along with the few other rhombuses I have faced, was just a bit of the experience that makes up . . . me. Will I ever have a chance, ever again, to be an editor at, say, Remodeling Magazine? Probably not. But hey €“ that decision I never regret; it freed me up, and I did other things. End Process?

. . . And some are small

Decisions €“ now, that one above was a little life impacting; a €œwhat if I would have went that way?€-type of decision . . . and I lead with it. Truth told, though, that really wasn't what got me thinking about this piece. It happened on a much more insignificant scale. Maybe you read, in the summer, about my goings-on in our laundry room. The idea hit me there when I was, innocently, hanging the shelves in the room€™s now refinished closet. I mean €“ do you know the formula? Builders, thanks to the big brains of architects, know exactly the height at which shelving should go €“ designers/builders too . . . but me €“ working impulsively; I figured I could make that decision . . . on the fly. I looked around, and I thought €“ hmmm wall cabinets; hmmm where is the wife? OK . . . out with the girls, and of course the bottoms at 54€ from the floor. What was this closet going to be used for? The wife and I had talked about it briefly; I mean -- about what was going into it. Was a decision made; was anything put on paper? Nope. So as I sometimes do €“ I went with it. I thought to myself, "I need a broom." OK, and I grabbed a couple standard-sized sweeping brooms. (Judging from what I saw, and at least in my house, each -- right around 50 to 52 inches in height.) [caption id="attachment_853" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Salvaged closet shelving -- molly bolts and plugs."][/caption] That€™s it! So I€™ll set the bottom shelve at about 54€, and space the rest at about 11 inches apart (roughly the height of a standard liquid detergent bottle). Yeah €“ that€™s it, and in a matter of an hour, my salvaged wood shelves were installed. Two, at least. "Should I go for a third?" Just about that time, my wife returned home from the pool, the grocery store, from shopping, or from wherever. €œHey babe. Do you like what I have going on in here?€ She said, €œYep, (long pause) the vacuum cleaners will fit, right?€ Data! Vacuum Cleaners! and they did fit easily.

. . . Cons and Pros

There are many, many, many . . . decisions that we as hi-functioning and reasoning mammals must make in a lifetime. And there are few that must be made in the course of executing any home project. In life, you€™ll agree, there are big decisions, and there are little decisions. The big ones should not be taken lightly €“ and that statement may seem trite. But it is the little decisions, to me, that sometimes seem to get all of the attention. No? And, well, as far as home decisions, are they all really six of one and half dozen of another? Probably not, but a lot of times -- maybe it is just a matter of the language you use, or how you are keeping score.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

*Standard closet shelving height: http://www.closetmaid.com/Install/How_To_Guide/measspace.cfm *Leaugue of American Bicyclists: http://www.bikeleague.org/ *The authoritative source for information on the remodeling industry, and the home of one rock star cool senior editor: http://www.remodeling.hw.net/

do I as I do, not as I say (an unpost)

jb — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:06:00 +0000

. . . Just a . . .

I was hanging out after a concert with a friend I hadn't seen for awhile, when we got into a conversion with a woman who had also been in the show. During the show, she (I think her name was Carol) had spun around quickly, and to the first person she could find, said, "Wow!" and pointing to the guy in front of her, "I have been married to this guy for 17 years!" And you can probably guess it -- the guy she was talking about was her husband, and the person she was speaking to was . . . me. So . . . the occasion arose, and I gave her a card. To which she responded instantly, "So, you have moxie?" My answer, "I don't know that I have moxie, but read the card, I am building moxie." And . . . I do think it is a collective activity :: Thank you all who have some, especially when you are willing to share. It is an ongoing process.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Skunk Tech Skate Boards: Skunk Tech Boards

assumptions make an . . . well, you know

jb — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:56:00 +0000

. . . Chicken and Egg

I want to state again for the record, and for full disclosure's sake that I have a day job. It has demands, deadlines, and I owe at least some loyalty to it. My employer, after all, trusted me (and my skills) enough to allow me to represent them, now, on two separate occasions. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="343" caption="A thoughtful take on the chicken and the egg (art by Robyn Gallagher -- More Moxie for credit)"][/caption] My day job feeds my family, keeps me in clothes, and allows me to stay out of foreclosure. These are good things. Basic needs . . . one might say. So . . . please, do not for one second assume that I have a thriving business. In fact, and in my mind, I haven€™t even €œlaunched€ it yet. The target date for completion of my baseline infrastructure is softly set for March 1, 2010. This is the day that I plan to begin actively promoting myself, and my business. Still -- you might ask -- Do you get inquiries now; is there interest; do you take jobs? Yes, Yes, and Yes. But the real answer is, for each of these questions €“ honestly, not enough to quit my day job.

. . . Part of starting a business is finding a good financial planner

I have a network. (Yeah, one that doesn€™t start with the word €œsocial.€) Within that network, I am fortunate to have some professional-types, including, well, one hell of a top notch accountant. I think he would prefer, so I will say it; he is a €œsmall business advisor."

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I met Chris S. at his office around six. His office, a piece of work, is filled with more clocks than any one man needs . . . about 40 to be exact. (Hmmm . . . I wonder what point he is trying to get across.) He knew ahead of time I hoped to review the financials associated with my business plan. I assumed he wouldn't bill me, and in the end, he didn't. Chris has some great stories, and offered many good points. For weeks after, though, it seemed I was left to mumble two things: 1. €œWhat are my assumptions?€ and 2. €œAccountants are business people, too.€

. . . Assumptions make an a** out of me

I remember the first time I hung a full room of drywall. It was the middle room of our first house as a married couple, and not the ceiling, 12 sheets total. Sure, I worked around it as a punch-out guy. In fact, I had gotten pretty good at doing quick repairs on it. But I had never tackled an entire room solo. I dialed up some how-to articles, asked some friends, and, in general, I studied. Hang, fasten, tape, block, skim, sand €“ easy enough. In an old house €“ a 1920€™s federal-style rowhome in Uppers Fells Point, the only full bath had at some point been awkwardly placed within the footprint of this room. By my estimates, the last time these rooms were updated €“ roughly 1980. So the day came (this was back before I had kids). I probably loaded in the night before, and was ready to go with an eight am start €“ Saturday. And boom €“ like a superstar, I made it happen . . . the room was glued, screwed; taped and blocked by the end of that Sunday night. I was the man! Then I went to work Monday morning. Back in those days, I would return home after work and would often get a few things accomplished. By Saturday of the next week, we were ready for primer €“ the €œshow coat." I primed, still super proud of myself, and after a few hours working side by side with my wife (she€™s really the painter) €“ the walls were primed. Two coats of deep red satin paint went on that Sunday.

. . . More on the Show Coat

[caption id="attachment_840" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Me -- Right around the time I hung my first room of drywall"][/caption] There is was, at the top of the wall -- the one you turned right into when you came up the stairs €“ a gigantic hump. Not a hump in my taping, you know, not poorly feathered edges, but a hump in the wall. Now €“ if you know me by now, I am pretty neurotic. I couldn€™t live with this. But I just didn't see it initially. So, what did I do? I cut it out, a 2x2 area, and it wasn€™t easy €“ right there at the ceiling. But I did it, and I did get it fixed by the following weekend. What was the problem? You might ask. Well, I made the stupid assumption that the walls I had just removed dated sheet-paneling from were . . . plumb and square! Today, I work framing checks into all of my project schedules, and this has never happened to me again. But that first time, I had to learn, you know, the hard way.

. . . Setting the record straight

[caption id="attachment_839" align="alignright" width="150" caption="The roof in question -- where they were"][/caption] You might have read recently about the roof job I finished for a neighbor. Simply put, I know I could have done a better job. If you read it, I know where I went wrong . . . and maybe I still have much to learn (the issue much deeper). I assumed that the work my friend did prior to me arriving was, well, perfect. I didn€™t realize that it wasn€™t until it was far too late. There and then, this piece was sparked. If I want to move forward with what I plan (here with Building Moxie), I better correct that behavior fast. ******* [caption id="attachment_660" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="image by b"][/caption]As the big builder used to say, Rule #1 €“ Never put good work over bad. That is simple and smart. In other words, never assume that what has come before you is actually true and correct, because it may burn you. Always check! (And I won€™t tell you what Rule #2 is.)

. . . Green is the new black & all start ups are based on assumptions

I always like to say this in my big monster truck voice, hear me, €œASSUMPTIONS.€ Yes, and all business plans are based on assumptions. I assume fundamentally that my prospects, my audience have a need for what I offer. If they do not, they will tell me. And I will react. Sure, there are some elements of me, and more elements of my business that are mindful of home-smart, earth-friendly techniques. But to come at me as if I am proponent of everything with a stamp of €œgreen" on it, would be a bad assumption. Building Moxie is, as I have told people (and some with more success than others), blue, brown & . . . green. And what I mean -- it is all the colors of a prism (and sometimes none), personally fitted to suit each individual's individual needs.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Tons of great articles and videos out there on how to hang & finish drywall, I can't pick just one: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=drywall+finishing&aq=0&aql=&aqi=g10&oq=drywall+fin

Mr Red Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robyn-gallagher/ / CC BY 2.0

Ten Hammers :: aka deconstructing the hammer

jb — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:59:00 +0000

. . . A saying

I have only spoken briefly about my last house €“ a 1920s cedar-shaked Colonial. It was a large hulking structure on a street filled with duplexes, I-houses, and bungalows. And that€™s what my neighbor Thomas had . . . a bungalow. Thomas and I are actually quite different. He is a smart, gritty, street-savvy entrepreneur, the owner of a local coffee establishment. He is in all ways representative of the diy super-culture that exists here in Baltimore. He is a friend. As neighbors, we did share a couple common interests; for one, our love of beer. While he is strictly a micro-brew guy, for me, it€™s always the mass-produced Miller Lite. For two, and another odd thing we had in common, we both lived in houses partially renovated by the same man, a carpenter. Scott did a great job with both of these houses; there is no question. Yet, there was much work that remained. And when Thomas asked me up one Saturday, I knew I was going to be giving him help with an item on his to-do list.

. . . Preparing the opening

Thomas didn€™t call me over for my expertise; he had the matter well in hand. But this day, he needed, well, another hand.

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Thomas had been working on installing pull down attic stairs. Like many bungalow owners with growing families, he was concerned about, and trying to access an underutilized portion of his house. With stairs, he€™d be able to use a small bit of the €œthird floor€ for storage. The ceiling on his second floor was finished with plaster and lath. He had a very solid plan of attack for it. (More on this in the More Moxie section below.) I would be his spotter, or was that his €œcatcher;€ he needed to protect his refinished floors from falling debris. That day, he made some cuts and a smallish section of the ceiling was removed almost perfectly to plan. I did my part; I eased the cutout, extending from the existing attic access, down to the covered floor. It€™s heavy, hoppy micro-brew Time!

. . . The origin of the Ten Hammers

So as Thomas and I hung for a bit, talking over a beer, it came up. I am not sure how. I don€™t remember if it was before I told him about my time working for a general contractor, or after he had told me that his dad was a sheet metal contractor. Not sure if it was before we laughed about my first experience with demoing plaster, or after he had told me he worked for a bit in set construction on stage crews. But he said it. €œYou know the saying . . .€ he paused, €œYou give ten carpenters a hammer. . . .€ And that was it, or at least what I remember him actually saying. And to be honest, I did not know the saying.

. . . The hammer is a tool used in construction, or . . . is that . . . €œde€construction

So I left, and went about my business that Saturday. But here we are, and for some reason, those few little words, like a riddle, left me thinking. Let€™s be fair, too, and I will show my age, and expertise, I probably have as much experience with pneumatic tools as I do with a hammer. But . . . I still know what one is. It was the first known iteration of an impact tool; it is used to drive things, like nails. It is a symbol of the worker, of the god, of the warrior, of the carpenter. Does it take skill and focus to wield a hammer? Yes, absolutely. I find that you (general) must focus dead set on your target, an extension of your hand, and becoming one with it, you deliver a blow. So I try to finish the phrase. And I haven€™t spoken with Thomas about this since. I think what he was trying to get across was . . . "You (can) give ten carpenters a (the same) hammer, and they will all swing it in 10 different ways." One hammer becomes ten.

. . . The final blows and setting the nail

[caption id="attachment_812" align="alignright" width="189" caption="World's first fiber to hammer device"][/caption] There are many different kinds of hammers, each with a design for its specific purpose. And you may have a favorite one for each of the myriad of construction-type tasks you must perform. (I always hear about Tom Silva€™s series of 20 ouncers, you know, with the wooden handle shopped to look like Swiss cheese.) Picking and using a hammer, for me, is all about feel. Sure, it€™s OK to look for features, and to take your time when selecting. Question: Why don't hardware stores or home centers give you a place for a good test drive. A table where you could, I don't know, bang some nails? Liability?) But . . . it should all come down to how that hammer feels in your hand. And remember, they are different one to the next. So I think, in the end, what my neighbor Thomas was really trying to say that day, and I am not sure what sparked it, was -- Everyone is different, and that the hammer is really only as good as the person who wields it. ps: If anyone would like to contribute a hammer story of any kind, please feel free. The photo above is courtesy of Mike Hines at HomePath Products (@eXapath). It is the world€™s first (his words) Fiber-To-The-Hammer device.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

*Zeke€™s Coffee -- locally roasted: http://www.zekescoffee.com/

*Ten Types of Hammers from HammerNet.com: http://www.hammernet.com/select.htm

*Tom Silva€™s holey hammer -- can€™t find it, but here is his bio for TOH: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/biography/0,,420219,00.html

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A short how-to for making cutouts in plaster (This is the technique Thomas was using): Because he was working from an existing attic access, which measured roughly 30x30, he needed only to extend the opening, making a cut-out long ways above the hallway. To do this, and since he was removing plaster and lath, he came up with this procedure. In his situation, the opening was to run with his framing. It requires two people, and the resulting waste will be heavy! So . . . SAFETY FIRST! 1. Take two or three 2x4s (preferably scrap) and cut two pieces just short of the length of the desired cut-out. Then cut four pieces just short of the width of the cut-out. 2. With two people, one working above, hold the longer 2x4s just slightly inside the perimeter of the planned opening. 3. With some sort of squared up working lines, and with a solid point of reference (gained maybe from several pilot holes), hold the shorter 2x4s at regular intervals across the proposed opening. Working together, screw two 3 1/2 inch screws into each board. These screws go up through the bottom cleat, through the plaster and lath, and into the cleat above. (Trust me €“ this will not be easy.) 4. Now, take a sturdy rope, approximately a 16 foot length, and attach it the top side of the assembly in some manner. Attach it at, at least, two points in a widespread manner. 5. Then, take the free end of the rope and tie it off somewhere. In our situation, a sturdy collar tie above our heads worked very nicely. 6. Drill a large starter hole, approximately 1 ¼€, just inside each corner of the proposed cut-out. 7. Note: We were going for a rough cut that day, but with a little more precision and accuracy, we could have made a full-blown jig for the cut-out we were creating. In other words, we could have made a full €œladder," offsetting it on the underside, and using it as a guide for the fence on our sawzall. 8. On the cut link €“ make your cut with a reciprocating, or a mess-making circular saw (using a disguardable blade). At this point, it is not a bad idea to have one person above holding the rope. 9. When the cut is complete, pry the lath away from the framing, untie the rope and lower the slab of now free plaster and lath to the ground. One person spots from below. In doing this, and while you do need to be conscious of existing framing members, you will keep the plaster and lath coupled €“ greatly minimizing dust and debris. Later, Thomas came back -- to frame the opening, and finished with a standard set of pull down stairs.

Alycia Wicker :: The Moxie of Interior Design (aka Legos and White Zombie)

Alycia Wicker — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:42:00 +0000

A Note from your host: I can always count on @ajwdesignco for daily tidbits of design advice. But when Alycia dropped a comment onto a recent post here, I just had to ask. You see, Alycia Wicker blogs at http://www.casamoxie.com. I mean -- how much do you love the word "Casa?" (smile) So I said, "Sister Moxie, do you want to do a guess post?" And well, here it is. Alycia's take on moxie in interior design. jb

A Post by Alycia Wicker

As a certified interior designer, I like many other designers, have had to forge my own path. Finding my place in the world of design wasn€™t an easy thing. The one thing that I have always had, though, was my determination to be the best person I could be, and a desire to do the best at whatever I attempted. I grew up playing with Legos and consuming home floor plan magazines with a vengeance. I dreamed what it would be like to be in the spaces I was building, while visually devouring the rooms from the magazines. My mind was wrapped up early on in these thoughts; what was it like to be in these spaces, how did they function, and how did they affect the people who would be in them. When I started out in design school, all I had was a dream. I wanted to design, but I had yet to discover what my design philosophy was. Looking around, though, I still thought I was way behind the others in my class, those who knew what their €œstyle€ was. Of course, looking back, it didn€™t really matter what my style was. I just knew I had to design things that reflected my personality and that stayed true to my sensibilities. This turned out to be my design philosophy: Do right by design, do right by people, and all is good.

*********

While in college, we had a project to redesign a firehouse into a bed and breakfast. Well, while my classmates went into their predictable designs, I went off the beaten path. I designed something that I thought only those interested in the macabre would enjoy. I called my bed and breakfast the €œDevil€™s Den€. A part of this project also included building a model. So within the Devil€™s Den, I created a glass coffin reception desk and added a chalk outline of a dead body in the reception area. The door to the elevator was a bookcase facade as a hat tip to the hidden passageways of old movies. The stair railing support was to be created with wrought iron in the design of a spider web, a spider on it. The wallpaper was black and white stripes reminiscent of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. When I presented this project, I played White Zombie€™s €œSuper Charger Heaven€. I was so excited to present this idea that really interested me, yet was totally different than anything anyone else would have thought of. When I finished my presentation, the teacher asked, €œDo you really think anyone would want to stay here? Class?€ My heart stopped. I could only wonder what my peers would think. I was pleasantly surprised when the entire class said they would love to stay in this place. Then they started discussing all the fun events that could be held at my fictitious bed and breakfast. That€™s when I realized the power of design and the power of moxie. I went my own way. I never knew if my design would be a hit, but going boldly into a different design path, one that hasn€™t been seen a thousand times over I found what true interior design moxie is. By thinking outside of the box, getting excited about the design, and inspiring people to dream what is possible -- I found me. Since then, I haven€™t designed any more macabre designs, but I still think of that project from time to time. It reminds me to design in a way that makes people think. It reminds me to design for people. People who would rather keep it real and not just go with what hoity-toity designers say is good. And good interior design with moxie keeps it real for real people at all times. -- Alycia Wicker is the Certified Interior Designer behind AJW Design Co and Casa Moxie, on twitter @ajwdesignco. She is based out of Corona, CA. As a former band geek, grave hunter, Elvis Presley fanatic, and Nascar fan, you'll find that she is not your average interior designer. She designs for Mr. and Mrs. America by creating rooms that can be implemented by the homeowner with no designer mark up.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Inland Empire AJW Design Co Creates Happiness: http://ajwdesignco.com/ The Home of e-Decorating: http://casamoxie.com Fundamental building blocks: http://www.lego.com/en-US/default.aspx

Replacement Window Options :: aka Window Shopping

jb — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:12:00 +0000

. . . Building Moxie style

Imagine this scene: When Susan K. approached me, I couldn€™t help but make note of the parallels. She says (paraphrased), €œWord on the street is (looking around) that you might know where to find windows.€ I, in a hushed tone, responded €œStep over here.€ And we made our way a few steps to a nearby dumpster. Around the other side, I handed her a card and said, €œI might be able to help.€ Susan is a first time homeowner, still settling into her new digs. But based on some of the stuff I have overheard, it seems that she has been making her way just fine. Until now. You see, having closed only a few months ago, she is still addressing some of the loose items from her home inspection report. One item, in particular, a racked and now drafty double casement in a second-floor secondary bedroom.[caption id="attachment_791" align="alignright" width="150" caption="A wood framed stained glass octagon from a powder room update"][/caption] As is the norm with many real estate deals these days, instead of requiring the sellers to fix the offending issue, she took, in turn, a buyer€™s credit at closing. As a sometimes buyer of real estate, myself, I happen to like this type of set-up. You have control over the fix, and you have the opportunity to get it done your way. You still have to get it done, though, and unfortunately, many new homeowners choose to put open items off far too long. But not in this case; not with Susan K.

. . . Step 1: Get bids (aka set a baseline)

She started with the phone book, as many still do, and she made a few calls. Of the guys she could get out, all were on time, knowledgeable, and clean cut, or at least that€™s what I heard. She had every intention of getting the job done; and in a matter of days, she had her bids back, and in hand.

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One came in at around $1300, the other at $1600, both installed. While Susan didn€™t have a ton of experience with windows, these prices just didn€™t seem right to her. It seemed like too much money for one window. And that€™s how she decided to approach me near the dumpster.

. . . Step 2: Do your due diligence (aka ask Building Moxie)

Where my work usually begins: So these were the facts, as she reported them to me over the course of that day. And . . . she finished, €œDo you think that seems right?€ Then I start: I say something like this -- "I don€™t know. I really don€™t know what kind of situation you are dealing with. How big is the window? What is the interior finish at the window? What is the exterior finish at the window? (And, of course, the million-dollar question) What kind of window? What are the other windows in your house like? What are you trying to accomplish? (I didn€™t know about the draftiness at that point.) Can you email me a picture? [caption id="attachment_790" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Susan K's double casement"][/caption] I probably threw a few other questions in there, like this one, €œWould you need someone to put it in?€ . . . I finished. She said, €œNo, . . . if you could just help me find a window, I would really appreciate it.€ And, of course, I said, €œOK.€ And how I usually go: I really do not have any dead set formula for approaching these things. In this case, this time, I started by shouting out on Twitter to some of the window manufacturers I am following. And . . . several of my friends up there got right back. Now, don€™t get me wrong, I mean €“ I have a, well, you know. I have spent much of the last few years studying €œwhere to find things€ here locally. From my catalogue of local contacts, I selected, too, a few close to home. Then, I sent some emails and made some calls. From that, now with a solid spec in hand, you know -- what the need is, I narrowed things down to two local suppliers (one of which came through my contact on Twitter).

. . . Step 3: Review the facts, Make a smart decision & Save some money

It really isn€™t magic €“ there were definitely a few back and forths with my contacts. And I can€™t thank them enough for taking the time to work with me on this ONE window. But they did; both top notch pros. Together, we honed, and I was squared to present two separate yet comparable mid-grade vinyl windows €“ Energy Star rated and tax-credit eligible. With a little bit of work, and I won€™t divulge price, I can say pretty plainly that even with an overpriced installation, Susan will save at least a hundred bucks. More, of course, off of that $1600 bid. At the moment, do I know if she will use one of these two suppliers? No, I don€™t; there always seems, with everything, to be more viable options.

. . . The point of this post really

And it was dropped, most expertly, by one of my contacts. My guy, he says, in maybe trying to define what I do, €œI had a contractor come in the other day, and he said to me: When is it all going to stop?!€ But the point being: If it€™s too much for a professional, someone who supposedly sells and installs windows, and they have difficulty navigating the maze of decisions, imagine how hard it must be for a first time homeowner like Susan K. My contact and I talked some more. What he meant was . . . that by this point, and with twenty plus years of the €œreplacement window,€ there are many, many options, and many features to consider with each purchase, and for each need. Fusion-welded miters, wood, Fiberglas, aluminum, vinyl, low-e, argon-injected, simulated divided light, true divided light, heat loss, solar gain, incentives from the government, and . . . I could go on. I say, window companies, continue to do what you do. Options are good. Technological improvements are good. Improved energy efficiency is good. But there seems, too, that there may even be a point where some professionals may need some, well, Building Moxie. Just Sayin'. Thank you for reading and thank you to new client Susan K.

> > More Moxie (Related Links):

The anatomy of a window courtesy of Jeld-Wen Windows and Doors. There are varying qualities for each of these elements and upgrades to any add cost. In other words, know what you are looking at when you are shopping: http://www.jeld-wen.com/attributes/universal.cfm/attribute_id/3447

Two top notch window operations & one top notch program: -- Baltimore Window: http://www.baltimorewindow.com/

-- KC Company: http://www.kc-pella.com/

Energy Star (window) information: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=windows_doors.pr_windows

1 yr anniversary post :: thank you all for reading

jb — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:36:00 +0000

Since November marks the one year anniversary of the Agents of Moxie -- I wanted to re-post my first few lines, well, mainly because you might have missed them. But before I do -- I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has visited. I do my best to post something of interest to one of the four buckets at least once weekly. I will probably be working at the beginning of 2010 to redesign the four into one. But until then, and I don't know about you, I want to say -- I have learned a lot. Thank You and BMoxie BMore! jb

. . . Agents of Moxie

********

To read where most of my moxie comes from: * Once I saw my grandfather tune an engine with a box wrench: Part 1

* Once I saw my grandfather tune an engine with a box wrench: Part 2

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

the Agents of Moxie :: at home -- http://agentsofmoxie-home.blogspot.com

the Agents of Moxie :: on the job -- http://agentsofmoxie-jobs.blogspot.com

the Agents of Moxie :: in the 'hood -- http://agentsofmoxie-hood.blogspot.com

ain't ain't a word (some freewriting)

jb — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:03:00 +0000

. . . On language and writing

I walked into it, as my wife was putting the girls down for the night. The first thing that I heard was, €œNo, dear. Ain€™t isn€™t a word.€ The wife then turns to me, and she says, €œIsn€™t that right?€ Well, you know me. And I am not sure why this time, I unexpectedly answered, €œWell, Evyn . . . it really depends how and when you use it.€ [caption id="attachment_703" align="alignright" width="300" caption="See, it's in the dictionary! (image by b)"][/caption] I guess it was the mood I was in €“ and after about 30 seconds of my wife€™s ranting €“ I was ready for the debate. She ends by saying, €œAnd You . . . You were an English major! Hrrrmmmph! -- (or some other equivalently weighted monosyllabic grunt).€ My response €“ €œThat€™s right.€

. . . Briefly on Dogmatism €“ where good thought goes bad

You know it starts in grade school as the preceding back and forth portrays. Your teachers say €“ it€™s a rule, €œAin€™t isn€™t a word.€ And that€™s what we are taught. I might even suggest that, here, on that night, I probably should have landed on that side of the argument (you know, because we are trying to teach a six year old how to effectively use the language). But I didn€™t, less to advocate the devil and more because I really feel that €œain€™t is a word€. In my eyes, €œain€™t€ is simply a synonym for the word €œisn€™t€. I mean €“ you understand what is meant when I say, €œDogmatism ain€™t cool.€ Right? Or how about this €“ €œpool tables ain€™t the only type of game tables.€ Here, that means -- games tables come in all shapes and all sizes, on which many different games are played. My point is €“ and I won€™t digress too deeply into my catholic school upbringing, nor will I address the actions of some of our supposed leaders. The point, though -- we as communicating creatures, smart enough to develop language, must realize that it is just a language €“ used, at times inadequately, to communicate true feelings, intentions and/or philosophical thought. I mean -- why be so critical?

. . . Means to the end

In a recent €œCurb Your Enthusiasm€ (one of my favs), Larry criticized his father for skimping by a few letter on his mother€™s tomb stone. At the bottom, it read, €œpast in 2001€ (or something in that line). OK, while probably not that respectful, it certainly was creative, and well, didn€™t it still communicate the information it needed to? Let€™s put it this way. Likely, you use Twitter or you have turned to texting from your cell phone. Written communication, it seems, is being clipped at times to a set of commonly accepted acronyms and abbreviations.

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That said -- I am almost certain that you know what these three-letter combinations mean -- LOL, IMO, WT*. And they work, they do a great job of saving valuable (cyber) space, and they do a pretty decent job at communicating . . . as long as everyone is on the same page, and speaking the same language.

. . . And of course I see the irony of it all

I swing to both ends of this. The rules debate. I will admit it €“ I am a notoriously bad speller, famous for dropping words, and even more guilty of not proofing what I spit out. I, at times, justify this for myself by saying, well as long as I communicate what I am trying to communicate. And, yes, I know others say -- typos, mispellings, and dropped words are just plain unprofessional, and further -- they distract from the points you are trying to make. Those folks are probably right, and I work at improving my own shortcomings every day. For me, and I want to give a big shout to all of the professional editors of the world, self-editing is hard! I mean this both from a proofreading level, as well as, and all the way up to content management. I am frequently amazed at what these people pull off on a repeatable basis.

. . . Words are cheap, they say

And the question, again: There sure are a lot of expert writers providing outstanding content for a myriad of outlets. And I ask myself, why jump in? Well, simply to try to communicate and connect with the people of the world. I hope I am doing a decent job. Thanks for reading & BMoxie BMore!

> > More Moxie (Related Links):

Curb Your Enthusiasm -- A genius of flow: http://www.hbo.com/larrydavid/

Communication is not limited to the written or spoken word, and it is probably the single most important aspect of a home project. Courtesy of friends @RemodelCrazy, Paul's series on professional communication:

http://www.remodelcrazy.com/2009/video/remodel-crazy-professional-verbal-skills-video-1.html

http://www.remodelcrazy.com/2009/headline/remodel-crazy-professional-communication-video-2.html

Sharp Edges :: Installing Window & Door Cap

jb — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:15:00 +0000

[caption id="attachment_758" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Clearly labeled :: Caution Sharp Edges"][/caption]

. . . Setting up

One of the biggest challenges with saving the original siding on an 1889 farmhouse (well, other than dealing with 13 decades of paint) is ensuring against water entry at the windows and doors. Our clapboard, where it was protected, has held up nicely to the elements through the years. I would suggest that in some places the old-growth, heartwood fir looks as good as the day it was installed. When it was installed, however, I must assume easily workable sheet metal was not widely in use. Building today, we "flash" above and/or around all window and door openings, usually with aluminum sheet goods. Aluminum, in coil stock or other form, is highly workable, completely resistant to water, and more often than not comes from recycled material. You can feel comfortable that it is a great choice for flashing applications.

. . . Back in the day

[caption id="attachment_759" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Trim pitched to shed water"][/caption] Back in the day, and on my house, the builder, a €œself-builder€ as they might call it in England, topped all window trim with a cap. This cap, similar to what you would see in an Arts and Crafts-style interior trim build-up, was purposefully sloped away from the house as to shed water. (Hopefully, the picture shows this.) Today, windows installed with new construction (aptly called new construction windows) receive a z-flashing (named for its shape) prior to the application of the structure's finished cladding (or siding). On my house, at some point in its life, coil stock had been bent (or broke) on-site and was applied to this window cap. (Again, hopefully, the pictures will show.) [caption id="attachment_760" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Site broke and retrofitted z-flashing"][/caption] While this type of application was certainly practical, aesthetically I had issues with it. Especially given what you know about me (and my distaste for poorly painted metal), it had to go. As I have been working my way around the house, addressing paint issues, I have also been working to implement a more modern flashing solution.

. . . Retro-fitting flashing

While I have been around houses, and am sometimes known to do €œrestoration€ work, I do not own a brake (see the Moxie Mouth at right for a definition). This device, and you have likely seen one, is used to brake or bend sheet metal for flashing, and other exterior, installations. While I would love to one day own one, for this project €“ I wanted to avoid having to purchase, rent, or borrow one. So I looked elsewhere. [caption id="attachment_761" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Improvised cap flashing using eave edge"][/caption] Most home centers and lumber yards stock a select set of aluminum edging profiles. I will admit again, I don€™t always have time to do as much legwork as I would like. For example, when I did work around the windows in the back ell of the house last summer €“ I had difficulty finding a profile that would work with my trim set-up. In that case, and at the time I thought rather ingeniously, I grabbed a roofing eave edge (for the raking ends of a shingling installation), flipped it over, and made it work.

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I wish I would have spotted Amerimax€™s Window and Door cap back then. As the pics will hopefully show, it seems that this stuff was designed with my house in mind, and it worked excellently for the windows on the front of house.

. . . Installing

Again, I never claim to be a craftsman or a home improvement expert, but I would like to provide the procedure I used for installing . . . . [caption id="attachment_762" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Getting There"][/caption] One of my biggest priorities was trying to get lap (that is, coverage) at the ends of the window cap €“ and this proves to be the most difficult part of this installation. (I did take pics at each step of the work, but . . . truthfully they did not turn out great. I will not post them here, but I will email them to anyone who asks.) Oh yeah -- when working with sheet metal, watch out for sharp edges!

* The procedure €“

1. I measured the length of the first window cap. Warning: I learned long ago, and especially with old houses, not to gang cut any elements intended for the windows. Usually, there are a few factions of an inch of difference one to the next. I added one inch to the measurement here, to allow for a ½ inch fold at each end. [caption id="attachment_763" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Downstairs windows done"][/caption] 2. I cut the cap to length using my miter saw. I almost always do this. Loaded with a good carbide blade, cuts on sheet metal work out well (though a slight rough edge is sometimes left). 3. Work on the flashing itself started by marking for the set- back. To do this, I used the combination of a speed and a small carpenter€™s square. (For marking the opposite end, I held it in place on the cap later -- marking it there.) 4. I then made two short cuts, using aviator snips, first at the rear where the flashing begins its slope upwards, and at the front where the cascade begins its fold over. I then made another short cut at the €œlip€ in line with my marking. I finished this with a notch cut where the slope intersects the flashing's €œdeck. [caption id="attachment_764" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Hand seamers are available in many different sizes"][/caption] 5. I worked my €œflap€ upwards slightly with my fingers, I trimmed the €œear€, and then took the lip that was now free and folded it almost a full 180 degrees back on itself. This allowed me to then fit my hand brake in. 6. Enter the hand seamer €“ a great tool made by Wiss/Cooper Tools! I started shifted forward €“ and on the working line, I bent my flap upwards to 90 degrees. Then I €œbroke€ the flap downwards. I had to reset the tool by shifting it to the back of the profile midway through the bend. (This was a simple matter of physics €“ the hand seamer I was working with was a little too large for the profile, but it worked nonetheless.) [caption id="attachment_765" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Rough edge and unfinished caulk at completed cap"][/caption] 7. Now with a fully shaped flashing in hand €“ I placed it into a bead of caulk at the top of the window cap. Using stainless steel trim nails from Maze Nails, I fastened the flashing at five points from above. (Obviously €“ I don€™t love creating the additional penetrations on a horizontal surface, and it is debatable if I could have just €œglued€ the piece into place €“ for me, though, I later dabbed all nail heads with a glob of silicone caulk. And I was happy.) 8. While I used an "elastamastic" on the rear, here, I chose instead a 100% clear window/door silicone to seal the flashing at the point where it meets the house. In these applications, I choose not to finish, or swipe, the bead as I feel it allows the bead to hold up longer under the stresses of expansion and contraction. Anyway €“ this is how I did it. I would love to hear what you might have done differently. * Lessons Learned €“ Rusty tools are the devil & never snap your pictures on the first item you do in a set. Work only gets better as you get into a rhythm. Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore!

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Amerimax aluminum products (I believe): http://www.amerimax.com/default.asp Wiss metal working hand tools: http://www.cooperhandtools.com/brands/wiss/index.cfm

"Where do you get all of these great gifts?"

jb — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:03:00 +0000

. . . She said (a review of sorts)

Not long after my wife and I started discussing potential birthday gifts for my nephew, my godson, Jackson, we came up with a target. Having now shepherded two children of our own through the face-smearing of a first-birthday cake, we had a little inkling of what would make a decent gift. Surely to be overloaded with puzzles, trucks, and the now obligatory €œYo Gabba Gabba€ doll, we were going to go in a slightly different direction. We knew; so we focused in on something a little more practical. Toddlers, we thought, just learning the basics of standing, walking, and hygiene need just a little assistance when getting into position for a hand or face washing. Enter the step stool; the only questions €“ in what style and where to find it?

. . . Shopping for the perfect gift

When I say step stool, and if you have kids -- you know the ones. I mean -- you€™ve noticed them, at Sears, at Target, and in the handful of homes that you may sometimes visit. [caption id="attachment_750" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Jackson"][/caption] The wife attempted first by grabbing one at Wal-Mart. In basis colors, she was planning to add some stenciling detail to it. Not super sturdy, though, so we discussed. €œWhat is his room theme again?€ My wife providing the answer €“ Animals. I searched and quickly found this: http://www.allchildrensfurniture.com/Guidecraft-G83206-EZ1201.html -- the Guidecraft Safari Storage Stool. A cool step stool -- with storage no less -- Bonus! It would work perfectly. OK, and after further chatting, we figured we could do better. So we, as we often do, turned to the internet. My wife first -- she was going to do some exploration. After about a half an hour, me watching the girls €“ she called me in. As we started making our way through the ten or so windows that she had open, we came to it: http://www.allchildrensfurniture.com/, a CSN Store. CSN had contacted me a short bit ago about potentially doing a review for another of their 200 or so home-related sites. And I remembered it; so I said, €œHey, let€™s look here. . . . Animals, right.

. . . Assembly required

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When I finished unpacking things from the weighty box, I was quick to notice the embossed features on the piece; elephants and zebras €“ nicely made, again, perfect. Sitting there in my office not far from the computer that I write at €“ I made this thing happen. I really liked the way everything was labeled very clearly. I was even more surprised that the hex-screws included for the fastening of the structural elements were long, possibly up to four inches long. It took me only about 15 minutes to assemble the piece; 10 minutes more, and I took some pictures. For grins €“ and since this stool was actually much nicer than the hand-me-downs we have, I sat it in our 1/2 bath. Wow, it looks great; what do you think? And there one last picture -- the beautiful bronze plate, the stamp €“ Guidecraft, Made in the USA.

. . . The big day

[caption id="attachment_753" align="alignright" width="150" caption="A proven track record (The print not the doll)"][/caption] It was huge turn out, especially on a Ravens' gameday. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends €“ all there to celebrate a big day. My girls were excited themselves; they love hanging with Jackson. We ate, we drank, and we watched football. I took some time to sneak into his room and grab some shots of where our gift will live. [caption id="attachment_754" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The assembled stool looks pretty good in my powder room"][/caption] When gift-opening time came, my sister, this, her first child, may not have expected just how many gifts she would get for Jackson€™s first b-day. The flood of learning toys, clothes, dolls, and books was, in fact, pretty prolonged. Ours, wrapped in its no-wrapping-paper-goes-to-waste craft project, was grouped at the tail end with other big ticket items. Opting to take in the feeling of my success over taking pictures, I reveled in the moment she opened our gift. Finally, third from the end, this is what came out of my sister's mouth as she unwrapped, €œWhere do you get all of these great gifts?€ (We do have a decent track record.) All eyes in the room turned to me, and I heard €“ €œDid you make it?€ I said, €œCha (or something like that) . . . I wish." And I deferred answering, not divulging my secrets. But you€™ll know -- I found this great piece at http://www.allchildrensfurniture.com/.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Yo Gabba Gabba :: the official site: http://yogabbagabba.com/

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Bill O'Connor's Solar Thermal Set-up :: Inside the Pro's Home

jb — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:14:00 +0000

. . . BMore apparently a suburb of DC

I am fortunate really that around me here in Lauraville there are many forward-thinking, creative, and community-oriented people. Revitalization, as you might have read, is abounding; new shops and reclamation are the norm. Mixing new with old, the locals here are creating a kinda 21st century stew. And when I am not off in some distant land fantasizing about my own remodeling biz super-success, I may catch a glimpse of the solar panels sitting on Bill O€™Connor€™s roof. Sure, I noticed when they first went on, but I did not actually stop until recently to think -- Hey, what might it take to integrate this newish technology with an old house? Then, one Saturday afternoon, the girls and I stumbled upon our new local street market. And there, below them, as if they were almost powering the activity, those solar panels came up. In the course of chatting at the Baltimore Main Street table, Bill€™s wife, Sue, asked, €œAre you going to the solar tour today?€ [caption id="attachment_738" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The plates on Bill's Lauraville home"][/caption] I said, €œWell, I don€™t know; what is that?€ The 19th Annual Washington Metro (b-more apparently a suburb of DC) Solar Home Tour was stopping at Bill€™s house, and I did ultimately pop in. It was that day when I first pitched Bill on the idea for this article. I said to him, €œI see it growing every day, interest in solar; and I am sure my readers (as if you number in the many) would love to know what it takes to implement this technology in an old house.€

. . . A few weeks later feeling a little bit like Kevin O€™Connor (no relation)

There have only been a handful of times when this job has made me feel a little bit like Kevin O€™Connor. But this is one of them. There, as I sat sipping pear cider with Bill and his buddy, Roger Perry, we discussed the process of installing a solar hot water, aka thermal, system for Bill€™s house. [caption id="attachment_739" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Roger's ride -- Solar Energy Services"][/caption] Close friends €“ you could tell. Motorcycling buddies, they have both been in their respective lines of work for 30 plus years. Roger, the owner of Solar Energy Services, survived the €œdark days of solar€ (my words), and Bill, the House Mechanic (as his business is called), now collaborate frequently on each other€™s projects. Bill admits when he initially contacted Roger regarding solar, he was interested more in solar€™s ability to provide power for his home. Roger, and probably working more together, quickly steered Bill away from this as his starting point. Known as photovoltaic (PV), installations that convert sun power into electrical voltage are pricey, almost three times pricier than the other solar set-up, thermal. So they agreed, instead, to start there €“ with a thermal system used for domestic potable hot water and radiant hot water space heating. These systems are, as Roger tells me, more efficient; they offer €œmore bang for the buck,€ he says.

. . . Solar misconceptions

While I certainly have a little experience with plumbing and heating, the concept of integrating solar into a water set up is still totally new to me. [caption id="attachment_740" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The chase in Bill's sitting room constructed to conceal lines "][/caption] So that day, as we sat on the front porch, I started with questions like: €œDid you have to add structural support to the roof to handle the weight of those things (as I pointed upwards towards the panels)?€

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And -- "Did you have to crane them up there (again referring to the panels)?" As I was quickly set straight, I learned that these are not big concerns when working with a solar configuration. In turns out, too, that this line of questioning may actually be even a little further from some of the most common misconceptions about solar. Bill, that day, told me of some of his early encounters with passers-by. On spotting the panels, some would ask, €œWhat€™s it like to live without BG&E (local energy supplier -- Baltimore Gas & Electric)?€

. . . Sizing things up

While there are certainly systems that can get you off of the grid, Bill€™s isn€™t one of them. Virtually all thermal/hot water systems are supplemental only, and they work in tandem with gas, propane, or oil-fired equipment to do what they do. [caption id="attachment_741" align="alignright" width="150" caption="A slightly closer look at the black boxes"][/caption] Bill€™s specifically is known as a closed-loop glycol (that€™s anti-freeze) system with flat plate collectors. It is not an uncommon set-up (more on this in a minute). The collectors as I learned are actually only big aluminum boxes -- black of course, that contain copper tubing, paired with a copper-coated plating. (Copper has good heat transfer properties.) The ones on Bill€™s roof weigh only about 150 lbs each. They were hoisted (hand & rope) up onto the roof and were shimmied into place -- where they were then attached. Bill's roof, and there are reasons for this, holds five four by ten plates. These then service a 120 gallon water tank, which is found in his basement. This set-up is a little larger than most solar thermal set-ups. Roger, whose company recently did an install at the Governor€™s mansion (MD), says his most common job is a family of four moving off of an electric hot water heater. In that configuration, we are talking typically about two four by eight panels servicing an eighty gallon tank.

. . . Interfacing

€œSo why go larger with Bill€™s set-up?€ I ask. [caption id="attachment_742" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Bill's cork kitchen floor and baseboard radiant"][/caption] Roger€™s initial response came back as one word, €œLoad.€ But he continued, €œWell, we had to look at what we needed to do. For Bill, we were not only going to support the potable hot water and the space heating, but we also had to think about his hot tub out back.€ €œStill . . . why five panels?" I asked. "Well, we simply had the room." Roger answered. "Plus, Bill's roof is a little east-facing.€ In terms of solar collection, you can actually think of the sun as a limited resource. Here in the northern hemisphere, plates are ideally set to face due south. But thanks to the siting of houses, and multiple roof forms, that may not always be possible. Add to this clouds and occasional rainy periods, and there is sometimes a need, as in Bill€™s instance, to go with slightly larger, and more, plates. The additional plates, however, do nothing but make the collection of solar rays a little easier. As you can see with the built chase shown above, the intrusion into and through the house remains relatively insignificant.

. . . Hot water is easier to heat

[caption id="attachment_743" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Recently updated kitchen"][/caption] Through Bill€™s expertly remodeled kitchen, passed his world class bumper sticker collection (which lines the walls), and through his workshop (where he happens to be working on a "picklewood" countertop for Roger), he lead me to the real goodies. And there, in his mechanical room, that€™s where it really happens €“ the €œinterfacing€ -- to use Roger€™s words. As you can see in the picture, the tank is actually quiet impressive. The closed loop continues via 1" copper pipe through this point. You could think of this tank as something of a hub. The boiler and the hot water heater, upgraded too for this project, access pre-heated water in this tank. [caption id="attachment_744" align="alignright" width="150" caption="120-gallon solar tank"][/caption] By claiming already heated water, the boiler and the hot water heater (still dependent on fuel) have far less work to do. They fire only when the temperature of the water needs to be elevated. Now . . . they often have to work only long enough to bring temps up a few degrees. And . . . equipment that works less, firing for shorter periods, burns less fuel and saves money. While there is no special requirement on equipment per se €“ Bill€™s home is fitted with a super high efficiency condensing boiler (enough to make this housephile drool). The decision to upgrade this appliance was suggested, too, by Roger very early in the design process. Think about it €“ As Roger puts it, €œYou don€™t want to plug a system like this into house that has a boiler or a hot water heater going on 20-25 years old." And I see what he meant -- kinda like putting high octane gas into poorly maintained 1984 Chevette. You would never realize the full benefit of the upgrade.

. . . Million dollar questions (aka so how much did it cost and how much will it save?)

[caption id="attachment_745" align="alignright" width="150" caption="A new hot water heater made sense for this project"][/caption] It is tough to say exactly how much a system like Bill€™s would cost in your house. A project similar to Bill€™s would price out right around $25k; I know that. In Bill€™s house, he and Roger not only upgraded both water service appliances, but they also reconfigured some of the existing baseboard heating to create four €œmore logical€ zones. While Bill certainly receives Energy Star tax credits on his new appliances, he also received both a grant from the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) as well as a federal tax credit for renewable energy. As I understand it, in total, he got a few thousand back once the installation was complete. (And, every little bit helps.)[caption id="attachment_746" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Bill, the House Mechanic, shows off wood salvaged from the bottom of a pickle barrel"][/caption] For that family of four that I mentioned above, their cost would run somewhere in the range of $8-$10,000 for install. They could expect a four for five year payback on their investment by saving between $600 and $800 in annual energy costs. Bill currently is saving about a 1/3 on his gas bill, and should expect to see a full return on his investment in six to eight years.

. . . One last thing

These systems are in my opinion very intelligent €“ using (or should I say harnessing) natural elements to run efficiently. And this article only roughly outlines the set up, so you may want to explore more deeply with your local solar expert. The technology has evolved as such that maintenance on these systems is almost negligible. The glycol (remember anti-freeze) in Bill€™s system will require a flush and change every five years at a cost between $200 and $400. But Roger tells me, this is really the only major maintenance consideration. Cool, huh? Thank You both, Bill for opening your home, and Roger for taking the time to drive up for the meet.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

Solar Energy Services: http://www.solarsaves.net/ Very good overview on thermal solar systems courtesy of RemodelCrazy.com and written by Solar Energy Service's Senior Residential Solar Consultant, Rich Schroeher. This article outlines several options in solar thermal and provides a great graphic showing such things as the sensors found on both the exterior and interior portions of the set-up: http://www.remodelcrazy.com/2009/green/solar-collectors-part-2.html 19th Annual Washington DC Solar Tour: http://www.solartour.org/ This Old House host Kevin O'Connor: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/biography/0,,441624,00.html Energy Star Appliances (Boilers): http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=boilers.pr_boilers Maryland Energy Administration :: Solar, Geothermal and Wind Grants: http://www.energy.state.md.us/incentives/residential/index.asp IRS Form 5695 :: Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5695.pdf

Agents of Moxie :: Business

jb — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:12:42 +0000

The section Agents of Moxie (:: Business) represents a loose collection of essays associated with building business. Subsections mirror the dictionary definition for the word €œmoxie€ but at times may seem arbitrary. Here, by the way, are the definitions that we are working with:

1. vigor; verve; pep. 2. courage and aggressiveness; nerve. 3. skill; know-how.

Please read and comment. As always, we welcome contributions to this areas. Please email jb@buildingmoxie.com or feel free to use our submission form. Thank you and BMoxie BMore!

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ps: For those of you that may be interested, here is the "Building Moxie" series of posts (they were not copied over with the move): >>Building Moxie :: Part 1 of a few (aka Private Parts and Work you Love): http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/2009/07/building-moxie-part-1-of-probably-few.html >>Building Moxie :: An Outtake (aka The Best Thing to Happen to Home Improvement Since the Hammer -- Twitter): http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/2009/07/building-moxie-outtake-two-things-that.html >>Building Moxie :: Another Outtake (aka The Internet and the Opposable Thumb): http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/2009/07/building-moxie-another-outtake-two.html >>Building Moxie :: Part 2 of a few (aka Change, as in the Incredible Hulk or Mr. Hyde): http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/2009/07/building-moxie-part-2-of-few-aka-it.html >>Building Moxie :: Part 3 of a few (aka me and the Big Builder): http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/2009/08/building-moxie-part-3-of-few-me-and-big.html >>Building Moxie :: Part 4 of a few (aka you have to do what you need to do before you can do what you want to do): http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/2009/08/building-moxie-part-4-of-few-aka-you.html >>Building Moxie :: Developing a Little Business (aka I have done a few things; open a Lemonade stand wasn't one them): http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/2009/08/what-is-building-moxie-developing.html >>Building Building Moxie :: (aka Yet Another Outtake -- Options): http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/2009/08/building-building-moxie-outtake.html >>Building Building Moxie :: The Internet and You: http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/2009/08/building-building-moxie-internet-and.html >>What is Building Moxie :: Starting with an Outtake: http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/2009/08/what-is-building-moxie-outtake.html >>Building Building Moxie :: The Big Boxes and You: http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/2009/08/building-building-moxie-big-boxes-and.html >>What is Building Moxie :: aka they say when starting a small business it is better to follow then lead: http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/2009/08/what-is-building-moxie-aka-they-say.html >>What is Building Moxie: http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/2009/09/what-is-building-moxie-by-jb-bartkowiak.html

If only you could drive your house up to the home center

jb — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

. . . Car guys vs. House guys (and yes girls and women can be guys too)

I have mentioned it previously; I am not really a car guy. Sure, I know a few things. I know how to operate a vehicle, and I know where the gasoline goes. I know that they ride on tires, which, in turn, must be rotated every so often. A transcript (roughly) of the conversation that then followed:

I started with, €œJen, calm down.€ Then, I proceeded to give her a brief outline of what I know. €œIt could mean anything . . . . It could mean it is time for regularly scheduled maintenance. Or, it could mean, well, that there is something seriously wrong.€ I thought for a second, then I finished the first wave with, €œHow is the car running?€ She replied, €œWell, it does feel a little sluggish €“ what should I do; should I not drive it?€ €œWe are going to have to have someone do a diagnostic on it.€ But who, I thought. Jen then said, €œI guess I€™ll have to go up to my parents and have Roy look at it.€ (Roy is a "guy" in the classic sense of the word. For a loose definition, see the Moxie Mouth side bar here). €œBut that means driving up on a weekend €“ (paraphrased) and we are so busy.€ I said, €œOK, let me call some places around here. We€™ll get this checked out.€ €œI love you.€ €œI love you, too.€ But I continued, €œDon€™t worry about it €“ I think you are OK driving it for a little bit.€

. . . Kinda like shopping bids for a home project

[caption id="attachment_802" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Moving Houses -- There are actually complete shows dedicated to this (image by b)"][/caption] I proceeded, as promised, to call a couple of the places near us. Two, to be exact. Both regionally recognizable chains; we have visited both previously. $89.99 per hour for a diagnostic €“ €œBut it usually doesn€™t take more than an hour,€ the service tech said. My reply, €œOK, thanks.€ So . . . I called the next place. €œWhew,€ I thought, €œOnly $89.99 for the test, and just the test, no by the hour included here.€ And I reported back quickly. My wife€™s reply sharp and clear, €œI guess I am going to have to take it up to Roy.€ The plan of action decided. Now . . . my wife is a smart lady. She knows, like I do, that there are always options. So, she called her brother. Her brother, my brother-in-law, Darin is a smart guy, too, an engineer; he knows some things. And he is certainly more of a car guy than me. Two days after that initial call, I picked up another call in my office. The excitement in her voice was pretty plain, €œDarin says Auto Zone does free diagnostics.€ I said, €œHmmm, wow, cool.€ And a few days later my wife went to Auto Zone. As with most events in life, this got me thinking. How does this translate to the home? In a lot of ways, maintaining a home and maintaining an automobile are quite similar. Each has systems that effect overall performance, each is fairly expensive, and each requires routine maintenance, and regular care, to perform at its best.

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These conditions are due, in part, to the temporal and fading nature of things. Much as a car€™s odometer rolls with every tenth of a mile accumulated €“ your home loads on mileage, too, with each passing year. Short of noting proactive discretionary improvements, and extending beyond the mechanical equipment found in your home, all parts in, on, or of your home will wear, and ultimately fail (if left unchecked). The timeline of failure, of course, can be accelerated by poor maintenance within interconnected systems. This has never been clearer than today, as many of us focus our attention on energy usage. Enter the home energy audit, a diagnostic of home energy performance. These check-ups look at such things as the air-tightness of your home€™s shell (the skin) and the health of its working parts (organs as such). It's kinda like a doctor€™s visit, a house call. Some of today€™s home automation systems allow for in-line diagnostics of power-based components. But . . . still these controls are evolving and I can think that one day maybe homes, too, will fitted with a €œCheck Engine€ light. Think about it €“ a LED blinking on at a centralized location to not only notify you at certain intervals, but also to highlight the detection of specific negative events.

. . . Auto Zone is the sh*t (stand back now he's really rambling)

As my wife, her check engine light still lit, was finalizing plans to have Roy change the thermostat on her car, it happened, as if a cruel joke. My check engine light, with no regret or remorse, popped on. €œDamn!€ But I tried not to panic; I mean €“ after all, from recent experience I knew what I needed to do first. Head to Auto Zone. I just had to work it into my schedule. It was a rainy Saturday, and early, when I walking in. There were two employees on duty, and one person in the store. I did my usual, with the body language, and not impatiently mind you. More in stance that says €“ €œYes, I am looking at these displays, but not because I intend to purchase anything off of them; instead, I am just killing time here until you ask me if I need assistance.€ When the staffer came over, and I didn€™t have to wait long, he was pleasant enough. €œCan I help you?€ he asked. I said, €œI hear you are doing free diagnostics; and my check engine light is on.€ He said, €œSure. We are.€ And he reached his hand back behind the island that holds the store€™s computer monitors, he grabbed a handheld device, and we walked out to my truck, together. Below the truck€™s steering wheel and on the side of the console that houses my radio, there is a port. And he took this device (it wasn€™t too far off of some the electrical testers I have seen), and he plugged it in. With a turn of the key, and shutting my wipers off, he captured an error code in a matter of seconds. He then said, €œLet€™s see what the computer says your problem might be.€ A minute later, and more time actually spent walking and chatting, I had a list of four possible issues (ad libbing a little here): the catalytic converter, a leak at the exhaust manifold, a dirty air flow sensor, or a blocked fuel injector. My problem to be found at one of these four points. The first thing out of my mouth of course was €“ €œWell, what do you think?€ And we fired questions and answers back and forth for a few minutes. I finally, then, made the resolution to start the troubleshooting dance with the more inexpensive options. Knowing full well that Auto Zone stocks injector cleaner, I asked, €œHow do I clean the air flow sensor?€ €œI€™ll show you . . . . Here,€ he said, as he handed me a can that looked quite similar to spray paint. And I walked out of there that morning with cleaner for my air flow sensor, fuel injector cleaner, and a thermostat for a 2000 Volvo. What a brilliant organizational decision! The Auto Zone associate, very knowledgable, may I dare say a car guy, provided tips for troubleshooting, laid down the truth of things if my troubleshooting were to fail, and he assured me that I could confidently perform some of these steps myself. Then, he rang me up for the supplies that I would need. And we went about our days.

. . . Systems normal

I find that when troubleshooting it is often best to get the easiest and least expensive possibilities out of the way first. And in my case, this time, those basic measures performed that Saturday worked. I was able to shut that sucka light off. I also find that these aren€™t the kind of things you usually want to let go for too long. As with our house above, causes and effects are all too often interrelated. In my case, and with my vehicle, data pointed to either the air intake or the fuel system, each potentially having compounding effects on the other. Left unchecked, who knows, the issue could have effectively manifested into a larger (and more expensive) problem. Plus, you have to admit, it sure is unsightly. The check engine light -- starting your car, and there in the dashboard, it stares back at you, telling you something isn€™t quite right.

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

As I was noodling this idea, I stumbled upon this outstanding article on "Your House as a System". Link courtesy of Extremehowto.com: http://www.extremehowto.com/xh/article.asp?article_id=60917 A top publication on home controls and other electronics: http://www.electronichouse.com/eh/magazine/ Get in the Zone! Auto Zone: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/

so what I am trying to say is . . . heavy on the one

jb — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

. . . My first guest post

Let me be honest, I obsess (usually afterwards) about almost everything that I write, and post. Yes, I am still in that phase. But . . . this post -- and how, and/or if, it fits -- has really troubled me. [caption id="attachment_606" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="There's Saint Pete Paul Anater (good man -- great blogger)"][/caption] I do revel in the opportunity to write from the hip; I find that it is often a great way to explore. But sometimes though -- like in life, walkabouts lead only to places that you know.

********

Thanks to Paul Anater at Kitchen and Residential Design for having me. I am one of eleven guest posters who are holding the fort while Paul gets some time away. Please check in throughout the week to see what is up! Without further build-up, here is my first guest post: . . . heavy on the one

ps. Thanks to Barry at the Big Blog of Building and Mike at Home Path Products for getting my back, as always.

Agents of Moxie :: Life

jb — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:23:27 +0000

The blog formally known as the Agents of Moxie

The first lines ::

I know. It sounds like that indy rock band I never formed. I mean, "The Agents of Moxie." And I began thinking about prototypical pieces for this portion of my undertaking. I already knew that this section should be dedicated to stories of persons, places and things that inspire us to expand ourselves. I knew it is about paying homage and giving back. And there they were, after a few scattered hours of thought, ideas. And while there is no question that some of these topics will eventually appear in these pages, as the first article, they came and they went. Except this idea, this one idea came and it stuck. I said to myself, "I will lead with a piece about my grandfather." And in that, I realized the point. The "Agents of Moxie" is for me (or anyone else that writes here). It is in all ways self-serving, (exploring), and maybe a little bit vain.

********

The key theme of (the Agents of Moxie) :: Life remains roughly the same: It is ok to step outside of your comfort zone, to challenge yourself, make mistakes, etc -- we live and we learn. We are (almost) self contained, but we do and we get better. Here under :: Life, you'll find stories of the things that give us the moxie to try no matter what it is. Please read and comment. As always, we welcome contributions to this area. Please email jb@buildingmoxie.com or feel free to use our submission form. Thank you and BMoxie BMore!

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House, Home, Hood

jb — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:34:55 +0000

Content on this site is divided into three sections: House, Home, 'Hood. (There is some crossover within the tabs.)

House

This section of the site contains essays, articles and other media created by the house (as in house band). Posters to this section are listed here: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/contributors/.

Home

This section of the site contains articles that include practical information about home-type stuff: how-to articles, etc. It contains articles written by house posters and guests.

'Hood

This section of the site contains articles contributed by guests: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/category/hood/tagged/ as well as stories written by house posters usually on businesses or people that do stuff with houses.

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Please read and comment. As always, we welcome contributions to these areas. Please email blog@buildingmoxie.com to find out more. Thank you and BMoxie BMore!

Mini Moxie :: Q & A, Tips & Tricks

jb — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:37:46 +0000

Welcome to :: Mini Moxie

We hope to use this section as a note pad, ultimately posting with a little more frequency than the rest of the blog. We will frequently add open ended questions about home, life and business. We welcome comment, but will return later to provide suitable answers or links to resources on Moxie Monday. Tuesday is for Tuesday Tips: short practical tips that should encourage thought toward "How we get things done."

Moxie is . . .

We welcome contributions always (it's an open invitation). If you have anything you would like to say, see or share, email jb@buildingmoxie.com or feel free to use our submission form. Thank you and BMoxie BMore!

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safecss

jb — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:21:00 +0000

body { font-family:"century gothic" Arial, sans-serif; font-size:small; font-weight:400; text-align:left; }

Moving from Blogger to WordPress :: Thanks for Memories . . . Blogger

jb — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 13:29:00 +0000

. . . But it feels like I never left

As you may have guessed from the sidebar over here (-->), I have decided to take this show over to the Wordpress platform. There are several reasons I have decided to make this move. While developing the web component of my venture at http://www.buildingmoxie.com/, a Blogger blog presented a quick and easy way to manage the content I hoped to generate for/through the site. At the time, I had a few ideas about what I might cover using my blog. Unfortunately -- I found quickly that the variety of topics I ended up writing about spilled out beyond one simple, and centralized, location. So . . . as need arose, I created the additional extensions for Home (work around my house), for Jobs (work on other people's houses), and for the 'Hood (stories about houses and people near me). For the last year, I posted on average one article a week to one of these places. But while traffic to the landing location AOM grew, my numbers in the auxiliary buckets remained somewhat flat. My assumption . . . perhaps you and others simply may not have known those other destinations also existed. So with the long and the short, I am moving to Wordpress for their tabbed scalability (through both pages and categories) and for the ability to unify all of my content under one harmonious domain.

. . . What's in a name?

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During this process, I am taking the opportunity to rename and re-brand the blog. While I, of course, love both the phrase "agents of moxie" and further the way the word "agents" plays several meanings, it has in some regard failed to accomplish one primary goal. That is -- unless you found me through my website, you and others may not have noticed that this blog is in fact attached, and is meant to support, my budding home improvement business. While fun and flirty at first - "agents" had to go (at least as the domain name); enter, now, Building Moxie :: the Blog. The word "Building" hints that my business and my blog may have something to do with . . . well, construction, and it helps reinforce my brand as a whole.

. . . And what will you find at http://blog.buildingmoxie.com/

In re-designing, I hope to come up with a snappy tag phrase that tells every visitor what they might find there (here). Something that says, "You are visiting the site of an aspiring entrepreneur." In visiting, you'll find content written by an analyst turned week long warrior -- who with some formal training has made his way through many, many home improvement projects using information collected not only from magazine articles, books and online resources, but also through the everyman's weapon of choice -- trial and error. I mean -- I am actually to the point where I am considering a professional career with it! Am I crazy? A do-it-yourselver gone mad, and it, I feel, offers a unique, from-the-ground-up perspective of the industry. And there you are - the theme, at least the one I am toying with -- "An end user's view to home (no, strikethru) life improvement." You'll find material on and from the agents of moxie, still, the full array: a person or business authorized to act on another's behalf; a natural force or object producing or used for obtaining specific results; Grammar. a form or construction; and so on. I welcome you to come visit now, as I rework the blog in broad daylight. I will be noodling new sections and hopefully testing a new "thing" in the coming months. In the future, and when the re-design is complete, I hope you will return to read and leave comment. I am always available at jb@buildingmoxie.com. Thank you all for your support and BMoxie BMore!

>> More Moxie (Related Links):

* Want to give a quick shout to twitter friends @KatrinaSOS and @abledragon who helped get me on the right track with this process. Thank you both. ps -- Oi! This time of year is really slowing this process down. Happy Holidays all! And If you are so inclined, feel free to contact me about becoming a sponsor and/or an advertiser; just sayin'. Thanks. jb

Got Moxie? --> Mini Moxie --> Questions Answers Tips and Tricks from Building Moxie

jb — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:47:36 +0000

Welcome to :: Got Moxie, a new category I'd like to play with. [caption id="attachment_415" align="alignright" width="88" caption="This image is found in the default Wordpress package"][/caption] I hope to use this section as a note pad, ultimately posting with a little more frequency than the rest of the blog. I will frequently add open ended questions about home, life and business. I welcome comment, but will return later to provide what I hope to be a suitable answer.

Moxie is . . .

I welcome contributions always (it's an open invitation) and will place them here under the "Guest Posts" category. If you have anything you would like to say, see or share, email me anytime at jb@buildingmoxie.com. Thank you and BMoxie BMore!

gotmoxie

jb — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:17:31 +0000

Moxie Mouth :: Some Things Defined

jb — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:49:50 +0000

A field guide containing some of the terms used in the articles that appear on this site. A psuedo glossary: 1x (by) €“ Wood trim having a nominal thickness of 1 inch. Because of the milling process, actual thickness is ¾ of an inch. 5/4 board €“ Wood trim known for having a thickness of 1 and ¼ inches. Because of the milling process, actual thickness is closer to 1 and 1/8 of inch. Appliance cart €“ A large hand truck (aka dolly) equipped with straps and rubberized rollers. Designed for moving appliances. Articulator €“ The strike assembly of a lockset. This is the part of a doorknob that actually latches and unlatches. Aviator snips €“ (my grandfather's tin snips) Hand tool designed similar to scissors for cutting sheet metals. They come in straight, right and left, and are color-coded to indicate. Backerboard -- A sheet product, used as a substrate for tile. Typically made of cement reinforced fibers, and cut with specialty tools. Baluster €“ The spindle providing support in a rail assembly (aka the balustrade). Blocking (n. or v.) €“ This term is used loosely to describe a support that can be built into almost anything. Incorporated from wall to floor systems, from cabinets to built-ins. Blocking is typically made of scrap wood material. Brake (n or v) €“ A tool or technique used to manipulate sheet materials like aluminum. Casement €“ Type of window in which the movable part swings outward in line with the frame's dimension. Chair rail €“ A decorative, and functional, interior trim element characterized by molding placed part way up the wall surface. Chase €“ A vertical bulkhead through which components of mechanical or other systems are run. Coil stock €“ Strips of gauged sheet metal (often aluminum) "wound" and sold as a coil. It is often worked with a brake and is installed over trim, at eaves, etc. Cove molding €“ A type of molding detail or the associated cut that produces it. Think of it as a long scoop taken from wood trim. Dipped (v) €“ Having an item stripped of paint. Usually done at a refinishing works, in a hot or cold chemical bath. Door sill €“ also called a subsill -- similar to a window sill, doors have sills as well. Sometimes the sill is also called a threshold. Door slab €“ The door panel in a door assembly. Dutchman €“ A small patch made of wood and set in wood. Glazing (also v.) €“ The material often putty-like that holds glass in a frame. Gutting €“ Removal of finished surfaces from a home or a space. Guy (or a guy) €“ An individual hired under the table to perform common handyman or maintenance tasks. Hipped roof €“ A roof style without flat sides like a gabled roof. Hipped roofs slope along their face to meet side walls of the structure (this one might need work). Jamb €“ The part of a door or window assembly that constitutes the finished opening. Jig €“ A template used for woodworking. Jury stick €“ A reference marker usually made on the fly from scrap lumber, and used with spacing courses of tile or siding. Kerf €“ The void produced in a material at the exact location where it is cut. Knock-out €“ Typically with electrical boxes and other rough-in material -- knock-outs create a point of exit or entry. Legs €“ The vertical pieces of door trim. Luann (also spelled Luan) €“ The "Kleenex" of 1/4" plywood underlayment. Luann as a species of wood is a type of mahogany. In this context, however, it is a water resistant 4x8 paneled good, installed typically under vinyl flooring products. Margin trowel €“ A small trowel with an angled handle and a flat blade. Indispensable when working with mortar and other cementious products. Mending plate €“ A flat metal bracket containing screw holes used to join various materials and other assemblies. Millwork€™s Desk €“ At home centers and lumber yards. This department is typically responsible for doors and windows. Miter €“ A cut typically associated with wood. Most typically refers to a 45 degree cut that will then be paired with another 45 degree cut. Mortise €“ A recess, typically in wood, that accepts either a tenon or a piece of hardware. Nail punch €“ A hand tool with a smaller tip used to set finish nails below the surface of wood Pipe dope €“ Thread sealant -- used with threaded piping for gas and water applications. Plinth blocks €“ Smaller blocks of trim used at the base of the vertical portions of door trim. Plumb €“ Exactly perpendicular to the center of the earth. In other words, true in the vertical direction. Poly (n or v) €“ Short for polyurethane. Typically a clear finish applied to wood. Post form countertop €“ Opposed to custom laminate counters, post form counters are pre-fabricated and typically have integrated and scooped backsplashes. Pre-hung doors €“ Interior door units typically; purchased already bored and mounted the frame. Pressure treated lumber (pt for short) €“ Dimensional lumber that is injected with weather resistant chemicals at a high pressure. Used typically on the outside of the home, in decking and such. Punch out (v) €“ The stage in the construction process when loose ends are tied up. Always budget for -- and spans multiple areas of the project. Rack (v) €“ Typically associated with pre-fabbed sections of fence. Refers to the desirable or undesirable forcing of a "frame" out of square. Rail €“ A door component that runs on a horizontal (as opposed to a stile) Rake board €“ Flat vertical trim board (type of fascia) typically finishes the pitching of a gabled end. Reciprocating saw €“ A category of power tool that is characterized typically by a thin blade, and the way it does its work -- with a rapid back and forth motion. Ridge (roof) €“ As opposed to a valley. The intersection of two roof surfaces that create an upward projection. Rip (or ripped) (v) €“ The act of cutting a material along its length. (The opposite of a cross cut.) Rough-in €“ A stage in construction when lines (as with electrical or plumbing) are run to a fixture location. S4S €“ A Wood Molding profile standing for Surface 4 Sides. Any of the variety of trim rectangular in shape. Sometimes also called lattice. Saddle threshold €“ A type of threshold. Typically exists where no door is present and acts a dividing point between rooms. It may also act as a meeting point between varying flooring materials. Sash €“ The portion of a window unit that holds glass is typically movable. Self-rimming sink €“ A type of sink (typically found in a kitchen) that is cast with a lip which then overhangs a rough opening. Shadow boxes €“ A wall treatment typically built of Ogee or another diminutive trim profile. As the name would dictate, they are formed in rectangles to create boxes. Sister -- (primarily a verb) -- the act in framing of attaching one framing member to another (where the original is usually failing). The second the "sister" reinforces the first. Skim coat €“ Most typically used to refer to the 3rd and final coat of the drywall finishing process. Sleeper €“ A technique often used with wood flooring where a matrix of wood framing is supplied over an old floor and under a new finished floor. Split-Jamb Doors €“ Inexpensive pre-hung doors that are split in half at a point below the door unit's stops. The advantage is quick installation; does not require the removal of door casing before installation. Square €“ A category of tool that helps distinguish a 90 degree ideal. (More on this elsewhere.) Stack €“ (aka plumbing stack) the main Waste and Vent line. Serves multiple purposes including outlet for waste and venting for gases. Venting in general is essential physically in this gravity system. Step flashing €“ L-shaped roof flashing installed at the intersection of vertical structures; walls, chimneys, etc. Because it is installed often by course of shingling material, it appears to step. Stile €“ A door component that runs on a vertical (as opposed to a rail). Stipple €“ A textured finish over drywall or plaster, typically on a ceiling. A true stipple is produced using a flat rounded brush designed for that purpose. The effect is produced by dabbing. Stringer -- The framing member that makes up the sub-system for a set of stairs. But note there can be "rough" stringers and "finish" stringers, with the second not being necessarily structural. Subfloor €“ A structural element, typically planking or plyboard that is nailed to the floor joists. It is below (hence sub) the finished flooring. Substrate €“ A supporting surface under (or sub) a finished surface. e.g. Underlayment under tile. Tear out €“ A phenomenon typically associated with a miter (aka chop) saw. The force of the blade rotating at high speed causes the material being cut to move just slightly creating an inaccurate cut. Tile spacers €“ Small accessories in various sizes used in the setting of tile. They help keep consistent grout line joints. Tile stone €“ A small abrasive stone used for honing unfinished edges of tile. Typically shaped like a small black gritty brick. Torpedo Level €“ A small spirit level. Typically about a foot in length. Underlayment €“ Not to be confused with a subfloor, and not limited to panelized wood products, any material that is installed prior to finished flooring. Weatherstripping €“ Material placed around a house's operable parts, such as windows and doors. Weatherstripping is designed to minimize air movement from inside out and vice versa. Working lines €“ Most commonly associated with tile work, working lines in pencil or chalk act as guides for keeping work uniform. Z-flashing €“ Pre-fabricated aluminum profile installed above windows and doors. Gets its name from its z like shape.

*******

buildingbeard

jb — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 17:05:25 +0000

Card picture_edited

jb — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 17:09:53 +0000

blogger_2

jb — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:10:05 +0000

wordpress.org_2

jb — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:11:39 +0000

saintpetepaul

jb — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:38:25 +0000

Tagged!

jb — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:08:15 +0000

That's right! Just like a game of tag, but this time with guest posting. >> If you have been Tagged! you will be notified by an admin email from this site. >> Tagged! posters will be assigned a Category that will appear in the Tagged! drop down menu. Their published posts will be featured in the Featured Content area (at the top of the Home Page) for a minimum of 30 days.

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On Developing Tagged!

Not to be confused with the popular social networking site, http://www.tagged.com, or the MeMe and Facebook "taps" that were going around, Tagged! here is all about giving people voice and/or venue. It gives Tagged! individuals the opportunity to share a personal account on a topic that may be outside of their normal daily doings. For us, it ensures that our content remains broad and moxiful. We claim no Tradmark or Copyright on the term. It is just what we are doing. The idea for Tagged! came from a series of emails passed between myself, Barry at Barry's Big Blog of Building, and Mike Hines at HomePath Products in December 2009.

*******

Thank You and . . . BMoxie BMore!

moxieCam

jb — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:21:35 +0000

What does a guy with no time do when he suddenly decides to shoot video? Well, he purchases a cheap head mount video camera and he straps it on. That's right. The moxieCam is a low res and unrehearsed attempt at fitting video into my workflow. And . . . as the kind of guy who would much rather hide behind a shield of far too many typed words, I do often stumble and misspeak. It at times is totally ineffective -- due in part to angles, lighting and/or movement. But . . . with those things said, I hope to post at least every now and then something that is in some way useful to someone. Below is an intro (that may ultimately be replaced) shot at the beginning of a week that has not included enough sleep. Thanks for visiting and BMoxie BMore! For slightly better audio, but a slower load time you can click here.

free_first_rnd-2

jb — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:55:27 +0000

shadowed car

jb — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:47:53 +0000

car commuting thru green and blue

shadowed car

jb — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:51:08 +0000

a car's shadow moves thru green and blue.

green light

jb — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:00:19 +0000

green means go!

water volume stamp

jb — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:06:14 +0000

6 Liters aka 1.6 gallons per flush

restoration

jb — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:14:43 +0000

Exterior restoration underway in DE - please comment on house style

the crack

jb — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:12:16 +0000

Steve B.'s cracked toilet.

technorati

jb — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:51:20 +0000

Technorati Claim Check

jb — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:53:50 +0000

[caption id="attachment_678" align="aligncenter" width="634" caption="claimed blogs"][/caption] Claim token for this blog is 3CH5FJ4XYBG6 Thank you for having me. jb

WashersandDryers

jb — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:45:03 +0000

WashersandDryers

jb — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:49:21 +0000

Advertise/Sponsor

jb — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:17:29 +0000

Are you looking to extend your online reach and support a darn good business in the process? Then place an ad with or sponsor us, today! We have many slots available and our rates are -- hrmm, hrmm -- favorable. Start by filling out the form below and we will contact you shortly. Thank you & BMoxie BMore!

[form 2 "Advertise/Sponsor"]

Your Name (required) [text* your-name] Your Company [text your-company] Your Website [text your-website] Your Email (required) [email* your-email] Your Message [textarea textarea-415 50x20] Are a live person? Enter the values at right. Thanks. [captchar captcha-237][captchac captcha-237 size:s] [submit "ping Building Moxie"]

Moxiful Plugins and Other Resources

jb — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:59:55 +0000

Theme

First off -- mad props to digitalnature for this incredibly intuative theme called Mystique: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/mystique. I promise I will donate as soon as I possibly can.

Plugins

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Thank you all!

aint-3

jb — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:36:59 +0000

haus-no-bkgd

jb — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:59:42 +0000

I use the haus for post signing.

CE-4

jb — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:12:17 +0000

Self_Help-5_credit

jb — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:22:32 +0000

theplates

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:55:09 +0000

Solarsaves

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:56:58 +0000

chase

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:58:54 +0000

blackbox

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:02:04 +0000

cork&radiant

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:04:02 +0000

kitchenone

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:06:54 +0000

solartank

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:08:56 +0000

hwh

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:10:30 +0000

thehousemechanicholdspicklewood

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:14:04 +0000

1stbday

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:42:46 +0000

jackson

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:44:41 +0000

assemblyrequired

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:46:20 +0000

previousgift

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:48:37 +0000

previousgift

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:50:52 +0000

hmmm

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:52:19 +0000

SharpEdges

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:20:38 +0000

pitched

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:22:34 +0000

sitebrokezflash

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:24:23 +0000

EaveEdge

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:26:01 +0000

gettingthere

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:28:01 +0000

downfinished

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:30:03 +0000

handbrake

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:31:59 +0000

openedge

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:33:42 +0000

cedric_walking

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:10:28 +0000

captain_firstmate

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:24:08 +0000

window weight pulley

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:20:50 +0000

split unit_sofa_2

jb — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:45:14 +0000

susankswindow

jb — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:40:20 +0000

Octogon Window_Half Bath

jb — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:41:43 +0000

if you could only drive your house up to the home center

jb — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:55:01 +0000

PicofMeAWicker

jb — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:25:52 +0000

Fiber_to_the_Hammer

jb — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:41:36 +0000

Fiber_to_the_Hammer

galvanized

jb — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:59:47 +0000

romex cable

jb — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:02:36 +0000

termite damage

jb — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:05:19 +0000

Lauan_--computer_room

jb — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:29:47 +0000

dblbifold

jb — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:03:49 +0000

Bi-foldrepairbracket2

jb — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:06:08 +0000

where they were

jb — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:45:25 +0000

jb_collington

jb — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:48:35 +0000

BMOX-LOGO190x117

jb — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:47:01 +0000

BMOX-LOGO

jb — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:49:42 +0000

decisions

jb — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:36:11 +0000

flamesensor

jb — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:44:27 +0000

baltimoreechallenge_logo

jb — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:15:43 +0000

Mike Hines - eXapath

jb — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:39:41 +0000

RWandKK

jb — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:17:41 +0000

RWasMasking

jb — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:18:57 +0000

Finished

jb — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:21:06 +0000

This RW was resused

jb — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:24:28 +0000

OtherUses

jb — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:30:15 +0000

working close to the edge

jb — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:31:32 +0000

old_house_web

jb — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:46:53 +0000

Yellow_shippingbolts

jb — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:59:29 +0000

clearly labeled

jb — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:00:45 +0000

now thats a bolt

jb — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:01:48 +0000

plugs_installed

jb — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:02:33 +0000

column feet

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:46:04 +0000

hingessaved

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:50:25 +0000

after 2 apps

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:51:57 +0000

after 2apps2

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:52:56 +0000

bath

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:54:17 +0000

outofthbath

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:55:58 +0000

m4randrw

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:57:32 +0000

rubbed w rw

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:58:24 +0000

finished column

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:59:21 +0000

painted screw

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:09:53 +0000

acrossthestreet_cropped

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:51:13 +0000

Ailsa testing paint_cropped

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:53:11 +0000

dirty old hinge

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:22:37 +0000

2002 (proof).pdf

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:50:12 +0000

sit and spin gram

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:01:02 +0000

foyer

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:11:57 +0000

roadblock

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:13:47 +0000

flat panel_playroom

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:51:22 +0000

outdoor cats can damage a screen door

jb — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:53:47 +0000

softbluebath

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:22:34 +0000

stop and waste valve

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:45:28 +0000

24.detail

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:08:05 +0000

Salvaged. Low res pic of wainscot detail -- 2.

kitchenpic1

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:37:31 +0000

stripper1

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:40:58 +0000

heatgun1

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:43:52 +0000

the adapter

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:10:16 +0000

knock out

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:12:42 +0000

gas piping

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:14:33 +0000

slips right in

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:16:33 +0000

reconfiged

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:18:29 +0000

temp venting

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:22:41 +0000

and it fits

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:26:21 +0000

befor1

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:06:34 +0000

befor3

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:07:49 +0000

after2

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:09:11 +0000

after1

jb — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:11:24 +0000

header

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:12:53 +0000

cap

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:14:54 +0000

clunkyhdardware

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:16:16 +0000

hung

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:18:27 +0000

biscuits

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:19:36 +0000

s4s

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:21:31 +0000

mortise and jig

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:23:18 +0000

light

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:25:12 +0000

finished

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:26:47 +0000

easybake

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:51:12 +0000

easter_eggs

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:54:02 +0000

easter_eggs 2

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:54:50 +0000

yummygood

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:56:02 +0000

Deck2

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:31:52 +0000

KitchenAddtionfixedandcropped

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:34:31 +0000

MasterShower

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:36:05 +0000

CornerShower

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:37:22 +0000

Compressor_cropped

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:38:41 +0000

TheIgloo

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:42:39 +0000

Split SystemACandHeatPump

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:45:26 +0000

FrontBed_orginalmaster

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:46:44 +0000

shinglesetc

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:48:32 +0000

shinglesetc

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:48:40 +0000

Heartpine_tigering

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:51:02 +0000

2706

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:53:23 +0000

pulldownstairs

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:07:48 +0000

the hvac unit

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:08:37 +0000

roofpitch_bookcaseprior

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:09:23 +0000

pulldowngone

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:14:03 +0000

building the furnace enclosure2

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:15:05 +0000

split ac unit in westfacing

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:17:29 +0000

stairs

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:19:49 +0000

finished_westfacing

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:20:47 +0000

finished_westfacing

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:24:28 +0000

bookcase1

jb — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:25:11 +0000

mahogonyispretty

jb — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:21:46 +0000

failingsparurethane

jb — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:24:01 +0000

attempt1attempt2

jb — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:59:34 +0000

mahoneyis pretty2

jb — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:07:35 +0000

3rdtimesacharm

jb — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:09:16 +0000

Treated3

jb — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:11:20 +0000

1. lauraville 1

jb — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:15:46 +0000

Lauraville sign: Latonia & Echodale (east facing)

2706

jb — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:59:46 +0000

Lauraville

blockfoundation2

jb — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:01:32 +0000

5panel doors oppsingdoorways

jb — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:03:11 +0000

OrginalDoorwayatRight

jb — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:06:18 +0000

2706

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:51:35 +0000

Kitchen

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:53:26 +0000

lauraville 1

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:55:12 +0000

Lauraville sign: Latonia & Echodale (east facing)

lauraville 1

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:55:44 +0000

Lauraville sign: Latonia & Echodale (east facing)

LivingRm_DiningRoom

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:57:19 +0000

master bath sitting area cropped

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:16:20 +0000

Deck1cropped

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:18:49 +0000

Level

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:44:17 +0000

einstein_bmontgomery

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:05:48 +0000

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

day 2 fininshing

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:26:23 +0000

end of day 2

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:47:54 +0000

end of day 2

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:58:24 +0000

Woot!

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:00:07 +0000

finding center on window

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:02:28 +0000

template

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:04:47 +0000

starter holes

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:06:43 +0000

cutting with template in place

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:08:12 +0000

the rough cut

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:10:54 +0000

belt sander work

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:12:33 +0000

finished edge

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:14:21 +0000

staging the sink

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:21:36 +0000

swivel head to balance action shot

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:22:57 +0000

night and day

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:25:22 +0000

hand held silicone for back of sink

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:32:30 +0000

silicone caulk at back of sink

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:34:54 +0000

1-installing the end cap

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:39:45 +0000

2-iron on the end cap

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:41:22 +0000

3-rough edge of end cap

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:42:18 +0000

4-tape off at end cap before finishing

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:44:19 +0000

5-filing and sanding end cap

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:46:33 +0000

6-tricks of the trade

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:48:22 +0000

6-tricks of the trade

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:50:46 +0000

installed 2

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:06:59 +0000

raised threshold.jpg

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:08:36 +0000

laying out 2 using the pattern

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:10:41 +0000

IMG_2044

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:14:34 +0000

Joint spacer

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:17:16 +0000

Dutchman1889.jpg

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:24:18 +0000

foyer

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:27:59 +0000

stipple2 adjoining dining room

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:53:45 +0000

practice

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:55:10 +0000

zigzag

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:58:02 +0000

finished product

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:00:11 +0000

Outofthebath_rotated

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:27:25 +0000

doorhung

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:29:28 +0000

doorhungandleaning

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:31:23 +0000

inspection

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:39:43 +0000

hinges

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:11:04 +0000

roundedhinges

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:12:47 +0000

mortising jig

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:14:43 +0000

lever lockset and articulator

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:17:03 +0000

lever lockset and articulator

jb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:22:57 +0000

intothebath_rotated

jb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:27:44 +0000

intobath

jb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:30:34 +0000

cap

jb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:32:38 +0000

castors

jb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:34:55 +0000

swivelassembly_mounted

jb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:42:49 +0000

header

jb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:45:07 +0000

jb_collington

jb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:00:42 +0000

freelabor_jenny

jb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:01:48 +0000

sakslumber

jb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:04:42 +0000

ailsapowderroom_before

jb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:06:16 +0000

ailsapowderroom_gutted

jb — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:07:40 +0000

downstairs bath_cropped

jb — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:46:34 +0000

vintagebath

jb — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:48:08 +0000

Worthingtonbath

jb — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:54:02 +0000

Worthingtonbath

jb — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:55:28 +0000

buildingbeard

jb — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:56:51 +0000

promotion-warmwire

jb — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:40:47 +0000

35.bishotlo

jb — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:22:55 +0000

Door hardware, New and Old. And vertical shot of door -- pre-adjustments.

23.inpowdetail

jb — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:24:53 +0000

Floor in detail. Laundry to powder room.

23.inpow1

jb — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:26:07 +0000

Laundry to Powder Room.

23.inpow2

jb — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:38:28 +0000

I like this view. 2nd pic laundry to powder room. Baseboard heat cover needs a small adjustment.

100.thefloor

jb — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:45:37 +0000

Infamous dip in tile. . .I have one at the top that it high at the left. May repair later.

footerslidescreencap

jb — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:00:09 +0000

eXapath_For_Walls_as_Smart_as_You180x172

jb — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:44:13 +0000

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jb — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:45:02 +0000

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jb — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:45:33 +0000

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jb — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:47:12 +0000

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jb — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:47:34 +0000

Tagged! Posting

jb — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:54:00 +0000

This document is meant to help highlight some of the more important features of Wordpress' text editor. (And it is . . . a work in progress.) It will also identify some small things we would like you to do specifically for your post on Building Moxie :: The Blog. For the definitive document from Wordpress, you can also look here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Posts.

Posting on Building Moxie :: the Blog

To begin your post, click the menu option >> Posts > Add New. Alternatively, you will find a New Post button in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Both options will take you to a page called Add New Post. From here, you will publish your new post.

*Add New Post

In general, you should only concern yourself with the text editing, Tag, Category and Publish sections of the screen. Other portions of this screen will either not be used or will be updated by Administration later (more on this in a bit). >> Publish > Status -- An important first step with any post is to find the Status field in the Publish section at the right of the screen. This field should be set to Draft until you have completed your post. To modify this setting, click Edit and select Draft. As you compose, choose to click Save Draft NOT Publish.

*Add New Post > The Posting Area

The posting area consists primarily of the text editing box that appears in the center of the screen. It can be set to display in two manners: 1) in HTML 2) in Visual mode. For the sake of this document, we will cover only the Visual mode. >> The large box displayed in the center of the screen will ultimately contain the contents of your post. This is where you enter your text and images. >> Above the large box, you will find a series of buttons that will allow you to apply stylistic elements to your post. Many of these buttons, you may recognize. >> Here are a couple of key ones however that we would like to point out: The Kitchen Sink -- This button will show/hide *all* style options for the post. Paste From Word -- The easiest way to enter text into the text editor is to compose it (with minimal formatting) in a standalone text editor such as Word. Click this button to paste what you have into the Wordpress text area. >> Once text appears in the text area, you can then style your post . . . upload pictures, add hyperlinks and do other things to get your article ready for publishing. >> Title your post -- A title or headline is added in the plain with box that appears above the text editor. Note: We would like your title to begin with YOUR NAME :

*Add New Post > Uploading Images

Important: We ask that you include aminumum of one image in your post. The first image in a post will act as the post's thumbnail in the site's RSS feed.

One of the most interesting elements of the Wordpress platform is the Upload/Insert section. As the gallery below will show, these tools may be found immediately above the main text area. Because images are not embedded directly into posts, but rather added to a Media Library, this section/action may take some time to get used to. Please do not hesitate to send questions. Start by clicking this graphic and provide settings as shown in the gallery.

*Add New Post > Setting Tags, Categories & Post Thumbnail (Optional)

>> Post Tags -- Tags are just that, words or phrases that tag your post. On any page of :: The Blog, you will find the Tag Cloud. The tags that you add or select will be placed here as well. You may choose to select from our Most Used Tags or simply type in and Add your own comma-separated short list. (We recommend selecting no more than four.) >> Categories -- For your post, you have the option to select from our available list of Categories. Selecting from the list of high level Categories (House, Home, Life, etc) will place your post under one of these associated tabs. *Here we would like you to Add a New Category. Select the Parent Category = Tagged! and add your name. This will add your name in the Tagged! drop down menu that appears as a tab on the site. >> Post Thumbnail -- Post Thumbnail is the image that will appear next to your post on the home page, in search results, and in the featured content section. The easiest way to set the Post Thumbnail is to click Set Thumbnail only after you have uploaded, and are happy with, all of your post's images. Click this button and it will again open the Add Image box. Select Gallery, then Show -- for the image you would like to select as your Thumbnail. A new section will expand allowing you to click Use as Thumbnail. You will then close out this step by clicking Save all Changes; a Thumbnail will be set for your post. *Don't sweat these steps too much. If you miss anything here, administration has your back (more on this in a bit).

*Add New Post > Spell Checking and Publishing

>> Spell Check -- when you are happy with your post, run the text editor's Spell Check option to clean up basic spelling issues. >> Publish Your Post -- When you are ready, you can choose to simply click the Publish button. You may also choose to publish at a later date and time by editing the Publish immediately setting. That said, if you would prefer to have administration check your post before it goes live, change Publish Status to Pending Review. This can be done by clicking the Edit link next to the Status field and selecting Pending Review and Save as Pending.

*Posts > Edit

You may revisit and edit your post at any time by clicking on the Posts > Edit option found in the left margin menu.

What Building Moxie :: The Blog Will Handle

It's :: The Blog's goal to stay as hands off as possible when it comes to your guest post. Let's just say - we like to be surprised, and we will be reading your post along with everyone else. That said, there are a handful of things we will take care of within hours of your post. We will:

Review your post to ensure that Tags, Categories and a Thumbnail have been set.
Clean up any overly funky formatting.
Mark your post as a Featured Post.
Set custom SEO options for your post.

That's it! It may seem like a lot, but it is our hope that the experience in the end is worth it. Please do not hesitate to send questions, and in some cases we may be willing to proof your post. Our email: blog@buildingmoxie.com Thank you and BMoxie BMore! >> Let's Add a New Author. Click here for a brief description.

More Moxie (Related Links):

The Dashboard: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/tagged-getting-to-know-the-wordpress-dashboard/ Updating Your Profile: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/tagged-add-to-your-profile/ Adding a User: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/tagged-posting/

Tagged! Adding a New Author

jb — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:55:08 +0000

Once you have posted, you should take the opportunity to Tag someone else. Here's how to do it. >> Users > Add New

Enter a Username -- Try to choose wisely, using one maybe from your history with the person you are Tagging. The Username may not be changed without admin intervention.
Enter the name of the individual First and Last (this is optional).
Enter a valid E-mail for the individual. This is the email address to which the Tagged notification will go.
Enter a Website (this is optional).
Enter a Password twice. This is required but only to pass the screen! The password is overwritten for the new user automatically. Try typing "1" into each field.
Leave the value Send this password to the new user by email checked.
Important! In the Role drop down select "Author" as the option.
Click Add User.

Once you submit the new user, you will see them added to the dashboard page Users > Authors & Users. This individual is automatically sent an email identical to the one you initially received. Thank You for participating in the Tagged! project. It ensures that many interesting things get said, and that those things will appeal to many types of people.

More Moxie (Related Links):

The Dashboard: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/tagged-getting-to-know-the-wordpress-dashboard/ Updating Your Profile: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/tagged-add-to-your-profile/ Posting: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/tagged-posting/

Tagged! Add to Your Profile

jb — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:48:36 +0000

>> Users > Subscriptions: All users that are registered with, or are Tagged by this site are automatically subscribed to receive email notifications of new posts to the site. You may disable them in this area by deselecting from the available list of categories and clicking Update Preferences. >> Users > Your Profile > New Password: To change your password from the system assigned gibberish that you received in the invitation email do so at the bottom of this page. >> Users > Your Profile > About Yourself: Take a few minutes to update your Biographical information. What you enter here will appear in an "About the Author" box, which appears below your post. >> Gravatar: Building Moxie . . . the Blog is a Gravatar enabled site. Do you do not already have a Gravatar, visit http://en.gravatar.com/ and provide a picture or graphic. This global image is attached to your email address, so use the email address you are using in this profile. This is the picture that will appear in the "About the Author" box, which appears below your post. Ok now for the money -- click here to view info on posting.

More Moxie (Related Links):

The Dashboard: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/tagged-getting-to-know-the-wordpress-dashboard/ Adding a User: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/tagged-adding-a-new-author/

Tagged! The Wordpress Dashboard

jb — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:08:34 +0000

[caption id="attachment_1715" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The default dashboard"][/caption] Welcome to Building Moxie :: the Blog. Here are few pages to help you find your way around.

And Remember: Once logged in and at any point, click on the link Site Admin in the section Sign Up or Login on the site and you will be taken to the Wordpress dashboard.

The Dashboard

>> The Wordpress dashboard is like the author's home page. You can modify what is displayed in the dashboard by clicking Screen Options in the upper right corner. Changes are applied real time. >> The menu in the left margin will allow you to navigate through the tasks you will be performing. >> Unless you are an experience Wordpress user, we recommend ignoring the sections Media, Comments and Tools for the time being. >> That leaves us really with nothing more than Posts and Profile to play with. >> Let's add some information to Your Profile. Click here for a brief description.

More Moxie (Related Links):

Posting: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/tagged-posting/ Adding a User: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/tagged-adding-a-new-author/

b-2

jb — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:16:15 +0000

buildingbeard_compressed

jb — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:17:46 +0000

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jb — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:03:49 +0000

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jb — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:08:31 +0000

AuthorAbout

jb — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:58:55 +0000

profile4

jb — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:51:44 +0000

AddNewUser_Menu

jb — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:16:08 +0000

faucet1

jb — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:12:46 +0000

kitchensink

jb — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:30:13 +0000

Pastetools

jb — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:23:24 +0000

hyperlinks

jb — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:22:34 +0000

Post_OnceSavedEditView

jb — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:44:46 +0000

Post_OnceSavedEditView

jb — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:44:55 +0000

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jb — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:17:09 +0000

Post_Insert

jb — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:37:29 +0000

Uploadpics_alignment

jb — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:40:27 +0000

Uploadpics_size

jb — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:40:57 +0000

Uploadpics_insertAndthumbnail

jb — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:41:39 +0000

Uploadpics_caption2

jb — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:44:00 +0000

Uploadpics_thumbnailset

jb — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:44:40 +0000

MoxieBanner_cropped2

jb — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:42:38 +0000

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jb — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:03:57 +0000

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jb — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:33:46 +0000

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jb — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:35:07 +0000

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jb — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:33:29 +0000

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jb — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:41:07 +0000

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jb — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:46:50 +0000

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jb — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:59:43 +0000

thechainsawmanual

jb — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:28:11 +0000

magnoliaIthink

jb — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:30:54 +0000

onebroken limbs pic

jb — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:33:34 +0000

my chain saw and me

jb — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:38:00 +0000

. . . These things I thought

Bad Gasoline/Oil Mix? Clean fuel tank -- Monthly.
Dirty or Stale Gasoline? (I didn€™t winterize!) Replace -- As required.
Dirty Fuel Filter? Replace -- Yearly.
New Spark Plug? Replace -- Only if problem.
Dirty Air Filter? Clean -- Only if problem.
Carburetor? Readjust idle -- As required.

. . . And these things too I thought

Chain Lubricant. (Hmmmm, when was last time I added bar oil? Ahhhhh €“ never.) Check -- Before every use. Clean -- Monthly.
Chain Tension. (Wow . . . the chain looks a little loose; I have never tightened this chain.) Check -- Before and after every use. Adjust -- As required.
Chain Brake. Inspect -- Before and after every use. Check -- As required, by a qualified professional. This is recommended Yearly for occasional users.
Sharpen Chain. Inspect -- Before and after every use. Sharpen -- As required.
And. . . . A few other things I am not going to take the time to write here.

. . . Nevermind that any product in orange and black works for me

I have a Stihl Model Number MS210EZ. The heading €œWarning" appears exactly 71 times on the way to the Maintenance Chart found on page 59 of the owner€™s manual, English-edition. I used this manual to fill out the bullet list above. Quite an impressive volume of work for sure, this thing is nearly as thick as the manual that came with my wife€™s car. Most warnings of course are provided for safety reasons and are meant to protect us users from bodily harm.

. . . Why didn€™t my chainsaw want to start?

She wouldn't start, I mean -- I tried and I tried, then I sat her down and I went about tending to other things. OK, I do not use my chain saw enough to think that I have actually earned the right to name it. . . . But . . . I tried again. Still, it wouldn€™t start. I mean -- The storm, after all, had been a big one -- probably the most snow I have seen in one place for quite some time. It buried us here in Baltimore, weighing down and breaking some things -- least of all about eight limbs in my back yard. . . . And . . . I guess that's about the time that I set about getting back to work on my blog redesign.

. . . Winter Operation Instructions!

There is a section in my manual called €œWinter Operation.€ Apparently, and I did not know until just now, special steps must be taken when attempting to start the engine in temperatures below 50 degrees F. This procedure includes removing the carburetor cover and turning a shutter. What this shutter is, I don€™t know. But these steps help draw warm air into the cylinder, in turn preventing the carburetor from icing. (Unrelated to my inability to start my chain saw that Saturday in early March, 2010.)

. . . The Receipt from Superior Sharpening, 7716 Harford Rd. Parkville, MD 21234 (Closed on Wednesdays) said . . .

Problem: Won€™t Start. Diagnosis: Flooded and Stale Fuel. Work Performed: Tuned up, flushed tank + filled with fresh fuel, replaced spark plug, replaced fuel filter, blew out air filter, sharpened chain, dressed bar, tested unit. Total: $52.89

Money well spent, I think, but three weeks later, and with the snow now gone €“ I still have a handful of limbs unnaturally reaching down to touch the ground. And my favorite, a magnolia (I think) still split in half.

More Moxie (Related Links):

I am very pleased with my Stihl Chain Saw: http://www.stihlusa.com/chainsaws/ There is actually great information in the manual on techniques used for cutting, but here is some more information I dug up on Google: http://www.life123.com/home-garden/tools/chainsaws/How-to-Use-a-Chainsaw.shtml http://forestry.about.com/od/chainsaws/ss/fell_tree.htm Sharp Advice (On chain saw maintenance): http://www.stihllibrary.com/pdf/SharpAdvice110606.pdf

Q: What does the numbering on phillips head screw bits mean?

jb — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:04:14 +0000

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="174" caption="Image borrowed from Bosch (AU)"][/caption] I mean -- where does this convention come from? Screws themselves have either a #numeric value or a fractional value. This refers to shaft of the screw, but what of the head and the tools that are used on them?

More Moxie:

Here is the link to the article this image is contained in: http://www.bosch-do-it.com.au/diy/diyknowledge/lexicon/screwdriver-bit-types.shtml?alpha=83

chainsaw-2

jb — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:58:29 +0000

main-image

jb — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:49:43 +0000

Do You Have a Digital Camera in Your Toolbox?

jb — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:30:32 +0000

An inexpensive digital camera comes in handy . . . * While collecting inspiration for your next home project. You'll snap pics at the design showroom, at the home center and at Mrs. Jones' down the street; * When communicating ideas to designers, suppliers, contractors and/or to your Aunt Myrtle and Uncle Frank. You'll say, "I want this, but like this. See."; * Prior to closing the walls up. You'll document where and what lives in them: framing, plumbing, electrical and low voltage raceway (Make sure these pictures ultimately stay with the house.); & (My personal favorite!) * When performing a repair task that requires you to disassemble, then later reassemble something. You'll take pics at every stage of the way. If you get lost while putting things back together, you'll simply refer to the pics you have right there in the viewer. -- Can you think of more around-the-house uses for the digital camera? Please feel free to add them in the Comment section below. Thank you & BMoxie BMore!

More Moxie:

Note: Your digital camera lives in your (figurative) toolbox right next to your pocket notebook. We welcome anyone, or is that: everyone, to contribute tips. To do so, you can use our Share form found right here --> http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/building-moxie-share-upload/.

warhol-caulk

jb — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:10:58 +0000

Q: Why does Acrylic Caulk Smell Like Bananas?

jb — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:15:30 +0000

Again, maybe it is just me, and I have to admit I have no scientific proof to back it up -- but isn't there a faint smell of fruit with some caulks? Why? What in caulk gives it this, that or any other smell? I don't know . . . yet. If you know, please feel free to drop the knowledge in the Comment area below. Otherwise -- I'll share as soon as I know. Thank you and BMoxie BMore!

More Moxie:

It took some digging but with help from Mike McGuire at the American Fastener Journal and Lee Dougan at Phillips Screw, I think I found an appropriate enough answer to my Mini Moxie question What does the numbering on Phillips head bits mean? Check it out.

buildingbeard

jb — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:23:29 +0000

blogcatalog_original

jb — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:26:30 +0000

blogscreencap

jb — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:28:06 +0000

wordpress.org

jb — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:29:50 +0000

Moving from Blogger to Wordpress . . . Well Hello Wordpress

jb — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:15:10 +0000

For those of you finding this through a search engine search

So . . . you are thinking about moving your Blogger-hosted blog to Wordpress? Here is my advice -- Don€™t do it! OK, you can do it . . . but know why you are doing it, what you are leaving, and what you are about to get yourself into. Say for example you are like me, and you believe that what you have previously posted deserves to come with; you want to move your archives. Say you have limited resources; you are one person blogging part-time for very little or maybe no payout. Say you blog for yourself, or maybe only on the side for your business. Don€™t do it. I mean it. Seriously consider starting fresh. Make it a clean break . . . that is €“ if you have already decided for certain to wave bye-bye to Blogger. I say this now, looking at it from the rear view mirror. The whole process, the journey I embarked on €“ if anything, gave me a new found respect for Blogger. Sure, it was some of quirkiness with the text editing tool and the limits in Blogger€™s design capabilities that drove me away. But with Blogger, remember: there it is -- your blog, totally and one hundred percent free. There is no confusion for anyone that may find you. The simple stream €“ center-aligned columns of information provided by . . . you. A Blogger-styled blog is easy to read and in many ways is perfect for content serving. It is a great format for reaching out and for sharing what you have to share with the world. Now, with those things said -- Was it worth it . . . for me? You bet ya! . . . And all I can say of Wordpress is . . . Wow! You may stop reading here, unless of course you really want to hear what I was doing with myself while I grew this beard. -->

Let me make this very clear

There are two flavors of Wordpress. Just like Blogger, you can create a domain at http://www.wordpress.com and simply start hacking. This is a good solution for many. But . . . there is a second option with Wordpress, their original €“ a downloadable package of files that can later be uploaded to a web host, and configured there. So . . . for me €“ I had to make this decision. And it consequently dictates most of the experiences that I am about to detail. In making the decision to go with the second option, "self-hosted," as they call it, I ceased being only a blogger. I now have another hat to wear (like I needed more). Today, I can proudly say, I am a blog administrator, a webmaster if you will.

Why go self-hosted?

Well, for the freedom. This morning, in looking, there are exactly 1,151 free themes (themes are the site€™s template €“ known in Blogger as . . . well €“ the Template). To these you can add almost any one of another 8,807 plugins, ready-made bits of code that can Extend your site. With the self-hosted solution, too, you have full access to all of the site€™s associated php, css and javascript files as well as to the site€™s core, the database. For me, and with a little experience on the back side of websites, it was simply too good to pass up. I just tacked the new blog onto the buildingmoxie.com domain. Practically speaking €“ and if you already own domains and host, it is actually less expensive to host a customized Wordpress blog yourself.

With great freedom, comes great responsibility

But your time may be better served working on craft. Content, Content, Content, they say. And that€™s the first thing I did; I migrated my content. Wordpress offers an import tool that allows you to bring over any pre-existing content. So I ran it. It took only a few minutes and it worked very well. It imported all text and media, maintaining all links and style elements . . . without a single change. But . . . in that, it in fact ended up creating the biggest problem of this entire process. It pulled in all of the useless style elements that I may have inadvertently injected into my original posts (you know, as I was getting the ropes). Now, I am not blaming this one on Blogger; I can€™t say that I have ever used an embedded html editor that was able to read my mind. Later, as the site€™s design began to take form, it became apparent that a change to the blog€™s core font would be needed to synch it with its new home. And I will tell you, . . . -- If I see this block of html one more time, I may actually have to quit blogging all together. It had been my intention all along to use the thumbnail option, too, that is built into Wordpress. While all the links were maintained, yes, and I could see the images on the site, I could not set any as thumbnails. These files existed still on another server: the Blogger image server, and Wordpress does not allow for setting remote thumbnails. So I then performed the long arduous task of re-uploading all of these pics from file. I probably could have done this a little more judiciously €“ had a better plan, but in this case I said, €œWhat the heck.€ I estimate that I spent about 3 ½ weeks total, in three separate passes, cleaning code, adding new post elements and ads, redoing pics, setting thumbnails and adding some SEO-targeted descriptive language. It encapsulates a time in my life I now refer to as the Blue Monkey period. It was by far the most time consuming and painful portion of my endeavor.

Picking a theme

[caption id="attachment_1976" align="alignright" width="239" caption="theme Fusion; my first pick"][/caption] What will the site look like? Well €“ short of having a sketch, I knew I wanted light and fluffy, a tab-oriented look with thumbnails and excerpts for the landing page. I did not take this step lightly and this process, too, took about three weeks. To do this, I scanned available themes and came up with a list of 85. Of the 85, I made another pass and dwindled it down to about 15. By this point, I had a pretty solid wish list of features. Ultimately, I chose the theme Mystique (http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/mystique). This theme is coincidentally still actively being developed, but provided many of the features I was looking for. I am very pleased with it. It provides a high level of flexibility and customability right from the control panel. It is fairly intuitive and easy to use.

Getting to know Plugins

In picking a theme, I knew, it in no way signified the end of site design. With Wordpress, and for what the theme did not supply, I hoped to handle using their vast Plugins library. In searching plugins, and in the end installing many more then I am currently using, I found that many were not quite all that they were advertised to be. Documentation, as is common in the open source arena -- at times is limited. Most of the plugins I have settled on including took several rounds of testing to figure just how they work in relation to the theme.

The loose ends

In the midst of the blog redesign €“ while juggling form and function, decisions on editorial purpose, I decided that it would be a good time to address some of the administrative-type stuff I had been putting off on my website. So . . . that said, I really can€™t blame all of my three-month down time on the blog redesign. I invested some time in light research of Ad Networks and SEO. (Some techniques mined here I am now employing on the site.) I invested time further in developing a few widgets that I am using both on my website and on my blog. For this, I did spend a few days troubleshooting the RSS feed from the blog €“ the feed that in turn drives these widgets.

Blogging Again

And that€™s what I have been doing with myself for the last three months, the beard now gone. I figure too that if you decide to burden yourself with the task of moving a Blogger-blog to the Wordpress self-hosted platform, you would encounter a similarly scaled set of obstacles and related ramp up requirements. The move may in your case be mitigated if you set yourself to making a less dramatic shift in design, while working to keep plugin utilization to a minimum. Of course, I will not mention either of the two, yes, not one but two, complete meltdowns that I experienced in the process of building this thing. The second required me to completely disassemble my settings and then put them back together one by one . . . (Can you say blog administrator). Even with a nightly back up of data provided by my web host €“ GoDaddy, this occurred less then a week before I was to publish new content. It had me down for almost a day and half. And why it all happened €“ I am still not certain. You could argue that moving the pre-existing content helped with visualization. Sure, I spent many late nights strung together, up often with a Miller Lite in hand (@ajwdesignco would be proud). And . . . I did steal time from everyone that I could possibly steal time from, but in the end €“ I hope it is all worth it. I hope you like the new look and feel. Please come, read and comment repeatedly. Thanks and BMoxieBMore!

More Moxie:

http://www.wordpress.org The Themes -- Extend it: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ The Plugins -- Extend it some more: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ The Forum €“ Live it, learn it, love it: http://wordpress.org/support/ Moxiful Plugins: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/moxiful-plugins/

BMox-button_logo455x87

jb — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:54:07 +0000

ctrlF

jb — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:51:07 +0000

Faces-1

Barry — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:21:57 +0000

Faces-2

Barry — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:29:46 +0000

I'm a Control + F'er; Are You?

jb — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:36:42 +0000

I know it sounds somewhat obscene, but hey, just couldn't pass up that title. Moving on, I find it fairly common these days that I turn to the internet for answers. The quest for answers of course usually starts with a trip to the nearest search engine. And despite how this, that or the other site promotes itself and the quality of their results, you still must comb through those results. And while it may seem old bag for some, don't forget that ctrl + F on your keyboard will help you quickly scan information in almost any browser. It's a huge time-saver for me: find your text, scroll your eyes up or down as appropriate, and move on if what you are looking at isn't the information you seek. I will be using it myself, for sure, as I search for the answer to Why caulk smells the way it does. Wish me luck.

More Moxie (Related Links):

Keyboard Shortcuts from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_keyboard_shortcuts How to Use a Search Engine Effectively (1st result in both Google & Bing): http://websearch.about.com/od/dailywebsearchtips/qt/search-engine.htm Facebook Overtakes Google: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/15/facebook-overtakes-google_n_499905.html

About Face

Barry — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:21:57 +0000

This picture was taken on a sunny afternoon. It captures the shadow of a model ship on a window ledge. I also see in it a woman€™s face. I go through periods when I see faces everywhere. Trees are a great at making faces and so is old peeling paint. I ask myself €œWhy faces?€

The Show must go on I spent the better part of my twenties in an independent theatre company. As a group we were very in tune with one another. I felt myself part of a tribe. I seem to seek out this sense of belonging although I know it cannot be conjured. The chemistry which makes a group work is as mysterious as faces which appear from nowhere. The eyes have it The theatre is not the only place I have felt this sense of belonging. It has also been present in many of my construction experiences. And it is always there before I am actually aware of it. The crew, whether it be four, six or two will start to groove like musicians simultaneously bringing order, improvisation and adaptation smoothly into the physical world. The collective wave can sometimes be ridden for hours before the moment when a look into one or more of your companion€™s eyes reveals the thrill of constructive harmony being reflected back at you. Why Faces? Perhaps spotting faces in everyday things is a similar glance in a much larger dance of connectedness.

fran_Profile_pic

jb — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:42:40 +0000

Fran (Holm) Hogan :: And There Are No Excuses

fholmhogan — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:57:53 +0000

A few of the headlines I€™ve read in the last couple of weeks:

Commercial real estate loan failures could destroy banking system over the next 4 years
Banks remain unwilling to lend
Personal Bankruptcy Filings Up 14%
Housing starts down in February
Existing Home Sales Drop for 3rd Month

In case this economic bad news wasn't enough, then there was this one:

Deadly Hybrid Flu Possible

It€™s enough to make you pull the covers back up over your head every morning. There isn€™t any part of the building industry that hasn€™t felt the pain of the €œgreat recession.€ And if you are anything like me, you€™ve had to fight the urge at least once to pull up those covers and hope only to wake up when it€™s over. I try to remember that the business is out there. You just have to look harder for it . . . . I started selling at 14 years old in a magazine subscription €œboiler room.€ I used to go there every day after school and work the phones for three hours. We had pages of reverse telephone directories to call from and each page had 100 names. Our boss would walk around the room watching us, keeping everyone motivated, and on the phone. As I look back, I can only imagine what a tough job that must have been, a bunch of teenagers as employees! One night, I wasn€™t having much luck so I started slacking. He saw me, of course, and came over to my little €œbooth.€ He pointed at the page of numbers I had in front of me and he said, €œThere are four sales on this page. If I knew which ones they were, I wouldn€™t need you.€ I laugh now, remembering. I still thank him for the reminder that being successful takes work and . . . that there are no excuses.

*******

What keeps you motivated? What keeps you looking for the positive instead of paying attention to the negative? What makes you create, innovate and work harder to succeed instead of giving in to those things out of your control? I think Building Moxie has it right €“ It€™s Moxie. Moxie is not talking about it, but living it. >> According to Wikipedia, Moxie is:

The ability to face difficulty with spirit and courage.
Aggressive energy; initiative.
Skill; know-how.

>> According to the Urban Dictionary having moxie is sass, courage, spunk, determination and attitude. >> Moxie is strength, energy, courage and mental sharpness - all wrapped up in one small five letter word. >> Having moxie means finding the things you love to do in life and giving them your all.

*******

A few of the positive headlines I€™ve read in the last couple of weeks:

Recovery Is Definitely Underway, Says BRG
Sustainable Expansion Underway in 11 States
Good Signs on the Economic Front

It€™s out there. Be Moxie €“ Be More -- find the positive and . . . the sales!

Q: Just How Much Job Waste is Acceptable?

jb — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:29:27 +0000

This is another in my series of open ended questions. They are meant to solicit thought and opinion; so please, you are encouraged to add a comment. Whether or not any are received, I will circle back within a week to provide some sort of relevant information.

*******

In my experience, there is always waste . . . and now that I think about it -- with, well, everything. But despite my urge to begin a list, I will target this. And as I watch the piles of lumber, trim, etc. grow in my shed, I wonder what the current prevailing opinion is. As project managers, we are wise to budget for and to buy extra, and sometimes it can not be helped. But in light of the practical limits of space as well as a recent movement towards being more efficient, I wonder just how much job scrap, waste, in general -- excess is acceptable?

More Moxie:

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelanman/ / CC BY 2.0 At this point, I should have added a follow up (in the Comments section) for the post Why Does Acrylic Caulk Smell Like Bananas? Check it out!

TheBigSnow

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:11:46 +0000

nowthatsanicedam

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:18:30 +0000

BedFrameFixandtheReasonItBroke

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:21:42 +0000

icedamandinside

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:24:43 +0000

got to this

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:31:53 +0000

see

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:38:52 +0000

see2

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:40:15 +0000

and this

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:41:09 +0000

started this

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:44:40 +0000

almostfinishedthat

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:45:46 +0000

didthat

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:47:36 +0000

see3

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:48:26 +0000

usedthis

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:51:04 +0000

andthisstartedlikethis

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:54:18 +0000

which went to here

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:55:09 +0000

then2here

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:56:13 +0000

then2here2

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:57:42 +0000

then2here3

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:58:40 +0000

doingthis

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:02:17 +0000

gonnadothat

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:04:25 +0000

heard lot about that

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:05:26 +0000

hatewhenthekidsdothat

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:06:35 +0000

StateoftheUnion2711

jb — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:07:29 +0000

and finished about there

jb — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:52:56 +0000

State of the Union; Address 2711

jb — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:09:45 +0000

So I just got off the phone with my wife. Apparently the top of my oldest daughter€™s dresser had sustained a good bit of damage. Sunday night, it appears I had hung a wet towel on the "coat" tree, which stands next to this pressed board piece of furniture. As my wife discovered it, she of course had to call, immediately. While the interruption took me off track, it was the information, rather -- that kind of wrecked me for the afternoon. [caption id="attachment_2091" align="alignright" width="300" caption="bed breaker"][/caption] And this is not how I intended to start this post. But it does tie right squarely into some of the points I was hoping to run with . . . . Owning and living in an old house that both shelters two young children and that requires still substantial work . . . is, well, hard. I of course do not blame them for the damage to the dresser. Instead I only want to point out that it sometimes seems that no sooner do I complete a project does some dripping towel oversight during a hurried end-of-the-week clean up come along to subtract from what I may have accomplished. Lessons Learned: 1. Don€™t trust that your children are beyond dipping their towels into the bath and then just chucking them onto the bed. 2. Be focused enough at all times to notice the weight differential between a damp and a fully saturated towel. That rant aside -- here is where I was going. Oh yeah . . .

aka what I didn't do on my house while I moved my blog to Wordpress

In the time it took me to revamp this blog €“ four or so major holidays passed, two massive earthquakes rocked locations on this globe, I went to one daddy-daughter dance, took part in one monster snow storm, saw a Super Bowl champion crowned, watched part of one state of the union address, and I ended up not getting nearly enough done around my house. In that time €“ I didn€™t finish the kitchen, I didn€™t update the hall bathroom, nor did we install the master bath that my wife and I have talked about since the day we purchased this place. I didn€™t get the pantry next to the kitchen done. (A project I am currently working on and likely will feature in upcoming posts.) I did not replace the gutter that found itself bent under the biggest ice dam I have ever seen, I did not repair the paint or replace the rake board captured in the related pic in this gallery. I repaired an antique bed frame, I hung three blinds, I fixed the antenna on my wife's car, I shoveled some snow, I put an improvised €œfix€ on that stippled ceiling, and I mended a stuffed animal . . . well, OK, two. I spent as much time on Webkinz.com as did on BuildingMoxie.com. I played with a new video camera, I test-drove Stanley€™s Fat Max Xtreme Instant Change Handsaw, and I worked on my side porch on the coldest day of the year. I did start redoing a closet, and with all said and done -- I probably did a few other things . . . like . . .

Random Dancing (if you have young girls, you may know where this comes from)

[gallery link="file" columns="4"] I wished a few people a happy new year. 2009 (breaks a rule found in the AP Style Guide I got) was a good year. While we dipped into recession, the outlook around here remains still full of moxiful potential with lots of exterior paint issues still to address. Thanks for reading. And BMoxie BMore!

More Moxie (Related Links):

For more on my three-month move from Blogger to Wordpress: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/2010/03/moving-from-blogger-to-wordpress-hello-wordpress/ For more info on the relationship between me and my house, you could see this article (boy, am I tempted to go back and edit this one): http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/2009/01/the-pocketless-door-experiment-1-of-3/ A blog in my blogroll that captured a few pics of the snow that came to Baltimore (plus some cool fireplace work): http://projectrowhouse.blogspot.com/2010/02/snowy-baltimore-dining-room-fireplace.html IHM -- the hosts of the Daddy-Daughter Snowball Dance: http://www.immaculateheartofmary.com/school/ iCarly (one of my daughters' favorite shows): http://www.icarly.com/ Stanley Tools: http://www.stanleytools.com/

A Bucket of Wood

jb — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 04:08:44 +0000

Make a Wood Molding Mini-Library

jb — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 13:05:01 +0000

Almost as soon as my fingers came off of the keys on this question -- Just How Much Job Waste is Acceptable?, I figured this might make a pretty decent follow-up: Are you like me; do you retain scrap trim? If so, before filing away -- grab somewhere around a 1-foot length, a Sharpie, and place identifiable markings on the back of each unique strip. Do this and over time you will build yourself, and your house, a mini-molding library. Jot down the Wood Molding Profile, aka WM#, number (if you have it), add the sample's species and/or construction too (if you know it): FJ for Finger Jointed, PP for Primed Pine, and so on. Other options for what to write might be -- "base in back hall bedroom 2; fuschia room -- southeast " or if you profile your own, use something like "1/4" beading bit" or "3/16" cove." At minimum, measure the width of the profile (the bigger number) and the height/thickness (while lying flat or using a point on a rule or tape other than 0). Measurements are, as far as I know, always recorded at their largest point. In other words, if the thickest part on the fat side of a colonial door trim is 11/16", your trim measures at, and is 11/16" thick. Important: Demand this too from people you hire -- the exact sample from a job with information could come in handy in a few years. And the funny thing is . . . they may be the ones that need to access this information then. Take these steps and future matching at home centers and/or ordering from supersites like Good Millwork will be easy. I use 5-gallon buckets to store my library, but I think you probably could come up with one or two certainly suitable solutions for storing your collection. Thanks and BMoxieBMore!

More Moxie:

There is a little confusion for me on where exactly the WM# index originates from and who now maintains it. If you know, please feel free to comment below. A Moxie Box essential -- The Sharpie: http://www.sharpie.com/enUS/Home/default.html

dwtools

jb — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 00:36:47 +0000

Q: What's Your Favorite Drywall Tool?

jb — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:23:08 +0000

I have been working over the last two weekends to finish the closet underneath the stairs. This project has required what I call -- light drywall work, 3 sheets. But as I taped and blocked (2nd coating), I got to thinking about my favorite drywall tool, and I wonder . . . what is yours? Here are some choices, as pictured: A: Not the array of drywall knives, instead the bucket (with water in it). B: The drywall "Dimpler" -- for setting drywall screws at the correct depth: that is -- embedded without breaking a sheet's paper face. C: The sanding sponge -- very effective too for wet sanding applications, which minimize dust. D: Scissors -- for pre-cutting drywall tape intended for inside corners. These are some of my favorite drywall tools (and there are others), but these, in the picture, happened to be near me today. What is your favorite drywall tool? (I do have a firm opinion on this.) See above, or maybe none of the above, and drop your thoughts in the Comments section below. Thanks and BMoxie BMore!

2-in-1

jb — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 02:41:44 +0000

Small Tips for Patching Small Holes in Drywall

jb — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 12:41:12 +0000

As a handyman, as a landlord and as a homeowner, I have tackled my fair share of small drywall repairs. And never mind the knockdown texture that I saw way too much of in the late €˜90s (that€™s a whole €˜nother article), I am talking here about really small drywall repairs -- issues created by moved or removed nails, screws, picture hangers and/or damage caused by maybe just a little bit more. These types of fixes seem as regular as the rain: *While you may be tempted to reach for spackling €“ and it does have it€™s place €“ a quart of pre-mixed joint compound is your best choice in this case. If you read the label on the back of most spackle, you€™ll find something like -€“ €œNot intended as a finish/top coat.€ . . . So skip it. *Always size the knife you are using to the repair you are about to make (and never mind the painful truth of how I learned this one). Say you are working now with an abandoned nail hole, forget the instinct to go for a 3, 4 or 6-inch knife; each would be too large for this job €“ a flexible putty knife 1- to 2-inches wide will do just fine. Work to fill the hole, but feather the compound onto the surrounding surface. The fix may require more than one pass and you may need to sand the edges prior to paint. *The butt end of your tool is great for working the raised edges of a hole back into the wall. Just rock the end of the knife€™s handle back and forth over the penetration. You could even, if the circumstance demanded and as the 6-in-1 tool suggests €“ give the spot a hammer-like whack . . . or two. *You will eventually apply paint to your repair. And as important as matching the paint color and sheen, is finding the even so discrete paint roller defined texture of a wall. You don€™t get this right and light hitting the surface will ultimately reveal the repair. To match the heavy, but not quite orange peel-type texture created by a thicker napped roller, you can take a wetted touch up roller and work it into the compound before it has fully dried. (This is an acquired skill, but it actually does work.) Chances are, and don't miss this one, you will need to do your touch up painting with a paint roller too. *Lastly, questions €“ Were your walls painted without first applying primer? Nope. Do you prime now? Yep. These techniques will work for fixes all the way up to and through applying tape to cover a hole . . . if again, you always size the knife you are using to the repair. Thanks and BMoxie BMore! Email with questions if you like.

More Moxie:

On repairing textured walls -- Orange Peel: http://homerepair.about.com/od/interiorhomerepair/ss/repair_tex_wall.htm On the effect known as flashing and tips on matching paint: http://www.do-it-yourself-help.com/touch-up_wall_paint.html

The Sounding Board

jb — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:46:15 +0000

b (aka Barry) and I were kicking around ideas for our newly formed alliance when the topic of titles (and not really in the context of blog-related capacities) came up. For business, I use the title €“ €œYour Home Project Assistant.€ When I mentioned that I might use this too in the Blog€™s €œAbout€ spiel, b jokingly replied, €œCool, I can be the Home Project Assistant€™s Assistant.€ And I knew in that one instant that it, here, simply would not do. So me as the journeyman and b as the sounding board (the lower case initials themselves a whole €˜nother rant) was born. Now, those of you who have not had the fortune to know b, he can actually be introduced quite easily. Barry is a quiet and humble man, a multi-talented artist and craftsman living and working along the lower Delaware shore. He has a simple way, a simple way of surprising me almost weekly. You see, b is a seeker, an explorer of the truth, a man of thought and action, of art and living, a life long learner. He is one heck of a communicator; he has been, and is, a good friend.

*******

As a one time professional thespian and musician, b now channels much of his creative energy into the photo journal he keeps at Barry's Big Blog of Building (You can find it in the sidebar over here -->, and it really isn't all that big). Barry claims that he is motivated by his own desire to continually learn about all things "Building." But for us, his visitors -- we are the ones who have the unique opportunity to engage in the profoundness of his small doing. Without his endeavor, perhaps, he and I may not have connected. And recently as Junction Home Services has begun to slam and jam €“ and enter new demands brought upon him by, well, me, b needed a practical way to streamline. Midday emails began to be replaced with quick audio notes, recorded on his blackberry . . . . And like that, The Sounding Board is born. With The Sounding Board :: Notes From the Slower Lower €“ b will be checking in bi-weekly to provide segments on home projects, business, life and learning. Please click, listen and/or hey, even download . . . he'd appreciate a comment and a quick, "Hi, how are you doing?" And trust me, it will be well worth your time.

souternsales

jb — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:45:46 +0000

AUCTION_pic

jb — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:52:50 +0000

Sources Spotlight :: Southern Sales Services (Baltimore)

jb — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:20:32 +0000

(The Unnecessary Intro)

OK yes, one part This Old House€™s annual Secret Sources issue and another part Charles and Hudson€™s DIY City Guides, I am setting out to provide coverage on some of our local building supply houses. Perhaps the motivation was captured most clearly by my neighbor (a real neighbor€™s neighbor), Jody L., who said . . . €œPeople, at times, need to be reminded that there are places other than the Home Depot (editor€™s note: no offense) to shop for building supplies.€ And I found my starting point easily enough this Easter Sunday, when my mom announced over ham and pineapple stuffing €“ €œI€™m in the market for a patio door. We are going to a builder's auction this weekend. Do you wanna go?€

Spotlight

Southern Sales Services €“ a Building Materials Auction, sells €œrecovered assets€ at costs 30 to 60% of retail prices. With a 180,000 sq.ft. warehouse and showroom located in Halethorpe (21227), they host ten public auctions a year. Their next auction is this coming weekend, with a preview day April 9. It is being held in the shadow of the Montgomery Park building downtown. (Click to see the Google Map below.) View Larger Map Stocked by some of the nation's largest building material manufacturers, distributors and pro-sales oriented lumber yards, auction inventories include kitchen and bath cabinetry, home appliances, flooring products, whirlpool tubs, toilets and lavatories, windows, interior and exterior doors, moldings, fixtures and hardware. You can see many of the products available in this very cool slide show: http://www.southernsalesservices.com/products-bathroom.php. Everything is sold on consignment, and with 250 cosigners delivering around 1,000 tractor-trailers full of building materials annually, sales are not limited to these auction events. In the warehouse, you will find flooring (to quote Steve B. €“ €œLots of tile€), decorative entry doors, pine interior doors, vanities, whirlpool tubs, sinks, as well as oak items. Since 1992, and now today Southern Sales is attracting over 1000 homeowners, investors/developers and contractors to these auction events. With more than 30,000 people currently on their mailing list, chances are you will be battling other savvy shoppers for the best deals. To this, Southern Sales offers these tips to help maximize your experience:

Auction Going Tips

Be prepared to load your purchases. While SSS offers hand carts, they suggest bringing your own. This can assist with loading your purchases into your appropriately-sized vehicle.
Be prepared to spend the day. Customers should expect lines to form at the office as well as the main door throughout the day. Consider using this idle time to browse the warehouse for savings opportunities at the cash and carry sections.
Come prepared with a tape measure and building plans. Having a set of plans and a ruler will prove helpful when searching for proper sized doors, windows, whirlpools, cabinets and floor coverings.
Remember that a 12% Buyer's Premium and Sales Tax will be added to your total purchase. Payments made with Certified Funds and/or Cash will be given a 2% discount.

Aaron Z. and the team at Southern Sales Services hope to see you there this weekend. Thanks and BMoxie BMore!

More Moxie (Related Links):

For the auction's schedule and approximate sales times, see here: http://southernsalesservices.com/auctionessentials.php For auction buying agent services, you could always inquire here (just sayin'): http://www.buildingmoxie.com

building_moxie_sounding_board_1_full

Barry — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:58:52 +0000

building_moxie_sounding_board_1_cut_1_intro

Barry — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:12:30 +0000

building_moxie_sounding_board_1_cut_2_tagged

Barry — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:31:29 +0000

building_moxie_sounding_board_1_cut_3_fortune_cookie

Barry — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:42:15 +0000

bmsb-logo

Barry — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:07:05 +0000

The Sounding Board :: Episode 1: Enter Audio

Barry — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:05:39 +0000

The Sounding Board :: Episode 1 - Enter Audio

We introduce ourselves and get the podcast rolling. Topics include your esteemed host jb, the Tagged project and my take on the contents of a recent fortune cookie. Thanks for listening. -b

This is the full version of Episode 1. Scroll down for links to mp3 excerpts from this installment.

[powerpress] Short Cuts from episode 1 Cut 1: Intro - 3 minutes 51 seconds Cut 2: Tagged - 2 minutes 32 seconds Cut 3: Fortune Cookie - 3 minutes 38 seconds

More Moxie (Related Links):

For more info on the new series The Sounding Board, see here: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/the-sounding-board/ For more from b, see here: http://bigblogofbuilding.blogspot.com

SLS

jb — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 01:32:04 +0000

Sean Lintow Sr :: EPA s New Lead Regulation and How It Affects You

SLS Construction — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:04:00 +0000

€œI am from the government and here to help you€ is often joked about as being ten of the most terrifying words that one could expect to hear in their lifetime. Now it appears that would fall to second place if you replace the word "help" with the word "protect." Effective April 22^nd, the EPA has a new regulation that goes into effect affecting anyone living in or working on pre-1978 houses that may contain lead. As a homeowner, there is nothing in there that says you have to follow, or even care about the regulation, but it is still going to affect you in many ways. (EPA€™s Facts on Lead) The cost for everyone is going up, including those that do not live in a pre-78 house. Why? Well most firms that have been certified have also had to send one or more individuals to training, bought additional equipment, and depending on their risk exposure may have had to purchase a €œPollution Liability Policy€ that starts out in the thousands. As these items cannot be assigned to one particular job, the cost is spread out and applied to all jobs (AKA Overhead). The costs for your project in a pre-78 house will also be increasing. Many contractors will have to budget extra time to inform you of the RRP regulation, the extra paperwork required on these jobs, the additional expenses of complying with this regulation, etc€¦ While the EPA states that it should only add $8 to a $165 to a job, I can tell you that they have a propensity for understating what the true costs are, while inflating the positive aspects. Their original estimates done in 2005 showed that the containment costs per job would run anywhere from $22.67 to $527.89 per job which is a lot more accurate than their latest numbers. There is a lack of Certified Firms to do the work, which could cause you to have to wait a very long time for one to be able to do the work. If a non-certified firm does the work, they are risking a $30K+ fine per day for failing to be certified and follow these lead safe work practices. While you are not required to hire a Certified Firm, do you really want someone working on your house that does not care about the regulations? What else might they not care about, or how often would they say, "well that€™s good enough." (EPA€™s €“ Find a Certified Firm) Confusion over testing procedures can also cause you some major issues down the line when it comes time to sell your house. In order to help prevent this, I am going to quote this directly from the regulation: €œ745-61 (c) Nothing in this subpart requires the owner of property(ies) subject to these standards to evaluate the property(ies) for the presence of lead-based paint hazards or take any action to control these conditions if one or more of them is identified.€ The only time I would recommend that testing should be performed is when you know with a 100% certainty that lead paint is not present. (LEAD FAQ€™s €“ To Test or Not to Test €“ that is the question) Confusion over the regulation is also another big issue that was caused by the €œmandatory€ classes that the Certified Renovators had to attend. The class was originally intended to show you the actual regulation, and then teach you steps for complying with the regulation. Not all the steps shown in class are required on every job. Unfortunately, based on who did the training, many are under the mistaken impression that Haz-Mat suits have to be worn the entire time, others believe everyone needs to follow protocols established for asbestos abatement (tent everything, etc€¦), and the list goes on. Unfortunately, that confusion may cause some contractors to overestimate the scope of what is truly required, while some great contractors have said, instead, "This is ridiculous; I am not working on those houses anymore." (The Process of Remodeling a pre 1978 house) -- Sean Lintow Sr. (SLS Construction)

*******

Building Moxie . . . The Blog would like to thank Sean and his team SLS Construction for participating in the Tagged! project. You can find Sean on Twitter @SLSContruction. He is also available on the web at http://www.SLS-Construction.com, thru his blog http://blog.SLS-Construction.com (AKA the Homeowners Resource Center) and via email at info@SLS-Construction.com. Sean was tagged by Mike Hines of HomePath Products; Mike too may be found on Twitter @eXapath.

chipping paint

jb — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:09:45 +0000

Don t Eat the Paint Chips and . . .

jb — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:25:46 +0000

Dig in the Dirt and . . . Breathe the Air and . . .

OK, that title may seem a little over the top, but hey maybe it got you here. With all the talk about the new lead paint regulations being passed down to the renovation industry (See Sean Lintow€™s post on the topic from yesterday) €“ and to tie in with an upcoming post on time, I got to thinking about lead paint. Apparently, lead improves paint's performance -- it speeds drying, increases durability, helps paint retain its fresh appearance, and it allows the items it covers to resist moisture that may cause corrosion . . . or so says the Wiki on the matter. And that's right, present tense -- lead is still used in paint in places all over the world. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) claims, €œAbout two-thirds of the homes (in the US) built before 1940 and one-half of the homes built from 1940 to 1960 contain heavily-leaded paint.€ Later (1977/1978 -- earlier in the UK), when it was discovered that this type of paint (actually, the airborne particles resulting from it) creates a hazard to our health - it was outlawed. And actually it's a fate not too dissimilar to that of at least one other building product that I can think of. Yes, another naturally occurring substance that in itsday was molded into floor and ceiling tiles, shingles and insulation. Sound familiar? Strong, durable and inert, a great insulator, but it too in the end was dangerous. Like lead paint, asbestos can still be found on, or in, many, many a house, maybe yours. Often hidden by paneling or sheetrock, under ceramic tile or vinyl siding, it is there -- peaceful and resting, undisturbed and encapsulated.

Don't Even Think about Disturbing this Stuff

Encapsulate -- that's what they tell us to do every time we have our rental property tested for lead. And our rental property is tested for lead every time we have a tenant vacate. We get it done professionally as instructed by the city. The pros who come in hit spots on both the window sills and on the floors, with wipes, and then they send these samples off to the lab. Again according to the the CPSC €“ €œLead was used as a pigment and drying agent in "alkyd" oil based paint. "Latex" water based paints generally have not contained lead.€ Oil-based paint always with a glossy or glassy sheen -- at least that is how I have come to know it. And from my earliest memory, it was always water-based latex for me I swear. Have I actually seen lead-based paint (LBP)? Or is it my mind just playing games . . . some other mineral or agent replacing the harmful elements. I think I have -- it was there buried in the walls of some of the places where I have worked. A glossed finish, and probably more so at one time, but just slightly faded now -- on a piece of woodwork or a wall surface. But most do never get this deep that could only be accomplished by something like an XRay machine. You see, encapsulate it, here, and this has always been an acceptable course of action, equals "seal it up with another coat of paint;" its formula no doubt new and improved, low VOC. While I thought for a moment I might ask the question - "Is there a quick way for the average homeowner to (visually) identify the presence of it?" But then I realized, why bother, if you live in an older home, it is more than likely . . . there, hidden under other paint, or behind that door casing you are about to remove, or even in the soil that you may be about to plant. And I guess it is the mood I am in, but it almost makes me want to have my children wear a lead-rated dust mask . . . all the time.

And Never, Never Sand This Stuff

Thanks and BMoxie BMore!

Myth Busting (via Wikipedia -- I like it):

One myth related to lead-based paint is that the most common cause of poisoning was eating leaded paint chips. In fact, the most common pathway of childhood lead exposure is through ingestion of lead dust through normal hand-to-mouth contact during which children swallow lead dust dislodged from deteriorated paint or leaded dust generated during remodeling or painting. Lead dust from remodeling or deteriorated paint lands on the floor near where children play and can be ingested.

Lead Testing (via the CPSC):

There are do-it-yourself kits available. However, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has not evaluated any of these kits. One home test kit uses sodium sulfide solution. This procedure requires you to place a drop of sodium sulfide solution on a paint chip. The paint chip slowly turns darker if lead is present. There are problems with this test, however. Other metals may cause false positive results, and resins in the paint may prevent the sulfide from causing the paint chip to change color. Thus, the presence of lead may not be correctly indicated. In addition the darkening may be detected only on very light-colored paint. Another in-home test requires a trained professional who can operate the equipment safely. This test uses X-ray fluorescence to determine if the paint contains lead. Although the test can be done in your home, it should be done only by professionals trained by the equipment manufacturer or who have passed a state or local government training course, since the equipment contains radioactive materials. In addition, in some tests, the method has not been reliable.

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More Moxie (Related Links):

I am quoting this source: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/5054.html Lead Paint Safety: EPA's Field Guide for Painting, Home Maintenance, and Renovation Work: http://www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/leadsafetybk.pdf Very cool site I found when I was looking around. The difference between oil-based and water-based paint: http://www.diffen.com/difference/Latex_Paint_vs_Oil_Based_Paint They say Milk Paint was the first "latex"-based paint: http://www.milkpaint.com/about_history.html

emk_architect

jb — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:15:08 +0000

Earl Mark Kaplan :: To Renovate or Build New . . . That is the Question

emk_architect — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:20:23 +0000

With the present slump of the economy, new home construction is at an all-time low and property values across the nation have decreased substantially. The majority of people still want their American dream and have learned from the recent economic downturn that renovating an existing home is becoming the new American dream. As a practicing Architect, I have experienced my client€™s anxiety in deciding if they should do a construction renovation or build a new home. I have always advocated doing what one can afford. Regardless of the path, everyone should have a flexible program with priorities, develop a master plan, and try to do the work in stages. Homeowners can no longer afford to make one of the biggest decisions in their life in haste and cannot base it solely on emotion. So the question is . . . should you renovate or build new? Since every situation is different there are no easy answers. Here are some general points to consider when evaluating your decision: When to Renovate:

You are emotionally attached to your current location, your neighborhood feeds into a great school district, prime shopping is abundant, there are superior recreational facilities, and you plan on staying in your home for a minimum of 5-7 years.
Your home value is lower than the homes surrounding you.
The cost to remodel your home will not surpass the value of homes in the neighborhood.
Property values are rising or are expected to rise.
Demand for homes in the neighborhood are high and supply is diminishing.
You can renovate in phases, which helps with budget constraints and allows you to remain in the home.
Other homes are being renovated around you.
You are concerned with the costs of moving, closing fees and possible demolition.
You are also concerned with increased property taxes and insurance.

When to Build New:

You require a particular floor plan layout that will not work in your present home.
The excessive cost to renovate your existing home may not be able to be recovered in the event of a future sale.
You want a larger home with a particular style.
Unique facilities are required that can€™t be accomplished in your present home.
You have adequate funds and want to live in your present home until your new home is completed.

I firmly believe that home renovation in desirable neighborhoods will be on the rise. This holds true for existing homeowners, first time home buyers, or those upgrading to a new location. If you want to remodel or build a new home it is important to do your homework. Consult with a professional Realtor in order to understand the trend, history, and direction of home values in your neighborhood. Before you purchase a home with the intention of renovating, I also highly recommend consulting with a licensed Architect familiar with the area. Both of these professionals can give you essential information and recommendations to help you with your decision. ~Earl Mark Kaplan, Architect Note from the hosts: We would like to thank Earl, @emk_architect on Twitter, for sharing some thoughts on a big decision most of us will have to make in a lifetime. Earl is available on the web @ http://www.earlmarkkaplan.com.

Clock_and_paint

jb — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:04:42 +0000

There is a Time to Hang, a Time to Tape and a Time to Dry

jb — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:20:54 +0000

So the Title Stays For Now

The idea for this musing came to me when I was working in my free time to install a few sheets of drywall in a closet underneath a set of stairs. And while it was €œthe time that passes€ (between taping and a finished product) that initially got me on the topic, it did not take long for me to decide instead to do a piece on the much larger circumstance of time. And I could always start a post like this, like this -- with some good old-fashioned truisms. A clip of a saying, maybe -- €œtime flies,€ €œcan€™t be in two places at one time,€ €œa stitch in time,€ €œmiller time,€ or any number of other catchphrases that have latched onto the word €œtime€ throughout the years. I could probably do a simple commentary on any one, and not another of these single phrases. Pass! After all, I had already given myself the license to borrow from and tweak Ecclesiastes (or maybe it was just the Byrds). Anyway -- as it is my goal to pepper you occasionally with a random helping of free form essay, I set out to write this one. And maybe I would talk about the time it takes for paint to dry, figuratively or not, and what to do while you wait. And maybe I would tell you that these types of breaks, while not always welcome, are actually opportunities to work in other areas of your project. That is -- if you manage your time wisely, have an ability to multi-task some, and if you simply do something else. But . . . I do not think I will write about that.

Rather I€™ll Mention

When I initially sat down to write this, I was half empty . . . had writer€™s block I guess. So I put it away for a week or so and, well . . . time passed. I gained a little extra experience . . . and I learned. I learned a few things in those few days and my thinking on this piece once again changed. First off, I learned that I wasn€™t the only one out there that was thinking about time. In that week that I was away, I stumbled upon an essay by a gentleman that seems on a path quite similar to mine -- "A Measure of Time" http://extremelyaverage.com/2010/02/a-measure-of-time-2/ (though posted in Feb.). And then, not a day later, purely by chance . . . I saw Andy Rooney. His rant for the week -- "The Passage of Time" http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6386098n. (Ironically -- in this episode of 60 minutes, too, a segment on the discovery of what could end up being a missing link in our evolutionary chain.) Must be the time of year, I thought. The time of year when we, collectively, take the time to think about time. Maybe it€™s the season -- play ball. Or maybe it is the inevitability of tax day looming, which at this time of year comes . . . well, like, you know. Right now, around here, doing inside work presents a little bit of a challenge. The weather is breaking €“ spring is springing. And as is the nature of things, my instincts tell me to head outside. And while I was here, up now at 6 and writing, the birds are chirping and actually it is Easter (while I wrote those few lines) €“ and I will be applying my second coat of drywall mud in the living room closet. Past, present, the time on the clock, the season -- it was, and is, all my time.

And I€™ll Finish Like This

I often go back to one night on a beach €“ a beer in hand and maybe a thunderstorm at sea. . . definitely in my early 20s, but I am not quite sure of the year. A friend of mine, Jeff H. turned to me and said all too randomly (because I am sure I did not ask for the time) . . . he said €“ €œYou know, somewhere in the world it€™s midnight.€ And he was right. Time is all so very relative, a matter of how you view it and use it -- sometimes a measuring tool, sometimes a marking tool, and at all times -- moving forward. In the time it took for my drywall mud to dry, a lot of things happened in this world. Birth, death, re-birth, and so on. And yes, I intended to post this yesterday, but . . . I guess I simply missed my filing deadline. Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore!

me

jb — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 02:58:57 +0000

Still Briefly on Timing and the Cycles of Life

jb — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:20:19 +0000

aka Sowing Grass Seed in Dense Shade or . . . When Do You Tip on Deliveries?

Notes from Sunday morning So . . . April. The time of year . . . and I try to grow grass. I say try here -- because of all the species of vegetation I know, there may be no other that has . . . well, such a mind of its own. Stubborn it seems sometimes, and for me, it has a tendancy to grow better in the places where I don't want it. My track record proves it -- small successes with an occasional edging, planter or small pavers job; these things are mostly inorganic and can be controlled. But lawns . . . well -- let's just say, brown thumb. I try not to be too hard on myself, especially with this one. This yard you see is in the process of being re-claimed. Previous owners had a fondness for what I have come to know as English Ivy, the Borg of creeping ground cover. When we bought this property, some 70% of our available grass-growing space was infected by it. Now, all but eliminated -- still plenty of spots remain far too bare. And here it is, the time of year again, the wife says -- "I want grass under the maple out front." A beautiful, decorative tree that has grown large and spread widely in its years. It mates with a nearby holly, and yes, there was fondness for hollys too. Together they create a blanket of dense shade, an essential compenonent in my home cooling plan. And while of course welcome in that regard -- this shade has helped snub all half-hearted attempts to do anything with the space within it. Again, I was here last year -- almost as equally under-prepared. Sure I know the basics and not every grass attempt has failed. But you figure in the year that has passed I could have gathered something, some additional tip or some alternative that would help me today. The truth really: When it comes to my lawn (and thankfully my wife has taken it upon herself to keep what we have . . . groomed), it is largely an after thought. For me, it seems everything is catch-up -- behind on this or that house project, and sometimes wrapped up in a re-do. I don't make the time to give these outside things the attention they deserve. As the builder goes -- house first, final landscape second . . . but the wife has to live here too. And as I laid in bed this morning, awakened by the birdies -- these things were the first thoughts of my day: "Man -- I need to move the exterior paint along and set my downspouts; The mahogany of the upstairs porch is really taking a beating; I wonder if I could engage fall protection experts for some tips and recommendations for homeowners . . . like me; and . . . Should we have tipped the driver who delivered the top soil?"

Old Roof/New Roof

jwhetzel — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:06:33 +0000

box

jb — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:35:09 +0000

Q: What do you listen to when you do home improvement?

jb — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:05:13 +0000

In honor of b's upcoming episode 2 of The Sounding Board (due Friday), I guess I had to ask. And I guess I could have phrased the question instead like this . . . "What do you listen to when you work on your house?" But . . . I didn't; I wanted to engage the pros too. And maybe you'll say, "I like the muffled sound of my circ saw ripping into pt deck boards" . . . you know -- through the ear protection you should be wearing. But anyway -- I'll lead and here we go . . . While my musical taste runs the gambit, I find that for home improvement I often land on a more mainstream rock station. And I don't know why; I mean -- I don't listen to that in my truck. Maybe it's signal strength or the steady, repetitive rotation -- plus a few welcome throw backs. Over the Hills and Far Away Led Zepplin, Sweet Emotion Aerosmith and so on . . . . This is all true except for fall and on Sunday -- when I usually have the Ravens game on. What do you like to listen to when you work? Feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks and BMoxie BMore!

Jennifer Ostrowski Whetzel :: The Cook s New Roof

jwhetzel — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:11:18 +0000

We're not DIYers, we're Hire-It-Outers. We're smart, we're great cooks, but we leave house things to the professionals. We don't want the house to explode, leak, etc. So when we had an ice dam on the roof this winter leaking into the basement, that just reinforced the notion that we prefer having professionals do work on our home. Because we want to trust someone else to fix it right the first time (and so we have someone else to blame if it's not done right). So, long story short, ice dam + ridiculously hot bedroom on the third floor + surprise tax refund = new roof for our house. Because our third floor is often many degrees warmer than it is outside, we chose a roof shingle that would help reduce the temperature, in addition to some ventilation for the roof and the soffits. We went with the Certainteed Solaris, which is reflective and is supposed to reduce air conditioning costs by 20%. We'll see about that. [caption id="attachment_2549" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Old Roof/New Roof"][/caption] Since the roof has been installed (they got it done in one day!) it's been much cooler in my bedroom. It's now just the same temperature that it is outside. Hopefully we can hold out on turning on the AC until it gets really hot. The hardest part of getting the new roof was seeing how much garbage the roofers were taking to the landfill. I had just finished the book, The Story of Stuff the day before we got the roof and it gave me a stomach ache. I wish there were a more sustainable way to get a new roof. Note from jb: I would like to thank Jennifer O. (as I know her) for taking the time to share some thoughts on a recent (emergency) roof install. Jen lives in Kansas City, MO and is what I call a foodocologist. She can be found on Twitter @jwhetzel.

jeno

jb — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:20:41 +0000

Stylehouse_grayWeb

jb — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:20:05 +0000

amanda.lopez

jb — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:21:37 +0000

Building Moxie with Style House Realty

jb — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:00:14 +0000

I could have been looking myself in a mirror when she said, "This brings all of my interests together." She being Amanda Lopez, speaking about her baby Style House Realty. (And . . . No, she doesn€™t have a mustache, nor does she use her hands quite as much when she speaks.) Launched in September 2009 €“ Style House is one of Baltimore€™s only green-focused real estate brokerages. Born and bred in Towson, MD (high school in Mexico City), Amanda got the green bug from her mother at an early age. She points to the documentary film €œBlue Vinyl€ as something of a defining moment. Of it, she says, "It was one of those experiences that forever changed the way I looked at things." "It (the environment) continues to be a topic of interest for me especially when it comes to indoor air quality and knowing what factors I can control inside my home. We can all make choices to that, but we can't always control exterior factors . . . ." She admits readily that a green-only brokerage at this time may not be totally (hrmm, hrmm) sustainable. That is -- while environmentally conscious, Amanda is also a businesswoman. "As a real estate professional in today€™s world, I know home shoppers are still looking for bargains," she says. And it was actually quite early in the conversation when I went for the million-dollar question myself. I asked, "Are you finding that homes with more in the way of green improvements are bringing a higher market value?" "Not necessarily," she responded, "I think design, function and location are all also important factors. And if a home doesn't have these things but is "green", it's not going to bring a higher price. If a home has all of these factors, then it may be able to command a small premium. . . ." It is the blending of these two loves, real estate and the environment, that form Amanda€™s primary impetus for stepping out on her own. On looking around, she saw a lack of firms catering to the greener homes that were already available for the market. She continues, "In general, I wanted to offer an alternative for people that share similar goals and values." But this goes beyond green, she wanted to give people the opportunity to work with a broker that would spotlight their homes with the same amount of care and love that they themselves had put into them.

Facebooking

I think one of the things that drew me quickly to Amanda was her commanding Facebook presence. The Style House fan page just eclipsed 700 fans €“ due in some part to her ability to effortlessly manage the delicate balance between promoting herself, and her clients, while still keepin€™ it real. She is an excellent study in Facebooking for marketing value, and it (Facebook) is certainly a great platform for highlighting both her current properties as well as her style. With a Marketing and Adverting degree from Towson University (coincidentally my alumna mater) €“ she is not going at this haphazardly. When asked if she designed a social media plan before launching Style House, she said, "Well, I have always been interested in technology. But when I realized as a user that I was getting most of my news from Facebook and Twitter, I figured many others were probably doing the same." She continues, "There aren't too many sites out there in which you can gather your world news, local news and keep up with friends all in one spot. It seemed logical to me to put our business out there. (Plus) Who better to support you than friends and family?€

Bizness and Background

Amanda became an agent in 2005 and quickly joined super broker Coldwell Banker. Shortly after €“ and while working with broker City Life Realty (a sister company of Baltimore Green Construction) she tested for and certified as Baltimore€™s first eco-broker. (This is a more labor intensive certification than the Green Designation offered to agents at many larger brokerages.) Located in the Baltimore€™s Clipper Mill business park, green isn€™t just marketing or sales for Amanda and her team. It€™s about living the right way; and these practices run deep across business operations. Her office boasts: 100% recycled paper including stock used for flyers, the use of electronic signatures (whenever possible), 100% wind-powered electricity via Clean Currents, as well as other more traditional client perks, such as professional property photos and home staging assistance -- through which she often recommends sustainable options.

Building Moxie

For me, the most interesting part of Amanda€™s story comes while listening to her tell of the six month back and forth she had with herself before finally taking the leap. She says, in an all too calm tone €“ "Well, of course launching anything new to the area and to something you are passionate about can be scary. There are always unknowns, but ultimately I decided I needed to take a chance and go after my dreams." Visiting the million-dollar question from above again briefly, I re-phrase, "Are green homes selling faster; are they paying off €“ are they fetching a higher price?" Her response €“ "As I said, it is roughly the same," she continued, "You€™re simply not going to get more money if it is green and . . . ugly." But she steps back for a second and says, "The interest of green motivated buyers is on the rise and I feel in the next five years, the number of green renovations will rise too in response to these demands." Until then, she offers these simple and certainly sustainable tips for those who are planning to sell in the near future:

Identify your weak spots. "If you are weak in design, hire that out; find someone that you can work with and get it done."
Neutral not bright greens (writer's embellishment) or bold colors. Of this, she says, "Think Pottery Barn. Everyone likes Pottery Barn."
Think cost of renovation vs. recoup. She of course was pointing to Remodeling Mag's Yearly Cost vs. Value report.
Following on this, she says, "Don€™t over-renovate, especially in this market."

I'll Exit on This

Doing everything well; personalized and targeting slow growth, her short term goals, say over the next year or so, are €“ Add more agents, grow the brand as a boutique brokerage, and continue offering excellent cost vs value. She says, "We remain focused on matching people and the lifestyles they seek to the perfect homes." And of course, she hopes to hit 1000 fans on Facebook. Join her today.

More Moxie (Related Links):

Style House can be found on the web at: http://stylehouserealty.com http://twitter.com/style_house http://www.facebook.com/stylehouserealty For more on the Eco-Broker Certification: http://www.ecobroker.com/ How to Buy and Sell a Green House €“ via @Chesapeake_Home: http://www.chesapeakehome.com/2010/03/31/how-to-buy-or-sell-a-green-home/

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A recent post on her fan page -- I thought it was interesting because it seems to create a pretty natural point of division with home shoppers: Visit to comment: How do you value "charm" in a home? would you be willing to pay a bit more for a smaller house that has the uniqueness to it compared to other homes priced less and perhaps larger?

building_moxie_sounding_board_2_full

Barry — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:15:46 +0000

building_moxie_sounding_board_2_cut_1_work_songs

Barry — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:44:02 +0000

building_moxie_sounding_board_2_cut_2_shop_dog

Barry — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:44:45 +0000

building_moxie_sounding_board_2_cut_3_construction_sayings

Barry — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:45:37 +0000

The Sounding Board :: Episode: Cotton Picking Shop Dog

Barry — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:59:30 +0000

The Sounding Board :: Episode 2 - Cotton Picking Shop Dog

I fail to introduce myself at the beginning of this one. I told jb that I simply must have been so focused on getting the job done that the formalities slipped my mind . Again, the episode is broken into three loosely themed parts. I expect things will change as we go along and am thinking about re-thinking the way we record the audio. Thanks for listening.

This is the full version of Episode 2. Scroll down for links to mp3 excerpts from this installment.

[powerpress] Short Cuts from episode 2 Cut 1: Work Songs - 4 minutes 14 seconds Cut 2: Shop Dog - 3 minutes 33 seconds Cut 3: Construction Sayings - 3 minutes 25 seconds

problem

jb — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:43:35 +0000

solution

jb — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:45:58 +0000

Do Your Part to Stop Bag Breakage :: On ReUsable Shopping Bags

jb — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:30:16 +0000

Has this happened to you? You block some time early one weekend morning; you head up to the home center. You're gonna do your part. You plan to seal those leaky windows . . . . Goals: Effectively cut down on energy usage, shrink your own personal carbon footprint and . . . save a buck or two in the process. And there, within the hour, you find yourself in the caulk aisle. You don't need to ask; you've done this before. Siliconized acrylic: Water clean up, a 35-year warranty, in white, but paintable. Self checkout for you . . . no line, usually; it will get you out the door . . . fast. But wait, while on your way, this, then that end cap happens to catch your eye. Oooo -- a head mount flashlight, Ooooo -- EZ-Seed grass seed; Tiki Torches! . . . Gotta have 'em and you've got to grab the torch oil too. But you're done now and you have paid; you place your items in the bag that is conveniently provided. Out the door, which seems to sense your presence -- "Open says me!" and then directly to your car. To dig your keys from your pocket, you must first situate the handles of the plastic bag into your other hand. Then it happens, "Tear," a big one, big enough to split the bag easily in half. And you, a moment later, are off; your caulk tubes racing down the ever so slight but still present slope found there in the parking lot -- and your dignity seems to be bringing up the rear.

The preceding was a dramatization

Of course, I am talking about caulk's tendency always to want to poke its cone-like head straight through the soft shell of the home centers' free totes (double bagged or not). And recently, I have begun to notice the general absence of people carrying reusable bags while shopping for home-related supplies . . . and me, honestly -- no tote in hand. I mean -- for folks like me, the home center is nearly as regular as the food store. And while it seems in recent months that reusable cloth or canvas bags have really caught on at the grocery stores, I wonder why they have not yet made their way into the standard at the home center. Is it maybe the lack of availability on end caps or at checkouts? Is it maybe just where I live? Or . . . has this connection simply not been made?

*******

I know for my family it has been difficult to remember our bags (purchased for 99c each) on food shopping trips. We try to work them into our regime; I mean -- what good do they do if we can't seem to remember to bring them along? Motivation: 15 plastics, this waste often floating around our city, easily replaced by five or six sturdy canvas bags. They seem to stow ever so neatly into our all too small trunk. Our memory will hopefully get better, at least a little bit better. And while I think of hanging them near the side door (the one closest to the driveway), and toy with the idea of attempting to let them live in the car, my plans of now are to earmark some space for them in our pantry (which will receive work hopefully pretty soon).

*******

So . . . the question is -- What techniques do you employ to help you remember your reusable bags as you head off to this, that or the other store? Please feel free to comment below. Thank you and BMoxie BMore!

MOS3

jb — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:02:56 +0000

Solvents1

jb — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:06:37 +0000

Testing Hardwood Floor Finishes in an Old House (part 1 of a few)

jb — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:39:48 +0000

One of the fundamental premises of this site €“ We, Barry & I, could never possibly ever know everything there is to know about houses . . . even if we could find a way to make it through all the volumes of all the writing on this, that and/or the other thing. There are simply some things you can only know, personally, through first hand experience. In many ways and maybe more like b would put it €“ this site is about discovery. It is about enjoying the process. Learning as we go, and applying the knowledge acquired through small victories or even failures to all aspects of our beings. And as I was to lead into this post, I figure that that above would be a good way to start.

*******

A few weeks back Jeff B (I wrote this little spiel for him) contacted me. He was asking for advice on his wood floors. And yes, he did finally pull the trigger, and is happy as can be in his now new old house. It was built in the 1950s. The first weekend after closing and maybe you too have been here, Jeff peeled back and removed the home's well worn carpets. This seems to be a ritual for many new old house owners, and the payout is often ripe with a well protected cache of €œhardwood€ -- plank-type flooring. It is an exercise I have been through myself a handful of times. In my few houses, and on some similar jobs, the progression of events has always been the same -- sand and refinish the floors. But this wasn€™t the nature of Jeff B's question €“ not €œHow do I go about refinishing floors?€ Rather, he approached me with a clear alternate plan. He said -- €œI don€™t have the budget to refinish the floors right now €“ in a year or two maybe . . . . Do you have any recommendations for ways that I might spruce them up in the short term?€ And I understood -- Quotes from professionals for refinishing can range anywhere from $2 up to and over $4 a square foot (depending on the circumstances). Decide to tackle this task yourself and you are looking not only at the cost of the floor machine rental, but supplies easily up and over a few hundred dollars (for a whole house job).

Opening the Door

So . . . I rolled my eyes up into my head, you know -- figuratively and to check my files. Then, my response came something like this -- I told him, €œWell, it really depends on the type of finish already on the floors. You could be dealing with polyurethane, a similar type of coating, or wax. Do you know how long that carpet was down? There are a number of cleaners and/or refinishers designed specifically for each type. These can be found in either the paint and/or the cleaning aisles at the home centers.€ I continued €“ €œTo really get it right though, you need to figure out what is already down and what kind of condition it is in . . . . Oh, and whatever you try €“ pick an inconspicuous location to start, like in a closet.€

Homeowning

A few days later, Jeff hit me back; he had gathered some info from a couple places on the internet. He said, €œWell, I tried the water test like you suggested, and water doesn€™t seem to discolor the floor . . . . But . . . I learned some other things too.€ Repeating what he found, he said, €œI learned that rubbing alcohol (actually denatured) can be used to test for shellac, acetone for varnish, and lacquer thinner for lacquer. Mineral spirits can be used to clean "unsounded" floors, and I also learned that polyurethane only really became popular in the last fifteen (editor's hmmm) years. Strippers can be used to test for that.€ For my part, I pealed back and I tried to verify his information (I just like knowing). I too found it easily in a couple of places. Google searched and later cross referenced in a flooring book I have at home, I said go for it €“ €œ. . . But remember . . .€

In a Closet

A few days later, Jeff told me he found a Mop N Glo product, safe for all types of wood floor finishes. In the mean time, I too remembered (with the help of a Twitter friend) Murphy€™s Oil Soap. Yet a few more days later, Jeff returned with raves on that Mop N Glo product, and he thanked me for my help. I again rolled the eyes back and checked the file, €œBut I didn€™t really dooooo anything,€ I said. He then assured me that I did.

Serendipity

I am glad things worked out for Jeff. But . . . this whole exchange left me with a little bit of a longing. As a gatherer of info, I was left to wonder what those solvents listed above might have done in tests on a wood floor. (Plus . . . I didn€™t even get a chance to potentially recommend a paste wax as a longer term touch up over most finished wood floors.) But . . . you know, as luck would have it €“ I happen now to working in my closet. Hmmm . . . I thought, and thanks to recent events (hrmm hrmmm €“ kids and pets) I have given myself a little license to investigate for fixes on my own, not-ready-to-refinished old house flooring . . . . Plus €“ maybe a good time now to play with my new video camera . . . . Tomorrow (hopefully) €“ in the closet, with the moxieCam. Thanks for reading.

More Moxie (Related Links):

One of Jeff's primary resources. Looks like a lot of good info here: http://www.woodfloordoctor.com/_how_tos/articles/cleanpt2.shtml A link provided by @ServiceLive: http://www.housekeepingchannel.com/a_450-Keep_that_Warm_Glow_on_Your_Hardwood_Floor On having floors refinished, don€™t forget to budget $20 or so dollars per room for no skid/no scuff pads, more if you are utilizing area rugs -- a pad under these is also a good idea.

Brian_Head_Shot_for_Linkedin_copy

jb — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:48:02 +0000

Brian Meeks :: The Top 7 Things I Hate about Top 10 Lists

ExtremelyAvg — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:12:58 +0000

James Henry Winston, III always wore finely tailored suits, lived alone in a flat in London, and drove a vintage Jaguar. He liked history. He didn€™t like change. The sound of the metal lock clicking as he entered the flat always brought a level of comfort to James, as he liked security. Once, a few years back, the cleaning lady who came every Monday and Thursday had left the door unlocked. Though nothing had been disturbed, he had felt uneasy ever since. And Mrs. Poleridge had been dismissed. The locked door though comforting was offset by the feeling of horror which overcame him when he saw the tiny overcoat hanging on the 4th hook in the hall. It was on this hook he had expected to hang his umbrella. For a moment he was more concerned with breaking his routine and with being forced to use the hook next to it than he was with regarding the probability that someone was in the flat. After fidgeting and finally choosing the hook to the immediate left, he removed his own coat and hung it on the proper hook. During this moment, the realization that there might be a very tiny person in his abode struck him. He took two steps from the hall into the study, and there, among all the Victorian finery and sitting behind his desk, was a Lemur Monkey, in a very nice suit, smoking a pipe and reading the London Times Business section. €œBollacks,€ he said, €œnot again!€

*******

Would it kill someone to use their brain to a write blog post? You probably thought you were going to find a list of 'Seven Things I Hate about Lists.' Well, tough! No list for you. The amount of bilge being pumped around the world of social media is massive. This is my rant about it. I blame all of the people who have devoted years of really hard work, and thus, become overnight successes. Currently I believe it takes around three years to become an overnight success. I don€™t know what the metric equivalent is, but I would guess it is around 1095 days. Were the last two sentences of the preceding paragraph funny? No . . . unless you are a math nerd. The point is -- we hear numbers thrown around all the time. €œIt€™s a numbers game.€ And yes it is true, to an extent. If someone has a blog, which they intend to monetize with ads, then 500,000 page views is better than 250,000 page views as it will generate more at the end of the day. The problem is -- most people don€™t understand that meaningless numbers are, well, for lack of a better word or nearby thesaurus, meaningless. Having 50,000 people follow you on Twitter, because you launched a campaign of €œfollow me and I will follow you€, doesn€™t mean you have 50,000 people listening to you. It means you have 50,000 people who don€™t get it either. When the day comes that you want to get those people to read your blog, you will be more likely to find a lemur at your desk than you will a solid reader base. Social Media is about connecting. Meeting people, exchanging ideas, and helping one another achieve dreams . . . yada, yada, yada. Even if it were true that sort of schlock won€™t get you anywhere. Platitudes and clichÃ©s don€™t work either. This is why I hate lists. They are only slightly better than the follow me/follow you nonsense.

*******

I knew a woman who started a weblog, or blog as it is now called. She was stunning to look at. One might say she could be a model, often men in bars would say that. She had long legs, looked great in a pin stripe suit, and had stunning jet black hair. I am sure that more than a few people followed her because of her picture. She read somewhere that people are naturally curious and like order. She knew that her brother and his friends were always creating all sorts of silly lists: best albums of all time, top teams of all time, and on and on and on. She decided that she would use this new thing called Twitter and tease people with a list she had just written. She tweeted the €˜Top 10 Reasons: Plaid Is the New Black€™, and people ate it up like she was passing around a tray of assorted snack items. She started to do one list per week, then two, and finally she wasn€™t writing meaningful stuff any longer, she was just listing anything that came to mind. The money which her site was generating was staggering. She was on the cutting edge of list technology. She became so wealthy that when she finally needed a break, she decided to seek out a little bit of adventure. She was killed while on Safari by a herd of roaming wildebeests.

*******

The point of this story is twofold. First of all, this story is not real, as is the case with most of the stories of success you will read. Secondly, didn€™t you think this was much more interesting than reading a list of €˜Top 14 Root Vegetables?€ Put some effort into your blog. Try to educate in a way that is not totally self serving. Tell a tale of someone else maybe you admire. Don€™t just bang out a 3-minute list. If you are reading this paragraph, it is likely that you prefer something a bit more substantial than a quick list of drivel. So let me ask the resilient few who have made it this far, are you more likely to return to a blog that you discover because it has a list of €˜Top 10 Scantily Clad Super Models€™, or to a blog that you are able to count on to provide interesting content? If you are like me, you would chose the models, so perhaps that was a bad example. But I think this exercise still was better than that root vegetable list. Feel free to comment, or if you prefer, you may list either the top 3 things you found utterly disagreeable about this blog post or 5 reasons middle aged balding men who wear silly hats are likely to die alone with a bevy of cats. Note from the hosts: This view is not exclusively that of the author. We would like to thank Brian for taking the time to rant for us. For the record, it really pushed our late night editing skills (Sorry for any misses). Great post. jb Follow Brian's Journey in Woodworking (and More) at http://extremelyaverage.com/. Brian may also be found on Twitter @ExtremelyAvg.

Live the Home Life Blog_Header_Oct2009_facebook

jb — Sat, 01 May 2010 04:28:33 +0000

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jb — Sun, 02 May 2010 01:37:15 +0000

DaVinci

jb — Mon, 03 May 2010 03:50:52 +0000

Remodeler Spotlight :: Da Vinci Remodeling (Denver)

jb — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:27:59 +0000

I guess you are doing something right when a peer -- met only recently -- asks for your opinion on a newly developed blog. Paul Coates -- the driver behind Da Vinci Remodeling (@DaVinciRemodel) was quick to engage me shortly after I posted the Building Moxie fan page. We discussed, though only briefly, his plans to develop a blog. And when I asked recently how it was coming along, he responded something like this, "Here . . . have a look . . . . Let me know what you think; we are launching soon." When I finally caught up (just a few days ago), I found a fairly simple and straight forward blog. (And please let me qualify the next statement by saying -- this is coming from a guy who felt that he needed to add every bell and whistle to hissss recent blog redesign.) It is always refreshing to find a website where the design does not stand in the way of a clear message. A site that is written by people who know -- not just by people who, well . . . know how to write. (Not to say, of course, that Paul isn't a good writer.)

Raves

I also found a remodeling company that seems to simply get it. A post from March and on the topic of What is the Best Return on Investment for Your Home? The answer there in the second paragraph -- not "Mid-End Kitchen Remodel", "HVAC System Upgrade" or "Building A Deck." But rather, and quoted, "Maintain a three-ring binder where you keep a chronological record of all the maintenance, repairs and enhancements made to your home . . . ." Wow! Get this -- they actually encourage their clients to . . . participate. They encourage their clients, with the help of a simple program, to record everything that happens within their home. The idea -- you made the investment, why not protect it. Protect it by developing a centralized "House and Home" document (the name of Da Vinci's related service) that is used to organize, map and . . . communicate (especially helpful at resale) the larger life of the house. Via an Ultra Lite version too, they offer assistance to DIYers. With a simple Newsletter subscribe, individuals are mailed a list of reminders, tips and motivation at the beginning of each and every new season. The Ultra Light edition of "House and Home" is -- free. And double Wow!

Rants

With "House and Home," Da Vinci seems to capture something that some remodelers do not seem to grasp -- Empowered, engaged and informed homeowners are happier, easier to communicate with, and are usually easier to please. With the help of pros like Paul, they understand all or at least part of what it takes to make this or that project happen. Practically speaking -- if they know how to tighten the nut on a closet bolt, they are not calling you, as the team who completed a project, for warranty service. I mean -- it is elementary to me, a smart business practice. Rant Warning: For homeowners now -- who better knows and who should better know your house then, well, you. And to digress briefly -- It is a general passivity, on the part of some homeowners, that has made homeownership what it now -- something that can be walked away from with no more than a single bad stamp on a credit report (Big business these days -- and did I actually write that?). I will stop myself there.

Now for the Facts

Paul plans to officially launch the blog this Friday, May 7th, barring any acts of well. . . you know, and after one more post. But . . . and I hope he is cool with me jumping the gun, here. I like what he is doing and I am looking forward to watching him grow his presence here. Paul, himself says he plans to post only twice a month, so don't expect his team to churn out day after day of posts. (After all -- who his going to keep alllll their remodeling jobs running.) But do expect some really good info, with smatterings of industry-specific flare. I am glad that Paul asked me to look. It was an honor -- I found the kind of company I wish could extend their service area by about, oh . . . 1700 miles. I wish this team well. Thanks for Reading and BMoxie BMore!

More Moxie (Related Links):

Da Vinci on Your Home :: http://davinciremodeling.wordpress.com/ Da Vinci's complete spring maintenance list (have you done everything on this list?): http://davinciremodeling.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/house-home-ultra-lite-spring-maintenance-list/ Da Vinci is a high end, low volume remodeling company based in Denver, Colorado. With only Paul and his partner working in the field (they physically do the work) and his wife part time in the office, they average 6-8 projects yearly. Their business website can be found at http://davinciremodeling.net.

Cara Wilkerson :: A Few (House) Rules to Live By

LivetheHomeLife — Tue, 04 May 2010 11:30:38 +0000

Nothing makes me happier than being a guest blogger. Maybe it€™s because I can preach my home loving heart to other corners of the online world. Needless to say, I was pumped when JB from Building Moxie asked me to throw a guest post his way. Maybe I€™d write about a recent furniture rehab? Or toss a few savvy real estate tips into the mix? I could knock this out in no time!...or so I thought. JB threw a curve ball my way and wanted me to dig a little deeper than paint thinner and upholstery tacks. He wanted me to €œshare a story about what it is that got me to where I am." Where I am? You mean like at my dining room table typing away? In real estate? Oh boy. Time to switch my brain into a different gear. As the daughter of an architect dad and a DIY queen of a mother, I think I truly had no choice but to become a home enthusiast. From growing up watching my parents demo and redo every room in our childhood home to taking on home projects of my own in my 20-something life, I€™ve collected a few rules to live by over the years€¦ 1. Be smart, not scared. What€™s the old Gordon Gekko line from "Wall Street?" Every battle is won before it is ever fought. Words to live by. The more planning you do on the front end, the better off you (and your budget!) will be. 2. Know your limits. Tackling a project DIY style while ignoring that little voice inside your head screaming €œCall a professional!€ often only results in a loss of time, money and patience. Know your limits, which change over time, so reassess before each project and honestly ask yourself €œCan I do this?€ 3. Stay organized. Outline your budget in a spreadsheet. Keep a file for all estimates & receipts. Staying on top of your plans and expenses helps keep your head on straight and blood pressure down. 4. Ask questions. Lots of questions. Take advantage of your electrician/plumber/tile guy. Tell them that you value their knowledge and use it as an opportunity to learn. Always ask with a smile. No one likes a stick in the mud. 5. Laugh at yourself. The world will not end with one plumbing setback. Learn from it and move on. Whether going after a weekend home project or a major overhaul, the unexpected always rears its ugly head. Just remember to think smart, stay calm and keep your eye on the finish line. -Cara Note from the hosts: We'd like to thank Cara for digging deep on this one. Sound advice collected from years of doing and . . . just making it happen. Cara can be found blogging at http://livethehomelife.com. With her husband, Eric, Cara is one part of the Little Rock Realtor team at the Charlotte John Company. They can be found on the web at http://ericandcarawilkerson.com. Cara was Tagged for this project by her friend and fan Alycia Wicker (http://casamoxie.com).

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jb — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:58:06 +0000

gettingthere

jb — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:04:49 +0000

Testing Hardwood Floor Finishes in an Old House (part 2 of a few)

jb — Wed, 05 May 2010 11:53:40 +0000

For part 1 of this series, click here . . . and I am sorry I broke my promise to post the next day -- Things have been quite busy around here.

. . . aka In the Closet via the moxieCam -- Segment 1

So I found myself in the closet . . . . I knew pretty well that I did not have varnish on my floors. I remember this coating from my grandfather€™s boat, on and around his basement bar, and probably on a few other things that survived from his day €“ so shiny, you could see your reflection in it -- or at least that's how I knew it. And the species of wood? In a house that contains everything from cherry to cypress (I think; and fairly uncommon in my region) to things that smell of fir . . . the truth is, I just don€™t know. For now and for this post, we will call it an oak floor with a €œwalnut€ inlay (though maybe something slightly different in the closets). Very popular throughout the houses of my region . . . this configuration -- and I do not have a great guess on when it was installed. But how it was butted to certain wall surfaces, and what was in those walls makes me think that it went down in or around the 1960s. This floor is installed on a sleeper system, and is definitely not similar to some of the southern yellow pine floors I have seen around here. Oak, but it is soft, and has many dents, dings and scratches to prove it. The second floor's floor has some wax on it, but applied only over a more original finish. I believe this because water when dripped on it will pale the surface to a sickly off-white. This condition does quickly subside €“ and a goldish brown does ultimately return. The finish is generally consistent insofar as it is inconsistent throughout the house. Since there are no signs that these floors had ever been covered, the assumption has always been -- stained (maybe), with coats of well-worn and time-darkened polyurethane over it.

Enter the moxieCam (hrrmmm 1st Segment)

The video below will show you what I know. It will not show you that I first used water to test for the €œsoundness" of the floor. And while I am pretty certain that some locations have a thin layer of wax on them €“ I do also believe that these floors, and definitely in this closet here, had some sort of solvent-based sealer applied to them. I tested for shellac, varnish and lacquer. These tests, advised by multiple resources and documented in the preceding post, left me, well . . . a little perplexed. All the literature made it seem just that slam dunk The assumption €“ acetone thinning varnish and not any other finish, etc. But who knew. . . . For Take 1 of this segment you may click back there. What I found was that all three solvents selected €“ lacquer thinner, denatured alcohol and acetone thinned the floor's finish with little or no resistance. In other words, these tests did not really reveal anything in particular. Each of these three solvents can aggressively clean and/or even strip (down to the bare wood) this floor finish.

Callin' in the Pros

So . . . then somewhat befuddled €“ I first rang up second generation floor man, Daniel Manger at Danzco Floors. On explaining to him all of what I had found, he said €“ €œPolyurethane really didn€™t begin to replace other finishes until the €˜70s. But still . . . I would expect your floor to have a coat of urethane on it.€ And I told him more, and the conversation moved this way and that until he said -- €œSounds to me like you might be looking at lacquer.€ Only after research and later did I learn that lacquer can be colored. (I had always associated lacquer with the spray on clear coat for furniture and/or cabinets.) I finished by telling Daniel that I did notice more of a tackiness when using the acetone, less with the denatured alcohol €“ and instead, just straight easy removal with the lacquer thinner. "Lacquer" -- he said, and then he proceeded to mention some products that I did not recognize. (In the spots seen in the upper frame of the video -- I actually poured out a small amount of the lacquer thinner (and well acetone in another location), wiped it on and later finished with mineral spirits. Both of these tests pretty well removed the finish.)

Turning toward Part 3

So . . . here I am -- a partially stripped floor, still not completely confident that I know what the finish is -- and I wonder if it is really all that important. With the closet almost finished, I turn my thoughts to how I might move forward to correct these, now, and other issues. Dean Morgan, Fells Point store manager and the resident stain matching expert at Budeke's Paints, maybe puts it about perfectly when he says, "I don€™t know what you have there, but you are going to have to test new finishes using a combination of stains and polyurethane." And as if I knew it before he said it, €œIt is going to take a lot of trial and error.€ Wish me luck, thanks Daniel and Dean, and you'll know more when I know more.

More Moxie (Related Links):

For an overview of the moxieCam: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/moxiecam/ OK, I thought briefly €“ and if all of these chemicals were "effective," maybe, maybe, I might actually be looking at a simple stained floor, and that€™s it €“ no top coat. But as I had the opportunity to inspect a splintered board from a soon to be hidden edge -- I did notice that while coated, there was no penetration below the very top surface of the board. No stain?! Great article on refreshing polyurethaned floors (and see -- felt pads): http://www.oldhouseweb.com/how-to-advice/worn-oak-floors.shtml On how and when to use paste wax: http://www.assoc-restorers.com/r-articles/sal/pastewax.html

hollycbphoto

jb — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:57:52 +0000

nofloor

jb — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:05:05 +0000

Holly Bertsch :: Excuse Me Ma'am! But Where Did My Floor Go?

Holly Bertsch — Thu, 06 May 2010 11:34:25 +0000

I guess you could call this our first commissioned post. Barry & I asked Holly to write on . . .

What a woman brings to a construction company that a man simply can't

€œWe will just pull the floor and put in some new TGIs.€ I remember saying this like it was yesterday. The homeowner had asked me if I could level out the floor in her living room while we were working a job in her kitchen. Not a small task since the floor was about six inches out of level from one side to another. She asked me for a price and I quoted it. She gave me the go ahead and I started my guys working on it right away. By the middle of the day the whole floor was gone, exposing the shallow crawl space underneath. The homeowner came home after lunch and was €œfloored." Her floor was completely gone. It was then that it dawned on me that I had not communicated what the work entailed very well. She trusted me and I hadn€™t really earned that trust in my explanation. I didn€™t tell her we were going to take out the entire floor to fix it. I didn€™t even tell her what a TGI (an engineered i-joist) was or why it would make her floor problem better. Needless to say, the new floor that we installed was much better and definitely level, but I don€™t blame her if she was a little wary of what else we were going to do to her house. It was that day I realized that I had been around €œthe guys€ too long. I had lost my natural ability to communicate construction concepts in easy to understand layman€™s terms.

*******

From the beginning, Michael and I always wanted our construction and remodeling company to be a different breed from other companies. We wanted to take the mystery out of renovation work. We decided that communication on all levels would be important to us and, most likely, to our future customers. We have done a number of things to further this goal, but our number one secret weapon is me, the girl on the crew. What can I bring to a job that men can not? Well, I haven€™t always worked construction, so it is easy for me to explain things to potential customers when they have questions. I can spell it out in terms that they understand. I also tend to be more positive about their home improvement choices. While a guy will go on about what needs to be done and how to do it, I find that I often focus on what a remodel will do for the homeowner€™s quality of life and other more abstract concepts. I can put the paranoid at ease with their decision to make a major change to what is possibly their biggest investment, their home. I take communication to a whole new level when I work with new clients to plan and budget their spaces. I often send them pictures of potential items they can choose from and help them find things when they describe what they want. I go to these stores almost daily, so I know what is out there and can suggest where to look or who to talk to. I reach out to them every day when we are in the planning phase, not only to keep them informed, but to keep their excitement level up about a project. Most of our clients say that our bids and the scope of work reports I send them are very clear and easy to understand. I strip out all of the industry jargon and get down to basics with them. I write things out in the order we will be doing them and explain why so they can get a vision of what is going to happen and when. I think most men take for granted that a homeowner understands things and just trusts them. I don€™t. I€™ve had to earn my chops in this field. I am not saying that men communicate poorly. They just communicate differently. Men tend to think more in terms of concepts and facts. Women tend to focus on feelings and impressions. While I have never been a girly girl, I do get excited when a homeowner shows me their final color selections or cabinet choices. We are not a really design firm, but we do try our hardest to help the client pick the best possible selection for their homes and their lifestyles. My cohort, Michael, is getting pretty good at this too. He has taught me a lot about working in this field, but at the same time, he is learning a lot from me too. I think that most of the time our potential clients are surprised to find out I will be on their project from start to finish. I get a lot of, €œYou do the actual work too?€ when I go on the initial consultation. That is usually my proving ground, where I get to tout my knowledge and experience. Generally, that is when I earn my trust from them. So I am really careful not to say €œWe will just pull the floor and put in new TGIs.€ Instead I say €œWe can make your floor level, but we are going to have to tear the whole thing out and start over. Let me tell you why€¦€

Laughter, Color and Light 8

jb — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:02:29 +0000

Laughter, Color and Light 1

jb — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:02:34 +0000

Laughter, Color and Light 7

jb — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:03:31 +0000

Laughter, Color and Light 2

jb — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:03:35 +0000

Laughter, Color and Light 3

jb — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:03:39 +0000

Laughter, Color and Light 4

jb — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:03:43 +0000

Laughter, Color and Light 5

jb — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:03:48 +0000

Laughter, Color and Light 6

jb — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:03:52 +0000

ajw

jb — Fri, 07 May 2010 01:18:36 +0000

calfinder

jb — Fri, 07 May 2010 02:41:43 +0000

Agents of Moxie :: Contributors

jb — Fri, 07 May 2010 04:14:04 +0000

* jb (the journeyman) I began blogging to spread the word about my new business, also called Building Moxie. But as I got into the groove, I began to write more about the interconnectivy of things, the fundamental reasons for, and the related challenges with performing home projects. I am reminded frequently that "It" often isn't as easy as following a how-to recipe! But . . . I do believe that anyone can do, and that the best way to learn to do . . . is to do. Join us here as we stream through home projects, business, life and learning.

*******

* b (the sounding board) Life€™s turning points are often the result of an arbitrary choice going on to have a profound and lasting effect. A friend of mine calls this €œThe whim becomes a way of life€. One such whim for me was moving into a dilapidated, century-old schoolhouse in my early twenties. Without this house, where I still live, I most probably would not have become a carpenter, and, later, would not have associated with this blog.

*******

* CalFinder home remodeling is the homeowner€™s start-to-finish remodeling site. Whether we€™re posting pretty house pictures or connecting homeowners with local contractors, we€™re all about helping people create beautiful living spaces. The CalFinder Blog is where it's at. It€™s your go-to spot to hear about the trendsetters, catch up on remodeling news, and of course, get ideas for improving your home. Our favorite part is creating community. Our writers are fun, talented, and love to chat with readers. Their professional experience ranges from green remodeling to solar energy to interior design and back again. They cover the gambit and happen to be wonderful writers as well. For us, what it comes down to is making the home remodeling process a positive one. Our company grew out of a need for free public access to reliable, qualified contractors. CalFinder individually matches homeowners with contractors based on their needs. Our system is a personal one, and we€™re proud of our fast-growing number of success stories. Best of all, it€™s free for homeowners. Happy, healthy homes, here we come!

*******

* Holly C Bertsch (Construction Girl) I blog to help homeowners decide who and how to choose the right person for a remodeling project. I often find that homeowners don't have much of an idea or how the process should work. Sometimes they need a little guidance. While contractors often getting a bad rap, I hope to provide insightful information on how the whole thing should go down. I am a home remodeling contractor working in Champaign Urbana Illinois. I have had my own remodeling company for about 10 years now with my partner, Michael Taylor, called Taylor'd Home Improvements. Being the only girl on the crew, I bring a unique view to contracting and remodeling. I have been a professional remodeler for most of my adult life. I started in my bartending days when we would close down our bars every few months to remodel them and I would stay on during the renovation to make my station the best it could be. I learned a lot about what to do and what NOT to do during that time. I hope to pass on some of this information to homeowners and contractors alike. Together we can take some of the mystery out of remodeling and home improvements.

*******

* Regina Garay (the Fauxologist) The Orlando, Fl-based Garay Artisans firm was launched in New York City in 1998 and has since grown into a respected and creative team of faux finishing and Venetian plaster artists. The company is owned by the sibling team of Regina Garay and Jason Rosales and their fresh approach brings a client€™s vision to life, marrying masterful techniques with beautiful color combinations. Their experienced team of artists are distinguished by their excellent reputation and superior service. In 2007, WFTV, the Orlando-based ABC affiliate and Central Florida€™s most watched television station, chose Garay Artisans as their Local Expert for Faux Finishing and frequently feature the firm in their newscasts and on their website. In the 2008-2009 year, American Painting Contractor awarded Garay Artisans the Grand Prize in their national competition, the Top Job Awards. In the 2009-2010 year, they won the Top Jobs First Place Award for a commercial commission for their work on the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Asheville, NC. In addition to their private commissions, their decorative painting and antique mirrors have found their way into the following beautiful locations, among others: Orlando International Airport, Hilton at Walt Disney World Resort, The Bohemian Hotel at Savannah Riverfront and Loews Portofino Bay Hotel (Universal Studios). Regina also pens the Fauxology blog and is one of twelve moderators for the faux finishing forum, Talk Faux. She is happy to be active in social media and looks forward to continued camaraderie within the building and design communities.

*******

* Tammy J. Dalton (the Moxie Proxy) Tammy Dalton is a Florida Registered Interior Designer based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Through her design practice she offers full-service interior design and also e-decorating and design services for do-it-yourselfers. She€™s been practicing interior design for residences, offices, yachts, hotels and restaurants for way longer than she€™d like to admit. In addition to the €œfabulous€ world of design, she can usually be found playing punch buggy with her kids, reading a lot of science fiction, doing yoga and modern dance, and excitedly describing how much stuff she recycles and how easy it was to create her own compost bin. When not designing great places for great people and learning to live a greener life, she€™s dishing out design moxie on her website www.tamaradalton.net, on Twitter as @tammyjdalton, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tamaradaltondesign.

*******

* Madame Sunday (the Saucy Southern Sista) I'm Madame Sunday, a freshly thirty textile designer with a saucy mouth who loves inspired living and fancy things. Unfortunately I'm cheap, lazy and easily distracted. Watch as mediocrity ensues!

Hometown: Chattavegas, TN

Blog: Modern Sauce

Twitter: @ModernSauce

*******

* John Douglas Poole (The Technician) John Poole is a computer scientist and technologist. His mysterious Second Life, however, is almost singularly driven by an all-consuming passion for carpentry, woodworking, timber framing, and the restoration/renovation of old colonial homes, of which he currently has two ongoing projects. In his copious spare time, John enjoys rowing, skiing, sailing, reading, and sometimes even a little gardening.

*******

A Baltimore Home Exudes Laughter, Color & Life

CalFinder — Fri, 07 May 2010 11:57:00 +0000

By Dan Harding

For Ed Istwan and Kim Domanski of Baltimore's Ednor Gardens, interior design, like life, is all about big smiles and popping colors. It is never static, but rather an artful representation of personality, vim and vigor. Since they purchased their 1929 row house in 2000, the exterior of the home has remained as quaint and natural as the quiet, tree-shaded neighborhood surrounding it. But inside, there is a constant flow of artwork and artistic furniture, all keeping with the fun and fancy-free lifestyle of the owners.

The pair met in graduate school at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and for 16 years since have been roommates on a mission. A mission that began with this Baltimore remodel. They replaced windows, removed unnecessary barriers €“ like a kitchen to dining room pass-through €“ that hindered the functionality of the small, urban home, and embarked on a joyous romp into color-scheming that defies the imaginings of any outside pedestrian trying to guess at the inside. The bedrooms are Kelly green and pinkish-red, entryway and stairs bright yellow-green and the bathroom a seafaring turquoise. But don't think that these colors are random or thrown on with the whimsy of a child engaged in a box of crayons. "The color scheme is inspired by a TV test pattern," Istwan explained to Baltimore Style. "They are bright colors that pop, but aren't overwhelming or Crayola-esque." The diversely colored walls are the canvas which Istwan and Domanski embellish with free-spirited art and furniture pieces. And any free and easy design must have a free and easy base. So good luck finding an unadorned white wall inside this funhouse. Speaking of the details, the pair's home is a cornucopia of fun art pieces that might make no sense to an outsider, until one meets the person behind the poster or pattern. To that effect, it is important to know a bit about Ed Istwan and Kim Domanski. Istwan is the visual merchandiser at IKEA's Philadelphia headquarters and Domanski works at the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts. Both are involved in the local art scene and are frequent denizens of local thrift stores, consignment shops, garage and estate sales, and eBay. They are incessantly searching for that chair, that armoire, that print that properly reflects their personality and style. And they've been at it for years, compiling more than a home's worth of furnishings and artwork (their basement is called the "stockroom"). Istwan's familiarity with IKEA is not hidden, either. Modular furniture is all over the house, as well as plenty of IKEA textiles, including rugs, window treatments and throw pillows. IKEA fabric panels have been laminated onto plastic panels and hung to create an accent wall in the living room. IKEA fixtures hang above their beds. They also have an IKEA kitchen. Also important to Istwan and Domanski's unique home decor is good old DIY ingenuity. When they couldn't find a pendant light to hang above the dinner table, Istwan made one from scratch using electrical zip ties. At one point, the pair was seemingly stuck with 125 black frames they purchased from an outlet for $1 each, but they eventually bought a 1920s display book for Kosta Boda glass at an auction, and suddenly a use for the frames was found. Pages from the book now line the stairway, creating an elegant black-and-white collage on the yellow-green wall. And, of course, everything is changing all the time. Following every night a new day begins, and with every new day brings a new home, in some respect, for Istwan and Domanski. It could be as small a change as moving an art piece from one bedroom to another, or as big as changing out one piece of furniture in the basement stockroom. If there's one permanent design feature the pair has added, it€™s the back deck. Inspired by Herman Miller's Nelson Platform contemporary bench design (1946), the deck incorporates horizontal slats and conveniently expands the small row home's entertainment space. The deck was designed and built with a local artist and friend, as well as a neighbor, keeping with the personal nature of the home's design. Finally, if there's one thing we can expect never to change in the Domanski/Istwan household, it is change itself. There is always more to do, more things to find, more colors and personality to be expressed. A sentiment in turn expressed nicely by Istwan: "When you talk about 'interior design,' it usually sounds like there should be a period at the end of the sentence and it's over. For us, design is a rolling thing." Photos by Baltimore Style Note from the hosts: We would like to thank http://www.calfinder.com for their support. Looking forward to future submissions from them.

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jb — Mon, 10 May 2010 03:28:18 +0000

QC

jb — Mon, 10 May 2010 03:35:43 +0000

A Quality Custom Post or A Formulaic Rant on Value

jb — Mon, 10 May 2010 11:30:12 +0000

Is it me or are the words €œquality€ and €œcustom€ the most overworked words in the home improvement industry? Take for example, and I am sorry if you are using this in your marketing material, "custom paint." OK, I think I understand where it is derived from, but still -- every time I hear that phrase, it is tough for me to hold back a cringe. "Made specifically for individual customers" -- that's how the dictionary reads in this regard. And yes, I get it; custom built-ins -- built-ins made for an individual circumstance. Custom builder -- made to order, and that phrase specifically has come to hold meaning when the practice itself is viewed in relation to other segments of that industry. Sometimes if you commission a custom something, you will also receive quality craftsmanship. Here's how the dictionary reads for this, " . . . Character with respect to fineness, or grade of excellence." Now, I don't know about you, but I would hope that if I were already paying for something custom, the end product too would be, well -- quality -- that is = "finely made." And it is really the pairing of these words that bugs me just so much. OK -- I don't have much more than that for this post. (I needed something short and sweet to fill the void this here Monday -- the day after Mother's Day.) Not necessarily of the finest quality (you might say), but I hope at least somewhat custom -- semi-custom? And while I admit "custom paint" sounds delicious sometimes, I have to ask -- isn't it all quality, custom paint? While I get that you are applying paint in both the colors selected and to (possibly) my specifications, you are also saying "I really do great work, but my marketing sucks. There is a chance that you might not perceive me exactly like the next guy. . . . Oh, and by the way . . . I will be charging a little bit more for my services." Finally, one final one -- What do you do if you are comparing Company A, a company offering quality to Company B, a company that does custom work? Are you like me - you pick Company C? A company offering "value." And at least they haven't taken "value" for granted yet. (Yet, I said.) ******* Thanks for reading, and happy day after Mother's Day to everyone out there. BMoxie BMore!

Paul Lesieur :: Remodeling is Like Dancing

Paul Lesieur — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:00:22 +0000

(aka Dancing with The Paul)

After more than 30 years of tearing up and reassembling homes I've sometimes wondered about the process and why it affects people in largely different ways. I've had the worried to death over details people, the happy exuberant love it all folks, and the serious, process-oriented paint by numbers followers of reason. They can all be a pleasure to work with, and each for very different reasons -- it's one of the unknowns we face. Jobs mostly go together in an orderly and predictable way, but you never know how the customer will react. In conversations with customers I have heard remodeling described as, "It's like giving birth", "It's like cooking", "It's like the Tower of Babel story, everyone speaking a foreign language and not seeming to communicate well at all". But for me, it's not like that; to me remodeling is like dancing. Picture the various trades working in and around each other, all tuned in to the moment, to the rhythm of it all; is that any different than two-stepping to a Cajun Zydeco band? I have had jobs go like a Polka, brash, loud oompah like installs with a cacophony of worker and tool sounds playing fast and happy explosions of noise. Polka jobs are fun. Pick out a nail and pound it, pick up a tile and set it in place -- oompah, oompah, oompah all day long. Easy repetitive movements that require only you follow the oompah. A polka remodel is a moving set of simple practices. Just like the dance, no one gets all uptight, I mean -- how can you get stressed dancing to Polka? We have had our Tango jobs, the ones where a carpenter may run his rough and dexterous hands over a sexy piece of cherry, admiring his choice of material and eager to move this wondrous wood to a place where it will be admired, shown off. A piece held and possessed and in a moment gone. A tease for a moment, an intimate thing for a moment, and really, like a Tango, remodeling is something you are part of and hold dear but never possess. Like a Tango, you hold intimately and finally let go. Rock and Roll, who hasn't blasted the boom box in their starting years, impressed by your own energy and resolve to get a day's work done. Rock and Roll is a carpenter's panacea, it is a music for hard and fast work, it's Eddie Van Halen cranking out "JUMP", fast and furious and controlled only by the pure energy that created it. Rock and Roll remodeling is a let your hair down and boogie extravaganza, you let your inhibitions out and move like you got fire down below. It's the remodel dance of attitude and youth -- you make a mistake, you just rip it out and start over and just keep moving. Dance the day away. At times we waltz around the room knowing our sure-footed intentions will deliver results, yet still respectful of our surroundings and our co-workers. Yes we waltz, serene and controlled and satisfied in our progressions, knowing where to place our foot next, knowing the circles we trace and the movements we make are a relaxed and predictable objective. Waltz remodeling is a great way to do a kitchen; the homeowner has placed her trust in you and the rhythm is controlled and timed to allow for freedom of music. It leaves space and time for other dancers to see you and to decide to stay the course or let you pass. It's a civilized remodeling technique that usually results in a pleasant experience. Whatever your pleasure, however you play it, remodeling is like dancing, so let the music play and let's dance! -- By The Paul Note from the hosts: You may know Paul Lesieur better as "The Paul" -- blogger-in-chief and resident nut at http://remodelcrazy.com. The Paul is also a Minnesota-based remodeler who can be found at http://www.silvertreeconstruction.com and http://203kloanmn.com. We would like to thank him for his well choreographed take on the art of remodeling (though we did pay a hefty sum for it). jb

*Crazy small world! Searching Flickr's Creative Commons and I stumble across friend Jen Whetzel's photostream. . . Wow! Had to use this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/whetzel/ / CC BY 2.0

*Travolta via http://ideagirlconsulting.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/fred-figglehorn-tries-dancing-disco-john-travolta-help/

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Kit Tosello :: Don t Cry over Spalted Wood

CocinaDesigns — Wed, 12 May 2010 12:00:24 +0000

On a recent trip to the sawdust-laden shop where Ben and Craig turn hunks of wood into fine furniture and cabinet boxes, I peer around. I survey several work benches where carcases in various stages lay like patients on gurneys. I ask the guys, as I always do, €œWhatcha workin on?€ They tell me who they€™re making a bookcase for and how they plan to detail a coffee table. We discuss a hutch project we€™re collaborating on. €œHey, I want to show you something,€ says Craig suddenly. He fishes a 1x4 out of a pile. €œWhat do you think? I got a bunch of this stuff from a guy in Southern Oregon.€ I can€™t identify it, but I like the fine-grained sample with auburn streaks laced with fine brown and black veins. €œHmm. Rustic Maple?€ I ask. Turns out, Craig has a pile of Spalted Tanoak. And I€™m told it€™s most closely related to Beech. Here€™s a piece with some clear lacquer on it: I discovered that the term spalted comes from an old loggers€™ term for €œspoilt.€ Fallen, decomposing trees are lifted from their final resting places in forest beds or fished out of marshes for eager woodworkers. Spalted is the term for the coloration that happens when fungi set up housekeeping in dying wood. The large discolored areas are one type of spalting: pigmentation or sapstain. Those lacey black and brown lines are called zone lines and they€™re not actually a fungus, but an interaction zone in which different fungi have erected barriers to protect their resources. Considered a link between the Chestnut and the Oak, Tanoak (lithocarpus densiflorus) is an evergreen hardwood. It has flowers like the chestnut and acorns like the oak and grows best on the humid moist slopes of the seaward coastal ranges. Back in the 1800's, when the fur trade was a booming business in Oregon, roads were built through the forests in order to log Tanoak. The tannin they produce was and is still used for treating furs and hides. Douglas fir trees were cut as a secondary use species while they were logging the tanoak. Today that€™s reversed, and tanoak is logged only because the Douglas Fir trees are being cut. My woodworking friends and I may use Spalted Tanoak for the Craftsman-styled hutch we€™re collaborating on. Spalted wood also inspired these gorgeous projects: I can picture other uses: a rounded lamp base, picture frames. Whatcha think?

*******

Notes from the hosts: We like to thank Kit for participating in the Tagged! project. When she contacted me asking -- 'What should I write about?', I suggested, ". . . Something regional to her." And this is what she came up with. I am certain that I cannot find this species in the woods behind *my* house. Please show your support by leaving a comment, an answer to her question. Kit Tosello is a certified kitchen designer and writer based out of Central Oregon. She can be found blogging at http://highdeserthomecompanion.blogspot.com/, on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/CocinaDesigns/, and on twitter @CocinaDesigns.

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jb — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:43:02 +0000

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jb — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:48:04 +0000

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jb — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:50:14 +0000

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jb — Thu, 13 May 2010 02:52:27 +0000

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jb — Thu, 13 May 2010 02:55:13 +0000

One Way to Get a Bad Grade on Angies List: The RRP Rule?

Holly Bertsch — Thu, 13 May 2010 11:03:59 +0000

Notes from the hosts: We would like to welcome construction gal, Holly Bertsch, of Taylor'd Home Improvements. She will be checking in occasionally from Thomasboro, IL. Please welcome her with a comment. Angie€™s List is a great website for anyone seeking a home remodel or a medical-related service. You can go to Angieslist.com and enter in the names of the contractors you are thinking of hiring. You get an instant, graded report of their services, including comments on what they do right and/or wrong. In some areas, they have a catchy commercial showing how a homeowner in one case had a plumber walk their dog when they were going to be home late, and in another how a painter stepped in red paint and tracked it throughout the house. Maybe you have seen these commercials? It is a great concept. However, it does have its problems. And I am going to discuss what happened to me there . . . . It was an average day of work when Michael and I pulled up on an after-hours estimate for a bathroom remodel. The house was obviously built before 1978 (found out later it was 1924), so RRP lead laws applied to this type of job. The woman, the homeowner, was pregnant with twins. (We had missed an estimate with this woman previously because she was in the hospital.) So . . . we were back in front of this house waiting for her to let us in. When she answered the door, we introduced ourselves and handed her a card. She invited us to go upstairs and look at the bathroom, which we did. It was a very small bathroom with a lot of issues. We could pretty much guarantee that there was lead in this house. So, we took our measurements and even looked in the attic to scope out any possible electrical problems. After we were done, we went downstairs to where she was sitting on her laptop, on a futon (because she was under a bed rest order by her doctors). We asked her what she wanted done, and she described it to us. She was also very clear that she had seen other contractors, but wasn€™t clear which contractors she had seen. Michael then told her about the lead laws the EPA had recently enacted. Because of this, we would have to completely seal off the bathroom while we did demolition and until we got all of the lead-infected plaster out of there. She said that was a deal-breaker. She had family coming, and . . . other contractors had told her they could get at least the toilet functional during the renovation. Michael reiterated, worried about her safety and her unborn twins; the lead was a serious danger. He said we couldn€™t leave the bathroom functional every night. She insisted, though; her other contractors knew the law, and could give her access to the toilet. Well, we happen to know who is lead-certified in this town and who is not, and I can guarantee that no one lead-certified would have said that! Not only is it unsafe for her and her unborn children, but we all face stiff fines if we do not do things by the new RRP lead law. We tried to explain this to her, but to no avail. When we left, Michael told me he had a really bad feeling about this job. I agreed; but work is not easy to come by these days. I was determined to bid it. So I went home and bid the job. With all of the lead clean-up every day, it was going to be outrageous. But I sent her the bid anyhow. I knew she wouldn€™t take it, because it was very high. Plus, she had seen other €œhungrier€ and €œlying€ contractors who had told her just what she wanted to hear. I didn€™t invest a lot of time on the details, hoping she would just dismiss us as too high and let it go. But it wasn€™t four days later when we received a notification from Angie€™s List about a bad grade on our account. This lady had raked us over the coals! Here are some excerpts from her report:

Michael also insisted that he would have to cordon off the entire bathroom for the duration of the work -- something NO other contractor had told us. I explained to him that I would need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night (being 8 months pregnant and all) and did not feel like going downstairs multiple times to use the first floor bathroom in the middle of the night, but he insisted that he would not budge on that. It would be sealed off completely.

And

From my interaction with Michael and Holly this is the impression I got: They did not take me seriously and thought they could bulldoze over my preferences. For whatever reason, they assumed that I was very naive and did not know anything about remodeling!

See! We were just trying to make it safe for her! Lead is very serious! However, I am glad we didn€™t get the job. I can€™t imagine how we would have kept her out of that bathroom during this project. We would have had to have screwed ¾ inch ply over the door (with star drive screws) to keep her from invading the dangerous space! So, my problem with Angie€™s List -- They required an explanation from us (which is standard, and I appreciate them doing that) but they did not post our rebuttal statements on their site! I really wish I could explain to everyone who might read those comments that we were just looking out for the family€™s best interest. All we can do is ask our other customers to try to help us with our grade and with a great referral . . . .

building_moxie_sounding_board_3_cut_1_hammer_down

Barry — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:43:41 +0000

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Barry — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:45:51 +0000

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Barry — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:47:20 +0000

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Barry — Fri, 14 May 2010 03:13:00 +0000

The Sounding Board :: Episode 3: Hammer Down

Barry — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:15:20 +0000

The Sounding Board :: Episode 3 - Hammer Down

I switched to a Marantz Digital recorder for this episode and preparation was more of a parade than a process. By that I mean there are times when we find ourselves acting as a conduit and doing what needs to be done. This episode was due and I hope I did it justice. Thanks for listening.

This is the full version of Episode 3. Scroll down for links to mp3 excerpts from this installment.

[powerpress] Short Cuts from Episode 3 Cut 1: Hammer Down - 5 minutes 20 seconds Cut 2: Play Ball - 2 minutes 35 seconds Cut 3: Joan & Betty - 3 minutes 25 seconds

since1868

jb — Sat, 15 May 2010 21:32:05 +0000

products

jb — Sat, 15 May 2010 21:33:27 +0000

budeke's_large

jb — Sat, 15 May 2010 21:34:50 +0000

timber w stone

jb — Sat, 15 May 2010 22:44:20 +0000

Rustic

jb — Sat, 15 May 2010 22:45:03 +0000

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jb — Sat, 15 May 2010 22:46:42 +0000

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jb — Sat, 15 May 2010 22:47:22 +0000

Sources Spotlight :: Budeke's Paints

jb — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:26:08 +0000

To hear Bryan Koerber describe it, you would think he was there. €œWe sold components, pigments in the form of pastes or powders €“ red lead, white lead; linseed oil; solvents like turpentine, Japan driers . . . the painters would take these raw materials and mix them by the batch in the field.€ Bryan is President of Budeke€™s Paints and Decorating, one of the oldest independent paint retailers in the country, and the details from above -- one page from a proud and lengthy legacy. You see, since 1868 and as constant as the crab cakes or the tide, Budeke's Paints could be found in Fells Point at 418 South Broadway. The fifth generation of his family to captain the Baltimore-based ship, Bryan took the helm from his father in 1996. And to listen to him tell their tale, a story of sailor€™s pride unfolds. When asked, he responds, €œI think it has been our ability to continually adapt both to an ever-changing marketplace but also to the always changing needs of our customers.€

*******

The story of Budeke€™s Paints starts with Bryan€™s great, great grandfather George H. Budeke, who first hung his shingle 142 years ago. His son, George M., who lost his sight to glaucoma, then ran the shop. I mean, imagine that -- a man all but blind, dealing in the business of color. Bryan tells too of his grandfather, who over a period of eight years served his country in World War II. I mean, again, imagine that €“ an owner and operator €œaway€ for 8 years only to return to find that his business had endured. These short segments of history highlight the foundation of a business both vested in and supported by its community. They tell of a company built on the dedication of its employees and upon an equally loyal customer base. Budeke€™s is in all way rooted in this heritage, yes, but it may instead be an innate progressiveness that has allowed it to always move forward.

*******

In our brief conversation, Bryan talked of his organization€™s need to remain relevant and responsive, but always value-oriented. He mentions an early advertisement, dated around the turn of the century, which touts, €œ. . . Getting what you pay for.€ It is a theme that has remained consistent throughout the decades. Budeke€™s was the first name that popped into my head as a go-to for a challenging floor coating repair. And now expanded to 5 locations, the Fells Point location was not my only option. Each has a slightly different tone: From the professional-oriented feel of the Fells Point and Putty Hill locations to the design-focused spaces at Woodholme Square (Reisterstown Road), Timonium and Columbia. Homeowners and pros alike are welcome in all, and each offers in-home color consultations. As I have, you will find a staff that both has experience in the field and that is thoroughly knowledgeable of the products on hand.

*******

But parallel and possibly underlying all of this is Budeke€™s ability to align with and carry value-laden products. Some of the names that grace the shelves include Coronado, Zinsser and Fine Paints of Europe (this paint breaks the myth that an oil-based paint cannot be low-VOC; it receives LEED certification), plus products from manufacturers like Wooster, Krud Kutter and Zip Wall, just to name a few. Budeke€™s largest outside vendor Benjamin Moore must too be highlighted here. Of their relationship, which began in 1976, Bryan says €“ €œWe share somewhat similar histories, both established in the later part of the 19^th Century . . . .€ Bryan continues, €œIt comes straight down from Warren Buffet (his Berkshire Hathaway owns BMoore) €“ he tells Benjamin Moore€™s CEO, Denis Abrams, 'Run it like it is your family€™s only asset and you are looking at a 50 to 100 year timeline.'€ €œHere, like many in the independent paint channel, we are a family-owned business. Benjamin Moore is just a good fit for us; it is a good marriage of philosophies.€

******

Lastly, I asked Bryan if he felt the EPA€™s new lead rule revisions (as it has been somewhat of big topic around here) will affect the store. His answer, €œWe will continue to stock a full fare of HEPA filters, plastic and cleaning products, all the things needed to help our professional customers stay compliant.€ But Budeke€™s commitment to their pro clients goes beyond this . . . . Just recently, they sponsored 40 individuals' RRP training in two separate classes. Bryan finishes, €œIt happens to be just another wrinkle in the long line of market circumstances (that we discussed above).€ And my guess, as for 142 years now, they will handle it right in stride (on at full sail if you will).

More Moxie (Related Links):

http://www.budekes.com/ http://www.benjaminmoore.com/ Budeke€™s Paints and Decorating as featured in BMoore€™s Success Mag: http://budekes.com/documents/BUDEKESUCCESSARTICLE.pdf

openspace

jb — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:49:35 +0000

agood

jb — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:26:02 +0000

Zaya1

jb — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:31:11 +0000

Amy Good :: Working with a Specialty Trades Contractor

SplinterGirl — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:02:45 +0000

(aka What Exactly is Your Specialty? Timber Framing; What's That?)

So, when is it a good idea to get specialty trades involved in the project? Well, that would depend upon how smoothly you wish the project to move along. Often times, the specialty trade company has a specific method of installation; often times, that method of installation differs from preconceived notions of how the process will actually move along. The subcontractor may have suggestions that will save money, time and headaches. As a timber frame company, we enjoy being brought into the early stages of design -- often before a general contractor (or GC) is even selected. We are able to work closely with the architect to consult on the design of the timber frame for the residence or the commercial structure. At these early stages, the expectations are discussed, budget is assessed, and creativity thrives. In the case of timber framing, there are just so many options that it is good to flesh out details early. What feel should the project have? Rustic? Modern? Southwestern? Asian? All are possible, but each obviously has a bit of a different approach.

*******

In the event that you are sitting at your computer attempting to figure out what timber framing is, I€™ll explain. Timber framing is the use of heavy timbers (generally 6€ and larger), connected by mortise and tenon joints and pegged together (picture a barn if you will). Timbers are generally used in place of dimensional (standard) lumber. One advantage is the open floor plan that this method allows. Because timbers are larger, they can carry more weight and, hence, less wood is needed. This opens up a realm of possibilities that is almost limitless. Another big advantage -- as a renewable resource, timbers are certainly a sustainable way to approach building. More than any of these benefits, though, may be the aesthetics that this style can bring; the warmth it can evoke. Getting the idea? OK, so if the possibilities are endless . . . that means that timber framing can really be incorporated into any project and fit quite nicely anywhere, right? Right. A rougher hewn surface can fill the rustic feel. Timber mixed with steel can certainly work towards the modern or a southwestern feel. Some creative joinery and embellishments will allow the frame to take on an Asian feel. It really is only limited to the imagination.

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Nearly every specialty trade has limitless options €” they get the term €œspecialty€ for a reason, you know. So, wouldn€™t you want to see what the options actually are before investing too much money into a design? Lead times will vary with most specialty items. Isn€™t it better to know this in advance? A specialty trade contractor will need to work closely with the GC to pull off a successful project. Isn€™t it better to have them meet and discuss details long before the installation date?

The idea of contacting your specialty trade early on is not meant to scare you off. If you wait to begin the process, it is still certainly possible to achieve the same end product, but it may just cost you more in the long run. Besides, why not tap their knowledge-base? This (their specialty) is what they love to do €” use it to your advantage.

Notes from the hosts: We would like to thank Amy for taking the time to give us her perspective as a specialty trade contractor. Amy represents Lancaster County Timber Frames. They can be found online at www.lancotf.com. Amy herself is known fittingly as SplinterGirl and can be found on Twitter @SplinterGirl. She was Tagged! for this project by Earl Mark Kaplan aka @emk_architect.

Pam Hinton :: Timber Frame Enclosure Methods

TFBC — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:43:36 +0000

This article is a summary of comments from a survey conducted by the Timber Frame Business Council in August 2009. (The annual survey for FY2010 is underway and available in June.) Although Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) are commonly used to enclose contemporary timber framed structures, other methods, both traditional and modern, are also used. The leading reasons why timber framers use SIPs are energy efficiency and speed of installation. Energy efficiency is achieved as a result of the air-tight nature of SIP enclosure systems and the high R-values afforded by rigid insulation. Construction crew familiarity with a particular frame enclosure method is also a factor in selecting systems for enclosing timber frames. Timber framers who use alternative frame enclosure methods also tend to favor rigid insulation for the same reasons as those who customarily utilize SIPs: air-tightness and the high R-values inherent with foam systems; be it rigid panels or blow-in foam. The latter method is used in combination with dimensional lumber. There was no indication from the survey as to preferences for using conventional lumber as a frame-surround system or as a frame in-fill system. However, either approach facilitates the use of foam or cellulose insulation products. One respondent mentioned €œbatt€ insulation being used in conjunction with 2x conventional framing. Batt-type insulations include fiberglass, wool and cellulose products; although a preference for one over another was not apparent in the survey responses. Alternative enclosure methods seem to be the choice when local conditions or vernacular architectural styles influence the frame enclosure method. Abode blocks may be used in either structural or non-structural applications. Other material combinations include earth-straw and earth-cellulose mixtures. When building sites are distant from SIP manufacturing facilities, transportation costs and the environmental impact of transporting SIPs (primarily fuel consumption) influences the enclosure method decision. In such cases, alternative methods tend to be more readily considered. In lieu of using SIPs, the most common frame enclosure method is a built-up or layered system of varying composition. These systems are exclusively applied to the exterior side of the timber frame as opposed to framing infill. A typical system consists of tongue and groove boards serving as the building€™s exposed interior finish. A continuous vapor barrier is applied to the exterior of the paneling followed by rigid insulation and plywood sheathing. Furring strips may be used on wall assemblies to create a rain-screen system. For roof enclosure, either 1x or 2x strapping is applied for the purpose of creating a vented roof system with plywood sheathing applied as the substrate for the finished roofing material. It is not uncommon to utilize SIP€™s for either the walls or the roof of a timber frame and another system, in conjunction with SIPs, for either the walls or the roof. It appears that the choice is based on concerns expressed by some timber framers that vented roof systems perform best in cold and/or humid climates. On the other hand, there are no restrictions to using various wall and roof ventilation details in conjunction with SIPs to achieve climate-specific performance goals as typically related to interior and exterior moisture control. One respondent suggested that, as an €œindustrial product€ SIPs are a high energy consumption product. However, without the benefit of a full life-cycle cost analysis, it is not clear if SIPs would be a net energy consumer or saver in the context of a typical building application. Notes for the hosts: In the true spirit of Tagged! Pam Hinton offers up this post. Pam is the Executive Director for the Timber Frame Business Council . Pam was tagged for this project by friend Amy Good aka @SplinterGirl.

The Bright Green Clean Up Team

Holly Bertsch — Thu, 20 May 2010 16:08:37 +0000

(aka No ServPro is not Paying Me)

I was called by a frantic former customer about her basement. It was flooding. We have recently had ton of rains and her sump pump had been making funny noises. She was unplugging it at night so she could sleep, letting the water back up pump take over. (Not what I would have done, but that is beside the point.) We were actually scheduled to go take a look at it later this week. But then the flood came. After she contacted us, she got on the phone with her insurance company; they suggested Servpro come and do a clean up. We were ready to do whatever we had to do to clean the mess up, but we are not truly equipped to do water extraction. So needless to say, I was relieved when Servpro showed up shortly after we got there. They got right to work explaining to her what they could do, and how the insurance company would help handle this. After all, this is what they do . . . all the time. There was a lot of stuff stored in this basement, so we helped our client make some room in the garage to transfer the basement contents upstairs. Then we helped her son put some floor boards in the attic space above the garage so she wouldn€™t have to take so many of her seasonal decorations back down to the basement. The garage attic was probably a better place to store all of that stuff anyhow. We also made some slight modifications to the sump system so it wouldn€™t cause problems any more. All this time, the Servpro guys were busy at work, moving things, extracting water from the carpet. They also removed the padding under the carpet. Apparently it could not be saved. Originally two guys showed up but within an hour they had called in reinforcements and all the stuff was moved, including huge book shelves and couches and beds and dressers. They were amazing! The whole team worked together very well and seemed to enjoy their work. Now, any time you come into someone€™s home after a disaster, it can be a bit touchy. However, the Servpro guys were very helpful and reassuring. They had to cut the carpet at the seams to get the pad out from under it, but consulted us on where we wanted it cut. After all, we will be the contractors in charge of relaying the carpet. They also let her know that their services can be pricey in some cases. If something came up that Michael and I could do for less money, they would leave it for us to do. Overall, they communicated very well and were willing to work with the homeowner to save her money. I have never had the experience of working with Servpro. I always wondered what they were all about. Damage relief services is a whole different breed (compared to renovating and remodeling). It was an eye opening experience. I can honestly say that if all their crews work as hard and as well together as this team did, I would definitely recommend Servpro to anyone who experiences a home disaster.

Some People Just Suck :: On Hacking and Homeownership

jb — Fri, 21 May 2010 11:05:07 +0000

Saturday May 8^th I was upstairs giving my girls a bath, when my wife screamed. I heard the pop, and yes it sounded like a gun shot. She confirmed quickly by yelling up the stairs though,€œSomeone just threw a rock through our window.€ This happened 9:45 pm, Mother€™s Day Eve, and I briefly hated where I live. So you know . . . I did do a big back and forth before I decided finally to post this. I mean, the question is -- how much do I want to tell you and how much do you want to hear . . . that is -- before you reasonably shout . . . "TMI!"?

*******

The thoughts and feelings that this incident invoked were really not that different from, and only a few days later €“ when someone or something in someway passed my ftp password at my web host. They/it did this for the sole purpose of injecting some stupid little piece of script, here, into this wee-little blog. And . . . as you know, I am self-hosted. All the blame for this incident can be placed squarely on, well . . . me. I mean it; I should've known better. I mean -- I have read about bad people; people of the world that lie, cheat and steal; people on the internet that are opportunistic, but generally malicious. I should've known better than to leave any portion of myself just a little too wide open.

*******

This is not the first time that we have had issues with the neighborhood youth, and I try really hard not to blame them. Incidents similar, but not so poignant, have happened with each year that we have lived here. I have come to accept it (somewhat) as part of living in . . . and you have heard the phrase, an up and coming area. That's a "cusp area" as the community development types sometimes call it. You see, on a street where there is no less than one mansion (yes, pretty close to a real life mansion), I do not blame the kids. I blame this instead on those who, on this street and on many others, have taken gorgeous properties and hacked them up into all too many apartments. Because as you know, with apartments come renters, and with renters come the total disintegration of society.

*******

Angry, Violated, Scared, these were some of the words that were thrown around my house that weekend. It forced us into a tizzy. It (the incident) set in motion a mad search for "home monitoring video cameras." These are the kind that one could use to monitor the action outside their home's first floor windows. Plus . . . it was, in fact, a remedy that the responding officer had recommended. Practical and certainly more useful than comments delivered by a different officer. A police man, who responded to an earlier yet surely related incident, said, and I remember €“ €œWhat did you expect with moving across the street from a school . . . in the city?€ Hmm . . . I guess -- again, I should've known. I thought I was saving a beautiful old house that just happened to be across the street from a beautiful old school. Dumb me, again, for leaving myself a little exposed. At least my in-laws dropped for the purchase of three fake video cameras. Dummies -- and yes, how fitting.

*******

It was smart of me to change my password to something only a klingon could crack. And I feel a little safer, here. Now . . . If I could only figure how to wrap my residence in a protective bubble or even better, a force field. I mean -- only until I can finish things up. Moral: This all reminds that personal responsibility starts with your home (own one), and your neighborhood, and your neighborhood€™s neighborhood, and if you decide to claim a little chunk of personal webspace €“ just own it! Protect your house . . . and no, I wasn€™t really that serious about renters. They are not evil, nor are they anything like a warp ray. I mean -- I was a renter myself once, and I am a landlord now. Thank you for reading and . . . BMoxie BMore!

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jb — Sun, 23 May 2010 02:56:59 +0000

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jb — Mon, 24 May 2010 05:36:02 +0000

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jb — Mon, 24 May 2010 05:41:01 +0000

And Some People Just Rock :: Thank You & BMoxie BMore!

jb — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:48:36 +0000

Least you get the wrong impression, and well, for the sake of fair and balanced reporting, I figure I need to counter last Friday€™s post. And as I was hanging with the girls this weekend, making rope swings and checking out birds' nests, I began to think -- €œSome People Just Rock.€ And while this may seem far from profound, it remains thoughtful and sincere. I offer a quick thank you shout out to all of everyone who has lent support to this blog over the last two months.

*******

First, Mike Hines, co-founder of Home Path Products. His support for this blog (and my business) has been unwavering. Thank you for your keen business sense and for your honest commitment to sustainable building practices. Oh, and Mike, Thanks for the RT! Alycia Wicker, my sista in Moxie €“ Casa Moxie. An interior designer and entrepreneur out of Southern Cal, Alycia's sassy blogging style is worth plenty of smiles. Thank you for keeping it real, as you dispatch fantastically practical decorating tips, daily. Fran Holm Hogan €“ The site€™s first official €œTaggee,€ Fran is a savvy business lady -- recruiting is her thing. Her post "And There are No Excuses" exemplifies what Barry and I were going for with the Tagged! project. Thank you for not being a writer. Your piece on personal motivation reached a level of genuineness that most writers do not achieve. Earl Mark Kaplan €“ What can I say . . . watch out ladies! Thank you Earl Mark, Architect, and you know you€™re doing something right when you can convince an architect to dispense advice on your site. Thank you for sharing witty tidbits and lessons learned. #FollowFriday @emk_architect. Sean Lintow Sr, SLS Construction, based out of €˜Bama. Thank you for offering a very important article, coincidentally one of our most visited. For info on the EPAs recent changes to the RRP (Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule), Sean is a guy to talk to. Jennifer Ostrowski Whetzel -- A long lost friend, yes, Jen and I went to grade school together. And if you are from Baltimore €“ Ostrowski€™s Polish Sausage, yep, you know. No surprise that she herself became a "foodocologist" (as I call it). Jen, thanks for reconnecting and for being one heck of a photographer too. Brian Meeks -- A woodworker in process, well, he offers a bit more than his twitter presence would purport. He is actually something of a social media guru, at least in my eyes. Brian, thank you for getting listed on prdaily.com, it was fun watching traffic climb, and climb, and climb (at least for a day). And you (general) should be reading his blog. Cara Wilkerson -- Probably the toughest of our "Taggees" to tag. A busy lady. Thank you Cara for being one heck of an outstanding blogger. The collaboration between her and her husband, Eric, a real estate super duo -- is something to marvel at. Paul Lesieur €“ Our first celebrity poster, The Paul (capital T) is one of the founders of Remodel Crazy. Thank you for putting out such a kick ass forum for contractors, craftsmen and homeowners alike. Oh, and thank you for being such a cheap date (I paid him a buck for his post). Kit Tosello €“ The graceful and kind CocinaDesigns. A delicate balance between down-home and high design, a Kitchen Designer by trade. Thank you Kit for always being supportive. Kit checks in from the High Desert of Central Oregon. Amy Good €“ A fun-loving nature girl, who does this thing called Timber Framing. Thank you for being . . . well, The Splinter Girl. Amy can often be found trading jabs with the boys, Mike Hines and Earl Mark Kaplan. (A shout too to her friend Pam Hinton, who was nice enough to post on one of the toughest days we've had with the site . . . ever).

*******

These are simply Some People Who Rock, and there are probably a few others. Thank you for reading. Oh, and I hope this is only edition 1 of many, many editions.

taylordhomeimprovement

jb — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:59:39 +0000

1111

jb — Tue, 25 May 2010 01:31:08 +0000

I'll Take the Extreme Makeover; Hold the Tears

Holly Bertsch — Tue, 25 May 2010 11:31:02 +0000

I think we may have a whole house remodel. I don€™t want to jinx it yet, but I have a feeling that we do have the job. The homeowner wants to move in Mid July and I think we can get the whole thing done. It will be nice to do a job while no one is living there. No furniture to move around or pets to get underfoot. The best part is we can start as early or work as late as we want. We used to do a lot of whole house remodels before the market tanked. These are usually homes that the homeowner wants to move into, but that need some major changes first. This one I am working on for example is a complete kitchen gut, bathroom gut, and all hardwood throughout the house, new fireplace and new tiles in the sun porch. It also includes all new windows and refinished trim. It is going to be a big job, and I finally get to bring my guys to work. All of them, for a change! This reminds me of a double whole house remodel we did for one client a few years back. His father had died and left him his house, but it was severely outdated. We did the kitchen, the baths, all new floors, new paint, and new electrical. Basically, the whole house was different when we were done with it. We even built him a car port and a driveway extension. There were also new windows and doors. It was great! No one lived there at the time and there was very little stuff in our way. The best part came when we were finished and we handed over his keys to his new palace, and he gave us another set and asked if we could do an €œExtreme Makeover€ type deal on his old house. He gave us a budget and told us to do the best we could with $25,000. I had free reign to design the kitchen and the baths. We also put in new doors and windows, took out the carpet and refinished the beautiful hardwoods underneath. We tore down the dilapidated garage and built a solid deck off the back. We were also able to create a fourth bedroom in the basement because it had an egress window. When we were done the realtor walked through and said she could probably sell it for $100K. Before she was going to suggest we list it for $45K, but we did a lot with the money given to us. It really helps when the contractor is allowed to pick the fixtures, because we know where to find the deals. Anyhow, long story short, the house sold in 2 days with multiple offers! That is what I love about whole house remodeling. It can be very rewarding to take an outdated house and make it look new again.

richardholschuhsConcreteDetail

jb — Wed, 26 May 2010 03:59:06 +0000

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jb — Wed, 26 May 2010 04:16:45 +0000

A Signature Piece :: On Signing Work by j.bernard

jb — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:01:09 +0000

I got to thinking about this when I was removing the stops from one of original exterior doorways in my house. There it was, a marking, confirming the existence of some other person, perhaps a carpenter . . . 76 ¾" -- written so neatly. And then, there, on the opposite side of that same doorway and not surprisingly of course (since I live in a pretty old house and things have shimmied and shifted), a whole different set of numbers . . . written -- 76 ¼". I am referring to the practice of marking (often with a carpenter€™s pencil) the location or a piece of stock, with measurements. And yes, maybe these traces were left by a savvy homeowning handyman and not a professional carpenter. Now, I know for myself these types of sightings almost invariably cause me to pause. €œHmmm," I wonder, "Should I maybe think about leaving something a little extra behind . . . when I go to re-install this trim?" You know . . . something to say, "Kilroy was Here." But that, of course, would simply be, well . . . silly. It would need to say something, instead, like -- "jb was here." And with equal certainty, I almost always forget . . . when the time for re-install arrives.

*******

As if it is reserved only for fabricators. You know -- the act of marking or signing one€™s work. The first image that pops into mind for me; I can't avoid it -- the clean crisp stamp of the concrete man in a freshly-poured drive or . . . other making. (And . . . how is that for a near permanent advertisement? Just there, working year after year saying, "Hey, We did this!") Manufacturers of bathroom fixtures inconspicuously stamp locations on tubs and toilets. Quality control marks Romex cable, and the tops or bottoms of doors are even printed with some sign telling us of when a panel was produced. In these cases, they serve practical purpose; they give us a time line, a method for carbon dating. But I am really not talking about dating here. This reverie, the whole idea, and not to delve too deeply down this path, takes me back to a time in my first house. We were removing the sheet paneling from the living room walls, and there on a plastered surface . . . I am trying now to pick my brain for other fantastic finds, and I really can€™t recall many others right now. And I have had my opportunities; I have worked in some old houses. Well, of course, there was the stack of stainless straight-edge razor blades that were disposed of in the appropriately-marked slot in a bathroom wall, and there was wallpaper backed with newsprint, and there was and so on . . . . And . . . oh yes, below that paneling written very sloppily, "Mary Jane Ellen Lobowski €“ I will love you for always (or something like that)." Signed by someone named Frank (or something like that) -- "05/26/74."

*******

So . . . I guess my question really is -- for the doers of the world and whether it is done professionally or not . . . . Do you sign your work? I mean -- as a trim man, say, you are not applying a placard or an etching, and how then do you do it? Either that or tell me about some of your amazing finds. Please leave a comment below. Thank you for reading and BMoxie BMore!

More Moxie (Related Info):

Photo Credit: For a moment, consider that signing one's work goes without thought. Now . . . consider this below provided by VT-based artisan, Richard Holschuh (don't ask me how to pronounce it) -- his company Concrete Detail. When I asked him about his stamp, he offered this reply. (These decisions, as part of brand, are not taken lightly . . . and rightly so. In a way, art in itself.) Thank you a ton, Rich.

". . . It is a bas-relief of our logo: a positive/negative, symmetrical puzzle piece of the €œC€ and €œD€ from our name, Concrete Detail. I really like the logo design, as it suggests the very essence of concrete casting, a perfect reproduction, mirrored image of the form in which it is placed. It also symbolizes the intertwining of artist and client, and artisan and medium, in a collaboration, working in tandem. We designed this graphic specifically to work well in three-dimensions, as a stepped relief on a single background concrete color, and to function just as well as a printed logo/brand, in simple black and white on paper in two dimensions.

The stamp is literally a custom rubber stamp, from an office supply house, affixed inside the form and cast into the edge of every original piece we create. We are concrete artists and believe that both we and our clients deserve to have attribution given, tastefully displayed, and permanently celebrated (As well as responsibility assumed!)."

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And an Aside

Least I let the opportunity for this pass: For the record -- I use jb not JB when signing almost everything I do online . . . and it is really not as well thought out as Rich's statement above. As an English major, yes, I was a fan of ee cummings. He is most widely known for the use of the lower case as well as for a general lack of punctuation in his writing. It is believed (I have heard though never confirmed) that this convention evolved from his early tendency to sign his name in lower case. It was said that he did this out of respect to the editors who were charged with reviewing his work. So A, yes, I use it partially as a sign of humility. I am after all a new kid on the block, with still much to learn. As for B, the convention for me had to do, too, with the advent of the electronic medium. As John Bernard Bartkowiak, III -- I truthfully was not surprised to find that "JB Bartkowiak" in a way had already been claimed. My dad, an attorney was using it already in some online directories. I acquiesced and chose to go instead with jb €“ plus, some fonts, IMO, just look better in lower case. It was an easy decision to go with jb, and I do prefer it.

cutstringrs2

jb — Wed, 26 May 2010 20:01:36 +0000

Lush3x6VaporAlt5_300

jb — Wed, 26 May 2010 20:02:39 +0000

Shooting from the Hip, or is that Shooting Yourself in the Foot

Holly Bertsch — Thu, 27 May 2010 11:11:11 +0000

Well, our work is going well. The whole house remodel looks like it is going to be on! So today, we went over to help a friend, All Pro Home Improvements. Jim of All Pro Home is on an emergency project for a friend whose husband had a stroke recently. They need some handicapped adjustments made now. They need a big 45-foot ramp constructed, a first floor master suite with a handicapped accessible shower, and a kitchenette, also on the first floor. I won€™t go into too many details here because it is a long story, but he (Jim) didn€™t even bother to bid this work. He just started tearing open walls and ordering bathroom accessories. Now let me tell you a little bit about my friend Jim. Jim never writes contracts. He shoots from the hip when he bids jobs, if he even bothers to bid them at all. He usually just works by the hour and makes the homeowners buy the materials for their jobs. He doesn€™t plan anything. He will make multiple trips to the store every day, because he fails to organize. Don€™t get me wrong, he does really great work. He is just not all there when it comes to the business part of running a renovation. Jim usually works with us on our jobs. He is our master electrician and a darned good general remodeler. He has mastered the fine art of drywall and can put up crown molding with the best of them. He really shines when he works with us. That is why we keep him around. However, I have had to get on his case recently about getting contracts. After all, that is why they call us . . . contractors! I have done everything in my power to get him to estimate his jobs, even offering to write his contracts out for him. But sometimes, he does still get by me with a job like this one, where he just starts. So he has been on this job tearing things apart for about two days. Michael and I went over today to help him figure out the best way to frame up the tile shower (I happen to be really good at planning out showers and tile tub surrounds). He showed us what he had to do and I asked a ton of questions about it. By the end of the day, I had a full scope for the project. I asked if he knew how long this was going to take and how much it was going to end up costing his friend. Jim said that he really hadn€™t thought much about that. So tonight I came home and estimated it. It came out to roughly $35,000. I wrote out the materials and the labor and sent it to him in an email. Then I told Michael. Michael called Jim and asked if his friend might have that kind of money to spend. Jim was shocked when he heard the number, but when he looked over my figures, he saw that I was right. He really didn€™t expect it to cost more than $6,000. And I could blow that on the shower alone! So what is the moral of the story? A well-organized contractor will plan things out, estimate them accurately, and give you a firm idea of how much it should cost and how long it will take. Anybody can do good work, but to do it with the least amount of headaches and for the most bang for your buck, it takes a different type of skills. That is what my company strives to do and that is something everyone should look for in a contractor.

TFBC

TFBC — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:14:34 +0000

Pam Hinton :: What Makes Timber Framing Sustainable?

TFBC — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:19:17 +0000

[caption id="attachment_3262" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The Framework of Good Business"][/caption] By Amy Cornelius, LEED-AP €“ Hugh Lofting Timber Framing, Inc. -- A Proud Member of the Timber Frame Business Council Article reprinted with permission from TFBC: The Timber Frame Advisor newsletter (Summer 2008) The sustainable movement is like a tidal wave that is bringing change to how we live and how we do business. This has spurred a surge of interest from clients and their architects and designers to incorporate €˜green€™ elements and techniques into their timber frame projects. The sustainable nature of timber framing is not always readily apparent to them but it is actually one of the most sustainable building methodologies available on the marketplace. Key to that sustainability is looking at timber framing as a holistic process that begins with a good, solid, complete design and carries through the selection of wood to finishing the project. So what is sustainable about timber framing? It all starts with the wood. Wood is a natural, organic, non-toxic material; it is recyclable, biodegradable and waste efficient and it is renewable. This is important for a number of reasons. First, because it is completely natural, renewable, recyclable, biodegradable and waste efficient, its use has very little impact on the environment. Second, because it does not off gas toxins, it promotes a healthy environment in the home. Third, the metrics that the sustainable movement has embraced via the US Green Building Council€™s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, the newly launched National Association of Home Builders€™s (NAHB) National Green Building Program (NGBP) rating system, the Green Globes system and others have specific, measurable criteria for materials selection and waste strategies that wood supports. For further information see www.usgbc.org (Commercial construction as well as new homes), ww.nahbgreen.org (homes only), and www.greenglobes.com. Wood is a carbon-neutral material. According to the UK Timber Frame Association, the average tree absorbs approximately one metric ton of CO2 (carbon dioxide) for each cubic meter of growth and exhales 0.7 metric tons of O2 (oxygen). The €˜C€™ or carbon, is sequestered/stored in the tree for the life of the tree AND the life of the building it goes into. The carbon that is €˜sunk€™ in the timber equates to about 1.6 pounds of carbon for each board foot of growth. When the timber frame reaches its useful life €“ in several decades - the wood can be recycled into new products, refashioned into new building material or burned as a substitute for fossil fuels. This is becoming increasingly important as designers strive to calculate the carbon footprint of each structure they work with. Sourcing timbers from sustainably managed forests has many positive effects on the environment. From a LEED standpoint, specifically in their commercial construction rating programs, it is important that wood be sourced from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified sources. But there are other sources of certified sustainable wood including but not limited to SFI (Sustainable Forest Initiative), American Tree Farm, Canada€™s National Standard on Sustainable Forest Management Standard (CAN/CSA Z809) and Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Systems (PEFC); all of which are included in the NGBP rating system. To varying degrees these third party rating organizations provide an impartial look at the management and sustainable practices in a particular forest. Obtaining certification means that rigorous standards are being followed in the forest; that no clear cutting has occurred, that forests are harvested and replanted and that the forests exhibit healthy environments for wildlife and plant life. Young trees rapidly metabolize CO2. Selectively harvesting older trees and replanting with young trees makes for a healthy, vigorous forest. For more information see: www.fscus.org, www.aboutsfi.org, www.treefarmsystem.org, www.certificationcanada.org. Other environmentally friendly sources of wood include reclaimed and forest salvaged/standing dead material. These sources can be used in the LEED and NGBP systems for material and recycling credit. If the material is found within 500 miles for LEED and 300 miles for NGBP, it can also earn credits for local sourcing. Reclaimed wood is derived from a variety of sources including: the dismantling of old, unused barns and other farm structures, the dismantling of unused factories and large commercial buildings mostly mills and war time factories and from submerged logs and structures. This wood has a patina that can only be matched with age and can be found in dimensions that are rarely found in today's forests. Sourcing from standing dead forests creates demand for wood that has been water, disease or bug killed; wood that would otherwise rot in the forest releasing its carbon store to the environment. Harvesting maintains that carbon store and creates open space for reforestation. Asking for visible proof (pictures) of the condition of the trees before using the timbers in a project allows the client to see the provenance of the material and provides necessary documentation for certification. Good forest management contributes to the eco-system in many other ways including: maintaining stream and groundwater health by protecting the soil and reducing runoff, contributing to maintaining ecosystems and habitats for wildlife, and it supports healthy forests for the long term. This provides viable income to foresters thus reducing reliance on clear cutting for farming or over-harvesting the forest. Timber framing contains low embodied energy. Converting timbers into a frame takes far fewer greenhouse gases than mainstream alternatives such as stick framing and masonry construction. This is another hot topic in the sustainable movement. The energy used to transport, manufacture and deliver a product, including the energy used for all of its inputs, is the total embodied energy in a product. Depending on the methodology a particular framer employs to manufacture a frame, the total embodied energy runs the gamut of low to almost zero. Timber frames are durable and have very long life spans. Choosing timber framing is a choice made for generations. In the LEED for Homes program, a durability plan is developed for the home that includes the probable life span of materials. In the NGBP a Life Cycle Assessment is completed that systematically compares the environmental burden of building materials prior to selection. Many timber framers install a tight envelope of Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS) or other enclosure system around the entire frame that provides a high R-value and reduces air infiltration/ heat loss. This is extremely important to sustainability metrics. Under LEED for Homes and NGBP the house is measured to Energy Star requirements via blower door and duct blast testing methodologies. Failing these tests means not achieving a rating at all. That is important for a number of reasons. First, the homeowner or commercial owner may really want to achieve a certain certification level for personal or market-placement reasons. Second, independent testing has shown that structures built to LEED standards have substantial reductions in energy use when compared to traditional construction methodologies; and third, there is mounting data that shows that certified structures garner higher rents, are more fully occupied and have higher sales values than non-certified structures. One example of the financial impact of certification is Countrywide Home Mortgage offering a .125% deduction in its mortgage rate for certified homes. Timber frames are usually crafted and pre-fitted off site, minimizing construction site waste and reducing construction time. This together with careful shop management reduces the overall waste effect of the frame. Manufacturing and precutting the SIPS at the factory further reduces site waste and construction time. Here is where having a good, solid, complete plan is key. Shop drawings that include window and door penetrations, mechanical, electrical and plumbing chases and locations and wall layouts enable the entire project to proceed apace and reduces waste. Many timber framers use low to no-VOC adhesives, finishes and materials. These are a requirement for all the rating systems as they have a direct effect on the indoor air quality (IAQ) of the structure. Many timber framers source their materials locally. Making a concerted effort to use local vendors for all materials supports local economies and the overall health of communities. This makes for a thriving community for employees and clients. It also meets the goal of local sourcing of materials in the rating systems. So what is sustainable about timber framing? Just about everything from the nature of the wood to how the structure is enclosed, but timber framers can go beyond that by educating themselves and their clients about the sustainable movement. Amy Cornelius, LEED AP works with Hugh Lofting Timber Framing a LEED for Homes registered contractor. More information about timber framing can be found at www.timberframe.org.

Greatest_Show

Barry — Fri, 28 May 2010 02:38:03 +0000

It s all acting, it s all hacking and, it s all sales

Barry — Fri, 28 May 2010 11:44:14 +0000

I think looking at life through the lens of what we do comes pretty naturally to us. When I first started to get acquainted with tools, a whole lot of things began to make sense. I translated the hammer in my hand to any number of jobs in this world, and I realized it was all about tools. The knife is a tool when we carve the meat and the needle is a tool when we sew a button. The pen and the sword are equally mighty in their ability to accomplish a task. I have a theatre background, so it is just as easy for me to look at life as though we are all constantly acting. I do not think this makes us dishonest because I do not regard acting as being false. Rather, I think of it as reacting honestly in situations as they arise. We volley off one another and, depending on who we are interacting with, our realities change. €œBeing in the moment€ is a pretty common actors' saying. So, last week I met JB Bartkowiak for the first time in person and, over lunch, I hit him with the €œit€™s all acting€œ line. Immediately, he came back with a story of a sales person who had told him life was all about sales. €œWhat did you do when you got your wife to marry you?€ this person had said, €œYou sold her.€ A couple of day earlier, I had been working on the computer acting as if I knew what I was doing. The task was to tinker with the code of a Contact form and change the way it appears on a web page. Much to my surprise, I was able to do so. I had to tell JB about it because I thought he would be proud of me. JB does this kind of stuff with ease, but for me it was some kind of major accomplishment to have hacked the Contact form. I told him my story and, without batting an eye, he said, €œIt€™s all hacking.€ And I thought to myself, "You know, he is right." In carpentry, a hack or a butcher is what you are called if you really botch a job. But in the computer sense, I believe, I have always been hacking the code of construction. For as long as I can remember, I have been looking at how things are put together and selling myself on the idea that I could put them together as well. Apprentices hack their craft taking information from every available source to make themselves better carpenters. Of course, this idea is an endless train. In the end, really, it's all just life, but utilizing our experiences to help us make sense of it all is as valuable a tool as I can think of.

Summer, Summer, Summer . . . well almost

jb — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:11:56 +0000

On Pools, Grilling and the Shade -- A Link Post

OK -- I do know we are not looking at the official start of summer for some time yet, but come on, Memorial Day -- and while a time for remembering, a marker too for the start of all things summer. And OK -- while I know we are not talking about any sort of TOH-type readership, but for me, as an editor, this post marks the first time that I have felt the need to be, well, editorial . . . slapping together something somewhat seasonal. And you probably know -- we spend as much time around here on the things we don't know about as we do on the things we do know about . . . . Memorial Day marks the beginning of pool and grilling season . . . and to honor of this, I figure the least I could do is dig up some sites that might be helpful for those who might be interested in these topics. Some Pool Sites Everything You Need to Know about Pool Design and Installation -- http://www.smiwwingpool.com The Ultimate Guide Pool and Hot Tub Care - http://www.swimuniversity.com/ The Leading Swimming Pool Maintenance Blog - http://fireyourpoolguyblog.com/ Some Grilling Sites Food Network's Grilling Central -- http://www.foodnetwork.com/grilling-central-home/package/index.html Better Homes and Gardens | Grilling -- http://www.bhg.com/recipes/grilling/ HowStuffWorks & ConsumerGuide Products | Gas Grill Buying Guide -- http://products.howstuffworks.com/gas-grills-buying-guide.htm Grilling Companion: Your Source for Grilling Recipes, Tips and News - http://www.grillingcompanion.com/ And Something on Shade It occurred to me this weekend that the shade from of a large tree makes for darn good sunscreen.

*******

Enjoy the spoils of summer, thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore!

Change_Order

jb — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:11:55 +0000

Change_Order

jb — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:12:47 +0000

Long Distance Dedication :: A Contractors Rant

Holly Bertsch — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:10:47 +0000

Right now I am trying to get everything going on our whole house remodel. And I can say that this guy€™s eyes are bigger than his stomach. I am trying to keep the price reasonable, but he keeps changing things so I am forced to raise the price and the timeline. And I need to get this work started so we can complete it in time. Also, I would like to get everything locked down for a crucial Home Depot sale happening this weekend. You know, I am all about saving the customer some money . . . . But I think it is time for me to say, €œThat€™s it! Everything from now on will need an additional work authorization form!€ It was so hard to write the contract the other day, I just gave up. The trouble here is -- he (our client) is in Chicago and doesn€™t answer his phone! Our only communication has been through email. I get about 40 emails a day some asking questions, others changing things, etc. It has been trying, to say the least. Some days I wish I could just pick up the phone and call him. I want to ask if I am going over the budget he has in mind; I want to remind him too that his house is neither contemporary nor industrial and that he should stay away from those looks/selections. Or at least tone the desire to go there down. It is my job to guide him through making the most of his investment. That is one of my jobs as a remodeler. I am responsible for making sure the house isn€™t getting out of control. I do not want him to over-invest in his property (even though I would take the work). He wants wainscoting and grass cloth wallpaper on the walls, and I want to tell him that this is getting really manly. Should I tell him that? I don€™t know? Dare I tell him that for resale people tend not to like wallpaper, or white marble (can you say stainable) countertops in the kitchen? So I have been communicating with him through email solely after meeting him only once. I think I am doing okay, but it is hard when you don€™t see someone and when you don't know someone very well. It is hard to help them make decisions about their home. I have done this before, but usually the clients are somewhere nearby and will come by and check things out. I did talk him into keeping a kitchen with a wood floor after he decided to get white maple cabinets. We need some color in there! Even if it is just wood I think that a hardwood floor would bring some life to the white marble counters and the white cabinets and the white wainscoted backsplash. I don€™t know. I am not a designer. Where am I going with this? Well, it has only been a week and I am exhausted trying to pin down exactly what he wants. It is hard to do a job long distance. I should be happy, because he was in Pennsylvania. At least he is in Chicago now. It is only like three hours away, but now, I just wish he would answer his phone . . . ! We will see what he chose at Home Depot tomorrow. I am going to play good contractor and keep my chin up while we get this all worked out. I€™m sorry I am venting, but working long distance is hard work! I will keep you updated on how it all goes.

TasteSpecific

jb — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:54:34 +0000

paulrome2

jb — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:57:11 +0000

Paul Anater :: What Does Too Taste Specific Mean Anyway?

Paul Anater — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:52:36 +0000

A client came to me yesterday with a photograph very similar to this one as one of his few inspiration images. The image is from Graham and Brown, the British wallpaper people. Further, the pattern is one by Umbra for Graham and Brown. The guy didn't know where to start other than he wanted the feeling of that image interpreted and extrapolated over his entire open floor plan condominium. Perfect, this is just the kind of challenge I love. I asked him what was it about the photograph he liked so much and without hesitation, he said it was the wallpaper. So I started talking about wallpaper and how cool it is and how my great friend Given Campbell has some patterns he ought to see. He stopped me and said, "Oh I can't use wallpaper." I reminded him that it was wallpaper that started our conversation and it was wallpaper that was so appealing to him. He went on to explain that he can't use wallpaper in his home because it's too "taste specific." Mind you, this is a man who'd also told me he had no intention of selling any time soon and he was interested in making his house really his. So when did making a home "taste specific" to the man who owns it become a bad thing? Isn't my whole life spent helping other people make their homes taste-specific to them?

*******

It reminds me of a conversation I had with a woman about a year ago, I think I wrote about it in fact. Anyhow, she wanted to know if it's OK to hang family photographs in the "public" areas of her home. I explained to her that hotels have public areas but homes don't. She looked at me as if I were speaking Russian. I hear things like that with shocking regularity. "I can't do what I want because it's what I like and nobody else will." Or "I can't leave too personal an impression in my living room." Or "I drip a little vanilla extract on a light bulb every night, how do I keep it from leaving a stain?" How about "I want to paint my dining room a bright color but I'm worried about resale." Has everyone become a home stager all of the sudden? I know where all of this crap's coming from. It's that great Satan HGTV. I swear, they are the Fox News of the design press. Turn it off please. And leave it off. Your home is your home and by virtue of the fact that you're an adult, you get to do anything inside of it you want to do. Even if it's stuff I find repugnant, who cares? I'm some guy with a big mouth in Florida, not some final arbiter and neither is anyone else. So go ahead, paint your walls with chalkboard paint, put a damn chicken coop in the back yard, hang exciting wallpaper and for the love of God, stop asking for permission to put photos of your kids on the mantle. If you're going to put your house on the market sometime down the road, deal with it then but you can't live your life for a potential buyer. And seriously, when is the last time you walked out of a house tour because someone had a perfectly painted red dining room? People walk out of house tours because the place is falling down. Gah! Life's over faster than anyone wants to admit. Leave a mark already.

*******

Note for the hosts: I'd like to thank super-blogger (editor's embellishment) Paul Anater for posting with us. I originally connected with the man formally known as @saintpetepaul on Twitter. Paul can currently be found @Paul_Anater. His don't miss daily blog can be found at http://www.kitchenandresidentialdesign.com. This article was originally posted there on May 13, 2010. jb

this one goes out to all the full-time side-bloggers of the world

jb — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 11:46:42 +0000

aka it is hard to work on your business when you are in your business Or . . . did I mention I am looking for regular contributors?

In sincere regard, dedicated to a guy named Tim I was up till about 1AM (actually two nights ago) trying to bang out a fairly fact-based article for Friday (today). I woke up the next morning about 5:45, a little groggy, yes, and maybe a little hungover. Was the post any closer to completion? Well, of course, Yes. Would it be ready to go for Friday? No. I finally made that call at about 1:13AM. It was about 6:15 though, when the grief began. In the four hours that I outlasted my girls (my wife included), I failed to stow all of the previous night€™s dinner. In total, this amounted to a container of shake cheese and a jar of pasta sauce. I also did not unload and reload the dishwasher. Did I mean to? While I know it is my job . . . frankly -- it didn't even cross my mind. And . . . all of this has been far too regular lately . . . . That is -- late night writing (and/or website tweaking), and a general propensity for dropping the ball on my day to day household duties. But . . . I have a short-term vision, you know €“ a modest goal and nowhere near singular . . . . It forms the biggest challenge I have faced since deciding to dedicate a significant portion of my attention to this blog. I hope, for now €“ to post every day Monday thru Friday (barring holidays and natural disasters). But given my schedule and with all of its real life demands, their real world implications -- I have learned that simply filling these pages (only five days a week) has been hard. This post -- a testament to that. Sure, I keep a running spreadsheet of backup topics -- you know, for a rainy day. And least I let this air go dead when things do not come in on schedule, or if I fail to complete a given assignment myself on time. Unfortunately . . . here, I didn't even have time to get into that box of ideas. I do have time to say though that the addition of my man, b, whom without this album could not be possible (a song lyric quote - kinda), and Construction Girl Holly have made everything more doable. The addition of content from contributors to the Tagged! project has been most welcome, a big success, and sometimes a surprise that has helped ease my burden even more. But still €“ I struggle to get something up on this site each of those five days a week. Am I a bad writer? Maybe; I can€™t seem to work efficiently (as my wife would have me think). And if it is this hard, how then could it even possibly be worthwhile (as my wife might also suggest)? Maybe it isn't, and I feel briefly like pointing my head upwards and covering my eyes with the palms of my hands.

*******

I am reminded here of a couple things . . . first, of an outstanding letter from TOH editor Scott Omelianuk -- May 2009 issue, from which the spirit of the line above may have been lifted. That -- and something a friend told me recently, a book he was actually quoting. €œYou can't work on your business when you are in your business.€ The motivation for the statement and the interpretation of which I will leave up to you. Now . . . I have cut most of the specifics about my situation out of this short spiel, but I will leave only an explanation for why I do this (you know, the blog thing). It's simple. I do it "for the love of the game." And . . . I hold that I will eventually be able to break free of many of my restrictions €“ passed naysayers and skeptics . . . to have a venture one day that is part way my own. For now -- I remain focused on and satisfied with collecting tales (as one remodeling expert/friend calls it). If you want to join me here and help, I would be glad to have you. Thank you for reading and BMoxie BMore!

30.mygirls

jb — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 03:12:05 +0000

Outdoors at Cardiff 7

jb — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 03:13:53 +0000

. . .

jb — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:10:29 +0000

Did you know that when you are interviewing a contractor, they are often interviewing you too?

Holly Bertsch — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:14:56 +0000

Did you know that when you are interviewing a contractor, they are often interviewing you too? It works both ways, much like a job interview should. Unless said contractor is desperate for work, they are often checking out your project and making a mental decision on whether they want to take it or not. By asking questions along with the usual first time formalities of an initial meeting, your contractor is drawing conclusions about your project, and how you, as a consumer, would be to work for. And believe me, I have turned down high paying jobs simply because a prospect did not seem as though they would be easy to work for (more on that later). I am not saying that I want a person to be a pushover, just accepting anything that we do, but I do want some understanding and flexibility -- because without these things my job would be nearly impossible. Another thing we look for in potential projects: is it even feasible? Are you thinking you can have champagne on a beer budget? Are you wanting to turn your only outdated 5€²x8€² bathroom into a spa retreat (which we can do, unless you are prepared for some serious inconveniences). Are you wanting some HGTV miracle makeover to happen with no planning and in a very short time frame? Are you wanting to complete some of the project yourself, and are you capable of doing it in a skilled and timely manner? And . . . the most important, are you desperate to have this work done, now, no questions asked, no planning, no budget considerations? These all are big red flags to us. A good remodeler works with time, planning, budget, and your dreams to make your project a complete success. A well respected remodeler also looks for problem customers. I am not talking about the type of customer who wants to stay informed and be really involved in the process. I am talking about the customer who wants to €œrun€ a project, or considers themselves a general contractor. The one who wants to buy every single two by four and basically seems to think they know how to, well, run a project. These people usually have full time jobs, or are semi-retired, and fancy themselves as experts because they may have even €œoverseen€ the building of their own home. They often demand a lower rate because they feel the €œgeneral contracting fees€ should be waived. We typically do not want to work with someone on a €œcontract basis€ and/or someone who wants to be their own GC. This is usually because we end up wasting a lot of time doing their job as the General Contractor for them, in other words -- scheduling deliveries, running to the store for materials, and dealing with otherwise poor planning on their part. We have been doing this a long time and we know what needs to be done, when and by whom. If you want our particular skill set, you can feel free to hire us at our company rate by the hour as sub-contractors for your project. Just know though that it may end up costing you even more, because we exactly know how to make a job run efficiently. After all, we do this every day. The amateur general contractor-type usually rubs a good renovation contractor the wrong way. (Remind me -- I need to write a whole new entry about this alone, so forgive me for venting in this paragraph!) What we look for usually is a customer who is genuinely interested in what will be going on during a project, has questions initially and along the way, and is willing to grant some type of confidence in us. It is a short-term partnership that is formed to reach your final goals, as well as ours. We want to see your project through to completion, to your full satisfaction, and with a full payment at the end because we stuck to your budget. Can you begin by relating your wishes and dreams to us, but still be willing to accept advice and realities? A good remodeler will want to €œfeel out€ an initial customer during a few meetings to determine if this is a customer they want to be working with. A not-so-good contractor may be all smiles, wanting to jump on whatever job you have €“ right away. This not-so-good contractor in general may also be a little too over-enthusiastic about your work. I am not saying that it is bad to have a person who is excited about your project, because we often get excited about certain types of work, but if they seem to be desperate, they may not be the contractor for you. A good remodeler is usually booked at least a month to six weeks out or more. There may be extenuating circumstances when they are not, but remember, a good renovation takes planning and . . . time. A good contractor will be looking at you, while you are looking at them. They will qualify you as a potential client. Sometimes, a contractor will not call you back or answer your emails. I have heard this complaint from customers of ours before. They call a few professionals, and never get a call back or they meet with said professionals and never hear from them again. Maybe the problem is your expectations or your attitude? Maybe they are just really bad contractors? Maybe you need to call more professional contractors. Or you can call us, no matter where you live, and we will give you our €œalways free advice€ because we are good, honest, and receptive remodelers. And this is my two cents.

Building_Permit

Barry — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:29:23 +0000

Ruts

Barry — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:49:07 +0000

Weddings, Funerals, Stop Signs and Stars

Barry — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:30:44 +0000

There is a line in a They Might Be Giants song which goes: €œIf it weren€™t for disappointments, I wouldn€™t have any appointments€. And while I cannot possibly claim that this is true in my own life, still it hurts to be sucker punched by fate. I am going to leave out the particulars of my situation and say only that I was waiting on some good news which turned inside out. I must have been feeling this way back in 1989 when I wrote the following:

HARDWARE 1

Facing west is always€™ best for reason undefined Tugging tales of sorrow won€™t pull through for you tomorrow and broken dreams can be mended with the right glue and time to set It is not good enough to want what you want You have to need what you want If your flowers won€™t grow get under them and push With fingers as a loom weave the roots into a quilt that will keep you warm and spring you out of bed morning and morning again Spring when the clock strikes wet winter Falling autumn And close pressing summer And some are more close and more pressing than others Your others and others others are not all the same Though similar and familiar and this semblance may bond or separate emulsifying you with others until you think you€™re lost But finding requires looking like looking for quarters on the way to the 711 hoping to find enough that a treat will await you a treat that will be good but gone good and gone soon enough So tomorrow you can spring up and try again

This old poem pings back to me across the years regularly. It is no surprise it popped into my mind as I began writing this piece about disappointment. It is nice to touch base with an earlier incarnation of ourselves and realize that there is a through line to the way we handle difficulty. Had I not included the poem, I most likely would have written a piece with much the same feeling. And, by ending it on an up note, I would have once again issued myself an emotional building permit to learn and grow from the situation.

pic-paullesieurrestore

jb — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:28:50 +0000

Paul Lesieur :: Until We Built It . . . (Thats Moxie)

Paul Lesieur — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:34:38 +0000

Until we built it....... Who imagined it standing under the shaded branches hiding the sun from its effort Mothers and fathers and children inside of its spaces should we care of builders and others people inside safety and comfort all in the place the space we share the home we built was only a wish Until we built it....... Its clear what we owe our clients and ourselves. Lets not forget we don't build toasters and microwave ovens. We build for the living and for the trust of our future. But our real job is communication. And that my friends has always been our task. That's Moxie!

buildingbeard_compressed100x100

jb — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:22:25 +0000

b is for Barry

jb — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:25:46 +0000

Faucet1

jb — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 03:05:26 +0000

Under Window Faucet

jb — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 03:08:08 +0000

Grohe Ladylux Faucet with side-mount lever

jb — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 03:10:27 +0000

Moen Showcase €œbridge€ faucet

jb — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 03:12:21 +0000

KellyM

jb — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 03:30:02 +0000

Kelly Morisseau :: Inches Matter . . . in Horseshoes and in Kitchens

Kitchen_Sync — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:30:47 +0000

What to Watch for in Faucet Design

Kitchen sinks and faucets have changed dramatically in the last decade. Sinks are deeper with more shapes than ever before; faucets have changed from three-piece units with separate hot-and-cold knobs to sleek single-level units and back again. What these changes mean to you is the need for closer attention to is the operation of the faucets - especially if they're going to be mounted in front of a window or a bar top. Here, let me show you an example of what I mean at the sink window:

See how little space there is between the sink and the window? If I'd have to estimate (it€™s a couple of years old now and I'm going from memory), I'd say there's about an inch of clearance between the back of the faucet and the white window sill. One inch. Not a lot of room. Part of the issue is that a window sill protrudes over the counter space depending on the material below it. (In this case, slate tile, so we have a 3/8" tile and the overhang 1/2" beyond it.) Add to that the kitchen sink depth that I talked about in the beginning - sinks have grown in depth from 16" to up to 20" and more. Take away the 1-1/2" for the front edge of the countertop to overhang past the cabinet case, and the cabinet itself and there€™s only 22-1/2€ of space left at the back €“ just enough for a faucet, but it€™s sure close to the windowsill. This is where you€™ll see the DIY forums filled with questions about how to fix this. In this case, the faucet has the lever on the top which tilts upward. So far, so good, right? Right. But what if the clients didn't want that faucet? What if they wanted a faucet with a side lever, like the one below? Now we have an issue because the lever not only tilts out to the side, it tilts backwards as well--bang. Straight into window sill. While we're at it, let's say "ow" for the client's knuckles -- they're not going to fare much better. If this detail isn't thought out prior to installation, the poor client will either be buying a new replacement faucet OR installing the base of this one at a 45 degree angle -- which might not be all they were hoping for. (This picture shows the base at a 90 degree angle, but it's not something that stirs a lot of enthusiasm here.) Please note that I'm not trying to single out this faucet (a Grohe Ladylux faucet immediately above) as being at fault. That's not the case at all - I really like this faucet. It, and many other side-lever operations as well as reproduction 3-piece faucets (shown below) simply require us to pay more attention to how they operate. Having said that, if you came to me clutching the faucet to your chest and casting tragic puppy dog eyes in my general direction, here's what I'd look for at the design stage (because I'm a sucker for puppy dog eyes): * Lower the windowsill enough to free up the operation of the lever, and/or, * Change the depth of the sink cabinet to a minimum of 26"-27" (depending on how custom the cabinets.) (As an added note, it's always helpful if the countertop installers are made aware of this so they won't center the sink in the space but will fabricate the sink cutout as close to the front edge of the cabinet as possible.) So, the faucet in the first photo wasn't a lucky co-incidence -- it was something discussed with the homeowner to make sure everything was working as it should. And now you know what to watch for. Your knuckles will thank you. :)

*******

Note from the Hosts: I know the title might have read ". . . Fractions of an Inch . . . ." We would like thank Kelly for offering up this post. She is a talented blogger and kitchen designer based out of Northern California. She can be found writing the blog Kitchen Sync (get it! and maybe a book someday soon). She may also be found on Twitter @Kitchen_Sync. She was tagged for this project by both Sean @SLSConstruction & Paul @Paul_Anater. jb This post was originally published on http://kitchensync.typepad.com/.

nahbrcwelcome

jb — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:06:50 +0000

labfloor

jb — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:09:43 +0000

aircannon_cropped

jb — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:10:41 +0000

mockups

jb — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:13:38 +0000

staintests

jb — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:17:05 +0000

homecenter

jb — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:18:08 +0000

couldntpassuptheglamshotwbob

jb — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:19:12 +0000

testhut

jb — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:20:20 +0000

nahbrcwelcome_cropped

jb — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 03:18:29 +0000

@NAHBRC :: Your Friendly Neighborhood Building Research Center

jb — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:28:45 +0000

The rally cry €œRoad Trip!€ seemed to ring loudly as I read Barry's reply on my monitor. We had just received an email confirming an upcoming visit to the NAHBRC. It would be a good opportunity for he and I to finally connect and a great opportunity for the two of us to tag-team a knowledge building exercise (or . . . is that a . . . "building knowledge" exercise?). You see, The National Association of Home Builders Research Center aka the NAHBRC, and a beacon of housing science, is just down the way from me in Upper Marlboro, MD. They invited us down for the day, and Barry would be making the trip up from the . . . slower . . . lower . . . Delaware shore.

*******

Established in 1964, and remaining still as a fully-owned subsidiary of the National Association of Home Builders, the NAHBRC enjoys a unique insider's relationship with the housing industry. The for-profit institution has evolved through the years and works today under the primary mission to improve the quality of, as well as the durability, affordability and environmental performance of our nation's housing stock. The Center's crown jewel -- a 42,000 square foot research lab; we would be touring it that day -- our guide, Bob Hill, the Center's Director of Laboratory and Certification Programs.

*******

As we walked the still newish building (not yet three-years old), we saw many things I would expect to see in a building research laboratory. We saw large machinery used to perform shear wall testing, we saw cannons that shoot 2x4s, we saw chambers designed to measure air flow and heat resistance, the U-factors and R-values of things. All . . . really cool stuff. But it was the Center€™s unique blend of capabilities that instead stood out and surprised me the most. To use the words of my cohort, the b (Barry) €“ and he posed the question to Bob, "So you are kinda like the bridge?" In this case, the bridge between the builder -- here, the consumer and "the people that make stuff" -- product manufacturers. And I think Barry nailed it. To this, Bob replied, ". . . our broad mission is to serve the industry. We do this primarily by championing innovation. As the manufacturer (general) is developing new products, and if those products are innovative, we work to get them into the marketplace and accepted.€

*******

The large campus is not only home to in-lab and applied technology studies, but it also serves as headquarters for the Center's field evaluation and market researching efforts. And despite my first instinct, the Center does not derive a majority of its work from the NAHB€™s 200k-plus membership. While they perform some research for the Association (usually in preparation for a weigh-in on a code change) as well as contract and consulting work for government agencies such as the DOE, the EPA and HUD, the NAHBRC works most frequently for private organizations, in most cases as mentioned above, product manufacturers.

Taking Research to New Heights

For the first part of our tour, Bob ushered us through a set of rooms equipped with one-way mirrors. (And yes, Bob the engineer could tell me how a one-way mirror function is accomplished.) From a hidden location and in a focus group setting, clients may watch as selected participants (sometimes drawn from NAHB membership) interact with facilitators on pre-determined topics. These options extend traditional survey-based market research techniques to form a singular approach to housing study. The uniqueness of which did not become fully apparent until Bob lead us into the largest of the Center€™s observation suites, located some 20 feet above the lab's floor. When asked Bob replies, €œThere is frequently overlap between what is going on in the focus groups and what is going on in the lab.€ Immediately below and while looking down from the second floor, we see two mock ups. These, one of a bathroom, are not unlike vignettes you might see on a supplier's showroom floor. To describe the observation deck itself -- Picture a luxury sky box at a ball stadium fitted with hi-set tables and hi-end bar stools, but with a view wrapped totally in one-way mirrors. Focus group participants are sometimes lead down to the lab floor for real world trials on a given product (or set of products). Bob used the example of a paint manufacturer looking for feedback on selected paints. Group participants could apply a variety of coatings to a grouping of wall sections constructed specifically for tests on €œusability.€ These exercises give manufacturers insight into what customers want, what they like and don€™t like, often before a product is sent to market and usually across segments of the industry, i.e. via business owners as well as from their technicians.

The Lab Floor Feels Quite Like a Movie Set

It is perhaps that lab€™s research floor €“ especially for a pair of building geeks like b and I that is most impressive. In one word -- "Wow." The pictures probably do not do the floor justice, but . . . at the far end, many side-stations set off along the way, integrated bolt-downs allow for the anchoring of a full two-story structure. On that day, a trussed roof sat at this location, it -- a casualty of a recent wind uplift test. Of the laboratory floor itself, it felt at times like a home improvement warehouse; at other times, it reminded me more of a chemistry lab. It could be best described though as being inline with a studio's movie set. But don€™t be fooled, boxes of safety glasses and hard hats sit on a small table just inside the floor's entrance. It is the real deal. The Center performs 3^rd party product certification on OSB, insulation (blown and batt) as well as on plumbing fixtures such as whirlpool tubs, shower/tub enclosures, and kitchen and bathroom sinks. Maybe you have seen the label €“ looks familiar to me €“ and . . . as b interjected, €œIt is interesting to see just how much goes on behind the label.€ A set of closed loop plumbing systems (designed by engineers at the Center) repeatedly cycle hot and cold water through sinks. Fixtures ran through these tests are later cut up, burned, baked, scrubbed and marked. All tests performed to ANSI and other standards. As Bob puts it, "Lots of beautiful stuff sadly ends up in the dumpster after these tests." Independent third-party sampling also performed in the lab closely mimics real world and in the field circumstances. We discussed this while standing near the Center€™s wind-blown rain chamber, itself -- a large steel box allowing for the monitoring of air infiltration through different wall set-ups. Clients, including window and door manufacturers, frequently want to know how their products perform in different configurations and under varying conditions.

For Remodelers and Those Interested in Green

Bob a career engineer joined the Research Center nine years ago, but he still agrees that they do some fun stuff. When asked what he likes most about his job, Bob replies plainly €“ €œBeing involved with leading edge technology, and well, (short pause) breaking stuff.€ He does admit that it isn€™t quite as glamorous as one might think, and he shares a short story that reinforces this. He tells of a time when many gathered to witness a test on a concrete structure waiting for a battery of some 400,000 pounds of force. The test however concluded when a small crack developed ending it with nothing near catastrophic excitement. (€œAwww!€)

*******

Be it field evaluations, market investigation or technical testing, ultimately the NAHBRC works to facilitate new product acceptance. When I asked what the Center has to offer for remodelers, Bob says, €œThere is a lot of overlap actually (between applications for remodelers and builders). But . . . there seems to be lots of interest from remodelers in the green area these days . . . .€ Later he continues, €œPeople come to us wanting to do €˜green€™ tests. I ask . . . but what standard am I testing to?" Apparently, not much in the way of green testing standards exist presently. The NAHBRC is doing its part to add inertia to this movement, though. As an ANSI-accredited standard€™s writing institution, the NAHBRC acted as secretariat to the 42-member panel that authored the National Green Building Standard (ICC 700-2008). Bob is sure to point out that the Standard is fairly far reaching in that it is ANSI-approved, is very compatible with renovation activity and has a totality of method, in which all ratings are interconnected -- one must go up in all six graded areas to move up a level on the scoring scale.

*******

I€™d like to thank Bob for taking the time to meet with us €“ and please look for audio outtakes from b (The Barry) recorded during our visit.

More Moxie (Related Links)

For more info on the NAHBRC, check out this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lw2af5Ubpg For a little on the history of the NAHBRC, this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to_YLJQXzX0 For information on the NAHB's National Green Building Program & access to the Standard's one cool Scoring Tool: http://NAHBGreen.org For products and manufacturers that meet the National Green Building Standard: http://www.greenapprovedproducts.com

[ad code=5 align=center]

Outtake

We talked briefly of the Center€™s Home Park. Located only a short distance from the Center€™s campus, it contains 25 lots that have been slowly built on through the years. To me -- totally intriguing; I envision a community of houses that itself would create a document of building technology through recent years. Bob does note the sponsorship of homes by the Gas Institute and by the Concrete Institute, a house built almost exclusively from recycled material as well as the construction of a string of four townhouses €“ one using structural insulated panels, one using insulated concrete forms, one use conventional framing and one steel framed. Once constructed, the Center instruments and performs €œtime in motion studies€ on these structures. This activity is similar to that being performed on a set of test huts found right on the campus. The Center is monitoring moisture retention in various siding materials . . . the performance of each will be tracked for two years. All houses in the Home Park remain open to the public for some time before they are ultimately sold. On the day of our visit €“ it was our understanding that the Center had recently sold its last, but may be building more in the future.

Madame_Sunday_profile_pic_twitter

jb — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:55:09 +0000

MS useless drill

jb — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 03:56:37 +0000

Modern Sauce :: This is All You ll Need . . .

Madame Sunday — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:53:46 +0000

: The Story of a Girl, a Drill and a Dream

I€™m Madame Sunday of the little blog known as ModernSauce. In addition to my blog of wonders I also have an old 1960€™s fixer-upper that I drunkingly refer to as the ModernSauce Ranch. We have a love/hate relationship €“ I love what this house will be one day but it hates cooperating. As this was my first home I made a concerted effort to become a legitimate homeowner by purchasing all the requisite things for my house like fresh towels, a home warranty, a fully stocked liquor cabinet and an array of shiny tools. The most important item €“ the homeowner€™s piece de resistance €“ a handy drill. I was so excited to tackle projects involving my new tool just so when people asked what I did one weekend I could shrug and say €œThe usual. Drilled stuff.€ *flex girl bicep* At the suggestion of a friend and the incredibly concerned staff at my local hardware retail giant I took home a jazzy little 12v drill. They said it was all I€™d need. Wide-eyed and eager, I thanked them for their help and skipped home. My new purchase even came with a cool carrying case (their words) and tons of tiny drill bits that all lined up in neat little rows. I was so excited. And completely deluded.

My DIY dreams were crushed after fifteen minutes because a 12v drill is essentially worthless. My electric toothbrush has a more powerful motor just based on the evidence of my dazzling pearly whites. I don€™t know what the hell these guys thought I was going to do €“ drill pompom fringe onto a bedskirt no doubt. (which looks adorable by the way!) The reality is I have the upper body strength of a malnourished T-rex and ancient plaster walls made of diamonds that require a grenade and a prayer just to hang a curtain rod. I€™m not even going to talk about the failures of drilling an actual hole into wood or removing decades-old rusty screws. When you do the math 12v just isn€™t going to cut it. I need something to compensate for my absence of bulging biceps not compound my handicap. Math and magical walls of steel aside, upon reflection of my purchase what frustrates me more was the casual assessment that this pseudo-tool was all I would need. Also frustrating was my complete trust in their assessment. At the time I felt like they had evaluated my needs and responded accordingly €“ that 12v did fit my hand quite nicely €“ when in fact they did the opposite. They made assumptions based on my ignorance (and gender if I€™m being honest) that somehow my projects were petty, less complex and required less power than others. No one has ever tried to sell me a car with fewer amenities or less horsepower. Every time I hear that phrase, and it is still quite often, it feels like they are trying to do me a favor because everyone knows that power tools have demon spirits inside that only a calloused man in Carhartt overalls can properly tame. I wished they had given me the benefit of the doubt and worked backwards. They probably wished I knew what the hell I was doing. So I guess we€™re even. But now I€™m a seasoned pro *cough liar cough* and when I don€™t know the answer I at least know the right questions to ask. And if I don€™t even know that I know that I€™m willing to fake it 'til I make it. So if you happen to see a madame with dazzling white teeth looking confused while staring at the belt sanders please suspend your judgment and bring your open mind €“ I swear it€™ll be all you need. Unless of course you have an 18v drill because I will totally need to borrow it€¦

*******

Note from the hosts: Thanks to the Madame Modern Sauce. You may find her blogging at http://modernsauce.blogspot.com or on Twitter @ModernSauce. She is fabulous and that is all you need...

Rich_H

jb — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:48:21 +0000

Richard Holschuh :: Finding Your Bearings (On Process)

concretedetail — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:56:19 +0000

As €œthey€ say, the best place to start is at the beginning. When faced with a given task, whether it is a simple faucet hook-up, a countertop replacement, or a whole-room kitchen remodel, you have got to make some sort of plan from the outset or you are doomed. It may not be an elaborate scheme or even a fully conscious decision, but there must be a starting point to get the project off on the right foot (apologies to all you left-footed people out there) or, as €œthey€ say again, you have most assuredly €œshot yourself in the foot." And then where are you? Unable to move ahead and reach your goal. This is a common sense truism that applies to nearly all endeavors €“ it€™s the foundation of any undertaking, whether material or deliberative. Common sense being in short supply, and the predilection for €œjust doing it€ being the new €œplatitude€, the significance of this very simple but demanding prerequisite seems (to me) all-too-often to be lost nowadays. Or maybe I€™m just cynical€¦but I don€™t think so. Can I see a show of hands if you agree with me? Yes, yes I see that hand €“ bless you. And over there? Yes, indeed, uh-huh€¦ thank you (sorry, I€™m a preacher€™s kid). So, there€™s the rub: Start at the beginning. Duh! (as my friend Modern Sauce would say). Easy enough it would seem. Soooo, where€™s the beginning? Aha!!! (no, not the 80€™s Swedish pop stars €“ not this time, maybe later) Here€™s where it starts to get tricky and this is where the men and the boys are separated (not very PC but you know what I mean). Finding the beginning is critical and often one of the hardest parts of any project. There are a myriad of places to start any undertaking, but homing in on the right one is a make-or-break proposition. This is where the man/boy metaphor is played out: the ability to isolate and identify the true launching point; this basic premise is a skill only learned through experience, which takes by definition . . . time. Lots of it... I call this €œgetting your bearings€; finding the reference point from which all subsequent decisions will unfold and point back, as a virtual True North of the journey-man. If a mistake is made at this point, there will be a great deal of wasted time, retracing of steps, and the desired destination may never be attained successfully, much less satisfactorily; certainly not a profitable business model and a helluva way to run a railroad. This is a skill worth recognizing, honing, and rewarding. I think some people are more inclined in this direction than others, but it is not strictly an instinctual ability. It is developed through repeated exposure and through intense awareness (I cannot stress this enough) of one€™s surroundings. Malcolm Gladwell develops this idea at great length in his seminal book €œBlink€; the concept that certain individuals can walk into a room and €œknow€ or €œsense€ what is going on, by an intuition which permeates their very presence. This is learned by familiarity with one€™s medium and one€™s environment, whether you are a carpenter, a painter, a designer, or a truckdriver. The ease with which a job progresses and the degree of success which is attained will spring from this initial assessment. We all know the difference between effortless grace and botched amateurishness. We value the former and dismiss the latter. We will pay a huge differential to secure this, knowing that it is worth the premium in satisfaction and value. As an old Book says, €œThe workman is worthy of his hire€. The rest can go suck eggs. I€™d like to develop this idea of €œfinding your bearings€ in another post. I find this fascinating: the process of processes. What makes the world go €˜round, the basic truths, the frame of reference that underlies our understandings and perceptions. It is worth spending a little time to dig deeper into the underpinnings of seemingly simple undertakings and assumptions, to find the core principles that unite us all in this big cycle of existence. Or maybe I think too much. Hmmm. I€™ll get back to you on that. Note from the hosts: No really, Rich intends to get back to us on this -- and consider this part one of at least a two-part piece. Rich is a wicked talented concrete artisan based out of Southern Vermont and, well, he has a way with words. He can be found tweeting daily job notes, marketing slogans for his life after concrete, and other fun @concretedetail. His company and his blog can be found at http://www.concretedetail.com. We'd like to thank Rich for participating in the Tagged project.

OPC

jb — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:38:34 +0000

OPC_team

jb — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:45:45 +0000

Building Moxie with One Project Closer

jb — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:50:47 +0000

I had just begun blogging (or maybe it was actually just after people had begun reading my blogging) when a friend said to me €“ €œYou know . . . what you are doing . . . (writing about your house) kinda reminds me of this other blog I have been reading recently. You should check it out. And . . . the funniest thing is €“ they are based right here in Baltimore County.€ She had been referring to the site and the crew at One Project Closer €“ OPC in certain circles. And from that day (roughly), I began following the site. Since -- I have come to know it as a source for clear, concise and well-researched home improvement information. It however was more recently and only shortly after they joined us in the Twittosphere a month or so ago when I made contact. I asked, €œHey, can I come out to meet the team?€ And @OneProjCloser said, "Sure."

*******

Just short of the Howard County line, MD, and located in the community of Ellicott Mills, the folks from OPC were there to greet me. I knew beforehand with whom I was meeting (or at least who I hoped to meet). I had studied their About page. An earlier iteration of it (from memory) read something like this, ' . . . We get the question all the time -- Are you professionals? And the answer always -- No. We are homeowners just like you . . . .' And now, to borrow from the current page,". . . Four friends living in the same community in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. We€™re married (Fred to Kim; Ethan to Jocie), and have three homes between us . . . . " I met Fred, Kim, Ethan and Jocie at Ethan and Jocie€™s end-of-group townhome. And no . . . there was no tell tale sign of €œconstruction in progress€ -- no stacks of lumber, no dumpster filling the front yard. There was nothing that noticeably said, "This is the home of a top tier home improvement blogger (actually two)." What I found instead was simply a well-maintained house, and a warm and inviting welcome. And as we sat in their living room chatting, the laughter and jokes flew (old friends?). When I shared tidbits about my house (and how far off it is), I was informed quickly of Fred and Kim's situation. Their home also . . . far from complete. Jocie points to the engineered wood flooring that the guys installed (and yes, Fred & Ethan = the guys), but Fred follows quickly by telling me of plans (just that coming weekend) to level their home€™s first floor; yes, the entire first floor -- around 1000 sf. Fred and Kim's colonial is only a short walk from this tree-lined court. I learn quickly that the bond extends pretty far back. Both couples, and friends before couples, grew up in connected circles. Lively stories swirled briefly, but I believe I picked up that Fred and Ethan attended the same high school, Kim€™s brother was friends with Jocie€™s cousin (I hope I totally didn't misrepresent that), and Kim and Jocie even went to college together -- at least for awhile. All tell me that it was only a few years ago, on becoming neighbors, when the friendship and finally this collaboration blossomed.

*******

While the friendship, and especially in our discussion, seems easy-going and relaxed, this blogging business is treated as such. Each family is responsible for 10 posts a month, twenty in total, and the guys do frequently handle a bulk of the posts. Fred three one week, Ethan two. The following week this is then flip flopped, or at least that is how it all started out. The group talks too of roles within the team but are quick to point out that there is much overlap. I have come to think of Fred as the lead developer and spark plug, Ethan as the PR/Marketing guy with a knack for audio-visual, Jocie as the online networker - out there reading and commenting on other blogs, and Kim as the project manager €“ the information gatherer, great at communicating with contractors and others that the team must work with. Started on Blogspot and with some posts going up at the end of 2007 -- One Project Closer didn€™t officially launch until January of 2008. From there, growth has happened rather quickly -- the number of subscribers on the site today at 1410. Always consisting of how-to info, the site also now features product reviews and giveaways. Its roots though may still lie in more simple underpinnings. Again borrowing from the About page, ". . . Our site is unique because we relate to real people. We€™re two families who work on our homes and communities primarily at night and on weekends. . . . We€™re early adopters of tools and materials. We like doing home improvement projects ourselves. And we love telling readers about both. We use professional contracting services when they make sense, and we do our research so we and our readers get a lot out of every experience. . . ."

*******

OPC was the brain child of Fred, a computer programmer by day, who initially thought of jumping on the property ladder. The idea itself came to him when he and Kim were planning for the adoption of two young boys (as they ultimately did). As he puts it, €œI knew I€™d be tied to the house for a bit.€ The entire team heralds Fred's amazing drive, and his dedication to OPC ends up being no exception to this. On topic, Fred admits, €œI'm the kinda guy that always needs something to do.€ To help with planning, Fred turned to his friend Jim Wang at http://bargaineering.com, a popular personal finance blog. Jim had been doing his thing for a few years and Fred had asked his advice on building a successful blog. (Throughout our conversation, in fact, the entire team frequently credits Jim with valuable input.) Fred€™s first big challenge was recruiting Ethan, who at first was apprehensive. The fear: (my words) €œWould it be sustainable?€ The question: (Ethan's words) €œWould we have enough to write about?€ He learned quickly though, and now in Fred's words -- €œAs you work your way through a house over say five or six years €“ the projects just seem to come.€ Around this point, Ethan provides insight into some of their underlying attitudes. He tells of an experience recently with sweating on a copper plumbing valve. On first attempt, it leaked, he says. Jocie then chimes in to say -- on the second attempt, it popped fully off. And Ethan laughs. He says, €œI feel that most people are probably the most intimidated with plumbing. But with everything, it€™s really just getting over that initial hump €“ you know, the fear of failure. If you don€™t get it right the first time, just rip it out and redo it.€ Plus . . . as Jocie finishes, "We enjoy the work and, well, we enjoy saving the money." At this point, I ask, "Where do top tier home improvement bloggers go for information about home improvement?" Both Fred and Ethan credit their dads with being great sources of information. Of Fred€™s dad, Kim says €“ €œA lot of times he gives us (strange) advice €“ but he is usually always right!€ And Kim was actually the first to pipe up, €œ. . . As an (one-time) operational manager for a retirement community, well, the contractors we worked with €“ I would just ask a lot of questions.€ I continue, €œAre there websites that you go to when you need information?€ I turn immediately to Fred, he offers this up in one word €“ "Google." But then Ethan stops him. He says, €œWell, there is Todd Fratzel at homeconstructionimprovement.com. We will often bounce our projects off of him.€ Fred finishes by saying, €œI just emailed Todd today asking his opinion on the procedure we have selected for the leveling out our floor (mentioned above).€

*******

While the blog does have regular followers, most of their content is meant to target search engines. The goal as Fred says is to simply leave behind €œbetter information.€ All say €“ it (blogging) is an endurance sport that must be figured out as you go. The entire team is pretty open about offering tips for successful blogging, but all maintain that successful blogging does not happen over night. I would hope they would agree when I say -- you need time to grow systems, to figure out what works and what doesn€™t work. You need time to test things, get found, and grow an audience. As Fred finishes, €œIt is often a matter of trial and error and seeing what sticks.€ Strong networks both online and in the community, church groups and friends lending hands, they make this blogging thing look natural. The analogy was kicked around, "one weekend at your house, one weekend at someone else€™s house." And OPC appears to use these same principles in building relationships online. I asked each member of the team to give me one piece of which they are most proud. (I collected and provided a list of "Greatest Hits" below.) But Jocie, the communicator, interjects before we close up, she says, €œI am proud of Fred and Ethan€™s vision. We are about to do our third annual Summer Before and After Contest. For this, we name a winner weekly, and they receive a prize, but we send a matching contribution to Habitat to Humanity. It is a great way to educate on all of what Habitat does . . . ." And you can check it out by clicking the link above.

*******

I'd like to thank Fred, Ethan, Jocie and Kim for taking the time to meet with me. I wish them continued success.

More Moxie (Related Links):

Greatest Hits (as picked by the staff): Fred: Everything you could possibly need to know about Spray Foam Insulation -- http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/installing-spray-foam-insulation-video/ Kim: Rental Redo €“ A Super informative before and after of the redo of Fred and Kim's rental property -- http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/how-to-remodel-townhome-rental-renovation/ Ethan: Dig a Drainage Trench to Avoid Basement Flooding -- http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/dig-a-drainage-trench-to-avoid-basement-flooding/ Jocie: Paint Worth the Price -- http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/price-review-duron-ralph-lauren-behr-valspar-paint-vs/. Note: Jocie admits to being the most girly of the bunch (you know, writing on crafty topics), but check out this one that often gets referenced in passing conversation -- http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/how-to-make-homemade-barrettes/.

*******

[Sidebar] I am not sure if this information was garnered from Jim, but Fred himself now offers advice on developing a blog. He says a successful blog needs: 1. Good unique content, 2. A good relationship with other blogs (for inbound linking and other support) 3. A quality site design €“ in other words, it must make a positive first impression (it needs a good look, and feel, and so on) & 4. Monetization -- The biggest trick here is knowing how and when to do it. [End Sidebar]

cf2.1

jb — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:01:15 +0000

cf2.1

jb — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:02:16 +0000

cf2.2

jb — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:04:55 +0000

cf2.3

jb — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:06:33 +0000

cf2.4

jb — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:07:25 +0000

cf2.5

jb — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:09:03 +0000

Architect Optional: Rookie Remodelers Reno 5 Baltimore Warehouses

CalFinder — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:43:44 +0000

By Kayla Albert for contributor CalFinder Jim Kuhl didn€™t realize he had tackled the job of a trained architect until he was knee-deep renovating a row of crumbling buildings in Ridgely€™s Delight, Baltimore. Fortunately, Jim and his wife, Jennifer, were too dedicated to their dream home to stop and think that maybe they had bitten off more than they could chew.

After hearing that City of Baltimore was planning to sell a string of vacant properties in the neighborhood, the Kuhls went to work creating detailed renovation plans that could hold up under the scrutiny of the city and neighborhood association. Despite their lack of experience, they were given the go-ahead to start construction. First things first: the couple had to fix the building€™s structural problems€”a massive project all on its own. €œIt€™s amazing nothing collapsed,€ Jim told Style Magazine. €œThe buildings had been empty for 20 years. The roofs were in the basement.€ After nearly eight months, the structure was finally sound enough to support work on the interior walls. With a clean, contemporary style, the industrial feel of the space itself comes through in just the right places. The exposed brick and stainless steel in the kitchen, for instance, serve as a reminder of the building€™s past. Natural light pours through the windows and the original warehouse garage door. Plush furniture and decorative touches make the space seem formal, but not stuffy. Off the kitchen is a dressing room and master bathroom that the couple shares. The bedroom, however, sits atop a spiral staircase, where a short glass partition provides just enough privacy. It was a grueling three-and-a-half years before all of the renovations were finished, but considering the initial state of the buildings and the couple€™s total rookie status, I would say that€™s not so bad at all. And hey, the results speak for themselves. For more information about the remodel visit Baltimore Style.

sas

Barry — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:55:35 +0000

It ought to be simple like silence (on Technology Quietly Stated)

Barry — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:57:40 +0000

Technology, and its promise of simplicity, has been getting the better of me for the better part of my life. As gadgets have gotten smaller, their makers have turned to the menu to play the part of things like buttons and knobs. Menus really do a number on my brain. Selecting the correct combination to make a gizmo do what I want is hardly my strong suit. Manuals do not help too much because they run counter to the way I learn. I learn by watching and doing. Some manuals have plenty of illustrations to help us on our way. Like cave paintings, they are designed to communicate ideas without words. I get by with the picture book variety of manual fairly well but still find them no substitute for watching someone take hold of a knob and turn. It has been really something to watch the reversal of roles technology has brought about. Kids are great at adapting to and adopting new technology. They seem to understand it on a primal level and have become little teachers who show adults the way. Each generation takes their deep understanding of such things to new heights as they grow up to invent even newer technologies. If I could offer any advice to the makers of new things it would be that they ought to be simple like silence. Not silence as in the abscence of sound but as in a silence that makes sense. This may be harder and harder to achieve as the world becomes an ever nosier place. It has certainly become harder to focus on silence but I think, especially when it comes to new technology, it is very important that we do.

ReginaGaray

jb — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:06:20 +0000

After Entrance

Regina Garay — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:36:01 +0000

Beams 1

Regina Garay — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:36:07 +0000

BM Cab After

Regina Garay — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:36:14 +0000

BM Glazing

Regina Garay — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:36:26 +0000

BM Moorish Trellis

Regina Garay — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:36:50 +0000

BM Pink Pickled Oak Before

Regina Garay — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:37:14 +0000

BM Wood B42

Regina Garay — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:37:35 +0000

BM Wood During

Regina Garay — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:37:50 +0000

Ceiling - Walk on Water

Regina Garay — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:37:59 +0000

FreeformVine 2

Regina Garay — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:38:10 +0000

Metallo Arch

Regina Garay — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:38:17 +0000

Venetian Plaster Niche

Regina Garay — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:38:39 +0000

ReginaGaray

jb — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:53:36 +0000

Regina Garay :: The Fancy Painters are Here!

Regina Garay — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:43:15 +0000

When asked €œWhat do you do?€ and I invariably answer €œI€™m a faux finisher€, I sometimes get a quizzical look. I may follow up with €œI€™m an artist...a decorative painter€ but I usually end up in the neighborhood of €œI paint murals€...to which everyone then goes €œAhhh!€. I haven€™t yet found an answer that works 100% of the time and I don€™t mind the confusion since my own husband thought the glazes I work with are the same as can be found on doughnuts. It makes me smile. A faux finisher is an artist that uses materials in a unique way to create false (€œfaux€ in French) or decorative illusions. It€™s OK if you call us the €œfancy painters€ as well €“ many trades do! [As in, upon our arrival at a good-natured jobsite: "Oh, you guys - the fancy painters. Check it out everyone: The Fancy Painters are here!"] Our industry can be viewed as a luxury, but in actuality, there are a few ways we support the needs of both the building and design industry: Affordable Fix-ups: An inexpensive way to avoid demolition and clean-up costs is to hire a finisher. Most have worked on a variety of surfaces -- cabinets can be refinished, countertops given a fresh look, wood can be matched seamlessly and light fixtures can have their patinas transformed. All this without needing to tear down or buy new. Maryland artisan Dee Cunningham of Deelite Design says, €œI have probably painted nearly every surface imaginable. It€™s essential to know what materials work best on a given substrate to create a truly professional look.€ I believe that is a key component. It€™s important that when you do hire a finisher that the end result look seamless and not €œpainted€. And savings? My company was hired to woodgrain the all white glossy cabinetry in a large hotel restaurant. They wanted it to look like cherry wood and of course, it needed to withstand the rigors of a restaurant. Tearing out the glossy white cabinetry and replacing it with cherry wood would have cost the owners 3 times as much as our estimate. The result? We finished it in record time, some of the other trades could not believe it wasn€™t real wood and it has and will continue to hold up beautifully. It is the art of illusion, of course -- durable illusion.

Restaurant Before (L) and After (R)

Work Within Design Plan: Adding a layer of interest on surfaces is what finishers, as a trade, are called in for. There might be times when the design of a house calls for a good balance of multiple finishes and times when just one perfect accent area completes the look. A finisher often works with techniques such as glazing, Venetian plaster, decorative scrollwork and mural elements. They can also tailor the finishes to work in several design styles: a streamlined look for a modern home, patterns within a Moorish design or a nice mix of textures for a traditional home. Also remember that good style doesn't necessarily mean a good amount of money -- builders, designers and trades have versatile options to ensure that a good level of beauty can be had at any budget. Color: Artisans are adept at mixing and pairing colors. Most finishers have undergone Color Theory training and can also match colors easily. €œI€™ve developed finishes that take into the elements in a space in order to unify everything,€ Dee Cunningham adds. "We can also use our keen sense of color to help tweak something if it wasn't delivered in the correct finish." A finisher that has those talents can help immensely in helping to choose the right tones for a home and residence, help with colors that are not working together or bring a color around that is just a bit €œoff€.

Pink Pickled Cabinets Before (L) and into a warmer color transformation (R)

The faux finishing industry is one that adapts to the changing tides of design. Products and techniques are constantly updated and it is exciting for most artisans to see and reflect these changes €“ we are a mercurial group, after all. I personally fell into it after rooming with a film set designer and she introduced me to the world of decorative painting...which I call my "true love" career. I hope you€™ve enjoyed this inaugural post. If you have any questions or comments, by all means post away -- but for the record: no, the glazes used are not the same glaze as on doughnuts. Devastating, I know. :) Have a wonderful weekend!

tf_1__in_shop

jb — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 02:23:22 +0000

tf__1_raising

jb — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 02:24:21 +0000

Cj.clr.72dpi

jb — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 02:37:13 +0000

tf_1_interior

jb — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 02:51:19 +0000

Jeff Arvin :: It was Twenty Years Ago Today (An Anniversary)

Cascade Joinery — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:00:48 +0000

(with sincerest apologies to Lennon and McCartney)

June 6, 2010 -- Twenty years ago today, we were working on our very first timber frame. [gallery link="file" columns="4"] Craig and I founded Cascade Joinery in 1990 with one computer, three Eagle Scouts, equal amounts of good luck, talent and persistence, a dash of knowledge, a few handfuls of experience and a triple helping of naivetÃ©. The Eagle Scouts were invaluable, but luck, persistence and naivetÃ© rather have probably contributed most to our longevity. NaivetÃ© was (and continues to be) helpful, because if we had known what we were getting into, we probably would not have done it. Persistence is what helps us plow through the enormous (and unending) learning curve required to grow a business. Luck is a product of persistence, as I believe good luck happens, well, when you keep showing up. By now, we have shown up often enough to have completed over 300 projects in 20 states as well as some in Canada and Japan. And well over 150 people have worked with us, a fact that, for me, brought home the biggest amount of C-H-A-N-G-E we have seen throughout the years. And I know change is a topic that€™ll make your eyes roll into the back of your head. I€™ve seen it. I€™ve done it. Reams of former forests have been dedicated to the topic (remember that awful book Who Moved my Cheese?). ClichÃ© though it may be, change is inevitable and we all have to deal with it. If any further proof is required, I started timber framing in my late 20€™s, and now, in my mid-50€™s, the evidence of change is dramatic. Along with the obvious physical changes come changes in circumstance typical of maturing people and therefore of maturing companies. So you gotta change and the ability to do so is the key to longevity. On any given day, we can take a look around the company, and wonder who won€™t be here next year. Somebody€™s going to be moving on. Life happens. Of course we don€™t know who or why, but we can be certain that we are going to have to replace somebody. From my perspective, maintaining the quality that our customers expect and ensuring the continuing function of the organization is of primary importance. But also with maturity comes the pleasure (?) of looking back. It€™s not always pretty. And since we built timber frame number one, we€™ve hit some curious milestones . . . Like hiring people who were born after we started the company. Or having employees whose parents are younger than me! I hate that. Longevity, though, beats the alternative. And it has been a great ride. Cascade Joinery timber frame number one was a pretty good effort. Craig and I and the Eagle Scouts scribed a €œtree€ into a frame that overlooks the Nisqually River. The 1500 +/- square foot home was conceived to be a living gallery for the owner€™s sculpture (see photos). Last we saw of the house, the surroundings were lavishly gardened, and we heard that the owner had married, had acquired a 13 year old step daughter and had added a new master suite. And now we€™ve lost touch. The phone number is not in service; the post office box is closed€”more evidence of inevitable change. Now that we€™re 20 years old (next year we€™ll be old enough to buy a beer!), I€™ve begun to think a lot about the M-word€”Maturity. To achieve maturity, you have to live long enough, and . . . you have to live long enough to survive your mistakes. Our friend George frequently says, €œGood judgment is gained by experience and experience is gained by bad judgment.€ And so it is. Notes from the hosts: We would like to thank Jeff Arvin for providing these reflections about his business. Twenty years is certainly a huge milestone and congrats go to him from us. Please feel free to add yours below. Cascade Joinery is a premier timber frame design/build company based out of Bellingham,Washington. Jeff was tagged for this project by Pam Hinton who was tagged for this project by Splintergirl Amy Good who was tagged for this project by emk_Architect Earl Mark Kaplan.

tapedcaulking

jb — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:24:04 +0000

doingthis

jb — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:25:44 +0000

supertuff

jb — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:28:07 +0000

topside

jb — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:29:36 +0000

Coming out of the Closet, well, Kinda Almost (Kitchen Soon)

jb — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:52:44 +0000

I guess it is time for me to update you on some of the work going on around my house. Andddd . . . while I *do* wish I had a name for it (like some other super bloggers I know), it for now remains simply "the farm." I will be working on the kitchen soon, a fact that I have mentioned frequently to almost anyyyyone that I thought would care to hear. It is partially complete. . . that is -- before we moved in, we laid out, built and installed our cabs (my cabinet guy built the boxes and he installed them). We updated plumbing, electric and hvac, slapped in some lights and capped those cabs with some salvaged granite. ("Salvaged granite," you might say €“ well, that is a story for another time). We installed some fixtures, and we chose stainless for the appliances . . . which I installed myself. Where did this get us? Well . . . to about ½ a kitchen. Enough to live with €“ but my wife actually broke down in tears recently with the simple suggestion that we had lived like this for about four years now. And I can't really blame her. One of the biggest highlights of the work I will be doing (and maybe I break out the moxieCam) -- cutting a pass-thru opening in the wall that divides the kitchen from the living room. Other fun in here €“ we will be installing a custom-built hutch and a cute little bench under a window. I should mention that there is an island too that we have been noodling, but . . . this actually is well up in the air. While painful at times, one thing our extended timeline has given us is, well, time . . . and we (me and the misses) have discussed these alterations like forever. But . . . before I could get into any of it €“ I felt it necessary to address (separately) both a closet and a pantry that adjoin the kitchen. My work there has included some fixes on exterior issues, too, in and around these locations.

*******

But now I am nearly finished with the coat closet. And I am almost ready to move out of it €“ into, well, another closet €“ the pantry. I'll sum up first some of the work I did in the closet: The first big issue I had to deal with (and yes it had been gutted for awhile and . . . was acting pretty effectively as a rather large toy chest) one badly eaten corner stud. I€™ve told you of the termites that had there way with this house for many, many years, right? No. Well, maybe? . . . Anyway -- not really a big deal and not getting all funky with it, I removed a haphazardly installed sister in favor of a stud that would actually run down to and bear on the home's central beam span. Right near this, I dug out a bunch of rotten and decomposing wood from along the house's sill. A messy job that took far too long. For this, my primary tool was a flat bar. I worked briefly on a low section of the porch just on the other side of the wall (pictured). And we continue to work on the porch roof flashing and exterior paint there, almost as we speak. Before hanging drywall, I installed a layer of Super TUFF rigid insulation by Dow (after checking in of course with their help line). I tooled around with the floor finish (and No, I have not yet nailed this). My tests are ongoing. To fit in a neatly leveled ceiling, at a height for the folks of today €“ I added a 2€ v-notch (not too proudly) to the offset stringer of the turned stairs above. Other unorthodox behavior in this little room included framing the doorway in an existing wall where no framed wall existed. What I mean -- the original wainscoting, you see, was sent through the finished flooring and was attached directly to the floor system, the joist below. And that's it. I did not want to disturb it, so I compensated by framing out the doorway using 2x4s laying flat €“ 3 ½" wide on the facing side. Later I capped (or covered) the framing with a combination of primed 1x pine and poplar, for a spartan, but eventually painted finish. To cover the underside of the stringers, I selected what else €“ cedar paneling €“ you know that 5/16€ variety that you can find at almost any home center. (I mean who doesn€™t love the smell of cedar and it is great in closets!) I installed just one shelf (per my wife's spec) on two handy little shelf/pole brackets (on sale for 90c each at the HD). Note: I did find it funny that with HD and well with the blue store too, each had an amble supply of 1 1/4€, 1 5/16€ and 1 ½€ poles/dowels €“ but all associated socket hardware was stocked only in a 1 3/8€ size. (Must be I don€™t know everything I need to know about closet design. But no matter, I decided to forgo that method anyhow.) I still have separate sets of hooks that I plan to mount to some scrap 1x. A little router work and I just saved myself $40, easy. Plus . . . a good project for me and the girls, I have let them paint the "boards" already. I will mount the hooks and hang the rails later. I painted with marine paint for the first time. This alkyd paint, easy to use and fairly easy to clean up, worked very well on the MDF I was using for the shelf. The blue store had it, and I had been meaning to pick up a quart for awhile. (I had always heard it is great for original wood window pockets €“ you know, like the ones I have. But make sure to read the prep instructions before you purchase.)

*******

I now turn my attention to the pantry where I have the following items planned: Some plaster fixes and patches (I removed a large section of plaster in here to access the wiring on a set of sconces mounted above our fireplace€™s mantle). I will be painting/staining near original wainscoting and flooring. I will work on some poorly supported and now sagging shelving. Electrical work will not only light the pantry, but it will also finally connect some needed exterior lighting. And lastly I plan on flipping an inswinging door (initially hung here) to make it outswinging. I hope on these items I have a little more time to write and, well, to tell you about What I Did. Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore!

butterfly

jb — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 01:51:22 +0000

Richard Holschuh :: Upside Down and Backwards: How to Start at the Beginning

concretedetail — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:17:15 +0000

Note from the hosts: Rich makes things of concrete, and he can be credited with a few other things. 15 -- Please take ten minutes to read this, then take five minutes to think how it might apply to what you do. For part one of this essay, click here. Thank you.

*******

Once there is an awareness of the basic €œprocess of process€, which is doublespeak for having a clue, any problem or situation can be tackled. It may be a simple task such as hanging a picture or a complex one such as siting a house on a lot. In my mind, it is akin to having a backward perspective: knowing where you want to end up and then stepping backward from there, €˜til the beginning is found. Exactly what those steps may be doesn€™t really matter at this point. They will fill in on their own, in a series of mini-analyses re-enacting the basic premise on a smaller scale. It is beginning properly which matters most. I like to say, partly in jest, partly in self-deprecation, and partly in truth that I do all of my best work upside-down and backwards. Now, this is very true because I am a concrete artisan, creating countertops, sinks, and other architectural surfaces using forms into which fluid concrete is placed to reproduce the shapes and effects of the mold. The final finished side of the casting is the one which is face down in the form. So left is right and up is down, front is back and innies are outies€¦ As a former carpenter, it reminds me of cutting and installing crown molding, which can be a very real challenge to a beginner. And you have to admit it is kinda funny to be able to make this claim with regard to one€™s work €“ upside down and backwards: €œ€¦and you get paid for this?€ Yeah, ain€™t that the coolest! Concrete reproduces faithfully (perhaps I should say unforgivingly) the form into which it is placed. Quid pro quo. Garbage in, garbage out. It becomes a material witness to the care and respect invested in its birthplace. All of the concrete commissions we create in our studio are undertaken with this fact uppermost in mind. There is no machining of features and profiles after the fact €“ it is all planned, formed and cast from the outset €“ badda bing badda boom. No drilling, routing, or assembling. You get one try and that€™s it. And so, having this mentality, this approach whereby one must envision the outcome, very clearly in the mind€™s eye so as to arrive there successfully, you must know where to start. And as with all journeys, it begins with a single step. What is that step? That step springs from the knowledge of €œgetting your bearings€. If you don€™t know where you€™re coming from, you can€™t plan the trip, not one iota. Even Google will give you a blank stare. Experience helps a great deal here. Intuition (a form of internalized experience) does as well. Instruction or mentoring can be a kickstart. Again, the goal must be kept in mind €“ the primary tenets of that goal €“ not the actual bit of solid matter that is produced by the process, for which the client is paying and which steals all the glory €“ but the €œexperience€ or €œdream€, which is providing the incentive for the act of creation, and manifests as a cash transaction for tangible goods. I explain this (to my helpers or anyone within earshot) as: €œIt€™s not how you get there. It€™s what it looks like when you€™re done.€ If you end up with a pleasing result for all concerned, the means are excusable (within business-like reason, if you€™re in this to prosper). OK! €“ concrete example. Going back to the very beginning, the critical parameters and desired outcomes which should guide the creation of a countertop, for example, are not the cost, the smoothness, the type of cement used. These are superficial and not foundational; if attention is paid and care is invested in beginning properly, these things will follow. Many a beginner gets swept up in formulas, fancy materials, the latest gizmo or technological advances. They are nothing, if not distracting and certainly obscuring, the true essence of creating a countertop for a client (or anything else, for that matter). To my mind, this is what really matters (the rest is filler):

The final result needs to €œbelong€ in its environment. It should not look contrived, forced, overstep its presence, or be€in your face€. This is a gut reaction.
It should demonstrate mastery of workmanship and attention to fundamentals, such as scale and form. This is technical and artistic prowess.
It should deliver on the mission it is called to perform. This is common sense.
It should enrich its owner/user€™s life experience. This is the whole point of being in a creative business endeavor.

Exactly what some of these €œstarting points€ or €œbasic tenets€ may be will be the subject for another installment, it seems. The nuts and bolts, the rubber hitting the road, all that happy stuff. All of the trades have their unique aspects of process, but there is an awful lot of crossover between seemingly disparate undertakings: we can all learn from each other by listening, sharing and comparing. I enjoy speaking with people of all inclinations (except stupidheads €“ oh, did I say that out loud?) €“ I always come away with something new and useful. And that€™s good €“ that€™s what life as a human is all about. Join in.

*******

Another note from the hosts: First, if you live in NH, VT, MA and need a countertop, check out: http://www.concretedetail.com. Second, I really like how and what Rich writes . . . please RT, comment; send him a personal email through his website. . . . Give him props -- can you say "man crush?" -- This dude's got it going on -- ok, a little over the top? -- anyway. Thanks Rich, jb

ajw

jb — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:13:50 +0000

ajw_cropped

jb — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:15:53 +0000

Oh No! My Other Me is Moving :: A Farewell to Casa Moxie

jb — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:23:17 +0000

The subject read: €œCan I bounce something off of you?€ It came to me thru Facebook where we are friends, and she is very active. This girl, the girl I know, and maybe you have seen me tweet it -- "My Sister in Moxie" or "Sista Moxie!" for short. And yes, I am referring to the one and only e-Decorating interior designer Alycia Wicker. She has been a guest poster on this blog. She was writing to ask my advice and/or opinion on how best to move her blog. I mean -- What?! Come on! The first thing into my mind. "No more "Casa Moxie?!!!! WhatThe5555!" I mean -- (ermmm) I certainly did like the site design she had going. And my response . . . €œSure.€ After all, as an experienced (hrrmmm, hrrmmm) blog mover, I was more than willing to lend a friend . . . a hand.

We talked out what she wanted to do -- me of course trying to hit her up for some guest posting action. A smart sista, though, she fought off my advances and ultimately is "techier" than she originally lead on. She was able to make the move (from one Wordpress blog to another Wordpress blog) with one quick button-click. (Right? A.) And on looking back -- I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised or curious about her motivation. She, after all, has been going through some noticeable changes. Case in point -- her handle on Twitter changed recently from @ajwdesignco to @AlyciaWicker. And this maybe just the next step in the evolution of a business lady, her blog fully moved from CasaMoxie.com to http://ajwdesignco.com/blog/. (My universe shifted . . . well, kinda.) I know I will still find straight-up, ego-free advice and other stories of sass from one of the internet€™s foremost, and original, designing dames (writer's embellishment). That's her . . . now just my (Facebook) friend, Alycia Wicker. I wish her ongoing success, and hope you will check her out . . . . . . . now!

*******

Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore! (and maybe still she might bequeath the domain name to someone *you* might know -- hint hint)

Cattails

Barry — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:43:44 +0000

What do you know? or Minding our Matters

Barry — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 12:25:01 +0000

Before the age of google, some of my friends and I had a thing called History Club. History Club, often accompanied by cocktails, was basically four or five people sitting around who would pick a random historical event or figure and then discuss the things we knew about it or them. Someone would say €œNapoleon€ and someone might add €œhe was the guy who began the tradition of putting ornamental buttons on dress jackets to keep his soldiers from wiping their noses on their sleeves€. History Club was a fascinating and often hysterical glimpse into the collective knowledge of a group. We would pick a mixture of things that were well known and obscure and the night often ended with outright fabrication and twisted history similar to those fractured fairy tales on the Bullwinkle show.

One thing I liked about History club was that the well from which to draw was deep. Bullwinkle could just as easily have been the topic of conversation as Tiananmen Square and we encouraged one another to be as forthcoming as possible with what we thought we knew. Sometimes, saying that stuff out loud would encourage me to think about where I came by some of my information and this is what my post is really about.

I think the mind is an amazing hunter/gatherer. It is always on the lookout for information, weighing the legitimacy of sources and trying to determine if the information obtained is worth storing away and repeating to others. As an example, I once heard that firefighters really hate metal joist hangers because they have a very low melting point and can fail easily in a fire endangering them. I do not know for sure it is true but I feel like the now forgotten source was credible. And I feel like I may have heard it from more than one credible source. Here€™s the rub, after having worked with metal joist hangers a good bit and spending some time amongst working blacksmiths, I cannot be sure that the second credible source was not me. By that I mean that I may have taken in this information at one point, deemed it legitimate based on what I know and then embellished the story to bolster my belief. It is possible.

Is what we really know is all mixed up with what we think we know? More than once I have heard something come out of my mouth that I had to question. I mean, how do I really know that lichen is a sign of good air quality? I am not a lichen specialist but I read it online in an article that seemed pretty authoritative. Was it written by a lichen specialist? I don€™t know.

Today, I stopped for a Gatorade and noticed I was parked in front of a bunch of cattails. Did you know, if you dry a cattail, you can light it with a match, it will smolder and the smoke will keep away mosquitoes? No kidding, someone told me so when I was little.

Making Sense of Green Certifications

TheGreenBuilder — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:38:29 +0000

Those who follow me on Twitter or who read my blog know that I'm not a big fan of LEED or any other any other third party verification system that expects payment from the very project it is verifying, or that has a non-competitive legislative mandate. First, let me say that I fully recognize the good work the USGBC has done over the years. It, more than any other organization or government entity (including Energy Star), is responsible for the upsurge of interest in improving the energy efficiency of our buildings. But that doesn't make the LEED approach the best approach, as the recent lawsuit over LEED's hyping of its Gold Certification standard points out. Or, an even more blatant example is BPI's shameless strategy of self promotion in its HomeStar legislation, where it managed to get the U.S. Congress to force participating contractors to become BPI -- and only BPI -- certified. The mandate was written right into the law, and is the equivalent of the Government saying you can only buy Fords, not Chevys or Hondas, if you want to participate in their program. If there's any sense left amongst legal watch dogs, this move should promulgate a blizzard of antitrust suits. Little known BPI should be proud. You should be scared. Now, this isn't to say that we don't need continuing education in the construction industry. In fact, it's about time contractors joined the engineers and architects in that regard. Nor is it to say that we don't need third party verifiers. We need both training and verification. We need the correct mix of government/private partnership; the right laws, and the right regulations that point industry in the right directions. First, government should set minimum training standards for those participating in the programs its sponsoring, rather than mandating a specific training and certification provider. Any private sector provider can then setup a training and certification program so long as it meets the requirements set forth in the law or regulation. This is, in fact, the tactic used the majority of time by both state and federal agencies. The HERS program is a fine example. What possessed the Congress to step over this very important line with HomeStar is beyond me. Second, while private firms should be free to create their own building certification programs (this is still supposed to be a free market economy), they should not be allowed to verify compliance of a project using their standard, nor should they be allowed to collect any fees from anyone associated with the project. Only independent, third party certifiers should be allowed to audit the paperwork and prove the building meets the standard. If a project is striving for LEED Gold, for example, the owner or project manager might choose to bring in a third party quality control specialist to watch dog the entire project. At the end of the project the quality control specialist would then certify the building. Another approach would be for a certified inspector to be brought in after the fact, say a certified HERS rater, to audit the project and certify the building. Finally, the rating provider, LEED in this example, could challenge the certifier's findings if it disagreed. Such disputes are healthy for all involved and would serve as a final check and balance in the system. What's important to note in the examples is that I have created a four legged chair with a back. The design/construction team is separate from the rating provider, who in turn is separate from the rating certifier and the training provider. And, because no system is perfect, the back of the chair is the appeal process, probably through the courts or arbitration. Whatever was specified in the contracts. Only when training, standards, and verification are kept separate will we have a system that works well €” for the industry and the consumer.

michael_matson

jb — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 02:47:26 +0000

plasterlath

jb — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:01:04 +0000

closedoff

jb — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:02:07 +0000

plastic

jb — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:02:46 +0000

dustflying

jb — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:03:59 +0000

More Reality about Working with the RRP Rule (It s Hot and Uncomfortable!)

Holly Bertsch — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:01:44 +0000

Well, our first big lead-based job is underway and let me tell you working it lead-safe has been a bear. The closed off areas are hot and we cannot run a fan or let any air in. The dust still gets under the masks and we actually go outside often to get some fresh air and to get away from the suits and the masks (even though it is still very hot and humid outside). Right now, we are tearing apart a kitchen, and the demo work has taken a lot longer than expected. It has put us behind on the whole project. Thank goodness no one is living there though; we can work later and on weekends. In the past, we had just shoveled plaster out the window and into our truck. Now every bit of it, including the lath has to be bagged and goose-necked with duct tape. And it has to be bagged again when the lath or the plaster breaks a little hole in the bag. We have gone through like one hundred bags and counting. The kitchen isn€™t even that big! It is also not done, as we are just now tearing apart the sub floor. To add insult to injury, the EPA announced that contractors now have until September 30^th to register for the new RRP deadline and until December 31^st to take their class. They pushed it back to allow more contractors time to get certified and not be operating against the law. That means some of my friends are working lead jobs, being untrained and exposing people to lead. In the mean time, I have to do the plastic, Tyvek suits and the Swiffer test. Let us just hope they don€™t pass the third party wipe down requirement! Anyhow, one of the reasons this demolition is taking so long is because we are so hot and uncomfortable in the house. Anyone who has torn out plaster knows how much fun that isn€™t, but it is even worse in the suits, and the masks, and the heat. And I can€™t help but think, as I carry the trash bags out to the covered dump trailer we are fortunate enough to have, that this is a lot of plastic we are throwing away. I am trying to understand why this stuff has to be in plastic bags when the outside of the bags themselves get so dusty from being in the area -- I know I am exposing the outdoors to lead. Am I supposed to wipe down each bag as I carry them out? I don€™t remember that from class. I also think about all of the times I have done this exact same type of job without the suits, the masks, and the plastic. Sure, I feel confident that I left the job site clean when I was done with a complete demo, because I clean a job site like nobody€™s business (or hire it out to be cleaned, which I do often). But I am wondering how much lead I have been exposed to. Maybe I should have a blood test?

2

jb — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:38:42 +0000

Richard Holschuh :: Building with Toothpicks

concretedetail — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:40:33 +0000

I have been thinking a little about what lies behind the concept of building, using the example of a house but not necessarily limited to that per se. These thoughts can be applied to any creative undertaking€¦ however, constructing a dwelling most definitely fits into the paradigm spawning many of my mental meanderings of late. I often think of the abstract in terms of metaphor and analogy €“ the fun of wordplay, double entendres, and the layers of meaning that can be embedded in the written and spoken word are a wonder to me. The power of language to convey a message, even to evoke the senses in an actual physical response is a never ending source of inspiration and food for thought €“ sustenance for my hungry brain. The analogy that has been occupying my thought lately is that of framing and building out a structure. The parts within parts€¦. It could be said (playing fast and loose here) that an average stick-built house is made of 60 trees. Or it is made of 13,000 2 x 4€™s. Or possibly 120 million toothpicks. Point being, that anything can be looked at through a myriad of viewpoints. The perspective is colored by the viewer €“ the act of viewing changes the whole picture. One person sees (or feels, or believes) a certain thing €“ it is incontrovertible to them, because they saw it with their own eyes. But someone else sees something entirely different €“ again, with their own two eyes. They are both right, but perhaps some are €œmore right€. Some people see shallowly, others see deeply. The depth of impression can depend on many things, one of them being awareness based on intrinsic understanding, gained through experience and intimate familiarity and the attunement that follows. The act of €œgetting your bearings€ or finding €œthe beginning€ in a process are examples of this. Let€™s take an example: a layperson, a random average pedestrian walking down the street, who sees a building at the side of the road. That may literally be all they see. Another person comes along, and sees a block shaped house that has been there for quite a few years. There€™s a small registration in second-passerby that this is older construction in a certain geometric form. The next person sees a turn of the century residence with a stucco exterior, strong symmetry, and a pyramidal roof. They have some sense of what makes this house different from another. The following onlooker sees a Foursquare Style with a hipped roof: gracious wide overhangs and ornate Arts and Crafts wooden detailing show under the eaves, whereas the nearly identical house across the street has no corbels or brackets, having been vinyl-sided and stripped of its characteristic trim. They have a more comparative perspective. All of these viewers are completely correct, but some see more deeply and can respond closer to the core of the situation. The layers of the onion have been exposed a little more. The building of a house is a series of steps within steps, endlessly broken down into sub procedures and decisions. And these separate parts, such as the building shell, the insulation envelope, the HVAC, the surface finish, the orientation, etc. are all interrelated and in the best examples, fully integrated and cohesive. The systems, each complex in their own right, form a system of systems. This does not happen accidentally or as the result of reading a book. It€™s the result of awareness, choosing to care, and maintaining focus on the things that matter, all the while keeping peripheral vision scanning the corners. Noticing interactions, relationships, details. From the tree to the toothpick, it€™s all there, if you look for it. Keep your eyes clear, go beyond the surface, squint a little, see the shape of what lurks within the obvious. Hone this ability €“ let it become second nature. What lies beneath is a never-ending fascination.

*******

Note from the hosts: Rich is definitely on a roll with this exploration into the essence of perception. We are always glad to have him, and we hope to have him back, well, again and again. You may also find him blogging here: http://concretedetail.com/blog/. Check out his most recent post on Successful Design . . . now!

Photo Credit: Thanks too to Barry for makin' it happen with a late afternoon photo shoot. Love what you came up with b. jb

dot dot dot so you can call me homie (a punky jazzy piece)

jb — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:15:24 +0000

For awhile now, I have been infatuated with the rhythm of writing. I have explained this to b; in my life and when I have had time to formally study the craft of writing, I also happened to be studying, well, music . . . at the time. And not for any sort of conscious willfulness the connection was made. One of those things, I guess, that just entered, because it was time for it to enter. What I mean by the rhythm of writing €“ the idea that you could string several long sentences together, a mosh up of clauses, joined in some cases for flow €“ in other cases €“ random thoughts injected, usually accented with some sort of punctuation . . . . Each phrase filled with words placed next to each other like some divine ordering of things, or instead like a random act of fuckery. A mixing of active and passive sometimes ending, precariously, with a simple sentence fragment. For a time in my life too, I was a fan of Trey Anastasio, the lead vocalist and guitarist for the band Phish. Myself always better on the bass then on the guitar, but I remember back to an interview he did with Guitar magazine. The year probably 1996. From that article €“ there were two main points that stuck with me . . . always, and both have impact on this rambling€¦ 1. He as a musician truly believed that he was nothing more than a conduit channeling the €œthings€ around him. & 2. That it (the music) was nothing more, really, than an exercise in tension and release (loosely grouped under a heading called dynamics). His band Phish of course €“ masters of creating €œdiscord€ disrupting the flow of things €“ placing themselves in its path, tweaking it just so slightly (as *that is* the limit of the power they have over such things) €“ holding it briefly and . . . sometimes intensely, but moments later letting it go -- on again allowing it to seek its way along the only course it could . . . find. And now . . . . I will give no more attention to this proposition (because I haven€™t proposed) of the orgasmic quality of music. Nor will I give any time to the concept that there is a deep correlation between music and the act of writing. But . . . it. does. pretty much sum up what I am trying to do, well . . . here. And indeed in this, what I try to do . . . . Could I even say that I have perfected it? Well, no! Not even close. Should I even allow myself to type that sentence . . . ? I did and it's done €“ and enter a new movement into this dialogue. You see, a friend pointed out recently . . . my €œgratuitous€ use of ellipses . . . . Yes, a formally accepted element of punctuation that signifies either omission or alternative . . . a literary €œyada yada€ if you will. And yes, I do, at times, use them in this most traditional and accepted manner. But . . . in more than some cases I use them, well, to a set a speed bump €“ like the pause or a slow mo button you might find on your TV remote. . . . €œWhat does a yellow [yada yada] mean . . .?€ And enforced! To pick one reason and one reason only though -- I use them instead, frequently and sometimes excessively -- to simply . try . to . €œstay€ in rhythm. This would be clearer of course if you could spend just ten minutes in an office with me somewhere as I clack away at keys. I approve its use as an editor almost all too liberally, and try not to fight it back; this habit . . . . After all, I do have a fairly conversational style, and they do pop up more frequently than need be . . . in informal communication.

*******

Now . . . ! To delve into what I actually set out to write about: The word, title, self-descriptive, etc . . . €œFoodie€ (where did that come from?). It really . . . really bugs me! As if I am some protector of the English language, or any sort of grammar or anything €“ I do quite enjoy running with €œmade€ terms; a few . . . used above. (And forgive me all, sincerely, no sincerely -- please, if I blew out our PG-13 rating here.) But come on €“ does this word annoy anyone else? "Foodie" -- I mean -- what the fuck does that mean?! . . . Like "a five year misson [yada yada} where no man (hrrrrmmm) has gone before " . . . . . . but in FOOD?! What the . . . Mogg . . . it!!!!! And it's not even Friday. . . . And it€™s not like I don't, now, know its origin:

Foodie is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink. The word was coined in 1981 by Paul Levy and Ann Barr, who used it in the title of their 1984 book The Official Foodie Handbook.

. . . I am, and you know, one for filler, with this space now filled. I mean €“ is it fair then . . . to call me homie? I invite you to invite me into your house . . . and I promise you . . . your woodwork will be fondled, your feng shui ogled and your mini blinds on the floor . . . ! Fair? Homie? (I guess I just have to write the book.) Thanks . . . good night! Yes, I'm a scorpio, and we'll be here all week . . . .

*******

Anywayyyyyyy -- Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore!

*******

or. . . maybe I am a hippie (or a college student) 3:00 mark -- Phish's "Free" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aFByioqlPE More on Foodies -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foodie

nick

jb — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:16:52 +0000

Old House

jb — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:11:39 +0000

Nick Lovelady :: Toddlers and ToolBelts (House to Home)

cupboards — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:15:16 +0000

[caption id="attachment_4026" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Snow in 1980"][/caption] In 1979 my parents bought their first house, a 560 square foot matchbox that was covered in Kudzu (a foot-a-night vine that has virtually eaten entire chunks of the South). The first time that my father showed his prize new property to his soon-to-be bride he had to cut said Kudzu off the front stoop in order for them to enter and see the small, country house. Shortly after being married and moving in my parents decided to start two projects, each I doubt they expected to take as long as they have: Remodeling their house and building a family. I have faint recollections of the small home my young parents moved into - I do remember the initial major renovation - I was four years old. The day the ceiling came down was particularly memorable. My grandfather and father pulled the living room ceiling down as mother and I watched from the front porch. I€™m sure the asbestos dust, lead paint and ancient insulation are why we are the way we are. Still, I was mesmerized by the project. That particular addition added over 1500 square feet and a brother and sister. Later a play room, den and garage swelled the house€™s footprint even more. Because we were in the country, barn expansions, a hay barn and pump house took additional construction time. Before our family moved in the mid 1990€™s, the initial square footage had grown fivefold. The bottom line of the story is that in each stage of the development of my childhood home, we kids were part of the construction crew. Only once, that I remember, did we contract out any of the labor. Now that I have a home of my own, thinking of taking on a major renovation or tripling the square footage in a single swoop almost makes my head spin - and that€™s just thinking about it. The common stresses of a remodel don€™t affect the psyche of a child - resilience reigns. Remodeling for children is a game - an opportunity to truly grow one€™s home. There are so many ways that parents can involve their children in a project. Does it take longer? Sure. Will you have a bigger mess than the one you€™ve already made? Probably. Will the kids laugh at your expense when you fall off the ladder and fracture ribs? Guaranteed (yes it actually happened. Dad later told us that had he been able to get to us we would€™ve gotten it!) The knowledge acquired is immeasurable, and it offers the opportunity of a young €˜un to take ownership and be proud of the end result. We as building professionals too often overlook the elementary lessons in seemingly complex planning - laying out studs for new walls, mastering a real measuring tape (the ones with the little lines), or counting tiles for a run. I don€™t think that children are effective framers or roofers, even though we tried our best to do both (last time we carried bundles of roof shingles up a ladder I swore I would never do it again). I had a quick talk with Mom about this very topic the other day, and as I approach 30 we realized that my parents have been entrenched in a construction project of some flavor for at least 27 of my 29 and a half years- for each project, not only have my siblings and I been involved, but often consulted. Now whether or not our ideas were considered is irrelevant - we had a part in the project. My parents live in a house now without children, until of course my little brother takes his brood of four little ones over. Already my nieces and nephew are getting the same dose of sawdust that we got. As Ben Franklin so wisely said, €œAn investment in knowledge pays the best interest.€ So before you start that remodel, plan to involve your children. They are a part of the team, after all. When you get stressed out about deadlines and budgets going through the roof, take a cue from your kids - Learn a lesson, don€™t give up and create a lasting memory with your family.

*******

Note from the hosts: (Wiping the tear from our eyes) We'd like to thank Nick for this simply incredible post. Remodeling is an activity I try to involve my own children in, and this post really resonates. Nick can be found blogging at http://cupboardsonline.com. He may also be found on Twitter @Cupboards. Nick is based in Sylacauga, AL. Thanks again Nick! jb

I Know . . . I Know (BMoxie on Hiatus)

jb — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:28:27 +0000

. . . about the speed of the site. and mainly because of this . . . we will refrain from posting until some improvements can be made. Well . . . that, and I am going on vaca with the fam. Get this . . . though, we are vacationing in Rehobeth Beach, DE. Yes, in the slower, lower €“ b€™s part of the world. It will be a great opportunity for the board of directors to convene AND to discuss such high level topics as . . . What the hell is this site about? I think we have come to the conclusion, and as we have received posts from a wide and varying group of cool kids. . . (you know who you are) . . . that the scope and or scale has, well, expanded. We are growing at a rate that was. not. expected. We started out with "The Do it Together Home Project, Life and Learning Blog" for a tag line, loosely associated with my business. But . . . it's time to open it up and to ask for, well . . . help!!!! Please leave a comment (hrrmmm Rich H.?); we are looking for your help with giving this site an identity. Expect that on the other side of these improvements we will be located at buildingmoxie.com, (I will be moving my business site elsewhere) and that the site will at least be a little faster. New posts hopefully the week of 7.12.

If you have been Tagged! please keep it coming! Expect upcoming posts from and/or about @AkRenovations, @tammyjdalton & @Chesapeake_Home. Plus a sit down with the first lady . . . @leahthayer . . . can you say oooooo -- sexy! and you know, to see what she is up to.

*******

In the meantime, check out this fine music: -- the worldly and knowledgeable Paul Anater at http://www.kitchenandresidentialdesigns.com -- new fav and brother in the word -- disco Bob Borson at http://www.lifeofanArchitect.com -- and the always luscious and livacious Mistress of Style Madame Sunday at http://modernsauce.blogspot.com

*******

Really thank you all! Please keep reading and BMoxie BMore!

Building Moxie :: Share --> Upload_Bak

jb — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:10:33 +0000

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Building Moxie :: To Go! >> Get the Widget
jb — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:12:35 +0000

* Take Building Moxie with you.
Get the Widget! To add it to your site, click on the button at the bottom and grab the code.

Your Home Project Assistant :: Baltimore
jb — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:27:39 +0000

* Building Moxie ^SM offers a full array consulting, instructional and home support services in and around Baltimore, MD. To find out more, view our list of Home Project Services.
* If you live in or around Baltimore, and you would like help with a home improvement project, large or small, don€™t hesitate to send us a service inquiry: Your Home Project Assistant.

* Not a 10 point checklist, just some pros working in Baltimore that we would trust to baby sit our children. Looking for a pro for you next home project check out the Pros We Know.
* Are you a pro working in Greater Baltimore? Tell us more: Pros :: Contact Us.

Moxiful Blogs & Resources
jb — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 03:23:18 +0000
Apartment Therapy

Cal Finder

Charles & Hudson

Coffee with an Architect

Cupboards

Design Milk

Design Sponge

DIY Diva

Door Sixteen

Eco-Modernism

Extreme How-To

Extremely Average

Handy Guys Podcast

Home Fixated

Home Workshop

HouseBlogs.Net

Houzz

Kitchen and Residential Design

Kitchen Sync

Life Hacker

Life of an Architect

Living the Home Life

Modern Sauce

Moggit :: The Mogg Blogg

Old House Web

One Project Closer

PigTown Design

Remodel Crazy

Renovation Therapy

The Hardware Ailse

The Home Appliance Blog

This D*mn House

Unlock Your Life

AKLogo
jb — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 02:08:43 +0000

AK Renovations :: Putting a Price on Happiness
AKRenovations — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:58:08 +0000
We all know money cannot buy happiness. Goodness knows it is easy to be swayed sometimes though. With the thousands of media images we all receive each and every day - drive this car, wear this watch, buy these shoes, drink this beer - it's tempting to think that these products may at least enhance our happiness. If only for a moment.

Have you ever stopped to think about how your expected "happiness quotient" factors into your buying decision? Usually the things we anticipate using for a long time we are willing to pay a little more for. For example, we may be willing to pay the extra money for a quality cashmere sweater because we know it is a classic item that we can wear for years to come. But we'd never pay cashmere prices for a polyester sweater; the quality wouldn't last through multiple washings and it is a fabric that is in and out of style quickly.

AK considers the happiness quotient frequently when we're working with our clients. As anyone who has completed a remodeling project knows, there is much more value to remodeling your home besides just monetary! It's often very hard for clients to put into perspective the intangible values of accommodating a home to their unique needs.

There are some things that we regularly ask when we visit someone€™s home for the first time to assess the scope of their project:

What are the problems with this space?
What have you done to try to fix these problems? (Time? Money?)
What would fixing these problems mean to your family?
How long would you enjoy this remodeled space?
How much is solving the problem and the associated enjoyment/improved quality of life worth to you and your family?

The answers to these questions can help our clients, and us, determine how critically a "space intervention" is needed in the home. If the need is a casual one, and the client can't envision a much improved quality of life, then spending the money on a professional remodel may not be right for them.

So maybe we still can't put a price on happiness; but hopefully we can help you come to a tangible representation (investment amount) that is worth spending to boost the intangible benefits (quality of life). AK can help you with this decision when it comes to your home, but when you're shopping for that sweater -- we're afraid you're on your own!

Note from the hosts: We'd like thank Ed Cholfin, Emily Smith and the team at AK Renovations for offering up their thoughts on value. These are some key questions to ask yourself when scoping a remodeling project. Live in or around Atlanta -- and need pro remodeling services? Idk,I'd have to think about giving AK a call.

AK is on the web at www.AKatlanta.com; they also may be found on Twitter @AKRenovations.

Frontside hit seq 3 -1
jb — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:32:07 +0000

evyn_paddling out
jb — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:35:06 +0000

Air drop bottom turn
jb — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:39:33 +0000

Surfing is kinda like . . . Well, Do I really have to say it?
jb — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:42:24 +0000
There was no one around. I mean no one. And it was flat. Calm as could be. Really . . . I guess it was what I would expect for a Sunday morning, late season. And as the sun fought for losing, just barely making its way through the haze, I still saw the water meet the sky.

And I was sitting on my fun board. At least that€™s what the guys I knew called it. A relatively short board, light and quick to paddle, far too short for someone new to surfing. But I had been working with it that whole summer. And there I sat €“ somewhere between 9^th and 30^th Streets, Ocean City, MD. Not an ideal spot for catching waves €“ but just then, a light rain began to fall.

If you had read my last post, you might then know that I was vacationing recently with the fam along the Mid-Atlantic coast. These are spots that I haven€™t really (re)visited (for any extended period of time) for many years. And as I stood there playing supplemental lifeguard to the two beautiful daughters . . . a regularity in the waves made my mind drift to other things.

I look at the girls and then out again and back to that time in my life €“ no one was there. I sat solo gently gliding over a rhythmic tide €“ and I felt maybe only briefly €“ like I was sitting on that board and not missing it. "Paddle Out!" my brain burps.

Now €“ I don€™t want to mislead, my progress as a surfer stunted long ago -- that fun board ridden now by my cats and only sometimes, in my attic. But I will always have that rain. It fell light and steady for an hour or two, and I was set . . . simply occupying the space within her.

I mean €“ like a shower that washed away the excesses and the many mistakes of a far too short summer. That experience €“ not my first ride. . . is the thing that makes the list. The top 5 or perhaps top 10 most sublime and/or surreal experiences €“ hung a few steps down below an item labeled . . . €œWitness the birth of two daughters.€
*******
A little ways back in one of these posts, I wrote a section called "Is home improvement really a little bit like a surfing?" The gist of that piece -- and maybe it rolls up to larger topics, was something like €˜Home Improvement is 50% skill and 50% sheer will.€™ But as I review the bit above €“ I realize, really, that that is not wholly an accurate statement. My pie chart, not much of a pie chart, and too large a percentage of error baked in.

With surfing, I remember it now €“ and maybe it was actually standing in front of her again, studying . . . every tiny undulation spilling eventually into a big blast of force. You see, a wave breaks only when the always-shifting surface below grabs it €“ acting as resistance to it. And I think it's kinda like some small portion of some grand equation that will never be fully calculated . . . . And I'm alright with it. In these cases, absolute answers are really not needed. Because . . .

I know -- the moon above, and the surfaces below work together to force the water to fold over on itself . . . or have I said that already -- and is it all really more a matter of timing? That "sheer will" thing is simply not enough . . . when you surf.

Like many other human endeavors, it is so totally beyond my human control -- I too accept this. Surfing is, as I see it, an exercise in the seeking of perfection. An agreement with natural forces. And that agreement is needed, a hand-shake deal maybe, which is never fully obtained but always pursued. And success measured only by the satisfaction perceived.

It is part putting yourself in the best position to ride, working with your tools not merely €œusing€ them. Wiggling a little and adjusting as you move, like you are receiving and interpreting some *hrmm hrrmmm* . . . cosmic feedback. Off one . . . sure (and sometimes less than gracefully) and onto another €“ hopefully applying something you have learned, unconsciously €“ the next time. Act/React and just . . . ridddddde.

I really only caught one wave that day, September 1991, as if there was only one for me -- or again, maybe it was October. And as I sit here now, writing it out, I wonder how it really happened (and how I got myself here). But I lie -- I do know. You see, I need the waves, and maybe those waves need me.
*******
OK, let me hear it . . . this essay may seem totally out of place, but it is in all ways in place €“ written, I can assure you. It€™ll be one of these waves of inspiration, too, that gets me back on a board (and probably a longer one) some day. But until then €“ I€™ll simply wait and study, and continue to apply these lessons learned to everything I am and do . . . always.

Thanks for reading & BMoxie BMore!
*******
Photo Credit :: Pics of Sam Swenson in Bali via Bob Swenson.

DSCN5304
jb — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:33:35 +0000

DSCN5304
jb — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:34:22 +0000

2010 03 23 The Man Room
jb — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:55:03 +0000

this is a trout
jb — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:55:27 +0000

DSCN5304
jb — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:56:33 +0000

Tammy J Dalton :: The Man Room
Tammy Dalton — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:42:28 +0000
This is a trout.

More specifically, this is my husband€™s prized trout. Weighing in at 10.85 lbs, it was caught on a Penn 610 reel with 30 lb. test, which, by the way, is heavier line than one would normally use for trout. You see, my husband had actually intended to catch a snook on that particular day, and ended up with a monster trout instead.

OMG, Tammy, why on earth do you know all this?! I know all this because Snaggletooth here has been hanging on my wall, in every home we€™ve lived in, for the last fifteen years. I am part of a group of women friends whose husbands are avid fishermen, divers, and surfers, and who have learned to live with and yes, even love (sort of) (but don€™t tell anyone that) the fish stories and the taxidermed trophies of humongous fish and giant crustaceans (that€™s a fancy word for lobsters) that go along with them. For most of our marriage, I have lovingly referred to it as €œevery interior designer€™s worst nightmare.€ But I have a slightly different and more forgiving take on it now.

Agh! You say. Why don€™t you put that thing out of sight? Put it in the Man Room!

The Man Room. You know, the Man Room. It€™s that running joke between you and all your girlfriends. It€™s that room in your house where you put the not-quite-ready-for-prime time accessories, the leftover wall dÃ©cor from your college dorm room that you just can€™t part with, your partner€™s collection of€¦ (Fill in the blank with all that ugly kitschy stuff that you thought was so cute when you first met but now that you€™re respectable won€™t dare show in public). It€™s that room in your house where your husband€™s personality resides, along with his balls.

Remember that movie Juno? The married couple that was supposed to adopt Juno€™s baby, played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, lived in a beautiful home. It was truly lovely: manicured lawn, located in an affluent neighborhood. Every room was so elegant, classy, and tailored. And also sterile and lifeless. The most fascinating and authentic room in the house was the husband€™s €œroom€, where he kept his guitars and music collection and obscure movies, and the only place where his wife allowed these things to exist. It was a little grungy, but it was where he felt the most at home and at ease in his entire house.

Shouldn€™t every room of your house make you feel that way? (Not grungy, but at home and at ease.) You may always have your favorite nook, spot, or hideaway in your house, but it should be because it contains a higher proportion of all your favorite things and not because you were banished there. And a little €œquirky€ combined with your really awesome (and all grown-up) furnishings goes a long way to keeping your home authentic and real.

Now I do have my limits. (Hmmm, maybe I should create a list of things?) Signed, autographed and framed-for-display sports paraphernalia, for instance, does not belong in your dining room, or your bedroom for that matter. If there€™s no sensible and tasteful way to work it into your dÃ©cor, put it in storage or bequeath it to your favorite 10-year old. (In case you think I have no experience with this, I will make an embarrassing admission. I had a life-size cardboard stand-up of Boba Fett from Star Wars- The Empire Strikes Back- an original one from 1981- that I just couldn€™t part with until pretty recently. And yes, it was mine, and I am still a very proud Star Wars fan. I finally did gift it to a wide-eyed and astonished-at-his-good-fortune 10-year old son of a close friend. It is now enjoying a second life in this boy€™s Star Wars-themed bedroom, and I can visit Boba Fett whenever I want.)

It€™s best to get an objective third party to help with combining you and your partner€™s furnishings and belongings, whether you€™ve just gotten married and are setting up a new household, or even if you€™ve been together for a while and need to reassess your living quarters. Just not your mother. Or your partner€™s mother.

Anyway, back to Mr. Trout here. I€™ve found ways to work it into my dÃ©cor, willingly and gladly. It takes moxie, and some confidence. It€™s not because I love mounted fish. I don€™t, but what I do love is seeing my husband€™s eyes light up whenever someone asks where it came from and how he caught it. That, my friends, is what makes a house into a home. So bring your husband out of exile. Let your home show off the personality traits that make you and your partner the really cool people that you are, and ask for assistance if you€™re not sure where to draw the line between quirky and cool and tacky.

What crazy thing have you incorporated into your dÃ©cor that breaks the rules, flexes your moxie muscle and just seems to work? Be brave, and share it. If I can own up to Boba Fett, you really have nothing to fear.

Hair1
Barry — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:22:48 +0000

Hair2
Barry — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:32:41 +0000

Hair3
Barry — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:36:04 +0000

Hair4
Barry — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:37:26 +0000

Hair5
Barry — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:39:32 +0000

Locked Away (Three Hairstyles)
Barry — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:11:11 +0000
My mothers sister was a beautician and a very good one. She did the whole families hair and when it came time for me, she would say: €œSit still or I€™ll cut you GD ear off.€ She also told me my hair was €œKinky€ and said I had €œnigger hair€. She defended her use of the word nigger by saying she worked alongside black people and this is how they talked with one another.

My hair was and still is curly. My father came from an interracial community on the outskirts of Dover, Delaware where African Americans, Native Americans and whoever else that happened to fall in love with someone from the small town of Cheswold, Delaware had inter bred.

My mom fell in love with my father and began the arrangements for a wedding reception in a local restaurant. She gave them her soon to be last name of Morgan. €œNot the Morgan€™s of Cheswold?€ the manager asked. €œYes€ my mother said. €œI am sorry we only allow white people to hold their receptions here.€ When my mother told my father about this he blew up. €œWe are white€ he said and they found another place to celebrate their union. Ironically, I later worked in this same restaurant as a bartender.

My father had a thing for cowboy movies. His heroes spent a good deal of time fighting off make believe Indians. He wore Jeans and shirts with mother of pearl snaps. The older he got the more Native American he looked and yet he never once admitted to me that he was anything but white. When I was a teenager my grandfather died and at the funeral, we were surrounded by folks with smooth olive skin from the community of Cheswold. There was a gathering afterward and amidst stories of Pop Pop I asked €œJust what is our heritage?" The room went dead and my Aunt Alice said: €œWe don€™t like to talk about that.€

My mom, Joan and her sister, Margaret were Jersey girls of mostly German and Dutch descent. They moved to Delaware together and my Auntie Marge truly was a heck of a beautician. In 1995 Auntie Marge had an aneurysm and I have been cutting my own hair ever since.

I have three hairstyles: None, long and in between.
I started out to write a post about shaving ones own head. I wanted to talk about how the razor was similar to a chisel in the way that you have to feel the work through the tool. But my thoughts and memories got the better of me as I shed my own locks. This is not too surprising as haircuts are something of a spiritual journey.
For anyone who has never shaved their own head, I highly recommend it.

Hair6
Barry — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:35:35 +0000

Iron Spike
John Poole — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:02:42 +0000

Cousins
John Poole — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:34:26 +0000

NailFamily
John Poole — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:37:02 +0000

MockUp
John Poole — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:46:00 +0000

NailsAndShell
John Poole — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:47:01 +0000

WroughtFaceNail
John Poole — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:48:16 +0000

John Poole
jb — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:05:38 +0000

John Poole :: Yes, Virginia, They Really Do Still Make Those Old Square Nails
John Poole — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:08:22 +0000
Most of us are familiar with the old square nails used centuries ago. We've seen them on display at museum homes, or historical society exhibits, or perhaps being hammered out by blacksmiths in places like Plimoth Plantation or Colonial Williamsburg.

What many of us are unaware of, however, is that those old nails were actually superior in design to modern wire nails, with several times the holding power, and being less likely to cause wood to split. And perhaps even less well known is the fact that square nails are still manufactured today, and are even available in bulk quantities.

Top: Hand forged 17th century iron nails and spike in the roof system of the Old Hawkins house, Derby, Connecticut. Bottom: Two 2.5" (8d) square-cut iron nails I extracted from a door jamb, causing an oyster shell to break free from surrounding plaster (oyster shells were used as thickeners in early plaster walls).

Hand-forged iron nails predate the ancient Romans, and the basic form of the €œmodern€ wrought square nail was developed in sixteenth century Europe. When the first settlers began arriving in the New World in the early seventeenth century, they brought large quantities of wrought nails with them. Nail making was never done on a very large scale in the American colonies, as nails were primarily imported from England, right up until the Revolution.

Around the 1790's, American inventors had prototyped the first nail making machines, which produced €œsquare-cut€ nails by cutting them from iron rods. And by the early 1820's, nail-making machines had become so efficient that America soon became the world's leading manufacturer and exporter of nails.

Modern square-cut steel nails by Tremont Nail Company. From left to right: 4" (20d) cut-spike (HDG), 3.5" (16d) cut-spike (HDG), 3.5" common, 2.5" (8d) fireboard clinch (HDG), 2" (6d) rosehead common, 2" wrought nail, 1.5" (4d) wrought nail, 1" (2d) wrought nail, 1" brad, and 1" headless brad (for fine finishing) (HDG=hot dip galvanized)

Square-cut nails are fundamentally superior to modern wire nails because of their superior holding power. If you've ever attempted to extract a square-cut nail from a board, you know what I'm talking about. They hold so tenaciously that you'll often break the board or the nail itself before removing it. The reason for this is the shape of the shank, which usually tapers on two opposite sides from head to tip, resulting in a point that is chisel-shaped. The four edges of the shank also tend to be very sharp. When driven with the correct orientation (non-tapered sides parallel to the grain), the tip and edges shear the wood fibers rather than push them apart as wire nails do, and the shank finally wedges itself tightly into the wood. Because of their shearing ability, square-cut nails tend not to split wood, and can be used closer to the edge or end of a board than a wire nail.

A 3.5" (16 penny, or 16d) square-cut bright common nail and it's equivalent wire nail cousin. This 16d square-cut common nail costs about 17 cents, while the wire nail goes for about 7 cents, based on the Tremont catalog and my local Home Depot, respectively. The square nail is about 2.4 times as expensive as the wire nail, but is estimated to have about 4 times the holding power. Interestingly enough, in terms of the old penny weight costing system, either nail would've cost about 0.2 cents a piece back in the old days, albeit in Colonial pennies, not modern U.S. pennies.

Modern wire nails were invented in the late nineteenth century, when improved industrial processes simplified the formation of round wire rods from soft steel. Nailing machines were then retooled to cut nails from less expensive round wire. The cheaper, mass produced cut-wire nail met with instant market success during America's westward expansion, and it forced the manufacturing of square-cut iron nails into eclipse. Today, wrought square nails are still used in historical restoration projects, and can be obtained directly from blacksmiths or ordered through primitive hardware suppliers. Also, many of the larger living history museums, such as
Colonial Willamsburg, maintain their own blacksmith shops that supply their sites with historically accurate, forged nails.

Simple wood floor mock-up I created using 2x4s and oak scants of different widths. I'll often build simple prototypes like this to experiment with different combinations of wood species, stain, and nail types. In this particular one, I am comparing common rosehead nails (first three boards, left to right) and wrought nails (fourth and fifth boards on the right). (I have yet to apply any stain to these boards). I'm not sure I like the look of the roseheads when face nailed -- I think they would look better counter sunk. We'll try that next...

Square-cut nails, on the other hand, are still available from the Tremont Nail Company, of Mansfield, Massachusetts. Tremont, which today is a division of Acorn Manufacturing, was founded in 1819 in response to the Federal Period demand for low-cost nail production. It is the only remaining American nail company producing square-cut nails. Today, Tremont makes square-cut nails out of steel, rather than iron, with their common nails being made from hardened, high-carbon steel. They even offer hot-dipped galvanized versions of their nails for outdoor applications. But the truly amazing thing about Tremont is that they still use their own vintage nail-cutting machines, which date back to the 1850s. Over the years, they've managed to keep these machines running by fabricating replacement parts when necessary. So these €œreproduction€ nails are hardly reproductions at all. Harder and stronger than iron, they are more of a generational advancement in square-cut nail technology, rather than simply copies of historic artifacts.

The wrought nails look much better for face nailing in oak, in my opinion. We'll have to see how they look with different stains and a polyurethane overcoat.

So, the next time you're touring an historic home or colonial settlement museum, keep in mind the old adage that a wooden structure is only as strong as its fasteners, and you may more fully understand just why some of these old buildings are still standing. The construction techniques of our forebears were not necessarily inferior to our own. Some were actually better, only succumbing in the end to that ages-old practice of trading utility off in favor of reducing costs.

fasterhorses2
jb — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:51:59 +0000

Mike Hines :: We Want Faster Horses (On Innovation)
eXapath — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:55:26 +0000
While drafting this post I happened across an anonymous quote and it struck me as relevant. €œIf Henry Ford had asked his customers what they needed they would have said faster horses.€

History confirms that Mr. Ford was not ignoring his customers, simply listening better than most with vision firmly fixed on the horizon. A paradigm shift in the making.
Differentiate Begins with Different

The accomplishment of Ford and his enterprise is remarkable on many fronts. Revolutionizing production, vertical integration, value-based design, commonality of components and guerrilla marketing for its day.

Ford successfully shifted the expectations of his prospects to understand the value he proposed. From this grew many opportunities for others along with entirely new markets and industries to support them. No easy feat:

Roads were primarily cobblestone or rutted cart paths
Street cars, railroads and ferries were the de facto modes of mass transit
Horses, carriages and wagons were the norm in personal transport
Interstate highways did not exist
Fueling stations were rare
Repair shops scarce

For sure Ford was marketing his twenty horsepower Model-T as a replacement for draft and quarter horses and associated wagons and carriages. He kept at it with the basic €œTin Lizzie€ that remained largely unchanged for decades. After a successful twenty year run it was phased out in favor of the Model A in 1927.

It€™s interesting to review advertisements from the early days. In 1908 Ford marketed the Model T. Print advertisements in black and white, likely all that was available, mainly textual with very limited graphics. A simple message - function, durability, and business sense €œEleven to seven. A merchant who knows says that it cost him eleven cents per delivery by horses and seven by Ford cars.€, obliquely targeting the new found limitations of his prospects faithful steeds.

By the 1920s Ford had shifted mainstream customers toward the automobile and learned that growth and survival depended on addressing needs rather than simply providing a good product. This is reflected in the advertising of the twenties where graphics are emphasized, color introduced, and the message moving from durability and reliability toward lifestyle and choice...freedom and flexibility for Ford customers. A notion that rings true to this day.

(More Ford Motor Company advertisements can be found at www.thehenryford.org museum)
Life-Cycle Mismatch
A life-cycle mismatch exists between home building conventions and the changing needs of contemporary homeowners.

Today€™s home construction paradigm is to overbuild with lots of permanently installed low voltage wiring. This includes in-wall cables for computers, television, home theater, whole-house audio, security and automation. On its face the habit makes sense. Many cables and outlets with all sorts of connectivity throughout the home for immediate and future needs. Structured wiring ready for TV, data, telephone, automation and security. What more could a homeowner want?

Less obvious when designing and building is that low voltage wires permanently embedded in your walls have real limitations in form factor and performance. This is not to say they€™re poorly designed, rather that they sustain known performance requirements but fail to recognize how quickly the technology behind consumer electronics change.

Compare the life expectancy of any consumer electronic gadget to the lifespan of the home and a major mismatch becomes clear.
Disruption
In today€™s residential design and construction community a welcomed shift toward sustainability is taking hold. As emphasized by the USGBC and NAHB, a key element in €œgreen€ construction is to minimize home energy consumption and conserve from there.

Using an integrative approach with collaboration between homeowners, architects, and builders, new homes are being right-sized with efficient climate control systems and building shell improvements including advanced insulation. Energy requirements reduced, conservation increased...a net gain in comfort with reduced carbon footprint.

So why be concerned with low voltage wiring?

It€™s not the cables so much as the changes to those cables throughout the life of the home. We often rewire when new consumer electronics come to market. The process involves €œsnaking€ behind sheetrock and within the stud cavity of the wall. While not obvious from the undisturbed surface, the process is destructive to properly installed insulation. Snaking wires through walls disrupts the insulation envelope creating voids, or thermal bridges, and opportunity for permanent heat energy escape. This works against modern principles of energy conservation in home design.

We Want Faster Wires
Like better transportation in the early twentieth century, faster wires will be necessary in the twenty-first, with continual upgrades throughout the life of the home.

To effectively answer this challenge, the home structure needs a way to rewire without disrupting its energy conserving nature. This is precisely what the eXapath„¢ in-wall cable pathways system from Homepath Products achieves. An idea that goes far beyond adding a cable chase from the attic to the basement or a few conduits in the walls.

eXapath is about homeowners and their needs.
It€™s about adding the flexibility to rewire every wall.
It€™s about the ability to adapt to the latest technology.
It€™s about the flexibility to introduce technology from floor to ceiling.
It€™s about adding outlets before or after drywall without disruption to the insulation envelope.
It€™s about flexibility and choice.

Building Freedom and Flexibility for Modern Homeowners
We know the need to conserve energy is here to stay, and rightly so. Likewise, consumer electronics evolve and demand grows unabated.

Don€™t just give homeowners what they want, give them what they need. Freedom and flexibility for a modern lifestyle. Choice.

Couple the integrative design/build approach emphasized by the USGBC and NAHB with eXapath. Play a role in shifting the latest paradigm.
*******
Note from the hosts: This article was borrowed with the permission of Mike Hines and the Homepath Products Blog :: Tech Rumblings and the Home. It was originally posted there on March 9, 2010. Mike has contributed here previously and we hope he posts again.

His Connecticut-based company Homepath Products has developed an innovative solution for the problem of building now, while remaining prepared for the sure evolution of consumer electronics.

Tammy J Dalton :: HGTV Has Got Nothin On Me
Tammy Dalton — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:01:14 +0000
That was my husband€™s motto when we purchased our 40-year old house. We had become adept at ripping up old carpets, painting walls and doors, and had even replaced our wood deck all by ourselves, so we were feeling pretty confident about our abilities to care for and maintain our home.

We did respect our limits however. Truth be told, we€™re not really do-it-yourselfers, and since I€™m an interior designer, I have a healthy understanding of what €œDIY-gone-wrong€ looks like, so I know when to stop and say €œlet me call so-and-so.€

Be that as it may, there are some things that my husband and I were determined to be able to do on our own. First, for our own satisfaction and pride that we could pull off some true handiness when push came to shove, and second, because even though I have a rolodex filled with competent trades people, they don€™t work for free (nor should they) and they get annoyed with too many requests for €œjust-one-more-thing-it€™s-really-small-it€™ll-only-take-like-15-minutes.€ Even with me smiling my most fabulous smile and promising ice cream cones, I know when to back off, unless it€™s an emergency. Anyway€¦

So, we€™re happily living in our new abode, replacing cabinet knobs and making plans to renovate this and that, and we notice these tiny little flies in our Master Bathroom shower stall. Every day there were a few more. Not a swarming mass like the Amityville Horror or anything, but gradually becoming more prevalent. Where are these flies coming from? We asked each other. A friend of ours mentioned that they were sewer flies, probably coming up from the drain. Eeew, what?!

Now, I€™m not that squeamish, really. At least by south Florida standards, anyway. We live in the hot, humid, sub-tropics, where everything is alive, if you know what I mean. There€™s a certain amount of getting-used-to-the-critters that one must become accustomed to here if you want to live a carefree life. So when I see lizards, ants, and other assorted bugs roaming around my house, I shoo them out or squash them without a second thought and move on. (Though I have been known to wake my husband in the wee hours of the night to kill a palmetto bug, because, man, those things are big, and I don€™t like being stared at while I€™m getting the shoe ready.)

But sewer flies in my shower had me freaked out. Not knowing what action to take, we ignored them for a few more days. And then one Saturday I left to attend a friend€™s baby shower. On my way home, I called my husband to let him know I was on my way back, and I got this:

€œHoney, don€™t be mad, but I started a project.€

Oh God, I thought. €œWhat did you do, honey?€

€œWell, I figured out where the flies were coming from.€ Yikes! He continued, €œIt seems that some of the shower curb tiles were loose so I pulled them off, and it was teeming with worms underneath. So I ripped off all the tiles from the curb.€ He sounded vaguely satisfied. I, however, was feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and picturing my bathroom covered in worms.

€œUh, so, what€™s it look like now?€ I asked cautiously.

€œOh, it€™s fine. Don€™t worry; I cleaned up all the worms, so you wouldn€™t have to see that.€ Did I mention how much I love my husband? €œBut, you have a tile project on your hands now.€ Wait, what did I just say?

Okay, I thought, I can handle this. It€™s just a few tiles, no big deal. I€™m a highly educated person; I work in the construction industry, how hard can it be? Plus, I have friends with skills if I get into trouble. I can do this!!!

The situation didn€™t look as bad as I imagined when I finally got home, but the wall board below the tile had rotted out, so I had to replace that too. After consulting with my tile guy, I got some concrete board scraps, bought some thin set and grout, a few trowels, a grout float/sponge thing, and headed off to the home improvement store with a piece of old tile so I could match it to the new tiles I needed. The store even cut my tiles for me (though they don€™t do that anymore. Boo.). I headed home with all my equipment and prepared myself mentally and physically to rebuild and tile a shower curb.

And you know what? It turned out just fine. I did it! All by myself. I installed the concrete board, back-buttered the tiles, spaced them out just right, saved the other tiles that were still in place, grouted it like a pro, and nary a fly has been seen in my bathroom since. Thank you very much.

The space between me and my limits got a little larger that day.

mattyc
jb — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:45:47 +0000

mattyc
jb — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:01:49 +0000

Matt Constantine :: Home on Maslow's Terms (HUD Dollars at Work in FLA)
Matt Constantine — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:49:30 +0000
I am probably the least mechanically inclined person to step foot on this blog. I live in a small condo with my wife and baby and believe that any money spent on professionals for home repair purposes is money well spent. I€™d rather shave my head with a cheese grater than spend a Saturday afternoon in Home Depot.

And I thought my career path as a Social Worker would pretty much ensure that I would avoid Planning and Zoning Boards, permit applications, construction budgets, etc€¦Life throws us all curve balls at times and my job at a south Florida nonprofit has required me to become a bit of an affordable housing rehab/new construction guy. Along the way I have learned a great deal and have acquired some philosophies surrounding the issue of housing.

I now firmly believe that safe and affordable housing is one of the most powerful services that can be provided to families in need. It€™s all part of Maslow€™s Hierarchy of Needs €“ how can one expect a single mom to work on critical life issues if she is in fear of eviction every month? How can a family be expected to €œpull themselves up by their bootstraps€ (my least favorite saying of all time) if they live in substandard housing and consistently battle with exorbitant light bills and unsanitary conditions?

This is not to mention the whole discussion surrounding eroding tax bases, high concentrations of poverty, disparities in school systems and exclusionary housing practices. I am not one of the €œgentrification is evil €œ subscribers. In fact investment in low-income neighborhoods is a good thing in my opinion and can and should be done without displacing entire communities. This rambling leads me to a quick synopsis of a really cool opportunity that has been afforded to my organization and my city of residence, Lake Worth in Palm Beach County.

It€™s no secret that south Florida has been hit hard with foreclosures. If there is an epicenter of the Florida foreclosure crisis I would imagine it would have to be in Palm Beach County. Palm Beach County truly is a story of the haves and have nots. We have Donald Trump, Rod Stewart, Rush Limbaugh and other East Eggers living within 2 miles of endless material for the producers of Cops. Many of the neighborhoods were neglected prior to the foreclosure crisis €“ the addition of thousands of abandoned homes is not helping the situation. The area needed help €“ and thankfully help has arrived from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) received nearly two billion dollars to fund the Neighborhood Stabilization 2 Program (NSP 2). My agency, partnering with a local Habitat for Humanity, the City of Lake Worth, and numerous social service providers were awarded a grant in the amount of $23.3 million.

This was a highly competitive process and Lake Worth€™s selection is a result of demonstrated need but also for its inclusion of rich social services. In a nutshell, these funds will be utilized to purchase approximately 150 bank-owned homes in a small, targeted geographical area. The units will be rehabbed, demolished and reconstructed when necessary, and sold or rented to households earning less than $81,120 €“ with a focus on housing families earning less than $33,800. Energy efficiencies and green features will be included in every unit. Our first closing takes place in late July, with rehab beginning in September. It is our hope that we will have our first residents moving in by the holidays.

There is a great deal of detail that surrounds this grant. HUD, however, appears to be willing to work with grantees and is eager for some success stories. We hope to attract national attention with our efforts and with any luck, JB will invite me to post again in the coming months. Thanks for your time€¦

Note from the hosts: Matt and I go way back. I am glad that his wife, Linnea, and his new baby, Matthew, allowed him to take the time to provide this outstanding post. I hope he enjoyed.

A die hard Wilco fan, he slips in a link to a favorite, Muzzle of Bees, at the bottom and totally earns it with the Great Grasby ref up above. Thanks again Matt; we'd love to have you back. jb

hollynhoundo
jb — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:44:57 +0000

Adventures in Leadership :: Learning about Yourself As a Leader
Holly Bertsch — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:14:20 +0000
I am going to school right now and I have a class I like to call €œAdventures in Leadership€ (its actual name is Motivation and Leadership and it is a Psyc. class). We talk about different things in the workforce that motivate people and cause them to become leaders. Mostly, this reminds me of my own job that of a remodeler. Sure, I get to answer mostly to myself, and my customers. If I want a day off, I can take it. I only have deadlines I have imposed on myself really. I let the customer know a date by which I will have their project complete, and I do my best to stick to it, but I always give myself a little wiggle room and that is how I like it.

I recently hired a guy who had been out of work for about 9 months. He is young and eager. He is not very experienced, however. I desperately need the help and am happy to teach him anything he needs to learn. He patiently sanded floors with a drum sander the other day for almost 10 hours, which . . . he had never done! I was thrilled. When I stained them, they looked great. He did a good job.

But I am left to wonder, was that my leadership on how to do it, or his natural ability? Maybe he is just a natural floor sander? This class I am taking about leadership has me questioning everything I do as a company owner. Do I let them take an extra break when I know it will be an extra hour of work? How do I tell them what I want? I am used to leading more experienced guys, who usually end up leading me; I just keep us all on schedule and budget. They do the majority of the decision making when it comes to what they need. Is this new, inexperienced guy a chance for me to learn about myself as a leader?

I will keep you updated on how the new guy does. So far he is exceeding my expectations. The other day I set him to painting the ceilings so we could put crown up and when he was finished he actually suggested he sand the drywall in the bathroom. I have never heard someone ask to sand drywall! I chalked it up to him being sick of painting but when he was done he did put on a second coat, no questions asked. Only time will tell if he will work out and if I can effectively lead him . . . while I teach him the trade.

Note from the hosts: I think Holly poses some good questions here. Any experienced business owners, project managers, foreman, etc. out there, please fell free to leave a comment below. Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore! jb

Panchia :: Wife as a Handyman
Panchia — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:25:47 +0000
No, not the type of home improvements many of us do around the house, i.e. kicking a falling apart dresser in shape, nailing a picture frame, or putting in proverbial light bulbs.

When my husband had just started his carpentry business, I was in school (I still am, but in a different one; the first school landed me an air-conditioned, dry, and heated-in-the-winter-time office job), and I used to work with him for about a year or two. I still do work with him when time allows or circumstances call for it.

Most of the clients we worked for were families. There was one single male and several single female clients. Females don€™t bat an eye when they see their handyman show up with his wife as a helper. They actually prefer, I think, this type of an arrangement, because they know that the female will look after the mess, and leave the place as she found it or better than when she walked into a house. Males, on the other hand, have to supervise the work. I am not sure if it€™s a natural male trait to supervise in general, or if they have to see for themselves if a female is actually capable of anything €œhandy€ or is she just there to pad out the bill.

Our latest client was particularly interested in the husband-wife dynamics of the carpentry project. He surreptitiously observed us from the windows of the house while we replaced his screens on the porch. I was acting as my husband€™s helper because he simply knows the process better than I do and he is the leader on the job (as opposed to in-the-household-realm where I rule, of course). But this time, knowing that we were observed, I was trying particularly hard to move with confidence around the job site and perform every task with the real know-how. Fortunately, the job was not that difficult. If I had to cut beams or joists, it would be more difficult to pull off this level of confidence. Overall, I think I pulled it off. The client was satisfied with the work, on top of the entertainment he received observing our work-family dynamics.

No, don€™t get me wrong, this is not something I would do full-time (though, I would not be too bad at it). There is a reason why I chose an office job instead of carpentry. Rain, cold, and heat are not my forte. I prefer to be more comfortable on a day-to-day basis (though it is nice to change the pace once in a while). Fiberglass in every orifice of your body, dead cats or rodents, camelbacks jumping on your face, dust in your nose, sand and sanded-old-paint in your eyes and mouth, animal urine or feces under your clothes, mold - these are some of the pleasures you may encounter when working under a house- are not the things that will endear you to the world of carpentry. But it is pleasant to look around you at the end of a back-breaking, sweat-filled, or itchy day and see transformations you achieved around someone€™s house, as well as feel good about tangible results you have accomplished during the day. Office paperwork does not give me the same satisfaction.

Panchia128
Barry — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:40:23 +0000

rc-logo
jb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:23:27 +0000

Happy Birthday Remodel Crazy! (Belated)
Paul Lesieur — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:18:51 +0000
Note from the hosts: Paul Lesieur, aka The Paul, Barry (b) and I have chatted a handful of times in recent months about, well, maybe doing something together. This is the first in what I hope will be a fairly regular free exchange of articles between our two sites. And what better topic -- Paul's post from last Sunday (7.25): Happy Birthday Remodel Crazy! A shot of tequila to you, or maybe we'll just go with a slap on the bottom. Here's to ya! jb
Remodel Crazy is one year old!
I love Remodel Crazy!

We started RC because the phone wasn€™t ringing, the RRP rule was just being announced and it was something to do.

Since then

Remodel Crazy like all babies got a personality and a reason to go on, we crawled, we stumbled we pooped in our diaper and then with the help of the internet we got a voice.

We are here to stay.

This coming year

More provocative interviews and spotlights, podcasts, videos and get in your face conversation.

Same old crap!

There are lots of remodel/ contractor sites so if you want the same old and same old email us and we€™ll send you the links. For the rest of you €œWelcome to RC€!

Thank you for your support.

~ The Paul

1_GK-Exterior
jb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:08:18 +0000

2_GK-Fabric
jb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:08:45 +0000

3_GK-Chair
jb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:13:59 +0000

4_GK-Lounge
jb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:14:37 +0000

5_labyrinth-jackson-aaron
jb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:25:08 +0000

6_GK-Console
jb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:25:49 +0000

7_GK-Rug
jb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:27:34 +0000

8_GK-Wood
jb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:28:15 +0000

9_GK-Victorian-key-stencil
jb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:30:11 +0000

10_GK-Tile
jb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:31:10 +0000

sp-10611
jb — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:34:16 +0000

ajw
jb — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:19:30 +0000

Elements of Design: The Greek Key
Regina Garay — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:22:05 +0000
Note from the hosts: This article was originally posted in November, 2008 by BMoxie contributor, Regina Garay. In it she introduces a new series on her blog. It is re-posted here as a personal pick of hers. Enjoy!
*******
. . . The Elements of Design. I€™ll take a pattern, ornament or any other element of design and share a little info of its history and modern day applications. I love researching the origins of everyday patterns and find it satisfying to have that knowledge when it comes to a particular commission. It€™s also cool to see an element of design pop up unexpectedly in everyday life and be aware of its symbolic meaning or special origins. I hope you find enjoyment in these posts as well.

We are starting things off with The Greek Key. It is also called Meandros or the Hellenic Key and has its origins in Ancient Greece. The ancient river Meander was twisty and doubled onto itself, giving a symbolic meaning to the key of €œthe eternal flow of life€. According to the Dictionary of Ornament, the Greek Key is actually part of a group called the key patterns. The key patterns are variations of a continuous geometric pattern meeting at right angles. The design is sometimes broken up and can also be found with oval forms or rosettes.  During the medieval period, the key form was used primarily due to their interest in labyrinths. This is interesting because the Greek myths claim that there is a connection between the key€™s pattern and the Minotaur€™s labyrinth.

The design itself is crisply graphic but unobtrusive enough to use in both modern and more formal settings. Today€™s design variations give a nod to ancient Greece but have a personality all of their own. As you can see, its use can transcend substrates.

Fabric:

Seating:

Furniture:

Flooring:

Decorative Painting: As Accent (with tiles) or as a Subject (stripes):

There are several stencil companies with wonderful key patterns. You can easily find most of them by using Stencil Search. Royal Design Studio has a nice one called the Victorian Key stencil in their Sophisticated Borders line (in fact, it€™s the one used for the key stripes above) and its sister company, Modello, has some under their Ancient Worlds collection. The Stencil Library also has great designs (click here) and Stencil Kingdom has a full line of Greek stencils. I really like the following one from Stencil Planet but you can see their whole line here as well.

I hope you€™ve enjoyed this€¦until next time, be well!

Bob young architect of the year
bobborson — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:55:08 +0000

Bob Rotten
bobborson — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:17:42 +0000

Alycia Wicker :: Get Over Yourself (Justa Chat between Two Designers)
Alycia Wicker — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:20:10 +0000
I was waiting for my potential client to arrive at their house. Seems someone else was waiting for them, too.

This man seemed okay at first. When he started to open his mouth, I knew what I was dealing with. He was a legend in his own mind.
*******

Him: €œWell, I just started with Mathis Brothers.€

Me: €œOh, that€™s cool.€ (Dude, they didn€™t tattoo that on your forehead and I didn€™t ask.)

Him: €œYeah, I used to work for myself, but I gotta pay the bills so I just started working there.€ (You might ask -- €œIs Mathis Brothers like the McDonald's for Designers?" Well -- Yes.)

Me: €œYep, I know what you mean.€

Him: €So, do you sew or do you have a workroom for your draperies?€

Me: €œI have a workroom. Do you sew?€

Him: €œOh yeah, but if someone wants perfect pinch pleats, then I send it to a workroom.€ (I wonder what the market for imperfect pinch pleats are.)

Me: €œOh, that€™s cool you can sew. Wish I could sew better. (At this point, I know bringing up the fact that my last sewing project was a Snuggie probably wouldn€™t impress this guy.) Yeah, so I just started my own business a year ago and I€™m still working on finding all of my trade resources.€

Him: €œYep. Do you go to L.A. Mart?€

Me: €œUh, no, that€™s way too far for me.€ (Didn€™t mention the huge fear I have of driving in L.A. Don€™t ask. I€™m weird.)

Him: €œOh. So where do you shop?€

Me: €œOh, well if I had to go somewhere I guess I would go to the Laguna Design Center.€ (At this point, I€™m not sure if he realizes that the internet can be used to buy resources.)

Him: €œHmm€¦ not familiar with that place. Have you been to the South Plaza?€

Me: €œSouth Plaza? Where€™s that?€

Him: €œOff the 55.€

Me: €œIs it good?€

Him: €œYeah, a lot of nice stuff there.€ (It's not until later when I realize he was talking about South Coast Plaza. A mall. A nice mall, but nonetheless, a mall.)

Me: €œHow many designers does Mathis Brothers have?€

Him: €œOh, I don€™t know. I guess 12. They are hiring a lot more soon.€

Me: €œSo, are you and a salesman pretty much the same as it goes for commissions?€

Him: €œYeah, whoever gets the 'up' gets the commission. If a salesman needs a designer's help, you negotiate the split.€

Me: €œOh, okay.€ (Sounds like fun in a recession.)

Him: €œYeah, well, I am waiting for one of my clients to have me do their home in Utah. Their two billion dollars in reserve isn€™t enough money for them to feel secure.€

Me: €œWow, they sound like they have a hard life.€

Him: €œYeah. I hope they just move on that project soon.€

Me: €œDo you belong to ASID?€

Him: €œNo. I have had 3 clients in my 15-year career. Long-term clients.€

Me: €œThat€™s really nice to have such great relationships.€

Him: €œYeah, I have been there for every one of those moments like we know who is cheating on whom and who is sleeping with whom and who just came out of the closet. Yeah, been there for everyone of those.€

Me: €œSo, do you live at these people€™s houses?€ (Thinking: what kind of people discuss that kind of crap with their designer???! 'Hi Mom and Dad and Designer€¦ I€™m Gay! So, should I switch out my Star Trek drapes for something in Taffeta?')

Him: €œYeah, pretty much.€

Me: €œWhat are you doing at their house that you€™re there so much?€

Him: €œI do a lot of murals.€

Me: €œOh, that€™s neat. Does Mathis Brothers carry Brownstone Furniture?€

Him: €œNo. What is that?€ (He asked as if I asked him to hold a booger freshly picked from my nose.)

Me: €œJust a furniture line from California. . . . I just thought I had seen a piece of theirs in a retail store and couldn€™t remember where.€

Him: €œOh no. Not Mathis Brothers.€

Me: €œYeah, I€™m wondering if these people shop at JCPenney€™s.€

Him: €œOh. Do they still do custom draperies?€

Me: €œYep, they do.€ (Now thinking: does this guy ever get out of the house or read his mail?)

Him: €œI haven€™t been in a Penney€™s in 15 years.€ (Really?! Because I could have sworn I just saw that outfit on a mannequin in the Men€™s section at a JCP the other day!)
*******
Finally the clients arrive. Our conversation ends. We have to take off our shoes and wear slippers when we go into their house. Okay, I start taking off my shoes. My new friend says: €œBut I think my socks may be dirty.€

I just died laughing inside! This guy, thinking he was some la-ti-da designer . . . his world came to a crashing halt when he realized he had to go work in the pedestrian world with the rest of us peons. The icing of the godly designers! His dirty socks were the best gift this day could have brought! I love when posers get what€™s coming to them.
*******
Note from the hosts: Good pal AJW, keeping it real, was nice enough to allow me to reprint this fun little tale. It was originally published on her blog in April. jb

ï»¿

dhockman
jb — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:47:48 +0000

2010_08_ChesHome
jb — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:58:31 +0000

Building Moxie with Dennis Hockman (Chesapeake Home)
jb — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 10:40:41 +0000
A mutual friend calls him €œBig D€ (hear: cool guy high school voice). And yes Dennis is tall (at least for me looking up from 5€™9€ and, hrmmm . . . a 1/2) and that *is* one of first things I thought when I first met him. Both growing up along the Belair Road corridor here outside of Baltimore, I had heard Dennis Hockman€™s name long before we landed in Fiction 101 together (and no, it wasn€™t actually a 100-level class).

We actually had two classes together while attending the then Towson State. The fiction class mentioned above and Introduction to Drama. And what I remember from these classes was a quiet guy often spending most his time not saying a word (the listener €“ the recorder). For me, though, and especially looking back, I can interpret it now as something near an unreal and admirable focus.

This focus, I learned (through a chat just after graduation) was leading to Missoula for studies in Creative Writing and Literature, his sights on a PhD. Me . . . off to a small and now probably defunct magazine.
*******
Fast forward a couple years €“ the wife and I then on our third property; we had bought it from a couple that knew, well, simply how to make a house look good. It didn€™t take long, only a matter of weeks probably, before we got our first issue of Chesapeake Home Magazine; the address label -- not John Bartkowiak. A 4-color (at least that€™s how I used to know them) and glossy mag covering design, architecture and house trends in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Every so often too (ask my wife) I get a hair. I will look at the freelance writing market. It almost never goes anywhere, but this one time and I happened to reach over into the bookshelf next to me. . . . I had been trained, you know, to look at the masthead of any mag and . . . right there . . . my jaw dropped. Dennis Hockman, an old friend, Editor of Chesapeake Home Magazine.
*******
Fast forward a few more years and as I began to push this Building Moxie thing out and through Facebook, we reconnected. We had the opportunity to meet up recently. Sure, a "catch up," but I was on a mission too to find out a little of what it takes to be an editor of a shelter magazine (morbid curiosity if you will).

And as we sat there over a buffalo burger and a beer, Dennis told me the story. TA at University of Montana (Note: tie in with another one of his earlier passions €“ snowboarding). A duel degree in Creative Writing and Literature but on a teaching track. I learned quickly that he became disenchanted with what he saw as a lack of interest from the students in his classes. (Remember above :: the quiet astute learner . . . (that *also* believes that every writer must read.))

Later . . . and on leaving Montana, he returned here to BMore, his plans to marry an old sweetheart. He made his way juggling work for a publishing house, teaching at night and freelance writing. One of the publications he wrote for, of course, Chesapeake Home. He learned it that way if you will €¦ and before our conversation turned to "the product," I see pretty clearly what looks like a perfect fit.

Dennis, really, was made for this job. Son and grandson of avid gardeners and later a professional landscaper. In his college years, he was a house painter working his way through graduate school. Again, he made a quiet study. Of this, Dennis said, "I always knew I was going to have a house of my own one day."   His wife, too, a long time professional in the residential and commercial design industry. (Internal Note: Wow, writing comma home stuff and all around him = perfect fit.)

It is fun to learn too and despite the angle of some of my questions, he is a do-it-yourselfer. Now on his second "old" home in the Ten Hills area of Baltimore, Dennis does much of the work around his house himself . . . except of course, hard jobs like, well . . . tile. He says, €œI don€™t want to stare at that one tile that is all cattywompus (sp?)€ (and does that sound familiar folks?).
*******
Originally born out of support from the Home Builder€™s Association of Maryland, and originally called Maryland Remodeler, Chesapeake Home now reaches 70,000 households throughout Maryland, Northern Va, Southern Pa, DE and other coastal areas . . . all the way up into New Jersey. It is published bi-monthly. And while editorial focus has not changed much since Dennis has been guiding the ship, he talks of expanding coverage into the areas of food and local interest, as well as growing the magazine's online presence.

Owned by Patuxent Publishing, they now share the same address with cousin organization (and in something of a strange family tree) the Baltimore Sun. Dennis himself is contributing now weekly and every Saturday to the Sun's Home and Garden section.
*******
Bottom line: Dennis is a guy who wears many hats, and know that every word, and picture, printed passes his eyes at least once . . . even as a senior editor. And finally, though, I wrap up by asking . . . "What do you take the most pride in?"

And he says, "Picking up a copy of another shelter mag . . ." with 10 times the budget and probably a staff much larger than his five . . . "and seeing some topic or trend that we had run earlier in the year covered with equal depth and style . . . ."
*******
I appreciate the time that Dennis took to meet with me. It was good catching up, and I hope you enjoyed. To find out more about Chesapeake Home Magazine, please see below. Thank you and BMoxie BMore! jb
*******

More Moxie (Related Links):
Chesapeake Home can be found online at . . . http://www.ChesapeakeHome.com

Chesapeake Home offers a variety of blogs for all sorts of interests . . . http://www.chesapeakehome.com/blogs/

Dennis' newest contribution, a weekly column for cousin publication the Baltimore Sun . . . House and Garden

Bob Borson :: When Does it All Come Together? (An architect becomes an Architect)
bobborson — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:46:16 +0000
I have been an architect my whole life. When I tell people that I knew I wanted to be an architect by the time I was 5 years old, they think how lucky that must have been! How great it must be to have a singular drive and focus towards a career! Admittedly, I have spent time thinking about how people can go to college and not know what they want to do with themselves - it's something that I never had to deal with. But am I really so lucky?

I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture - a program that is consistently in the top 10 and even top 5 of all architecture programs in the country - it is very competitive and extremely difficult to get accepted. I didn't even apply anywhere else when it was time to send out my college application. It might sound cocky but it's really an indication of how ignorant I can be at times.

I didn't know it was that good of a program when I applied and was probably only going to go there because that's where my older sisters were attending school. I am pretty sure I got accepted because I graduated #7 in my class of something like 380 people and Texas, as a state school, had to accept me... I think. I know what you are thinking - "Holy Cow Borson! You must be a genius!"...What I am able to do is work the system; I have never made straight A's in my life but I knew enough to realize taking a class and getting a grade was better than taking Study Hall, Yearbook, or Office Assistant and not getting a grade.

When I showed up at college, I was surrounded by a bunch of hard working type A personalities and "working the system" wasn't working for me and I had a horrible go at things. I looked around at what I was doing compared to everyone else and I was terrible .... talk about an identity crisis. Can you imagine always knowing what you were supposed to do and then learning that you couldn't actually do it?

Early on in my first studio class we had a drawing assignment; once they were all turned in, I found my drawing along with 3 or4 others pinned up on the wall. The professor wanted to talk about how terrible these particular drawings were and how disappointed he was in the effort shown. My grades were not very good and one of my sisters pulled me aside and told me that if I didn't get my act together, my mom and dad were going to pull me out of school. So here I was, enrolled in architecture school, always wanted to be an architect ..... and I sucked .... bad. Now what was I going to do?

I still wanted to be an architect, but if I was going to be terrible at it there was no way my proud soul could have taken it. I had nothing left to consider except to change how I went about doing things and get serious -

Drop out of jazz band. Check
No more parties. Check
Stop going out with my friends. Check
No more "dating" the ladies. *sad face* Check
Spend ALL my time up at the studio. Check

Guess what happened? I stopped sucking. I found myself in a group of what I considered to be the best designers of my peers. I stopped paying attention to what other people were doing and only worried about what I was doing. Fear of being a loser is a remarkable motivator and once I channeled my inner fear of sucking, I never had any more issues in school. I uncorked some competitive side in me that I never knew existed, but once I let that particular genie out of the bottle, along with it came constant fear - I call it performance anxiety - of being a loser. Competitive nature vs. fear of failure; the whip and the carrot, good and bad, yin and yang, call it what you will. All of the effort and hard work I put in was a result of not wanting to suck or be a loser. Nothing comes easy.

When it came time for me to take the Architectural Registration Exam - one of the more stressful things I have taken on in my life - I put it off for years feeling I wasn't ready, I didn't know enough, there was no way I could pass it. I finally took it 5 years after graduating and I passed every section the first time (scoreboard). But you know what, I studied harder and longer than anyone I have ever met. Luck favors the prepared, right?

Since I started writing my own blog Life of an Architect 7 month ago, I have received literally hundreds of emails, probably half are from people who are questioning their resolve towards becoming or being an architect in this economic downturn. Is it worth it? I don't know - it is for me. I have worked my ass off to get where I am and despite loads of uncertainty along the way, those experiences and challenges tested my resolve and simply reinforced what I believed was the right thing for me. I graduated from college 18 years ago and I am still wondering- when does it get easy - when does it all come together?

.

[caption id="attachment_4441" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="Hard Work"][/caption]

It doesn't get easy but it does become worthwhile. I am still motivated by my fear of looking stupid and for getting laughed at by my peers. I hope one day that will change but unless I win the lottery, I'm not counting on it. Work hard, try hard, measure yourself against your own standards and you might be surprised by how things turn out.

Cheers. - Bob
*******
Note from the hosts: All I can say is -- Bravo! Great piece, and Bob is doing one heck of a job with his blog too . . . . Go check it out. http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com. Thanks again Bob. jb

Tammy Dalton :: DIY Gone Wrong (A List)
Tammy Dalton — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:29:59 +0000
A couple of weeks ago as I was describing my own Do-It-Yourself tile project, I mentioned that I was quite familiar with €œDIY-Gone-Wrong.€ While I love starting from scratch with new construction projects, much of interior design work involves renovations and remodeling, and uncovering or correcting mistakes that well-meaning homeowners have made. I made a list so that I could share with you exactly what I mean. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are all things that I have come across in my interior design practice that have been done by €œprevious owners€ that decided to take matters into their own hands.

Hot and cold water taps plumbed backwards (hot is cold, cold is hot).
No wall scribes. A scribe is that little filler strip of wood between your cabinet and a wall. Why is this important? One can never assume a wall is straight (usually they are not, especially in older homes). Without a scribe, cabinet doors may not be able to open to a full 90 degrees, drawers may not be able to open 100%, and/or there will be an unsightly and uneven gap between the wall and cabinet.
Building walls that terminate at the middle of a window. (I swear I have actually seen this, and it is truly a construction sin.)
Acoustical ceiling tile in a house EVER. (Usually whatever the acoustical tile is concealing is scarier than the tile, but that band aid has to come off sometime!)
Wallpapering the electrical outlets. Granted, this is an aesthetic choice, but it's really tacky.
Setting your recessed lights inside the radius of a ceiling fan. It creates a strobe light effect when the fan is running and the lights are on.
Using the same granite (especially gray sardo) throughout an entire house.
Installing toilets before flooring. This is a big, bad No-No! Toilets are like snowflakes, no two have the same exact footprint, so if you ever need to change your toilet but the flooring came after, then you will be replacing the flooring too. Cha-ching.
Installing bathroom vanity mirrors too high so that all you can see is from your nose up.
Painting over tile (or stone)- and by this I mean actual paint, not the re-porcelain glazing treatments that can be done to refurbish bathtubs and tiled tub walls; that usually works pretty good, though I will warn you: it only looks good in white, and it doesn€™t last forever. It will start peeling after a few years and have to be done again.
Not using joint spacers when setting tile.
Caulking a gap bigger than 3/8 of an inch (and even 3/8 is pushing it), or worse: not caulking gaps at all.
Lumpy drywall patching, with the drywall tape edges exposed, and trying to patch a popcorn ceiling yourself. (Just forget about it and call a drywall guy for popcorn patching, or any type of textured wall patching. You will be so glad you did.)
Using wall-to-wall carpet as a wall covering or over woodwork. (Your home is not a roller-skating rink or a cat scratching post.) Again this is an aesthetic choice, but it€™s usually done because the surface underneath is terrible and can only be saved by covering it with something thick and forgiving.
Installing lever door handles upside down, so that to open the door you must pull the handle up instead of pushing it down.

Do any of these conditions sound familiar? Some of the things on my list are aesthetic problems that may scream €œamateur€, but can be corrected relatively easily. However, some of these issues can be very costly to fix and could affect the perceived value of your house.   I€™m all for the empowerment of individuals to take care of themselves and their homes, but some projects are best left to the professionals.

These are the types of things that a good interior designer can help you navigate as you renovate your space. Even if your budget will only allow for a consultation, it€™s well worth it, and could save you money, headaches, and sleepless nights.

Build free or try!
Barry — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 03:51:02 +0000

Build Free or Try!
Barry — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:17:36 +0000

Madame Sunday posted recently about the world€™s tallest tree house which happens to be in her neck of the woods. There are pictures of this magnificent ten story structure and a story which explains that god spoke to the builder, Horace Burgess, in 1993 and told him what to build. Now, I don€™t know the back story, Burgess may be an architect and this entire project may be on the up and up as far as compliance with local building codes. Or, perhaps, it is just one of those buildings that happen to be located in a place where no one cares what you do. Either way the building appears sound to me.
Even if the Burgess tree house is a code approved structure there are countless examples of buildings which come about, are lived in, and are not. Often, these are buildings, where folks began working with salvaged materials and created a structure which suited them. There can be a real organic quality to such buildings as various types of materials come together in ingenious ways. They are full of surprises and also cannot be considered a legal residence. What avenues are available for those of us who want to build within the system but would still have things be somewhat off kilter?
On the back of my house is a shed roof addition and off of this there is an open porch. The porch has no railings and stands at least 40 inches from the ground. I can attest that this is somewhat dangerous because I have fallen off the porch before. I have gone over backward in chairs and had other mishaps but none of this has ever made me think €œYou know, I really need to put a rail on this porch€. More so, I have thought that I should be more in tune with my surroundings. I love the wide open porch and to me an element of danger is far more comfortable than surrounding myself in a cage.
So, how much freedom should folks be allowed in designing a structure which suits their lifestyle? This is something I think about a lot in regards to codes and the general bureaucracy surrounding creating a space of one€™s own.
20 years ago my answer would have been very different than it is today. I can actually hear myself, in some distant conversation, saying: €œif I want to live in a house without windows then I should be able to do that.€ While I am no longer that radical a proponent of personal freedom, I still believe things should be a bit looser than they are. Over the past few years I have begun to think about ways that such allowances could be made. I think it would have to be done in an opt-out manner. Take, for example, my porch which normally would require railings, what if I were allowed to go with a rail-less design but only after signing that I understand the reasoning behind the codes and that a condition of future sale or rental of the property would require me to bring the house up to standard code?
Now, I realize that there are enough holes in this scenario to fill Albert Hall and that to expand our freedoms here would surely mean creating even more rules. There would have to be more inspectors and more powerful systems put in place to keep us accountable to the contracts we signed along the way. That€™s just the beginning of course and while I have no problems at all with very strict codes for public spaces, I hold that our homes are a private space and thus should be allowed, within reason, to reflect our sensibilities.
This post was meant to be more of a conversation starter than a rage against the machine. I am wondering what others might think, do you believe the restrictions put on how we build our buildings sometimes serve to put us in a box?

OldHawkinsHouse
John Poole — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:14:56 +0000

Walden_Thoreau
John Poole — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:22:58 +0000

SIPS
John Poole — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:49:46 +0000

Spuds
John Poole — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:54:55 +0000

Staying On-Grid, Part I: A Hybrid Approach to Sustainability
John Poole — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 10:54:40 +0000
There's much talk these days about going off-grid. Exactly what does "off-grid" mean? Most folks take it to mean a home that is capable of generating its own energy. This invariably means electricity and on-site production and management of the thermal energy required to satisfy the heating and cooling needs of the occupants. Water acquisition and waste management often are assumed to also be handled on-site, as well. An off-grid home is completely independent of (and usually assumed to be detached from) public utilities and commercial fuel suppliers.

In this context, the term "grid" is often used generically to refer to the total universe of public utilities and services. And that's how I'll use it in this article. I've also seen discussions advocating that food production be a capability of an off-grid home, or at least be made obtainable via some simple, local means. So, at least for the purposes of this and a subsequent, follow-on article, I am going to assume the term "grid" to include some means of production and distribution of food, as well.

Why go off-grid? More often than not, it's usually motivated by a desire to eliminate the demand for (and hence the cost of) utility-provided services, with a concomitant reduction of impact on the earth's resources. Yet another motivator is the desire to be independent of public utilities for the sake of survivability. A closely related concept here is that of passive survivability; that is, the idea that a home continue to support it's occupant's basic needs for shelter, warmth, water and food, during long periods of disruption in utility-provided services. Not every passively survivable home is necessarily off-grid, but a truly off-grid home is passively survivable all the time.

My own home back in the 1930s when the place was still a small farm. A little less than a century ago, a community of off-grid homes was far from an unusual thing.

While the above considerations are highly noble in principle, there seems to be a number of worrisome contradictions associated with the off-grid argument. The first such contradiction is the high, upfront, capital expenditure required to go off-grid. When Henry David Thoreau went off-grid in Walden, back in the 1850s, the man seriously went OFF-GRID, spending two years in a crude hut of his "own construction" while "consoling himself with the bravery of minks and muskrats."

Unless you're ready for this kind of extreme back-to-nature experience, chances are, you're going to insist on living off-grid with not much less comfort than you had on-grid. This means that going off-grid is going to be an expensive undertaking for most. One needs either to build a net-zero energy, self-sufficient home from scratch, or radically overhaul an existing one to get nearly the same result. And should your plans include on-site food production, you're going to need some quantity of arable land. I 'm no expert in calculating how much land is required to support a typical family, but my gut says somewhere between 2 and 5 acres. Of course, the higher the land quality and the better it's managed, the less you'll need. But unless you're planning to become a subsistence farmer, maintaining those 2-5 acres sounds like an awful lot of work for someone who's also pursuing some other, primary profession.

The bottom line here is that the high start-up costs of transitioning from on-grid to off-grid seems rather contradictory to me, given that the process is supposed to return me to a more essential lifestyle. What about the masses of urban poor? How do they go off-grid? They can't. It's a cruel irony that those who would benefit most from a simpler life and healthier food supply are among the very same most excluded from it.

Cover of Thoreau's Walden, or Life in the Woods. The ultimate account of off-grid living.

Another glaring contradiction is that going off-grid entails ignoring the principle of economy of scale. As stated earlier, an oft-cited benefit of living off-grid is the elimination of the costs of utility-provided services. But it seems to me that much of that eliminated cost is just getting front-loaded into the construction (or remodeling) and provisioning of the off-grid home. I have yet to fully investigate extant studies comparing the upfront cost of going off-grid versus the long-term, ongoing costs of remaining on-grid (and please feel free to point me toward any compelling arguments for one versus the other). But I find it difficult to accept that utility-provided energy is necessarily more expensive over the long run than energy I produce myself, precisely because it's mass-produced and provided by competing suppliers. So this is the other big contradiction I see in the off-grid argument.

Now, let's think about what it might mean to find a better way to remain on-grid. Like it or not, the grid is here to stay, and it doesn't matter how many homeowners spend hundreds of thousands of dollars purchasing land and building or renovating homes out in the country in pursuit of an off-grid way of life: There will never be enough true off-grid homes to significantly diminish overall societal dependence on the grid. So the big question is: Is there an alternative way to live on-grid that meets or perhaps even exceeds the goals for green-living, sustainability, and even survivability, that off-grid proponents claim for themselves?

I believe there is, and here's something of a vision of what it consists of:

Let's begin by first assuming that I am a person of reasonably sufficient means to transition to a completely off-grid lifestyle, if I really wanted to. But, rather than construct or renovate a home that provides comfortable and independent living off-grid, instead, I devote the same effort and (hopefully somewhat less) upfront capital to achieving something generally equivalent, while still remaining connected to the grid. An objective here is to find some optimal balance between the utilities' inherent economies of scale and my own upfront and ongoing investment in my home's ability to generate and manage its own energy. In other words, I go off-grid to a certain extent, but not completely. My total costs are less than were I to go completely off-grid, yet my contribution to sustainability and reduced carbon footprint, etc., is actually greater. (Note that I am only conjecturing that this is possible -- I've not yet demonstrated this to be the case, neither analytically nor empirically).

The first thing I do is find a suitable, existing home to renovate. (The older, the better! :-) Why do this? Well, by choosing to live in an established home, I am reusing land and structures that have already been developed (and likewise reused by many who came before me), while reducing the demand for undeveloped land and materials that would be necessary for new construction (a significant application of two of the "Three R's" generally espoused by the green movement).

A big part of my renovation effort would, of course, include establishing a highly effective building envelope, as well as leveraging all possible secondary means of passive thermal performance (e.g.,via landscaping or other site-related enhancements). I believe very strongly that older homes can be made just as thermally efficient as new ones. Sure, it requires coming up with solutions to difficult problems, and then committing financial resources to their implementation, but that's all part-and-parcel of my overall vision. From a cost perspective, I view this as just a reallocation of some portion of the expense of new construction or renovation that would have been incurred had I gone off-grid, anyway.

17th century SIPS (minus the insulation, of course :-). Note the white wash and traces of an old chair rail -- This was from back when these oak planks and infill formed the actual interior wall.

The second major component of my vision involves getting the house to produce some degree of its own energy. Exactly how much depends on a trade-off between my design objectives for survivability versus how much money I want to invest in energy production versus how much I might possibly be able to supply back to the grid. Even though I'm on-grid, I still want to minimize my use of it. And, when possible, I'd like to contribute back to the grid. For example, using solar panels, or even more esoteric technologies, like micro-CHP, I can possibly plan for periods of time when I have excess electrical power that I don't need, and can readily sell back to my electrical power supplier. My home has now become an energy provider, not just a consumer. The fact that I am attached to the grid means that I can provide back to the grid, reducing overall community demand on the grid that much further. But I can't do this if I'm living somewhere off in isolation.

And finally, the third major component of my vision is the intelligent use of (energy efficient) home appliances and energy management devices, as well as the ongoing and planned upgrading and fine-tuning of my complete home energy system. Again, being on-grid has its advantages, as it enables me to take advantage of emerging "smart-grid" devices and meters and services as they evolve over time. My vision requires that ongoing reinvestment be made in integrating new smart devices and services as they become available and proven.

Reclaiming the urban forest -- Better this old silver maple go into some nice, hand-hewn furniture, than become fodder for the wood chipper.

In summary, I believe (but have yet to prove) that my "staying on-grid" vision not only satisfies, but exceeds, the sustainability and green-living criteria advocated by off-grid proponents. In fact, future efforts of mine in this area will attempt to develop a more rigorous, empirical basis for this claim, as well as a number of real world projects that I hope will demonstrate the efficacy of this strategy. Note that the one aspect of my vision that I have yet to address is where food production fits in this picture. That will be the topic of a follow-on article.

And finally, I'd like to point out that I am not in any way criticizing any one out there who desires to pursue, or support others in pursuing, a true off-grid way of life. If that is what you really want to do, by all means, do it. You have my support. What I am offering up, however, is an alternative vision that I believe actually exceeds the positive results associated with going off-grid.

Note from the hosts: Look for Part 2 of John's dissertation in coming weeks. Thanks John. jb

RandiHeadShot
jb — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:39:28 +0000

Randi Destefano :: A (true) Boomer Fairy Tale
Authentic Living Interiors — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:10:42 +0000
(Lessons Learned About Accessibility)
AKA My Cobbler Moment

What is it they say about the Cobbler€™s children? I seem to remember a folktale about a cobbler who was so busy making shoes for his customers that his own children went barefoot. Before I relay my fairytale I would like to state for the record, in my defense, that I had never really thought of myself as a cobbler€¦OR as aging! But I should have known better.

I€™m a professional interior designer and I help busy people create authentic living spaces that suit their lives and reflect who they truly are. Part of helping people reflect their lifestyle in their homes involves planning for their future lifestyle! I€™m a certified aging-in-place specialist (or CAPS for short) and I specialize in Universal Design - designing or modifying homes to so they are usable by everyone, no matter their ability.

So then my cobbler moment happened. The need for me to put into practice what I€™ve been helping my design clients do for years! But, alas, for me, it was too late. But no point in telling the ending before the story has even begun€¦let me tell you my story€¦€¦€¦..
*******
Once upon a time a young, healthy baby boomer couple purchased a three-story castle that had no elevator. They loved their spacious new, modern home! But knowing they wouldn€™t live in it for many years, they chose not to modify it. After all, they were relatively active! The stairs were no problem, and offered great exercise.

Then one day the handsome husband needed to have his knee replaced. Realizing that their bedroom was on the top floor, and stairs would be out of the question, the happy couple began to ponder. Where would he live during his rehab? Where would he sleep and bathe?

€œOf course!€ they said,€the lower level is perfect!€ He would be able to go directly from the car into the house and avoid steps. It has a bedroom, a bathroom, a recliner and the all important royal TV with remote control.

But when he returned home from the hospital reality set in for the fairytale couple. The walker that he required could only fit sideways through the small bathroom door. The bathtub with a sliding glass door, no grab bar, and no hand-held shower, made bathing incredibly difficult and precarious. The floors were high gloss ceramic tile with slippery rugs on top, and the toilet was too low for the knee that couldn€™t bend.

This made the beautiful wife worry that her husband would fall and pull the shower door down with him, surf across the tile floor on a throw rug or topple over approaching his porcelain throne on a single leg. The husband€™s world shrank; he became dependent on others to bring him everything he needed.

While the wife was busy being €œnurse,€ she began noticing areas of the house that could be changed to make life easier for her husband: Doorways leading into every room should be widened; roll out shelves installed in all the cabinets would let them both retrieve items easier and avoid stress to their knees; a smooth, non-skid floor that was obstacle free would allow him to move the walker easily from room to room.

So many changes needed for one unexpected surgery! If they had only thought ahead before they bought the house, or made the changes once they moved in. How much easier recovery would have been on both of them! If only one of them was a certified aging-in-place specialist! But I digress€¦.

The moral to this story: Life is full of changes both planned and unexpected, and our environment affects our life. Think of areas in your home that could be changed to make life easier for someone who lives there or visits there. Universal design doesn€™t apply only to the elderly or the physically challenged. When you lower a vanity cabinet so your small daughter or granddaughter can wash her own hands, brush her own teeth, and learn independence, that is universal design at work. And when you add more lights to your kitchen because your eyes aren€™t as sharp as they once were, that is universal design.

And, yes, in the end the happy boomer couple lived happily ever after. Their lesson in universal design effectively learned.
*******
Note from the hosts: Our first fairy tale and our first article on universal design, we'd like to thank Atlanta-based Randi & Authentic Living Interiors. She can be found on Twitter @rkdesto. She was tagged for the project by friends @AKRenovations.

stairway
CalFinder — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:18:00 +0000

3
CalFinder — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:18:30 +0000

4
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bed
CalFinder — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:20:12 +0000

sideboard
CalFinder — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:20:44 +0000

A Parisian-Style Remodel to Die For
CalFinder — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:29:15 +0000

Designer Dan Proctor€™s home makes us want to brush up on our French

When it comes to home interiors, Dan Proctor of Baltimore€™s Kirk Designs has years of experience under his belt. But when he€™s faced with crafting the perfect design for his own home? Well, he€™s pretty darn good at that, too.

Over a 13-year span, Proctor and his partner, Jeffrey Hess, have been the brains behind three different home remodels. So when they set to work on this 1927 white stucco-and-stone house in Homeland, they wanted something that would transport them to a whole new place altogether. In the end, they settled on a marvelous yet beautifully understated 1920€™s Parisian theme.

Just take a look at this foyer. With black slate-and-diamond tiles and a bold, decorative mirror-topped table, the room sets the stage for the rest of the house.

Adjacent to the foyer sits the elegant dining room painted a dark steel-charcoal to stand out against the white molding designed by Hess himself. The couple chose floors of herringbone oak, along with a table highlighted by ivory and charcoal silk fabric chairs.

While the dining room is dark and intimate, the living room is sunny and bright. This was accomplished with plenty of windows and light touches of ivory and gold. One of the room€™s best assets: the antique chest of drawers with an inlaid Asian scene. And those zebra-print rugs are incredible.

In order to make the master bedroom as serene as possible, the couple decided to forgo color almost entirely. The room was painted a warm off-white, and for added drama, a solid panel wool drapery covers the window behind the bedframe.

While the design scheme may have had its beginnings on a cocktail napkin sketched out mid-flight to California, the end result is something far grander than either could have imagined. And that, friends, is design success in all its glory.

sideboard2
CalFinder — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:02:18 +0000

sofa
CalFinder — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:02:33 +0000

architect
CalFinder — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:02:44 +0000

livingroom
CalFinder — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:02:55 +0000

1
jb — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:02:45 +0000

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jb — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:06:38 +0000

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jb — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:22:51 +0000

Madame Sunday profile pic
jb — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:38:55 +0000

Modern Sauce :: Trending Up (the Pendulums Swing)
Madame Sunday — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:34:15 +0000
I€™m a lady person of a few varied talents €“ I have a talent for sarcasm, edging a perfectly straight paint line and overanalyzing all sorts of useless topics. I work and play in the home dÃ©cor industry so I particularly enjoy overanalyzing Design with a capital D. In my real 9-to-5 job, I design textiles for the home, based on what I see as trends in color and design. I have fun with trends on my blog too, I just get to think bigger and use more cuss words and inappropriate metaphors. Corporate America is so touchy when you try to include partial nudity on mood boards or R-rated humor in trend reports. Dear CEOs, stop stifling my creative expression!

Being able to forecast where the market is going tells me what to draw even before the customer knows they will want to buy it. It€™s like mind games but with more damask€¦. To maximize profits, you don€™t want to be too early or too late for the consumer. Instead you just ride the bubble of a trend whether it is furniture, fabrics, home accessories, car colors, graphic and prints ads or any other industry touched by creative marketing of some kind. Each industry has their own trend cycles, some quicker than others, and it€™s important to know how your industry relates to the overall trend aesthetic. How you'll upholster a chair isn't exactly how you'd paint your car... usually. Unless of course you€™re an eccentric hippie then you are probably outside the trend bubble (where you want to be) and in which case, I have a hard time getting you to buy my product.... Well played. Well played.

I enjoy learning about design trends because in addition to being essential for paying my mortgage and making my employer kabillions of dollars (Dear CEO, you€™re welcome), it is also a giant corkboard of imagery representing the collective conscious of people and communities. Identifying trends in color, shapes, textures, interiors, patterns, materials, etc. is fun, yeah, but what is more exciting to me is exploring what it says about us as a whole. Trend reporting is really just an exercise in visual sociology for the present and future.

For instance, in this new millennium filled with war and financial instability, what kinds of risks are we really willing to take? Is Design an acceptable area in which to be bold when we can€™t be bold in other areas of our lives or€¦ will it reflect our need for safety? How does technology influence our attitudes about color, shape and texture? What are the effects of social media and the concept of the €˜global village€™ as it relates to the integration of multi-cultural styles? Is there a new €˜global€™ style?   Can I make a throw pillow in it? All are valid questions, with no true quantifiable answers, making my brain squee as I get to overanalyze €˜til my heart€™s content. And talk about throw pillows.

I like to think of trends as a pendulum swinging freely €“ it uses the momentum of the past to propel itself in a new direction, exploring an avenue, peaking and then arcing in yet another direction. To know where you€™re going, you have to know where you€™ve been. And if you know that you can plot the trajectory of where the pendulum might swing next.

Of course there are an infinite number of pendulums depending on which consumer you are referring to. It€™s like the Breakfast Club of trends €“ where will the €˜jock€™ go next? The rebel? The prep? Each has their own pendulum and they all swing at once affected by the same current events we all experience, but each reacting in a different way though often intersecting each other. One person€™s classic plaid is another person€™s punk and yet another€™s worst nightmare. Fortunately (for me and my horrible math skills) this isn€™t a science no matter how much you might want Anthony Michael Hall circa 1985 to make you a graph. It involves a lot of hunches, educated guesses, overanalyzing and clever storytelling. Good thing ONE of those I have a talent for.

And . . . sometimes I just like to pretend I€™m a color psychic and look into my crystal ball and tell you a long story about the color grey and animal prints as it relates to the oil spill and Farmville.
*******
Note from the hosts: It is always a pleasure when the multi-talented Madame Sunday stops by (truth: it's only her second post for us). If you are not reading her blog, well . . . you should -- here: Modern Sauce. She may also be found on twitter @ModernSauce. Many thanks. jb

Photo Credit: All images -- Spring/Summer 2011 by Li Edelkoort via Busy Being Fabulous

thelight
jb — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 02:57:56 +0000

Sunday, the Day Before Monday (an Email by Barry Morgan)
jb — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:17:53 +0000
I cannot say that there are many folks to whom I e-mail poetry. Maybe it is because you were an English major that I feel it ok to do so to you. Anyway, in thinking about writing to you this morning the roulette wheel in my mind landed on this.
*******

The Swan

This laboring through what is still undone,
as though, legs bound, we hobbled along the way,
is like the awkward walking of the swan.

And dying-to let go, no longer feel
the solid ground we stand on every day-
is like anxious letting himself fall

into waters, which receive him gently
and which, as though with reverence and joy,
draw back past him in streams on either side;
while, infinitely silent and aware,
in his full majesty and ever more
indifferent, he condescends to glide.

-Rainer Maria Rilke
Rock on and have a great Sunday.

-b
*******
Note from jb: b sent this email to me on Sunday August 8, 2010 at 8:33 AM EST. He sent it in response to what I am about to tell you tomorrow. And while we had never discussed it . . . it turns out that Rilke happens to be one of my most favoritist writers of all time. b tells me that Stephen Mitchell translates here. Enjoy.

plumbers-crack
jb — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:40:06 +0000

Turning Roadblocks into Detours :: It is Building Moxie
jb — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:41:30 +0000
I guess it has always been a problem. And . . . I can think of any number reasons to point at for €œthe Why.€ Do I blame it? No €“ there is no blame here. As I am learning . . . it is what is. And it is a part of me, now, for 40 years . . . this November.

It has always been a part of me (I think I said that), but it wasn€™t until I turned 35, or thereabouts, when I first realized its full potential. Well . . . truth: maybe I needed my wife€™s help to point it out. One Wednesday (or something), and maybe I was 36 at that point, I woke up, and there sitting on the keyboard in the office €“ a neatly printed two-page definition. Jenny standing at my shoulder giving commentary.

Now €“ I have tried to give it some thought myself. Why only then . . . at 35? And I am not sure if I really have a good answer. It, maybe, just finally overpowered me.

I know at that time (2005) my job had me lightly stressed, Eva, our second, had just been born, and I had this €œthing€ -- BMoxie just then starting to float around my head. And could *that* be why it finally came out? I mean WTF €“ I had finally found, after 35 years, my true and ultimate direction (I think). So how could *that* be the blame?

But nonetheless it happened, and as I refer to it now - I say, €œmy switch simply broke.€ It all started one night . . . that year. A night maybe not unlike last night, nothing crazy in particular -- but beer cans opened . . . I sat alone and I thought. Nothing to stop me -- a full 15, easy, and only in a matter of a few small hours.

That first binge (as I have been known to connect them across a couple of days) went on for a week or so . . . maybe. I went at it every other night, probably, and I still wasn't really drinking during the daytime . . . yet. Fortunately, though -- that time, I saw it and I put it away. I didn€™t drink at all for a couple of weeks after that.

Now, don€™t get me wrong -- it's never been (even now) like I have to have a drink everyday or that I can't drink socially and be €œnormal.€ I have and do do this, often times with full control and an ability to shut it down.

But sometimes . . . ha'well. And it probably showed up a few more times before I found my wife€™s report. I mean €“ it€™s not like I was necessarily trying to hurt myself or wash away pain or quiet thoughts . . . rather, and more often than not, even now, it has to do with the simple €œcelebration€ of some moment from my day. And when I am in these phases, and before I know it, a twelve pack is as easy as said and done.

But . . . I would always quiet it, and . . . I would eventually go €œback to normal.€ You know -- no drinking for a week or two, light drinking at event, a six pack in the frig, and one or two a night, light drinking at an event, a night off, a twelve pack in the frig, then an eighteen pack in the frig, another binge, and repeat . . .and this cycle would roll on across a month or two . . . 2006, 2007, and dot dot dot.

My friend told me just this past weekend and actually rather casually, €œIt is kinda like a train that will gain momentum . . . . And once it gains momentum, it's simply a matter of inertia. That train (he said) is not going to stop until some sort of equal and opposite resistance forces it stop.€

For me €“ the €œequal opposite,€ I see it, has usually always been another person: my wife and a fight (never physical) or in one case my mother (embarrassing), but sometimes such things as a . . . errrmmm . . . botched tile job or a . . . but there has always been something that shuts it down . . . and well, some have been more painful and/or poignant than others.
b'low 'erysabi . . . I planned a big surprise . . . I'm gonna fight for what I wanna be . . . . And I won't make the same mistake . . . b'cause I know how much time that wastes . . . FORTUNE IS THE KEYYYYYY!
I am fortunate to have several friends (like that) that know exactly where I'm at right now. And while I feel that maybe this story is real and true, it may just as easily be a simple figment of my diseased brain.

Still, I€™ll leave it as it is above, and I will add these last few fun facts: The night I returned from hiatus (remember the family vaca, and Barry can testify), well, the wife essentially kicked me out of the house . . . my mother arriving to cart me away. The next day and after all the apologies spilled, I ended with a promise to never, ever drink again. Yeah! It is true, and sad that that promise lasted only a full three weeks.

And that binge lasted only a full four days. You see, last Friday, a great week, ended for me with a DUI arrest and a night in the home-of-the-Wire Baltimore's Central Booking station. And while I am not ashamed to share the details surrounding that incident, I will say only that I made a series of bad decisions over a span of about 45 minutes. Decisions that while I regret may offer me an opportunity for further enlightenment, and the possibility for the removal of my few remaining roadblocks. Yes! I am absolutely, 100% looking at this (my arrest) as a life-changing experience.

And so . . . you see, my dear friends -- I am an alcoholic. I have known and accepted this for awhile. But . . . I do think I did need this to happen (and fortunately the way it did). I know now that I can NEVER touch another alcoholic beverage EVER again €“ and it is just that simple.

And while you may be tempted, I do not need you to try to €œfix€ me. And I'm sure this probably scares you (News flash: It scares the shit out of me too). What I do need, and why I am telling you -- I just hope that you will be there. Just where you are and where I can find you, while I work on this myself (but with the help of the others). A €œthing€ that now must be dealt with, later to file away under a category called -- life.
*******
Thanks for reading and sincerely yours. jb bartkowiak

Sub-Heading Credit: The Waiting Room by Fugazi -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTWSSCYUD4E

Paul Lesieur :: Is There a Science to Remodeling?
Paul Lesieur — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:29:01 +0000
Scientists have long wondered about the relationship between remodeling professionals and the arcane and secret ways in which they perform their tasks. Also frequently studied is their archaic mode of communication. Regional dialects have come under suspicion and some historians believe that the Tower of Babel story may indeed have a basis in fact.

A modern day example: a column in New Jersey becomes a cayoom in the Florida Panhandle, much to the distress of the Project Manager who can€™t figure out why the University of Minnesota graduate working on his high rise is standing in place after being asked to €œhep me sep dem cayooms,€ or help me set them columns.

It gets worse when the site foreman from Alabama takes a job overseeing workers on a Cape Cod hotel project and is told to €œpack yah kaah€, or park your car in the side lot. As you can imagine, this leads occasionally to some misunderstandings, from time to time. But maybe no worse than my experience with being a mason tender for recently-arrived Sicilian Italian tuck-pointers who used the word "mudder" and "Mudder" often times in the same sentence. Both words having a different meaning, of course, as in "mudder tender," being what I did, supplying mortar and Mudder ******* as in "get more mud you stupid Mudder *******."

Science being quick to offer speculative theories has had no success explaining the relationship, if any, between The Plumbers Crack and the Mariana Trench. Both sizable fissures that have denied explorers for the last century. The Mariana Trench has recently been photographed and been found to contain undiscovered species of deep water fish; the Plumbers Crack however has not been proven to support life and further study is hampered by a lack of volunteers. Studies of the Plumbers Crack will continue when technology catches up to the demands of science and an unmanned vehicle can be employed for these explorations.
*******
Note from the hosts: Paul Lesieur is the voice and energy behind the website Remodel Crazy. Full of stories, we are happy anytime he can stop by with one. This is post was originally published on his blog here. Check it out.

hd2
jb — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:50:27 +0000

I Didn't Even Have to Ask (on Customer Service)
Holly Bertsch — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:47:37 +0000
Today, as I was shopping at my local Home Depot, they were out of the paint I needed to complete a job (more on that later). It got me thinking about our company policy. We have a nice company policy about helping homeowners even if they want to do the work themselves. To take it one step further, we actually offer the €œgoing to the store with you€ policy. This means that we will help you with your material list, and even go to the store with you to make sure you get the best service and find everything you need.

We have been doing this for the whole ten years we have been in business. Yet we have had few customers take us up on it. We have done this a few times with our clients, including getting them signed up with project cards and introducing them to the best sales people, with whom we have built relationships with over the years. These are sales people who are great at follow-up, and I can rest assured they will take care of anyone we bring to them.

Why do we do this? Well, usually, when we help someone plan a project they want to do themselves, we end up with some kind of work out of it. We also get a great referral and reference from them. What I would like to know is why more people don€™t take us up on this? I have the power to make their project easier, and save them time, hassles, and money.   And why do we do it, really? Well, we are trying to change the image of today€™s remodeling contractor to one of a nice guy, someone who is honest and willing to help. That is the image I want for my company.

So back to Home Depot€¦ I shop there a lot! My reasons might be a little shady. They are definitely not the busiest home improvement warehouse in my town. I can get in an out with my purchases easily. I also know the manager on an almost personal level, so I basically can take anything back that I want, or ask for a free delivery, and get it if I need to. I can call their commercial sales guy and he will pull any order I give him and have it on my account and outside waiting with about 5 guys to load it. We seem to be one of the top contractors that shop there. We know everyone on a first name basis.

Yesterday, I needed 10 more gallons of their premium plus ultra white paint. They were out. I had enough to do what I needed to do that day, but I mentioned it to the department manager. He said that their next shipment was due Tuesday night€”two nights away. The next day, they called me and told me they had brought it from another store for us and it was shaken and ready to be picked up. I didn€™t even have to ask. It was a $250 sale, but they went to another store 50 miles away and picked it up for us. I wasn€™t even mad when I told them I needed it. That department manager recognized a need from us and took care of it.

Wouldn€™t my customers want to take advantage of the level of personal service I receive from my vendors? I feel that I have an amazing relationship with the people we buy from. How do I better market this level of service and respect that we have developed over the years?

Building the Perfect Den: A Designer's Achilles Heel
CalFinder — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:08:22 +0000

When design-savvy Jay Jenkins was named heir of Baltimore€™s most impressive firm, Alexander Baer Associates (now Jenkins Baer Associates), it seemed as if there was nothing in the field he couldn€™t tackle. But while clients come from all over the world for his advice, he has become painfully aware of his own Achilles heel: his den.

In Jenkins€™s defense, however, what he sees as an imperfect room in constant need of rearrangement looks quite spectacular to most people€”the age-old conundrum for an experienced designer. And experienced he is.

Growing up in Rockville, Jenkins first fell in love with the field when his family moved into a home that came with an unfinished basement. As furniture piled up, he would spend hours designing the space to mimic the popular TV shows of the time. Several years later, after a failed stint as a business major, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in interior design from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

His first attempt at establishing a design firm crashed after six years, but miraculously led to a meeting with Alexander Baer. He joined Baer€™s wildly successful firm and purchased his first piece of property: a unit in the Beaux Arts building in Guilford. While others scoffed at the dilapidated structure, Jenkins went on to completely transform the space into the upper-end pad that he calls home today.

Now, as Jenkins sits among his den€™s turquoise antique vases and velvet Clarence House pillows, all he sees is a work in progress. Little does he know, the room is a clear indication of his success and just how far he€™s come.

Laundry Center
jb — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 11:51:15 +0000

Technorati Claim Check
jb — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:15:49 +0000
4XZYH553VDBT

How to Build a Small-Station Laundry Center
Home Sweet Solutions — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:45:57 +0000

By Tisha S. Leung for Home Sweet Solutions

Surely we all fantasize about having a special room for laundry, but many of us probably don€™t have the luxury of an extra room to devote solely for this purpose and need to consider how to fit a laundry center in a small space. Don€™t underestimate the usefulness of a simple, well-organized laundry center -- even if it€™s as small as a laundry closet.

Think of the most important components when designing your small-space laundry center. It may consist of having basic storage, ease of getting to the washer and dryer, sorting and presorting capabilities, places to hang fabrics and a folding surface. Also, think through what you would like to have immediately at hand -- on your right, to your left and above you -- as you move around.

Consider how you use the space:
Is the detergent convenient to grab when you need it?

Do you need an ironing board or drying rack?
Would you like a place to stow loose change and items from pants pockets?
Do you need to store products such as stain lifters, bleach or dryer sheets?

Select the Right Laundry Machines and Storage
The first thing to consider when designing your laundry center is the amount of floor space you have to work with. Most appliance manufacturers offer smaller-sized, side-by-side washer and dryers; but if you don€™t have enough square footage, look for stackable units, which often come in a variety of colors, have sleek designs and are typically front loading models. Whichever configuration you go with, make sure you can back up 48 inches to open a front-loading door.

For laundry storage to stow detergents and other laundry cleaning products, and accessories such as irons or a place to stow loose items, a good space-saving option for limited floor space is to rise vertically with either stacking cabinets or a tall cabinet with multiple shelving units. Deeper shelves with drawer units on sliders will allow you to store more, as well as reach items in the back more easily.

Use Wall Space When Floor Space Is Limited
Another configuration to consider for your small space laundry center is to use your wall for floating laundry shelves or cabinets that run horizontally above side-by-side machines. Wall space can also take on the task of hanging wet or dry clothes, with hooks, pegs or a rod with hangers. There is a variety of laundry drying racks designed to hang on the wall that collapse and expand on themselves. Having them near the washer and dryer helps in the sorting process.

Organize Your Laundry Center
Having a sorting and presorting system in your small-space laundry center will make doing this task more efficient.

Organization ideas:

Consider using plastic laundry baskets, which can be stored within each other and placed under or on top of a folding table to save space.
Pullout baskets on rails installed under a table can act as hampers for soiled clothes, and hanging laundry bags on wall hooks conserves space.
Another option is a rolling laundry cart stored underneath the tabletop. Rolling a cart around essential points is helpful when moving and sorting between washer and dryer. The cart acts as a holding bin during folding.
A folding surface is the last basic component in an small, organized laundry center. Choose one that€™s large enough to lay down a bath towel with room for one or two folded piles of clothes.

Other Amenities
If you still have room left after laying out the basic essentials of your small-space laundry center, these additional items will enhance the space:

A small sink is handy for hand-washing delicates and quick cleanups.
If you have extra wall space, many compact ironing boards fold out from a wall in a half-size and fold back up behind a door when not in use.

Finally, you can never have too much counter space in your laundry center.
*******
Tisha S. Leung is a writer and stylist focusing on design, fashion and social culture. She was formerly a decorating editor at Country Living and has contributed to Better Homes & Gardens Decorating, Home, DIY Channel and "Trading Spaces." She currently writes and produces design stories for ShelterPop.com and CoolHunting.com.

chute 1
jb — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 02:14:20 +0000
This is the laundry chute in a 1972 split level

laundry chute
jb — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 02:51:50 +0000

laundry box
jb — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 02:53:02 +0000

chase
jb — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:04:01 +0000

Echos of Yesterday :: Down the Laundry Chute
jb — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:23:43 +0000
Some of you may know that we have been staying at my mom€™s house. We, in this case, was just the girls and my wife, but now, and for just the last two weeks, well . . . me too. Reason: We have a guy working on the exterior paint at our house.

The paint that covers the old farmhouse is nearly a quarter inch thick in some spots. And, phew, wanna talk about pitting, alligatoring or other catastrophic paint failure €“ this house has it . . . . and lots of it. Concern: Lead = Yes! Solution: Containment, Clean-up and . . . the girls now five and seven €“ Exodus.

Now, let€™s see . . . hmmm . . . my mom€™s house and an extended stay? Last time? For me, well, I was probably still in college, which . . . feels like a long, long time ago. So, of course, this visit, and maybe it was cutting the grass for the first time since Thriller topped the charts -- I have reflected on things . . . a little. And OK, maybe it really hasn't been that long since I cut the grass.

And this (it has come out in recent Twitter shouts), I spent some formidable-type years living here with both my (never remarried) mother and my sister -- three years younger than me. I mean - don't know if I could even help it . . . Yep, pretty much in touch with my feminine side.

And now . . . I am not saying they are especially girly, but as I am into my third week here -- I reflect and realize that my all-time most favoritist thing about my mom€™s house is, was, and always has been, well -- the laundry chute.

Maybe you know them. And while it works very well in my mom's 1972 split-level, I have actually been paid (good money) to rip these things out and dispose of them. For my clients, a chute dumping into a finished area was too unsightly and impractical, even when dropping right from the master bedroom directly into the laundry room. The big issue being, of course, the receptacle -- in one case, for the homeowner -- a simple laundry basket.

I wonder (and I admit that I don't really get out much); why don€™t you see these things often? And sure, I know . . . the laundry room has progressively migrated to the upper floors of the modern house. For us, our laundry room has either been on the first floor, as it is now . . . or ooo lala (sp?), as with our last house €“ even located on the 2^nd floor. Here it was near living quarters, near closets, and near where our clothes and other washables lived. A second floor laundry room makes perfect sense for anyone who has ever done, well . . . laundry.

But still, I always thought this thing was way cool. And as I watch my girls this week taking turns at each of the two stations, I think back 30 years or so . . . to q-time spent with my own little sis.

Station one -- up top in the hall bath, and standing at the rounded and white portable to gravitation . . . Evyn holds the flap up and all echoy yells , €œYou ready Eva?! 'va 'va.€ Eva's response is filled with excitement . . . €œYeah, Yeah €“ I€™m ready!€ screaming louder than needed to reach back up from the basement just down below. (A classic delivery for a 5 year old, btw.)

Just then Evyn sends a bit of clothing (or maybe a towel) down, and with barely a whoosh, it lands in the laundry-chute-catcher container. My grandfather constructed this thing (probably) 3x5 and 3-feet deep out of 2x3s and thin, possibly Luann, panels some 25 years ago. I should mention -- it is now deteriorating with age, and can you say €“ "bad son" or "a how-to article he'll never write"? But nonetheless, Eva finishes -- "My turn, my turn!" and trucks upstairs to continue the loop.
*******
Bottom Line: It just works really well here, in the split-level, dumping dirties into the unfinished area just off the finished clubroom. It is perfect really, and probably the best (and only) place to set the washer and dryer in this home print. The chute in this case works doubly well as a chase for electric and other mechanicals that must run up to and through the attic.

And yes, for sure, back to my house in only one more small week -- where my wife (never me) will haul our dirty laundry from the second to the first floor, or maybe into the basement (on heavy days) where the original washer/dryer combo still sits. Life -- it is hard, I say sometimes, well, because there are a lot of stairs -- and sometimes, you just need a visit (every now and then) to dear old mom's.
*******
Thanks for reading & BMoxie BMore!

More Moxie (Related Links):
Here is a couple links I dug up for laundry chute (actually truth: I just grabbed the first three articles that Google returned). Little unsurprised by the handful of references to them in forums:

The Family Handyman: http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Projects/Indoor-Projects/Laundry-Room/Laundry-Room-Improvements/how-to-install-a-laundry-chute

The Natural Handyman: http://www.naturalhandyman.com/qa/qalaundrychute.html

This Old House: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,199015,00.html

autumnscoming
Barry — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:18:27 +0000

autumnscoming2
Barry — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:23:23 +0000

autumnscoming4
Barry — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:32:51 +0000

Autumn's Coming
Barry — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:51:38 +0000

emotional-architecture
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:27:17 +0000

217
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:18:16 +0000

Louis Kahn
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:19:42 +0000

Architecture Building of Youth Center and Sports by KOZ Architects in France
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:20:42 +0000

reversible-apartments-01
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:21:48 +0000

building-material-composition-image-300x200
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:23:23 +0000

Anna Nakamura+Taiyo Jinno EASTERN design office
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:25:13 +0000

EP_FRANK-LLOYD-WRIGHT
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:27:12 +0000

pabellon mies
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:28:21 +0000

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:29:51 +0000

Le Corbusier. Villa Savoye. Poissy, Paris, Francia
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:41:24 +0000

casa_le_corbusier
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:42:50 +0000

office-in-woods-582x388
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:49:34 +0000

selgas-cano-architecture-office-selgas-can-arquitecto5
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:50:34 +0000

anamanzo
jb — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:02:14 +0000

Ana M. Manzo :: Emotional Architecture
anammanzo — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:01:30 +0000
aka The Architecture of Emotion
Much has been written about the way architecture affects people's emotions. But what if we look at it the other way? What about the way our emotions affect our designs?

On countless occasions we have heard (or said) the phrase "creative block." How many of those times has it actually been associated with an "emotional block?"

It takes a lot of courage to open our hearts and express to the world how we feel at any given time, especially if the emotions that invade us, at that particular time, are negative. Some, those who dare, express themselves by crying, screaming, laughing, talking. But there are those too, who display emotion through creative expression (sometimes even unconsciously).

This theory has been discussed countless times from the point of view of art. And being how architecture is an artistic profession, creativity one of, if not the most important ingredient, it is logical to think that it too could be affected by our emotions. It is even possible, if we analyze architectural movements in history, that we would find clues suggesting that these movements were caused by the various situations (emotion-provoking) happening at the given time.

What could an architect who feels relaxed create?

Or sad?

Or happy?

Or playful?

Or angry?

What about one who feels like dancing?

*******

Subjective experience and the emotions of people are directly related to the way they think creatively. This is a fact. So, why not ask how Frank Lloyd Wright felt when he designed Fallingwater?

or Mies van der Rohe when he created the Barcelona Pavilion?

or Frank Gehry when he made the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao?

Perhaps these architects had followed a consistent design line from start to finish, but what about those who have surprised us with an architectural work that is unrelated to the rest of the work done in his/her career?

I remember feeling an enormous sense of anxiety when after having learned "five points towards a new architecture," formulated by Le Corbusier (and then reciting them as if they were unequivocal laws), I discovered that he toward the end of his career thought EVERYTHING he had taught was wrong. And he created the Notre Dame du Haut Chapel (Ronchamp, France) to prove it. In this project he breaks with his principles of standardization and geometric style, to give rise to a response with enormous plastic freedom that also responds to the environment.

[caption id="attachment_4793" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Villa Savoye. Poissy, Paris, France "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4794" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Notre Dame du Haut Chapel, Ronchamp, France"][/caption]

It is true that the experience gained over the years is one of the main factors influencing the evolution of an architect (and of any person of any profession for that matter), but I think, beyond that, emotions do a lot for any artist.

Then, it would be interesting to analyze in parallel the life and architectural work of this great master. I may be wrong, and this could be just some random thought from a romantic person, but is it possible that these changes have been produced from more than just experience and a sudden awakening to a new architectural reality?

Perhaps we do not want to admit that what we feel affects or influences our creations. We prefer to think that what we do is inspired solely by external agents . . . by emotions of others (the client), by the environment or by specific situations. Perhaps we dare not admit it, because we feel that this could weaken the seriousness of what we do.

But that is the easy way. I think we could see it as something positive and enriching, something that, if we learn to control it (reinforcing the positive emotions and limiting the negative ones), would be able to give a new level of emotionality to our buildings.

[caption id="attachment_4795" align="aligncenter" width="299" caption="Selgas Cano Architecture Office (1)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4796" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Selgas Cano Architecture Office (2)"][/caption]

I would like to believe that this project was done by someone in control of his emotions€¦
*******
Note from the hosts: Wow . . . a beautiful essay in words and pictures. We'd like to thank the lovely and talented Ana M. Manzo for our first international submission. She is an architect living and working in Venezuela. She can be found on Twitter as @anammanzo. She may also be found blogging at The Place of Dreams: http://anammanzo.wordpress.com/. Many thanks Ana! jb

crwolfelaw
jb — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:33:26 +0000

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jb — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:05:20 +0000

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crwolfe2
jb — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:14:36 +0000

Charles R Wolfe :: Achievable Placemaking on a Morning Walk
Charles R. Wolfe — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:40:26 +0000
aka Six Starter Principles
In the city, as always, new and old seek balance, against a backdrop of trying economic times.

At the doctrinal level, old battles return: Is €œnew urbanism€ with its inherent and neighborhood-based €œwalk, bike and ride€ really overly nostalgic and prescriptive? Is the prescription unsustainable because it can ignore an existing and organic urban fabric, regardless of reduced carbon footprint?

The Seattle Times provides examples of the recurring battles. Today, one article shows the litigation tensions of changing times, where a neighborhood€™s maritime industry fears for its vitality in the face of the slated completion of a regional bike trail. Yesterday, a guest editorial encouraged the City Council to relax density limits and parking requirements in its pending Multi-Family Land Use Code update, consistent with less reliance on the automobile and greater affordability.

Yet as the city evolves, refined ideas offer €œquick wins€ for a renewed, urban-scale lifestyle, as depicted in another Seattle Times example today. In the article, €œSeattle Sketcher€ portrays prospective art in empty storefronts along the city€™s Aurora Avenue, not unlike the well-publicized €œfake shop front€ effort in the English borough of North Tyneside.

Addressing empty storefronts is not the only potential €œquick win€. We€™ve also learned from the movement to remake alleys about a laudable focus on the achievable, aimed at success that is not dependent on massive public expenditures or conclusion of lifestyle debates.

The list could be expansive, and include a renewed economical public/private focus on bus-stop appeal, enhanced street trees, tasteful street banners and encouragement of increased food-cart licensing.

Neighborhood walks can further show the predicament and challenge of adapting public and private to the old and new, as well as suggest some additional €œquick wins€.

From such walks, here are six myurbanist starter principles for ongoing consideration, followed by illustrations:

Don€™t forget the school building and surroundings, even in trying times. School districts may have limited funds, but coalesce around parent-driven non-profit organizations to keep the focus on the neighborhood school.
Initial American attempts at outdoor commerce can be monochromatic. Businesses that bring street life should be encouraged, both through public permitting (and street use fee) flexibility and private encouragement to add color and appeal.
Scooters are becoming increasingly visible. We need to know the rules for parking, and enforcement needs to allow for €œoverburdening€ striped or customary automobile spaces.
Often, interim bike striping is the only affordable means for a city to encourage use of bicycles and simultaneous use of streets with automobiles. Rules of the road are not enough to assure safety. At a minimum, work with advocacy groups to monitor repainting needs and visibility and work with preexisting business to integrate with necessary and historic ingress and egress.
Reuse, integration, mode splits, diversity of paving, walkable paths and mixed housing types are often already a part of cities, predating the widespread application of American zoning in the 1920€²s. Learn from, adapt and integrate what is already there.
Finally, pedestrians walk with pets. Public and private approaches to tie-up stations should not be forgotten.

*******
1. Don€™t forget the school building and surroundings, even in trying times. School districts may have limited funds, but coalesce around parent-driven non-profit organizations to keep the focus on the neighborhood school.

2. Initial American attempts at outdoor commerce can be monochromatic. Businesses that bring street life should be encouraged, both through public permitting (and street use fee) flexibility and private encouragement to add color and appeal.

3. Scooters are becoming increasingly visible. We need to know the rules for parking, and enforcement needs to allow for €œoverburdening€ striped or customary automobile spaces.

4. Often, interim bike striping is the only affordable means for a city to encourage use of bicycles and simultaneous use of streets with automobiles. Rules of the road are not enough to assure safety. At a minimum, work with advocacy groups to monitor repainting needs and visibility and work with preexisting business to integrate with necessary and historic ingress and egress.

5. Reuse, integration, mode splits, diversity of paving, walkable paths and mixed housing types are often already a part of cities, predating the widespread application of American zoning in the 1920€²s. Learn from, adapt and integrate what is already there.

6. Finally, pedestrians walk with pets. Public and private approaches to tie-up stations should not be forgotten.

*******
Note from the hosts: Without a post set for tomorrow/today and in the flurry of tweets surrounding Ana M. Manzo's fantastic post on the Emotion of Architecture, Charles and I got into a chat. After a short back and forth, he offered a re-print from his site http://myurbanist.com. This post in particular was originally published in March of this year. And being how we have never hosted anything regarding urban planning, I said what the heck. Besides who could pass up a nifty little term like "placemaking." Charles may be found on Twitter @crwolfelaw. Please read, comment, happy Friday to all, and enjoy! jb
This post was originally published in March of this year

crew
jb — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:42:42 +0000

Strung Out on Caffeine and . . . Remodeling. Solution: "My Kids"
Holly Bertsch — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:37:51 +0000
My first day off in ages, and what am I doing? I am blogging of course! Michael was nice enough to take the €œkids€ on the weekend job -- we are putting a sliding glass door in where there is now a window. By "kids," I mean the guys we work with, the team. So today is like a paid vacation, and paid meaning -- one I have to pay the guys overtime for.

Speaking of the guys, they should all be back on board soon. Jim is finally done with his €œshoot from the hip, I didn€™t make any money and the job took forever€ work. Scott is almost done building a house. Junior is coming back from vacation to Niagara Falls. Isaiah, the newest addition, has been working his butt off this whole time. It looks like we will soon be able to reinstate weekends off.

So how was I lucky enough to get a Saturday off? I begged for it! No, actually my doctor told me I had to take it. We have been working 30 days straight trying to get three whole house remodels done. We€™ve been doing it short-handed too. And sad to say when you are short-handed and spread too thin, nothing gets done . . . on time. And this was starting to make me . . . physically ill.

So how does one go about getting a job done on time? Well, it all comes down to planning. By planning I mean -- get your (special) orders in on time. That has been what has been slowing us down recently. I am constantly waiting for this . . . to be able to do that. The granite can€™t be measured for the kitchen, because the cabinets came in wrong. The shower door can€™t be measured for the custom shower, because the client couldn€™t decide on the marble they wanted for the enclosure. These things, I felt, were totally out of my control. Yet . . . they have left me strung out on remodeling and . . . caffeine.

Our days have turned to nights, our weeks to weekends, and the work is not getting done. Why has this happened? I prefer to blame Jim. If he hadn€™t taken that silly job of his -- the one he did for a discount for a friend, we wouldn€™t be in this situation. A three week project took him over three months. She (the homeowner) just kept adding things, and upgrading things, and changing things. Now, she is filing bankruptcy and he is not going to get paid. I tried to warn him, but he didn€™t listen.

Now before this starts to sound like a rant (which I suppose it already does), I do want to say that Jim does awesome work and we would like to have him back. We would also like to pay him handsomely to help us finish our projects. I think he is looking forward to this too. He would like to make some money for a change. Plus, then . . . we can all be one big happy team again!

mirror_before
jb — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:27:37 +0000

mirror_after
jb — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:29:05 +0000

Embrace your Eclectic :: 3 Steps to Make it Work
Tammy Dalton — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:02:42 +0000
Lots of people claim to be, or claim to like a vague, indefinable style called €œEclectic,€ but what does that actually mean? My Webster€™s dictionary defines it as: selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles; composed of elements drawn from various sources.

Eclecticism can make a room bold and invigorating if it€™s done right, but more often than not, I find the term used as an excuse for liking everything and yet nothing. The danger is in spreading yourself too thin, weakening and diluting your passion, your decorative statement and style-sense. Do you accommodate too many others€™ styles, furnishings, and expectations to the point that your house and all the things in it don€™t reflect you anymore?

There are three steps to make €œeclectic€ dÃ©cor live together happily, and keep your home-sweet-home from becoming a repository of unrelated junk:

Edit (the nice way of saying €œget rid of it€)
Change it
Harmonize

Edit

So many times we take in hand-me-downs, leftovers, inherited furnishings, salvaged items. It€™s not always because we love these things, but because we want to please others, avoid hurt feelings, or prove that we€™re economically sensible (hey, that€™s a perfectly good dining set! Three-legged chairs with shag upholstery were all the rage back then! Do you know how much it would cost to buy that now?).

Get over it. You don€™t have to keep everything that comes your way. Check with other family members and friends to see if someone else can provide a loving home for old Uncle So-€˜n-So€™s dining set, or donate it to a good cause. This is your home, filled with items you€™ve acquired because you love them, they make your heart sing, and support your life energy. Be selective. Be choosy. Don€™t horde crap.

Change it

The power of transformation. Reupholster. Put slipcovers over chairs. Repaint. Refinish wood frames. Use a high-gloss or matte finish solid color paint to change the appearance of an old-fashioned and dowdy piece of furniture into something modern, daring, and whimsical. I don€™t recommend this for real antique furniture, but most furniture is not so precious that it can€™t be altered.

Technically, an antique is defined as something at least 100 years old or more (except cars, which are considered antiques at 25 years or older). Anything less than that is vintage, and if the original color or finish doesn€™t work for you, change it. Don€™t be afraid; the decorating police won€™t come knocking at your door.

Here€™s an example of a transformed item I used in a home:

This mirror has an ornately carved, gilded gold frame. It€™s very traditional, and wouldn€™t work with the new, more contemporary interior design I planned, so I painted it.

Now, with the frame painted a solid color, it has become more of a sculptural, funky piece that retained the traditional form, but now harmonizes with the modern interior.

Harmonize

This is the trickiest of the three steps; creating harmony amongst disparity. It€™s a step that requires a good eye for color, form, and scale. It€™s okay to use very different styles of furniture together, as long as there is some element that is similar about them- a through-line, a common thread. It could be color, or maybe the shapes of the different items, or balancing the scale and proportion of the pieces.

Curvy chairs with a straight-lined table, or vice versa. Maintaining a certain amount of similarity in the shapes of furniture from different styles and periods can help them work together in the same room. Are the curves organic and random, or rigidly geometric? In the mirror example above, the through-line to mesh the furnishings was the color. The traditional style of the frame used with the clean-lined shelf and floor lamps created a focal point for the room and the style differences are balanced.

Play with different arrangements, try things out. And trust yourself. Most of the time, you€™ll know instinctively if a furniture grouping is working or not. It will feel right, easy, calming. You can feel it in your body if you pay attention and are in tune with your physical presence in time and space.

Some people are completely oblivious to these types of physical signals. They throw whatever furniture together that comes their way, because of utility, price, convenience, or someone else€™s opinion. These are the people that live a superficial, one-dimensional existence. They€™re not the happiest types. They€™re usually nervous and high-strung, or apathetic. We all know these houses and have encountered these people before. Their homes are uncomfortable, and you feel uneasy. As a guest, it€™s impossible to get a good night€™s sleep there. Hopefully, that doesn€™t describe your house!
*******
€œEclectic€ is sometimes a catch-all term that really indicates indecision. Be clear about what you like and dislike. Take the time to weed out the ugly and unnecessary, change and improve furnishings that can work together, and find the shared elements that make seemingly mismatched furnishings look great together.

Note from the hosts: We want to give contributor Tammy Dalton a big shout. Another thoughtful yet practical piece here. It was originally published on her blog in February, check her site out here -- http://tamaradalton.net/. Thanks to Tammy for her ongoing support. jb

Forbidden
Barry — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:56:25 +0000

BMox-Logo-Aug
jb — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:52:19 +0000

Forbidden :: One Day Out
Barry — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:59:25 +0000
€œForbidden€
Your host is failing, your speed is trailing and you have a post due tomorrow.
Due?
What€™s new? It is what we do when trying to maintain a continuity of content (slash) the written word and something new is always due but sometimes you go with something borrowed or the hard to publish - something blue.
But wait €œyou don't have permission to access / on this server.€
What gives this rolling write along a breakneck pause, and causes the loss of your site?
Unknown -Your homepage all stripped down to white€¦
€œAdditionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an Error Document to handle the request.€
This is the terminology for it. The clicker is broken like links sinking into our fragile features future. Fresh off the press, we ponder the accessibility of all things on line, off line and off limits.
€œApache/1.3.33 Server at www.buildingmoxie.com Port 80€
A patch enables ports to remain open and the www dot 404 to become ever more a nevermore or so they would have us believe.
Their technology might be too big for its britches with potential invoked by marketing witches who intone:
Google, Google surf and struggle,
With Martha Quinn and the timely Buggles,
video killed the radio star.
Now, who€™s zoomin€™ who in a big pink car?
Your phone€™s your watch and your Mac€™s your daddy
Cram 5000 friends in your laptop caddy.
Do not give up your E-mail addy.
That girl you like might be a boy.
That tool could turn into a toy.
Each post, another node to joy.
But,the host can giveth and the host can taketh,
so a mirror site the wise web master maketh.

BMox-Logo-Aug_50p
jb — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:14:01 +0000

4b
CalFinder — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:37:24 +0000

1b
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2b
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3b
CalFinder — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:38:47 +0000

thebeauty
jb — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:01:47 +0000

the beast
jb — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:38:55 +0000

Like The Forest or A Gameshow :: A Cage, The Keepers and The Cuts
jb — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:31:43 +0000
aka the Beauty and the Beast . . . and, well, a few other things . . . like a Show
After ten years of homeownership, it is a sound that I have grown quite accustomed to . . . . Rrahhhwonoonnnnn . . . ting!

Kinda like a rooster€™s crow (you know, down here on the farm); and that's the sound of a circular saw. From the north, south, east or west €“ truthfully -- it€™s usually quite in determinant . . . but the call comes, most weekend mornings . . . from somewhere, here . . . in the €˜hood.

And maybe this is a sound you hear . . .*errmmmm* in your neck of the woods. But I know it well, I mean -- we have paid for it. In fact, it has come with every house we have ever owned (and that's only four total . . . now). We have bought into our neighborhoods. And here . . . where there are many old houses, the renovation activity is, well, performed.

And this is a sound too that I have contributed to quite frequently. Rrahhhwonoonnnnn . . . ting! -- the saw cut (and I just like typing it) intermingles with the whacks of the hammers and the occasional high-pitched squeal of a hammer drill, a plunge router or some other rotary-type tool.

. . . Most weekend mornings, of course €“ this is when the work gets done . . . or maybe it is just me, here, standing in the trees . . . and able just then to hear it. It makes like a symphony sometimes, but at others, though . . . it seems more like a gameshow.

"Name, That, Toollllll! . . . ." and I have actually gotten quite good with it. Too bad for the contestant (me) no chance of winning prizes.

And still sometimes, you see, these sounds too can cut. And on those days, I had one just this past weekend -- I was confined early to playing dad. Later . . . I would be assigned to the hazardous material (lead paint) clean-up crew, and yeah €“ it was me . . . working alone.

And while I enjoyed my time, and more than any gameshow -- it, for me, makes like some such call of the wild. A rally cry (maybe) -- €œGet out!€ my little foreman barks . . . "and get it done . . . ."

I mean €“ on weekend days that I cannot work, you know, really work . . . with power tools and such €“ it's easy at first, but it gently works its way in -- those sounds just eat at me (simile:) like a drill bit boring right into my brain . . . and I guess it is simply how I am wired . . . to think and to do.

Are there others like me? These mornings like an elephant that has spent a week and way too much time on things meant to entertain the paying guests . . . but then trapped there, held up inside -- left to circle in my cage.

I have said it frequently and I have even created a tag for it >> in the cloud . . . €œMy Life is a Home Project.€ And this itself, an idea that I have tried to elucidate on at least two occasions recently €“ the house, our houses are simply a microcosm of life itself. No?

I could go on to develop a rough sketch around Maslov€™s needs or to provide an extended description around the human body, used to support it all -- but I won€™t. The point though, decidedly . . . for this . . . and maybe for you too -- as the house, and my work on it, goes, so do I . . . sounds, silence, show, and all.

And it seems recently that these sounds, billowing out from around the neighborhood, make more like a hyena's laugh . . . me in my cage, a onetime fortress of something or other (and yeah I do like Spiderman more, but he doesn't have an awesomely named pad).
*******
It's odd to think that this actually started out as a post about Barry & I working on my house together (maybe next time).
Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore!

DavidMathias
jb — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:57:04 +0000

HDM_20090909_6708_(1)
jb — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:35:12 +0000

GambleLR-PC
jb — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:36:11 +0000

David Mathias :: The Perfected Synthesis of Greene & Greene
wood and light — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:23:53 +0000
A comment I read recently on the internet got me thinking about the nature of art and architecture. (Those who criticize the internet as a wasteland must use a different internet than I do.) The commenter, a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, wrote that aside from pretty details there is nothing to the work of Charles and Henry Greene, the turn of the 20^th century architects in Pasadena. He was also quite critical of their architecture for a lack of innovation. One could certainly address his claim directly by illustrating the important contributions and innovations of Greene & Greene. To do so, however, would be to miss an opportunity to address a larger issue.

Implicit in this commenter€™s statement is the idea that only innovation can qualify architecture as worthy. Not to put too fine a point on it, I think that is ridiculous. Let me be clear, innovation is most certainly crucial to the field of architecture as it is to many human endeavors. That does not mean, however, that innovation is crucial to every building. An individual building can also be considered successful architecture because it is artfully designed, well executed, and sublimely suited to its purpose.

In Impressions of Japanese Architecture, Ralph Adams Cram writes of the impulse to innovate that is so present in Western societies but is much less so in Japan. €œIn a way, Greek and Japanese art are closely akin: each represents the exquisite perfecting in every minutest detail of a primary conception neither notably exalted nor highly evolved, yet the result is, in plain words, final perfection. Byzantium, Italy, France, Spain, England each struck out dazzling flashes of transcendent genius; each was supreme as a radiant, almost divine conception, but none, not even the thirteenth century Gothic, not fifteenth century Italian painting, was suffered to develop to its highest point: each was abandoned when it was hardly more than sketched in€¦€

There is art in achieving perfection. That is, I think, one of the great achievements of Charles and Henry Greene €“ the €œperfecting in every minutest detail€ of the architectural form they synthesized. In a 1985 interview, Chicago architect L. Morgan Yost, a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright was asked what message the work of Greene & Greene held for him. €œThe message of perfection of course, which is unattainable. They did. If anybody ever attained perfection, they did. They had tremendous ability in form, materials and putting things together. It€™s an architecture that has to be seen and felt, including their furniture. They were able at that time to do a house for a wealthy family that would be completely right down to the last table cover and throw, all the furnishings. It was amazing to see such complete perfection.€

Use of the word €œsynthesized€ in the previous paragraph is not accidental. No architecture is created in a vacuum, everyone is influenced by what has come before (some negatively, perhaps). In the case of Greene & Greene, the primary influences were the Arts and Crafts movement, Japanese imperial and temple architecture, and the unique environment and climate of Southern California. From these varied starting points, they created a €œnew and native architecture€ in the words of the AIA special citation awarded them in 1953.

Critical to the perfection of their work was an incredible level of design unification. Their gestalt philosophy, particularly in the larger commissions, was likely unsurpassed. Interiors are unified with exteriors; furniture is all but indistinguishable from interior woodwork. Lighting fixtures and art glass coordinate with furniture and interiors. Every element is complementary to every other. This is achievable because the various parts were designed as a single project rather than pieced together after the fact. M.H. Baillie Scott wrote eloquently about this aspect of the design:
€œFor it is not enough that furniture should possess intrinsic beauty, unless it also possesses this further quality of exquisite appropriateness to its position and to its use. It should appear almost to be a piece of the room in which it is placed and in absolute harmony with its surroundings.

€œIt is in this respect that the various kinds of fixed furnishings become of especial value in the effect of a room, filling the gap between the house and its furniture, and thus giving an appearance of unity and harmony. The fixed seats to the inglenook, the mantel-pieces and bedroom fitments, all appear as part of the structure itself and so form a connecting link between the movable furniture and the house.€
Scott goes on to say that, €œThe furniture should appear to grow out of the requirements of the room, to represent the finishing touches of a scheme which had its inception when the first stone of the house was laid€¦€ One only needs to look briefly at the Blacker living rooms or the Thorsen or Gamble dining rooms to understand that this is precisely what the Greene's did and that the result is, as Morgan Yost described, perfection. Innovation or no, that€™s a result many architects would dearly love to achieve.
*******
Note from the hosts: BMoxie is honored to have our first (I think) real live, in the flesh, author (as in book writer). David Mathias is the force behind Greene & Greene Furniture: Poems of Wood and Light. You may find out more about the book here: http://www.wood-and-light.com/. David may also be found on twitter as @woodandlight.
David -- Thank you very much for your thoughtful contribution. jb

Grown-Up Style that Breaks the Cookie Cutter
CalFinder — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:05:00 +0000

Juxtaposing their love for modern architecture with a desire to showcase eclectic Asian influences, John and Chris Davison€™s home in a rural Owings Mills development brings to life tangible fluidity. This is just the brand of cohesive design that architect-designer Patrick Sutton is famous for. With glass walls serving as partitions and an abundance of big, bright windows, this home doesn€™t fall victim to the cookie-cutter style of the surrounding development.

For this couple, privacy isn€™t much of an issue. Forty percent of the home€™s exterior surface was comprised of walls of glass, offering views from the front steps all the way to the massive backyard, but there isn€™t a neighbor around for quite some distance. The formal living room continues that tradition with windows on two exterior corners.

Throughout the home, rooms are seamlessly separated with nontraditional elements. Instead of using a wall, for instance, a pigmented plaster-and-black granite fireplace separates the living room from the foyer. A leather-covered buffet/server in the dining room creates an additional partition.

Opting for an open floor plan and a few different places for family and guests to interact, the kitchen has a light and welcoming feel. The material choices in this space include white maple cabinets, black granite and a touch of mahogany to frame the view into the family room.

While the style may seem very €œadult,€ the Davison€™s now have a space to serve overtime as stomping grounds for their three young children. Even better, they€™ve got the modern architecture masterpiece they had been hoping for all along.
*******
Note from the hosts: A quick shout to Dean Dowd and the rest of the team at CalFinder.com for their continued support of our site. Their pro pics always seem to spruce up the place. They have contributed several articles on homes in and around Baltimore, and for the full list you can click here >> http://www.buildingmoxie.com/author/calfinder/.

treehouse_01
jb — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:37:17 +0000

Paul Lesieur :: Its the Heart of the Matter and the Soul of It All
Paul Lesieur — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:27:39 +0000
Note from the hosts: From time to time (well pretty frequently) Paul (or The Paul) will email me stuff from his archive over at Remodel Crazy. and Hey, I don't really mind because they cover a day when I have days to cover, and they usually perform fairly well. They end up being, well, pretty fun and well written. Here's one he sent early last week. His email said only . . . "Here JB, this is the kind of shit you guys are into!" (and maybe you can call that editorial indiscretion.) Thanks Paul and enjoy. jb
*******

A Builder Grows up
by Paul Lesieur of Mpls Remodeling

The heart of the matter.

When young and full of magic I was the wizard of fun. My days were spent looking out for anything to occupy my "above it all" attitude, and "being alone" was somehow more complete than joining my friends.

The world was my oyster.

Little did I care what people thought, busy as I was wandering over the soiled and urban backyards I called home. It was my time to begin what would be a lifetime of making things. A journey of thoughts put to hammer and nail. And an abstract eye was being developed that never saw an object alone, things made more as a piece to a puzzle that I could master.

Wood, nails, and a motley assortment of hammers, saws and pliers scrounged from the basement workshop of my father, and grandfather, gave me the instruments of destruction that I called my tools.

I was a boy.

In the developing outer city areas, men were building homes for what would be called the Baby Boomer Generation. The most affluent Americans to arrive not on ships from European cities, speaking only their native language, these Boomers were the offspring of the men and woman soaking in the new prosperity of an efficient post-war economy. They were wanted and they were the hope and future of America.

It was my time.

The Beatles British Invasion was about to begin, Kennedy was getting ready to invade Cuba with a bunch of intoxicated expatriates, and my only concern was not getting caught taking scrap lumber from a building site. I would pick up the dropped nails, regardless of size, and stuff them into my worn and filthy nail apron -- preparation for my project, a tree fort.

My first building.

Mrs White the Irish widow lived in a home that bordered an un-buildable lot. Mrs White owned a few acres of rocky hill that a mountain goat would have needed cleated boots to climb. Forlorn and dangerous and warned as off limits by all diligent mothers, it was where I chose to erect the Taj Mahal of my boyhood. It was a perfect site, avoided by anyone with common sense, dangerous and dissolute, it afforded a careless boy a degree of abandonment and solitude.

It was summer, I had tools, and a giant Chestnut tree had spread its branches close enough to a ledge where I could carelessly plank my life away to a large a gnarly branch. I was set.

It took most the summer, and my structure went through design changes set by available materials, but I did end up with a large and usable fort that only a foolish and fearless child would feel comfortable in. A hatch with a knotted rope-ladder could be used to enter and bring tied-on supplies up to the occupants. It was my castle, and a safe and private place to smoke tobacco and look at the pictures of semi-naked woman in the €œDetective€ magazines my friends and I had gleaned from the trash.
*******
All things come to an end . . . and my fort had been discovered in the fall when the leaves of that chestnut had dropped. My father had arrived and saw the smoke coming out of the glassless windows. My friends and I were just finishing the pack of Newports we had filched from the market. And as he stood there yelling up demanding I climb down to take what would surely be a strap on the ass, I finished my smoke and descended to my fate.

Did I become a builder because of that tree fort? Probably not, I became a builder because there remains a boy in every man and building is not age-related. Its an event you create, an event you control, its an ageless outlet that is not dependent on the product, its dependent on the craftsman. Its the heart of the matter and the soul of it all.

Sluice1
John Poole — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:20:34 +0000

StirrupHoe
John Poole — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:23:09 +0000

Garden1
John Poole — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:26:08 +0000

Garden1
John Poole — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:28:01 +0000

SquashPlant
John Poole — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:32:05 +0000

CollardsSnow
John Poole — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:38:54 +0000

main-image80x80
jb — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:29:38 +0000

Mellowship Slinky in (B Moxie) B Major (Dub)
jb — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:29:25 +0000
Ok . . . so where was I? . . . oh. yeah . . . was. just saying something along the lines of . . . €œhome improvement is not really that far off from making life in miniature.€ But that really isn€™t important here -- big things happening on the farm (and not really that big, but I just like writing the phrase €œbig things€). We are nearly into the kitchen project I have mentioned, in passing, for several months . . . now.

And I had mentioned, too, hinted at even, and in passing that we (the fam) had been staying at my mother€™s house -- for a clip, while "a guy" worked on our exterior, and surely lead-infected . . . bad for young children, paint. In other words, that time for the family . . . "away" was perfect too. to. do. messy interior demolition and the cutting of finished surface-type things.

(about right here . . . hear the funky guitar)

And . . . did I mention that our kitchen has been half-finished for about 4 years now? (Oh. yeah. I have mentioned that . . . in previous posts.) I myself have settled into that €œeasiness,€ of its half-finishedness; my wife €“ well, not so much.

And I know, I know, I have said it before . . . this timeline really has allowed us to, well . . . think things through . . . with it -- and the decision had finally been made . . . we would be cutting a passthru into the wall that divides the kitchen from our living room.

Now, of course, when b (aka Barry) heard of this, he offered his services and offered to make the trek up from the lower, slower Delaware shore.

And Probably about a good point to make myself clear: While b and I email frequently, are on the phone talking biz (about twice a week), and have . . . even actually hung out. . . this, in fact, would be the first time that we would work (you know, like real work . . . with power tools and all) . . . together.

*errrrmm* (I love to feel your) stroke and splatter, I attest to your gray matter . . .

Now . . . this whole experience (working together), and this is really how my last post was meant to start, made me remember something from a little ways back. About a year ago, the guys that ran theStanleyWorks social media presence (we were a little tight -- we talked) popped a poll up on their Facebook page.

The Question: What kinda diyer are you? There were a few options, with only three that I actually recall right now -- Option A: €œBy the book€, Option B: €œFly by the seat of your pants€, Option C: €œI don€™t do that, beeeeeecause (embellishment) I hire someone else to do everything around the house for me.€

Now again . . . remember . . . b and I, if anything, are a special breed of diyer. He, after all, is a professional; he does this stuff for a living. And me, after all, a one-time professional; I used to do this stuff for a living. But on looking beyond that, and as we got into it (you know, the work -- and despite the obvious issue I have with this "do it yourself " descriptive), my thoughts drifted, well, a little . . . to the . . . East (and, you know, all the cool kids are doing that).

And you have heard me rant on it before (well a few of you might. have) I mean €“ the word €œimprovement€ about says it all. The home, for me, is not much more than a process of perfecting, of learning, and applying acquired knowledge (translation: what we learn when we fuck up) to the things we do. moving forward.

*errrrrrm* (I add your love to. my claim), singing a song about what men don't do . . .

And I remember just recently including this little bit to a friend in an email (and yeah, for the record -- all of my posts are stripped right from the email communication I have). Quote €œI have learned most everything I know in life the hard way. . . and it's no different with the house stuff . . . .€

And hey. it€™s true, I usually have to do. something at least once to really know how to do. it. And sometimes that first time can be for the good, and yeah, well, sometimes for the bad €“ and actually it's kinda light, dark, white, black and so on . . . if you know what I mean, and it all just seems to balance out in the end.

And . . . Ok, Ok, back to my wall -- the center bearing wall in the original 1889 farmhouse . . . b, and his only 3 hours away as the van drives, distance from me €“ was there to help me . . . do. battle.

b and I worked to cut a "passthru" in the paneled and plastered wall. And let me tell you, like two eastern warriors with very distinct fighting styles €“ they really couldn€™t be any more different -- we worked. b the silent grasshopper schooled in the ways of the flowing natural, and me the always-mumbling "ruzzen fruzen" (yeah, that one's for you AFF) who studied under the fine masters of the Eastern, as in the Eastern High, school . . . you know, chopping "cmus" (that€™s concrete masonry units) . . . with my head.

No, I am not really that barbaric, but I do mumble a lot and do often go about things quickly, almost all the while, providing (self-) commentary on how I could always work more efficiently.

It is in absolute contrast to b with his Sprinter, a rolling workshop, that he glides stealthy into and from. His toolbelt (an Occidental) loaded with his Japanese carpenter's knife, placed neatly next to his mechanical pencils, and his hammers from a maker I did not initially recognize -- and they were Stilettos €“ to be exact . . . I asked.

. . . I know you've got a mother With a whole lot of love . . . (Chorus) (it's a long Chorus) & (Outro)

He stands back and allows me to go about my bizness. Under-prepared as I often am (because I dedicate *errrmmmm* why too much thought to, well, other things.) Me and much as I am in life €“ I do my clank and jangle from the moment I hike my large-mouth toolbag out of the basement . . . I plop it down and say, €œOK €“ I am gonna cut . . . ah . . . here.€

And x marks the spot . . . this idea of constantly defining and redefining what is good enough. What, as a craftsman, can be lived with . . . at any certain €œprice point.€ b talked even this morning . . . before I had a chance to place these words . . . of the hour of "reflective" time he takes at the end of each day's work . . . on any job. And how we ultimately do. our measuring.

Did you know . . . I mean -- how cool is this? -- he walks around and takes in what was accomplished in a given day from *all* angles . . . I mean -- even from the outside, through windows and looking in.

. . . And did we do. just that on our day . . . together? Nope, and despite the change in direction -- sourced to the misses' pop in at the job site . . . we got from point a to point b, and encountered only some issues along the way . . . we still not only made the cut, a passthru in the making, but really. we had our way with it (or her) that time, together, and it was . . . delightful.
*******
Thanks for reading and a note on this post -- it may seem a little ambitious, but hey if shows like True Blood can do it (you know, naming episodes after songs), why can't I? RHCP's straight up sexy "Mellowship Slinky in B Major" acted as the "Love Track". Here's a link here, and don't forget to expand out the lyrics >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StaAGRWQZaM. Out! jb

Wait! -- I'll point out that a reader recently asked why I do not have more images in my posts. Answer: well, sometimes -- I feel that pictures wouldn't do the topic justice. Nah, truth: just usually run out of time or can't think far enough ahead to plan for the photos that I might want. Thanks again & BMoxie BMore!

1215471944Red_Hot_Chili_Peppers__Blood_Sugar_Sex_Magikviaartisena
jb — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:45:07 +0000

Staying On-Grid, Part II: A Call to Arms to the Citizen-Farmer
John Poole — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:53:56 +0000

In my previous Building Moxie article, "Staying On-Grid Part I: A Hybrid Approach to Sustainability", I described a vision of sustainable energy production that consisted of remaining on-grid while still attempting to generate as much of your own energy as possible. I argued that by remaining connected to the grid, one had an opportunity to sell surplus energy back to the grid, thereby enhancing the sustainable production of energy, while mitigating overall stress on the grid.

But I didn't discuss how my hybrid, on-grid vision addressed the problem of sustainable, local food production, something that off-grid proponents frequently advocate as another key benefit of committing to living off-the-grid. This article attempts to paint that remaining aspect of my sustainable on-grid vision.

Now, to start, here's a personal anecdote that largely initiated my thinking on these matters. I'm a relatively inexperienced gardener. I've only been doing it a few seasons, and while I've not yet met the degree of success I'd prefer, I've at least managed to see first hand how relatively simple, natural approaches to soil management can produce extraordinary results in compact spaces. Provided, of course, you're willing to invest the required sweat equity and forethought in the garden management process.

Construction of "old sluice" -- a wire mesh sieve I use for separating rocks from soil.

My mothers home, where I grew up, is not far from where I live today. Her yard is not particularly large by contemporary standards, probably about 3/4 acres in total area. But once upon a time, there were beautiful, award-winning, English gardens planted there. My own home likewise has the remains of a sunken, terraced garden in the side of a large knoll sporting a burgeoning apple tree. Both gardens over the decades fell into disuse, and for a long time, revealed only the most subtle traces of their original plans.

A few seasons ago, I decided to attempt to revive both. Only, rather than purely decorative plantings, the idea of a more traditional kitchen or door-yard garden appealed to me greatly. At some point along the way, I also read an interesting article about John Bartram, often regarded as the first American botanist, and the magnificent gardens he created (and which are still maintained to this day) at his estate in Philadelphia. I also became aware of the notion of a potager, or a French-style kitchen garden, an artfully configured garden that includes both decorative and edible plantings. The idea of a potager is to have a food producing garden that is pleasing to look at, rather than simply having columns of row plantings.

Cutting-down and tiling-in winter cover crops in the early spring.

So, I set about planning new kitchen gardens that I hoped would fully synthesize all these ideas. Having very limited time, I started off by digging only very small sections of my planned layout. I double-dug some small plots, a challenge here in New England, as you can only go about a foot down before you encounter hard pan, which consists of highly compacted soil and rocks. I constructed a large sieve and attempted to remove as many of the rocks as possible, while breaking up the hard pan as best I could. I heavily composted the lowest layers of each plot with leaf mold (which I am fortunate to have an abundance of), and, given that it was already late in the season, planted a variety of late season cover crops to sequester nitrogen and hold the beds together throughout the winter. These included vetch, winter rye, and several clovers. The next spring, I planted lot's of bush and pole beans, soybeans, collards, squash, and a few other vegetables. I also planted many herbs, and of course, a plethora of readily available decorative plants (sages, hyssops, sedums, etc.).

What impressed me the most about this undertaking was the incredible yield I got from these relatively small plots. My early plots constituted not even a twentieth of the total space I planned to use, and yet I was able to regularly harvest many edibles from them. It struck me that when I finally do manage to complete these gardens as I've planned, both houses could easily supply far more vegetables than what a typical family could consume in the course of a growing season. All resulting from some very carefully thought-out soil management and efficient use of available space via relatively compact plantings (something particularly advocated by the French in the construction of their potagers).

One of my earliest plantings, a few seasons ago...

A question that struck me then, was, if that were to be the case, what would I do with the excess yield? Would I give it away to friends and relatives? Give it to a local food bank?. Attempt to sell it at a local farmers market, despite the relatively small quantities? The idea of some mixture of donation and sale actually appealed to me quite a bit. Even though I probably wouldn't realize any significant income from the sale, I'd be contributing to the local food market. I'd be doing it precisely because it'd be the right thing to do (paying it forward, contributing back, whatever you choose to call it). And the idea of earning a nominal income for my efforts had a strange and persistent appeal -- it would mean this tiny-scale, local food production had some tangible value to it, that it would become part of the broader, secondary economic system. It was an idea that continued to incubate in my head for some time to come.

Now, while I was writing the "Staying On-Grid, Part I" article, a friend of mine in North Carolina forwarded me a link to an interesting article that had just been published in The Charlotte Observer. Entitled "Fresh Approach: New Business Taking Root", it described an avid backyard gardener who turned her hobby into a small business by harvesting micro-greens and selling them fresh each day to local restaurants and markets, capitalizing on the increasing demand by consumers for locally grown produce. What impressed me most about this undertaking was that, while it was inherently "hobby-sized", it was being pursued diligently as a serious business, and was actually turning a reasonable profit.

It was at that point that the idea of a citizen-farmer finally came to mind. What is a citizen-farmer? Well, in a very broad sense, some one who engages in deliberately and conscientiously producing door yard -scale food, with the intent of feeding both themselves and providing back to their larger community, whether for profit or donation. In my opinion, the sales possibilities of such an activity should never be disregarded. Profit isn't a dirty word. And income and participation in the local economy (no matter how small) implies that an activity generates some meaningful, concrete value to both producers and consumers of the end product.

Who says vegetables aren't beautiful? Here, a squash plant and its blooms provide decorative greens and colors in my planned kitchen garden.

It also occurred to me that the citizen-farmer concept fits in very well with my hybrid approach to sustainable living. If performed on a sufficiently large scale -- "large scale" meaning a large number of people engaged in a relatively small-scale activity, rather than a small number of people engaged in a relatively large-scale activity -- then significant and positive contributions to the broader community could be realized. Just as having large numbers of people generating small quantities of their own energy and selling it back to the grid increases the sustainability of the global energy supply, bringing many small, physically separate parcels of land together in the production of food likewise enhances the overall sustainability of the local food supply.

So, that completes my vision for a sustainable world -- citizen energy producers and citizen farmers largely addressing the common need for shelter, warmth, and sustenance, and free of any preconception that everyone must first go off-grid to make it all happen. Rather, just the opposite: the greatest benefit is realized by the greatest numbers of people when most of us remain on-grid, and combine limited grid use with other, various, sustainable practices.

Winter doesn't necessarily mean a complete end to gardening. Kale and collards can survive the most extreme winters, as long as their root systems are protected by a heavy layer of mulch and their leaves by a cover of snow. They can be harvested through out the winter. They'll then bolt come spring, and their seeds can be collected for planting the new season's crops.

As a final point, it should be noted that door-yard -scale food production once played a big role in our agricultural past. When communities were centered mainly on agriculture, door-yard gardens were relied on extensively to supply the farm family with fresh produce, a role not necessarily satisfied by the farm's cash crops, which were usually specialized and destined for sale. It is my opinion that door-yard gardening may once again play a significant role -- in fact, would have to play such a role -- in any truly sustainable, future world.
*******
Note from the hosts: All I will say is . . . pretty powerful stuff here. Hats off to John (aka The Technician) for sharing his experience and vision. Please hop back to Part 1 (if have not already) to see how it all comes together. jb

kitchenislandviaHomeSweetSolutions
jb — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 02:30:21 +0000

How to Design a Kitchen Island
Home Sweet Solutions — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 10:21:42 +0000

By Jane Dagmi for Home Sweet Solutions

The kitchen was once strictly reserved for cooking and other chores. Technology, however, gradually took the drudgery out of the kitchen, transforming the space into a welcoming multipurpose room open to all family and friends. Daily life unfolds here and can revolve around a versatile kitchen island.

The kitchen island is a social hub, an additional work surface and a storage facility. When designing a multi-functional kitchen island, consider fit, form, and function. Assess your wants, needs and budget, and exercise your personal style with the answers to these three questions:

Question No. 1: How will you use a kitchen island?
Your kitchen€™s central station can be as simple as a farm table and a couple of chairs used for eat-in dinners, homework and craft projects, or as elaborate as you can conceive and afford. Typical kitchen island functions include food prep, cooking and baking, eating and entertaining, storage, work and play. As you determine what will work for your lifestyle, the island will take shape. Keep in mind the following functions a kitchen island can fulfill when designing your own:

Storage: The kitchen island can be a breeding ground for clutter. Easy, accessible storage is one way to avoid a pileup of food, mail and other family belongings. Options include:

Drawers and cupboards are good for storing cookware or hiding all those little items such as plastic containers, assorted utensils and paperwork.
Open storage such as below-counter shelves or overhead racks should be reserved for larger objects such as mixing bowls or baskets, cookbooks, or even a wine collection.
Odd-shaped areas can be useful. For example, a tall, skinny compartment is prime for organizing baking and serving trays.

Appliances: A built-in microwave can free up counter space elsewhere in the kitchen or be useful if a family member is in a wheelchair. Other appliances to consider incorporating into your kitchen island include a range or cooktop, dishwasher or dishwasher drawers, refrigerator drawers, a wall oven or warming drawer, or a wine refrigerator.
Plumbing: Entertaining may warrant an extra prep sink, disposal system or a dishwasher in your kitchen island.
Seating: If you have kids or entertain a lot, a breakfast bar provides extra space to dine or hang out. Note: When combining a dining section with a food prep area such as a range or cooktop, allocate more surface area to create a safe distance from the seating, or consider a dual-height kitchen island, where the dining area is higher or lower than the working area.
Electrics: Outfit the kitchen island with multiple electrical outlets for convenience and safety, as extension cords in a busy kitchen can be hazardous.

Question No. 2: What size and shape are best for a kitchen island?
The size and shape of a kitchen island depend on the square footage and layout of the existing room. Traffic should flow freely around it, and appliance doors should open fully. Kitchen islands are typically rectangular or square, but don€™t be afraid of trying a different shape such as an oval or arc, or creating a perpendicular shape to suit the proportions of the room.

Make a life-sized template of your desired shape of kitchen island out of paper or cardboard, tape it down on the floor, and live with it for a day or two. As you continue to plan, keep these standard measurements in mind:

Walkway between island and existing cabinetry: 36 to 42 inches
Counter height: 36 inches
Breakfast bar height: 40 to 42 inches

Question No. 3: Should the kitchen island match the existing kitchen decor?
The kitchen island is the centerpiece of the kitchen, so it should stand out. The work surface, base cabinetry and hardware of the island don€™t have to match the existing materials, but they should coordinate. Since the kitchen island is a self-contained furnishing, take the opportunity to splurge on upgraded materials if your budget allows, introduce a bold accent color and try something new.

As you page through magazines and websites for ideas, consider the following options for designing a multi-functional kitchen island:

Countertops: A stainless steel or cement surface on the island can put an industrial spin on a traditional kitchen. Or consider butcher block if you cook a lot, or a marble surface set at a lower height if you are a frequent baker.
Cabinetry: Colorful painted base cabinetry adds pop in a neutral or white kitchen. Beadboard adds textural interest if the rest of the cabinetry is flat. Or to visually open up the space, the island can be set atop legs with open shelving.
Seating: A patterned fabric can be a joyful design element on a built-in bench or stool seats.
Hardware: Changing all hardware throughout the kitchen to match the island is an affordable way to update the entire space.
Lighting: A hanging light fixture or a row of pendants or recessed lights work well over a kitchen island. Aim for a diffused, even glow rather than pinpointed spots, which can cause harsh shadow and glare.

The ideas for designing a multi-functional kitchen island are endless, so when planning yours, give plenty of thought to your needs, lifestyle and decor to come up with a design that works best for your space.

Jane Dagmi is a lifestyle journalist and stylist who has worked on the editorial staff of Country Living and contributed decorating stories to Victoria, Real Simple, and Southern Living magazines. She produced a series called "Real People, Real Kitchens" for ShelterPop.com and can be found hanging out in the kitchen at most dinner parties.

afflicted nails
Barry — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:49:01 +0000

Afflicted Nails :: A Tree Fort Flowering
Barry — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:58:50 +0000

Back when tools felt unfamiliar and over sized in the hand there was a bent bouquet of 16 penny nails in a board we were trying to attach to a tree.
(Glancing blows were all we were capable of commanding.)
Our minds sought an explanation for our failure.
Never landing on the concept of unskilled we decided unanimously that the nails we bought from Wicks Lumber must be defective.
The mother we convinced to return them to the store for us happened to be British born and this may have added yet another level of complexity to her exchange with the sales person.
Still, she came back with a new 5 LB box and before the laughter in the lumber yard had entirely trailed away we were back on rickety wooden ladders trying again.
With the same result!?!
€œFlickded Nails!€

VOCs :: Smell That Chemical Cocktail
Tammy Dalton — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 10:13:04 +0000
Once upon a time, when I was a young designer fresh out of school, I started working in an office furniture dealership. Day in and day out, I sat in a large warehouse-style building with no windows (except for the fixed glass storefront) amongst a large collection of new office chairs, tables and bookcases, and panel systems furniture. I noticed a terribly strong smell, something akin to €œnew car smell€ times ten, and every day by around lunch time, I was nauseous and fighting a splitting headache.

Little did I know I was having my first major run-in with volatile organic compounds: VOC€™s. I wouldn€™t hear that term for many years to come, but though I had no name for it, it was obvious to me what it was. All that newly minted furniture was off-gassing. All the chemicals and solvents used in their manufacturing were evaporating into the air around me. I was breathing them in and smelling them, and it was making me sick.

After a few weeks, the nausea and headaches disappeared. I guess my body got used to it. No more problem, right? Um, no. Not quite. Our bodies are pretty amazing instruments. They can take a lot of abuse and are very adaptable, but just because your body has figured out a way to process whatever is assaulting it (be it too much food, alcohol, sunlight, chemical compounds, whatever), and you don€™t perceive it directly through your senses so much, doesn€™t mean these factors are no longer there.

Sometimes your body hits the proverbial wall and reacts in ways that can€™t be ignored and that€™s when you know something is a) definitely wrong, and b) needs to change. But until then, we put up with a lot, and we€™re conditioned not to be alarmed. For instance, appreciating €œnew car smell,€ not believing that laundry is truly clean unless it smells like bleach, the smell of a freshly painted room as a sign of newness and a healthy space, the use of plug-in air fresheners and fabric sprays and believing that the smell of flowers coming from an aerosol can means there are actually flowers in there, and my personal pet peeve: baby cologne. What is that about? As if the smell of a freshly bathed little baby needs improvement or camouflage?

Many people still don€™t know what VOC€™s are and/or don€™t equate them with something harmful, because their bodies haven€™t hit that wall yet. A friend of mine from Jamaica says they have a saying there: €œif you can€™t hear it, you€™ve got to feel it.€ Nothing beats personal experience. Just ask anybody affected by the Chinese drywall problem here in Florida (and elsewhere) if they know what VOC€™s are. I€™m sure they are very clear about the definition now compared to just a few short years ago.
*******
Back in the early nineties, I worked with a client that was chemically sensitive to formaldehyde and asked us to design two wardrobe cabinets using wood without formaldehyde in it. That wasn€™t easy back then. The cabinetmaker had to search high and low to find the lumber, and it was very expensive. I admit, we were skeptical about her sensitivity claims and there was a lot of pooh-poohing going on (which was exacerbated with the demand that the interior width of the drawers had to correspond exactly to the widths of her husband€™s shirts when folded and placed side by side in rows of three! This appears on my list of Kooky Client Requests.), but we managed to get it done and she was happy.

The point is -- we have so many choices, good choices, now for building products and interior finishes and furnishings that emit low or no VOC€™s; paint, carpet, fabrics, furniture, glue and adhesives, caulking, cleaning products. The manufacturers and producers are making the shift, slowly but surely, and designers and architects are coming around too, but it comes down to a matter of the consumer knowing they have a choice and exercising it.

Ask your building contractors and designers for environmentally-friendly and non-toxic products. Tell them of your interest and your concerns, and show that you value your health and the health of your loved ones. Don€™t wait for a health crisis. The supply is growing, it€™s time to start asserting the demand, and hopefully soon environmentally safe and non-toxic furnishings will be commonplace.
*******
Photo Credits:

Paint Cans: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurenprofeta/

Wardrobe: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunshinecity/

old paint can ned_bylaurenprofeta
jb — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 13:21:02 +0000

naturewire
jb — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 03:06:13 +0000

Freak on Nature :: The Fall Maintenance Edition
jb — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 10:14:16 +0000
Do you ever feel like there is a divine ordering of things?

Periods in your life, you know . . . when it feels like the Force (or something) is trying to direct your attention to a specific something within it. You know . . . a speaking to us. It (the Force) does this from time to time, for me, by repeating itself . . . visual or verbal clues (usually) scattered around a certain distinct theme.

I know that I am not always awake and looking for such things €“ and ok, maybe the impetus is in fact *on* the Force itself . . . to grab my attention and guide me to these things that require my thought.

Once alerted, though, I move with eyes more open, seeing and feeling . . . often internalizing at first, a relaxing and energizing cat's purr . . . of sorts (and this is not the only time or way that I purr). Never reacting immediately, I try to decipher what it is *actually* that I am meant to see or hear.

I mean -- Does this ever happen to you?

Well, it does me. And it seems my week, the one prior, was filled with unusually high occurrences of one single word . . . in conversations, emails, lectures, radio songs, etc. Is the Force trying to tell me something, and what then do I try to do with it?

Well . . . and if you are like me €“ first things first . . . of course! You hack it into your nearest blog post. Right? Right.

BUT (and that€™s a capital b & u & t) . . . what good would a rant of such sort do on a website that is mainly designed for homey-type stuff? (It has it all over it.) Well . . . and let€™s see, hmmm . . . my favorite season, Autumn, is coming. And I guess I can figure a way to work *that* back in. And here we go:

Reading lengthy like some recipe for destruction (or Lindsey Lohan€™s rap sheet) -- the fall maintenance checklists are just about the corner. And here in the Mid Atlantic area, fall is coming on the heels of a late summer that saw spontaneous combustion << that's no lie . . . multiple reports I swear! It has been dry. And my feelings tell me that we can certainly expect heavier than usual amounts of rainfall . . . this season. But anyway . . . who exactly would hold *that* pot and . . . and who really friggin' knows anyway?

So . . . as you remember to clean your gutters and to seal the holes and penetrations in your home (with caulk and such), and as you remember to get your heating system checked (by a licensed pro), and not a bad time to sow some grass seed either, watch out for the wet basements that come with big rains (be prepared), and . . . this season -- shoot a thought to nature, and the nature of nature, to who you are, and how you fit.
*******
I'll end with this (though it may not be the main point of this piece): Building Moxie contributor Tammy J. Dalton includes this quote as part her signature in every email:

"What good is a house if you haven't got a decent planet to put it on?"- Henry David Thoreau
*******
Thanks for reading and BMoxie Bmore! - jbbartkowiak

More Moxie (Related Links):
Links to some really tight fall home maintenance info:

http://www.dannylipford.com/diy-home-improvement/lawn-and-gardening/fall-maintenance-checklist/

http://www.managemylife.com/mmh/articles/authored/5-tips-for-the-dog-days-of-summer

http://www.statefarm.com/learning/be_safe/home/seasonal/fall.asp

[ad code=5 align=center]

Nature has a few definitions (abridged):

the material world, esp. as surrounding humankind and existing independently of human activities. the world as it exists without human beings or civilization. the elements of the world, as mountains, trees, animals, or rivers.
the universe, with all its phenomena. the sum total of the forces at work throughout the universe.
the particular combination of qualities belonging to a person, animal, thing, or class by birth, origin, or constitution; native or inherent character: the instincts or inherent tendencies directing conduct. characteristic disposition; temperament. character, kind, or sort.
Theology. the moral state as unaffected by grace.

the before
jb — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:04:47 +0000

the outer door
jb — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:07:48 +0000

the top
jb — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:09:59 +0000

the during
jb — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:11:23 +0000

final product
jb — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:20:42 +0000

crime scene
jb — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:26:02 +0000

the aftermath
jb — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:28:52 +0000

Madame Sunday profile pic
jb — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:50:40 +0000

Modern Sauce :: Madame Sunday Polishes Some Brass
Madame Sunday — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:49:12 +0000
If you've been paying attention you might have noticed that the ModernSauce Ranch is kind of a shithole that Madame Sunday is barely attempting to renovate. I figured since I have this here blog (a reprint here) I might as well post about the process because I like to publicly humiliate myself while mildly entertaining my reader(s).

Reading about the renovation will either be a psuedo-useful instruction manual, a horrible warning (like those methface posters but for your house) or moral support for other renovators. If you happen to also be renovating a house then gawd bless you and go pour yourself (another) glass of wine. Y'all deserve it.

The title of this post isn't a sexy euphemism for anything; I really did spend the weekend polishing some door hinges. I've had them on my kitchen counter for several months and the doors stacked in the laundry room all awaiting motivation. When you live alone you really see how unnecessary doors are so it was no big loss. When you live alone you also see how unnecessary cleaning your toilet is too, but that's a different story.

I suppose my guests are tired of looking at my vacuum cleaner and the bushels of tampons I buy in bulk. Hoity toity bitches.

The Before. Thanks for taping off all your paint jobs previous lazy owners! Why are there so many scratches on these things? Did you keep a hostage in the closet and they were trying to escape? I thought there might have been a ghost here...

At one point I had tried to organize them by where they went. How cute. And yet so utterly pointless since I kept them like that for all of about five minutes.

Awww... people in olden times were so helpful

I waited for hours to take this stunning picture for the dramatic afternoon sunlight to highlight the ill-fitting chemical gloves. Glove makers are so sexist because the only sizes they come in are small man-hands, medium sausage fingers or large grizzly paw. They don't make delicate angel-hand gloves. If they need a hand model I will gladly volunteer.

To clean 50 years of filth from brass you soak the hinges in a bath of vinegar and scrub slightly with a soft steel wool. Although this is the preferred method of internet peoples nowhere did it say that it will, in fact, take the finish off. Thanks a lot internet assholes. I'm sure in no way did I get the instructions wrong.

Of course once you take the finish off the hinges are left to the elements so by the time I woke up the next day they had big rusted parts where I hadn't dried them completely. Fuckin A. The whole kitchen smelled like dirty metal, old rust and vinegar. Like a triple homicide while you were dying eggs for Easter morning (do you like how I made that relevant to current events?!).

So then I cleaned everything again, dried COMPLETELY and then polished with Brasso. If you're wondering Brasso alone didn't do shit to cut through the layers of nicotine and filth on the hardware.

The Final Product. Yeah the before and after pictures are of different sets... I wonder how that happened?? And I see there's a little paint dribble over there but I swear to gawd I couldn't scrape it off. If vinegar takes the finish off I'm sure paint thinner would have completely dissolved the entire hinge like the acid bath for cartoons in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. (Yeah, I just referenced that movie.)

The dribble will be fine. If you point it out when you visit my house I'll have Charlemagne throw up a hairball in your purse.

Then, because I'm a genius, I attempted to "seal" the metal from further tarnish by spraying on an enamel top coat which did nothing except make the finish that I had so painstakingly polished again turn gritty and flat. I guess Rustoleum and Brasso don't mix. Anyway, I'm done. If the hinges rust or tarnish now they can go fuck themselves.

The Rusty Aftermath. It really was like a crime scene. And yes that red is my kitchen counter... more on that later this week (again a reprint).

Sorry Mother Earth. I don't think I can compost that.

I'll probably get around to painting the doors in about September. But at least the hinges are done! Kinda... Well they are abandoned. That's how a lot of my projects end up. But in my mind they're done and that's good enough for Madame Sunday! Yipppee!!

If we're keeping tabs:

The ModernSauce Ranch: 9292095380984

Madame Sunday: 0

Moral of the story: just buy new hinges.
*******
Note from the hosts: Beautiful ball and ball hinges -- been there, done that, and probably will do it again. But new ones here -- http://houseofantiquehardware.com/3-5-Ball-Tip-Hinge.
You might have noticed that this is a reprint . . . maybe, from April. For the original including blogtastic comments >> here.
Third time's a charm -- Truth: MS and I roll; we even have our own gang sign. OK, not really . . . but it is enough for a slot on our Contributors page.
Thanks again Madame. Out! jb

kiosk
jb — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:11:42 +0000

toddrobertethan
jb — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:12:22 +0000

michaelcarlsean
jb — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:13:26 +0000

michael hung
jb — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:15:16 +0000

chrisisbigonfestool
jb — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:16:01 +0000

Building Moxie Goes to the 2010 Remodeling Show
jb — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 10:52:23 +0000
Truth - It€™s not like I have the motivation, the budget or the time to attend our industry's trade shows. So even when the 19^th Annual Remodeling Show and Deck Expo came to MY town (Baltimore) last week, I still only managed to squeeze a few hours out of my schedule for it.

And . . . with no point of reference €“ I€™ll say this; I was impressed by the turn out. Though I can€™t speak directly to the number of attendees, I can say I was slightly awestruck by the number of presenters, the smoothness of the event as a whole, as well as by some of the more elaborate exhibits.

And if you think I am here now to provide in-depth coverage on new products or techniques or any other such news, you might as well just stop reading here. I did not attend any workshops, I didn€™t do my RRP training, nor did I sit in on any sustainibility seminars.

The only product booths I spent more than a minute at were those of Tile*Redi, DuraDeck and Festool (more on that one down below). I was there, at the Show, for one reason and one reason only . . . no, actually two -- to check it all out and well . . . to put some faces to some of the names, OK €“ in most cases . . . to the twitter handles . . . that I know.

[caption id="attachment_5128" align="alignright" width="300" caption="l to r: Todd, Robert, Ethan"][/caption]

First stop -- @SLSConstruction. Sean Lintow ("lint on your toe"), Sr, and nowhere near the 60-year old dude that I always imagined. Sean is an Alabama-based contractor with no noticeable signs of anything southern. An Arizona transplant, a one-time IT guy and avid road cyclist . . . now sometimes blogger (who did a fantastic job with disseminating good information about the EPA€™s RRP rule change), Sean hit me quickly with a card for his latest business initiative -- Alabama Green Building Solutions. He had some sound advice, too, for me and for Building Moxie €“ "do it more on weekends . . . as you get it started."

Next, Sean and I found our way to a blogger€™s round table -- the table was round and they were just finishing up lunch. We caught €“ Ethan (who I had met previously) @OnePrjCloser, Todd Fratzel (Home Construction and Improvement and others) @tfrazel, and Robert RoBilliard (A Concord Carpenter) @robertrobillard as they were talking shop over some remnants of purchases from the nearby food court. I had eaten earlier.

Shake hands, exchange cards, and they were about to hit the exhibit floor again . . . and soon. Sean had a cheeseburger and fries, and I still had enough time to bitch about my site's speed. These guys know about the trials and tribulations of blogging. Each now receives thousands of hits a day, and they served me up some good advice.

[caption id="attachment_5129" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="l to r: Michael, Carl, Sean"][/caption]

Next -- Sean and I popped over to see @GreenCurmudgeon (aka Carl Seville) and his exhibit-floor presentation on Home Performance. Not two slides into it, we (Sean & I) were greeted by the charismatic and (*errrrmmm* *errrrmmm* - two throat-clears) well-dressed @michaelanschel €“ action and distraction in tow.

And only a few seconds later, the poking and good-natured ribbing between Sean and Michael began (picture me, of course, "Focus jb! What did Carl just say?"). Throughout the presentation, Carl spoke several times directly to Michael €“ and I saw why . . . earlier and at one point, Sean actually referred to them (Carl and Michael) as "the dynamic duo" (or some other equivalent).

What I ultimately heard of Carl's presentation was outstanding. Based on article he did for Home Energy Magazine, I think I caught Carl saying such things as -- ". . . We are looking at an opportunity to retool this industry . . . . As the term 'design build' slowly crept into the vernacular so too will 'Home Performance'. . . ."

Also I think I heard things along the lines of -- ". . . It's in the process and not necessarily the products . . . ." And that -- ". . . We in the industry can lead the way . . . we can transform (the landscape) of existing homes to make many more comfortable and healthier, while saving energy along the way . . . ." At least I think I heard Carl say that stuff -- can't really tell you for sure.

Later and as I tried to squeeze just an hour of *me* time out of the Show, I stopped in one of the more "scenic" locations on the exhibit floor to snap a pic. But as I was doing so, I just happened to glance over to see another face I recognize €“ yeah, just by chance €“ Indianapolis-based and Big 50 remodeler @ChrWright of WrightWorks, LLC.

[caption id="attachment_5131" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Chris Wright :: Need a Spokesperson?"][/caption]

He was hanging at the NARI booth, and I got confirmation almost instantly -- this is a guy that is €œDoing It Wright€ (ok €“ Chris you can have that one €“ no charge). What I mean -- Chris, a good looking guy, has done a great job of "branding" himself through social media. (See the facebook link above.)

The balance of my time at the show was spent chatting with Chris. We discussed such things as his business operation, the merits of Festool power tools, and (surprisingly) the benefit of forums for the growth of a/the (small) business contractor. JLC-Online Forum as well as the forum at Remodel Crazy came up frequently as Chris heralded the ability of participants to interact, engage, and share in these types of environments.
*******
While I asked several people (and even some random folks in line at concessions) the same question: €œWhat has been the highlight of the Show so far for you?€ I think Sean Lintow said it best, and his response came something like this -- "Seeing the people."

I had to agree and left longing for more time there that week. There were certainly a few more people and things I would have loved to have seen -- Maybe next year, they say -- but I guess it won't be quite so convenient. Chicago.
*******
Thanks for reading & BMoxie BMore!

More Moxie (Related Links):
The Remodeling Show General Information page: http://www.remodelingshow.com/exhibitor/exhibit-at-remodeling-show/general-information.aspx

See Sean Lintow's coverage here -- > http://blog.sls-construction.com/2010/remodeling-deck-expo?goback=.gde_2314234_news_198451011

Quitting Time by scottabbott
jb — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 02:26:09 +0000

My New Position as Office Manager
Holly Bertsch — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 10:37:30 +0000
Well, finally the time came that Taylor€™d Home needs an office manager. We are buried in estimates and are not doing the best job getting back to customers with our heavy work schedule. So Michael and I decided to put on some new guys to replace me. I now have a new title, THI€™s Office Manager.

And now I get to figure out exactly what an office manager does. Today I finished some estimates, scheduled some work, contacted some clients, and worked on my social media marketing. I finished this all before noon! I still have clients to call, websites to work on, and a conference call to complete.

But what is going to keep me motivated? How am I going to go from working 75 hours per week to working closer to 45 or 50? How am I going to earn my keep when I am not swinging a hammer?

This was not an easy decision for us as a company to make. But when we realized that we were only closing on 35% of our estimates, we had to look at what needed to change. What we found was that we were not giving our customers the full attention they deserve. So we looked at ways in which we could do this, and the most logical solution was to have me stay in the office and be there for the clients.

Now I will be able to meet with individuals at the times most convenient for them, and get back with them on their estimates more quickly and completely. I can keep track of payroll and accounting so Michael doesn€™t have to do that anymore. It is going to be amazing. I can finally do my marketing the way I want to, not in the frantic way like I did before. And if I have some time, I can pull together marketing plans for other companies (that are not our competition, of course) and offer out my estimating services for a fee.

I am looking forward to this new role. And even though it means I won€™t have a chance to be so hands on with the projects, I can still help them run smoothly. Who am I kidding! I am still going to work 60+ hours a week. I am going to make us so busy that we need another crew! Now I just have to figure out where to get more qualified employees€¦.
*******
Note from the hosts: Thanks again to Holly for a another straight-forward, tell-it-like-it-is post. I would like to wish her luck in her new role. You should too, please leave a comment below. jb

Photo Credit: Quitting Time by Scott Abbott, here --> http://www.flickr.com/photos/28907931@N08/4443083626/

BMOX-LOGO
jb — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 21:16:21 +0000

What is Building Moxie (Revisited)
jb — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 10:43:00 +0000
b and I have finally committed to defining what this site is, well . . . all about. You know -- we are going to write a mission statement or . . . something.

And as I sat down to start jotting down some thoughts on it, I remembered that I had already done a post on just this same thing. €œWhat is Building Moxie?€ It was the last in a long series of posts in which I ramble on about the business plan I had written. (Some of it I think makes for good reading -- how I came to my conclusions, etc., and presented as a manifesto of sorts.)

So . . . and since I have become quite good at reprinting other people€™s stuff €“ I figure, me . . . now, what the heck. Why can€™t I reprint myself? Anyway -- here you go (from September 2009 and sorry if some of it feels out of context):

*******

So . . . Why Write? Part 2 (aka €œIf it rains, the ground gets wet.€)

While writing is a great thinking tool and has, especially over the last 10 months, been very therapeutic for me, I put this series of posts down more in a way to define "what it is" as I begin introducing it, well, to the world.

In this series of posts (though sometimes between the lines), you€™ll find:

I have a day job, and I like to write about myself.
I have a family with related responsibilities.
I am seeking a stronger connection between what I do for a living and what I love.
I have a business plan that, to some, is intriguing.
I have taken inspiration for that business plan from many aspects of my life.
I think a lot about duality, i.e. trying/doing, success/failure, etc., and the space that exists in between. (<< I am going to post on this again Friday 9/24/2010, I think; plans change.)
I am not a home improvement expert, and I do not have it all figured out.
I do not want a web-only business. &
I have had my share of stress and doubts during the development of this plan.

So . . . as much as I've heard that it makes good practical sense, to write a business plan, it was actually written more for . . . well, me. While I always intended to present it to others, it served initially as a place to collect and elucidate ideas.

Which way do I go; Which way do I go

To date, I have presented portions of it, the ideas contained in the plan, to approximately 20 individuals. Feedback has varied. And while I have frequently heard, €œI like it; I really like it,€ I will admit €“ some feedback has been far less positive.

Here is a sampling of some of things I have heard:
€œI really don€™t understand what you are trying to do.€
€œYour margin is too small; you need to minimize your labor commitment.€
€œWhy re-invent the wheel? There will always be a need for qualified and reliable remodelers.€
€œWhy are you bothering with this nickel and dime stuff?€
€œI don€™t understand how you are going to make money.€ AND . . .
My favorites -- €œWhy are you bothering with a website?€ or worse €œHow is your website coming along?€ (That last one €“ drives me particularly crazy.) The website and this blog, for that matter, serve a true practical purpose.

The internet circles the globe, but probably has its biggest reach close to home

Sure, I tossed around big ideas of an interactive application that manages projects and project resources; yes, I toyed with the idea of building a how-to content aggregator, and, hey, I even had late night visions of hosting the next Facebook.

But after being talked off the ledge frequently, I figured that all of these things might end up being only bells and whistles -- flash (and truthfully, they were probably financially beyond my reach).

For now, my web presence, at its best, is a portal to my real world local business. (<< pipe dreams!) More directly, though, it is a safe €œtesting ground.€ With low entry and overhead costs, I hope to use it to fully gauge this "middle ground" market of which I speak, and I hope to quantify more completely their needs.

But the remoteness of the internet, for me, is both a benefit and hindrance here. I can do it, this, on the side with minimal promotion (in a way, the website promotes itself), but in another way -- it pigeonholes me. It is an asset (well, at least, after I build traffic), and it makes me more nibble/affluent.

Writing a biz plan is also about minimizing risk (aka there is always risk and hurdles)

Come March, 2010, and maybe you€™ll put me on your calendar, I hope to have the solid basis for a viable business. Will I be quitting my day job on March 1? Probably not. (<< well, I turned on Building Moxie . . . the Blog in March 2010.)

And before I get there, I know, there are a few hurdles I must still jump. Here is my short list, the action plan:

* Removed for brievity's sake and well I really didn't accomplish most of it anyway.

If it rains, the ground gets wet (aka pick one thing and do it well)
I have published only a small portion of the services that I can see eventually offering. And truth is -- I probably would do it all for free, i.e. Help people with something I like; it is a no-brainer. But that is the challenge, and has been from the beginning: Do something you like, and make a steady income doing it.

I mean, to me, it is just intuitive (the service package). Who doesn't need another set of eyes or hands, pair of legs, or another head . . . sometimes? I know I do. And while I am no expert, per se -- I have been on at least three sides of a home improvement project.

And . . . in some ways, I offer myself up as a living, breathing, and walking case study. The website, and my presence here part one of this experiment.

(Some nonsense removed from the original) I am also a intelligent, supportive person. I offer personalized advice and "professional" selections (< allowing clients to find their own answers, and helping them with breaking down one barrier that often remains -- confidence. That's right -- confidence . . . to "do-it-for-yourself" -- the tools, avenues, and info are there. And yes -- I too (the big finale that sounded better in my head) am Building Moxie.

Thank you for reading, feel free to comment or email. Now, I will get back to writing about something that might appeal to a larger base (or not).
*******

More Moxie (Related Links):
This page displays links to the previous articles in this series: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/about-2/

pgsmsl2
Barry — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 00:26:52 +0000

Peter Gabriel, Social Media & the Slow Learner
Barry — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 10:41:24 +0000

"Any social occasion, it's hello, how do you do
All those introductions, I never miss my cue
So before a question, so before a doubt
My hand moves out and ... I have the touch"
- Peter Gabriel - "I have the touch"

So much about social media invites a person to go fast. For some folks this works out fine as immersing oneself in social media is easy because the possibilities of the internet are downright stimulating. We have lived through the moment in time when casual connection became available despite distance. What about this is not exciting? I have met people online who astound me with their ability to stay connected to the web while maintaining a healthy balance with their offline life. You can tell them when you see them. They are thriving in the miraculous potential of it all.
As for me, I think I am a slow learner. I want to be a fast learner and thus dive right into things but when I do, I screw up a lot and often fail to meet my own expectations. This definitely happened with me in the realm of social media. I became enchanted with the €œtouch€ and failed to take a preliminary look at the kind of time commitment I was fostering by my online actions, as my connections to others increased, so did my feeling of failing someone (by not holding up my end of the bargain) when I was busy offline. Also, I had the powerful feeling I was missing something when I was away. As life demanded me to be away more and more I ultimately felt like something of an internet failure. Now, I know all of this is subjective, but still it would trouble me so I forced myself to step back.
The bargain I spoke of in aside is a very simple human one. It is the bargain we make when our eyes meet another's on the street and a €œgood day€ is exchanged. It is also the bargain we enter into by chiming in on a forum and furthering the dialogue. Discussion cannot continue if the participants are not present and I felt like I had to remain present if I were involved. The bargain is, at its very basic, acknowledgment. I felt as though I was failing to acknowledge folks because of time restrictions and that felt horrible.
And still, I am here, often reading more than I add. I am drawn to the contact but have begun to learn that just because everything happens lightening fast online doesn't mean that each one of us must see that energy and match it. Rather we get to invest in souls and their individual speeds, needs and nuances. And that just might be cooler than being born in any flashbulb moment.

nvrocky.br_borrowed fromannafengshuitwitterbackground
jb — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:40:27 +0000

wishing ball by elisa kleven
jb — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:49:14 +0000

explosion_abduzeedo
jb — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:53:33 +0000

A Stone Story :: Fist Bumps . . . an Explosion & a (Wannabe) DIY Ninja (in 2 Parts)
jb — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 10:20:47 +0000
OK . . . Maybe Actually Up to 6 (and that would be 5 parts non-fiction, 1 part fiction)
I have been told recently and on two separate occasions -- €œNothing breeds success like success.€ And€¦ €œThere are only two kinds of people in this world €“ those that succeed and those that make excuses for why they did not succeed.€
*******
So . . . that said €“ I want to tell you a story. It is a story of a tiny, whitish . . . stone. It came to me just recently as it lay innocently on the sand. It was mixed in with other sea stones, half-shells and more shit that the tide brought to shore. I found it on Chesapeake Beach . . . here in MD.

I mean -- I felt inexplicably drawn to it. So I picked it up, and truth -- I had already (in my life) cultivated a thing for small rocks and other found items. But . . . from that day though, this one . . . I started carrying it, this little stone . . . around.

After only a short bit €“ I found myself (almost unconsciously, and for lack of a better word) fingering it. It helped me find center when I had certain things on my mind. Its total surface area was, and still is, probably only that of a quarter€™s. And it seemed at times to keep me company, when I felt . . . alone.

It was flawed from the moment I found it, and of course it would have had to have been. It was, and still is, pretty darn smooth; it most certainly had been washed and tossed by the waters over some period of time . . . before it came to me.

But there was something in this, its honed flawedness. Strong though €“ I couldn€™t, and I tried to, snap it in half - just to check its durability. Yet oddly if I held it up €“ and against the moon (and the motorcycle rider in it) it seemed almost translucent. Beautiful and simple, moving and, for this short space in time . . . mine €“ there when I needed it . . . .
*******
After a while and as I realized I was becoming connected to this stone, I got the idea that I could go all diy ninja on it (<< yeah, that's a thing). I was going to drill a hole through it. I could maybe then place it on a string, a thread, or some other such thing and wear it as a necklace . . . or at least put it on a key chain or something. No matter really - if I did that, I just couldn't loose it.

Now €“ had I ever drilled a hole in anything that small? Or could I really trust the makeup of the stone? No, and I don€™t know €“ so I stopped and thought . . . for a bit. What if?

And this is the part that a real blogger may have placed up there ^^^ . . . at the top: Any DIY Ninjaing, I know, is not much more than a mcgyver-like cocktail of transferable skill and focus. And mastery in the do it yourself arts must begin with one single ingredient . . . it's called >> confidence.
*******
OK so the "How To":

Note: In the scattered seconds of time that I thought (consciously) about it, I did realize that if I did nothing €“ the stone and its powers would still be there . . . intact and OK. But nonetheless -- I formulated this plan:

Steps 1, 2, 3 & 4: I would need a way to measure and mark. I would hang off the edge inward as not to chip the stone. I€™d drill a smallish hole AND from both sides. I would have a cup of water handy, but not for cooling a friction-heated stone.

Step 5: I would realize that I could shatter the stone and bust it all up. (I became very concerned with splitting the stone into pieces, anddddd -- you know what? I was not even sure I could make it through it with the drill bits that I had.)

Another Note: Yeah Step 5 made me fearful, and shook my confidence a little.
*******
And there was my plan, so I went to work. I measured out, and marked with a pencil, along a six-inch €œgive away€ ruler. And whew *wiping sweat from my brow* . . . Calipers! That was a bitch. It felt all so arbitrary €“ €œThat doesn€™t look right,€ I thought . . . but hand shaking slightly and highly caffeinated -- I just went for it. I started by tapping the point of a tile & glass bit into one side of the stone (and at least I knew enough to score the stone first).
Next . . . I did some more things . . . . including slow speed than fast speed, applying light pressure, three bits and two batteries later, I was able to push through it . . . into a block of wood. And that little stone spun around, caught up on the bit. "Did it break? Did I break it?" I asked myself. And I looked. But there was no breakage . . . one hole on each of two sides andddd they connect. Success!

....

hmmmm €“ but not perfectly aligned off the edge. (And did I mention this stone had become important to me.)
*******
And with my heavy handedness, and not-knowing-when-to-stop, thick and stubborn head €“ the most important step the first step or maybe the second (which were too far back), I casually pushed on to Step 6: Good enough is not good enough . . . . And I obviously have the ability to make the same mistake twice . . . .

So in a very relaxed way I moved through it, spinning around and taking that tiny, little, whitish and most beautiful stone (but now even more flawed), I hurled it as far as I possibly could hurl it. (I have a good arm too.) And not seeing where it landed, (perhaps in a . . . bonus pick: Wishing Ball way) maybe it bounced up to the stars . . . never to be seen again. Or . . .

maybe . . . it will come back one day, still imperfect, unchanged and seen as what it is for what it is. And maybe then I will be more ready for it. More of a ninja, perhaps . . . but this time with a Dremel and the ability to quiet myself, on center and without it. Finally mastering its flaws (and mine) forming it into some new understanding of . . . success.

Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore!

Whitman's sampler
ecomod — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:14:00 +0000

Ecomod's home kitchen
ecomod — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:38:50 +0000

Historic Property turned residential condos
ecomod — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:45:26 +0000

em-flower-logo-rgb
jb — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 01:57:22 +0000

Becky Shankle :: Modern Design: Like a Box of Chocolates
ecomod — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:31:29 +0000
When the Light Went On :: The Eye Opener

When I was fresh out of college, I was working with a fellow at a sign company who had a degree in graphic design. One evening he invited me to dinner at his home with his wife. The house was a generic brick ranch - nothing special, just a typical 60's 3 bedroom with shutters & a paneled front door.

But inside it was modern in every detail! The baseboards, lighting, paint colors - everything. Their hallway was a miniature art gallery, with small intense spot lighting on each piece. There was no chair rail, crown molding or swirly wallpaper. It was neither masculine nor feminine. It was clean, simple, and soothing -- like the most important thing in the house was the people, not the house itself.

What a great surprise this was to me - that the inside didn't have to be dictated from the outside. It reminded me of Whitman's chocolates: if you didn't look at the label, you had no idea what was on the other side of that milk chocolate.

That experience really opened up my world to the flexibility of design & the power of personalization.
No Turning Back
From that point on, my love of modern design only deepened. I began to regard interior design especially as a backdrop for humanity. The end wasn't the design itself, but whatever it enabled. That included socializing, recharging, or the un-noteworthy daily routine.

And everyone else's rules went out the window. That didn't make me very popular. During a conversation at an architect's office where I was working, the subject of crown molding came up. My boss declared, "They are decorative crack covers!" My response to that was, "I thought those were called bathing suits?" (editor's note: << now that's funny!)
*******
My guidelines became:

keep it simple & easy to use
no pretenses

And the third principle I've adopted, many years later: Use Only What You Need.

Modern design is much more aligned with that rule of thumb than traditional:

it takes less energy & raw material to make a slab style cabinet door;
do away with moldings altogether - save that material for something else;
forget the face frame on those cabinets. It just gets in the way, & no one can see it anyhow!

So that's the story of how I got turned on to modern design, and how I realized that it is perfectly OK to have a kitchen that looks like this:

In a building that looks like this:

*Special thanks to Building Moxie for the invite to do a guest post. What a pleasure!*
*******

Note from the hosts: Well special thanks to you Becky; glad to have ya!

A great contribution that hits right on the nerve of what this "thing" here is all about. Becky can be found blogging at -- www.eco-modernism.com. She can also be found on Twitter @ecomod. Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore!

Davinci
jb — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 01:01:50 +0000

@DaVinciRemodel :: A Kick Ass Fall Maintenance List
DaVinci Remodeling — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 10:28:33 +0000
Fall officially arrived in Colorado (last week). As promised, here is your House & Home Ultra Lite Fall Maintenance List. This is the biggest quarterly maintenance list €“ there€™s a lot to do to prepare for winter. & Please note there is some work to be done from a ladder in the maintenance list.

Replace furnace filter(s): Changing furnace filters will improve air quality and enhance the efficiency and life of your home heating & cooling systems. Furnace filters should be replaced regularly (at a minimum four times a year and more preferably 6 €“ 12 times a year). Homes with pets should consider changing filters at least monthly. Make sure you use the proper type of filter for your furnace. Make a note of the type being replaced and purchase the same or as similar as possible. The wrong type of filter can limit air flow and possibly even freeze your air conditioning system.

Vacuum refrigeration coils/condensers: Refrigerators, freezers, wine chillers all have coils & condensing units (usually behind a panel at the bottom of the unit €“ consult your models owners€™ manual). Keeping these clean will reduce energy costs and prolong the life of the unit.

Inspect for evidence of uninvited guests: Again, not your in-laws! We€™re talking about mice, birds, squirrels, insects, etc. Check attic areas and crawlspaces. Look for droppings and possible damage done to wiring, insulation, siding, roofing, etc. Note: They will be looking for a winter safe haven over the next few months €“ before they settle in, keep an eye out for them.

Inspect stairs and railings for safety: Give railings a good tug to make sure they€™re not loose.

Inspect fire extinguishers: We think every home should have at least two (2) good, properly rated fire extinguishers. They should be checked that they are charged, readily accessible, and in good shape. Fire extinguishers that have been discharged should immediately be recharged or replaced. Fire extinguishers come with a warranty (typically 10 years). They should be replaced once the warranty expires.

Kidde has some good diagrams and information on their website about types and placement of fire extinguishers. As a rule of thumb, remember to place fire extinguishers near exits €“ never in a room without an exit. In the event of a fire, your first steps should always be towards an exit. If you decide to fight the fire, you€™re headed in the right direction. If you decide not to fight the fire, you€™re still headed in the right direction.

Clean dishwasher filters: Follow your model€™s owner€™s manual.

Replace the batteries in your smoke and CO detectors: The rule of thumb is to replace them when we change our clocks (fall back). Anytime between now and then is probably safe. Also, while you€™re on the ladder vacuum the units. Dust build-up on the units can lead to false alarms or possibly prevent them from functioning at all.

Clean gutters and downspouts: Gutters and downspouts perform a simple but vital purpose and they are often overlooked because cleaning them is not enjoyable. Gutters must be cleaned to protect your home. Water must be diverted away from your home€™s structure. There is no simple way to clean them. Just bite the bullet, get a good pair of gloves, some trash bags, and a hose and go for it. Be very careful on the ladder, watch for overhead electric lines and wear gloves €“ there are lots of sharp edges in a gutter. Note: Wait as long as you can to do this. Hopefully you can wait until all the leaves have fallen. It€™s just one of those things that if you€™re too quick, you€™ll need to do it again, but if you wait too long, you could find yourself in icicle hell and possibly sustain damage to your eaves and roof. We€™ll try to send an alert out when we think it€™s an optimum time to get it done.

Clear the roof of debris: While you have the ladder out doing the gutters, take the time to clear your roof of any debris and make sure all roof vents are clear also. This is a good time to inspect the roof, flashing and valleys for damage as well. Again, exercise caution.

Inspect chimneys for uninvited guests, cracks or potential leaks: It€™s just one more thing to do while you have the ladder out.

Clean the dryer vent and ducting of lint: This is not an easy task €“ it could require some specialized tools. It is one of the most common causes of house fires.

Clear crawlspace vents of debris and overgrowth: We advocate keeping your crawlspace vents open year round. However in some homes they need to be closed for the winter to prevent pipes from freezing. If you€™re uncertain about your crawlspace vents, call us, we€™ll try to help.

Vacuum the furnace blower box: This can be dangerous and you could cause more damage than good if you are not careful. If you€™re uncomfortable or unsure about this task contact us or another professional for help.

Replace any and all water filtration filters: You could have a whole house system, a single sink system and/or filters for your refrigerators/icemakers. It€™s time to change the filters and reset any alarms.

Winterize the whole house fan: If you have a whole house fan, it should be winterized before you start losing heat through it. With Colorado weather, this is another one of those things you would like to hold off as long as you can.

Replace batteries in your thermostats: These guys go dead also. You€™ll be embarrassed (and a bit poorer) when you call a heating guy out because you€™re cold and all you needed was a new battery in the thermostat.

Inspect door weather stripping and replace as necessary: If you see daylight €“ it€™s not good! This was also on the summer list €“ check again!

Clean/replace the furnace humidifier pad and set for €œwinter€: Over the summer these things get clogged and turn solid. Make sure it€™s operating efficiently by changing the pad now €“ before it€™s needed.

Just a few other miscellaneous items:

It€™s about time to shut down your sprinkler system. Get it on the schedule.
Extend the life of you patio furniture by storing it or covering it for the winter.
Don€™t let your hose spigots freeze. We€™ll watch the weather and try to send an alert out when it is a must to disconnect your hoses.

*******
The Ultra Lite maintenance list is intended to inform DIY homeowners about general home maintenance. The list suggested above is by no means a complete list of items that need maintenance in a home. The list above is only a compilation of maintenance suggestions based on our experience in homeownership, homebuilding and remodeling.

Remember to be safe when performing your home maintenance tasks.
*******

Note from the hosts: Thanks to friend Paul Coates. Paul and his Colorado-based Da Vinci Remodeling publishes seasonal maintenance lists to their House and Home Ultra Lite subscribers. While he recommends contacting him directly if you need help with any of these items . . . I suggest only doing so if you live in the Metro-Denver area.

To subscribe by email to these lists, click here >> http://davinciremodeling.net/HouseandHomeUltraLite.aspx.

If you are in the "right" browser, you should be able to print this list by clicking one of the options below. thanks. jb

lamp_HSS
jb — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 03:05:13 +0000

How To Install a Dimmer for a Table or Floor Lamp
Home Sweet Solutions — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 10:55:53 +0000

Home Sweet Solutions: Quick Fix -- Lamplight too bright?
By Jean Nayar

Not every floor or table lamp comes with an integral dimmer, but you can easily attach a foot-control dimmer to a floor lamp or add an in-line cord-operated dimmer to a table lamp to enable you to adjust the light level for different functions or different times of day.

Dimmers also help conserve energy and save money on your utility bills. And they€™re incredibly easy to install. Lamp-base dimmers, for example, screw directly into a lamp€™s socket. Plug-in foot-control floor lamp dimmers plug directly into the wall and contain a socket that lets you simply plug your lamp into the dimming device. In-line cord-control dimmers can be attached to a lamp cord and require just a few basic tools to install. Here€™s how to attach this type of device.

Supplies

Lamp cord dimmer
Utility knife
Diagonal cutting pliers
Wire stripper
Long-nose pliers
Screwdriver

Instructions

1. Select the position.
Unplug your lamp. Select the position along the cord where you want to add the dimmer switch to the lamp. (Choose a spot within easy reach of where you will be turning it on, such as from a chair or bed.)

2. Prepare the wire.
With a utility knife, separate the two wires of your lamp€™s cord at the position you want to add the dimmer switch, about an inch or so along the groove in the center of the cord. Determine which of the strands of the cord is neutral and which one is hot by observing the insulation casing: The hot wire has smooth casing, and the neutral wire has ribbed casing. Using the cutting pliers, slice through only the hot wire at the center of the juncture where you wish to install your dimmer. Using the wire strippers, strip away about one inch of insulation from both ends of the cut hot wire.

3. Install the dimmer.
Unscrew and remove the cover of the dimmer switch. Place the neutral wire along the inside of the switch box, as indicated in the manufacturer€™s instructions. Using the long-nose pliers, place the cut ends of the hot wire under the two terminal clamps and fasten them in place by turning the screws with a screwdriver. Replace the dimmer switch cover and screw into place.

4. Test the dimmer switch.
Plug in the lamp and turn it on to be sure the new dimmer switch functions properly. Then adjust the dimmer as desired.
*******
Jean Nayar is a journalist, the author of eight books on decorating and design, and the founder of TheHappyHomeWorkshop.com, a blog on decorating and home improvement.

the crack
jb — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 02:37:55 +0000

cobra
jb — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 02:39:34 +0000

upward facing dog
jb — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 02:41:00 +0000

Stability Ball Shoulder Stabilization
jb — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 02:44:24 +0000

Stability Ball Reverse Extensions -
jb — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 02:46:37 +0000

AFunFit
jb — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 03:18:04 +0000

Alexandra Williams :: Your Crack is Wack! Or
Alexandra Williams — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:01:23 +0000
Should I say "Wiak" as in "Bartkowiak"? (editor's note :: my last name)
by Alexandra Williams, MA of FunandFit

JB asked me to write a post to help carpenters get into shape. I think his exact words were, "Why are you following me? Please go away." But because I find carpenter-types so entrancing, I decided instead to write some exercise recommendations for those of you who are bent forward for hours on end, leading to sore backs, weak abs (known as Budweiser tumors), over-stretched upper backs, over-tight chest & shoulder muscles and major butt crackage! (please see http://www.buildingmoxie.com/2010/08/paul-lesieur-is-there-a-science-to-remodeling/ for the strong correlation between the Crack and the Mariana Trench).
Okay, the butt crack problem is more of an aesthetic, "who lets you out of the house dressed like that" thing than a fitness issue, but still.....In any case, I feel qualified to comment due to my many years' experience staring at averting my eyes from carpenters whose pants never quite cover their full assets!

First of all, that bending forward thing you all do is technically known as lookee here babes forward flexion. Have you noticed how much your lower back hurts after a while? The solution is to get a girlfriend do some back extension moves. And here are some for your enjoyment:
Cobra -

Upward Facing Dog -

And here are some to strengthen the back so you won't look all Hunchback of Baltimore after a few months (editor's note: who me?! and I don't really see tough guys like me using a ball. Ha!):

Stability Ball Shoulder Stabilization -

Stability Ball Reverse Extensions -

For these exercises, you only need a stability ball, gravity, a clean floor or mat, determination and someone to taunt you mercilessly until you do them encourage you. If you happen to own a home gym, I'll be happy to give you more exercises that will have you tangled up in cable wires for weeks! In a good way, naturally!

For those abs I can just guess you've done crunches upon crunches. So many crunches that you own stock in Crunch Berries. (<< our first cereal plug.) Hasn't helped much, has it? You might look super hot, but when it comes to holding that poor old spine in place, pfffftttt. Because Crunch Berries involve a captain with an eye patch, I am now thinking of pirates. And if you don't do what I say, I'll make you walk the plank! Actually, if you do what I say, you should just lie in the prone position and wait for me with your eyes closed do the plank. For extra fun, do the plank with one leg up. Or both. . . You first.

Now that I've given you some hot tips to be all fit and comfortable, let's return to the crackage package you've been sporting. It is not attractive. I've yet to meet a woman or man who finds that to be a "look" that should catch on. That doesn't stop us from staring, but that's because we are drawn in by your voodoo love beam optimistic! And if you cannot find work pants that cover your Continental Divide, can you at least get a razor that goes over hill and dale?
*******

Note from the hosts: Ahhhhh! "voodoo love beam" @AlexandraFunFit. First -- I feel I need to say: Some of you know us . . . and especially over the last few weeks -- you could hop on twitter and find AFF & I (in the stream) flirting so hard it would make a Hell's Angel blush. Right Rich?

But . . . really on the side, we were working out (<< I can be witty too) what would become this post. In fact, I have been bugging my brother-in-law, who owns a gym, to write something like this for more than a year. I think you'll agree, glad he didn't.

You see . . . we were doing something all professional-like and AFF is a real pro (she even teaches at a real university and stuff). You can find her blogging (with her twin sister -- Kymberly) at http://www.funandfit.org. Thanks again A! A practical and fun post. ~ jb bartkowiak

stagedive
jb — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 19:36:14 +0000

pondscapes
jb — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 19:37:36 +0000

dawnjen_me
jb — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 19:39:30 +0000

State of the Union :: the Little Black Book (a Tag Team) Edition
jb — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:57:12 +0000
jb:

So . . . I am in the habit of carrying around a little black notebook. It measures at 3x5; I jot down ideas and todos as they come to me. Here are a few entries from the last week:
"Dore Inquiry" -- A meeting with an old pal. We discussed a quote he had received on a hardwood floor install (and some work around his laundry room). $13k seemed a little high; we€™ll see if he wants me to do a formal review of the proposal.

"Stacie€™s 40^th b-day party (with directions)" -- Probably one of the better parties I have been to in the last ten years. The Zelenkas are pondscapers that live near Fredrick, MD. People came in from *all* over the place, and the backyard looked awesome filled with kids, bouncy things, pulled pork, bands and libations.

"A Idea (A stands for article) Why are some contractors so bad with callbacks?" -- Inspired by Madame Sunday >> here and pitched to Chris Wright (as a possible contribution) >> here. I€™ll probably write it eventually. *See if LThayer has research.*

"Cognac: Hine/Kelt" -- Dad€™s 65^th b-day is coming up. And both it seems may be out of my price range.

"Internet & Age" -- A note inspired by last week€™s #letsblogoff topic €“ It became clear to me (after people posted) that there is an €œage thing" with this social media stuff. And maybe along the isolation/connection line. Folks say under the age of say 35 seem to have a more defined separation between their internet selves and RL. (I jotted down notes, too, surrounding next week€™s topic, but have decided to forgo. My thoughts here are generally unimportant.)
I have more but b €“ go!
*******
b:

Funny you should say €œgo€ because this has been my word lately.

My black book is large notebook size and lives in a binder. In it, I also keep notes and lists and bits of information that I want to remember. It is a book I used for a while and then moved away from. Now it is back because the binder makes it easier to carry and have on hand.

This week my book had three days set aside to work on my own house. My in-laws are coming to America for the first time next Wednesday and I forced myself to make my place a priority. My, usually neglected, own house is like a cloud that soaks up work instead of water. Installing a new stove has become a much needed kitchen remodel.

The last time I remodeled the kitchen I was newly married and had fewer responsibilities. My wife was finishing out college in Vilnius, Lithuania and I set out to make a workable kitchen in anticipation of her arrival. We have lived with the bottle neck of a storage challenged nightmare I created for 9 years.

jb €“ go!
*******
jb:

OK €“ also in my book:
"yous" -- The northern equivalent of y€™all. MD is south of the Mason Dixon line and the later *is* much more appealing.

"kirsty mccoll in these shoes" -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjvaqVAFuLI Sidebar: Jessica Hoop.

" . . . my kind . . . maybe my. . . (Nick Cave)" -- Some song lyrics. I am infamous for coming up with cool shit on the guitar but never finishing. AND lyrics (as you can see) have NEVER been my strong suit (ironic because I like to write).

"wheat" -- My wife stopped eating wheat and gluten (which helps with my (non) beer consumption). She tells me it can be mixed into wallpaper paste.

"40-45sf (54-36)" -- Roughly the area of our kitchen backsplash. Tile for which we are going to have to pick in hurry at a tile surplus house this weekend €“ kids in tow.
b €“ go!
*******
b:

I made all sorts of bad decisions about our new American kitchen back in 2001. The first was to draw inspiration from our Lithuanian kitchen. To explain briefly, my wife and I had met and married here (in Ocean City, Maryland) and then lived together there ( in Vilnius, Lithuania) in an apartment we had rented for the remainder of her time in college.

That kitchen was small because things there are smaller, I reasoned that small was good (I guess because I had had a good time there) and purchased a 24 inch stove. I built the that stove into a unit that consisted of a home made audio cabinet converted to a kitchen cubbard, a large dead space for electric and an old pine table top I sanded down, polyurethaned and pressed into service as the the counter top.

I used what I had around and a romantic sense of what was forthcoming to guide my design choices. As I mentioned the kitchen was a terrible failure but living with those choices have given some great insights into our families needs.

About 3 weeks ago our 24 inch stove's oven would not turn off. We eventually go it to shut down but it made the new appliance a priority. This time we chose a more realistic 36 inch stove. Making room for it snowballed into a full blown kitchen remodel. The word "go" has literally propelled me from my chair after late night breaks to get back to it. Eyes closing, I utter it to myself to make myself move...

Fractured Movie Quote: "You are going to need a bigger boat book."

*******
Photo Credit: Party photos courtesy of friend Dawn Kearney.

seanlintow
jb — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 03:34:40 +0000

smokey
jb — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 03:45:57 +0000

@SLSConstruction :: Stopping the Killers -- Carbon Monoxide & Fire
SLS Construction — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 10:00:26 +0000
aka A Tale of Two Cities :: Birmingham, AL
Fall is finally in the air, and across the country, people are starting to prepare for the cooler weather. While many of us are looking forward to the leaves changing colors, Halloween, football season with friends, Thanksgiving and Christmas with family, I'd like to ask you to take just a few minutes out of your busy schedules to help make sure it remains a joyous occasion.

Unfortunately, during the fall and winter seasons is when we see an increase in fire & carbon monoxide fatalities. Based off the latest estimates, there were over 40,000 Carbon Monoxide cases requiring some form of hospitalization or care, and 5,000 deaths in the last year. And as I mentioned in another article entitled €œEverything we owned€ in 2008 there were over 2700 fatalities related to fires.
*******
Birmingham, AL 9.27.2010: Carbon monoxide poisoning killed family of three in Hueytown
€œThe Jefferson County coroner has confirmed that three members of a Hueytown family, who were found dead inside their home Sunday, died from carbon monoxide poisoning.€
And while looking up information on the cause of the case above, I stumbled upon this story below.

Birmingham, UK 9.29.2009: Birmingham family saved by carbon monoxide alarm
€œFire crews and paramedics were called to West Park Avenue in Northfield at 9.30pm yesterday after the 39-year-old€™s wife heard an alarm sound and found him unconscious downstairs. The couple€™s two teenage children were also in the house but were not affected by the gas.€
While I would hope that no one or their family ever has this issue, I do know which headline I would like to see attached to your story if you do. While I know a few of you are probably saying, "But these concerns only apply to people that have gas appliances €“ it doesn€™t?"

For many years, I have put out there that CO detectors should be located in any house with operable windows, or at minimum, those homes with gas appliances, an ERV / HRV (Energy and Heat Recovery Ventilator), or with an attached garage.
The Codes Are Changing:
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in their 720-2009 codebook changed the codes, requiring a CO detector be located in all new construction. This rule has also been adopted into the 2009 IRC codes as well. While this may only apply to new construction, there is nothing preventing you from adding them to an existing home. (For more information, see these articles -- NFPA Fact sheet on Carbon Monoxide Safety & HTRC article on proper placement and new codes.)
Make Sure They Work:
Just a few days ago, my friend Paul from DaVinci Remodeling posted on this blog hi, Kick Ass Fall Maintenance List €“ where he mentions changing out the batteries & vacuuming the unit when Daylight Savings Time starts & stops. Personally, I prefer a Jan. & July schedule but the point is still there €“ Make sure the detector is working & maintained. If your smoke detectors or CO detectors are more than 5 years old €“ you should replace them as they have lost half their effectiveness.
If You Have Gas Appliances:
At least once year, you need to have them checked out & PM€™d (Planned Preventative Maintenance) by a licensed HVAC technician. You might want to make sure that the pro tests that the appliance is burning properly, they check the venting, that there is adequate draft, and that there are no issues with "spillover."
Note: Generally, you will find that those tests are not part of a normal tune-up as it increases the cost of the service, making it difficult for the pro to compete with others who also do not include these tests in a basic service package.
A Worst Case CAZ Depressurization test is also a good idea if you have never had one done or if you have recently remodeled your house. If you have issues finding a qualified HVAC contractor to do this last test, you may wish to look for one a BPI Certified Building Analyst to complete that test for you.
*******
Note from the hosts: Thanks to Sean Lintow, Sr (a second time poster at Building Moxie) for providing an informative overview of both the hazards of Carbon Monoxide in the home as well as some measures that should be taken to prevent against it. Always welcome, Sean. You may find Sean on Twitter at @SLSConstruction or blogging @ http://blog.sls-construction.com/.

DR-headshot
jb — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:08:56 +0000

Barry's toolbet
jb — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:18:12 +0000

derek's long wall before
jb — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:36:49 +0000

oscar-58x150_cropped
jb — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 03:30:03 +0000

Paul Lesieur :: Oscar Awards for Remodeling
Paul Lesieur — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 10:45:54 +0000
Oscars for remodeling! (yeah in October!)
By Paul Lesieur
How about giving out Oscars for remodeling? We could have 4 categories.
Best dramatic performance by a homeowner or contractor.
Nominees are:

Mrs. Buttwig homeowner and president of Women for Chocolate. For sitting in a chair in front of the crew and crying her eyes out because the grey paint first applied was too grey and the second attempt wasn€™t grey enough.
Best line from the performance: €œWhy can€™t you understand what I€™m thinking€?
Mr. Frank Lloyd Wrong AIA as the visionary architect tortured by budgets and archaic tradespeople who bravely submits undated changes to the builders.
Best line from the performance: €œBudget, budget, I don€™ work with no stinkin€™ budgets€.
Best performance from a supporting role.
Nominees are:

Mr. Harry Pointless for never letting the remodeling crew members forget he once built mud daub huts with an indigenous Indian tribe along the Amazon River while in the Peace Corps.
Best Line from the performance: €œYou can do a lot of things with mud and banana leaves€.
Charlie Fumes the painter for painting the wrong room with the wrong paint.
Best line from the performance: €œDoes this mean you don€™t want to pay me€?
Best Director.
Nominees are:

Ms Iware Lotta-Black ASID as the smoldering artistic dreamer who managed to look both pensive and vulnerable at the same time and who also managed to get the words juxtaposed and relevant into every other line.
Best line from the performance: €œI feel if we juxtapose the shadow line from a lighting wash to embrace the culture of our niche motif we will have accomplished the welcoming comfort of relevance and have warmly incorporated the values of we, as we are really we and not you or I, but in effect us€.
Ray Headway CR as the project manager who in spite of the fact it was raining buckets went ahead with a foundation pour and invented the first entirely self leveling foundation.
Best line from performance: €œShut up, I know what I€™m doing€.
Best costume.
Nominees are:

Joe Waxring as the nattily dressed plumber who tastefully conceals his buttcrack with the tail of his shirt, a nice Oscar de la Renta silk polyester blend with tasteful stripes and Joe neatly stenciled onto the shirt pocket, cleverly offset by his careful use of the company cap jauntily worn to one side, his matching blue worker pants tastefully set to fall 4 inches below his grainy steel tip Redwings. To accessorize Joe has a matching blue canvas handbag with his most needed handtools to complete the Metrosexual ensemble.
Most memorable line: €œWhere€™s the basement in this house€?
Deboraa Menora-Light as the tile shop assistant who€™s over the top performance was only accentuated by the red 5 inch heels she wobbled around in and the cleverly cut parachute pants with the sequined back pockets topped by what could be explained as a shortage of shirt materials. Deboraa€™s performance could only be described as a two punch knockout in a barely restrained role.
Most memorable line: €œAre you here to look at tile€?
* Please cast your votes. (editor's note: << in blogger's terms that means "please leave a comment.")
*******
Note from the hosts: Thanks to the Paul for offering up this humorous take on the remodeling industry. It was originally printed on his blog at http://www.RemodelCrazy.com, >> here.

derek's long wall_after
jb — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 23:27:45 +0000

Derek Rice :: DIY or HSTDIFY aka . . .
derekjrice — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 10:05:49 +0000
Do-it-yourself or hire-someone-to-do-it-for-you
Disclaimer: I have nothing against contractors. Sure, I have a serviceable tool collection and I love to do my own home improvement. Unfortunately, the one tool I lack is time.

Five years ago, my wife and I bought an open-concept loft in an old shoe factory. Its 1,300 square feet were split into two open rooms €œdivided€ by a bathroom, and a short, narrow hallway. I€™ve done a lot of the €œfinishing touches€ myself, but when our daughter (now 2) was on the way, we hired someone to separate the one bedroom into two. Framing took a day, drywalling in two (one for mudding, one for sanding). We were very happy with the results.

Two months ago, we decided to replace the three six-foot-high-by-three-foot-wide bookcases with a three-foot-high built-in that would extend the full length of the 20-foot wall and extend around the corner for another 20 feet. Based on Project Nursery, we hired the same contractor.

This time, there were problems almost from the beginning. Because of our daughter€™s asthma, he knew that any cutting had to be done outside, so the shelves were built off-site. When it came time for installation, we thought of it as a simple furniture delivery, so our prep consisted of moving everything at least 10 feet away. We covered nothing.

As requested, installation took place while we weren€™t home. I returned as they were finishing, and was happy to see they were cutting outside. I retreated to the office I built in the back of the unit (in what would have been wasted space) to do some work.

Before leaving, the head carpenter told me someone would come €œsometime in the next couple days€ to install the cable outlet, which they€™d moved to where our TV would go. My response: €œThat€™s no good. I need my internet for work.€

So he did it himself.

And I noticed the drywall dust within minutes of his departure. There was more than simply cutting a hole for the cable outlet would have left. A LOT more. When I called the contractor, I learned that they€™d cut a six-foot trench through two layers of drywall and a layer of soundboard to move the cable outlet. Remember, nothing was covered, so there was a thick layer of dust on everything €“ rug, couch, chairs and, worst of all, our dishes, which are stored in cabinets with no doors (for aesthetic reasons).

We stayed at my in-laws€™ for three nights while I struggled to clean and do my actual work. If you€™ve ever drywalled, you know the dust never goes away completely. That€™s great for anyone with asthma. The contractor€™s promised cleaning crew has yet to materialize.

Had they been working in their own homes, they would have covered their belongings with plastic, right? In our home, they sawed away with no regard for our stuff. There was a point at which they could have done the right thing, which at minimum would have been to stop and give me a chance to cover our stuff. Instead, they moved forward. Amazingly, they saw nothing wrong with that. To them, it was just a job that needed to be done on a specific schedule.

Which brings me to the moral of the story: Hiring someone to do work for you can be a good thing. For us, it€™s the only way we can be sure projects get done. The drawback? Priorities. Contractors have theirs, and you have yours. They do their best to live up to yours, but when the two diverge, the solution that works for them usually wins out. Even if it means leaving an enormous mess for you to clean up. Or leaving a mess that€™s guaranteed to aggravate your daughter€™s asthma.

I consider this my biggest home improvement learning experience. While I would (and probably will) hire a contractor again, I€™ll make sure I€™m there to shift the balance from their best needs to mine. They probably won€™t like it, but that€™s too bad. At the end of the day, I€™m the one stroking the check.
Note: I didn€™t even touch on the painting fiasco. Another time, perhaps.
*******
Note from the hosts: Thank you Derek . . . great post that captures the pros and cons, (internal) struggles many of a face when considering whether to hire out a job.
I initially met Derek through his connection with the home improvement site Charles & Hudson. It turns out that Derek does a handful of things in and around the home improvement industry. Not least of which is "pen" the blog The Accidental Handyman. He can be found on twitter @derekjrice.
jb

udo's new playroom
jb — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 23:54:20 +0000

Evil Erin from her Jumpin' Project
jb — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:01:08 +0000

goat-stuff
jb — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:23:36 +0000

shed-project-125px
jb — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:30:01 +0000

physical graffiti
jb — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:55:42 +0000

More or Less :: Interior Design sings In My Time of Dying
Tammy Dalton — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 10:16:22 +0000
:: Living through the Swan Song
In its most basic and superficial sense, Interior Design has been about . . . stuff. Stuff -- new things, material goods, junk, clutter, €œaccessories,€ gadgets. Its about buying furniture, consuming products, adding rooms. Always more stuff, more space . . . more more more.

I grew up in the seventies and eighties, and entered my adulthood and professional life in the nineties. It was a time of €œGrowth,€ if that€™s even the proper word. Unmitigated growth is what we were all sold on during this absolute orgy of consumption: flipping houses, buying new, bigger, more expensive cars every two to three years, the advent of bottled water, always more stuff, always more, bigger, better, newer, with no end in sight. In every other facet of life, unmitigated growth - with no ebb and flow, no cycles, no downturns - is considered cancer . . . right?

And what does cancer do? It just keeps growing and growing until it has crowded out everything good around it. And in these conditions, the host can not survive.

This concept of growth and consumption has fit perfectly with the whole concept and industry of interior design. Helping people buy and consume stuff properly, to fit their house, fit their lifestyle, keep up with the Joneses, display their wealth.

You want to lounge just so, while you€™re watching TV? Well, you just need the perfect type of sectional sofa. You€™re not sure what to do with that weird open area at the top of your stairs, or your unusually large foyer, or your formal living room that no one ever uses? Well, let€™s just figure out the best type of Stuff to stick in there that will hold more Stuff, impressing people when they come over, and giving everyone a perfect place to perch themselves when you€™re having those grand dinner parties you€™re dying to have.
Would it be considered revolutionary to say, maybe the best solution is to leave the space empty?
So here we are. The first decade of the 21^st century is over. Our country is in the worst economic shape I€™ve ever seen in my lifetime thus far, and even my parents have never seen anything like this. People are losing jobs, businesses and homes left right and center. It feels like a bloody nose that just won€™t stop gushing.

The upside has been the reassessment of Value that€™s been going on. What is valuable? How do you define it? What is truly worth our time and our money and our emotional commitment? More and more we€™re turning to things that are not tangible. Environmental and conservation movements are starting to mesh and jive with the changes in thinking that this economic crisis has spawned. Saving, reusing, refurbishing, salvaging, recycling, organizing, streamlining . . . doing more with less. That€™s all great. I€™m so glad. It feels virtuous and pure and dignified and clean. And it is. I feel that way. I grew up with the same bedroom furniture that my mother bought second-hand and lovingly hand-painted herself from the time I was two until I left for college, and then she repainted it and it became my sister€™s furniture.

But it really sucks for Interior Design. Here is an industry built on the assumption of unabated wealth and consumption. What€™s an interior designer to do when no one wants to buy anything and it€™s not cool or economical to do so? What€™s an interior designer to do when the common view is that anyone can do this - your credentials are only one TV show away? How can this industry survive when the paradigm has shifted to one of less consumption, everything you could ever want is just one click away on the internet, and €œcheap€ is the new black; in fact, there are whole cable networks dedicated to doing €œit€ yourself?

I was inspired by Danielle LaPorte€™s guest post recently for Bindu Wiles. You can find it here: http://binduwiles.com/buddhism/the-law-of-the-ugly-chair-guest-post-by-danielle-laporte. It€™s called the "Divine Law of the Ugly Chair", and Danielle wrote it in honor of Bindu€™s latest program called the Shed Project. It€™s a great idea, really. Shed your stuff and your baggage, little by little. Peel back the layers of crap that have built up around you, and that you have allowed to accumulate in your life, your mind, your house, your body, all of it. Strip it down and let it go. It€™s beautiful.

I€™d like to change interior design to fit this type of intensely cathartic undertaking, by subtracting instead of adding. Would you hire an interior designer to help you get rid of the right stuff, aka the €œwrong€ stuff that doesn€™t serve you? Could you actually be comfortable living with empty rooms? A meditation teacher I met recently said that some meditation novices are uncomfortable looking at the full moon for any prolonged period of time. Something about being alone with your own thoughts and exposed to the Universe. If your rooms were empty, would you look around yourself in awe of the possibilities or would you be freaked out? What would you do with some space around you? Would you dance? Would you breathe deeper? Would you stretch more, meditate more, hang out on the floor, read a book, play with your pets and babies, play Twister with your friends?

But my big question is: Is interior design, as we know it, dead?
*******
Photo Credits:
Stuff is Awesome via http://www.topatoco.com
Udo's new playroom via juhansonin's Flickr photostream
Couldn't pass on Evil Erin's Jumpin Project via Evil Erin's Flickr photostream
The Shed Project presented by BinduWiles.com
Physical Graffiti album cover via http://ledzeppelin.alexreisner.com/

building-moxie-Logo_100x46
jb — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 02:59:01 +0000

building-moxie-Logo_L07
jb — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 03:02:27 +0000

Building Moxie (part 1 of a few) aka Private Parts and the Work you Love
jb — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 10:10:00 +0000
Whew, what a week (<< interesting phrase). The entire editorial staff at Building Moxie has been all but indisposed and yeah it is really only b and I guiding this titanic ship. b has been humping 18-hour days and into the wee hours of the night getting ready for his in-law's first visit to the States. Me -- well . . . sick, and occupied with other personal-type matters including (my fav) curtain fabric rapping and tile shopping.

Not the best circumstances for developing noble prize worthy blog posts (<< fear of not being able to finish what I could start :: cop out). But still we were fortunate to get a great mix of posts from friends @SLSConstruction, the Paul of @RemodelCrazy, @derekjrice, and the "Moxie Proxy" @tammyjdalton. Of the week -- I think b put it best . . . he said, "Yeah it is safe to say if this were not happening this would not be happening." (He was talking about the remodeling work on his house, of course.)

And me again here -- A slot to fill and I am reaching back for another cheap and sleazy -- another re-print from my Agents of Moxie days (July '09). This post -- the first from what I have come to jokingly know as the "Manifesto" series. It is now Building Moxie Official Post #200. And while it still may not say where we are going, it may say something of why we wanted to take the trip.
Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore!
*******

I think back sometimes to the movie Private Parts €“ the autobiographical story of shock jock, Howard Stern. And regardless of your sensibilities, hopefully you will agree €“ good story. A story of a man in process, a man with a vision €“ and a man who proceeded to execute his vision.

One scene in particular, and forgive me if I am a little foggy, when Howard and his wife, Alison, played by Mary McCormack, are sitting in a cafÃ© (I think) discussing his career path. He says something along the lines of (paraphrased) €“ "This is it €“ this could be the big time -- but I have to go all in. I have to give them everything."

Ok €“ maybe I am way off with my reference here €“ I am usually pretty bad with recalling movie sequences. But it, no matter how it was said, was a big part of the movie for me. This is what I took away.

Now, I do not want to draw parallels too deeply between myself and Stern. Do I think my little business idea has the potential to €œblow up€, become viral, move me to satellite radio, and make me lots of money? No, no I don€™t. But that is not my personal goal.

You might point out too that Howard€™s efforts in breaking down barriers between his professional and personal life created friction in his marriage, and ultimately lead to its disintegration. Personally, I don€™t want that. And as he grew in popularity, I do believe he did recoil from this €“ separating a very distinct personal life from his public brand.

His story -- in whole however, I have to think €“ depicts a path down which most small businesspersons, professionals, must go. A seeking of something I call fluidity. For me €“ it€™s got to be all in, and I hope it is always fluid.
Built on an Idea
Not sure exactly when this idea, for a business, came into being. But a couple years back, right around 2002 to be exact, my mother-in-law (a guru in her own right), sent me an audio book. It was called 48 Days to Work You Love written by Dan Miller. I had a long commute at the time.

Honestly, I really didn't know what to think. I mean I was happy enough (for me) in my job, and I felt like I had some direction. And to be quite frank, I thought to myself, "Self-help. I don't need that." So I stuffed the disc under the seat in my truck.

Well, as things go, I did eventually pop it in. For the most part, there wasn't much there for me. Except, maybe, one simple idea: I am not sure how he phrased it, but his premise basically goes something like this: Find out what you love to do, and if what you love to do happens to be something you love to do in your free time, then figure out a way to do it full time.

Now, I am not saying that this was incredibly earth shattering, world changing or even enough for me to consciously consider the notion of changing my career. The concept itself is fairly elementary. But props to Mr. Miller, I do believe sometimes the most obvious things must be stated.
I am also not saying (aka build it and they will come)
I didn't sit down and start drafting the business plan the next day. It certainly didn't have a name in the beginning. But I did, eventually, embark on writing a formal business plan, which, truth be told, is still being written today.

Now, the process of writing a business plan has, at least for me, been incredibly cathartic. I had to look at myself, at what people might want, and I had to answer some simple questions. What would I, and can I, do for others -- if I had the opportunity to start my own business?

Over the years, I guess I had already figured that answer: I am happiest when I am thinking, communicating about, or working on houses. And in there lies the point from which I started. I am passionate about these things, and I love communing with others (not only in the online alternate reality); if only I could combine the two, then maybe I could make a modest living doing something that I actually really care about.

And now, as I am executing this plan, I think back to Mr Miller€™s notion. I, at the time, and whether I knew it or not, was Building Moxie. (<< There it is again -- the CheeZe!)
*******
To read more from the "Manifesto" links to all posts here: http://www.buildingmoxie.com/about-2/

eco modernism logo
jb — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 01:55:33 +0000

em-flower-logo-rgb
jb — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 01:58:37 +0000

Building Moxie does a Guest Post
jb — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:40:00 +0000
Excluding Barry and myself, Building Moxie has had exactly 38 contributors since March of this year. Of those 38 contributors all but four happen also to be blog owners. Many of you know who you are.

Of those 34 blog owners -- only one has asked for a reciprocal guest post . . . and it only took 6 months.

To see what you might get -- hacked out over a weekend occupied with babysitting an eldery grandmother and two young sisters . . . gumming each other, please head over to http://www.eco-modernism.com/blog/.

That's Becky Shankle's blog. And it was my honor Becky.

Tip:  Hang around for a bit to see what she has doing over there -- I am sure mine is not the most interesting post you'll find.
*******
Update: Here is the direct link to the essay. http://www.eco-modernism.com/2010/10/words-ecomod-context/

Large-Graphic-Design---Source-Unknown
jb — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:17:31 +0000

Wallovers-Roundabout-Design---Artist-Cynthia-Designs
jb — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:20:40 +0000

Wallovers-Branching-Out-design---Artist-Kass-Wilson
jb — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:24:15 +0000

Modello-Floor---Artist-Joan-Kingsbury-
jb — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:27:10 +0000

Modello-Ceiling---Deshu-House-How-to-DVD
jb — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:30:13 +0000

Garay-Artisans-Ceiling
jb — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:33:02 +0000

Garay-Artisans-Niche
jb — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:33:41 +0000

Design-Inspiration-How-to-Cut-Stencil
jb — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:36:55 +0000

@Fauxology :: The Stencil Revival
Regina Garay — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 10:09:23 +0000
Much like the faux finishing industry, the stenciling industry has undergone a revival. Many of the artists of today are pushing for sophisticated, layered and of-the-moment options. We like to keep up with the current interior design styles, and the stencil and product manufacturers have kept up with our demand.

Stencil companies used to be synonymous with simple designs and borders. You know the ones I'm talking about. Chickens, hearts...the hideous unsophisticated borders with the tiny houses, butterflies or checkered squares...geez, I think I'm going to have a panic attack. Let me get myself together.

Phew. The clients of today are ever more savvy and they hire designers who keep up with them. In order to realize a designer's vision, our techniques need to get ever more elegant as well. For instance, large graphic designs are increasingly used for a perfect shot of drama. These designs can be achieved via a one-time use stencil (more on these later), cutting your own stencil design or using a projector.

Additionally, Allover or Repeat patterns are also being used in a fantastic manner. Companies such as Wallovers are producing beautiful stencil designs with great patterns.
Artist : Cynthia Designs
Artist : Kass Wilson
One-time use stencils are being used by artisans to allow for creative new techniques simply not possible with traditional mylar stencils. One company leading the way is Modello Designs -- with applications for virtually any surface. Here are some examples for ceilings and floors. By the way, that ornamental ceiling is featured in a How-to DVD by Deshu House. It features the entire project and teaches you how to achieve the look.
Artist : Joan Kingsbury
Deshu House
We've also used their designs not only for walls, but for accent surfaces such as curved ceilings and niches. Here two photos from our work.

There are some instances when cutting your own stencil is a must. We recently worked on a client's home where we literally pored over every stencil catalog available with no success in finding the right design. Having a limited time frame, we drew a custom design and it proved perfect. We cut the design out of mylar and proceeded to do the technique the very same day. If you'd like to learn how to cut your own stencil, Britain's Stencil Library has an incredible blog, Design Inspiration, which had a post on how to do just that.

I hope this has introduce you to new stenciling techniques and resources. Let me know if you have any questions -- I'm here to help! Have a great day!

staircase
CalFinder — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:23:00 +0000

bathroom
CalFinder — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:23:21 +0000

entry
CalFinder — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:23:36 +0000

kitchen
CalFinder — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:23:48 +0000

Baltimore Remodel with Million-Dollar Views
CalFinder — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:30:45 +0000
Location, location, location. That was all Steffi and Andy Graham could think about when they purchased this three-story brick townhouse smack-dab on the harbor in Baltimore€™s Canton North Shores. Unfortunately, they weren€™t nearly as thrilled about the layout or construction of the home itself. That€™s where Virginia Navid of Cho Benn Holback+Associates came in handy.

The couple hoped for a more open floor plan, complete with color and design touches, that would echo the waterfront scene outside. To achieve this, Navid began by doing away with the original builder€™s hallway and powder room, and replaced it with a sprawling living room unhindered by interior walls.

Tackling the kitchen area next, the ceiling was dropped three inches to create a clear transition from the living room. The space remains clean, sleek, and modern with stainless steel appliances, hanging pendant lights, and light-colored granite countertops.

Upstairs, the master bath needed little decorating since it has the some of the best views in the house. The bathtub, adorned with sea foam tile, provided the perfect place for lounging and watching the waves outside.

Navid found the most flexible space on the third floor, where they fit in a guest room, bathroom, and home office. In addition, a sliding glass door sectioned off these spaces from an entertaining area, complete with a wet bar and glass-front refrigerator.

With their townhouse now finished down to the tiniest detail, the Grahams have little reason to leave€”unless it€™s to take a stroll down the pier right outside their front door.

Photo Credit: Baltimore Style

crochetcar
Barry — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 03:55:35 +0000

Manhattan :: South of Houston
Barry — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 10:23:21 +0000
He walked up Lafayette toward my wife and I at about 5:15 AM.
Here came a tall black man with salt and pepper beard wearing a black North Face jacket with the hood pulled over his head and a blanket draped over his shoulders.
He gave a small, somewhat wilted, bouquet of flowers to the lady and asked for a cigarette in return. She gave him one, he broke off the filter and accepted a light.
Our hand shake, prompted by talk of Jazz, surprised me with fluidity. Hands together, thumb over thumb, drawing back to a four finger pull and then a light fist bump.
He was very easy to talk to once I got used to the way he drew associations. It seemed he would start with lists that would turn into stories. Names and places popped from his mind until something sent us in a more detailed direction.
Pretty soon, my wife decided to go back up to our room and I stayed and talked with the man. We sat on the wet bench in front of the hotel and I shared the remainder of my cigars with him as we jumped around in topics. He knew something about everything and his list of names is still a river in my brain.
He frequently used the phrase €œcan you imagine?€
I asked him his name and he said €œKushamaro €“ The one that god smiled upon€
He dubbed me €œJuwallah €“ Father of the Earth€. I told him that I thought I could deal with the responsibility of that and he chuckled.
We moved from Jesus being a carpenter to Marvin Gaye€™s death to Krushev beating his shoes upon the table. We talked about how people do not acknowledge each other on the subway and how good it feels to get older. He hailed several folks who walked by and they not only smiled at him but at me as well.
The sun came up and I figured I had better rejoin the family upstairs. He listed about six different phrases for going including €œmove on€ and €œbail€. I threw in a couple of my own cause it was so easy to do with him.
I clasped his hand once and we said goodbye. We stood and I gave him my hand one more time. He took it but then looked away from me and down Lafayette. He had melted back into the thickening morning crowd and our connection was gone. I walked away and took the escalator to the second floor.
Later, I saw a car covered in crochet and then drove back to Delaware.

Animal-print-pillowthrowdecor
jb — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:57:49 +0000

pillowthrowdeco
jb — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 01:05:57 +0000

Christine Skaley :: Trend Report - Men Have Their Say About Pillows
Christine Skaley — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 10:42:21 +0000
Note from the hosts: As part of Building Moxie's ongoing mission to improve relations between the sexes and especially in the way that we as men and women work together on home projects, we scour the internet to this end. OK -- not wholly, I happened to be part of the group represented by super blogger Paul Anater below.

While Christine's report does have more of a professional bend I think it there is good information in here for anyone that is decorating with a man in mind. This is reprint from her site September of this year, to see it click here -- http://www.pillowthrowdecor.com/trend-report-men-have-their-say-about-throw-pillows/. Thanks jb

In a recent €œon the couch survey€œ, I interviewed two male focus groups to learn intimate details about how friendly they felt towards decorative throw pillows. While they generally don€™t openly €˜chat€™ about throw pillows, guys have a lot to say when asked.

The first focus group, cheered on by Paul Anater of Kitchen and Residential Design represented a group of professional men as interior designers or in related industries. The second group of men were some favorite and very noteworthy techs and SEO experts such as David Naylor. There was a third group that just weren€™t into pillows. That conversation was too short to record!
My €œon the couch survey€ was me sitting on my couch with my laptop, emailing my select group of respondents who were also likely sitting on their couch with their laptops. An unscientific, informal process with simple pillow questions requiring no analysis, produced some hilarious MAN ANSWERS but mostly, some really candid opinions that should make all of us in the design world sit up and listen.
*******
Here are my extrapolations and actionable recommendations€¦

1) Men either avoid, tolerate or embrace pillows. Most of the men in my focus group fell into this category. Designers are pillow advocates because it is part of their business and they naturally gravitate to them because of the design element they can add. Techs take their work home, usually to their sofa where undoubtedly there is a pillow(s) close by. For them it€™s not just comfort but they want their space to look good. Identify and target market the profiles of men that show enthusiasm for pillows.

2) If a man likes 2 pillows, he€™ll still like 4, but will probably object to 12. He doesn€™t want to move pillows from the couch or the bed to relax. I recommend focusing pillow inventory on sofa cushions rather than bed pillows!

3) Men use their pillows a lot!!! A pillow€™s decorative presence is not as important as its utility. They expect to use their pillows to rest their head, feet or arms. Also, pillows are used to prop their laptops and reading books. Surprisingly, a man will share, and even give up his pillow to his pet, usually a dog. Recommendation here it to avoid embellishments and fussy design / fabric features, hand painting, quilted or loose open weave fabrics. Introduce more leather, leatherettes, canvas and denims. My pocket pillows have been a huge hit and more are coming in my fall line as guys love the dual functionality€¦

4) Although they didn€™t ask for €œwashable€, men don€™t want to worry about marking or making pillows dirty. Men will replace pillows more frequently when they are €œworn-out€ or used up (dirty?) however they won€™t spend as much on them as women do. Recommend offering more €œman pillows€ in lower price ranges ($20-$35 range) rather than using high-end fabrics and labor intensive designs.

5) Men often buy pillows in pairs, I suspect that it€™s easy decorating for them knowing that at least two of something in the room matches. Recommend marketing pillows in multiples or a co-ordinated set of 3 or 4 so the decorating decisions are easier for them. Consider building in price incentives for multiple purchases.

6) Men prefer square pillows at least 16 inches square, all the way to 36 inches square so they can also be used for floor pillows. Rectangular pillows are less preferred except for lumbar pillows for back support on the sofa. Interestingly men avoid round pillows, bolsters or small fru fru pillows. Recommend more 18 inch square throw pillows with custom options for larger.

7) Men gravitate to darker colors or €œearthy€ colors€¦ some said because it hides the dirt. Dark colors are thought of as €œsafe€ color choices. Next choice after dark colors is tan or €œneutral€, again for safe color choices. There was some interest in €œtrendy€ colors such as the naturals and metallics especially those that would look good with leather furniture. Allrighty€¦ metallics coming up!

8) Men look for either €œinteresting€ or €œtextural€ statement pillows whether or not they match. In the opposite extreme othey choose pillows that €œblend€ in and make no statement at all. They expressed interest in animal prints, faux furs, pillows with pictures or something printed on them (face or letters), plaids, houndstooth, abstracts, solids and stripes. It€™s not all the Ralph Lauren look€¦ the gender gap in throw pillow decor is definitely narrowing.

9) Lastly, men pick pillows more from their picture than their title or their description. Very visual!!! I recommend good pictures and label, caption and alt text your pictures so they are SEO friendly!

Men are going to be a force in the world of throw pillows. This isn€™t just my opinion. Lots is being written about men, guys€™ and dudes€™ spaces. Yesterday€™s article at Fast Company€™s Co. Design blog €œIf a Dude Wants Throw Pillows, Where Can He Go€ describes a new shop in Brooklyn specializing in masculine interiors.

So for all of you guys, dudes, and men, you can get your throw pillows here at PillowThrowDecor€¦ my 2010 Fall Throw Pillow Collection of over 100 different pillows is dedicated to YOU€¦ well at least half of them are Subscribe to my Etsy Shop Feed or copy and paste http://www.etsy.com/shop/pillowthrowdecor/rss to see the the new throw pillows as they are listed throughout the next week!

One last favor to ask all of you€¦. Below, I have compiled a list of all the words that men use to describe pillows. So that I can make my marketing more effective €¦Please tell me the words that YOU would use to search Google or elsewhere on the internet to find your perfect pillow.
What Men Really Want - Pillow Talk

Functional, comfy, unfussy, uncluttered, architecturally clean, plain, spare, cheap, simple, no muss-no fuss, straight forward, straight lined, minimal, larger scaled, muted colored, tan, brown, earthy, dark, masculine, metallic, gray, silver, bronze, pewter, black, khaki, neutral, natural, leather, plaid, tweed, herringbone, houndstooth, woolly, textural, country, nubby texture, faux fur, stripes, sturdy, pet friendly, sophisticated, contemporary, primitive, tribal.

NeverFadeCaseStudy_JacksonvilleJaguarsScoreboard3
jb — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 02:58:47 +0000

Building Moxie is Huge . . . on the Internet (Full Meds Edition)
jb — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 10:48:03 +0000
As a regular reader of this site you know it is worth the wait . . . through the slow page loads. The content is *just* that good.

I mean just type "Building Moxie" into Google -- the new instant on, auto-complete returns this site to the top slot having typed only "building mo" and that's one full slot above "building mosque at ground zero."

And the attention has not come easy -- Deleting overly flirtatious comments can be time consuming. I am surprised by how many start with words like . . . "I love your . . . resource . . . . " And of course, while fitting -- they may not always be topical . . . so they also get deleted.
*******
And then there is allllll of the *love* letters (the propositions or gifts -- at this point at least one a day). These usually start with "Hi . . . webmaster (too kind) we would like to offer you . . . ."

And while they can get a little irritating, we here at Building Moxie are lovers not haters. Thanks for the attention and a little coverage below:

* From a woman named Brenda Chapman:
Hi, recently discovered your blog. Considering that I work with constructionmanagementschools.net I spend a lot of time on the Internet browsing blogs, and I must say that yours has caught my attention. Coincidentally, we recently published an article entitled (10 Essential Architects of the Twentieth Century) that I believe would draw considerable interest from your readers. If you are interested in sharing with them, then feel free to do so. Here's the link for your convenience: (http://www.constructionmanagementschools.net/blog/2010/10-essential-architects-of-the-twentieth-century/).
* Here's one from a guy named James and at least he is persistent:

I was wondering if you have had a chance to review and consider my last email about a possible exchange between DiscountSpasDirect.com and buildingmoxie.com. DiscountSpasDirect.com is the worlds largest online distributor and retailer of hot tubs and spas. They also offer hot tub accessories, chemical kits, and other outdoor fun products. DiscountSpasDirect.com currently has a PR4 as well as many prominent search engine rankings and we are constantly trying to do better..

Please consider adding our link to your site on your website http://www.buildingmoxie.com/blog/tag/resources/.

Title: Hot Tubs
Description: Enjoy deep discounts on home hot tubs and spas!
URL: http://www.discountspasdirect.com

Please let us know when our link is placed and we will post your link in the proper category of our resources page listed at http://www.discountspasdirect.com/online_industry_guide/index.html. Also, please be sure to include your desired link title and description.

Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to your response.

James
DiscountSpasDirect.com
16443 N. 91st St. C103
Scottsdale, AZ 85260

If you would like not to receive any further communications from Cyberactive Marketing, please respond to this email with "Remove" in the subject line.

* I guess some even think we are big enough for full press releases:

News Release
Contact: Kathy Ziprik
828-890-8065
kziprik@apvcoatings.com

Changing the Game --- With NeverFade„¢ Exterior Paint At EverBank® Stadium in Jacksonville

AKRON, OHIO €“ Seeing the scores at Jacksonville Jaguars home football games just got easier. After five years with a fading background, scoreboards at EverBank® Stadium have a fresh coat of NeverFade„¢ exterior paint called Black Jack, making the messages and scores €œpop€ in both end zones.

€œSearing Florida sun bakes these scoreboards almost every day of the year,€ says Dave Spencer, owner of S. David & Co. Inc. €œTraditionally the boards are repainted black every five years because they fade away over time with the unrelenting ultraviolet ray exposure they receive daily. This year, we recommended the new NeverFade exterior paint for the project because it€™s warranted to last 15 years without fading. This means the scores will stand out a decade from now just as they do today.€

Both scoreboards were painted in August of 2010, over a 10-day period, by the team at S. David & Co. The crew transformed the scoreboards with nine gallons of NeverFade paint during a stadium shutdown between exhibition football games. €œThis paint has great potential for a wide variety of exterior projects in our area from gas stations to hospitals to churches,€ says Spencer, a Pro-X Certified Contractor„¢. €œWe€™re quoting out a project now to paint a metal roof of a local adult community. The best part about investing in this paint for a project is that it completely resists fading, algae, fungus, stains and abrasions.€

NeverFade paint, warranted to last 15 years against fading, was introduced by APV Engineered Coatings®, early in 2010. The professional exterior paint is formulated with Kynar Aquatec® polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), a tough, engineered thermoplastic that offers a unique balance of properties. As a result, NeverFade paint withstands harsh thermal, chemical and ultraviolet environmental conditions. In essence, it resists abrasions, restricts the growth of mold and mildew, and will not pick up dirt.

€œThis top-of-the-line exterior paint has ultraviolet blockers and high quality pigments mixed with the fluoropolymer resin to further prevent against fading and chalking,€ says Thomas Venarge, president of APV Engineered Coatings out of Akron, Ohio. €œTo show our confidence in this product, we are offering an unprecedented warranty. In the unlikely event that someone is obliged to apply the warranty, we will provide the replacement of the product and payment for job-related labor costs.€

Available nationwide for use on both residential and commercial projects, NeverFade may be applied to vinyl siding, PVC, wood, aluminum siding, stucco, masonry, and fiber cement surfaces. Since each paint order is custom made, NeverFade is available in an unlimited number of colors.

S. David & Co. has been in business since 1977 and focuses on commercial painting projects throughout the southeast. For more information on Dave Spencer and his award-winning company, visit www.sdavid.co or call 904-636-7788.

Founded in Akron, Ohio in 1878, APV Engineered Coatings manufactures innovative, custom engineered products that are sold worldwide to a wide variety of industries. For more information on products and services, visit www.apvcoatings.com or call 800-772-3452.

###NeverFade paint is sold under a trademark license from ARKEMA INC. which is the owner of the KYNAR and KYNAR AQUATEC Trademarks.

Release: http://mediaroom.apvcoatings.com/newsrelease-cid-1-id-16.html
* I don't know . . . this all seemed a lot funnier when I was lying in bed near death and hopped up on cold medication . . . . Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore! jb

termite
jb — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 03:02:25 +0000

termitesnomore
jb — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 03:25:13 +0000

You Win Some & You Lose . . .
jb — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 10:08:43 +0000
I have heard that if you have nothing good to say, don't say . . . .

And I am not kooky . . . really . . . like a Jehovah's Witness or anything, but I do believe that *every* day should be celebrated like every other day . . . for example -- weekdays, weekends -- no difference. Usually pretty much the same for me or at least that's how I try to treat them.

Recently though, and maybe it's because I have agreed to allow my wife to have another *errrrrm* man (more on this maybe in future posts) -- my weekends have felt downright anti-climatic or more to it -- even a little shitty.
*******
This weekend a good example. My agenda --
Item 1 of 1 (Prep for the contractor): Restore wood window . . . kitchen. Here -->

And well -- things were going well enough Saturday (despite a morning delay) until I slipped my sawzall blade out through the siding just above that cripple (short) stud there at the left. From that point . . . things went spiraling straight downhill. The details -- I'll spare you, but I will say at least the weather was nice, my girls were dressed beautifully, and I *did* NOT try to shoot video this weekend.
*******
Next weekend. My agenda --
Item 1 of 1 (Prep for the contractor): Restore wood window . . . kitchen. (Starting) Here -->

I am going to have to start by figuring what kind of stock to use to fabricate (on my budget table saw) that termite eaten lower frame. Better yet -- maybe I spend some time this week doing *that* . . . instead of other things . . . like *errrrm* . . . .
*******

Thanks for visiting. Have a great day.

Baking Center
jb — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 23:30:42 +0000

Create a Kitchen Baking Center
Home Sweet Solutions — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 10:19:19 +0000

How to Create a Kitchen Baking Center
By LuAnn Brandsen for Home Sweet Solutions

Kitchen design rarely includes a defined baking center, but if you find yourself reaching for the cake pans or cookie sheets on a weekly basis, you€™ll thoroughly appreciate this specialized work station. Here€™s our five-step recipe for design success:

1. Designate a space.
Begin by gathering all your bakeware, utensils and staples to see how much counter and storage space you€™ll need to build your baking center. Then start looking for places in your kitchen to carve out your baking center, giving preference to possibilities near the refrigerator-sink-oven work triangle. You€™ll want at least 3 feet of surface space to make the area functional, though that can be as simple as a marble- or quartz-topped table with a storage shelf underneath, the end of an island, a corner of countertop or space in an adjacent butler€™s pantry. You can also get creative and modify a hutch or a buffet table to create a baking center.

2. Include smart storage.
Now that you€™ve gathered all your baking supplies and selected a spot for the baking center, it€™s time to get organized. Tray dividers can make smart use of narrow cabinets by vertically storing baking pans and cooling racks; drawer dividers can neatly corral utensils; and backsplash spice racks or ledges can keep seasonings at your fingertips. If under-counter space is tight, consider installing deep drawers with full-extension slides that provide easy access to every inch of potential storage. Keep flour and sugar at the ready in airtight containers or in stacking canisters that can be attractively labeled and stored on a shelf above the surface to keep the countertop clear.

3. Choose the right countertop.
Marble has traditionally been the baker€™s countertop of choice because its cool, smooth surface is ideal for working with dough. Granite is a newer option that works well if it€™s sealed and spills are cleaned up quickly. Engineered stone and quartz are the most durable, low-maintenance choices. Their nonporous nature makes them less likely to stain than marble or granite and also prevents penetration of food-borne bacteria (think eggs).

4. Use quality appliances.
It€™s hard to enjoy baking if your chocolate-chip cookies come out burnt on the bottom and your banana-nut bread caves on the top. If it€™s time to update your oven or simply add to your existing appliances, consider a built-in single or double wall oven. Or check out a lift oven that is hung above the counter and is particularly appealing to anyone who has difficulty bending to insert or remove pans. Finally, invest in a quality stand mixer -- a fun purchase since there are many high-performing models that€™ll spice up your kitchen with fun colors and sleek designs.

5. Personalize your baking center.
The success of your baking center depends on your ability to tailor it to your preferences. For instance, you may want to lower cabinetry to 30 or 32 inches to make it easier to roll dough. If you don€™t want to mess with containers, you may prefer installing bins for flour and sugar. If you work best with clear counters, you may appreciate a stand-mixer lift. As any baker knows, the secret to success is making the recipe your own.
*******
LuAnn Brandsen is the former editor of Renovation Style, Country Home, Country Gardens, BHG Beautiful Kitchens and BHG Beautiful Baths magazines. She currently writes about homes, gardens and food while her brand-new energy-efficient dishwasher does all her dirty dishes.

sushi-poster-glow
jb — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 02:34:44 +0000

Avoid Shopping Overwhelm :: 5 Tips to Shop Like a Pro Designer
Tammy Dalton — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 10:07:31 +0000
Note from the host: I know many of you have seen this article, but come on . . . how could I pass on a reprint of this title -- "Designers Hate Shopping (What, What, What)"? It was originally printed on Tammy's site here: http://tamaradalton.net/2010/10/designers-hate-shopping/. Thanks. jb
*******

News Flash :: Designers Hate Shopping
Shocking, isn't it? Yes, I know, it is a generalization. There are plenty of designers out there that love shopping, especially with their Jackie O sunglasses, cream linen suits, and their little dogs in tow. I€™m just not one of them. Strange as it may seem, since sourcing out product is an integral part of what designers do (and I love finding new products), the actual act of shopping is my least favorite part of the interior designer€™s job (unless it includes lunch, then it€™s not so bad. Especially if it€™s sushi. If I get to have sushi while out on a shopping trip, then it€™s all worthwhile. Or Thai food. Yeah! If it€™s Thai food, I€™ll be skipping through the rest of the day.). For me, shopping is Work, not a leisure activity.

When it comes to selecting and purchasing furniture, tile, stone, paint, wallpaper, flooring, carpet, etc. etc., most people start to sweat a little and get pale. Why? Because the choices are endless and overwhelming, and unlike shopping for clothes or food, most people have a hard time figuring out what they want. Purchasing big-ticket items like furniture, fixtures, and finishes for your home or office should never be done on €œimpulse.€ These things cost a lot of money and you will be living with your choices for a long time, so good planning is key.

As a designer, even I get overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices available, which is why aimless shopping, without knowing exactly what I€™m looking for, is something I avoid.

There are some things you can do to make a shopping trip tolerable (besides lunch, of course) and also productive (because you want to come home with choices made, not more confusion):

Plan ahead. Do your homework. Research what you want to find and make a list of a few places to go and a list of the items you need to find. Group the items by type, like "tile" or "light fixtures" and focus only on those things. Small specific lists are manageable. Humongous lists with 50 things on them will do nothing but freak you out and set you up for failure. Measure your room(s) and sketch out your floor plan. Estimate your quantities.

On the day of your shopping excursion,

1) Wear comfortable shoes and bring snacks. I'm not kidding about this; your own physical comfort is critical to successful shopping.

2) Bring a tape measure! And a camera. Measure everything to ensure items will fit in your room, and that you can get them into your room (Are there any narrow hallways, elevators, small doorways, low ceilings, or stairs?).

3) Bring your floor plan (and room measurements) and a photo of your room for easy reference. Bring pictures from your idea file of the types and styles you are specifically looking for. Stay focused! It€™s very easy to be dazzled by fantastic showrooms that have been professionally styled and either end up with something that you regret purchasing later on, or become so indecisive that you can€™t make a choice. Research and define your likes and dislikes ahead of time. That way you can put your blinders on and not waste time.

4) Bring samples of anything that has already been decided or used, like paint color swatches, wood finishes, fabric swatches, tile chips, and stone samples for matching purposes. (Anything too big and cumbersome can be left in your car, but at least you'll have it with you if you need it.) We€™d like to think our memories are awesome and accurate for remembering colors and details, but they're not.

5) Get price quotes in writing along with the name of the salesperson that helped you, and ask if the price quote has an expiration date or reflects a sale price that is set to expire by a certain date. Ask questions, for instance, how long is the production time, what are the shipping and delivery costs?

These are some of the steps I take as a designer to make selecting furniture, fixtures, and finishes a more productive and streamlined process, and to save my clients (and myself) from Shopping Overwhelm. Let€™s review: plan ahead, small lists, focused attention, and Thai food (Mmmm). Now that€™s a shopping trip.

spiderman_hollywoodtoysandcostumes
jb — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:05:05 +0000

Mary Madden_fb
jb — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:51:51 +0000

October 21, 2010 :: Scope Creep (Some Light Reading)
jb — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 10:20:37 +0000
With no real idea or insight I am forced into action . . . again €“ a super hero saving the day. Well not really. That can't apply (this time) because it is *my* city . . . and just because a certain someone *errrrrmmm* thinks taking a final or something is more important then hitting a Building Moxie deadline, it's fine -- I'll cover. (I am not that serious << back there, really and we€™ll see Holly next week. Right? Right.)

And Alas! . . . this is how my shtick is born.
*******
Lately I have been thinking (ha!) what makes this blog different. I mean -- I/we (b too) take it kinda seriously (like a professional-like website sans advertising). And if I think about it, the ground we have covered in just six months -- truthfully, I marvel . . . a little.

Sure -- we could've done more and really still could do more . . . especially with our #tagged project. But the number of people so far that we have wrangled into "guest posting" is . . . well . . . surprising. I mean -- look at it this way -- put their combined yearly salaries together and we're buying ourselves a small island (nevermind it€™s somewhere off the coast of Antarctica and Yep! you can come to throw down and bro down with us).

I mean -- it's not like we intend this, Building Moxie, to be a web log, you know, just a journal. And . . . OK, sometimes it is, and today it will be. It seems sometimes unavoidable. Still! We don't post recipes, we don't talk about family reunions, we won't write about trips to the beach, post stories about movies, tv shows or songs that we like, nor and no way -- we won't do the forbidden - the pics of the kids, or worse their artwork. And OK, truth -- actually we do do (I said do do) and have done some of that, sometimes.

It's like this though . . . pro yet personal, this entity and I do feel funny when I try to bull shit that into conversations. I have said it, yes, yes -- I have. "It (the blog) deserves a life of its own," I have said. And while I am posting a bunch recently . . . it is (at least the way I see it) a little bigger than me.
The Proof in the Pudding, Take Me to the River, and A Long-Lost, Didn't Know I Had an Older Sister
The M word €“ Modern . . . no! (That's in an outtake from my recent ecoMod post, which I am not posting here today). m for Money, profession and career . . . and that€™s the difference! I know most of you people are readers and are pros. (I am a pro too, ya know.) We are side-bloggers, many of us. We do this on the side, in our free time, and at some level -- for the love.

But for me, and unlike most of you (except maybe a portion of the handful of "anonymous" bloggers I know << Shout at the Madame!) you will absolutely 100% guaranteed never EVER see me write anything about my (current) day job. And really -- it's not like I work for the NSA or anything, but too close . . . inappropriate, conflicts of interest . . . if you will. It won't happen!
And really do you have any idea? I mean -- Think about it! I do not/can not include topics of interest, things that I find, I learn, and know from what I do with myself, say, 50-plus hours a week. It ain't easy and I juggle just to make this production happen . . . well . . . at all. So again -- Shout at the Madame and the others that just do it -- to do it!
*******
I call it a "stream of consciousness" blog. This mainly comes from working early on to incorporate the Big Blog of Building, Barry's baby (and it *will* be back one day). I use it and I mean it to say that we are open here. Open to what comes to us in our journeys . . . through this thing, and how things of importance come to us when their needed and for fodder. But in a way, you know . . . I know -- it's superfluous now. Stream of consciousness is the essence of web logging. No? Yes? Yes.

And now as I am sitting here hacking at 12:53AM . . . and thinking about optimism (sorry can't help it), I'll end like this:

You know -- the last time I did one of these . . . from the hip . . . I was drunk. No seriously -- for those of you who don't know me. My pink bracelet still on, the pink cloud disintegrated, no stone to keep me company (well yeah it is still kinda with me) -- I told these things to an olddddd friend, Mary Madden, who called just a little earlier for a catchup. I told her about my lack of focus at the day job. For this, she has some wisdoms (shout to Mary and where to start?).

The practical Boston U. educated Marketer (looking for the right company) said, "j, you know what you have to do. Keep it in perspective. You have responsibilities now!" and I'll run on like this, ". . . I'm gonna come over and pound you on your back with a hammer. j, j -- It doesn't get any better than this! You are surrounded by beautiful women. You have a house, a job . . . ."

And that may all seem slightly out of context, but Mary is one that had stopped feeding my ego when we were about 17 (I just missed her 40th birthday party). And in many ways she is right. I need more focus, more balance -- especially when I am clock-punched and doing the job that makes money which feeds my family. . . . At least I think she is right . . . to a point (sorry, Mar!).
*******
I put the girls to bed tonight and it's ironic. Evyn claimed tonight that she wants three jobs when she grows up: Weathergirl (her words), Pilot and Rock Star. Eva has three picks too; she wants to be a librarian, the owner of a jumpy place and a singer. BUT Evyn has it *more* figured out (she is older). She proceeded to tell me how she can do the weathergirl and the pilot thing at the same time. . . . Then they went to sleep. Love.
Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore! jb

Home_pre_Katrina
jb — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 03:56:13 +0000

Custom Built by the Heberts
jb — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 03:59:39 +0000

Volunteers
jb — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 04:02:57 +0000

littlevictories
jb — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 04:10:35 +0000

A Well-Built Dream House with @KatrinaSOS
jb — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:30:17 +0000
I was introduced to Sadie Hebert by friend and sometimes collaborator Mike Hines in November of last year. It wasn€™t your typical introduction €“ €œjb Sadie; Sadie jb€. It was more like (and b was included in these emails) . . . €œHey, I have met these folks online . . . I am thinking about writing a story about them. BUT can I really trust that their story is for real?€

Truth €“ Mike probably put it a little more eloquently . . . but his apprehension did come out in the post that he did ultimately write. In the process, of course, Mike developed a level of trust and even a personal relationship with Sadie, her husband Jason, the family and the folks behind the Twitter handle @KatrinaSOS. Some of you may know them as well.

Mike€™s experience and the Hebert€™s story is captured beautifully on his blog >> here. To read it, you€™ll find a tale of natural disaster (yeah, Hurricane Katrina), destruction, deception and set back after set back. BUT we are not going to look at those things here . . . today (well OK, maybe a little) and you may ask, "How do you get a title like "A Well-Built Dream House . . ." out of that?"
*******
Recently I had the chance to catch up with Sadie to see what is doing with the re-build. It was only coincidence that she was painting when I called . . . . But as I understand it, this is how it is -- most days. They had just recently gotten the water on in their kitchen, and Sadie seemed proud of this. As it appears, that is the status quo -- home from work (as professors at local colleges) and, well, right back to work. The small victories coming every so often.

Imagine that €“ the Heberts and their modified A-frame just inland of the Mississippi. It€™s a big house (and probably just right for a family of seven), but big houses (and take it from someone that is a big house owner) take a big-house amount of work. So I asked her pretty up front if there is any end in sight. To this, Sadie replies, €œWe gave up on setting dates; it really is just day to day.€

Going on year six now, and much still to do, I ask her what remains. She tells me. "Flooring, trim and painting." The HardiePlank has been installed, but it is not yet caulked or painted. She tells me of a unique wood configuration in the downstairs bath, and it *is* at about this point that my title comes to me. Sure, here are these folks that have gotten the short end of the stick, but here they are . . . still, persevering €“ on their way to what I would consider their dream home.

I mean -- Look at this list of elements or features now installed in, on or around their house: OVE - 2x6, 24" framing, soy-based spray foam insulation, passive solar, mini-split HVAC systems with HVAC condensation reclaimed/collected for garden, hybrid water heaters, Pex plumbing, bamboo flooring, metal roofing, HardiePlank siding, and the eXapath raceway system. Quite an impressive list I would say, and in many ways very "green" -- right down to the low and No-VOC coatings used.

This did not happen on accident of course, and the decision to re-build themselves actually came earlier on. As Sadie told super-site BuildDirect in an interview just recently, "We decided early on that we were going to rebuild as green as possible (with a special focus on indoor air quality)." She continues, €œWe also take the approach that we would rather be without than settle for something less desirable.€ (I suggest reading the entire interview here >> http://blog.builddirect.com/interview-with-katrina-sos-sadie-hebert/.)

Now I do not include that last bit to make the Heberts sound like snobs, but ironically -- the speed at which the building process occurred actually lent itself to this way of being. And of course, the Heberts would not have been able to do all of what they have done without assistance. In fact, they did have to ask for help; Sadie herself saying this is her number one biggest piece advice for anyone finding themselves in a similar situation -- "Do not be ashamed or embarrassed to ask for help when you need it."

They made a plea (via their online presence), asking for assistance in any form possible. Mike @eXapath donated, Wendy at Builders Resource (@CabinetKnob and coincidentally my very first blog follower) donated. But the bulk of the assistance came from a single local group -- Hertigage UTC. Through this group, 11 different sets of individuals showed up to volunteer.

Again from her interview with BuildDirect -- "Several of the volunteer groups brought inexperienced people along to teach on the job. I feel good knowing that what they learned here will be put to use on other homes in the future. Sure, we end up with some imperfections along the way but I wouldn€™t change a thing because (they are) a reminder of that person."
*******
Let's be honest though -- their story is really a tough one to stomach. Sadie is one of the more kind-hearted people you€™d want to meet, but still when she describes the mess of bureaucratic mishandling by insurance companies, emergency response organizations, etc. €“ €œAngry€ is the first word that she can come to muster. She continues, "You don€™t know how difficult it is (as a parent) to go through a winter without heat and insulation and know that your children are cold. I mean €“ they never say anything nor complain €“ but . . . ." The Hebert's HVAC system was finally hooked up this past June.

They purchased this house in 2003 and there in the quiet town of Saucier, Sadie describes their original plans for the home. She says, "Before Katrina we had already repainted one room and I was working on the walls in a bathroom that I tore up while stripping the wallpaper. But no solid renovation plans other than the casual updating that we were in no hurry to do."

When I ask her though . . . now . . . of the things of which she is most proud, Sadie proclaims -- "Well, designing the re-build." Sadie herself (and yeah a web designer by trade with a leg up maybe on 3D modeling) designed truss and wall layouts, a re-configuration of the roof to a full two story "A-frame", the kitchen plan, etc., using the design software Chief Architect. (All that was needed from that point was a rubber stamp from a local architect.)
*******
This story, the story of Katrina SOS, is not complete of course without telling of how the Heberts themselves have given back. (Sadie even offering and helping to do work on this website.) And maybe it is the real story here €“ please check out their blog KatrinaSOS >> http://katrinasos.wordpress.com/. It shows the true power of the internet -- a resource established now to help others who may find themselves in a similar state of disaster recovery and rebuilding.
*******
Thanks for taking the time Sadie. And for readers, please check out great pics of the process and progress in Sadie's Flickr stream here >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/5adie/collections/72157604028952678/ (All photos from here or from their blog). And of course you may contact them through their blog if you would like to help in any way.

Ricks Fencing
jb — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 02:24:12 +0000

cedar fence
jb — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 02:25:23 +0000

Dave Nichols :: Nursing Your Wood Fence Through a Cold, Hard Winter
Ricks Fencing — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 10:30:38 +0000
During the winter, it€™s easy to bunker down inside your house and forget about what€™s going on in your yard. Once you€™ve packed up the patio furniture, insulated the water pipes and sent the lawn mower into hibernation, you settle into a routine indoors, where heaters and hot drinks keep the chill at bay. I€™ve certainly been guilty of this.

Unfortunately, there€™s a price to pay come spring when the sun reappears and sheds light on all of the deterioration your yard has experienced throughout the winter. This is especially true if you have a wood fence, which can really take a beating in cold, rainy weather. Even worse, much of the damage that occurs to a wood fence during the wintertime tends to fly under the radar. Homeowners often don€™t even realize there€™s a problem until months later, when they suddenly find rotting support posts or insect-infested knotholes.

By simply stepping outside periodically during the winter, you can avoid a lot of extra headaches and maintenance problems in the spring. I recommend the following winter fence maintenance practices:

Cut back overhanging branches: As much as I love trees, they can cause a lot of problems for a wood fence. In winter, one of the biggest hazards is falling tree limbs, especially during a snow or ice storm. Branches become weighted down and can break, damaging your fence boards on the way down. Before the really bad storms set in, walk along your fence line and trim back any branches that hang within falling distance of your fence.

Clear off leaves and other debris: Fallen leaves, twigs, pine cones and other debris from your yard can land on your fence rails or become wedged between boards. As this organic matter becomes saturated with rain and starts to decompose, it can leave tannin stains on your fence and even spread rot to the wood. At least once a month throughout the winter, clean off any leaves or other debris that has landed on your fence or is covering the concrete footings.

Perform post-storm inspections: After any major storms or long bouts of bad weather, head outside and walk along your fence. Look for visible damage, and make sure your fence is still structurally sound by jiggling each post to see if it€™s still firmly planted. Use a level or run a piece of string along the tops of fence posts to ensure they are all straight. Check fence posts and rails for rot; if you€™re not sure, probe the area with an awl or screwdriver to test for sponginess.

Make small repairs: Winter isn€™t the ideal time to embark upon a major wood fence repair project, but there are plenty of stop-gap repairs you can do to prevent the winter weather from turning minor problems into major ones.

Popped nails: Popped nails can be pounded back into place, but add a second nail an inch or two away to help strengthen the area.
Rotten fence rails: If you notice rot forming at the ends of a supporting rail, cut a 2x4 down to the length of your post width and screw or nail it beneath the rail at the post for extra support. This is a temporary fix, so you€™ll need to come back and replace the rail when the weather warms up.
Knotholes: It€™s common for knots in the wood to fall out as the temperature changes, leaving knotholes that invite termites or other insects to come snack on your fence. Use a wood filler to fix any knotholes you find during your fence inspections.
Rotting posts: If you find rot in one of your fence posts, keep it from spreading by cutting out the rotted section and sealing the area with a wood preservative. This only works if you remove less than an inch of depth; any more, and the post should be replaced.
Space between posts and concrete: If a gap appears between a fence post and the concrete into which it€™s set, caulk the gap to seal it against moisture. Use a silicone caulk that€™s meant for bonding wood to concrete.
Weak or leaning fence posts: To reinforce a leaning fence post, screw a 2x4 to each side of the post, extending down at least six inches into the ground and up to the first supporting rail. If your posts are set into concrete footers, use a metal sleeve instead. Wedge the bottom edge of the sleeve between the post and the concrete, and pound it into place with a sledgehammer. Secure with nails.

By paying your fence just a little bit of attention throughout the winter, you can avoid costly repairs in the spring, saving yourself time and money in the long run. Trust me, it€™s worth it.

wwjd350
jb — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 02:03:18 +0000

Tom-Silva_toutlarge
jb — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 02:18:57 +0000

the original
jb — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:18:41 +0000

notch
jb — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:20:52 +0000

frame going in
jb — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:21:16 +0000

WWTSD :: You Win Some; You Lose Some anddddd ... (A History Lesson: Part 1)
jb — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:30:25 +0000
I am working currently to rebuild the bottom rail of an original wood window frame (Here€™s Part 1). Had I done one of these, anything like this, before . . . really? No. Do I have the proper tools, a shop, a set up? Not really.

I made some time last week (as I said I would) and I visited old window experts, the lumber guys at Crown Lumber & Supply. They selected (after some Q&A) a nice piece of clear yellow pine in 2x8 for me €“ a four foot length. I was going to work it on my portable table saw. The guys at Crown agreed that would be fine.

And . . . I€™ll spare you the details here . . . like I actually did my work with any real authority. It included a bevel cut on the front (or *leading* << sounds pro-like) edge and then a tilting upwards to cut an equivalent bevel on the top of, or the surface, of the stock (after all, you want window sills pitching water away from the house). After these preliminary steps, I re-cut that first bevel (but in the opposite direction, and I don't have the space to explain this if you are not following me . . . right here right now).

Then . . . and part way there, I had to figure out how to cut the dadoes, the channels, the notches, the grooves . . . in the precise locations where, and the perfect distance apart to receive the horizontals, the legs of the rest of the window frame. It is at about this point that I said to myself, asked myself rather, €œHow exactly am I gonna accomplish this? A plunge router? Still on the table saw? Take it out to someone? How am I gonna do my measuring and marking?" €“ I mean >> €œWhat Would Tom Silva Do?€
The Minutemen Did "A History Lesson: Part 2"

Shortly after college I moved to Colorado. Plan was -- blow off steam, then pursue graduate school . . . Denver, Iowa City, Seattle (I knew a girl there). While in CO, I met some kids (primarily) from Vermont. On a shared interest in roots funk and the indie rock of the early nineties €“ we formed a band. We called ourselves Supermodel. We moved (as a band) to California and changed our name.

In CA, I dyed my hair green (I'll scan a pic one day) and found punk rock. I took a job with a small general contracting firm. At the time, I had limited construction knowledge, but I did need something to fill my daylight hours.

The company was owned by three brothers, each responsible for a different arm and doing various things across building/remodeling/home improvement. I worked with Dave, the middle brother; he was responsible (primarily) for running a warranty repair service that they offered to builders in and around San Jose, CA. And . . . graduate school slipped away . . . just like that.
*******
I learned a few things from Dave . . . like . . . how to make quick and effective drywall repairs, how to tweak doors, install trim, how to shock myself with live electric (<< this may explain a lot), and how to scream at the top of my lungs over frustrating plumbing repairs (<< Actually I don't think Dave taught me that. He showed me instead how to chuck 18 volt cordless drill drivers . . . for maximum distance).

In other words, I had *some* training; I mean -- I knew a thing or two by the time I bought my first house. Basic skills only though €“ sure I knew a little about electrical and plumbing systems, had an idea of how to use tools (such as a drywall knife and a miter saw); plus . . . put it on the resume -- I knew how to cheat on almost anything inside the house.

A solid basis though €“ a kit of tools . . . I would use these as I became a homeowner myself finally in the middle part of 2000. My then-new wife and I, like many in these parts, bought a small rowhome. While it had been well maintained €“ it required much work.

As a homeowner I found quickly that while I did possess some skills (not many tools -- most sold at yard/garage sales in CA), there was still a gigantic gap in what I needed to know to rehab a house.

For quick info, and when I needed help, I frequently turned to This Old House. I think I received it (a magazine subscription) -- a 29th birthday gift. I found myself hunting the archives, pulling things up online (I don't think so) and even occasionally €“ can you say it >> "the greatest invention of the first decade of the 21^st century!"? €“ searched for and Tivoed any episode that contained information that might apply to a portion of any current or upcoming project. It was a good system for me, a good way to learn, and it all came kinda quickly (I said "kinda") for me. And my (man) love for Tom Silva blossomed.
What Would Tom Silva Do?

It happened exactly like that, my window work this weekend. You remember the saying What Would Jesus Do? And it is true, I find that occasionally I do ask myself that question . . . WWTSD? I am not ashamed. I mean -- Norm's thoughtful craftsmanship is *ayright*, but I am simply more drawn to TS's rugged "get-it-done" style.

The whole story here depicting the essence of mastery, maybe. I mean -- where the real skill comes in . . . with any, well . . . act. Like a writer with nothing to write about, an acquired level of understanding that allows the doer to step confidently into the space where prior experience falls short. Spontaneous expertise, I guess you could call it. And you might try it . . . the next time you are stuck; ask yourself, "What Would Tom Silva Do?"
Of course, putting aside any jokes about "calls for makeup" or answering sarcastically saying, "Nothing! His crew of 15 would already have it done for him." I give him mad props; TS *is* my man! (<< more man love!) He's gotten me through more than one "window frame." And I'll save the talk of the other TS for next time (or maybe not).
Tfr&BMBM! and maybe I have Part 3 soon.

*******
Photo Creds:
http://www.christianshirts.net/buy83whatwouldjesusdoclothing.php
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/biography/0,,420219,00.html
Music Cred:
* History Lesson Part 2 by Minutemen: http://tinysong.com/AqaH << see best use of the adjective "Bob Dylan" . . . of all time!

Ethan_OPC
jb — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:00:55 +0000

Ethan Hagan @OneProjCloser :: Hardwood Flooring is Overrated!
One Project Closer — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 10:30:18 +0000
I've helped install hardwood flooring in my parents house, my house and, my good buddy, Fred's house. Everyone talks about how beautiful the floors look but it's time to say enough is enough! Hardwood floors are over-rated and ultimately not worth the trouble. In this post, I'll explain why.
I actually do love hardwood flooring but this post will be a fun change of pace. I'm going to make my argument against them and I hope you'll respond in the comments below. :)

Why You Shouldn't Choose Hardwood Flooring
Expensive Tools & Materials
Installing hardwood floors takes, at a minimum, several tools that can cost you a pretty penny. Most homeowners I know don't own them all and renting them will quickly become just as pricey. Here's a quick run-down of the necessary tools, materials and estimated cost. Let's assume the room is 20' x 15'.

Tongue & groove flooring: $4.00 per sq ft = $1200
Red rosin paper: $8.00 per roll = $8.00
Staple pack: $45.00 per pack = $45.00
Duo Fast 200-S: $359.00
Miter Saw: $250.00
Table Saw: $350.00

Sure subsequent rooms are cheaper, but the main costs are materials. Hardwood floors are an expensive option!

Environment
I'm not foolish enough to argue that tree harvesting isn't a sustainable process but consider this. Linoleum floors are durable, biodegradable, non-toxic and a much more responsible choice. So while hardwood flooring isn't a bad choice, it's also not the best.
Damages
You'd think hardwood flooring would be... well hard. But depending on the species you choose, dropped keys, pets and even small children can really damage the surface. UV light, through every single window, also changes to color of the wood. Moving furniture or a rug can really reveal the color difference.

So what do you think? Do hardwood floors still seem like a worthwhile choice?
*******
Note from the hosts: Thanks to Ethan at One Project Closer for throwing down on this interesting topic. He can be found blogging at http://www.oneprojectcloser.com. Also on twitter @OneProjCloser. For a nice little write up of OPC (if I don't say so myself) here >> http://www.buildingmoxie.com/2010/06/building-moxie-with-one-project-closer/.

HollynJon
jb — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 02:55:34 +0000

My New Job . . . My New Life
Holly Bertsch — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 10:30:06 +0000
Well, a lot has happened to me in the last few weeks. I went from hanging up my tool belt and becoming office manager of my own company to moving to Chicago to take a position as Vice President of another company. However, there is more to this story. You see, quite by accident, I fell madly in love with a contractor, Jon, I had known for a few years. Chicago is about three hours away from my hometown of Champaign Urbana, Illinois. One thing lead to another and he asked me to move up to Chicago and come work with him.

So what does this new life have in store for me? Well, originally Jon and I thought we would just be so into working that we would just naturally complement each other. I am strong in the things that he doesn€™t do well, like paperwork and change orders, and he is a super amazing carpenter/artist, which is where I often find myself lacking. We figured that we would make a good team. Of course, we like each other a lot also; so what could go wrong?

So long story short, I bet the farm on moving up here. Well, maybe you need a little more of the story to know why it is such a huge deal. See, I met Jon online about two years ago and we always talked shop online. Then one day he needed some advice about his web site, which is what I am going to school for. I gave him my number and we started talking on the phone from time to time. Then, one day out of the blue he called me to ask for some work advice on a big project he was doing. We talked for like 3 hours. It was really that day that everything changed, yet we didn€™t know the adventure we were about to embark on.

We started texting more and talking on the phone more, and realized how much we had in common. I also realized how much I liked him and how much I was interested in his work. I had never met him face to face until I had to come up here to pick up some wood. I suggested we do lunch or something. He got dead quiet on the other end of the phone, and it was then I knew he liked me. Well, the contract for the hardwood was delayed, but I still really wanted to be near this amazing guy. We talked about it, I got some things settled in my own life and packed up my clothes and my computer and took the plunge€¦Jon came and picked me up about 36 hours later, and I got to meet the guy who would become my soul mate.

Riding up to Chicago, we talked some, and sat in comfortable silence some, but generally felt a huge sense of relief that we were both so into each other . . . after all that time of talking on the phone and texting. The next day, Jon took me to work with him (it was a Sunday, but nothing out of the normal for either of us since we are both workaholics). I fit right in with his work and his crew. It was all so exciting. What happened next was the best thing ever though. I found out what I had long since forgotten, I love to be on the job and working in the field. My work in Champaign had gotten stale for me and it had started to feel like work. With Jon by my side, anything seemed possible again. I wanted to come up with solutions to problems and make people happy.

After that, we fell into a routine of doing everything together. We worked a lot but we played a lot too. In the first week I realized so many things about myself. For example, I used to live to work, and in the end that was ruining work for me. Now, I look at each day as a challenge instead of something I have to endure.

Jon has a whole different outlook on working. He works as much as I do, but he does it to his own schedule. For example, we don€™t have an alarm clock, and we get where we are going when we get there. His work is really a lot more art, and a lot less making things look new. Scheduling is kind of out the window with him, which was always a big rigid hurdle with me and my company. Deadlines are important, but not paramount. Of course, with this goes a complete lack of paper work and all the behind the scenes stuff that makes a business run a lot more smoothly.

That is where I come in. I can do change orders and, in fact, like them because at the end of the job everyone is on the same page. I write contracts, fill out lien wavers, track job costs, schedule stuff, estimate, etc. This is of utmost importance to a business which is trying to grow bigger as the economy is coming back. We complement each other so well, it was like we were meant to be together. I really think we were meant to find each other.

Along the way though of getting to know Jon better something strange happened. After the first few days of being up here, I really started to feel at home. Right away, in a strange city, after this strange way of meeting and deciding to be together, I fell in love so deeply and unequivocally that I can€™t imagine my life without him. We were sure we would have common ground on the work thing, but now work is no longer the major focus in my life. Instead of being Holly the contractor, which is how I defined myself before, I am now Holly, Jon€™s woman (also a contractor) which takes a lot of the day to day stresses off of me. I no longer lay awake at night and wonder how I am going to frame something up or what the best way to lay out the tile for a bathroom is. Now I just peacefully sleep at night and wake up refreshed and ready to start my day.

So what is the whole point here? Well, the last month has been an unusual and enlightening adventure for me, and has rejuvenated my love of all things construction. However, I have also realized that I no longer define myself by what I do and have found a whole new way of life that I never really experienced before. I really feel like nothing can stop us, and nothing can touch us. We have each other. We get to do stuff that we love, and we get to be a huge success at it. What more could anyone want?

kitus hallowseve schoolhouse 1
Barry — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 23:42:34 +0000

kitus hallowseve child man
Barry — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 23:48:07 +0000

kitus hallowseve puppet
Barry — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 23:48:59 +0000

kitus hallowseve throne 1
Barry — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 23:49:49 +0000

kitus hallowseve pirate 1
Barry — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:00:46 +0000

bones
Barry — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:52:28 +0000

All Hollows Houses :: Enter at Your Own Risk
Barry — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 10:45:50 +0000
Haunted Houses are amazing.
Not real Haunted Houses (though they may be) but the kind which spring up all over America in late October every year. I thought I might do my first technical post about the moxie behind these spontaneous fright show attractions.
My first Haunted House ended in the burning of my garage. The bigger kids around the block wanted to have a Haunted House and I happened to have a space available. This garage was my first workshop. It was a big partially empty space where I worked on various projects throughout my childhood. One of these was this Haunted House. During construction, a light was left on in a draped exhibit and we went off to have lunch. Next thing I know I am calling the fire department. Scary, and even though the light was not left on by me I learned that safety is everyone€™s responsibility all of the time. (yes, I realize I am a hypocrite.)

I applied this lesson in my next Haunted House. This one was put on as a fundraiser for the independent theatre company I was working with. I took the public safety aspect of this endeavor very seriously. Darkness + Moving People = incredible accident potential. The then 110 year old schoolhouse where I live was the site of the production. I call it a production because all Haunted Houses are productions. It is one thing they all have in common.

Masks and a six foot gargoyle, to adorn the front of the house, were constructed using wooden frames, chicken wire and Paper Mache. Record players and blade-less fans were employed to be the drive train of moving exhibits and I got the opportunity to create an illusion which involved building a throne with a sword laid across the arms. The audience sees a disembodied head balanced on the sword blade. The trick is accomplished by way of mirrors and a false back on the throne. Our disembodied head was singing an operatic duet with a bottom lit face behind a scrim in a picture frame on the wall. The singing was prerecorded. In fact, the whole journey through the house was accompanied by a soundtrack we had recorded which wove from jokey funny to creepy eerie and back several times during its twelve minute duration. There was a pirate room long before the €œCaribbean€ climbed out of the theme park and onto the silver screen. There was a woman who never looked up, washing blood from the floor that was dripping from a cast iron grate above her.

Examples aside this thing was one big construction site and I loved every minute of it. The transformation of rooms led to one great problem solving adventure after another.
The next year we did a Haunted Woods with a similar structure. Outside it was possible to use scale and lighting much differently than we had previously. A graveyard was fashioned from tombstones of ½ inch drywall, with the face paper removed. Silly and straight faced remembrances were carved into the front of them and they overall had a wonderful old and crumbling effect. The path wove through an abandoned carnival midway where the Acorn Girls were on display. They were baby dolls disassembled and re-assembled as puppets. At the end of their routine, which consisted of a child's nursery rhyme, the girls heads would ascend to the ceiling disappearing behind a large sign which read €œhave you seen me?€

Haunted Houses are folk art and thus able to explore the nature of fear in highly personal ways. The hosts are limited only by their imagination and skill levels. Amazing effort goes into them for a very limited run. Every year, around this time, people overcome their fears and invite new ones by walking through their doors.
As I searched through the theatre companies archives for photos to accompany this piece I came across a film that one of our members had posted on You Tube of the 1994 haunted schoolhouse build. At nearly ten minutes, and not knowing any of the participants, this may not be for the feint of heart but it does exemplify the amount of work and fun that go into the phenomenon known as the "Haunted House".

meandjen
jb — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 03:46:27 +0000

bobweir
jb — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 03:47:56 +0000

meandfoof
jb — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 03:50:41 +0000

shaving green
jb — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 03:53:47 +0000

Building Moxie Does a Guest Post (Behind the Music edition)
jb — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 11:00:16 +0000
[caption id="attachment_5771" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="my green head is less noteworthy than jen's lipstick"][/caption]

OK, I am doing another guest post today. This time for Ana M. Manzo and her blog the place of dreams. The piece is part of a series on the topic of "Harmony." Some of my favorite bloggers have or will be contributing to it, and . . . what do you think I chose to write about?

Actually . . . it seems, I am getting a little predictable even for myself and go figure -- I decided to write on harmony as it relates to and appears in music. I mean -- how does that relate to what we are doing here, my cause >> home improvement-type stuff?

[caption id="attachment_5772" align="alignright" width="150" caption="but gone bob weir for a time"][/caption]

I really don't know what it is (OK maybe I do) - and Bob Borson points it out too in his post. (BUT different for me.) Lately when I stare at the blank page, I just spill, writing down the words that pop into my brain; right or wrong, and it's not like I really have anything to say. I think *it* reveals that I really KNOW nothing. Is it musical (in this case)? Better making the words just look pretty and leave it for you as the reader to decide.
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[caption id="attachment_5773" align="alignleft" width="125" caption="our cat Foofy (also 1 of Alexandra Fun Fit's nicknames. No lie!)"][/caption]

In the process of writing and certainly not at the start, I came to the conclusion that Harmony as I see it, and with many things in life, is fleeting. Impossible to have harmony perhaps without disharmony too.

And that's it.

Now . . . I am going to post a few pics that make me happy, and I am reminded, as I scavenge for these pics from those days . . . . that I have too few to find.

. . . . (1,2,3,4)

As I send you over to Ana's for marvelment or confusion (Update: and here's the link >> http://anammanzo.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/as-easy-as-1-3-5-like-a-3-way-in-sound-in-b-minor/). . . I'll tell you these fun little facts about jb -- Music theory was the only course I failed in college. It was the only class I needed to fulfill a minor in music. And that said -- maybe you might want to ignore me. That and I'll tell you, I can't sing for shit (because my "ear" kinda sucks).
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Thanks for reading and BMoxieBMore! . . . pssst. Maybe we blogoff tomorrow.
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lookatthecouple
jb — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 03:42:27 +0000

tricktreat
jb — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 03:43:22 +0000

eanda
jb — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 03:44:31 +0000

swingingevyn
jb — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 03:44:45 +0000

eanda
jb — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 03:58:07 +0000

Building Moxie Blogs Off :: What Makes You Laugh? (Tag Teamed)
Barry — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:30:20 +0000
This is part of the #LetsBlogOff series, here >> http://letsblogoff.com/what-makes-you-laugh.html. Check it Out!
*******

Barry says:

What makes me laugh?
Bossy people make me laugh and sometimes out loud. It is hard to help yourself when someone bursts on the scene bellowing, barking or generally thinking they have a right to push people around.
Dogs make me laugh because they are sooooo willing to be silly.
Good friends, of course, which is often why they are good friends.
What makes me laugh hardest and longest is when I am really tired and think of or hear something absurd. Sleepiness and absurdity are the best of friends and go off giggling into the night, laughing themselves to tears€¦
Advertising makes me chuckle.
Good puns make me chortle.
Good comedy does not make me laugh. Instead I sit astounded and deeply amused thinking €œMan, this is good.€ This threw me for a while as I would watch comedy with people. They would laugh hysterically and I would sit quietly, feeling my eyes widen while an exalted chorus of true comedy captured warmed my insides. It€™s a dopey way to put it, but not far off the feeling. I guess awe trumps laughter.
People who adjust their manner of speech when talking to children and animal€™s make me laugh in various degrees.
Jokes run the gambit from good comedy to clever to downright dumb. They can illicit all manner of utterances and outbursts from me. Sometimes they make fun of, and other times they just make fun.
Once is a trick and twice a lesson, comedy works in threes.
Life slightly off n€™ exaggerations finagle glee - Tee, Hee!
Not getting jokes is funny.
So are pickles and bologna.
A sense of humor is not funny unless it is yours.
*******
jb says:
What makes me laugh?
As I pondered this question €“ and while some funnies did come swirling up into my brain I ultimately came up with one answer €“ What makes me laugh? Well, me! And if you really can€™t laugh at yourself what is worth laughing at anyway . . . ?

[caption id="attachment_5793" align="alignright" width="150" caption="look at the nice couple"][/caption]

I mean -- all the stupid, no, I mean really stupid, almost remedial . . . spent a little too much time sniffing paint fumes (read: glue) €“ stuff I do, the stubborn and downright idiotic. Example -- Just ask me for reals why we haven€™t blogoffed yet (<< and I like the look of that verb, but really don't ask). I mean -- Comical. And the way I can run on.

So again, I really can€™t tell you €“ but I *know* thankfully I have a few witty friends . . . one, my brother in unraveling idiocy, Barry -- who can put up a thoughtful list, andddddddD two, my partner in the sweet and sexy @AlexandraFunFit €“ who just says smart things . . . all the time. They make me laugh.

. . . . And I'll go on.

AFF and I had a chance to meet this weekend . . . did I tell you? No? And while I am tempted to zing her, I will refrain from posting any pictures taken (while she was on the phone with another tweeter . . . *errrrrmmm* . . . you know who you are) and in her words, at €œstupid o€™clock€ in the morning . . . I€™ll go instead like this €“

[caption id="attachment_5797" align="alignleft" width="112" caption="my higher power said: "go with the pic of Evyn and A.""][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5796" align="alignright" width="112" caption="or was it this one? -- I can't always understand my higher power"][/caption]

As we chatted (her nice hinny (sp?) in my hoopty), the topic of tweeting came up. Truth €“ we actually talked about all you all, aaaaaaa lot (hear the accent on the T?) and only nice things, of course. But then AFF said something like, €œ . . . Yeah, but I am never mean . . . .€ Admirable, I think, and it, the conversation, reminded me that I too am not a huge fan of humor taken at anyone€™s, and I mean €“ *anyone€™s* (I don€™t give a shit) expense . . . . Unless, of course, you (general) know for 100% sure they (specific) will be laughing with you. (<< a principle not a rule and I won't judge you.)

. . . . And I'll go on.

There are different €œtypes€ of things that are funny . . . I know. There are different *things* that make me laugh, but . . . I do tend personally towards the spontaneous and unrehearsed.

And if I really knew all of what makes me laugh, would any of it really even be funny anymore . . . ?

Here's one, you know today's an election day . . . and that's funny. But that's just me.
*******
That€™s it €“ thanks for letting us play. b
*******
Your browser does not support iframes.

These are the folks blogging off today >> Read their stuff too.

Blogger Twitter Blog Post Link

Veronika Miller @modenus Modenus Community

Paul Anater @paul_anater Kitchen and Residential Design

Rufus Dogg @dogwalkblog DogWalkBlog.com

Becky Shankle @ecomod Eco-Modernism

Bob Borson @bobborson Life of an Architect

Nick Lovelady @cupboards Cupboards Kitchen and Bath

Tamara Dalton @tammyjdalton Tamara Dalton Design Studios

Sean Lintow, Sr. @SLSconstruction SLS-Construction.com

Amy Good @Splintergirl Thoughts of a Splinter Girl

Tim Bogan @TimBogan Windbag International

Cindy FrewenWuellner @Urbanverse Urbanverse's Posterous

Steve Mouzon @stevemouzon Useful Stuff

Madame Sunday @ModernSauce Modern Sauce

Saxon Henry @saxonhenry Roaming by Design

Jane Frederick @JaneFredArch Low Country Architect

Andrea Wolper @AndreaWolper Spin the Wheel

Denese Bottrell @Denese_Bottrell Thoughtful Content

Betsy De Maio @egrgirl Egrgirl's Blog

Allison A. Bailes III @EnergyVanguard Energy Vanguard Blog

Ami @beckami Multifarious Miscellany

Christian McLean @chirn9980 ChristianMclean.com

Barry and jb @BMoxieBMore Building Moxie

BillyJoe
John Poole — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:15:22 +0000

BobbieSue
John Poole — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:16:36 +0000

BobbieSueSappling1
John Poole — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:26:19 +0000

BillyJoeTree
John Poole — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:32:03 +0000

BobbieSueSappling3
John Poole — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:53:02 +0000

BobbieSueBigTree
John Poole — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:53:43 +0000

BillyJoe-FIC
Barry — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:31:49 +0000

Hey Rocky, Watch Me Pull A Squirrel Outta My Attic (Again?!)
John Poole — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:45:21 +0000
This here's a story about Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue, two young squirrels with nothin' better to do -- except unleash their squirrelly wrath on me, that is, for the better part of a week, two winters ago...

Outlaw couple Billy Joe (top) and Bobbie Sue (bottom), shortly after their capture.

Yes, these two bushy-tailed reprobates managed to get into my home in early January, 2009, gnawing their way through a small, dry-rotted section of my outside cellar door. I initially became aware of their presence when I first heard Bobbie Sue, the louder, more tempestuous of the two, crawling around and whimpering inside the first floor wet wall, as she made her way up through the framing. So I had a squirrel on my hands. But didn't realize I had two until the next day, when I encountered both of them in the attic.

Fortunately for me, their access to my home was relatively limited. They had the run of the basement, of course (in which they made a real mess), the innards of the wet wall which they used as a pathway to the attic, the 2nd floor birthing room (which was empty at the time, with the door kept closed to stop drafts -- good thing for that), and then, of course, the attic. They have a natural instinct to climb to the highest possible elevations, and this must have prompted them to head up there.

Bobbie Sue escaping her Havahart trap and making for the small sapling (top); Billy Joe high in the canopy after his release (bottom). If you zoom closer on the photo, you can plainly see that Billy Joe is making an obscene paw gesture at me.

Catching them was a royal pain. I swear, they knew what I was up to, and tried to mess with my head. I set a total of three Havahart live traps for them; two in the attic, and one in the basement, just in case either attempted to venture back outside the house via the basement. On one occasion, the bait (peanut butter) was removed from one trap without springing it. On another occasion, a trap was sprung, but with no animal inside (in retrospect, this was probably the act of a mouse). And then, the traps were totally ignored for several days. But eventually, either hunger prevailed, or they just got careless, and I caught both of them in the attic.

Fearing that they knew the house all too well at this point, and might find some other way back in (even though I had already blocked their original entry point), I decided to take them to nearby Osborndale State Park to release them to the wild. I released Billy Joe first. He immediately made for the nearest tree, and quickly ascended to the upper-most portion of the canopy. But Bobbie Sue's path to freedom was a bit more haphazard, perhaps somewhat in keeping with her tempestuous nature. She darted toward a small sapling right near her trap and climbed quickly, only to find herself hanging perilously from a very small limb, with no where else to go. She either deliberately let go, or lost her grip, and fell about seven or eight feet down onto the soft snow, totally unscathed, and then ran to the same tree Billy Joe had ascended previously, where she began her fast ascent. After a while, she was completely out of sight, lost in the canopy of the trees.

Bobbie Sue out on a limb with no place to go (top); after plummeting to earth, Bobbie Sue ascends the same tree taken by Billy Joe (bottom).

Now, aside from this being a (somewhat) entertaining story, where's the key element of "building moxie" in it? Well, funny as the story reads, it wasn't very funny at the time. Anyone who has ever had a squirrel (or two) in their home can tell you how destructive they are, how imperative it is to get them out quickly, and how their prolonged presence (that is, any thing longer than about one afternoon) can rattle you psychologically. For me, a humane option, however, was the only option. I knew about the Havahart traps, searched quickly online, and found I could get them at my local Home Depot. One of the sales folks there advised peanut butter as the bait. And it all worked out in the end, albeit with a sense of quiet desperation on my part until it was over. But I took charge of the situation, and brought it to an end as quickly as I could, and no one got hurt (including me). Such is the way of Building Moxie!

For further reading, here's a link a very recent This Old House article on dealing with a variety of winter-time critters, as well as my original blog posting.

social pict_high res
jb — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 18:16:43 +0000

1 dark_kitchen_AT
jb — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:50:22 +0000

2 apt_color
jb — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:51:46 +0000

www.mlbaxleyphotography.com
jb — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:52:32 +0000

Ronique Gibson :: My Goal is to Help you Love Your Home
stagetecture — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 10:30:38 +0000
I€™m Ronique Gibson, and I founded Stagetecture to encompass my passions €“ Architecture, Home staging, Organization, DÃ©cor and helping busy families love their home. What started off as just a home staging/organizing service took off into an awesome blog that people return to daily.

I started in June 2009 wanting to help home owners sell their homes in the harsh housing market. When Realtors and home sellers were not thrilled about paying more for home staging, I turned to my unknown passion, writing. I€™ve always loved to write, but never gave it much thought to doing it full time. I began my blog on Stagetecture in August of 2009 and it became a hit! From helping my friends choose furniture placement, to figuring out how to get the family out the house on time€¦ I was helping people love their homes!

In June 2010, as an Associate Architect I professionally loved architecture and interacting with the built environment. In my 9-5 job I continued my architecture job working on commercial buildings and in my night time started writing for Architecture and Interiors online publications. My current contributing editor writing is at Freshome.com where I offer €œHow-To€ and dÃ©cor information to our readers.

Another love I started was becoming co-host of the Twitter chat €“ Interior Design Chat (#Intdesingerchat), with host Barbara Segal. It has been a true love of mine to professionally gather interior designers, Architects, and home design professionals in one place every Tuesday at 6pm EST to chat! The discussions have touched on sustainability, safety, trending dÃ©cor styles, to lighting and professional design software!

In September 2010, I decided to take on my writing career full time and I now contribute content to home designer€™s blogs, office supply web sites, and manage social media campaigns for clients. I still love architecture, but my true calling has been writing about architecture, interiors, and interacting with home owners on a daily basis.

In the upcoming year I€™m excited to see where my passion will take me. I would like to one day build Stagetecture into an everyday resource that home owners return to, to receive do it yourself information, home dÃ©cor inspiration, productivity tools and always family solutions. The best reward is daily I hear a comment like, €œRonique that article was exactly what I needed, and you don€™t know how much it helped me€. Now that is priceless, and that is why I love my new calling!
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Note from the hosts: Many thanks to Ronique for contributing this post. She is actually the first person I connected with via the social networking site StumbleUpon (ok, maybe twitter helped).  And as with most folks that agree to contribute, she asked what she should submit. I said, " . . . it can be autobiographical and tell us about you professionally. even a self-promotional piece . . . ."

I think there is much to be learned from hearing people *talk* passionately about what they do. Again hat's off. Hope you enjoyed the post and please leave a comment. Ronique may be found on twitter as stagetecture. jb

JohnPooleBeerMPP
jb — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 20:28:45 +0000

frigseal
jb — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 04:06:51 +0000

5 Signs It's Time to Replace Your Refrigerator
Home Sweet Solutions — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 10:30:23 +0000

By Larry Bilotti for Home Sweet Solutions

The appliances in your home -- particularly the refrigerator, clothes washer and dryer -- account for about 17 percent of your home€™s electricity usage, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Since the refrigerator is the one appliance that operates 24/7 year after year, it€™s a key contributor to your home's monthly energy consumption. If your refrigerator was manufactured before 1993, you€™re already using twice the energy as a new Energy Star€“rated model. But age isn€™t the only reason you may need to consider purchasing a new fridge. There are five warning signs that it€™s time. Ask yourself:

1. Do you see signs of moisture?
Are there signs of condensation on the inside of the door frame? If so, the rubber seal designed to keep cold air in and warm air out isn€™t as airtight as it needs to be. While the energy loss may seem negligible, anything that requires the motor to run more frequently over time is costing you energy -- and money. You may be able to change the seal yourself or have a handyman do it. But if your refrigerator is old, and this is only one of several problems, it might be wise to start shopping for a new one.

2. Is your unit generating heat?
We all know refrigerators are meant to keep food cold, but if your unit is generating noticeable heat from the back coils or the sides, a replacement is in order. New refrigerators have improved insulation in the doors and exterior walls to help maintain better temperatures and muffle motor noise. With more energy-efficient compressors and more precise temperature and defrost mechanisms, new models produce less heat, operate more quietly and insure temperatures are kept at the optimum settings. To be sure that the unit you buy meets these standards, look for the blue Energy Star label.

3. Is the motor running continuously?
The old joke €œIs your refrigerator running? Well, you€™d better catch it!€ isn€™t far from the truth. Refrigerators have an on-off timer that lets the motor operate just enough to maintain the temperatures inside. Door openings and closing will, of course, contribute to the motor running more frequently. But if you suspect your refrigerator is running more than normal -- or continuously -- it may be a sign that your refrigerator needs replacing.

4. Is your food staying fresh?
Refrigerators need to maintain an inside temperature of 35 to 38 F to keep food fresh. Anything higher and it will spoil too quickly. Anything lower and freezing becomes a problem. You can purchase a refrigerator thermometer to test temperatures, but if you have been inching the colder setting lower over time -- or notice that vegetables, dairy products and leftovers don€™t keep as long as they used to -- it€™s time to shop for a new refrigerator.

5. Do you manually defrost your freezer?
Finally, if your freezer compartment requires manual defrosting, there€™s no need to contemplate whether you need a new refrigerator -- you do. Although freezers that require manual defrosting are somewhat more efficient than frost-free models, they have to be maintained regularly in order to operate at peak efficiency. The more frost and ice that builds up on the inside of a freezer, the harder the unit has to work. Taking into account the time it requires to defrost a freezer and the problems with temporary food displacement, a new fridge will eliminate the chore (saving you time) and still be more energy-efficient than your current model (saving you money).

TIP: Be sure to look for the Energy Star blue seal when purchasing a new refrigerator and other household products. These models are guaranteed to be energy-efficient and save you money over time. How much money? Find out here: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=refrig.calculator

And while you may be tempted to keep your old refrigerator for additional storage in a garage or spare room, don€™t! The reason you purchased a new model was to eliminate the cost of operating the old one. Instead, look for a refrigerator-recycling center in your area. Find one by visiting http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=recycle.pr_refrigerator_rec.

Larry Bilotti has an extensive background in DIY home improvements and home maintenance, not only from his years as executive editor of Country Living magazine, but from personal hands-on experience restoring his Catskills, N.Y., retreat -- Trout House.

The Do Together Daily
jb — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 02:23:47 +0000
This page is a work in progress.

If you would to help us define what this site is about, please leave your thoughts, a comment below.

Thank you and BMoxie BMore!

home_inspection_report
jb — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 04:45:21 +0000

People. Just. Got. Issues. (the Real Estate Edition)
jb — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:30:31 +0000
The views presented here are those solely of . . . well . . . me.
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People. Just. Got. Issues. And of course I am *not* talking about you. But here€™s what I mean, and I promise -- I'll keep the back story short.

My wife and I are still a young couple. To date we have bought four houses, so far selling two. It is helpful in these cases to have a real estate agent . . . nearby. And maybe you've guessed it, or maybe you knew already, my wife happens to be, yep, a real estate agent. Me . . . I'm like this regular, construction-type dude.

She's a real estate agent when she is not playing full-time mom. For seven years now, she has averaged between two and six deals a year. (Yeah, I know . . . not a great job at averaging, but I did have to account for the market the last few years.)

The result . . . for me . . . I have learned a little about what real estate agents do, and, really . . . what it is like to live with one. They, real estate agents, have clients; they use the phone (a cell phone usually); send emails; receive and send faxes; write contracts and occasionally . . . they negotiate . . . (right or wrong) on their clients' behalf.   All that €“ usually, under a tight (I mean €“ €œthe building€™s on fire"; I need it NOW!) deadline.

A house is after all a very important €œthing€ for . . . well, most clients. A big purchase, and in some cases you could even say, something on which dreams . . . hang. It is, and I give my wife props, a very tough gig. BUT . . . that really is not the point of this story. It isn€™t really even the story. The story is:
*******
. . .

It enviably happens. Time for the home inspection Repair Request List. The tension resulting for it (those things) often affects nearly every aspect of my life. (No lie -- and no time to explain.)

I mean by this point my wife has, typically and when working with buyers, done weeks, months or sometimes even years of legwork . . . sometimes solely on good faith. By this point, she has shown them (her clients) multiple properties in various places throughout the area, made reconnaissance, information-gathering-type inquiries, placed many feelers out/some to return . . . and is always checking for new listings, or . . . is simply available enough to answer any and all questions.

But they (buyers) always, I mean - always, find THE house . . . . Then time for the home inspection.

. . . The home inspector finds, and the home inspection report usually has, numerous small items (on it). Many buyers, it seems and as is instinct, want to ask for the repair of all of the items from these lists . . . and I can understand that (even though the listing agents usually probably do not).

The sellers sometimes agree (most graciously) to fix all . . . but a handful of items from these lists. And this is the point where I must type it: Trust me! €“ Real estate agents earn. their. money!

And actually, I'll type this too:

I think the whole home inspection/negotiating/concession/repair/allowance/"Woot! we got our dream house" process is kinda whack. (And yes, that's the construction-dude in me talking.) I mean €“ I understand the argument . . . especially when safety, such as fire, is a potential issue . . . and the little things are those that are all too easily forgotten. But come on! Do you really think that someone that is looking to get *out* of a house really cares about how well an issue with it is corrected? (No, not that much, and yes, that is the snarker in me talking.)

Isn't that, fixing little things, what homeownership is all about? Part of owning a house?

But I am surprised by just how willing people are to even think about walking away from it -- their gonna-live-in-this-house-until-they-carry-my-dead-ass-from-it, "the-house" house . . . just because the seller will not agree to fix a few . . . very. minor. items.

I mean -- OK maybe a "macho" power play or good business on behalf of the buyers, but do you think this is as insane as I do? Is it worth the turmoil or risk?
*******
Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore! (This article was been edited from it's original version.)

DSCN6647
jb — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 03:48:47 +0000

DSCN6650
jb — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 03:53:21 +0000

DSCN6651
jb — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 03:54:10 +0000

€œblush of youth€ & €œbrightness of the summer sun€
jb — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 04:32:35 +0000

blush of youth brightness of the summer sun
jb — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 04:36:07 +0000

jug pitcher with the little girls
jb — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 04:36:59 +0000

Erin Smith Art Martha
jb — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 04:38:41 +0000

Erin Smith Art Boots
jb — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 04:39:49 +0000

The Anti-Crafting Spice Girl . . . aka How to do a Not Do
Tammy Dalton — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 10:30:50 +0000
I got a wild hair this morning and decided to get rid of something that€™s been gracing my kitchen counters for far too long. It€™s one of these:

It€™s one of those spice racks, made out of some innocuous wood, like oak or something, which holds glass jars of common herbs and spices on a little spinning lazy-susan. This was a gift from my late father-in-law when we moved into our last apartment. We€™ve been in our house for ten years, so this thing, I€™m embarrassed to admit, has been around for possibly 15 years. Disgusting, right? In the earliest days, we did use some of the herbs in it -- like the basil, rosemary and parsley, but the rest we have never touched. I said to myself, that€™s it! I€™m not going to stare at this ugly artifact in my kitchen any longer. It€™s outta here!

I started removing and emptying the glass bottles into my trash. Things like marjoram flakes, mustard seed and fenugreek. Fenugreek. Just what is fenugreek anyway? It, like many of the jars, had never even been opened; the seal was still in place. I opened it to dump it out and it smelled vaguely like rye seeds, but I have no idea if that is what it€™s supposed to smell like . . . or not.

Please, someone, please tell me: what fenugreek is and how it€™s used? I really would like to know. Where cooking is concerned in my house, my husband is the chef. He cooks with love and flair, and makes fantastic, awesome, crowd-pleasing meals. I, on the other hand, do a decent job of cooking, but the only reason I cook is because, well, a family€™s gotta eat . . . you know?

But I digress. I gladly and with a sense of accomplishment in my heart, dumped the contents of these bottles into the garbage, preparing them and the wood rack for the recycle bin. And then I looked at this collection of small, uniformly-sized little glass bottles. Hmmmm€¦.

My kids could store beads or other junk in them, my husband could put nails or screws in them. I could- dare I say it? €“ make something out of them. Like a craft. I could make them into little bud vases, maybe decoupage them with cute little phrases or pictures of little girls dressed up like Shirley Temple fairies.

Fleeting images of myself spreading newspaper over my dining table and carefully gluing things to these glass bottles and then arranging them artfully in odd-numbered clumps with flower buds of varying heights flitted through my mind.

My next thought was, where shall I store these little beauties until I start my oh-so-artsy, crafty project? In our overflowing garage? In the dining room closet, next to my collection of fancy, multi-colored parchment papers that have sat unused for about 8 years, as well as all those fabric scraps I€™ve religiously held onto? Maybe they€™ll fit next to my collection of wine corks!

This is where Reality enters the room.

The truth is that this crafty project will never happen. These bottles will sit untouched and taking up precious storage space in my house for another few years until I get another wild hair to clean out the accumulation of crap that invariably builds up in one€™s house and until I finally throw them away. The truth is I€™m not a crafter. The truth is that I hate the banal and useless clutter that passes itself off as kitchen dÃ©cor/accessories (think wax-sealed bottles of red chili peppers suspended in olive oil). The truth is that I hate this kind of cutesy dÃ©cor, my tastes run a little more towards the edgy and sassy, but since edgy and sassy is not always kid-appropriate, I shall remain a minimalist as much as possible until my kids go off to college.

And as I sit here and write this post, the glass bottles are in my dishwasher getting scrubbed clean of any fenugreek residue. You know, just in case I decide to keep them. My husband is knowingly shaking his head at me. Adopting my defensive posture, I spread my hands out and say €œWhat?€
*******
Photo Credits:
http://www.artathomestudio.com/image-files/P1040378-b.jpg - this is the one of the jug/pitcher with the little girls on it

http://gomakesomething.com/ht/glass/decoupaged-glass - this is the one with the pink & yellow bottles that say €œblush of youth€ & €œbrightness of the summer sun€

http://www.erinsmithart.com/ProductDetail.cfm?ItemId=2&SubCatId=7&MainCatId=3 €“ Erin Smith Art- €œBoots€

http://www.erinsmithart.com/ProductDetail.cfm?ItemId=164&SubCatId=15&MainCatId=4 €“ Erin Smith Art- €œMartha€

____
Barry — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:19:05 +0000

Blank All The Way To The Bank
Barry — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 10:30:42 +0000
There is ____
and there is ____.
____ gets most of the real work done.
____ is relentless and never sits still.
____ is silently rooting for ____.
____ fights to eradicate itself.
____ owes ____ a lot.
____ wants a day off.

tennies dots sneakernews
Barry — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:41:32 +0000

cfw office up
Barry — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:41:50 +0000

cfw office dn
Barry — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:42:13 +0000

door interiordoors
Barry — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 07:01:08 +0000

cfw head
Barry — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 07:18:30 +0000

Cindy Frewen Wuellner :: Big Lessons for Working from Home
Urbanverse — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:30:54 +0000

You€™ve finally wrangled a few days of work-at-home from the boss. Or you€™re now the boss and the grunt too. Like 47% of the population who want to work from home, you€™ve found your freedom and now you€™re faced with your first workday at home.

The freedom is terrifying.

To get you past that first Monday morning scream, you might want a few tips. Because at this point I€™ve done it all. I€™ve drudged through waiting tables, selling soap, sewing uniforms, and cubicle work; and I€™ve owned the office. Now I gleefully occupy a corner of my house, having conquered the fears of the liberty-challenged.
1. Setting the Pace. You are the boss and the employee. We all know at the office, one or the other can be stupid but never both. Figure out when you hit your stride during the day and dedicate those hours to employee jobs, the real productivity, the €œbig rock€ projects. The rest of the time, you can be the boss.
2. Home Alone. You are working alone. That is, unless you count the dog, fish, or couch. To kick my collaboration addictions, I create journal conversations, draw diagrams, take long runs and walks, post trial ideas on my blog, check the twitter clan, and have built a network of worthy reviewers and co-conspirators. You really are not alone. You just work alone far more than before.
3. Imaginary Time. You no longer participate in daily rituals like rush hour, water cooler chats, lunches with the gang, commutes, or even normal dress-up routines. All told, that€™s easily four hours of saved time per day, right? That€™s like going to Macy€™s sale of 30% off, spending $100, and expecting $30 cash. Not in your wallet, is it? Same deal: that four hours a day is gone, poof! You will never know where it went. There is no savings; there€™s only convenience.
4. Power Door. You are going to need a door. Or a crystal clear sign. I have an upstairs room with no external connections where I seriously work. Then I have a downstairs desk where I do everything else and quasi-connect to family life. So I see both situations. The door solves everything. If you don€™t have your separate space, make a truly obnoxious sign that says: €œDo Not Interrupt the Interrupter in Chief.€
5. Double Used Home. You€™ll be buying more groceries, toilet paper, and electricity. Call these purchases work-at-home expenses. It also means that your house gets a little dirtier with more dishes to wash. Unless of course, you never notice dust bunnies anyway. Then it€™s just normal. Will a future buyer ask: has this house been driven hard or been a €˜Sunday drive€™ kind of house? You€™re not going to squeal on me, are you?
6. Real Clothes Wednesday. More laundry, less dry cleaning. More tennies, fewer hard heels. More pony tails, fewer blow dries. As I sit here in my running shorts and hoodie, I remember when I thought I would always wear suits to work, even at home. *laugh* Trips are bundled to minimize days in full regalia. Hey, I€™ll be in real clothes on Wednesday; lunch then?
7. No is Beautiful. I guard my time like I never did when I was working in a team. Saying no to a project was tantamount to putting people out hungry. We aimed for yes. Yes to that new police station, school renovation, downtown planning project, the neighborhood group, design juries, and various boards or committees. Now I monitor promises because I€™m it. You€™ll learn yes-with-limits and, sometimes painfully, no.
8. Structure or Not. We skipped the apprenticeship program for at-home work, didn€™t we? You are making it up. What time to start, stop, and take breaks? When is something ready to go? In project teams and schedules, the rhythm set the office mood. Now the rhythm is my rhythm. At the same time, the family has a different drum beat. Two tips: put your major due dates and meetings on the family calendar. And don€™t start the laundry on a work day. It will wait.
9. Not-Spent Money. Live-work at home is cheaper. Lunch at home, slouch clothes, minimal dry cleaning, less gas, parking, wear-and-tear on the car (or dump the car) will soon offset the added desk, computer, power, and groceries. Shall you splurge? The first check: scan it, frame the copy, and then go back to work. The first $100,000: nice dinner, then back to work. And start figuring out when you should sell the business €“ 2 years, 10 years, longer? Make a plan; build your assets. Even if you keep it longer, do it by choice. Invest in freedom.

Every day that you get up and work in your hoodie and tennis shoes is a good one. When you pick up your kids from school or stop for an hour to shoot a game of hoops or take a run, be happy.

Working from home just shrank your ecological footprint dramatically. No office waiting for you all night, no house sitting empty all day. It€™s full occupancy.

Work in a team telecommuting from home or work alone gives life new balance and, if you love your work, new meaning. You are the boss. And you are the grunt. Relish it.

Note from the hosts: Many thanks and a warm welcome to Cindy. On Twitter she is known as @Urbanverse and she can be found at her very own blog here. - Barry

stagetecture_type
jb — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 05:29:50 +0000

stagetecture_type
jb — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 05:30:31 +0000

stagetecture_type
jb — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 05:31:20 +0000

Building Moxie Does an Interview
jb — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 10:30:35 +0000
So far I have gotten a couple of interview requests -- it€™s true. Like I really have anything to say -- but OK, and as the Paul likes to remind me, it seems -- I am developing some sort of minor (ghetto-type) celebrity here. And when recent guest poster Ronique Gibson actually sent questions, I was glad to answer them for her. . . . Some of my thoughts appear on her site stagetecture.com today.

Ronique's questions forced me to evaluate our blog as it stands, look at where it came from, and where it may be going; they also made me, and I couldn't help . . . but, reflect on myself a little too (and Yah . . . you know. Like I don't do that enough already). I just thought this little bit was, well . . . worth sharing:

Ya know . . . I frequently spend time hounding on posters for what we in the industry (*tongue in cheek*) call . . . a bio. But when I have been asked recently to produce the same -- I have to tell ya -- I end up feeling a little like a deer in the headlines . . . letting out one, big, giant, literary "ummmmmmmmmm . . . well . . . ."
Partying 101 :: What do you do?
What I mean -- look at some of the guys I hang out . . . near . . . while I'm in here. There€™s Bob Borson :: Life of an Architect, Nick Lovelady :: Cupboards, Jody Brown :: Coffee with an Architect, and Paul Anater :: Kitchen and Residential Design. Sure, all are supertalented, and charismatic (OK, maybe Jody -- not so much). Each also is a downright awesome blogger (and Jody -- you know I was only kidding back there). BUT really do those descriptives wholly define these guys? No, not completely. You see, in my eyes, they all also do have one, other, thing in common . . . A Career (Capital "C").

Again, what I mean -- I imagine it is easy for Bob and Jody at dinner parties. They probably start with something like, €œI am architect.€ Nick might say, "My family owns a kitchen and bath firm." For Paul, it might end up coming out a little more well-formed, but . . . at some point, I am almost certain, Paul would say . . . €œI am a kitchen designer.€

. . . Then there€™s me. I mean -- I didn€™t go to school for what I/we write about; I currently have no certifications; I do not control profit and loss; and I can€™t even seem to manage the time (nor the motivation) to take my General Contracting exam . . . (which, by the way, is an open book test). I mean, and especially in relation to these guys -- What am I? What do I do?

Now . . . this may seem like a sidebar . . . but . . . my father-in-law has a very angular sense of humor. He probably has a decent answer for those questions. From the day we met, some 13 years ago, he has referred to me as €œJob€ -- j o b . . . of course adding only an €œo€ between the two letters that make up my name. A joke I know, good-natured ribbing. But times though, and I'll admit -- when I let the dark in (*ahem* Jody), I seem to let myself take it up to a slightly higher meaning . . . . Like -- €œShit! My Career will be made up of nothing more than, well, my jobs. And you know . . . you are going to be forty soon . . . . € (<< Notice I add the ellipses in my thoughts too.)

Andddddd . . . if I think about it that way, I guess I€™ll be the guy at the party saying, €œUmmmmmmmm . . . well . . . I€™m a waiter-writer-handyman-software tester-process designer-construction manager-web designer(type)...wannabe-entrepreneur who runs a blog. That's NAWWHSTPDCMWDTWEWRAB certified DA,AD. BUT . . . I really am only a regular guy.€
*******
Anyway . . . enough of that and you know what I mean . . . . It was fun doing the interview, and go read it now! >> http://stagetecture.com/2010/11/d-i-y-home-stagetecture-interviews-building-moxie/. Please leave a comment, say hi to Ronique, and of course hang out and poke around her awesome site (which she posts to 7 days a week!).

Thanks and BMoxie BMore!

cedar deck 6
jb — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 04:03:16 +0000

cedar deck
jb — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 04:04:52 +0000

Can Your Wood Deck Survive Another Harsh Winter?
Ricks Fencing — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:30:25 +0000
There are few things more disheartening for a homeowner than emerging into the spring thaw and witnessing the devastation winter has wrought upon your outdoor living space. Excess moisture and changing temperatures are hard on a wood deck, and poor maintenance during the cold months can leave you staring in dismay at ugly stains, rotting wood and rampant mold and mildew growth.

Unfortunately, when it comes to wood decking, poor maintenance can also pose a safety hazard. Dry rot, weakened ledger connections and failing footings can all contribute to deck collapse. Not to get all doom and gloom on you, but deck collapses have injured 900 people and killed 20 in the last 15 years, and decking professionals estimate that half of the decks in the United States are either poorly constructed or in a state of advanced decay. One hard winter may be all that is needed to push some of these aging decks over the edge.

In order to keep your deck healthy during the winter months, winterizing your deck should become a regular part of your fall home maintenance. Here€™s a checklist of tasks to complete before we enter the heart of winter:

Remove dirt, debris, mold and mildew. You can€™t prevent your hardwood or cedar deck from taking a beating once the rain and snow set in, but you can at least start with a clean slate.

Sweep all leaves and other yard debris from the surface of your decking material to prevent staining. Wet leaves can leach tannin into the wood, which leaves a tea-colored stain, and decomposing organic matter can spread rot to your deck boards.
Dislodge any debris that has become wedged between boards, as you want maximum air circulation throughout your entire deck to allow moisture to evaporate as quickly as possible.
Scrub out any mold or mildew you find, as it will only worsen over the winter. A product such as a deck brightener can help arrest mildew in its tracks.

Move planters and furniture off your deck. This is an important step many homeowners fail to take. Just because your outdoor furniture is meant for withstanding rough weather doesn€™t mean it should languish on your deck all winter long. Water can pool beneath planters and cause staining as well as mold, mildew and rot, while any metal that remains in extended contact with the deck surface can leave rust stains.

Perform a deck safety inspection. Just as you regularly change the batteries in your smoke detectors, you should also inspect your deck for safety issues. Things to look for include:

Stability. Give your deck the hula hoop test. Plant your feet and make a hula hoop motion, trying to move the deck with your feet and hips. If it starts to sway, call in a professional for a more thorough inspection.
Dry rot. Dry rot is usually most prevalent where fasteners enter the wood or where two pieces of wood overlap. Dry rot is caused by a fungus, which usually appears as brown, white or yellow-colored spots. To test for dry rot, pierce the suspect area with a pick or screwdriver; if the wood is spongy or breaks off in chunks, there may be rot present.
Stair and handrail strength. Test the strength of any stairs or handrails. Loose rails or weak stairs are a safety issue that should be addressed as soon as possible.
Ledger connection. Check the ledger joist, where your deck connects to the house. The bolts should be tightened annually. If you notice loose or missing bolts, decay, or any signs that the ledger is pulling away for your home, immediate attention is needed.

These are just a few of the things to look for when performing a safety inspection. If you have an older deck, or have reason to suspect a safety issue, I recommend bringing in a professional perform this task for you. Ask your local decking contractor whether they offer a free decking material safety evaluation.

Be prepared for snow. Another thing to keep in mind during the winter is snow removal. Whether you plan on using your deck or not, it€™s best to remove snow before it melts and sends all that moisture seeping into the wood. The safest method of snow removal is to use a large outdoor broom with stiff bristles. If you must use a snow shovel, stick to a plastic one and shovel lengthwise in the direction of the deck boards to avoid gouging the surface. Be especially careful with a composite deck, as shoveling can chip the decking material. Avoid using salt or other ice melters on a wood deck.

By performing these maintenance tasks, you can prep your deck to withstand the harsh winter and prevent any unpleasant surprises this spring.
*******
Note from the hosts: Dave Nichols writes about cedar deck maintenance and construction, as well as other home improvement issues, for the Rick€™s Fencing & Decking Blog. We hope to incorporate more material from Dave & @RicksFencing in the future. Thanks Dave.

ladder
jb — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 05:03:20 +0000

tilelayouts
jb — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 05:04:20 +0000

sit and spin gram
jb — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 05:07:41 +0000

A Dump, Dumplin', and a side of Dumplings...
jb — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 10:30:52 +0000
Recent guest poster Cindy Frewen Wuellner asked how I do it.

And I think she was referring to how I can hack out a post in only a few hours ( . . . is it that obvious?). My answer (in less than 140) . . . "Don€™t do research, and use a lot of (literary) 'ummmmmmms'."

I really do plan to pick a topic one day, do some research, and actually write something intelligent about it . . . .

But until then . . .
*******
I€™ll admit it; I am not the most responsible guy. I don€™t recycle as many building materials as I probably should. Sure, I am big on reuse and I can even sometimes make my way to a re-purpose, but aluminum and copper is the limit of the products I have ever actually hiked up to the recycling center. And I have yet to set up my backyard composting bins.

We call it the dump pile. In a front corner of our yard, near the gate and just off the driveway €“ the mound grows with most weekends. Construction debris, some yard waste and occasionally a big wheel or a scooter goes there.

It always becomes most obvious as the holidays approach. As good parents, we usually set up around this time for a picture . . . something maybe to be used on a Christmas card. €œOh!€ we inevitably say, €œCan€™t shoot them sitting in the bay window . . . (because of that huge dump pile lurking behind them).€

Recently we paid someone 30 dollars (US) to haul what we had away (and maybe it was $35). He is what they call a small hauler. I did some work on my siding this weekend and the pile began to grow . . . anew.
*******
A friend of mine calls it "purging." OK, maybe not the same thing. Here€™s an example. In these purges, she is unloading stored pics or bookmarks . . . or simply clicking publish on a post that has sat in Draft mode for just a little too long. This piece, my piece, is less a "purge" and more of a "dump." I am just trying to get some things out of my brain.
*******
My mom€™s mother, my grandmother, passed away last week; she was 91. Some of you knew, and sent your condolences. Thank you. I want to say that I had come to terms with it, been at peace with it for awhile. I showed little emotion last week.

As we sat in the funeral mass (she was pretty catholic), my mom and sister, her brother pretty well broken up, and when the priest asked . . . I spoke. I said something like, €œWell . . . probably no other person (maybe outside her husband) had a bigger impact on me or . . . on who I am. She was upfront, honest . . . *short pause* . . . and strong.€ Jenny cried . . . but only a little; they were close friends.

Thanksgiving just around the corner, and this makes me reflect €“ the first without her. This is a woman who one year looked across the table, over the turkey, and at my pregnant sister to say, €œYou€™re not having that thing out your ass, right? So why then does it keep getting bigger?€ White Grammy, as we called her, loved to *errrrm* bitch. Almost as much as she loved to dance. (Ahhhhhhh . . . the memories.)

Now . . . we have to decide if hanging onto her house would be a good investment. I can tell you -- emotions would cloud this decision; and I would surely miss it.

The strangest thing I learned about my grandmother in recent months: It seems . . . any woman I have ever been drawn to (except maybe my high school girlfriend) had at least a little bit of my Gram, well . . . about her.
*******
Some of you know I have been attending book club meetings (yes, that is code) €“ and I am still new at it. I am amazed already at the level of wisdom that is passed in these rooms . . . . Last night we discussed humility. Someone read a passage in which humility was described as the exact center point between pride and guilt . . . . Finding humility, the passage paraphrased, '. . . is like finding the right-sized you . . . .'

(That sentiment felt somewhat familiar to me.)

Afterwards -- My friend and I spent some q-time talking about page 416. He reached for the book, and just as we were discussing spiritual fitness, he opened it. My book, my copy and out of its 575 pages €“ what page do think he turned to . . . in a flip? Page 414.

Sometimes it feels there are "forces" at work in the universe. No?
*******
Jenny and I have had some struggles picking out the backsplash we want for our (partially finished) kitchen . . . two trips to the tile surplus house, two trips to each of the home centers, one trip to a discount tile store, and then finally to see friends in the design center at Chesapeake Marble and Tile. We learned quickly that our instincts are to want to jam just a ton of detail into it . . . too much ultimately for the swirls/strokes of our Juparana Colombo.

Taping layouts to the wall helped us rule out some things . . . we had narrowed it down and were focusing . . . on . . . subways from Seneca Tile €“ with a subtle mosaic. Then . . . as we had gotten close, I looked over after Jen€™s new man (more on him soon) had finished a bit with our kitchen passthru cut out €“ and I said, €œI don€™t know; I like the . . . *pause* . . . indigenousness of the paneling . . . maybe a short backsplash in granite or marble will do . . . ? €œ
With that, it was on . . . and my imagination took over. And Jen . . . she wasn't pleased (about the backstepping), but only for a short while.

*******
Thanks for reading and BMoxie BMore!

Ford Raising
Barry — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 03:29:50 +0000
"Witness" publicity shots show detective John Book (Harrison Ford) and Samuel Lapp (Lukas Haas), top; Ford and Rachel Lapp (Kelly McGillis), middle; the actors raise a barn, bottom.

Ford Falling
Barry — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 03:57:08 +0000

Trading Places :: Harrison Ford
Barry — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 10:30:44 +0000

*****
Harrison Ford made his living as a carpenter. At least he did so prior to making "American Graffiti." There is a story about how he was working around tinsel town, building sets when he was approached by George Lucas to play a role in Graffiti. When Ford heard what the studio was willing to pay him for the project he said: "I can make more money as a carpenter." Some negotiations ensued and Ford took the role, but more importantly, established the connections which launched his acting career.

Another story is that when Star Wars rolled around Ford became even savvier about the business end of things and asked for a percentage of what the film ultimately grossed. If this story is true, with one single move, it seems he set himself up for life.

Ford's background as a tradesmen gave something of an everyman quality to his acting. There was a rugged depth to his early character work that made his action heroes believable. Even in the far out personages of Han Solo, Indiana Jones or Rick Deckard, Ford seemed at home. I once read a quote from him about his acting style that I will paraphrase here: "when I am playing a guy who is in trouble I just try to think and feel like a guy who is in trouble." It is one style of acting to stay close to oneself, taking each action and reaction on a personal level. And while this style does not always endure and remain believable over the course of a long career, when Ford (playing John Book in Witness) is seen using a block plane or climbing into the rafters during a post and beam barn raising, it is believable.
*****

15chair-300x266
jb — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 01:57:59 +0000

Stop Buying Junk Furniture :: How to Buy for Quality
Alycia Wicker — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:30:05 +0000
When looking for furniture, there are some key things to take into account when you€™re out shopping. Sometimes you may think you have found a fabulous deal, but if it isn€™t made well, then that eventually will be money just thrown away.

You should figure out what your ideas for furniture are, long-term. Is your living room going to have a sofa, coffee table and a chair? Or will it have a sofa, coffee table, a love seat and two chairs?
"Why?" I hear you whining. I know, it is a lot more fun to just shop. But if you don€™t know what you need, you may end up buying something simply because you think you have found THE DEAL OF THE YEAR.
*******
First, you need to figure out what are the sizes of furniture you need. I know you may not have a CAD program, but you can do this a couple other ways. One way is to mark out furniture using that blue painting tape. You can research online to find the typical furniture sizes to get you started, and then tape those pieces off on your floor where you want to place them.

This will help you see how much room you have in your space, if you have enough room to walk around, and if you need to pare down your wish list. Don€™t forget to make notes of how wide and tall your doorways are. If you aren't able to get a piece through the door, then too bad, so sad.

So with list in hand, go to the stores. Oh, looky here, you found a gorgeous sofa for a great price! "Where€™s my credit card?"

Hold up there, buddy. Let€™s look at this piece. What color is it? Fuchsia? Oh no no no no no. First, let€™s not go there. I can almost guarantee that you will be mad at yourself for buying it in less than a year (if you're not mad the first day it gets in your home and sits there mocking you). Go with a neutral color! They are so much easier to work with; you can always dress them up with colorful pillows and throws.

Now, how is it made? Is the piece held together with staples? Glue? Bubblegum? Check out if it is a solid wood frame, not MDF. Is it sturdy? Now, don€™t go into your full Hulk Hogan moves, but push on the piece. Pull on it. I want you to see if it is sturdy or does it creek? If it sounds like an old woman and it is brand new . . . watch out. It may be falling apart in short order.

Are you married? Do you have a significant other? And no, I don€™t want to date you! I want you to take your partner with you shopping. They may grumble, but I want you to bring home the perfect sofa, so the 5€™1€³ you AND your 6€™2€³ significant other will enjoy it . . . together.

You need to try out the furniture as you would use it at home. If you are a lounger-type of person, then don€™t sit on the sofa like a prim and proper lady with perfect posture. You don€™t really sit that way, and when you do go to lounge on it later, you may be sorry.

If you are a bargain shopper, you have several options: Estate sales, yard sales, furniture outlets and even places that sell former model home furniture. All of these are great options, but make sure the piece is sturdy, and in great condition (unless you are crafty and would like to invest the time and energy into a refurbish). Is it a good price?  Just because it is at an estate sale, don€™t think it automatically makes it a great price. Do your research!

If you find furniture that was in a former model home, remember it may not be made of the best quality since most people walking into a model home are just looking at how the place is as a whole, not how well the sofa is made. It may be a cheapo sofa covered in a great fabric.

Custom furniture is also an option. When you know you want a piece to look a certain way, and that you want to keep it for a long time, why not? Now, with that said, don€™t go blaming me when you look at your custom upholstered chair two years from now and see that selecting some trendy fabric, now out of style, was the wrong way to go. That€™s how we ended up with a glut of 80s furniture on our hands.

Now go shopping!
*******
Note from the hosts: Thanks to long time Building Moxie friend and supporter Alycia Wicker for this post.  It was originally printed on her site here >> http://e-decorating.com/stop-buying-junk-furniture/. Thanks Sister Moxie! jb

Bath-8-18-08 150
jb — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:03:14 +0000

wherewereat
jb — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:28:06 +0000

bandjen
jb — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:30:10 +0000

day1
jb — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:31:31 +0000

inthebeginning
jb — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:45:32 +0000

The Other Man :: Part 1 of Some On the Kitchen
jb — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:30:44 +0000
[caption id="attachment_6283" align="alignleft" width="102" caption="in the beginning"][/caption]

My wife hasn€™t been able to keep her hands off of me. It's true. And yeah, I know. You€™re saying, €œWell, she finally started reading your blog and found all the deep down man sexy that even she didn€™t know about.€ Ok, fair €“ it€™s a good theory. Unfortunately, honestly, it is one that is probably not correct. And who I am really to question these things?

After all, you know what they say about women as they reach the age of 38 (sorry Jen). That€™s right . . . they say, €œThere is nothing that makes a woman (of that age) hotter than the thought of having work done on her kitchen.€œ And again . . . unfortunately, truth -- I haven€™t been the one doing it . . . (for her) recently. You see, Jen has a new boyfriend. And yeah, I know about him . . . well, because we are like that.

Jen met Paul through a friend of hers €“ Karen. I have done work for Karen myself (over there >>). And Karen moved on too. (I guess that last part is not totally true, but it sounds good for the story.) Of course, one thing lead to another €“ and that€™s right, Jen ended up as Paul's real estate agent. She has his house listed and on the market.

Now €“ Jen and I have, and with ever-expanding weekend obligations, watched significant finishing work on €œthis project€, our house come to a virtual halt. Yeah, I suck. OK €“ I do some things . . . I'm a pretty decent hubby. I reset windows, fix plumbing and plaster, do demo, set up home networks, hang out with the kids, go shopping and to parties, walk the dog, feed the cats, change the litter, paint, caulk, listen, etc. and so on. . . and occasionally I breathe or have time for myself. In other words €“ and with Jen€™s new friend in mind, we decided to take out a home equity line of credit.  We planned to buy ourselves, well . . . a worker fairy, as we began to call him.

[caption id="attachment_6280" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="b playing the role of Paul"][/caption]

And if you are a regular reader of this blog . . . you know . . . this whole proposition has been tough for me. Relinquishing control -- that is.  Plus . . . did I mention that we are in an oldddd house (things are irregular) AND we are reusing some materials? Two facts by themselves that demand a certain level of skill and some finesse. (<< See jb intellectualize.)

I mean -- I can do some things.  This is our third signifigant reno.  And before this . . . the only other interior project that has been completed by anyone else (other than me) was a small half bath. That project required moving a flight of stairs in our first, tiny rowhome . . . its timeline was important. And yes, I have hired out bits and pieces.

I am sorry, it is just new to me. I have done kitchens €“ and to have someone else finish mine? Whooo! I was conflicted.

BUT I also cared. I understand how important the kitchen is for Jen. AND I know how long she has lived like this, with it -- "this way" -- partially finished (other things approved and taking priority).  It has taken an emotional toll.

[caption id="attachment_6281" align="alignright" width="150" caption="take 1 -- first cuts"][/caption]

Having Paul here (and we have never met) does free me up to do other stuff. Things that need to get done before the long winter hits. Currently, I am replacing a good chunk of the house's near-original german clapboard siding, and I must also prime, paint, and caulk 1 and ½ sides of it, the house, by like . . . yesterday. (And yes, my window restore is complete.) Plus . . . Paul does his work, while I am . . . at work. Just like I said, a worker fairy, and it is pretty sweet!

We had heard that Paul does good work for a good price. *And stop here.* So far, from what I can tell €“ he does. I think I am in love too! No, but it is just fine with me that they play text pong, and/or stay on the phone, giggling, just a little too long . . . it's just fine. Especially, of course, when he slices Jen a break after his first few days of service. (*errrrmm* Obviously, I am not the only one who has noticed her gluten-free diet paying dividends.) And anyway . . .

Now I will shut up, post some pics, and reap the benefits of having . . . well . . . another man around.

*******
Thanks for reading and BMoxieBMore . . . until next time . . .

[caption id="attachment_6279" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="and don't even think about it -- I'm NOT moving the chimney"][/caption]

kitchen angle
jb — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 02:37:34 +0000

Time for the Holidays :: Tips for Getting your Kitchen in Shape
Home Sweet Solutions — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 10:30:52 +0000

How to Organize Your Kitchen Cabinets
By Lisa Siglag

Have you ever felt frustrated in your kitchen, trying to find a certain pot or specific ingredients for a recipe? We€™ve all been there -- rummaging through cabinets with a vengeance to find a box of chicken stock or that perfect-sized saucepan. Well, say goodbye to disorganized shelves and drawers with these easy ways to arrange your kitchen cabinets.
*******

Add pullout shelves: Even if your cabinets are dated, you can give them 21st-century functionality. Pullout shelves and baskets, which cost under $100 for a two-tier unit, can really help you to see what you have. So, grab your measuring tape to figure out the unit size that will fit in your cabinets, go to your local home improvement center, and follow the manufacturer€™s instructions to install the mounting brackets, slides, and baskets. Look for heavy-gauge construction for lasting value.
De-clutter your bakeware: For under $20, you can get dividers that mount into your cabinets to separate out muffin tins, cookie sheets and shallow pans. With a bakeware organizer, your gear is set on its side, so you can easily pull out what you need without having to lift up all your pans to get to that cookie sheet on the bottom.
Take a turn: Installing a lazy Susan shelf set is a great way to organize spices or even cleaning supplies. It€™s important to measure how much space you have carefully to make sure you have clearance for the unit to spin 360 degrees and accommodate any taller items you may want to store on it.
Pull out your garbage: Instead of having a tiny trash can under the sink, you can have a regular-sized garbage bin that simply pulls out on a metal base when you need it. Pull-out waste containers range from 20- to 35-quart size, and prices start from about $45. Consider installing two units or a double unit, so you have one bin for waste and another for recyclables.
Organize your aluminum foil and plastic wrap: Impress your guests by mounting shelves that are specially designed to hold your aluminum foil and plastic wrap. Measuring 3.25 inches in depth, the unit neatly holds your rolls of wrapping supplies and you can simply pull out what you need without taking out the whole box.
Keep your utensils neat: A simple drawer organizer will get all of your cutlery in order.
Buy a kitchen cart or pantry shelves: If you feel tight on space in your cabinets, you may need additional storage, such as a kitchen cart that can double as an island and give you extra counter space or a freestanding shelving unit.
Install a pot rack: This is a quick and easy way to instantly get more space in your cabinets. Pot racks range from $60 to $250 and are simple to install. They generally offer adjustable heights and multiple hooks to suit your needs, and can be mounted on the ceiling or wall. Have these items on hand to install the pot rack: a measuring tape to check for clearance, a stud finder to determine the location of the joists, a drill and ceiling screws.

Lisa Siglag is the former editor of House Beautiful Kitchens and Baths and a freelance writer specializing in home design. She has written for Good Housekeeping, House Beautiful Home Remodeling and Decorating, Custom Home and Country Living. Her dining room is graced with white beadboard and pale-blue walls.

smallad_woodandlight
jb — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:40:05 +0000
Small Spotlight Ad for David Mathias || BuildingMoxie.com

1
Barry — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 01:24:17 +0000

2
Barry — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 01:25:16 +0000

3
Barry — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 01:26:02 +0000

Serious Business
Barry — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 10:30:34 +0000

Owning a business means coming up with systems. The systems can be adopted, adapted or largely your own. You have an incredible amount of control providing you have the self control to endure. Simplicity is desirable but complicated is comprehensive.

Building a business will be full on frightening unless you have nerves of steel and no trouble sleeping through sirens. Backsliding is par for the course and mimics the state of the art. Even if you see the business as something other than you, there will be moments when you will walk into a room as its sole representative. You will shake many hands and some of those handshakes will be awkward. Whether you like it or not, some of the awkwardness will come from you. As you willingly engage in all the world has to offer, sometimes, your prejudices will get the better of you. How you handle these moments is at once very important and inconsequential because:
A coin flips high in the air and all eyes in the room rise and fall with it. There are unwritten rules that allow us to cut each other breaks. We meet pieces of people and catch glimpses of the rest. As we get to know one another we get to know more about ourselves.

Promoting a business can be delicious, downright dirty, or deadly serious. It can also be playful, rude or utterly irresponsible. If you are addicted to failure you will tear yourself down. If you are addicted to success you will build yourself up and if you are addicted to thinking you might do both.
*****

applique
jb — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:35:26 +0000

homie
jb — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:36:09 +0000

Homie for the Holidays :: The Return of Homie
jb — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:30:17 +0000
They say Thanksgiving is the beginning of the holiday season. And on behalf of the editorial staff here at Building Moxie, I would like to wish you and yours a Safe and Happy One!

And what better way to get it started . . . by gathering at someone's house (usually) and chowing down on lots and lots of grub. A foodie's ball, Thanksgiving, and it happens once a year like clockwork.
*******

The best part of the holidays season, and for someone like me, though -- a major restoration in progress, I have an easy out when it comes to the hosting of holiday events and gatherings. Oooppp . . .

€œSorry we don€™t have a working bathroom . . . . Can€™t have people over this year.€ And I might continue, €œAhhh . . . {insert appropriate name}, can you have {festive occasion} this year?€ Yessss! . . . *leg kick* <-- And you know, entertaining can be packed with lots of stress.

Don€™t get me wrong, we have done it (and especially as I do come from a smallish family). In fact, I learned a little (more) about holiday entertaining just shortly after I started posting to this here blog. I learned (again) that rushing through a biggish-type home project, for the sake of entertaining . . . sometimes . . . just isn€™t a good idea. (And yes, the target date on our current kitchen work happens to be Jan. 1. We will be entertaining that day.)

I mean -- even well-planned projects (and though the best-bestest plans do have plenty of fudge built in) can end up being a little bit something like shaving with a collared shirt on. (<< And guys, you know what I mean.) So . . . word to the wise -- approach these projects realistically and get a second (or even a third) opinion before jumping in. Hopes of completing something with a deadline of say Dec. 25th can quickly turn into a New Year's Resolution. (Just sayin', and OK . . . go for it . . . if you must.)
*******
Let me propose an alternative, though . . . enter Homie €“ as introduced in this post. The best part of bailing on the hosting gig, for me, and maybe there are others out there too -- is, well, getting to go . . . to . . . other . . . people€™s . . . houses. It's there that I oggle and I sometimes drool; I feel up their *errrmmm* woodwork. (<< No, seriously! . . . but guess it is a little figurative too.)

If you are like me €“ or maybe more like Richard Holschuh, and you aspire to take it all in, in one effortless gulp . . . total connection, complete awareness. You think, "Ack! polka dot curtains, blood red walls, painted switch plates . . . I wouldn€™t have done a tile countertop! mmmmm . . . the smells . . . Foood!" But say, "The house looks lovely.  When do we eat?"

I mean €“ some people may say the holidays are a great time to reconnect. And is some cases, for me, it is. But I guess, and the thing I dread a little this time of year: it seems nothing really changes with me, well . . . year to year. There is never anything extraordinary to report. OK, you may say, *stop there* . . . . As a blog owner, I get a little tired of . . . "Really?! cool (small c, no exclamation point -- finished with a phantom eye roll)." But the company is "ayright" (sometimes family), the kids usually have fun, and I get fed . . . .

This year, though, for you -- try it too. I suggest unleashing your Homie. And start this Thursday . . . maybe only after you're full up and loosening the belt buckle; no nodding into a turkey-induced coma this year, no long blank stares, or is that -- sheer astonishment, at the butt-whooping the Detroit Lions are taking. Instead, take just a few moments to wander . . . by yourself, around the premises . . .

. . . Take it in. Do some mental film-making, and some editing . . . . Check out the touches, get close to the details €“ even those that you don't really care for. (These can be very useful too -- negative reinforcement, we'll say.) If you have a camera handy, ask if you can snap a few pics . . . .

This applique, and here's a timely example -- I shot it at a relative's house a few years back, may actually come into play as we design a "bench" for our kitchen. (And yeah, it's won't end up looking anywhere near this . . . I hope -- but who, at the time, knew that it was to lend inspiration?)

. . .

And that's about all I got today. Again, 'joy your Turkey Day and your fam. But this year, as the recipe-sharing ensues, take the time too to jot down a technique, a product, a simple note, or . . . just ask, "Where did you find that? (or) Who did this work?"
*******
Thanks for reading and BMoxie Eat More!

1025
Barry — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 04:15:31 +0000

turkey
Barry — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 04:30:33 +0000

Soon to be supped on as soup...
Barry — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:30:59 +0000

40
Barry — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 03:40:25 +0000

40 Feet, 2 Legs & 1 Strange Feeling
Barry — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:30:54 +0000

When I climb to the top of a 40 foot ladder something very strange happens.
First of all, I carry a little more weight these days than I would like and getting up there is no longer a nimble raising of one foot and then the other as though I was crawling up the rungs. Now, instead, I favor one leg to do the work of bringing me up and the other leg lags along almost lazily. This is because I experience pain in the knee of that lazy leg when I try to do things the proper way. The pain is probably from my weight but who knows because it is hard to keep up with what gets hurt on the job over time.
Once I hit the midpoint of a 40 foot ladder I start to feel the sag. This is always a fairly welcome thing because the top and bottom of the ladder seem very secure. The sag works its way out as I come closer to top and that is when things start to feel a little funny, like my weight is no longer adding to the overall security of the set up. A tiny breeze is amplified up here and can make me huddle close to the frame.
It is at this moment, when I feel the least secure, that I find myself in front of the thing which demands my attention. I begin the work for which I mounted the ladder in the first place and to my surprise the ability to get the job done takes over. I drill or nail or screw or staple and calm comes over me. I am at one with the wind and the work for some time, doing almost as good a job as I would on the ground and then, all of the sudden, the strange thing happens. Out of the blue, I get the feeling that I am about to step off the ladder. Not like my mind will tell me to do so and I will but more like my legs will do so without asking my permission. It is unnerving and has happened to me time and time again.

candle
jb — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 03:12:24 +0000
low voltage window candle integrated wiring

Holiday Window Decorating Tips :: Dos and Donts
jb — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 10:30:28 +0000
Note from the hosts: As I have jokingly mentioned (here >> Building Moxie is Huge on the Internet), our wee little blog seems to be growing. And as it grows . . . so too does the number of link exchange requests and unsolicited content submissions.

We have even become a target for a small number of industry-related press releases. While I typically brush these aside, this one, sent on behalf of Simonton Windows, seems to have both topical and timely value.

And while I have zero experience with Simonton Windows (outside a few brief exchanges on twitter >> @SimontonWindows) I feel it is only fair to include some general information about their company and their products . . . in this post. (<< You know, because they just gave me an article for . . . today!)

Thanks, and here's the post. Enjoy. jb

*******
Santa€™s not the only one with a €œnaughty and nice€ list this year. The experts at Simonton Windows® have provided a list of do€™s and don€™ts for decorating vinyl windows during the holiday season.

Santa€™s Simonton Elves got together to recommend the following €œnaughty list€ for windows during the holiday season:

Never put nails or screws in a vinyl window frame to hold up decorative lights or holiday wreathes. Also, do not glue, staple or tape lights to a window frame.
Do not place lit candles on a window sill, nor the edge or sash.
Never decorate windows with anything that could impede opening your windows quickly, in case you need to use the window as an escape route during an emergency. For example, don€™t wrap garland ropes or artificial pine branches around the window hardware.
Do not place real pine branches or cones on the window frames or sill. Fresh pine sap can leave nasty stains after the holiday season is over. Realistic, artificial pine is usually available at craft stores around the holidays.
Although tempting, do not spray €œfake snow€ from aerosol cans on your windows. The €œsnow€ residue can be hard to remove after the holidays and can hamper the operation of your window if it sticks into the sash or hardware.

The €œnice list€ of ways windows can be highlighted during the holidays include:

Affix suction cups on the window glass to hang glass ornaments, plastic snowflakes or glass icicles so that light can come through the windows to enhance the decorations.
Hang small wreaths on the inside of a double or single hung window by using suction cups with hooks. Clear fishing line to loop the wreath gently over the window hardware.
Swags of garland or evergreen wreaths outside the home may be put up best by affixing to the siding of the house and not to windows themselves.
Bay and bow windows are the ideal location position a Christmas tree for maximum viewing, from both the interior and the exterior of the home.
Make your curtain rods work during the holidays. Remove the curtains and hang ornaments from the existing rods on different lengths of fishing line or colorful curling ribbon.
(BMoxie editors' pick) No curtain rods? Just add some inexpensive tension curtain rods to the top or middle section of your windows. Hang decorations from the rods with fishing line or garland. Decorate the rods themselves with holiday ribbon or fabric.
Encourage children to help decorate the windows with static cling holiday window stickers. The peel-and-stick temporary decorations are ideal for putting your home in the holiday spirit.

*******

More Moxie (Related Information)
Simonton Windows produces ENERGY STAR® qualified replacement and new construction windows and doors, including a line of impact-resistant products. Simonton ranked €œHighest in Builder and Remodeler Satisfaction among Residential Window and Patio Door Manufacturers€ in the J.D. Power and Associates 2010, 2009, 2008 Builder and Remodeler Residential Window and Patio Door Satisfaction Study. The company also ranked €œHighest in Customer Satisfaction among Residential Window and Patio Door Manufacturers€ in the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Windows and Patio Doors Satisfaction Study.

Simonton was also ranked #1 in quality in the 2009, 2007, 2002 and 1998 Brand Use Studies sponsored by Builder magazine and has won three Best In Class Awards currently administered by LBM Journal Research Institute.

Founded in 1946, Simonton€™s hallmark has been to deliver its made-to-order products in five days or less. Part of the home and security business of Fortune Brands, Inc. (NYSE: FO), Simonton delivers award-recognized products nationwide to key markets throughout the 48 continental United States. Simonton is a founding sponsor of The Weather Museum and a supporter of Homes for Our Troops. For information, call (800) SIMONTON (1-800-746-6686) or visit www.simonton.com.

Vizio LED
jb — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 04:27:33 +0000

TV on the Internet :: Goodies and Gadgets: The Extras in Remodeling
jb — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 10:30:31 +0000
*Black Friday* . . . *Cyber Monday* . . . And as we sat in the living room, no, the sitting room, no, I mean -- I guess you could actually call it . . . the viewing room, no . . . just the TV room, yes . . . the TV room of his newly built house, the topic of televisions came up. And we were awaiting dessert, Thanksgiving Day and watching football.

Truthfully, and the backstory goes . . . I have never been one for gadgetry. And I have never been overly impressed. I mean -- I have never had the newest, the latest, or the trendiest of, well, anything. Never really seemed to care too much either. For me, and here€™s an example: smart phone = flip it open, put it up to your head, and hope the person on the other end is intelligent. Maybe you could say I am one who just allows time to reveal the true value of things. In other words . . . I'm what you might call a "late adapter."

And my brother-in-law; he is a fairly big guy €“ a weight lifter, a body builder (type) €“ not competitive, but I guess he could be if really wanted to work at it. We sat discussing the benefits of his new Vizio LED TV -- big, at 55 inches and just an outstanding picture. Needless to say, he is very, I mean -- very, happy with it.

And I sat there remembering. I thought a few years back to the house that sat on that same spot.  A fire took down that 1920s Sears House -- it was a beautiful home, beautifully restored. With the fire, and I remember it, so too went a custom entertainment center that he lovingly built. It lived approximately 30 feet or so from where we sat this Thanksgiving Day.  It housed a spanking new Sony Bravia.

That Sony Bravia, as he told it €“ weighed 330 pounds.  He admitted, it was difficult to lift, even for him.  His new Vizio weighs in at something like 30 pounds . . . or so he claimed.  And all I could say was "Wow!"
*******
In our house we still currently have two "tube-type" TVs. But not for long. You see, this holiday season we plan to do some shopping . . . well . . . for ourselves. We are buying One: smart phones . . . and Two: a couple of new "flat screen" TVs. These will complement the kitchen remodel that we are just now about to finish out.

It reminds me just how frequently we (and OK, maybe it's only me) forget about all the ancillary stuff that comes along with doing any sort of remodeling. Here's some examples (in list form for readers over the age of 40 and *errrrmmm* Bob):

€œNo, I need a new can opener to go on my new countertop€;
€œWe need new fluffy towels to drape over our new shiny bath hardware.€;
€œWe need new curtains for the new kitchen anddddd . . . you need to help pick out the fabric.€ << My personal favorite!

In this case, in our case, two new TVs . . . one will go along the party wall that separates the living room from the kitchen, and other will be placed inside a hutch my cabinet guy is building for us. . . . And oh yeah! I still can't forget; there is mounting hardware and a new entertainment center that will need to be purchased. Haven't really even started shopping for any of this stuff yet, but maybe I find some of these items using this here . . . Lowes coupon (<< give us a click, and check it out, will ya?). And sooner rather than later, I hope -- admittedly, not a big fan of shopping.
*******
As friend Becky Shankle explained to us, it is kinda just meant to play out like this. And me -- now is the time to work on my kitchen. It is my human instinct. The time of year, Becky says, we head inside to "nest" €“ the fruit of which is an apparent spike in bizness for kitchen design and other such firms.  She even diagrammed that out for us, here >> http://www.eco-modernism.com/2010/11/cold-weather-kitchen-weather/. (<< Nice, huh?)

. . . .

Anyhow -- I still need to do some homework, and quickly. First, I need to figure out what it is exactly that we want (in terms of TVs). There are options . . . plasma, LCD, LED, DPI €“ and how to choose? I might start here (again in psuedo-list form):

http://www.ehow.com/how_5043694_choose-plasma-lcd-led-hdtvs.html &
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UmMyv27MzU

Then I'll look at sizes, only to head out into the fros (my word of the week, or is that "throngs") to look for DEALS . . . .

Now is a good time too, even though -- Rats! The shopping days with the cool names have already slipped by.
*******
Thanks for reading and please wish me luck.

Outtake
And to tell you more about my brother-in-law, he built (as in the building and designed it too) a gym in his hometown (a small town), Delta, PA.   At the time (really only going back 4 or 5 years now), and think about the health clubs you have been in, well . . . they usually have lots and lots of . . . TVs. In the free-weight room, in the room filled with Nautilus equipment, in the spin room, the aerobics room . . . behind the health drink bar.  In the locker rooms . . . lots and lots of TVs. No? Each, in his case . . . heavy and affix to the walls with big and bulky mounting brackets. At the time, state of the art. And could you imagine the cost to upgrade these things at this point? Yes. But instead, can you say . . . a victim of circumstance or . . . timing?

TV_HomeSweetSolutions
jb — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 19:50:47 +0000

Need to hang your flat screen TV? Some Things to Know
Home Sweet Solutions — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 10:30:37 +0000

Note from the host: On the heels of yesterday's post, and over concerns about my abilities to hang such an expensive piece of equipment -- couldn't resist going with this post for today. I actually do also wonder if the number of TV hangings increase across Dec./Jan. What do you think? Note also (Becky) no mention of "blocking" for framing << a good practice if walls are open. Plan ahead and thanks. jb
*******
By Jane Dagmi for Home Sweet Solutions

Wall-mounting a flat screen plasma, LCD or LED television is a smart and aesthetic way to update a room and make TV viewing more comfortable. Hanging a monitor on a wall is also a way to reclaim valuable floor space and surface area. When young children are roaming about, installing a TV wall mount provides a sense of safety as heavy and expensive electronics are up and out of the way.

What type wall mount should I buy?
There are three basic types of TV wall mounts: low profile, tilting and full motion.

A low-profile mount is the most streamlined, but the least versatile because once mounted, the monitor is in a fixed position.
A tilt mount also has a tailored look and rests relatively close to the wall but allows some degree of adjustment.
A full-motion television wall mount usually extends out from the wall on an articulated arm and can also swivel, tilt, expand and retract as desired.

All flat-panel wall mounting kits come with installation hardware and manufacturer€™s instructions specific to that model. Familiarize yourself with the task and what tools are required a day before you are ready to embark, just in case you need to run to the store for something or call the manufacturer with questions. If you€™re handy and feel confident, the actual installation should take about an hour or so. All you need is some patience and a friend (for an extra set of hands and eyes).

Supplies

Wall mount kit
Stud finder
Cordless drill with appropriate screwdriver and socket bits (per manual)
Level
Measuring tape
Pencil
Cord cover (some kits come with these)
Double-stick tape

Instructions

1. Get your materials ready.
Open the TV wall mount kit. Make sure all said parts are included. Read the manual and set up your supplies.

2. Prepare the TV to be mounted.
Affix the monitor mount to the TV by lining up the holes. Secure with bolts.

3. Determine the general viewing area.
If you plan on running the wiring inside the wall, we recommend you use an interior wall since exterior walls are usually packed with insulation that can be an obstacle for easy rewiring. Also consider the interior architecture (mantel, bookshelves, windows) and furniture arrangement, as well as the glare from windows and artificial light sources.

4. Find a stud.
A television wall mount must bolt or screw into the center of a wood stud. Larger plasma sets require securing into multiple studs. Use a stud finder and mark the stud(s) with a pencil.

5. Establish the viewing height
Use a friend to hold up the monitor, and eyeball the placement from the viewing areas. Then measure, taking into account the overall size of the monitor and where the bracket is placed along the back. It€™s better to err on the high side. The goal is to watch in comfort and avoid neck and eye strain.

6. Fasten the wall plate.
Use a level to align the holes on a stud and mark them with a pencil. Drill preliminary holes with a small bit. Then, hold the plate to the wall and drill in the long screws/bolts with washers included with the kit.

7. Mount the TV.
Plug in all necessary cables. Lift the monitor up and into place on the wall mount. Tuck the wires into the cord cover and fix to the wall with double-stick tape. Plug in your TV, then sit back and enjoy!

Jane Dagmi is a lifestyle journalist and stylist who has worked on the editorial staff of Country Living and contributed decorating stories to Victoria, Real Simple, and Southern Living magazines. She produced a series called "Real People, Real Kitchens" for ShelterPop.com and can be found hanging out in the kitchen at most dinner parties.

main-image
jb — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 04:18:35 +0000

building-science-zen-and-motorcycle-maintenance
Allison A. Bailes III, PhD — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 04:36:48 +0000
Motorcycle and Buddha

Bailes - Color - LinkedIn
Allison A. Bailes III, PhD — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 05:35:50 +0000

Whats the Haps? Slappers (TP Edition)
jb — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 10:30:12 +0000
I got nothin'. And instead of boring you with my usual ramblings on the haps with the house, I'll give you a couple of videos you probably won't click.

Barry recently dropped a post on Harrison Ford. It was the first in a "could be" series he is calling Trading Places (or TP for short). Get it >> Trading as in -- individuals (or things) that you may not immediately associate with the building trades. This post starts as a nod to that series.

And here we go:
*******
* Before Les Claypool was Primus, he was a carpenter and he auditioned for band called Metallica. Here he laughs about it.

* The 2nd comment reads, "Jesus was a carpenter.ï»¿ Coincidence?"

It made me think back to a time when I was standing in a smallish crowd in Oakland, CA. I was watching a *thing* called Punk Rock Karaoke when suddenly and uncontrollably an urge washed over me. Did I blurt out a song title? Nope. Instead, I shouted in near dead silence, "Mike Watt is God!" << It was a little out of character for me.

In this clip, Mike Watt talks briefly about his friend D. Boon (the singer); and it always moves me. (I have made reference to the Minutemen and this song, in particular, several times on this blog.) History Lesson Part II.

* And then there's Flea. And we can thank friend @BirminghamPoint for a recent RHCP kick.

Once I saw an interview in which he (in roundabout way) says that what he actually plays is nothing more than punk rock. And . . . that "punk rock" is not only a genre of music. It is an attitude. Paraphrased: In punk rock, you play every note like there is gun to your head. :End Paraphrase.

I understood; and in a lot of ways, it rolls up. It does not need to be hard and fast, but rather, simply, well . . . now! So . . . Put every ounce of passion that you have into every. single. note. you play.

And that, perhaps . . . changed my life.

Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic coincidentally was dedicated to Mike Watt. And I have always wondered about that song. A great clip, with a great jam.
*******
Enjoy the weekend. We'll be back on task next week, and . . . hopefully back in this millennium. Shout to the '90s. I'm out. jb

GHGB
Barry — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:16:35 +0000

Whatbuilding
Barry — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:42:31 +0000

When a Good House Goes Bad - Part 1
Barry — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:30:03 +0000
I have known the three boys since they were young. Their father who is twenty years my senior is one of my best friends. I was there for his divorce from their mother. They were fortunate enough to have owned two houses together on one fairly large property, so, when they split mom took one and dad the other. It seemed like the most perfect, imperfect situation as the boys were able to go freely between their two homes.

It was during this time that the father had been teaching me about carpentry. He had moved into the older of the two houses. In fact it was the couples first home, an old farmhouse that the father had re-done. I was twenty two at the time and was just beginning to see the layers that are always present in an older house. I think this may have been the first time I really noticed how well someone had blended the old and the new. It was a comfortable, well crafted old house with a wood stove and an easy feeling.

I am glad to have met the father when he was somehow carefree. He and the boys mother had traveled a long road together. Their seemed to be some peace in the decision they had made.

The mother was my friend as well and one night she, several others and I were hanging out in the back room of their family business which was an antique shop. She was excitedly telling us all about a skiing trip she was going on, in two weeks. A week after this conversation she fell, broke her hip, and discovered her body was full of cancer. Three months later she was gone.

The father became the sole provider and they moved into the residence where they had lived with the mother. It was a newer larger timber frame they had built to house their growing family. The farmhouse was rented out and I stayed close with the family. I saw them each working through their loss and often what I saw troubled me. The two older boys immersed themselves in drugs reaching lower and lower depths. I heard stories about them dealing drugs on higher and higher levels. I listened to and often talked things over with their father who did not know how to help them.

When the boys had grown into young men the father re-married and I had learned enough about carpentry, thanks to the father, to be part of building the newlyweds a home. The youngest son moved in with them and prepared to go off to college. In the farmhouse lived the middle son and a girlfriend and in the timber frame the eldest with a girlfriend and their daughter. The oldest son also had a son from a previous girlfriend who sometimes stayed with them. Amidst all of this the drugs continued to play a major role for the two young men. Minor scrapes with the law escalated into major gashes. The children were removed from the oldest sons home. The girlfriend left too and soon the timber frame house was so trashed that the father forced his eldest son to move into the farmhouse with his brother. The timber frame was rented to a drywall contractor who worked off his first few months rent bringing this house back from the brink.

While the youngest son was pursuing his studies and surfing, the farmhouse became a sub-cultural center of sorts. People came and went at all hours. The rumor mill in our small county was abuzz.

In the Neighborhood...
Barry — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:30:21 +0000
In honor of Tom Waits 61st birthday today I thought it might be... umm, nice (?) to inquire
"What's he building in there?"

Allison A. Bailes :: Building Science 101
Allison A. Bailes III, PhD — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 10:30:26 +0000
[caption id="attachment_6458" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Building Science (by MonsieurLui, from flickr.com, Creative Commons license)"][/caption]
Three Fundamental Rules for Houses
One of my all time favorite books is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. It’s really good on a lot of levels, but one thing that really stuck with me was the author’s discussion of how some people will tolerate things like a dripping faucet because of their fear of learning how it works.

Sound familiar? I’m a technically minded guy, but I occasionally succumb to this same fear. I’d been driving cars for seven years, for example, before I knew how an engine worked. I only learned then because I was given a 1961 VW bug that had thrown a rod, and I spent a month rebuilding the engine.

Most of us live in some kind of building, but how many actually know how buildings work? You might think that anyone who works on houses knows how houses work, but you’d be wrong. Builders and trade contractors know their part of building and repairing homes, but most lack knowledge of the fundamentals of building science.

The good thing is, it’s not rocket science. Yeah, you can study engineering or physics and go as far down the rabbit hole with this stuff as you want, but I’m going to boil it all down to three fundamental rules for you.
A house is a system.
Put another way, this could be called the-hip-bone’s-connected-to-the-thigh-bone rule, and it's the first thing that a lot of people who work on houses don’t grasp. A house is a system built out of a lot of interacting components: framing, electrical, plumbing, HVAC...each with its associated trade contractor. Mostly, the trade contractors look at a house with blinders on; they see what affects their work and not much else.

In terms of how a house performs, we can break it down into weather shell, building envelope, and mechanical systems. The weather shell keeps the elements out but isn’t usually the boundary between conditioned and unconditioned spaces. That would be the building envelope (or the thermal envelope), which comprises (i) a continuous air barrier and (ii) insulation that’s right up against the air barrier. There are many ways that the building envelope gets compromised, and even spray foam insulation isn’t a panacea.

Mechanical systems have a huge impact on how a home performs. We know they increase the temperature difference between inside and out, but did you know that they also can create a big difference in moisture content and air pressure between inside and out? As you’ll see in the last rule below, those things can have a huge effect on comfort, durability, healthfulness, and efficiency. For best performance, you want heating and cooling systems that are properly sized and have distributions systems that are designed and installed for optimal efficiency.
Build for your climate.
Ever pick up a home improvement magazine or watch a TV show about renovating your home? When they installed that vapor barrier, did they tell you what climate zones that works for and where you should never use one? I didn’t think so. As it turns out, you can’t build the same house to the same specifications in all climates. You actually have to pay attention to whether your climate is wet or dry, and whether it's hot, mixed, or cold.

That vapor barrier, for example, may be a good idea in Minneapolis or Miami, but forget it in Memphis. It’s fine in a one-way climate, since the purpose is to limit the diffusion of water vapor from humid air into a wall cavity. In Minneapolis, the humid air is mostly inside the house, so the vapor barrier goes on the inside. In Miami, it’s mostly outside, so it goes outside. In Memphis, if you choose a side for the vapor barrier, you’re going to be wrong for half the year.
Control the flow of moisture, heat, and air.
Finally, we have to do as Homer Simpson does: “In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!” Heat, air, and moisture all naturally flow from an area of more to an area of less. Moisture moves from wet to dry. Heat moves from hot to cold. Air moves from high pressure to low pressure. That’s from the second law of thermodynamics, and any attempt to violate the law reduces the integrity of the house.

You can see that all three of these rules are related. To control moisture, for example, you have to consider what kind of climate the house is in, which determines how you treat the building envelope and what kind of mechanical systems you install. Likewise with heat and air. The hip bone’s connected to the thigh bone, you know.
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Allison A. Bailes III, PhD is a building science pro, Home Energy Rating System (HERS) geek, irrepressible blogger and tweeter (@EnergyVanguard), builder of a super-green SIP home (that he no longer lives in), Mac lover, juggler, and Energy Vanguard chief. He currently lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife and cat in a condo that's a textbook example of how to ignore the fundamentals of building science - and what goes wrong when you do.
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Note from the hosts: " . . . you can’t build the same house to the same specifications in all climates." << Roar and applauds! We'd like to thank Allison for this and for taking time from his busy and demanding writing schedule to drop a little science for us. The simple interrelatedness of things. Check him on his site >> his blog, the Tag Line: Building Science for a Better World. ~ jb

idog
jb — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 04:24:42 +0000

idog
jb — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 04:25:48 +0000

LTEames1
jb — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 04:31:28 +0000

d5r_logo_white
jb — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 04:51:46 +0000

Building Moxie, Leah Thayer and a Comfy, Comfy Chair
jb — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 10:30:49 +0000
Barry and I had the opportunity to send Leah Thayer some questions recently. Leah graciously answered them, and here we go. Enjoy. jb
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Building Moxie: Who is Leah Thayer?

Leah Thayer: Mother, partner, daughter, sister, friend. Builder’s daughter. Verging on middle age but forever nine or 10 at heart. Die-hard Washingtonian raised in the woods of western Fairfax County, Va. Obsessed with my childhood home and real estate generally. Reader, writer, browser, dilettante. Slacker, workaholic, hedonist, homebody. Inveterate idea person. Minimal mechanical/financial aptitude.

BMoxie: How did you get here?

LT: “Here” as in ... ? Well, I got to know you through Twitter. I’ve met some fantastic people and made some really good business relationships through Twitter. Seriously, online social media has opened a window into all kinds of worlds of opportunity and goodness.

BMoxie: What is Daily 5 Remodel? Tell us about your staff.

LT: daily5Remodel is the first in what I hope will be a family of industry-specific, web-based dailies and online communities for small-business professionals.

Here’s a summary that I wrote about a year ago, when the whole concept was entirely in my head. Thankfully, it pretty much stands up to reality now that we’ve been publishing for three months:

“A web-based business media model for the daily delivery of actionable business advice and peer-to-peer engagement to motivated business owners in discrete industry niches. Each weekday, five categories of strategic business insights, actionable advice, and peer-to-peer engagement, delivered via email. A mix of exclusive content (including webinars, video and other multimedia) and expertly curated aggregated content from elsewhere.”

“Our” staff is mostly me, but we’ll be hiring in 2011. In the meantime, I have a fantastic development team that I speak with almost every day, and a great group of informal advisors. Also, don’t forget that I’m not generating all this content myself. In the great wiki tradition, my hope is that d5R will become mostly user-generated over time.

BMoxie: What motivated you, a business journalist and remodeling writer/editor at a top industry publication, to step out on your own?

LT: I was really lucky to be in the magazine industry, with a great B2B company, at a time of huge change in media and in the residential construction sector. When I started at Remodeling magazine, I had already written about just about every kind of business challenge that exists, but it wasn’t until I started to talk with remodelers every day that I realized how much I liked and identified with the small-business mindset.

I’ve always been kind of entrepreneurial and very comfortable working independently (I freelanced for more than eight years before starting at Hanley Wood). The longer I worked in the print-publishing cycle, and the more I relied on the web for finding sources and making connections, the more I felt that a monthly magazine with long lead times and page space that hinges largely on advertisers was short-changing the really dynamic and intelligent world of professional remodeling.

It became pretty clear that I wasn’t going to effect much change at Hanley Wood, so I figured -- what the heck, you only live once.

BMoxie: Can you give us any insight into how you are juggling a very demanding *daily* editorial calendar? (Five buckets: Benchmarks, Best Practices, Snapshots, Answers, Innovations.) How does this differ from what you have done previously?

LT: I don’t sleep nearly enough, except for on weekends, when I’m typically the last one up. I’ve always been a media junkie, so reading lots of newspapers and magazines is pure pleasure. Tools like Google alerts and RSS feeds save me tons of time by delivering the kind of information I’m looking for. And in whatever I’m reading, whoever I’m talking to, wherever I’m going, there’s a part of my brain that is always looking for topics of interest to my audience, including actual remodeling best practices.

BMoxie: Could you provide a key moment in your life that sent you down your path?

LT: Ummm ... how about a still-accumulating series of moments?

BMoxie: What do you love?

LT: Family, friends, home. Meeting people who are fascinating and/or kind. Mind-expanding ideas and big thinkers. Fireplaces and front porches. Long walks in old cities. Winding alleys and grand boulevards. People who work with their hands and love what they create. Great food. Long conversations over coffee and wine. A full kitchen.

BMoxie: Leah Thayer seems all biz – who are you off the clock? How do you stay connected to what you love?

LT: You might get a different answer from people who don’t know me professionally, but I think I’m pretty much the same person on and off the clock -- and that’s because I’m rarely entirely off the clock. I guess that’s a risk for all entrepreneurs, especially home-based start-ups. Then again, I love my home and everything it stands for.

I get out and walk the city whenever I have the chance, and duck into Rock Creek Park (just a few minutes from my home) when I can find an hour or two. I love to lose myself in movies and music. My family and I travel as much as we can comfortably manage -- quick weekend getaways to the beach or mountains, and longer trips abroad when we can swing it. It’s amazing how refreshing a day or two away from the routine can be.

BMoxie: How do you stay connected in what you do?

LT: I try to stay mindful of my audience at all times, in part by talking with them as much as possible. Hearing about their concerns and goals, and seeing how they run their businesses, motivates me to want to provide them with information that can foster their success and help them feel more connected to their peers.

BMoxie: Is there anything you want to tell us about that may be on d5R’s near horizon?

LT: We’re taking a holiday break for the last two weeks of December, and when we relaunch on January 3 we’ll have a few cool changes.

One is that everybody will automatically receive a free 30-day trial as a Premium subscriber. That means you’ll be able to access all kinds of good stuff, including a growing list of webinars in our premium library and other benefits. Another cool change is the launch of a series of Q&As with “expert panels” -- folks with expertise in everything from lighting design to lead-generation to green remodeling.

We’re also going to be working much more closely with a few affiliated organizations that also serve the building trades, including BuilderLink (http://www.builderlink.com).

BMoxie: How do you maintain such an outwardly positive attitude in all of your professional interactions?

LT: Did you ever see that old New Yorker cartoon, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”? http://www.unc.edu/depts/jomc/academics/dri/idog.html
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Note from the hosts: I guess I could tell you about the time LT and I met up for lunch . . . and how I felt like a major klutz, but I won't. Instead . . . I'll tell you , and picture this >> dueling little black notebooks. What I mean -- we were not actually sitting in the same room for this interview. << Yah! I guess you probably guessed that.

Leah answered these questions from the comfort of her comfy chair some 50 miles away. And yep, I am kinda new with this (interviewing someone from a distance), my questions not so succinct maybe . . . . Leah's responses, though, I left as is -- I think displaying just how open and accessible she is.
Many thanks to one of my oldest twitter contacts -- Leah Thayer, a top notch individual who I hold in the highest regard. Please check out, subscribe and support http://daily5remodel.com << good stuff for sure. Thank you again LT! Out. jb

Randy_Quaid_Cousin_Eddie
jb — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 03:37:06 +0000

Building Moxie's Christmas Vacation (the Magic Quotes Edition)
jb — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 10:30:20 +0000
Discipline:

training to act in accordance with rules; drill: military discipline.
activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training.
punishment inflicted by way of correction and training.
the rigor or training effect of experience, adversity, etc.
behavior in accord with rules of conduct; behavior and order maintained by training and control.
a set or system of rules and regulations.

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So . . . Sunday night and preparing for this week, I was dotting the t’s and crossing the i’s on Allison’s fantastic post – Troy Polamalu had just sacked Joe Flacco and then . . . , I realized, the settings on our site were whack. It was 12:15am.

This came after a long weekend of “humping”. . . as I sometimes call it. Sunday equaled decorating the Christmas tree; Christmas card pic – check. Later in the day, I readied the kitchen walls for the tile guy visiting us, well . . . today. Sunday had been a good day, until . . .

The cavalcade of bathroom vanities started, online and 500 or more, around 8PM -- the wife on a mission. One after the other, Signature Hardware, Bathroom Vanities dot com, Vanities and Only Vanities dot com, etc. and you get the point. And . . . I had tried to pad myself against it, in advance – my wife making the call to pile the start of our master bath project onto this holiday season. (You can find my thoughts on "piling on" >> here.) Mind you -- our kitchen project (and some exterior work) was already underway and, well . . . underdone.

. . . But that really isn’t the point of this post.
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And it has happened twice (OK, maybe thrice) now . . . since our release (in this format) in March. And I have always blamed these issues on Internet Explorer (paired with a slow internet connection sometimes from home). I mean -- I know by now that I should NEVER, EVER make even the smallest tweak to the settings of our site while I am working in IE. But I forgot . . . this time, at 12:14 am, this past Sunday.

Now . . . I think I should mention, I'm a pretty fiery guy. Always have been. And that perhaps is both my biggest asset and my biggest deficiency. It's true, and it feels sometimes that I am only now (at 40) learning how to properly use this power . . . harnessing it -- correctly directing it at the things I need to . . . and when. And yes, I am still studying.

When this crash happened, Sunday, I’ll admit – I wasn't ready for it, and I went with it. All the good work I had put in to this point (it felt) flew right out the window. A sense of total despair set in; me equaled nothing more than simply exhausted. Stretching myself thin at home, at work … not really doing the things I need to do for this site (like making timely manual back ups of it) . . .

. . . I made an ill-tempered and ill-fated call to our host. I am not really sure what time it was at that point. I approved a full system restore (sight unseen). And like that -- the Magic Quotes (and maybe you€™ve seen them) were unleashed upon us. I have yet taken the time to figure out fully what they (the Magic Quotes) are. But I do know they were introduced by one. single. bad comment that happened to pass our usually trustworthy Spam plugin . . . .

. . . And like that, I knew . . . "Let's Dance!" No, simply time for Christmas Vacation!

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Some Parting Words:

One style says: Etiquette, Modesty, Perseverance, Self-control, and Indomitable Spirit.

Another says: Maximum Efficiency and Good Effect.

. . .

While I guess I am a student of the second, I think I would prefer more a blending of the two.
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Happy Holidays from Barry and myself. Thank you all for reading us this year, and remember >> BMoxie BMore! jb (and b) out for a bit!}