It'll Be So Nice When It's Finished: Diary of a Home Remodel Reva Basch (reva) Sat, Oct 27, '90 Matisse suggested that I start this topic, as a sort of ongoing record of a major home renovation. Jerry (jcs) and I picked up the building permit yesterday for a second story addition, a master bedroom and bath that will almost double our living space. The house as it now stands is a 2BR, 2 bath basic 1950s contempo on a sloping site in North Berkeley. My office has completely taken over one of those rooms, and the plan is to move our bedroom upstairs and free up the existing one for a true guest room, sitting room, elbow room. Construction should start in a week or so, just in time for the rainy season. Talk about mixed feelings... Reva Basch (reva) Sat, Oct 27, '90 (18:12) We've learned a lot already. Originally, we assumed that they'd just build the addition on top of the present structure, and maybe we'd see some dust when they punched through for the staircase. Silly us; this is earthquake country, and that means not only foundation work, but shearwall bracing throughout the walls in the current living space. Drywall to be torn off and replaced. Dust. Chaos. We started the bid process during the summer, got three serious bids, and went for the low one. The range was astounding: from $107k to $143k. The low bidder, Freitas Construction in Hayward, seems experienced and pretty righteous. We found them through the Owner-Builder Center, and their references were glowing. Thus far, we've moved stuff from dead storage under the house to a U- store-it place; we've also moved out extraneous furniture (all but two dining room chairs; no more dinner parties til next year) and most of our books. Knicknacks get packed up tomorrow. This is the lull before the storm. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Sun, Oct 28, '90 (09:32) Glad to see this topic started, Reva. I am sure we all look forward to following you in your journey :-) Stewart Brand (sbb) Sun, Oct 28, '90 (16:33) Indeed. Spell out both the technical and the emotional stuff. And changes in the scheme as you proceed. It all goes completely as planned, something is wrong... Reva Basch (reva) Sun, Oct 28, '90 (17:24) I'll keep your words in mind, Stewart. I have a feeling they'll come in handy. Jerry (jcs) Mon, Oct 29, '90 (07:40) This past weekend Reva and I went shopping for items on the contractor's "finish list." We must specify a number of things such as tile for the bathroom, toilet, vanity, shower hardware, basin faucets, lighting fixtures and such like. Not necessarily straightforward. Decided to get in touch with the man who will actually install the tile -- he might be able to give us some good advice. We also face questions like, "If the space we have for the double-basin vanity is 98 inches long, but the longest stock vanities we found are 61 inches, would we be better off to use the stock size or have a custom unit built?" Stay tuned. Reva Basch (reva) Mon, Oct 29, '90 (12:17) Lordy, but there are so many wonderful things to fight about, and we've barely begun. The bathroom is the place we have to make decisions about; all the other spaces are relatively neutral, or so it seems at this stage. Mark Hendricks (hendrix) Mon, Oct 29, '90 (12:35) What was the original rational for remodeling over trading up ? Reva Basch (reva) Wed, Oct 31, '90 (16:19) We love the house, the street, the neighborhood. I have a skillion business cards with the current address on them..... %^) And, although this may seem naive and/or unrealistic, we consider this a warmup for building an entire house, sometime, on a ridgetop piece of land that jcs was prescient enough to acquire many years ago. I want to post something soon about the difficulty I have with translating plans into a concrete sense of what a space is going to actually *feel* like; don't have time at the moment. Meanwhile, loan papers are signed and material drop is Monday. "Material drop"; sounds like something that happens to the Dow Jones Averages. And Berkeley just had its first official rain of the fall season. Oh, joy. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Wed, Oct 31, '90 (18:57) Material Drop is when a big airplaner flys over and... Molari and Kerli, Contractors. (altocat) Thu, Nov 1, '90 (10:56) Hello Reva and Jerry! This should be fascinating! I've remodeled and built new for other people, and lived in a remodel in progress. I don't know any builders who have finished houses. I'm finishing a coastal ridge house in Sonoma even as I write. I have some questions for you, and some advice. Of course, "Junior" Green , one of our local old timers says, "My advice is worth exactly what I charge for it." ;-) You've already made a drastic tactical error by not leaving the country while all this is happening...so let's concentrate on keeping you intact. Stewart was right. Plans must change. Respect Murphy. For instance, you are opening up the house in rainy season. (At least we hope it will be rainy season). Just assume it will get wet inside. Tarps and visqueen don't mean doodley-squat in a sixty MPH wind. Sounds like you've been good about getting valuables out. Think of things you don't want to get wet! Put the cat and that old copy of Nashville Skyline in storage! Shopping: In case no one has told you, any delivery dates anyone promises to you are bullshit. The tile will not be there on the promised day. Deal with this by looking suppliers straight in the eye and saying," When will it REALLY be here" "I am going to be in a BIG FIX if it isn't here when YOU said it would be." It also can be useful to mention that your contractor is a big fan of Charles Bronson . Kidding aside, if you've got a promised date for something, call to confirm the week before, then the day before, then that morning if it is being delivered. When you don't follow this advice, your order slip will mysteriously disappear. GET GOING RIGHT NOW ON THE SHOPPING! I have no idea if you know about any of this, but here is a good for instance: Shower mixers must go in during the rough plumbing, not when all the finish plumbing is happening. If you want to special order a shower mixer, you don't have that much time until rough plumbing. Is the contractor telling you 'bout this stuff? Well, enough from me. Best of luck! Btw, you can probably get lots of good advice on places to shop from well building professionals. Don't worry about the lumber drop. They usually don't do too much damage, unless the helicopter stalls. Reva Basch (reva) Thu, Nov 1, '90 (16:40) Thanks for the advice, altocat! Actually, I *am* leaving town - I'll be in DC next week, so jcs will be dealing with the material drop and whatever happens after that. Foundation work, most likely. Then we've got Thanks- giving and a trip to Toronto after that, so that shoots November. And in December, we're *both* going to London for a week. I don't know whether *not* being here is a good idea for anything but our mental health; even that's dubious, since we'll be thinking about what's going on in our absence, I'm sure. Clarence, the contractor, will be placing the orders for finish materials, so the strongarming about delivery dates is up to him. We've managed to collect a lot of model numbers, and I think we're off to a good start. The tile guy has promised to drop off catalogs. Incidentally, *he* said something interesting - that one pays more for mosaic (the 2", prox, stuff) tile that's already mounted on a backing than one would for the same tile, unmounted, plus labor. I wouldn't've thought so, but maybe he works cheap. Jerry (jcs) Fri, Nov 2, '90 (07:37) Business matters: Let me say at the outset that I have every reason to believe that our contractor is honest and aboveboard -- all the references I talked with gave a glowing report. But we are having a minor tug-o-war over the matter of lien releases, and I am so naive about how such things are normally done that I really don't know whether I am being unreasonable or not. During contract negotiations I brought up the matter of holding back 10% of each payment until 30 or 60 days after completion. One contractor referred to this as the lien period. The idea is that if any subcontractors have not been paid, they will come forward at this time while we (the owners) still have control of some of the funds. Clarence suggested instead that he "will provide progressive lien releases from the subcontractors as work progresses." This sounded OK to me, so that is how the contract reads. Monday is material drop, and Clarence wants the $20K agreed to for this progress payment. "I will have to see a lien release from the supplier," sez I. "Oh, no," sez he, "You pay me, I pay the supplier, and THEN you get a lien release." Hmmm. I pointed out that this was not my understanding of how this was supposed to work. Well, in this instance we agreed to a sort of simultaneous fund transfer: he will have the material delivered to the site COD, and pay the supplier on the spot, and I will then give him my check. I feel that perhaps I am being too hard nosed ---- BUT, no matter how good intentioned he may be, anyone can get in a bind and let his finances get out of control. And as owners, we would definitely have to pay off any unpaid subs. So I do feel that demanding lien releases from subs *before* I pay the contractor is a good idea. Anyone out there want to tell me what is typically done? J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Fri, Nov 2, '90 (10:01) The supplier or sub-contractor is not going to sign a lien-release until they have been paid. This is very reasonable. The typical American Institute of Architects contracts call for 10% of the whole cost of the job to be withheld until *everything* is finished, including all lien releases etc. I would say that it is reasonable for you to demand a lien release for any item before you make full payment on that item - on the other hand withholding the full amount of the item until you get a release forces the contractor to carry the cost of the supply/sub - which is sometimes OK but usually not. Recommendation: Withhold some portion, say 10% of each item until all issues surrounding that item (permit sign off, lien releases etc) are completed. Jerry (jcs) Mon, Nov 5, '90 (13:04) Official start of project. Today the lumber arrived. The clock is now running. Contractor's best estimate is 45 working days to completion. Adding 10 days for T'giving, Xmas and N'Yr, that comes to 11 weeks. Which means completion will be on January 18th. Shall I start mailing party invitations now? Stewart Brand (sbb) Mon, Nov 5, '90 (18:25) 1 line Yes. A party amid the chaos might lighten the gloom. Jerry (jcs) Wed, Nov 7, '90 (08:47) Astonishing pace of action in the first two days. Went home last night to find a thin coat of dust over everything in the house. In order to position the hold-downs properly, it was necessary to open the walls above and drill down toward the foundation at the correct spots. And cutting away the wall- board at various places raised one hellatious amount of dust. And this was *before* we got all our furniture and stuff stacked and covered with tarps. Oh, well. This morning at 5:00 I began the final strip and store operation in the main living spaces in the house. When the crew arrived I got them to help me clump all the possessions in the center of the bedroom and livingroom, then cover them with tarps. The trick was to leave all drawers facing the outside of the clump, so we can still get into them by lifting the edge of the tarp. In addition to drilling for the hold-downs, they have also dug the trenches for the new footings that must be poured under two interior walls that will now take additional load. At the rate they are going, I expect the forms to be in place today, and concrete poured tomorrow. The next move after (or overlapping) that will be what they casually call "demolition." Comforting, eh? Little things to think about if *you* ever have this done: Strangers lifting your bed and seeing what's under it. For some of you, your worst fears may be dustballs. And then there are the rest of us. Made the first $20K payment. Am assured the lien release from the building supply house will be forthcoming shortly. I'm feeling more sanguine about that issue. Now picture this. Reva has been in Washington, D.C. this week. When she returns tomorrow we will be restricted to essentially the small, downstairs office/futon/sleeping room, and the kitchen. This is going to be a trial of our patience and sense of humor. Reva Basch (reva) Wed, Nov 7, '90 (18:26) >Strangers lifting your bed and seeing what's under it So they found the vibrator, huh? I can't tell you how strange it is to sit here in a hotel room in DC and read Jerry's postings. Ohmigopod. I'm trying to visualize myself into the scene at home and can't get past the intellectual level. I'm sure I'll be in a state of shock when I get home tomorrow afternoon. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Wed, Nov 7, '90 (19:55) I think the key thing here is gonna be "Sense of Humor" :-) Jerry (jcs) Thu, Nov 8, '90 (10:04) Got home last night and found my next door neighbor fit to be tied. The crew had dumped a bunch of earth and stones from under the house in her back yard. She was huffing and puffing, shoveling it into a bucket and *flinging* it at the side of my house. I went into full placate mode. So I helped her shovel for a while, apologizing and commiserating. Then I called the contractor and relayed her dim view of this practice. He apologized in *his* turn. He said it was "stupidity" on the part of his crew. Finally got my neighbor calmed down, but she says, "those guys are on probation now -- *serious* probation." The irony of this is that it had crossed my mind to caution the crew about doing anything that might antagonize this woman, but I had not carried through. Lesson: don't be shy about expressing concerns, even at the risk of seeming to be stating the obvious. Spent my first night on the futon in the office (Reva's office, that is). "Cozy" is the most positive way of characterizing the space. But one or another of the cats slept with me most of the night -- that helped. Reva comes home today. I will be *very* glad. Aside from the fact that I just flat miss her, I need for her to share in decision making. The process has to be: get consensus between yourselves, *then* tell the contractor the decision. With Reva away I am in the position of having to make decisions and seek consensus after the fact. Bad. [And regarding >Strangers lifting your bed and seeing what is under it -- No, I got there first -- disconnected, coiled, stowed and generally sanitized the area.] EGAD! (altocat) Fri, Nov 9, '90 (13:02) So they didn't find the inflatable sheep? 2 points for the huffing and puffing neighbor story. Make sure the concrete gets delivered to the right place, and incidentally, if she's *really* touchy, be aware that concrete trucks get hosed down and can leave a mess in the street, a mess that could decide to settle right in front of you-know-who's sidewalk. Tell the contractor to keep an eye on that truck! BTW, I personally believe that neighbors should have some patience for the inevitable disruptions. After all, they may be the next to remodel. I'd say, put her on probation, too. Jerry (jcs) Sun, Nov 11, '90 (12:47) One week into the game. The forms and hold-downs have been inspected and deemed ok. Concrete pour tomorrow. I *will* speak to the foreman about keeping the concrete truck from doing *anything* that leaves traces on or near the neighbor's property. After all, it is going to be the contractor's headache if she blows up and forbids them to use her parking slot which is so handily adjacent to our house. On another subject, I am going to have to ask Clarence about the wooden siding that has been delivered to the site. Plans call for redwood, but this doesn't look (to my untrained eye) like redwood. We'll see. Reva and I spent several hours yesterday looking at tile for the bathroom. We have reached consensus on that. Outfit in San Leandro, Dal Tile, makes their own tile and is fairly reasonable in price. Prices range from about $3/sq ft to about $10/sq ft. We are in the $4-$5 range. Now that we have the tile colors nailed down, we can specify color for the vanity top and the toilet. Dal makes certain colors that are specifically intended to match Kohler's color scheme. The vanity top comes from a place in Newark -- Tri-city marble. It will be the synthetic material called Onyx -- looks like slightly translucent marble. So far, so good. Reva Basch (reva) Sun, Nov 11, '90 (13:49) Jerry's posting slipped in ahead of mine. ;-) Good point about sense of humor, matisse. Right now, it's easy enough for me to maintain one, because I'm still at a giddy, disbelieving stage; it seems unreal, and the sense of dislocation is a novelty rather than an irritation. There's something both bizarre and intimate about seeing the bones of your house exposed. We look at each other sometimes and just start laughing hysterically. Is this a *good* sign, d'you suppose, or bad because we're losing it so soon? In fact, it's kinda like living on a sailboat; we have the necessities, but whatever's not essential is inaccessible for the duration of the cruise. I can get off on the economy of that, at least at this early stage. And then there's the fact that whatever we use has to be stowed away immediately afterwards, or it'll be lost or covered with sheetrock dust (btw, how dangerous is it to *breathe* that stuff at low but constant levels?). jcs, I think, mentioned the lack of privacy. The crew starts work at 7 AM, which is fine because we're early risers anyway. But the noise factor is something else. Lots of drilling and banging associated with installing the hold-downs. Demo, I imagine, will be even noisier. And I've been noticing, in myself, sort of an awe-of-testosterone thing; I don't know how to describe it, but it's strange to have burly dudes around who casually make radical changes to my house while I type, effetely ;-), on my computer. I know it's not really *casual,* but they do things so easily that I wouldn't know how to *begin* to tackle. Very minor example: there's an awkward double-door arrangement between the office and the crawlspace that made it hard for them to get to the foundation, so Jim, the foreman, just took one of the doors off every morning, and put it back before they quit. It would take *me* half a day to rehang a door; a major project. Thanks for the warning, altocat, about the concrete truck. That's scheduled for tomorrow morning. Fortunately, the touchy neighbor is uphill from us, so whatever flows will flow away from her property. But we'll talk to Jim first thing. Said neighbor *has* been on probation in my mind, for cat-intolerance, almost since we've lived here; I've seen evidence of her temper before. On the shopping front: We spent half of yesterday in the wilds of Newark, visiting marble counter-makers and tile shops. Settled on teal tile with tan (okay, "Mexican Sand") trim for the bathroom floor and shower (the shower enclosure is a curved, partial wall at one end of the bathroom - no curtain or ugly sliding glass door - and the interior and floor will be tiled). All the interesting shopping decisions are bathroom-related. Stewart Brand (sbb) Sun, Nov 11, '90 (15:19) Good stuff. What are you noticing of interest about the exposed parts of your house, or do you avert your eyes, as most do? J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Sun, Nov 11, '90 (20:09) Yeah - this is a rare opportunity to see how your house *works* Reva Basch (reva) Mon, Nov 12, '90 (16:17) So far, there are lots of exposed studs 'n' stuff, waiting for the shear bracing. What surprises me is how arbitrary some of the diagonal bracing now in place seems to be - why on one side of a window and not, symmetrically, on the other? No, Stewart, I'm not averting my eyes; when I was a kid, I wanted to be a surgeon, and squeamishness ain't part of my nature (usually). Jerry's mileage may vary; I'm fascinated. So far. Concrete pumper's been and gone, doo-dah, doo-dah. Left the property impeccable, as far as I can tell. O'course, Jim the foreman was told all about the touchy neighbor; I think that if *water* had gotten onto her property they'd've been out there with blow dryers. ;-) Diagonal Bracing (matisse) Mon, Nov 12, '90 (17:43) The diagonal bracing is less for a particular window than for the whole wall. It is the old version of shear-walling. The bracing helps the wall from folding up when the ground moves under it. Jerry (jcs) Tue, Nov 13, '90 (20:55) Well, the touchy neighbor decided to blow up over a really trivial matter. "They've managed to knock down my wall." Nuts. One or two stones were dislodged from a loosely piled stack around her parking slot. Easy enough to pick up and put back. But for her it was a catastrophe. Oh, well. So the contractors can't park there anymore. This is not really much of a setback. But I fear that she will continue to be distant now, because she has been so unreasonable. When the dust clears I will do something to make it alright -- but for now we will just steer clear of her. A small surprise has surfaced. A couple of headers (horizontal support members placed over windows) have turned out to be smaller than the architect guessed they would be. (At the time he was doing the plans he didn't want to tear into the wall to find out for sure.) So the contractor will have to augment the strength of these members. This is an unanticipated bit of work that the contractor could not have included in his fixed price bid. Logically, he could ask for extra money for this -- we will sit tight and see if he brings it up. Today I finished specifying all the items on the "Finish List." Tomorrow I will give the list to the contractor. Also tomorrow, they will invade the kitchen for the first time. This is really distressing -- working together in the kitchen has always been one of the ways that Reva and I share quality time. God knows what it will look like tomorrow. -- sigh -- Here is what the Finish List looks like. 1945 San Antonio Avenue Finish List [Many of these items are on allowances. In these cases, please provide receipt to show cost to contractor.] A. Bath Accessories 1. Shower towel bars. [Receipt requested.] Dal-Tile M-103 - color K-162 Teal (two pairs req'd) Fully recessed, flush style. Must have 30 inch bars -- (special order?). Mount one above the other on the wall shown in plan, one with bar 46 inches above the floor and the other with the bar 72 inches above the floor. 2. Shower Valve and Two Shower Heads. [Receipt requested.] Delta Model 621 single lever control and head (plus) Delta Model RP7245 hand held shower with 24" wall bar. Wall bar on north wall, fixed head on east wall. Position wall bar with top end close to top edge of tile. Position fixed head close to top edge of tile. 3. Toilet Paper Holder Dal-Tile R-406 - color K-162 teal Fully recessed, flange style Mount in half-height wall adjacent to toilet, about 32" above floor. 4. Sink Towel Bars Dal-Tile M-103 - color K-162 Teal. (two pairs req'd) Fully recessed, flange style. 24 inch bar. Mount on east and west walls, 16 inches above vanity top. 5. Robe Hooks (none) 6. Medicine Cabinet (None) 7. Shower Soap Dish. [Receipt requested.] Dal-Tile R-407 - color K-162 Teal. Fully recessed, flush style. Mount on west wall of shower, about 44 inches above floor. 8. Shower Corner Caddy. [Receipt requested.] Dal-Tile F-536 - color K-162 Teal. Fully Recessed, flush style. Mount in north/east corner of shower, about 60 inches above floor. B. Plumbing Fixtures. [Receipt requested.] 1. Toilet and Seat Kohler Model K3402 -- Color Teal 17 2. 2-Sinks (None -- Integral with top.) 3. 2-Faucets with Pop-ups Delta Model 520 MPU lavatory faucet with metal pop-up (2 Required) C. Finish Floor Coverings 1. Wood Floors [Receipt requested.] Oak of the same type as existing floors. Finish with clear semi-gloss Varathane, 3 coats minimum. 2. Bathroom - Tile Floor (see below) D. Ceramic Tile [Receipt requested.] 1. Floor Tile - Dal-Tile K-162 Teal 4 1/4 sq With accent course of K-174 Mexican Sand 4 1/4 sq Cove Base - To match K-162 Grout - To match K-174 Mexican sand. 2. Sink Top (No tile here) 3. Shower Floor Tile - Dal-Tile D1462 Teal 2 X 2 With DK-1454 Carmel 2 X 2 accent course. Wall Tile to 78" High - Dal-Tile K-162 Teal with K-174 Mexican Sand accent course. Grout - To match K-174 Mexican Sand. E. Cabinets [Receipt requested.] 1. Bathroom Vanity a. "Stanford" series by Westwood. (Call Betty at Cabinets, Etc.) Comes in three units: Left 36", Center 24" and Right 36". Plain Solid Oak doors and drawer fronts. 1" filler panel for each end. The end units have 3 drawers toward the wall, and a dummy panel and door below the basin. The center unit has three drawers. b. Top from Tri-City Marble. Standard 22" by 98" . With raised front edge and integral cove base at back, and two separate end splash guards. Two integral basins, the smaller oval size (about 17" wide on top), centered 28 inches in from each end. [NOTE: The 98" length is as shown on plans; however, Freitas may want to allow a certain amount of clearance and specify a slightly shorter top. In that case, make sure the basins are still centered 28" from the WALL at each end. This keeps the basins positioned correctly over the doors in the vanity.] Material -- Onyx, with LIGHT marbling to match Mexican Sand (above). 2. Bathroom Full Height Cabinet "Stanford" series by Westwood. (Call Betty) 2' by 2' by 96" high. With three front doors and one 4-shelf kit. Same style as vanity. Door hinges on left, as you face cabinet. The side toward the toilet is finished. F. Painting 1. Cabinet Finish (comes already finished) a. Vanity (see above) b. Full Height Cabinet (see above) 2. House Exterior [Receipt requested.] To match existing finish. 3. Interior Walls a. Bathroom. Walls, wood trim, and ceiling. Semi-gloss oil base, pale cream, to match downstairs bathroom. b. Other Rooms. Walls: Flat oil base, to match downstairs. Trim: Semi-gloss oil base, same color. Ceilings: Flat oil base, same as walls. G. Electrical Fixtures [Receipt requested.] [NOTE: Unless otherwise specified, all light switches are flat, tilting touch plate type, color ivory. Wall outlet cover plates are ivory.] 1. Master Bathroom a. Flourescent Ceiling Mount Halo Model H801 8" aperture recessed downlight with 801 drop opal trim and two 28-watt DTT lamps b. Over Mirror -- Mount with bottom edge about 78" above floor. Light Concept 11848 (two required) -- at El Cerrito Lighting Each fixture gets two 30W-SP35 flourescent tubes. 2. Shower - Fan/Heat Lamp NuTone Model 9417D One-Bulb Radiant Heat-A-Vent 3. Dressing Room Halo Miniature (single circuit) 4' Power-Trac L651 (white) Surface mounted. With two L1541 (white) lampholders 4. Walk-in Closet Ordinary round white ceiling fixture With 7 or 8 inch round white globe 5. Stairway Two Halo L973 canopy adapters Each with L1541 (white) lampholder 6. Master Bedroom a. 8' Trac Light Halo Miniature (single circuit) 8' Power-Trac L652 (white) Surface mounted. With four L1541 (white) lampholders [NOTE: Wall mounted control for this trac is 600 watt dimmer type, rotary control, with push-push on/off action. Color ivory.] b. Wall-Mount Halo Miniature (single circuit) 2' Power-Trac L650 (white) Installed flush, using L1651 recessed channel (cut down to 2') With Two L968 lampholder adapters with dimmer switch And two L780 (white) lampholders Install horizontally, centered in east wall, 60" above floor. 7. Exterior a. 1 Deck Light Kichler K-9086 BK -- at El Cerrito Lighting b. 1 Side Wall Light L & S 1672-20 -- at El Cerrito Lighting 8. Exhaust Fan (at top of stair well - ceiling or wall mounted) 1000 CFM or greater, with back-flow damper. Variable speed wall-mounted control. Unfinished redwood inside grill. H. Bathroom Mirror 36" by 96" plate glass. Top edge 71" above floor. Jerry (jcs) Wed, Nov 14, '90 (08:51) The finish list is the file named finish_lst in my home directory. The command !cat /uh/37/jcs/finish_lst will scroll it by on your screen, or something like !cat /uh/37/jcs/finish_lst > filename will copy it to your home directory. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Wed, Nov 14, '90 (19:18) Or, you can just type finish at any prompt in this conference and you will get the list a page at a time. Jerry (jcs) Thu, Nov 15, '90 (10:05) A couple of questions have been answered, and a big event is hard upon us. It turns out that the redwood siding has not yet been delivered -- the shiplap boards I found are used as part of the underlayment of the new roof that extends over the new upstairs deck. Also, as soon as the problem involving the under-sized headers was thoroughly understood, and *before* they added the new strengthening members, we were presented with a bill for the extra work. $575 to cover lumber, carpentry and rerouting a couple of electrical circuits that have to be moved. So we pay. I have no argument with this, but I wish I had more experience so I could tell whether this is a reasonable charge. Involved are five windows and doors, including the two large windows in the front of the house. In each case, the existing header is left in place, the short studs above the headers are removed, an additional header is placed over the existing one, then shortened studs are put back in. AND, GUESS WHAT! Tomorrow a portion of the roof comes off. Lord help us. Reva Basch (reva) Thu, Nov 15, '90 (13:59) 1 line Just in time for the r-a-i-n... J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Fri, Nov 16, '90 (10:47) You should be given a price for all additional work *before* it is performed... (Additional to work to be performed upon approval by owners at the rate of $$/hr plus cost of material times xx% markup) Reva Basch (reva) Fri, Nov 16, '90 (12:30) Actually, we were. Jim gave us a change request form that described the work to be performed, the reason for it, and gave a breakout of the labor and materials. The hourly rate wasn't given, but the total seemed okay to me. The roof work began this morning, almost concurrently with a few raindrops on the skylights... Just went upstairs to check on progress. Looks like the headers (the unan- ticipated items) are in, and most of the new beams (though not the shear- bracing) are in. Hold-downs, too; those things are *massive*. If this doesn't prepare us for the Big One, I don't know what will. Interesting that all this reinforcement is only "incidental" to the main project. Jerry (jcs) Fri, Nov 16, '90 (14:50) When I went to the house during the noon hour the crew was on the roof, ripping stuff off and throwing it down into a huge dump truck in the driveway. The living room now has a jury-rigged set of braces from floor to ceiling down the entire length of the room. I had a talk with Jim (crew chief) about hauling away enough material from under the house to ensure that we have roughly the same amount of space for dead storage shelves, work bench, tools, etc. as we had before they dug the trenches for the new footings. "No problem," he assured me. A few minutes ago Reva called to tell me that Jim had just stepped through the skylight in the kitchen. She seemed oddly jittery on the phone -- she was laughing in a way I don't thing I have ever heard before from her. I suggested that she get Jim's home number -- we need to have several numbers to call when the unexpected storm blows the tarps off the roof. I believe that when this truck load of debris is hauled away the job status will have reached the end of "demolition." I talked with the contractor's secretary (Karen) this morning about getting a lien release from the concrete delivery service. Next Monday, I think the next $20K progress payment is due. WOP tonight. We're ready. Reva Basch (reva) Fri, Nov 16, '90 (16:20) > WOP tonight. We're ready. What Jerry said. Jittery? Hell, no. That was *hysterical* laughter. Just maintainin' my sense of humor. They have a bit more demo to do on the roof, actually. One more truckload. Sounds like they'll be pushing to get us closed in before Thanksgiving. Texas Skilsaw Massacre (reva) Mon, Nov 19, '90 (14:41) This is an amazing, utterly surreal sight. Large boards - deck roofing, I think - are sailing by my office window, crashing through the pittosporum, bouncing on the steps. The kittens are yin-yanged on the futon; they glance up at particularly loud noises, but are otherwise entirely copacetic. And yup, it's raining. Stewart Brand (sbb) Mon, Nov 19, '90 (14:53) 1 line "Texas Skilsaw Massacre" would make a fine movie. Jerry (jcs) Tue, Nov 20, '90 (08:36) Well, the architect's plan looked really neat, but it doesn't match reality. When the roof was opened up, it turns out that the main rafters run north-south, where on the plans they run east-west. Again, this is a case where the architect had no way of discovering this without damaging the house. So the contractor (Clarence), crew chief (Jim) and the plumbing contractor huddle over the plans and mutter. Last night I talked with Clarence and asked how he intended to proceed. The main impact will be that the upper story will be about six inches higher than we thought. This is because the new floor joists cannot be interposed between the rafters, but must rest entirely on top of the rafters. Then he said the most wonderful thing -- "This is not going to be an extra cost, if that's what you are worried about." Actually, the job will be easier in one respect: there will be more room to run pipes and heating ducts between the floors. After dinner we heard dripping. Found two spots that were leaking -- placed thick towels to keep the water from dripping into our hall closet. Not a serious problem -- but on the other hand, it didn't rain much either. If we have a really good storm before the new floor is in and the roof resealed we could have a big mess. I am not thinking about it. I'm not. Second progress payment of $20K made today. Lien releases from all subs used so far are in hand. I continue to feel that this is all going pretty well. EMIL HEITNER (emil) Thu, Nov 22, '90 (05:16) This is a major life experience that we should all pass through. I live in San Anselmo and one of my friends started a small remodel of a room that culminated with 90% of the house being torn down. They had to move out for a year and it cost 250k. That was about 8 years ago. The contractor just kept leading them down the garden path. By the way, what is your house's address? Stewart Brand (sbb) Thu, Nov 22, '90 (14:11) 1 line emil, what were the increments that induced the Full Garden Path? Jerry (jcs) Sat, Nov 24, '90 (15:55) Tuesday, November 20. Late Tuesday night -- actually, early Wednesday morning -- we had a light rain in Berkeley. At 3:30 A.M. I woke and thought I heard dripping sounds. So off I go, nude, to explore the cold upstairs. Oh, God. Dripping through in many places -- a steady, thin stream in some spots. I put pots, pans and buckets under the worst of it and went back to bed. Couldn't sleep. Got up, showered, dressed and then spent the next several hours trying to keep the leaks from ruining anything. I could just about keep even if I made constant rounds from room to room with bucket and mop. But every now and then a brand new freshet would start. We would hear it first (Reva was up by this time, too), drriiiibbbllll drip drip trickle splash. Then we would home in on it a get out still another pot. I did not call either the contractor or his foreman until they could reasonably be expected to be awake -- but then I couldn't reach either of them anyway. Now get this picture. Reva and I were scheduled to leave the house at 6:30 to go pick up Reva's mother and sister in Walnut Creek, then head up to Arcata to have Thanksgiving with friends. So we did. We walked away from it. Still leaking, out of control, wet floors, sopping walls, fuck it. What had happened was a repeat of the earlier problem. Tarpaulin was spread over the exposed rafters in a way the made many pockets in the tarp. Long after it had stopped raining, these pockets were small ponds. And gradually they were leaking through the tarp, then finding their way down into the house. Once, okay. Twice -- that's pretty dumb -- or irresponsible. I called the house from Walnut Creek and talked with Jim. I did not yell. I was, however, not very interested in hearing how incredulous he was that anything leaked. I explained in clear language that when we returned on Saturday I expected the place to be bone dry. Later in the day, from Arcata, I called Clarence. He had not been to the house that day. His foreman had told him only that "There was some leakage." I gave him the scenario that you have read above. He was set back to realize that Jim had glossed over the extent of the problem. I told Clarence that the extent of real damage was not clear yet, suggesting that we let things dry out for a few days, then see where we stand. My position is that any wallboard that is swollen and softened will have to be replaced. He agreed. To lighten things up, I then changed the tone: "But let me tell you the good news! You know that grasscloth wall covering that you were trying to figure out how to remove? Well, we now know that all you have to do is get it really wet, and it just falls right off!" "We *planned* this, you see -- it was all an experiment," he replied. And we laughed our way away from confrontation. So today is Saturday. The tarp now has a layer of thick plastic sheeting under it. The crew did a pretty good job of cleaning up the mess. The floors are dry. As far as I can tell, no leakage occurred in areas that caused damage to possessions. But in many places the walls and ceiling are stained. When I poke into those spots with a screwdriver the paper covering on the wallboard comes right off, and beneath that the gypsum is cold and damp. Yuck. Come Monday I am going to have to deal with Clarence about repairing water-damaged walls. Question: How much of this will eventually dry completely, needing only repainting, and to what extent are the walls just ruined? Here again, I just don't have enough experience to know for sure. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Sat, Nov 24, '90 (17:36) I suggest asking a painter about how much work will have to be done, but in general I can tell you that once dry the sheetrock will not continue to swell or change shape so as long as a particular piece is still flat it can probably be painted over once dry. Charles Stembridge (cstem) Sun, Nov 25, '90 (00:10) Not that this will make you feel any better, but perhaps less angry at your contractor. I've yet to meet a tarped house that didn't leak. ("Freshets"-I liked that.) And, a skilled and reliable contractor never promises to be error free, only that s/he will make it right. One of the best jobs I've worked on was completely flooded last winter, and it is now truly beautiful inside, IMHO. Your contractor should be more than willing to make it right, and accept any added cost as part of the cost of opening up a roof in the middle of winter. Good luck! Jerry (jcs) Sun, Nov 25, '90 (15:25) Real time report. It is raining and blowing here. Twenty minutes ago I heard a loud noise and went poking around, trying to figure out what had happened. Finally I climbed the ladder to the roof. A large portion of the tarp/plastic covering has blown back, folding over itself, throwing aside some short 2X4s they had put on top to hold it down. The main front part of the roof is now unprotected. I went up to the front edge of the roof to try to put it back, but, working alone, I couldn't begin to cope with so much sail area in a brisk wind. I retreated and started calling numbers. Clarence is out of town. Reached Karen (secretary) and then Jim. He has dispatched the three least senior crew members to deal with the problem. They are expected in about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, it's back to mops and buckets for me. More later. Stewart Brand (sbb) Sun, Nov 25, '90 (16:44) That fatal mix of rain and weekend... Jerry (jcs) Sun, Nov 25, '90 (19:39) Not too bad. Jim showed up (with his girlfriend Joannie) and got to work. The rain had let up. He made the roof covering much more secure -- assuring me that it couldn't blow loose now. And, in fact, not much leakage occurred. I think we are ok for the evening. Marc (son) came to visit while Jim was still here. It seems that Marc and Reva are in agreement that Jim is *very* cute. Gorgeous sunset, just as Jim and Joannie were leaving. Also, Jim encountered his other crew members arriving -- after Jim had done all the work. The niners lost. And so to bed. EMIL HEITNER (emil) Sun, Nov 25, '90 (22:51) Stewart- you asked about my friends being led down the garden path. I don't not think there was much of a garden path or many increments in this case. The contractor just expanded their minds until his plans were their plans. After 6 months of frustration, they fired him. The wife's father took over and his premature death within the year was attributed to the strain. I told this story about 6 years ago in an investments course I taught at SF State. A woman in the course told me she lost a similar amount (either in Bolinas or Inverness) to a contractor who billed her family for materials that were mostly used in other houses. I was skeptical of her story, but the IJ later featured it. The tarp my friend is blowing in the wind... (altocat) Mon, Nov 26, '90 (08:24) Look, I wasn't kidding way back there when I was talking about tarps. But, referring to the Nov. 24 incident, most damage should be light and repairable in the normal course of construction. That wasn't even a real storm. You sure you've got prized personal possessions put away safely? Wait a minute. Isn't that a first printing of The Whole Earth Catalog sitting *right there* on the end table?!? Tsk.Tsk. I suppose you'll have a roof soon enough. In the meantime, you might want to read Farley Mowat's The Grey Seas Under. Could make for some great fantasies the next time you're up on the roof battling the sails, I mean, the tarps. Good luck, mates. Don't laugh at me, help me. (altocat) Mon, Nov 26, '90 (09:38) OK, now a constructive counterpoint to levity. This may or may not be useful to you: Although it may seem hard to believe, i *do* in fact make attempts to keep water out of construction sites. This is what has worked best for me: Use those giant blue tarps instead of visqueen. The kind with eyelets, only! Buy a huge quantity of bungee cords. The idea is, don't tie or nail down the tarp. It's just going to shred in a high wind. Use the bungees, one in every hole, attaching the bungees at their loose ends with nails or rope. Get the idea? In a huge wind the tarp survives much better, because when a gust catches it, it lifts up, stretching the bungees, then snapping back into place. Really does work well. Be careful with the bungees! Friend had serious eye damage when one let go. Fasten carefully, keep face away. There a huge surplus store, I think it might be or was called Bonanza, down in East Oakland or San Leandro, got loads of the tarps and bungees. Hope you do stay as dry as you can. :-) Jerry (jcs) Tue, Nov 27, '90 (07:58) First, words of appreciation directed toward the gallery. I am getting a lot out of your comments and advice. In one sense this whole episode is intended to be a learning experience -- Reva and I own a 20 acre piece on a ridgetop in Mendocino -- one day we hope to build a house on that site. So this is all a warmup exercise. We need to learn how the process works, what's important, what's not. And as the game progresses it gets more complex and more interesting. We definitely value input from others -- it's a big help in keeping our perspective. Yesterday the floorplan of the top floor became apparent. Framing of the east wall of the new storey is up, and part of the west wall is lying down, ready to be lifted into place. Subfloor is in place. All rough plumbing is in for the bathroom. [Why is one water pipe larger than the other?] Heat vents, plus the plumbing for the top floor, pass up through our downstairs hall closet, which will lose about 12 inches off one end. The water-stained walls and ceilings appear to be drying out nicely. I am inclined to think that they have not been ruined, just discolored. And it all has to be painted, anyway. In fact, it is becoming clear that essentially the entire interior will have to be refinished. Soon now, perhaps this evening, I will be able to walk from "room" to "room" in the new construction and get a feel for the size of things. Stewart Brand (sbb) Tue, Nov 27, '90 (10:23) I imagine now's the time to feel the space, maybe park a chair hither and yon and sit in it, see if the windows and things are where they should be, make changes while it's all still soft... Tiresome to change now, nearly impossible to change later. and I don't mean Imelda's (cstem) Tue, Nov 27, '90 (11:09) re: "feel for the size of things" The first house I had a chance to design I was also lucky enough to help build as an apprentice carpenter of sorts. As we finished framing the walls I became, well scared !/?#-less. The rooms seemed about the size of small closets. We got the ceiling joists up, and the rooms magically expanded. Whew. The key again is don't panic -- too much. The perception of room size is highly dependent on the stage of construction; it will change again as the walls are finished, the windows go in, etc. (...I've got to get back to hammering. That was much fun.) go boldly forth...and remodel (altocat) Tue, Nov 27, '90 (11:45) RE: sbb's note, above. Some excellent advice. Contractor may roll eyes when you say you'd like to change something. But now *is* the time. Maybe you don't need to change anything. But do spend time in there now... Jerry (jcs) Wed, Nov 28, '90 (07:57) Yesterday, just before sunset, I climbed the ladder to check on progress. All the exterior framing is up and the subfloor is complete. For the first time I was able to walk around in the new space and see how it works. This is very gratifying. What was all abstract before, just talk and drawings, is now physically there. Dreams made solid. And it looks damn good. The bedroom has a sliding glass door out to a deck [this is really just an opening in the the studs, of course], plus two other large windows. All this looks out over a sweeping view of the bay -- from south of the city to north of Tam. Gorgeous. In the bathroom the shower has a large greenhouse window looking west, too. So I was able to stand in the shower and verify that one cannot be seen from the street or from any nearby house. I also checked the locations of all electrical outlets, etc. Found one mistake: a telephone outlet has been brought up on the wrong side of a door -- which would make it useless. I talked to Jim about that this morning -- they will have to figure out a fix. Speaking of that, many of you may be interested in something I got into the plans. In several places, in addition to having telephone and TV cables brought out, I have also spec'ed a 1" empty conduit that leads down to the crawlspace beneath the house. This will eventually be used for LAN wiring and/or anything else I want to run through it. niagara falls (altocat) Wed, Nov 28, '90 (08:45) Very astute about the conduit! This might be a good time to mention something about plumbing that often surprises and disappoints client. Is your house being plumbed with ABS plastic Drain and vent lines? Large black pipes. If so, you should know that water makes a tremendous amount of noise in those pipes, particularly in a 3 or 4 inch stack going down through a wall. Can be very disturbing, especially if stack comes down next to someone's bed or favorite chair. Fixes: Best for killing noise is to use no hub cast iron instead. Has disadvantages, such as greater cost. Another possibility is to only use cast iron for large vertical runs between floors. I have had good luck in a house I am just completing wrapping all the ABS drain lines with a dense foam wrap designed to insulate industrial refrigerant lines. Also crucial, if you want to kill noise, to isolate ABS from framing. Don't rest big pipes right against wood. Will amplify sound. Another common mistake is trying to cram a 3" ABS line into a 2x4 wall. It can be done, but the pipe will be tight up against the sheet rock, which will then act as a drum head, amplifying the sound. Save insulation scraps, and before sheet rock, fill cavities around drain pipes to further deaden sound. Your contractor may think this sounds nuts, but as SB said, it's a little trouble now or a mammoth problem later. Jerry (jcs) Wed, Nov 28, '90 (15:10) Great advice! There is a large black drain pipe such as you describe. Fortunately, it goes down through a central hall closet -- not near any bedrooms. However, before they box in the corner of the closet used for this passage, I will try to get them to pack it with insulation. On a different subject, I am puzzling over how to deal with an unsightly power feed cable that comes from a pole across the street from the north end of the house and droops kitty-cornered across the entire front of the house to reach the south-west corner. It is visible from all windows and blemishes the view. The north-west corner of the house is nearer the pole, and I am asking the electrician to give me a price for changing the feed to that corner. It would mean moving the tall vertical pipe over there, moving the meter over there, adding a new main cutoff box, then running conduit through the crawlspace over to the existing distribution box. It's do-able, but we will have to make a judgement about how much we are willing to pay for an item that is strictly an aesthetic consideration. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Thu, Nov 29, '90 (00:18) Interesting advice about the plastic plumbing... I didn't know that - but this house is 3 stories - ABS isn't up allowed over 2 stories I thought? Maybe that pipe Jerry saw *is* no-hub... Al's Testing Labs (altocat) Thu, Nov 29, '90 (09:00) Good point. Hey Jerry, you wanna go over and drill a hole in that pipe and tell us about it? Jerry (jcs) Thu, Nov 29, '90 (14:41) Routine crisis for the day. All the windows have been delivered to the site, and three that were supposed to be obscure glass are clear. I talked to Clarence and he will deal with it. They will have to go ahead with what they have, then reglaze those three at a later date. No big deal. Tomorrow at noon June Huckman from PG&E will meet Chuck Bruner (electrician) and me at the house to give us a ruling on where it is permissible to put the electric meter, and whether anything on the pole has to be changed if you move the main feed to a different corner. Jerry (jcs) Thu, Nov 29, '90 (14:44) Drain pipe. I will check tonight, but I am pretty sure that the main vertical piece that goes from the top floor down to the crawl space is case iron. I'll rap it sharply with a hammer; if it cracks, it is iron. Jerry (jcs) Sat, Dec 1, '90 (13:07) Ok, I've got to continue about shifting the main power feed from one corner of the house to the other. There is a lesson in this. June Huckman (PG&E) met with me yesterday and looked over what we propose to do (Chuck couldn't make it). She didn't hesitate at all, "Just go ahead, no problem." I asked if we had to move the meter and the main breaker panel to the same corner of the house as the new main feed (goose neck). "No-- why would you want to do that? Just leave that all where it is. Run the three main conductors over in conduit." I pressed it: "Are you sure -- everybody is telling me that it is mandatory to have the meter directly below the gooseneck." "Not as far as PG&E is concerned -- it just has to be `readily accessible.'" So fine, my next stop was City Hall to talk to the local inspectors. I talked with Bob Kendall. Same answer: "There is no requirement that the meter must be directly below the gooseneck." "Can we just run the conductors over in conduit?" "Sure, it's done all the time. The constraints are that from the gooseneck to the meter the conductors must be continuous -- no splices. Up to 360 degrees of bends are permitted. If LB's are used (conduit junction with cover plate) the covers must be screwed down with special screws that have holes drilled through the head. Then PG&E will run wire through the holes and seal the LB to make it tamper proof." (June Huckman had told me the same thing.) So I pressed it with him, too: "Where did this business come from about the meter being below the gooseneck?" "Well," he admitted, "there is a certain amount of confusion on this point." Next call was to Chuck. He was uncertain how (or whether) to proceed -- recall that when HE called the Berkeley building inspection office he had been told the opposite. But he couldn't remember to whom he had spoken. I agreed that on Monday I would call Kendall and have Kendall tell our specific inspector what he had told me on Friday. Lesson: If it is important to you, check everything out for yourself. Ask why. Ask to see the relevant section of the code. This is not the first occurrence of inconsistency from the Berkeley building permit and inspector's office. The entire process of getting the permit was fraught with delays, contradictions and confusion. New topic -- little things that work out right. Once I could actually stand in the new bedroom, it was immediately apparent that one of the doors interacted awkwardly with the passage from the bedroom to the bath. (Keep in mind -- no doors are here yet.) So I asked Jim if it could be switched around so that it swung the other way. It turns out that doors arrive on site already hung in the frame -- it cannot readily be switched. However, Jim called the door walla and discovered that the doors have not yet been assembled. So he got them to switch it. No charge -- and it will make a considerable difference. Another small point. Three small windows that were supposed to be 1'8" arrived here as 1'6". In this case they showed me how they could work around the problem and mount them successfully anyway. So I accepted them as is. Not a big deal in the long run, and I feel strongly that there has to be a reasonable amount of give and take between owner and contractor. So far, he has behaved honorably with me -- and I gave him a break by accepting these windows. I'll save my confrontational energies for something more important. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Sat, Dec 1, '90 (16:48) In my experience there is always quite a bit of stuff that doesn't come out the way you planned, often even as good as you planned. On the other hand, there is always lots of little things that the contractor does that they are not strictly required to do, like patching existing holes in the wall, or fixing up an old and improper electrical box or plumbing line, little stuff, spending time talking things over, consulting, basically, with the client so usually it is a fair trade. Reva Basch (reva) Sat, Dec 1, '90 (17:54) What an amazing feeling to come home after several days away and find this new *structure* existing in *space* - in three dimensions! It's beginning to seem *real*; this is very exciting. We don't seem to have made any gross design errors. It *feels* good - flow, proportion... Of course, it's hard to judge spaces without ceilings, and the fact that we're looking at wood and gaps in the wood, rather than finished walls and windows, must influence our perceptions. The crew wrapped the structure completely with building wrap before they left work yesterday. Rats; can't go up and play this weekend... Now, here's a question: Rough framing: How rough is *rough*? Some of the studs are cracked - not all the way through, but definitely crazed in places - and not all joints are flush. Lots of bent nailheads. (Lots of *nails* - migopod, what did they do before nail guns?) Everything looks and feels sturdy, but the cracks and gaps kinda surprised me. O'course, I'm a compulsive perfectionist, but is this typical, guys? Jerry and I are still doing fine, thank you (I've been getting some email about this). Did laundry today for the first time in a month, and we may be ordering takeout more often than usual, but our lives have *not* been seriously disrupted by this, and I *think* the worst is over. Hey, altocat - so happens I *have* that rare first printing of the Whole Earth Catalog (I'm even *in* it, in a manner o'speaking). But your comment implies that there's an end table *exposed* for it to rest on. You *gotta* be kidding! ;-) How rough is rough (matisse) Sun, Dec 2, '90 (10:29) I'd have to see the framing to give you a specific opinion but in general, yes, rough framing does mean that the lumber will have checks, splits and wanes... and a fair number a bent nails... but the surfaces where the sheetrock goes had better be pretty damn flush or there will be bumps in the finished walls. Reva Basch (reva) Sun, Dec 2, '90 (11:56) Good; that makes me feel better. Right, Matisse; give-and-take, cutting some slack on both sides, is crucial to this process. I think we're working pretty comfortably with Clarence on that basis. This is a real lesson, for me, in letting go of some of my compulsiveness about things being exactly the way I want them. Yesterday was my first chance in a couple of weeks to look around the property after the crew had left. I found a lot of damage to what I laughingly call our "landscaping" - an old jade tree with major branches broken off, ditto the rhododendron by the front steps, evergreen bushes that have been totally trashed, etc. Granted, it's a tight lot, and they've been remarkably ingenious in finding ways and places to store materials and dump trash. For the most part, they've done a great job. But the damage I've mentioned could have been avoided with a little forethought - they didn't have to leave a sheet of plywood leaning against the jade tree; they could have put it against the house with the other plywood. Wish I'd noticed it sooner. Breaks my heart. I don't want to get into a one-for-one bargaining thing with Clarence, but it seems to me that this is the kind of thing one trades off for concessions from the contractor like a more complete interior paint job, or hardwood floor refinishing - stuff that has to be done to restore the place to its pre-construction condition, but that, in effect, is an *improvement* over that condition. Stewart Brand (sbb) Sun, Dec 2, '90 (12:49) Construction is physically violent. It just is. And somewhat hurried. And imperfectly coordinated. It is a mess and makes a mess until it's over. Convulsive, is the word that comes to mind. Reva Basch (reva) Sun, Dec 2, '90 (13:13) Right. I give them a lot of credit for having been as graceful as, generally, they have. Things can be cleaned, pruned, restored. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Sun, Dec 2, '90 (13:31) It has been my impression that if I were to spell out *EXACTLY* what was going to happen during a construction job to a client (if that were even possible) they would run, not walk to someone who would not bother them with the truth so blatantly :-) Stewart Brand (sbb) Sun, Dec 2, '90 (17:08) Right. Dwell on the result, not the process, but warn enough about the process so they don't have nervous breakdowns, which are catching. scorched around the edges (altocat) Sun, Dec 2, '90 (22:24) Stewart! Matisse! So *good* to hear that kind of understanding! And Reva, you seem to be quite rational about the project so far. Good. Point of amusement for Reva and Jerry concerning rough framing: Comment made on more than one job site to apprentices who are working a bit too slow (generally on framing) -"Waddya think this is, a *piano*???" Don't let it faze you...sounds like situation normal. Jerry (jcs) Tue, Dec 4, '90 (08:48) To clean up a loose end: The down-drain for the upstairs plumbing is cast iron. And another point is now resolved. Yesterday morning I called the Berkeley codes and inspections office and talked with David Stone, who is the specific inspector for our site. I repeated to him the story I had gotten from PG&E, and from his colleague Bob Kendall, about moving the main electric service from one corner of the house to the other -- *without* moving the meter and main breaker panel. He agreed that we could go ahead and do it. So I told Chuck the electrician. Finally *Chuck* called Stone and got the same story. Score one for doggedness. This means that we can get rid of an eyesore for very little (or no) extra dollars, after being told initially that it would cost perhaps as much as $1000. Little surprises continue. The flue from the furnace (did I mention that they disconnected that while doing foundation work during the first week?) has sections that are made of some composite of asbestos and plaster. This is now forbidden, so out it comes. Windows are now in place upstairs. Siding goes on today. I think tomorrow they will punch through above our existing stairwell to build the two new flights to the upstairs. However, this will not open us to the weather because the new structure is complete above this space. Their plan is to finish all the "building" by the end of this week. That includes roofing and siding. It will be time for a *major* progress payment. I wonder how pushy I should be about getting them to go back under the house and finish hauling away debris left from the first week. Incidentally, I continue to be impressed with the drive and energy of this outfit. If they really get siding and roofing finished this week, that will be 25 working days from start of project. Their schedule called for getting to this point in 22 working days. Reva Basch (reva) Tue, Dec 4, '90 (11:16) >Drive and energy I just overheard Jim, the foreman, on the phone with a sheetmetal sub: "Come on, you guys. You only see *your* small part of the picture. Don't tell me you can't finish til next week; we can't get this roof sealed til you do *your* part." Assertive but not combative; I liked the way he handled it. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Tue, Dec 4, '90 (15:46) This outfit sounds great. They are really moving. Reva Basch (reva) Wed, Dec 5, '90 (14:36) Yeah. Remember we're leaving town for 10 days, starting Sunday. Leaving *country*, actually. We're trying to anticipate decisions that'll have to be made during that time; I can't believe we're already talking tile patterns. Jerry (jcs) Thu, Dec 6, '90 (08:16) Here's an example of the sort of stuff that happens. Tuesday evening when we were preparing dinner we noticed that our large refrigerator was not working. Checked the breaker -- no problem there. Fortunately, we have a second refrigerator -- remember: Aubergine, Reva's information business, was originally a catering business. So we transferred everything to the second refrigerator. Just got that finished, when we were set upon by a large hornet that liked what we were cooking. We opened the back door and spent a few minutes waving towels at the hornet. Dinner is getting later, we are getting giddier. So there we are, flailing away. "Get him! Get him before he crawls into the light fixture!" Then, inevitably, we get the giggles. Finally, to celebrate the moment, I open some champagne. Then on with dinner prep. The next morning we ask the electrician to try to restore the line as soon as possible. It was back in service that evening. Here's another. Yesterday at noon I noticed that someone had accidentally cut through the small 12 volt power wire to our answering machine. I got out my soldering iron and repaired it -- didn't mention it to the workers -- or even to Reva, for that matter. Lesson: Don't sweat the small shit. Talked with Clarence yesterday at the site. He agreed with me that essentially the entire interior of the house will have to be re-painted. I expect he anticipated this from the beginning, but it has dawned on us only gradually. And that brings up a phenomenon that Reva and I have both noticed. We are becoming sensitive to a number of things around the (existing) house that "really should be upgraded." For instance, the floor in the bathroom looks pretty ratty. And the rug in Reva's office needs to be replaced. And so forth. It's the "I've got the new dress, now I have to get new shoes to go with it" syndrome. Stewart Brand (sbb) Thu, Dec 6, '90 (10:18) Better strangle most of that impulse in the cradle. Bury it under a stone that says "Later!". Reva Basch (reva) Thu, Dec 6, '90 (11:41) Um, *I* noticed that the answering machine wasn't working. When I saw later that it *was* working, I assumed that it was on the same circuit as the refrigerator. Duh. Gosh, honey, if I'd known that *you* fixed it, I'd'a given you credit. ;-) >Bury it under a stone that says "Later!" Right. Basic cash flow considerations will help us there... Jerry (jcs) Sun, Dec 9, '90 (12:43) Here's what has happened in the last couple of days. Basically, the entire structure is complete on the exterior. Siding is on. Roofing is finished. Lord, let me tell you about roofing. Now, carpenters make a mess -- sawdust and plaster dust everywhere. But roofing is just plain nasty in about four different dimensions. Ripping off the remaining old roofing brought a plague of the filthiest, blackest grunge imaginable -- inside the house and out. You also have the NOISE of that tar pump, running endlessly. And the stink. And the rough confusion and noise of the roofers, yelling, banging around, hauling stuff precariously up and down from the roof. In the midst of this, on Friday, both Reva and I had to confess that it was pretty dreadful. We felt depressed and out of sorts. And they had to come back on Saturday to finish (I *think* they are finished). In the process, they managed to wipe out a large pane of tempered glass that is part of the new greenhouse window in the new bathroom. They left the pile of broken glass behind. They also put one of our outside lights out of commission. However: The whole house now has a new roof, and it looks fine. Saturday the electrician also was working. He transferred the electric service from south to north corner. I watched how he went about it. He did not have PG&E turn off the power, he just handled it live. Pretty clever. Working alone, he managed it all very neatly. So that eyesore is finally gone. The painter, Mark Parker, also came by Saturday to go through the house with us and get our input. Nice fellow. I got the impression that our desires, basically "just match the off-white or pale cream colors already present in the house", were a bit of a letdown for him. He wants to talk about *decorating*. He encouraged us to give it some more thought -- "Perhaps one wall in an accent color here or there? It won't cost any more, you know." This weekend we were able to use the furnace for the first time in a month. On Friday, we had a conference with the tiler -- Lee McNair. Funny little roundish sort of guy. Bustles around, mumbling to himself, making cryptic notes, losing his notes, asking the same question three times. I *think* he got it all straight. In order to get into the new bathroom, it was necessary to literally walk the plank. A 20-foot length of 3X12, supported only at the ends, was used to span a gap in the roofing: featureless wall on one side, 20 foot drop on the other. No handholds at all. This bothered *me*, and I'm and old rock climber. Lee paled -- but he did it. I later heard that when he got back to the Freitas office he recounted the experience in great detail. So we are off for 10 days. I have made notes for Jim -- trying to anticipate stuff that is going to come up while we are gone. And we will call in from time to time. Karen, Freitas' secretary-and-lots-more, lives in El Cerrito, and she has agreed to come up to the house if we should get a good rain at night, when the crew is not here. I *know* it's a brand new roof--- but, still ---. One big item has not been started: the stairway extension that connects the main house to the upstairs. That will be all finished when we return, plus, I expect, much of the sheetrock work. And in connection with sheetrocking and painting, note this conversation I had with Clarence. "I suppose that in rooms where one or two walls are new and the ceiling has at least minor damage, you will have to paint the entire room, right?" "Of course," Clarence says. "And look around, there may be some old existing bad spots you want fixed, too." "Be careful." "No, really, once they are in there it's not that big a deal. Take advantage of me." Remember: interior finish in not on an allowance -- the contractor pays. Stewart Brand (sbb) Sun, Dec 9, '90 (14:05) 1 line You might consider stencils for accenting the walls. Jerry (jcs) Fri, Dec 21, '90 (11:41) 101 lines Hi! We're back. Returned from London on Wednesday evening -- 10 1/2 hour flight direct from Heathrow to SFO. For reasons beyond our ken British Air upgraded our seat assignments from cattle to club (business) class. This made a very big difference on the flight home. The seats were spacious, comfortable, and operated like lazy-boy recliners. And the food, believe it or not, was delicious. I'm terribly afraid we are spoiled, now that we've experienced the difference. Got home around 7:00 P.M. to find the cats safe and sound, and the house an incredible mess. The sheet rock installation had just been completed, and taping was partially done. The hardwood floors on the main floor had been left exposed. Gritty gray/white powder and general debris was everywhere -- ground into the floors, covering every surface. The large tarps, which had been protecting furniture heaps, had been removed. The new stairs were in -- wrong. The answering machine had been disconnected, so Reva had lost several days of calls from clients. Someone had gone through drawers in our bedroom and stolen a quarter ounce of nice dope, along with my favorite roach clip. Shit. We unpacked, read mail, made up the futon, and called it quits for the day. Called Clarence the next morning and tried to set up a meeting at the house, but he had conflicting appointments and a full schedule. Did not discuss any problems at that point. Went to work and typed up a list of items to be dealt with. 1945 San Antonio Avenue Items of Interest -- 20 December 1990 Here is a random list of items that need to be dealt with, one way or another. Some of these are just minor, routine things that would probably be taken care of in any event. Others are more serious, requiring significant effort. Item: Exhaust fan. Need reverse flow damper and dress louvers (grill). Resolution: Obtain and install. Item: Shower drain. Installed unnecessarily high. Resolution: Live with it. Space between shower floor and ceiling below, combined with dimension of p-trap, limit options. Not a serious problem in any event. Item: Greenhouse window. Broken pane. Remaining pane possibly knocked loose from its seal. Resolution: Verify remaining pane is properly seated -- repair if necessary. Replace broken pane. (Clean existing pane before installing new inner pane!) Item: Windows above stair landing. Framed and installed wrong. Top windows are on the bottom. Resolution: Live with it. Minor aesthetic negative, but not worth forcing the issue. Item: New stairs. Too narrow, do not meet code, not constructed to plan. Treads must be 36" wide (min). Resolution: Revise to match drawings: Eliminate 4" ledge and add 2" width to each flight of stairs. Item: Wrought iron handrail. Not appropriate for revised stairs. Resolution: Remove and replace with new rail, per drawings. Item: New stairs (first flight). Fragment of old flooring not removed. Resolution: Remove and reframe bottom of stairs. Item: Protection for possessions. Tarps removed. Resolution: Restore protection with tarps and/or vis-queen. Item: Theft. 1/4 ounce of precious herbs swiped from bedroom drawer. Resolution: Live with it. Item: Spilled tar. On chimney and siding. Resolution: Clean. Item: Skylight in kitchen and bathroom. Unsightly tar shows. Resolution: Trim away and clean excess tar. Item: Damage to shrubs. Resolution: Live with it. Bring in gardener for one day to neaten up, remove dead plants, etc. Item: Hardwood floors unprotected and damaged. Resolution: Refinish stairs, hallway, dining room and north half of living room. Item: Answering machine. Disconnected -- Lost several days of business calls. Resolution: Live with this loss. Don't disconnect for more than a few minutes in the future. Item: Messy job-site. Daily sweep-up not done. Resolution: Do end-of-day sweep-up. Item: Upstairs balcony. Must extend to be aligned with lower deck. Resolution: Decking and rail to be built to plan. Item: Redwood siding. Ugly, miscut ends on some pieces. Resolution: Irrelevant. The rough cut ends are hidden by final trim pieces. Item: Rough flooring and shelves in grade-level storage areas. Removed and not replaced. Resolution: Return to approximate initial condition: Under stairs: Replace plywood shelf to right of door, at lower ledge of foundation. Replace second plywood shelf about 18" above that. Both as deep as possible. Behind closet: Repair rough flooring. Replace plywood floor on cinder blocks just above grade up to the new foundation. Replace shelving on west wall -- similar to shelves on south wall. Item: Toilet paper. All reserves used up and not replaced. Resolution: Forget it. (But it bugged us when we arrived home after an exhausting 20-hour day!) Item: Fencing at end of parking slot. Damaged and defaced. Resolution: Repair and refinish to match house exterior. Jim (crew chief) was sent, and I went home at noon to go over the list with him. He was aghast at the mess, and dismayed to see the damaged floor. He and his crew had finished their main work and had cleaned up well about a week earlier. Subsequent to that, the drywall people had been in for two or three days -- unsupervised by anyone from Freitas. "I told Karen I didn't think it was a good idea to give them the keys, but she said we had to keep rolling to stay on schedule. I told her I wouldn't trust 'em in here alone. You never know who they'll bring in -- probably straight across the border from Mexico -- can't even speak English, half of 'em." Etc, etc. When he had arrived on the scene, before I got there, he had called Clarence to report the situation. Reva overheard him telling Clarence that "these floors have been trashed." So we went through the list. Many of the items were minor, and were dismissed quickly. The stairs, however, caused him considerable pain. He did *not* want to confront the error. This is difficult to describe without looking at the drawings, but basically they had failed to understand the plans, and as a result the stairs were made 34" wide instead of 36", and an odd little ledge, 4" wide, not shown on the plans, appeared adjacent to the upper flight. This was a matter that I had personally explained to both Jim and Clarence, because I realized it was difficult to visualize. I could see it clearly enough -- but then, the architect had explained it to me in detail. When they came to it, however, they missed the point. The building code calls for 36" treads, minimum. The plans show it that way. That's the way I want it. They will have to tear it out and do it over. Jim went on at some length about how "the architect can't always get all the details right -- things come up that have to be done differently -- you can't build this the way it's drawn," and so on. Finally we agreed to kick it up to Clarence for decision, and went on to look at other matters. Jim was considerably subdued when I pointed out another clear error. An array of four fixed windows in the stairwell had been framed and installed upside down. That is, the plans called for two large windows with two small windows above them, but they put the small windows on the bottom with the large ones above. In this case my reaction was to leave it as built. It creates only a minor aesthetic flaw, and gives me some leverage to use on other more important points. I showed him the drawer in the bedroom that had been looted. He was sincerely sad about it -- "Hey, I understand how you feel. If you wish, I can replace it for you." We shared a smile. "Sure, I'll take repayment in kind -- but that was really good shit." We left it at that. At the end of the day his helpers had cleaned up the mess and given the floors a coat of wax. (And Reva spent a half hour cleaning up the bathroom behind them -- wax and/or stain all over the basin area.) Clarence called and I did a recap for him over the phone. I'm sure he hates to have things go awry and cause pain for his clients. He assured me again, as he has before, that he will absolutely do whatever is required to ensure a sound, professional piece of work and a happy client in the end. And I believe him. The conversation was cordial enough -- we shared a chuckle over Jim's embarrassment about the upside down windows. Regarding the floors, as I put it, "Look, some real damage has been done, and I feel you owe me something on this one, but the damage is only in certain areas, not the whole floor. Let's wait until later on and do some horse trading on this -- we'll work out something that's fair." "Ok, but I repeat, I take this sort of thing seriously -- it's very important to me that you be satisfied." ------------------------------ So that's where we stand. With the new stairs in, we can go upstairs easily now -- no more ladders. Reva and/or I go up from time to time, look around, check the view, position furniture, dream. Our own penthouse suite. Wow. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Fri, Dec 21, '90 (17:21) Wow. Quite a report. This journal should be printed up and distributed... Stewart Brand (sbb) Fri, Dec 21, '90 (17:38) 1 line What does this say about lapses in supervision J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Fri, Dec 21, '90 (19:03) It says that they happen. The GC blew it. Now they get to practice First Aid :-) noir (noir) Wed, Dec 26, '90 (17:33) This really is quite a chronicle. As a siding contractor and carpenter, I've seen all of this for years, but am still captivated by the tale. I find much of it to be typical, both positively and negatively. The apparent integrity of the contractor isn't as rare as some would think, though you can consider yourselves fortunate to have found an honest one anyhow. The problems that have occurred could have been avoided in some cases, but given the nature of the work, i.e., the trauma being inflicted on the building, some of these things are likely to happen. Sometimes the mere act of doing work causes problems to surface that were on the verge of happening, just waiting for the straw that breaks the camels back. The thefts are unfortunate. I was working on a job about a year ago where the homeowners lost some 1966 Bordeaux wines among others. They had a couple of suspects, but couldn't prove anything. It was pretty unpleasant to be around. The contractor, who was a good guy felt terrible. Orchestrating jobs of this size and larger is no easy task. One part of the work is dependent on another. Job A has to be done so that job B can begin. Job B has to be done so that C can start, etc. If someone is behind schedule, which is the norm, due to this chain reaction of the above from previous work, as well as slow performance, days off, and whatever else you can imagine, things can get pretty screwed up. One sub with unsavory workers can make life miserable for everybody involved. Contractors and supervisors who evoke trust and make people want to perform well for them have skills the importance of which should not be underestimated. Hang in there a little longer Reva and Jerry. It's almost over. BTW, your even handed dealings with the ups and downs of the process have helped to keep things cordial and "smooth" as they seem to have been. Who knows, maybe you'll even miss all the excitement when everyone is gone. :-) Reva Basch (reva) Thu, Dec 27, '90 (13:51) Not bloody likely. ;-) More to come, soon... Jerry (jcs) Fri, Dec 28, '90 (08:30) 124 lines During the past few days there have been several significant developments. Last weekend Reva and I kept looking at the new landing between the two flights of the new stairs. Viewed from below, something was oddly jarring about the way a 12" ledge, about 4' above the landing floor, blocked the view of the lower windows in the landing wall. Finally it dawned on me: that ledge was not supposed to be there at all. And getting rid of that ledge would involve reshaping a small portion of the outside structure of the building. Recall: redwood siding and trim is complete. There were other problems, as well. The front door and three surrounding windows were drawn in a pleasing, symmetrical array. In execution, two of the windows were the wrong size, and the transom window over the front door was misaligned by several inches. The result was a hodgepodge. Reva and I discussed what to do. Well, the drawings were clear on this point, and it really did bother us, so I called Clarence on Sunday. "We tried to figure the least bad day to call you: Sunday, Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. But the situation with the new stairs is worse than we thought." I outlined the problem, and asked if it would be possible for him to meet with Reva and me and go over all this carefully before any more work is done. "We would really like for you to take a firm grip on this job and make it come out right." So Clarence and Steve Yatsco (marketing -- our original contact) showed up on Wednesday. I had prepared another list -- 1945 San Antonio Avenue Discussion List December 26, 1990 Item: 12" ledge in new stair landing. Must be taken out. Inset for front door ends at level of landing, as shown on plans. Item: Three windows around front door. Must be aligned and symmetrical as shown on plans. Window over door must be aligned with door. Other two windows must be same size and aligned. Exterior redwood trim consistent on all three windows. Interior wood trim consistent. All three windows to be same type of "obscure" glass. Item: Four windows in landing area. Installed incorrectly, but leave as-is. Must all be obscure glass, to match windows below. Item: Plaster coat on east wall of stairs. Bubbles and bulges not acceptable. Finish must be consistent with other walls. Item: Water damage stains. Stain has bled through new plaster coat in places. Treat as necessary so that no evidence of water damage shows in final paint job. Item: Drop cloths. Plasterers, painters, etc. must use drop cloths as needed to completely cover and protect floors and possessions. Item: Lost electrical circuit. No box is in place for light fixture in east wall of new bedroom. [Type and position described in "Finish List."] Item: Main floor windows and opening in livingroom wall into new stairwell. Wood trim restored to match existing (original) trim. Item: Upstairs windows and sliding door. Wood trim to match existing trim elsewhere in house. Clarence and Steve and I (and Reva for part of the time) went through every item on this list, and also every item on the earlier list of December 20. As is usually the case, some of the things we were worried about would have been taken care of as a matter of course, or were relatively trivial. These we resolved quickly. Most of our time was spent deciding what to do about the stairs. And this was very revealing. Clarence and Steve focused entirely on the most effective way to go about restructuring the stairs and windows to suit us and to match the drawings. I'm sure they must have seen their profit margin eroding, but nevertheless they made no excuses, and they didn't argue. In short, Clarence behaved exactly in accordance with his stated intention to "do whatever is required to ensure a good job and a happy client." I came away from that meeting feeling vastly relieved. That morning, when Clarence first arrived, he said, "I have a replacement for what was taken." And he handed me a small plastic package. He gave me the impression that he was entirely unfamiliar with such things, but went to this effort simply as a matter of ethics and integrity. It was a very nice thing for him to do, and I told him how much I appreciated it. Another thing has happened that is very heartening. Out of a desperate need to see *something* finished, I took some personal initiative. On Monday and Tuesday I did finish sanding and painting of the interior of a large kitchen cupboard. We reinstalled the shelving, and then were able to put away properly all of our plates, glasses, plastic containers, liquor, etc., that had been stacked haphazardly all over the kitchen for several weeks. It's amazing how much of a morale boost this was -- something is "back the way it's supposed to be." Yesterday Jim and the crew tore into restructuring the stairs and windows. I'm afraid Jim is feeling severely out of joint about this turn of events. He is subdued almost to the point of sulkiness. No doubt his standing in Clarence's eyes has diminished. So the game goes on. In the midst of all this, the plasterer has finished texture coat. And this includes about 80% of the existing walls, as well as the new structure. We expect painting to start this Saturday. We will end up with (almost) an entirely refinished home. It's going to look great. The vanity cabinets for the new bathroom have been delivered: one main section missing, other sections missing a drawer we had spec'ed. C'est la guerre. Reva Basch (reva) Sat, Dec 29, '90 (20:36) Okay, we've got an attitude problem here. Some of it's ours, and some - a large part, and causally related -is Jim's. Jer's described how Jim has been kind of, uh, subdued, since he's had to re-do the stair extension (which, btw, was accomplished - demo to sheetrock and skip-trowel texturing - in two days flat. Remarkable, considering the major exterior and interior wall re-work that was involved. And it looks good. And, yes, we've *told* him it looks good). Yesterday, Jer had what he thought was a back-to-normal, straightforward conversation with Jim about various matters, including but not limited to the Stairway Problem. OTOH, maybe I'm paranoid, but *I* sure didn't pick up on any warming trend on the foreman front. Jim and I crossed paths half a dozen times during the day, and I had to force the "hi's." He would've been content to ignore me, I'm sure, and he did, for the most part. Very different from our interaction before the trip to London, when we'd at least chat about the weekend, what they were hoping to accomplish here in the next day or so, that kind of thing. So. The crew left yesterday - Friday afternoon - without a word. Again, uncharacteristic. Previously, they'd made a point of saying, "We're outta here," and telling me who'd be showing up when to do what. I went upstairs about an hour after they'd left (my office/our "motel room" is down a short flight of stairs from where the action begins), and found Jer hard at work covering a couple of gaping holes with cardboard. We're talking 30-degree temps here. Guys had just walked off and left the window frames above the front door *wide* open. Maybe it's me, but considering how careful they'd been in the past, this just screamed "fuck you." And the other thing. The deck leading out from the bedroom got built yesterday. Sort of. Jer and I looked at it, independently, and thought - "Whoa - shoddy work, guys." Granted, it'll be painted over, but there are bent nails, nailheads sticking out at odd angles, mitered corners that don't meet, and in one case, a split vertical rail that's been cobbled back together with two nails stuck into it, at angles, from the sides. The lumber itself was handsawed down from larger dimensions, and is *really* rough. The deck looks like shit. Um, so these are the guys who are going to do the *finish* work... We've both been having imaginary dialogs with Jim in our minds (we just talked about this at dinner) and are wondering whether he's just trying to get through with this gig in the quickest and most expeditious way possible, or if there's some way of clearing the air with him, *or* if the best thing would be just to go to Clarence and say, "Yo, dude, we have this problem..." I hate to think that our house is being finished by someone who resents doing it. Those are not the vibes I want where we live (especially not in a *bedroom*, fer gopods sake!). I'm also very uneasy around the possibility that Clarence, the general contractor, might have bought off on the necessity to rebuild the staircase per plan, thinking that he could make it up on time and materials later in the job - i.e., on the finish work, where it really shows. I find it hard to believe that a reputable contractor would play that game. So. Should be intermission time at the Coliseum. I think I'll go check whether anyone's posted a setlist. Sigh... Jerry (jcs) Tue, Jan 1, '91 (10:24) Happy New Year! Here is where we stand on January 1st. Yesterday morning Clarence showed up with his brother Rick and another finish carpenter named Mark. He spent a half hour or so instructing them to proceed with various parts of finish trim, door hanging, etc. When the group moved out onto the new deck I joined them. "Ah, I have to talk to you about this for a moment." But Clarence was already scowling at what he saw. "Son of a bitch!" he said. "I think they should have really gotten properly milled 2 X 2's for these verticals," I began. "OK, rip all this out," Clarence sighed, turning to the other two. In about thirty seconds he outlined the way he wanted the deck built. Start with the bottom 2X4 and nail the verticals from the bottom. Then add a top 2X4 and nail down into the verticals. Then add a 2X6 cap over that, mitred at the corners. Go down and pick up the clear material you need. "God DAMN it!" I didn't hang around once I saw it was going to be rebuilt. Later, when Reva and I could speak to Clarence alone, we asked about Jim's status at this point. "Is he all bent out of shape from having to do the stairs over? That deck was done so poorly it crossed our minds he might have done it deliberately, just to spite us." "No, that's not Jim. Listen, I don't even want to *talk* about that deck. Jim's part of this job is completed now, anyway -- the rest is all finish stuff and painting." "It's just -- well, so much of what he did came out fine. It would be a shame for him to end up bitter, or feeling that he had failed, somehow." "You call him if you wish -- I'm in no mood to be passing out compliments right now." Then we went on to discuss other matters. It's time for another progress payment. As a result of their almost uncanny ability to stay on schedule, this payment is hitting about a month before I expected it. The money we need is in a CD that will not mature until February, so we are going to have to borrow temporarily from another fund that we normally wouldn't touch. But we are *not* complaining. Later in the day Mark told me, "I was going to start on that deck, but it turns out that the fellow that did it is going to come back in and do it over on his own time -- clean up his own mess." "I don't *think* we are being too hardnosed about that deck, are we?" "Oh, no, not by a long shot." He grinned ruefully, shaking his head." Lesson: Rely on your own good judgement about what is acceptable. Don't hesitate to question things that bother you. Speak up, talk to the tradesmen, keep the flow of give and take active and up front. Once more, in our contact with Clarence, we come away feeling reassured. This man is either utterly straightforward and sincere, or he is very, very clever and shrewd -- the former, it seems to me. The stairs-and-railing subcontractor came in to measure the job and prepare a bid. We are going to have to choose between wrought iron (cheaper) and all oak (nicer). And this brings up the whole question of "allowances." At the outset of the job, the costs for several items were estimated and entered as "allowances." These were all things that would have to be specified in detail, later, by the owners (us'ens). If actual costs turned out to be less than estimated, the bottom line for the job would go down accordingly, and vice-(almost certainly)-versa. At this point in the game most of these actual costs are known, but we have not gotten an accounting from Freitas yet. And we need to know how this is coming out, so that we can tell how much we might have available to spend on the stair railings. I gotta talk to Karen. Mike Farren (farren) Tue, Jan 1, '91 (21:45) I'm sure you've already thought about this, but for me, the extra expense of oak would amortize out over time to quite a low figure, considering the extra pleasure I get from wood over wrought iron. Say you use that handrail once a week for ten years - that's 520 times you'll have the extra hit of pleasure, and even if it costs $1000 extra, that's less than two dollars a week - worth it in my book, if it's at all possible. Jerry (jcs) Wed, Jan 2, '91 (07:08) 1 line Love that rationalization! Actually, both Reva and I prefer to use oak -- Reva Basch (reva) Wed, Jan 2, '91 (11:39) Yeah, I'm finding it increasingly harder to rationalize wrought iron at all. It's a *wood* house. Meanwhile, the finish carpenter who was supposed to work yesterday didn't show up, and hasn't checked in with Clarence today, either. And the tile guy whom we dealt with originally - he gave us shopping advice, and came to spec out the job a few weeks ago - is apparently not going to do the work after all. Another tiler is supposed to come sometime today. Post-holiday hard-to-get-it-togethers? Reva Basch (reva) Thu, Jan 3, '91 (15:49) Electrician's been working away all day. But we haven't seen a finish carpenter since Monday, though the plan was for them to work through this week. I can hear the shuffling of schedules in the background... Interior painting's now scheduled for the end of next week, and exterior, the week of 11 Feb. Looks like we won't finish in January after all. No biggie, though it *would* be nice to get the new space liveable. New tile contractor, Alex, was out yesterday. Seemed a lot more knowledgeable than the first. He's more expensive, too, apparently, but more available at the moment. If his bid is within reason, he seems to be the man to use. One thing puzzles me about the tile thing - we're inclined to go with a very basic design - all one color with a single course of an accent color (teal w/Mexican sand - did we mention that? I think so). I'd expect a tiler to say, "I can do this really neat effect, if you want...". Or at least show us some examples in a brochure. But neither guy we've spoken to has taken that initiative, and I've hesitated to come up with a sketch, partly because I don't like real busy-looking tilework and would be happier with something simple, partly because I'm not sure every tile person likes to do, or is capable of doing, more than the basics, and partly because I'm not sure of the cost impact. What level of expertise/enthusiasm is it reasonable to expect in this craft? I'm sure that a lot of cutting must drive up the labor cost, but what about helping conceive and laying out a, um, pattern? Anyway. Things are shifting into a different rhythm. Big crews are gone, 7 AM starts seem to be a thing of the past, at least for the moment. No big noises, but lots of little decisions. Just today, I've had a flurry of calls and/or visits - from the bathroom sink-and-countertop supplier and the glass, hardwood floor and wooden stairs perns. Only one piece remains of the original translucent glass in the entranceway. We'd hoped, naively I'm sure, that we'd be able to recycle some of it, or at least match it. It's kind of a corrugated pattern that offers privacy without eliminating too much light. Of course it's not made anymore, so we have to go for something different in the three openings that surround the front door, as well as the four grouped windows in the new stairwell. The glass guy is recommending Flemish something, which he described as clear but textured; we'll have to look at a sample. Apparently there aren't too many options in the obscured-glass area; it was big in the '50s, when this house was built. The glass man said, "I know you don't want the kind of stuff they use for shower doors, that'd look terrible." Encouraging sign of an aesthetic sensibility. I really like the old glass, but maybe the Flemish will be okay. It's an important decision - a focal point for visitors, and something we'll see every time we use the door or the stairs. Quote from the wooden railing guy: $3402, including all the treads and associated pieces. Yiiii! About twice what we expected. The wrought iron guy hasn't called back, but this is probably 10X higher. Of course, we'd have to add the cost of the treads to his bid. The more I think about it, the more inappropriate iron seems to this house, and the more I like Farren's comment about amortizing the extra cost. Jer and I have *not* discussed this yet. %^) Jerry (jcs) Fri, Jan 4, '91 (07:04) $3402!!! I want a second opinion! Does anyone out there know a good man for stair railings? Jerry (jcs) Fri, Jan 4, '91 (14:39) Cancel the alert! It turns out there was a misunderstanding regarding the quote from the stair 'n rail subcontractor. His $3402 covered the stair rail AND the stairs. But only the rail is on an allowance. The rail alone is $1408 -- in the ballpark we were expecting. So you will all be pleased to hear that we have elected to go for the oak stair rails. Mike Farren (farren) Fri, Jan 4, '91 (21:44) Great! Always a nice thing when you can get what you want for 50% less than you thought you might have to pay. BTW - are the stair treads oak, as well? Reva Basch (reva) Sat, Jan 5, '91 (13:35) Finish carpenter's absence last week explained: his 2-month-old grandchild died of spinal meningitis. Sigh... We went to Berkeley Glass at lunchtime yesterday to look at the options in obscure glass for the entranceway and stairwell. After considering a larger-grain pattern, we decided on the Flemish clear that the glass man had recommended. Brought a small square home and propped it up in one of the window frames, against the clear glass that's in there now. I'm still not really happy with it; a little too "shopping-center-y" looking. Jer thinks it's fine. If it weren't for the privacy issue, I'd prefer standard window glass. Yep, stair treads are oak, too. One bonus - aside from relief about the price - is that the existing flight down to my office, which never matched the upstairs one (it's a darker color, maybe a stained softwood, I dunno), will be replaced in the process. Charles Stembridge (cstem) Mon, Jan 7, '91 (00:17) >tile craftsmanship I've found the person who actually the tile-setting is more than willing to play with ideas and patterns. The "contractor" is often more involved in scheduling and settling the contract; unless it's a one person show, you probably won't see him/her again until it's time to pay the bill...Talk to the setter. >obscure glass Have you looked at stained glass supply houses for obscure glass? Quite a bit of that "no longer made" glass is indeed still made. For starters, I'd try Stained Glass Garden at the corner of Hearst and 4th St. in Berkeley (in the building supply ghetto). Reva Basch (reva) Mon, Jan 7, '91 (16:16) Thanks for the tips. Both tile guys we've spoken to *are* the setters. And it's now back to guy #1. And Clarence fired the finish carpenter for not showing up this morning, and not calling him, after he promised last night to get back on the job. It's a hard life, sometimes. Good point about Stained Glass Garden; I'd forgotten about that place, and I used to *do* stained glass. Thanks! gnu abuser (rotten) Mon, Jan 7, '91 (22:51) Why is it that window companies *almost always* have a problem with giving you obscure glass when you *specifically* ask for it? This is a great topic and I have just finished reading it--this project reminds me of one I did about 3 years ago. No thefts but lots and lots and lots of rain. Reva Basch (reva) Tue, Jan 8, '91 (11:04) Because glass is breakable and can't be recycled in other jobs if it's cut wrong or the customers change their mind? Uh, the finish carpenter was *un*-fired (de-fired), and was on the job at 6:59 this morning. We talked quite a bit about closet poles and Other Stuff. Seemed like the thing to do... obscure? (altocat) Thu, Jan 10, '91 (09:54) Here's one idea about craftsmen taking initiative. It may be the safest course to expect someone to take *design* initiative if they are being paid hourly and the owner is willing to take responsibility for the outcome. When you ask a craftsman to exercise initiative (which sounds like a reasonable thing) you have to at the same time realize that you are asking him or her to inject an element of risk and insecurity into the outcome. Let's face it, in life risk = cost. On the other hand, when a craftsman works from a clear set of drawings and specs, then you should expect them to be completely responsible for the outcome. I've worked both ways. A large part of success here is dependent on personal chemistry between owners and craftspeople. Also PERCEPTION. For instance, you may think someone is being wonderfully cooperative about throwing in extra touches. The truth may be that his or her bid was way high, you are in fact paying a fortune without realizing it, but think the person is very nice. Conversely, you may get some poor bidder who way underbids, but is an honest soul and is going to complete the work to the letter. But he absolutely refuses to do anything extra and thus, ironically, is perceived as being not too cooperative. I'm still perplexed by the whole thing. btw, it seems to me that your remodel is going relatively smoothly, all in all. I mean, you think *you've* got problems? Oy, we'll tell you about problems! Stewart Brand (sbb) Thu, Jan 10, '91 (10:12) Continuing good stuff here. I hope the reporting continues *after* the finishing is "finished". Reva Basch (reva) Thu, Jan 10, '91 (12:05) I think you've hit it, altocat, with your 2nd supposition, i.e. that we're dealing with low bidders who are probably competent at their craft, but not particularly interested in getting Creative. On a different scale, that of the general contractor rather than his subs, I think it's the same story: For $30K more (roughly, the difference between this bid and the high one), we'd have gotten a lot more artistry along with the craft. Interesting, and in retrospect, not surprising. gnu abuser (rotten) Thu, Jan 10, '91 (18:40) Its the same old saying--"you get what you pay for". One thing you have to realize is that the contractor is human. He has responsibilities to his company. He has to protect himself so he won't go out of business. He has to maintain a certain amount of solvency to pay his employees and keep other economic responsibilities. He might even have a family to support! I don't fault a guy who is the low bidder on a project who doesn't fancy himself a designer or artist, just completing the job following the plans verbatim. This is assuming that he has given his clients good service and has been helpful, friendly and co-operative. I personally like to be a little more creative on the job and am willing to risk failure. One thing though--I want to get paid for my time. I want to be fair to my customers too, but this is what I do for a *living*. Its really frustrating sometimes to see people who are unhappy with a job and then realizing for just a bit more (relatively, more :-)) they could have gotten something that they *really* are excited about rather than just plain content with. Its a really difficult thing to gauge. How do you know if the artistic con- tractor who gives you more is worth the extra money? Tough call. Charles Stembridge (cstem) Thu, Jan 10, '91 (23:44) I'm not convinced artistry = more $. And one of the most expensive contractors I work with is the one who most closely and carefully follows the plans/specs. to the letter. I would agree that care and quality (in building) = more $. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Fri, Jan 11, '91 (09:58) I would say that artistry definitly = more risk though. Jerry (jcs) Fri, Jan 11, '91 (16:10) 115 lines Another week -- end of the 10th week of work. On Monday I had to go to Hayward for a business meeting, and after it was over I decided to drop in on the offices of Freitas Construction. I found them up in the hills to the east of town. Clarence's residence and office occupy two floors of a new three-story apartment/condo building. I showed up unannounced, but fortunately the folks I have been dealing with were all there: Clarence, Karen and Steve Yatsco. I apologized for not calling ahead, and said I would just stay a few minutes if they were busy; but Clarence was quite willing to take some time to talk. Background: The previous week had been pretty much of a washout. Two days lost for New Year's, and following that Mark (finish carpenter) failed to show up when expected. It turned out that his two month old grandchild had suddenly died of spinal meningitis, and he was dealing with a family in crisis. [In a painful coincidence, the six month old son of the sheet metal subcontractor also has come down with the disease.] This Monday we were expecting the pace to pick up again, but no one showed up to work. So after the amenities, we got down to business. Steve, Karen and I gathered at Clarence's desk. "So what's happening with our crew?" "Well, I just fired a man -- that's what's happening. Not that that makes me a big man or anything, but for a man to wait 'til two in the afternoon to let me know that he is not at the site is not tolerable. Tomorrow you'll have a new man in there, Rick." (Rick is Clarence's brother.) I understood that he was referring to firing Mark. We went on to discuss scheduling the final stages of this job. After finish carpentry the big items are tile, hardwood floor, stair rail, interior painting and exterior painting. Then we went over the costs for the various items that are "on allowance." We had a disagreement over whether the hardwood stair treads are an allowance item. The contract only mentions the rail as being on allowance, but not the stairs per se. "Ah, but the stairs are covered under 'floor coverings', which is another allowance item." "Yeah? As I read this I would assume that 'stairs' means the completed stairs. Finish treads and all. How am I supposed to know that the treads are extra?" "No, look, under the basic construction part of the job we go in and complete the basic structure. Then the subs do their parts. These allowances cover what we have to pay the craftsmen. It doesn't matter whether you call the stair treads a separate item, or regard them as a part of flooring, they are still under allowance. That includes parts and labor." I pointed out that the electrical work was not handled that way: only the cost of fixtures was on allowance. Similarly with the plumbing work. Steve spoke up. "Hmm, that's a lesson for us. It's always done this way, but it should have been more explicit in the contract." "Look, I see you don't like it," Clarence said, "but I hope you believe that we're being honest about it." And I did. This was a lesson to me, too. I believed they were being sincere -- next time through something like this I will understand more about "how things are always done." "So -- oh, well. I guess I'm not going to win this one." I smiled, and we went on to other subjects. We have now made the penultimate payment. The final payment will be $5,000 -- plus the amount we run over on allowance costs. All items on allowance add up to an estimated $15,200. At the present time we are $1,250 over that, assuming actual tile and flooring costs are as estimated. I keep looking at our cushion of funds available. We're doing OK. Then it was time for "the tour." Clarence's office is separated from his home by a wall that is mostly one huge aquarium -- perhaps 4' high, 8' long, and 6" thick (the thickness of the wall). Clarence's wife Nancy showed up and they took me around their house. Lot's of nice touches -- oak, tile, glass, etc. "I hate to look, it's so much nicer than ours is going to be," I stroked. In the passage leading away from the bedroom I noticed two or three revealing, sexy photographs of Nancy. "Oops," I said, reflexively averting my gaze. "No problem," Clarence said, smiling. ------------------------------------ Tuesday morning Mark showed up at 6:50. Clarence had apparently had a change of heart. Over the weekend Mark's daughter "had totally lost it" and he had to take *her* in for medical help. So things have been moving right along. The glazing of the windows around the front door has been completed, and the house is sealed again. Ironically, while the window openings were closed off with cardboard, we had the coldest weather in recorded history for this area. Today I expect Mark and Steve (another young finish carpenter) will complete all the finish work, upstairs and down, including re-building the upstairs deck. Lee McNair (remember Lee?) will be doing the tile work after all. He just called to tell me he would start this afternoon and work over the weekend. The flooring sub is expected in this afternoon, too, to measure and order materials. Interior painting is scheduled for next week. Exterior painting is scheduled for the week of February 11. ------------------------------------- Late update, Friday afternoon. Went home for lunch and to check in on the scene. Met Clarence and Steve Yatsco just as they were leaving. They had fired Mark, after all. I didn't get a chance to say good-bye. Lee McNair arrived while I was there. "Why is this bathroom not painted?" He was almost plaintive. He launched into a long explanation of why the painting has to be done before the tile work. "Hey, look," I interposed, "you and Clarence have to talk about that." He continued with his recital. We went over some details of how the tile pattern is supposed to be done. I left him mumbling and shaking his head about scheduling problems. Jerry (jcs) Wed, Jan 16, '91 (09:06) This Friday will be the end of the 11th week -- the original schedule called for completion by this date. It looks like interior painting will be essentially complete by then, and bathroom tile will be well under way. This leaves floor/stair installation and finishing, stair rail installation and finishing, installation of down spouts, and exterior finishing. The most optimistic date to move into the new space is now February 1st. Exterior painting is presently scheduled for mid-February. Late, but not too bad, really. I continue to feel that this project has moved at a good pace. As we enter the phinal phases (isn't English weird?), we are beginning to draw conclusions about the overall performance of this contractor. It's a mixed review. High marks for integrity and reasonableness, and for the industriousness of the main crew. These folks didn't mess around. Low marks for quality assurance, coordination among subs, and a sense of continuity. Here are examples: Quality Assurance. While we were out of town for ten days, the structure departed from the plans in several serious ways. The GC placed too much reliance on the on-site crew chief and his helpers. We would all have been better off if another set of eyes, not the people doing the building, had checked the work every couple of days to verify compliance with the drawings. Coordination. Literally all of the subcontractors have groused about lack of coordination. The electrician thought it odd that he was being asked to put in some final fixtures before painting. "I don't know -- I guess they will have to pull these off to paint the walls." The plumber put pipes in a position that did not match the position of the bathroom vanity; this was not rectified until *after* the sheetrock was in place over the pipes. The tiler has found that the walls of the open shower area were not done correctly; near the bottom of the walls there should have been six inches of solid wood backing for the vinyl membrane that forms the shower "pan", and the sheetrock should have ended a few inches above that backing. Don't these folks talk to each other? Yesterday the tiler was complaining about having to work around the painter. We had this little interchange. "Look, see here? We have to watch out for these walls, they're still tacky." Meanwhile, his helper was sweeping up the debris from the sheetrock they had just torn out; dust billowed. "Ah, gee, I hope that dust isn't getting into the fresh paint," I said. "Oh, yeah, leave that 'til tomorrow," he instructed. The sheet metal man said things like, "If they had positioned this scupper six inches over this way the down spout would go straight down the side of the house. Oh, well, I guess I'll just cut a hole in the deck and run it down there." And, before I noticed what he was doing, the painter nailed solidly in place and painted some final trim pieces that had been deliberately left loose because they will have to be reshaped and fitted when the new stair treads go in. No one, *NO ONE*, is keeping the big picture clearly in mind and coordinating all this stuff. Continuity. Consider this. Last Friday Steve (finish carpenter) and his friend Gary were trying to hit all the last details that needed finishing. "Anything you see that needs doing, tell us now." I said, "Well, there are some things I haven't mentioned because they are so obvious. For instance, the shelf in this hall closet was torn out when they put in the heat ducts -- it has to be put back the way it was originally." But, as Steve pointed out, he had not been on the scene until the last few days; he had no idea how it had been originally. You see the problem. Reva and I had spent several hours at the outset going over all aspects of the drawings with Clarence and Steve Yatsco, making sure that we all were in agreement about what was to be done. But they were not the ones who would show up to do the work -- continuity break #1. After rough framing, *that* crew left, never to return -- continuity break #2. Finish carpentry began with the Rick/Mark team, but Rick only showed up once, and Mark was later fired, leaving Steve and Gary, entirely new to the job, to finish up -- continuity break #3. There is a lesson in all this. (Keep in mind that as an electrical engineer, my work involves designing things and then supervising the construction of them.) When we began this project, I felt that the appropriate way to proceed was to get a clear understand with the GC at the outset and then to get out of the way and let him do his thing. He is the professional in this field -- he'll get it done in his own fashion. Forget that. The next time (remember that hilltop in Mendocino?) I will be on-site constantly, watching and checking everything. --------------------------------------- Today's decisions: We have a quote from the flooring man that is about $1000 beyond the $3500 allowance. We will get at least one more bid before we make a decision. Here is an interesting point. We had specified the flooring to be equivalent to the existing hardwood floors -- 5/16" short, flat pieces, individually nailed through from the top. The subcontractor recommended we go to 3/4" tongue-and-groove flooring with hidden nails (definitely superior). The difference in cost would be only $108 for the whole job. The same sub gave us a quote of $1600 to refinish the existing floors on the main level. After I post this I am going to call Clarence and see if I can get him to split this with us. Reva Basch (reva) Wed, Jan 16, '91 (12:03) A couple more observations. Keepin' my mind off Iraq this morning, and *on* this here real estate investment that will either mean everything, or diddley, depending on what happens in the Gulf and in the economy... Okay. There seems to be a classic rivalry/one-up-pern-ship between rough and finish carpenters. Little if any continuity in the trade. Different personality types. Have I offended anyone yet? ;-) Okay, I'm sure there are exceptions, and probably even some well-integrated human beings who happen to do both. %^) Framers aren't building pianos, as someone (altocat?) said above. Steve, the new guy on the job last week, was bitching about the number of shims he had to put in before he could trim out the doors and windows: " Don't *those* guys have any pride in their work? " And it may just be coincidental, but last week was the first time we saw anything but Chevy and Ford pickups on the job-site. One of the trim carpenters drove a VW bug, the other a Nissan truckette. Painting. Spent a long time with Mark the Painter yesterday, talking about whiter shades of pale, and about how a satin finish in the closet would be both practical and aesthetically pleasing (it would make our "clothes glow," I was told. ;-} ). It did not escape my notice that it would also allow Mark to paint both shelves and closet walls/ceiling with the same can of paint... re: the coordination problems that Jerry mentioned. I can't help thinking that, in Clarence's mind, the job is at the point where we're expected to be acting on his behalf. Hey, he knows that *we* know that he's stretched thin, but this is the stage where timing's *everything*. The subs are coming to us with questions about scheduling, inspections and like that, that we don't have enough information to answer. Time's being wasted, these guys are losing patience, and I've gotta believe Clarence's profit margin is dwindling, too. Or do subs always work to a fixed-price contract? Part of Clarence's tactic for closing the sale, conscious or not, was telling us that, because of the complexity of the job and the logistical problems presented by the tight lot, *he'd* be foreman. Didn't happen; okay. Jim, the original crew chief, despite the problems with the stairs and the shoddy work on the deck, was good at keeping the early stages of the job coordinated, making sure the crew was well deployed, that materials were on site at the right time, etc. But he's gone. I can understand that we don't *need* someone from the Freitas office here every day, but somebody's gotta exert a little, uh, proactive supervision. Maybe it's just the end-of-job, when's-this-thing-gonna-be-finished blues. Oh, yeah. We went for the least-offensive obscure glass option. I feel neutral-to-negative, now that it's in place. I'd rather have stuck with clear, and changed my lifestyle to the extent of putting on a bathrobe when I went downstairs. Jerry's MMV, and does. Charles Stembridge (cstem) Thu, Jan 17, '91 (00:03) There's a time-honored tradition in building. Framers grouse about the foundation contractor. Finish carpenters grouse about the framers. Painters grouse about the finish carpenters. The engineer grouses about the plumber (who put that 8" notch in the 4x10). Everybody grouses about the architect. And the architect is certain the project would have been a masterpiece, if only the owner hadn't been in the way. gnu abuser (rotten) Thu, Jan 17, '91 (01:21) You left one out--the painters grouse about the drywallers as well as the finish carpenters. :-). Reva Basch (reva) Thu, Jan 17, '91 (11:44) Yep, you guys have nailed it. So to speak. Jerry (jcs) Fri, Jan 18, '91 (14:36) Friday, January 18. The interior of the house is so masked that I can't get into any of my clothes drawers. Painter has promised he will unmask us before he leaves for the weekend. So: interior spray painting is finishing today. Trim and touch up will be next week. But -- Mark the tiler blew it on his first attempt to creat a water tight shower pan. Had to rip it out and buy new membrane material. But he cannot proceed until the plumber comes in and connects the shower drain into the main sewer feed line. And the plumber is not keeping appointments. We have expected him Wed, Thurs and Friday. Now he is saying he will be in "Monday, first thing." Sigh. We have asked two other flooring contractors to bid on that part of the job -- no word yet from them. Things are sort of start 'n stop at this point in the game. Lord, am I *sick* of this! Reva Basch (reva) Fri, Jan 18, '91 (15:27) >Mark the tiler It's *Lee* the tiler. He's the only one who's *not* named Mark. ;-) >Lord, am I *sick* of this! What Jerry said. Maybe it's just (just?) the war in the Gulf on *top* of this. Stewart Brand (sbb) Fri, Jan 18, '91 (16:50) 1 line Hang in. Keep reporting. Reva Basch (reva) Sat, Jan 19, '91 (15:47) Oh, yeah. This is just a passing low-energy phase. Documented, just like everything else. ;-) Painter, btw, put in several hours today, a Saturday, and said he might want to come back tomorrow. Said this is a very "positive-energy" house, and he liked working here. Uh, you're not supposed to tip subcontractors, are you? %^) gnu abuser (rotten) Sat, Jan 19, '91 (21:20) The tip that I would give him would be to say "can the new-age rhetoric and start painting." :-) Reva Basch (reva) Mon, Jan 21, '91 (08:17) 1 line But that would be so... negative energy, y'know? ;-) gnu abuser (rotten) Mon, Jan 21, '91 (13:41) 1 line Yeah, I suppose and who wants to move into a space with negative energy :-) Reva Basch (reva) Wed, Jan 23, '91 (16:49) 103 lines Okay, so what's been going on in North Berkeley lately? It's been a disjointed week in more ways than one, oboy. Lots of tradesperns calling, making appointments, finding out if the other guy has finished *his* work... Joanne, the neighbor, blew up again. Mark the painter (who hadn't been warned about her) encountered her outside, and asked if he could sit on the big rocks in her backyard to eat lunch. "You most certainly may *not*," she told him, and came pounding on my office door. The message was "It's *your* responsibility to tell your tradespeople that they are *not* to have anything to do with my property." I told her that I agreed, but that it was hard to anticipate when a problem might arise. "Just do it. I hold you responsible" was Joanne's bottom line. And, to a great extent, she's right; knowing that we're operating here in an atmosphere of something less than optimal tolerance and cooperation, we could have made it a lot easier on everyone by briefing each sub who came in: "No matter what you do, don't walk on, park on, dump stuff on, make noise in the direction of, or otherwise impact the property next door." I'm being facetious, but if it comes down to a situation like this, an Unsympathetic Neighbor briefing is not a bad idea. The "inspirational" painter's assistant was sent off, unsupervised, on another job, where he managed to alienate the building inspector: "I don't work for you, I'm not paid to answer your questions." Guess he wasn't as truly enlightened as we all thought. %^) The result was that the inspector called the general contractor and the GC calling Mark-the-painter and said "Pull that guy off the job before he destroys our working relationship with the city of El Cerrito." OTOH, David, the helper Mark had in here the last couple of days, was superb. He did the entire kitchen, beautifully, in one day. That involved masking a lot of woodwork and moving many heavy appliances. He even cleaned up. Yesterday he did the (old) bathroom, plus a lot of trim work. I'm really looking forward to rehanging the pot-rack and getting the kitchen back to normal. These days, we get an inordinate amount of satisfaction from reclaiming *tiny* parts of the house, making them dust- free and uncluttered. Floors: Got three bids for installing new oak flooring and baseboards in the addition, building stairs, and refinishing the existing floors and stairs. Two were within $500 of each other (in the $6400-$6900 range). One was very much higher; the guy had warned us that it would be a lot cheaper to have the contractor slap in the stair treads, and that he'd refinish them gratis. Big deal. He wanted over $5K for the stair work alone, should he be forced to do it. He was kind of crotchety and know-it-all, too; I suppose I'd have given his argument more credence if he were a more pleasant person; as it was, it just seemed like he didn't want to do stairs, period, and therefore was pricing himself out of the job. Which he did. Of the remaining two, one was low on the stair work, high on refinishing the old floors; the other's numbers were almost the same, but in reverse. We went for that second guy. My rationale - and it may be entirely specious - was that, having budgeted more for them, he'd probably do nicer work on the stairs, and he probably has some more efficient system for doing the refinishing. He also seemed knowledgeable and organized, and was the only one whose bid included three finish coats, not two. In fact, he made rather a point of saying that two was just not enough. (Interesting sidelight: One of the floor people, the anti-stair guy in fact, told me that the industry had been seriously affected by the EPA (? I would've guessed OSHA) ruling several years ago against benzene solvents. Refinishers like to work with benzene products; they go on smoother and dry faster. At least in this area, he said, woodworkers of all kinds have been stockpiling the benzene products that are now illegal and consequently off the market. Everybody's beginning to run out, though, so his estimate of how long the floor job would take depended on whether he had any of his benzene formula left by the time he started it. Uh, I wonder what casual exposure to that stuff does to you?) Finally got the plumbers in to do their thing with the shower drain. They installed a hose bib at the trap so the tiler could get rid of the shower pan test water after inspection. It passed, btw; I'm so *proud* %^) So the plumber is off the critical path for the moment. At this point, the shower floor and wall are semi-mudded. It looks like shit. Obviously a transient condition, but it was so nice 'n' clean up there for a while. %^) Lee was supposed to show up today, after he finished a kitchen counter somewhere else, but he hasn't. It's hard to concentrate with all this going on; I've got a huge, short- deadline writing job staring me in the face, and here I am posting at length in design. %^) Maybe this will be cathartic; I'll tackle my paying gig *first thing* tomorrow morning, yeah... Speaking of tomorrow, painting should finish. Somebody from Freitas is supposed to be out at 8 to adjust the bathroom vanity drawers so the marble-top pern can make his depth measurements (counter thickness, bowl shaping, etc.) correctly. And Lee the tiler just called to say he'll be here at 10. Blessedly, he has a dentist appointment. If everything goes perfectly, the drawer guy will be done and out of his way by then. Lee gets, uh, *exasperated* easily, and boy does it show when he is. But hey, I find it a lot easier to relate to him than I did to Jim, the original foreman, who obviously wasn't very communicative on a lot of things. At least we know when this guy's having a bad day. Amazing how many details have to be accounted for at this point, how many separate crafts are converging on this little (now not-so-little) house. I'm sure the *early* stages of the job required a lot of prioritizing and fine scheduling, but Jerry and I weren't nearly as involved in the decision loop as we are now, in the finishing stages. Almost nothing's trivial if you want it to work out right. gnu abuser (rotten) Wed, Jan 23, '91 (17:50) Why would someone who is working on your house even *ask* your neighbor about using their property for a lunch area? Anyway sounds like things are cooking along..... Stewart Brand (sbb) Wed, Jan 23, '91 (18:32) 1 line Keep hanging in. runs good, cheap. (altocat) Fri, Jan 25, '91 (23:33) You're so patient. It's quite admirable. I agree that one should be diplomatic with neighbors but if I were in your position I'd have a tough time resisting the temptation of parking a very rusty, beat up, and generally speaking, awful looking 1963 International School bus in front of your neighbor's house. (Nothing illegal about that you know, long as you move it every three days.) OK, so I'm tense tonight. But at least not as tense as Joanne. Hey other people, what do y'all hear lately about floor finishes vis a vis what Reva was saying? I've heard some not so good reports about new water based types. Eh? Just finished the floors in this house with three coats of Duraseal, a polyurethane product. Is that going off the market, too, or being reformulated? J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Sat, Jan 26, '91 (10:19) Flecto (makers of Varathane tm) have a new product that is supposed to be much better than Varathane, which is pretty damn good. Reva Basch (reva) Tue, Jan 29, '91 (09:23) I think you might call this painter meticulous. He's doing careful work but it's taking a *long* time. Maybe he just doesn't want to leave the Positive Energy of this house. %^) Funny that the helper he called in did the kitchen - a complex job - in one day, and the bathroom-plus in another. Kinda showed him up... Tiling's moving along nicely. Lee was concerned about scratches on a lot of the stock. (The tile's packed - kind of stupidly, imo - so that the rough, unglazed back of one can easily mar the glaze of the adjacent one when boxes are jarred in transit). It's probably not that *he's* so meticulous, but tiling is hard work to re-do, and I think he didn't want to be half finished with the installation and have Jerry or me say, "Hey, what about these *scratches*?" Told him to set the really bad ones aside - the remainder are more scuffed than scratched, and a little rubbing helps - and use his judgement. Like, put the perfect ones at eye level and save the imperfect ones for the floor, where they'll get banged up anyway... So that's what he's doing. The walls of the shower enclosure are about 75% done; one section is grouted, and it looks *great*. Having the tile in really defines the curve of the shower space, and the afternoon light on the teal tiles is just gorgeous. Can't wait to GET WET in there! ;-) Next episode: The Floors. Jerry (jcs) Mon, Feb 11, '91 (12:57) Time for a status report. We are definitely entering the final phases of this project -- and none too soon -- we are both becoming heartily sick of it. Here is a summary of recent activity, decisions, difficulties, etc. Bathroom tile. Lee has finished his work, and it looks just fine. He and his helper Gary did what appears to be a flawless job. And Lee McNair turns out to be a sweet, funny man. I recommend him to anyone needing tile work done. Unhappily, I must also report my dumb stunt; After Lee had finished, I accidentally knocked loose and broke one of the ceramic tower bar holders. Special order. Weeks to get a replacement. I was so chagrined I could hardly sleep that night. Also in the bathroom, the vanity top has been installed. This is a custom- made faux marble (Onyx) piece 8 feet long. Once it was in place, it immediately became apparent that something was not lining up. After measuring this and that, the problem came to light. The 8 foot vanity was shipped in three segments; when they were set in place, they were not aligned properly with each other. That is, the three segments of the front face of the vanity are not coplanar. Unfortunately, now that the tile floor is complete, the vanity is literally set in cement. No way can it be repositioned without major trauma. This is one we will have to live with. Although, in all fairness, it must be mentioned that Clarence did offer to try to rectify the problem -- but his suggested approach seemed fraught with potential for disaster. No, this is one we are just going to have to live with. Now the trick is to train myself not to look at that every time I walk into the room. The plumbers were supposed to come in last week to install final fixtures: shower heads, faucets and toilet. They did not show up. A young fellow from Freitas (Paul) did come in and fixed a few loose ends. For instance, he installed towel holder bars. This, of course, messed up the bathroom paint job, calling for more touchup. It seems like every step forward does damage to previously completed work. Mark Parker was supposed to come in late last week to give final touches to interior painting -- he didn't show up either. In fact, there is a lot of confusion and delay at this stage of the game. Scheduling all of the subs to get a coordinated result is just not working out well. Last week we made final arrangements regarding getting the new hardwood floor installed, and the existing floors refinished. And in the process, the question of who would pay for the refinishing resolved itself in a cloud of pixie dust. Get this. We had gotten three quotes for the floor work, and accepted the lowest bid. This bid included $1600 for the refinishing work. Clarence went back to his preferred flooring outfit (second lowest bidder) and persuaded them to change their bid. So they brought their price for the flooring down by about $200, and threw in the refinishing for free. This made them low bidder by a long shot. Thus, they will be doing the job, and Clarence can point out that his effort on our behalf has saved us a bunch of money. [As an extra-credit exercise for the reader, figure out who really pays for the refinishing work.] The flooring installation is supposed to start tomorrow and take the rest of the week. Then next week they will begin sanding and finishing. And they will be sanding and finishing all wood floors in the house in one operation. That means, dig it, everything must be out of all those rooms. Major, major reshuffling of possessions is now under way. Last weekend Reva and I tore down Mt. Tarp and made a good start of getting stuff stored on closet shelves, on the deck, etc. We have it figured that at the last moment, most of our furniture will be stacked in the new bathroom during floor finishing week. Electrical work is complete, with one minor exception: a couple of dimmers from Halo don't work. Chuck is getting replacements. Chuck Bruner has done a very good job, too. Another talented, friendly craftsman. He understood exactly what we wanted, and made it happen. And he went beyond letter of the drawings in some cases. For instance, before the new bedroom walls were finished, he installed a length of wire that will greatly simplify installing an alarm switch on the new sliding door. And when he brought TV and telephone cables to the main distribution point under the house, he carefully labeled each cable, showing were it goes. We also have settled on the type of oak stair rail to install. Here is another opportunity for malcoordination: the stair treads are installed by the flooring contractor, but the stair rail is installed by a separate sub. Before treads go down, I'll have to get these guys to talk to each other. Sheet metal. The downspouts must be installed. When Clarence was at the house last week he related his problems with this sub. They have hit him with a Change Order for almost $1000 to do the downspouts, claiming that the drawings (which they used as the basis for their bid) did not call for downspouts -- only scuppers. "Scuppers imPLIES downspouts, for Christ's sake. Besides, its OBvious you have to have downspouts. The drawings don't say to put nails in the siding, either. I think this outfit is in trouble, and is desperate for cash." We await the outcome; meanwhile, no downspouts. This last stretch is pretty daunting. It looks like EVERYTHING is going to be happening in the next two weeks. I just talked to Karen, and she says she thinks exterior painting (staining, really) will start this week, too. Great. Some of our stuff has been moved onto the deck to get it out of the way the flooring contractor. Oh well, we'll muddle through somehow. The good news is that once this stretch is over, the whole game is essentially over. Finished. It seems fairly likely that we will be in the new rooms by the end of the month. What a relief. Stewart Brand (sbb) Mon, Feb 11, '91 (16:10) Hope you'll report on the move into the "finished" areas---the joys, the dismaying discoveries... Downspouts can be replaced with chain drooling to the ground. Prettier too. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Mon, Feb 11, '91 (23:34) Hey, that chain idea is interesting - where have you seen it? (BTW: I have often seen scuppers with no downspouts...) Hang in there guys... you're in the uh, home stretch ..... :-) Reva Basch (reva) Tue, Feb 12, '91 (09:24) Thanks. I think the chain-spout idea is Japanese in origin. Problem is, we've got to route the rainwater (remember rainwater?) along other than a straight downward path. Scuppers right now open directly onto the lower deck, so we definitely need *something* below them. And yes, it feels like the homestretch. Floor people, exterior painter and plumber are all supposed to show up today. No sign of anyone, yet. james wolf (flow) Sat, Feb 16, '91 (13:09) Just back from a 4 month hiatus (bum modem) - checked in to my favorite conference "How Buildings Learn" and it was dead, nothing since I left! Now I know why - we got a live one to watch. As a remodeler myself, I immediately printed and read the whole thing to date - what a revelation! What really struck me is something I've been pondering generally: Everybody gets to be wrong, and being wrong is where the real work is. Whats interesting is how and whether it gets right, and for who and to whose satisfaction. * The contractor, like many, has made an artform of conciliation and sustains his business on those efforts when others fail. * The neighbor apparently has no intention of getting to yes. * The building dept. covers its ass three different ways on three different days. * The first foreman lacks the motivation or authority to accomplish a satisfying reconciliation and mopes out of the story. * The painter values panache over production. * The crew installs windows backwards. * The subs assume varying degrees of responsibility and commitment allowing blame to land conveniently elsewhere. * The architect- where is the architect in this story - the architect always gets to be wrong. Oh, now I remember the disclaimer about not being able to see through walls. * The owners get to be wrong by default - if they'd hired this other contractor these six things wouldn't have happened, etc. The thing I like about how buildings learn is how they learn from everybody, and as much from their being wrong as from being right. I'd like to hear about the felicitous results of these errors, what I call design by default - a perfect view you never knew you'd have, a sonorous spot in the hall where you like to hum, etc. How many details we come to love are really windows installed upside down? By the way, whats the protocol on sharing this stuff with the public, i.e. my clients, my professional peers? gnu abuser (rotten) Sat, Feb 16, '91 (19:15) I am not 100% sure but I think it is considered ok as long as someone else doesn't claim the words as their own. You know the copywrite infringement stuff. Are you an architect? gnu abuser (rotten) Sat, Feb 16, '91 (19:17) 1 line Sorry, I reread your posting, you are a builder! Never mind! J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Sat, Feb 16, '91 (19:39) I'd like to hear from Reva and Jerry about this... Reva Basch (reva) Sun, Feb 17, '91 (17:15) Thanks, (flow), for your right-on summary! Yes, indeed. I'd like to confer with Jer, who's not around right now, about downloading and sharing the story. It sounds fine on the face of it, but we might want to - or ask you to - do some judicious editing of personal names. We'll get back to you soon. A footnote, as it were, re: the stairs. Actually, a lo-o-o-ng posting: The stair railing is being done by A&A Stair, the new floor and stair installation, and the *old* floor and stair refinishing, by another company, Fagen Floors. But A&A is also responsible for the skirtboards and stair risers. This has something to do with their being painted softwood rather than varnished oak like the treads and floors; Fagen, the floor company, doesn't touch anything that isn't hardwood. It seems like an odd division of labor to us - you build stairs, you build all the parts of the stairs, right? - but that's the way it is. So, the stair guy showed up to start on the skirting, and couldn't work because the material that was supposed to be on site wasn't. It wasn't clear who screwed up there, but it meant that he couldn't start, and neither could the floor guys, who wanted to get the stairs, the hardest part of the installation, done before they started on the floors. Net loss, one full day of work. Next day, another guy from the stair company shows up, does the skirting and one flight of risers. He left the risers 2" longer than they needed to be; Tim, the floor guy, came in and scratched his head at that, but began work anyway. Tim really seemed to know his job, and took some pride in pointing out where he was compensating for sloppy work done by others - including the fact that the roughed-in stair treads varied by as much as an inch from riser to edge (Remember Jim, the original foreman, who had to rip out the stairs and re-do them last December? One wonders...) I forget whether we mentioned - one flight of the existing stairs, the ones leading down to my office/our current bedroom, has never matched the others - they were probably installed when the downstairs room was added in the mid-'70s, and they're some kind of softwood, stained dark. The floor company's bid included, per our instruction, the cost of ripping those out and replacing them with oak. That got done on Friday. The treads on the next flight up had never been sanded or otherwise finished on the exposed end; they'd been installed and varnished as they came from the box. So Tim sanded and rounded them, too; a tiny bit of work for him, and a major change, aesthetically, for us. Very satisfying to have those two long-standing bits of tackiness resolved in one day. Tim estimates that it'll take two days, maybe three, to install the new floors. There are a couple of tricky parts, like cutting under the built-in shelves in the walk-in closet (again, we've got to wonder: didn't Clarence have the foresight, or the crew, to hold off on that closet work and send the trim carpenters in *after* the floor was down? Or was it intentional, since the painter would've had to come in after *that* and possibly mess up the floors again?) Anyway, sanding of both the new and the existing floors should happen Wednesday or Thursday. Oh, joy. Time to levitate the furniture: Jer and I spent part of yesterday stacking drawers full of clothes in a corner of the new shower, and toting what furniture we could manage up the stairs and into the bathroom (the only part of the new structure that won't be affected by the floor work). Then, we stacked the mattress and box spring in a corner of the kitchen. Creative, huh? Today, a friend (jmurray) came and helped with the really heavy stuff. The rest of the bedroom furniture went into the bathroom, and the stereo cabinet, speakers, and a bunch of bookcases on top of the long shoji-screen buffet that's lived in the house since we bought it. We'll finish around "the shoji," as we've come to call it; there's no way or place we could have moved the monster. Midweek, we'll move the sofa (minus cushions) to the deck and the dining room table to the kitchen, where it'll rest on end against one of the two doors. Surreal. Oh, and Mark the painter was more than willing to put off the exterior painting, which was supposed to happen *last* week, til the floors are done and the furniture that's on the deck moved to its proper places. He never did get through his interior punch list, but he'll have a bunch more work to do - skirting and risers, plus touching up baseboards where the sander messes them up - when the stairs are in. So we've been planning how we're going to live for a week or so - or maybe just 4 days if we're lucky - in a house where the floor is completely off limits. We're moving essential clothes and toiletries down to the bed-sitting room (thank gopod there's a shower here), and we'll have to go outside and around to the back of the house, and in through the kitchen door, for coffee and cooking. Not a hardship (unless it decides to rain a *lot*), just a strange new pattern to deal with, especially first thing in the morning. And then there's the challenge of keeping three cats off a freshly-varnished floor. This should be an interesting time. But, hey; we're at a point where we can begin to figure, for real, just when we might be able to move into the new space. *If* the floors get done on schedule, they should have their third coat of varnish by Saturday (Tim has promised to work next weekend if it works out that way). That means we'll give them a week to harden up and start moving furniture in, the first weekend in March. You'll be the first to know. ;-) Jerry (jcs) Sun, Feb 17, '91 (19:09) This is a response to flow's question about downloading this account and showing it around to friends. [I have to state this carefully, so that I don't come across as being up tight or possessive, but ...] Since this is being posted in a publicly available medium, of course we have no objection to folks on the WELL reading and enjoying it. This has been, and continues to be, and interesting writing project for reva and me, and I intend to pull it all together at the end and edit it (lightly) into a complete piece. However, it is not finished yet, and I would like to request that you do not copy it and show it around at this premature point. Patience. I have already given this question some thought. Before I produce the final edited version, I feel it is necessary to give all the people who have contributed an opportunity to say yae or nay about whether they want their postings to stand. There may be something someone wants to scribble -- or perhaps, for reasons unknown to me, someone would prefer not to be identified by name. If all goes well, it should only be another three weeks or so until we complete this process (the project AND the writing). At that point, when reva and I are happy with it, and when we have gotten some sort of clearance from all the contributors, we would be happy for you to copy it and use it as you wish, short of publishing it. james wolf (flow) Tue, Feb 19, '91 (07:51) Thanks for the clarification. I agree that care must be taken to maintain the security we share in this medium; and the resultant magic. The fact that this evolving dialog captures the dynamic of the process of remodeling more compellingly than anything I've ever read on the subject is a testament to the power of a shared narrative. My desire to share it is a reflection of that enthusiasm! As Stewart encouraged, please don't stop when the workers leave. There's a lot of good stuff to come as you use and discover what your building's learned. But let's not rush things, they're not gone yet! Reva Basch (reva) Tue, Feb 19, '91 (08:43) >captures the dynamic of the process of remodeling more compellingly than anything I've every read on the subject... James, if we ever *do* publish this, can we use your quote as a cover blurb? Of course, we'd sign it ...Buckminster Fuller. ;-) Seriously, thanks for your enthusiasm. It's great to know people are actually reading this topic, carefully enough, even, to discern themes and meta-patterns like those you've pointed out. Meanwhile, no floor action yesterday, even tho they told us they'd be working on Presidents' Day. Maybe today... Jerry (jcs) Thu, Feb 21, '91 (10:34) So far this week we have had very little action. And when people did come in they were totally out of sync and ill informed. First, the floor man, Tim, did not show up Monday -- or Tuesday. Yesterday we found out that his wife had gone into labor early. He is expected to come in today (Thursday) to continue the project. He has decided that the business of having the risers and skirts done by the stair rail sub (A & A Stairs) is just not working out (surprise!) so Tim (Fagan Floors) will complete that part as well as doing the oak floors and stair treads. Makes sense. Latest word is that he will begin today by sanding all the existing floors, then move on to install the new floors and stairs. So, as of 7:30 this morning, every wood floor in the house is totally bare. We have a couch and a dining table on the front deck, wrapped in plastic; our bed is in the kitchen; and ALL the remaining furniture is stacked from floor to ceiling in the new tile bathroom. In the livingroom there is one huge shogi cabinet that we are regarding as "built-in." It has a sort of recessed toe space under the bottom edge, which is finished with a continuation of the same 3" base trim that goes around the rest of the room. So the floor folks will finish around it. On top of this large (8') piece we have placed (heaped, piled, stacked) the livingroom carpet, the stereo console, both large speaker enclosures and an end table. Inside the shogi are a myriad of china, silverware, serving dishes, television, vcr, wine glasses, etc., etc. And this entire aggregation is wrapped with an enormous sheet of 5 mil plastic drop cloth, taped all around the bottom edge of the shogi. Closet doors are taped shut. The new upstairs bathroom door is temporarily removed to facilitate installing the floor in the hallway leading to the bathroom, but we have taped in place a plastic dust barrier to cover the door opening. We have every expectation that floor sanding dust will permeate everything anyway. Downspouts. I happened to be on hand yesterday when folks arrived to start installing the new downspouts. This is a new sub -- the original one apparently couldn't come to terms with Clarence on price. The fellows showed up with segments of the downspouts already cut and ready to install. Just to be sure, I asked them to explain what they were going to do. (In the absence of on-line drawings, just try to visualize that our roof segments overhang and protect the decks on the front part of the house, with scuppers at several points near the outer edge of the roof.) Bob showed me how they intended to connect to the scupper, come back at an angle to the main outer wall, then down to the deck floor where the drain ends and the water dumps out on the deck. Oh, dear. This was not the plan. I had instructed the previous sub on two occasions how the drain pipes must go through the deck floor and on down the side of the house, ending near grade level outside the concrete foundation. It had simply never occurred to me that they would consider it ok to dump the water onto the deck floor. "Hey, look, this is the way my boss told me to do it, and that's the way I cut the pieces." So. I got them to hold off until I could get it straightened out. Managed to reach Clarence at another site. Then he talked to Bob and essentially told him to do it as I instructed. But they did not have the necessary materials, and floor work is supposed to start today (blocking easy access to the decks) so they decided to put off the completion of downspouts for perhaps 10 days. Bob said, "I guess I can cut holes in your deck if Clarence and my boss want me to, but I'm sheet metal -- I don't do woodwork. Maybe they should have their carpenter in for this." I'm inclined to agree. Isn't this fun? Reva Basch (reva) Thu, Feb 21, '91 (11:49) Meanwhile, no floor action yet. The remaining piece of obscure glass - the panel by the front door that had to be sent out to be tempered - is supposed to be installed sometime today. Sometime. But the guys with the bathroom mirror - whom we postponed because we assumed the floor work would be in progress and they wouldn't be able to *get* to the bathroom - showed up promptly at 10, as originally scheduled. Now, they couldn't do it because all the bedroom furniture is, as Jerry described, piled in the bathroom. Just as well, because the mirror came COD. *We're* not giving them a check! Jerry (jcs) Thu, Feb 21, '91 (13:22) When I was at home for lunch two fellows from Fagan Floors showed up. Not Tim -- we understand his wife is not doing well, but we have no details. But Don says they are here and ready to get to work -- installing the new floor, not sanding the old floors. Oh well, at this point we don't quibble -- at least *something* is getting done. Jerry (jcs) Fri, Feb 22, '91 (16:55) Here is a question that I need help on. The floor people tell me that they could finish faster if they used water based urathane instead of oil based. After talking to several flooring supply houses, I get the impression that the water based urathane produces results equivalent to what you get with oil based. The main difference is that water based is more expensive, but you get it back in labor savings. It dries in two hours, so three coats can be done in a day instead of three days. Can anyone advise us on this? The decision must be made in the next day or so. james wolf (flow) Sun, Feb 24, '91 (17:31) From my experience there are several types of water based floor finishes. The results have been good from the several types I've seen used, but I don't know enough technically to advise you about the products. What I do know and am here to warn you about, is that one of these water based finishes is *extremely* toxic. Since you have three cats, be sure to ask to read the labels of the product they intend to use. The product I am talking about refers to *neurological damage* and the guys applying it were a testament to that. Jerry (jcs) Mon, Feb 25, '91 (07:35) Thanks, flow, we'll check the labels. Today is the beginning of week seventeen. If all goes well (ha!) we might be able to move into the new space next weekend. Here's another example of the little things that slow down the project: Tim (from Fagan Floors) pointed out on Saturday that the pocket door on the new closet does not have clearance under it for the 3/4" flooring. And the only way to get the door out to trim it involves tearing off some of the finish trim -- which is already painted, of course. So Tim wouldn't take the responsibility for that without talking to his boss, and I couldn't reach Clarence over the weekend. Today we have to get a decision -- either Clarence sends a carpenter over to do this, or he will tell Tim to go ahead, and the Freitas carpenter will come back later to repair it. Reva Basch (reva) Mon, Feb 25, '91 (14:40) Tim and the floorguys are doing it, even as I type. I hope so, anyway; there's a lot of noise going on. Tim seems a bit disgusted with the false starts and interruptions, too. I thought it was the oil-based stuff that was potentially toxic; isn't that the one with benzene in it, that's being phased out (I posted something about that earlier)? Jerry (jcs) Sat, Mar 2, '91 (10:39) Saturday, March 2 -- the end of the 17th week. Here is where we stand. The stair rail person (Dwayne) came in on Thursday and did the entire installation in one long day -- he finally left at 8:30. On Friday Don and a helper from Fagan Floors came in and gave all the oak floors, upstairs and down, a final sanding followed by a coat of sealer/stain. This includes the new stair treads, but *not* the new stair railing. For reasons known only to Clarence, the stair rail is to be finished by Mark Parker as a separate operation. But of course when the fellow put stain on the treads, they got some on the new balusters and rails. So no doubt that means that the stair rail will have to be stained with the same stuff. This is OK -- we intended to finish all the oak with the same "natural" color -- but it would have seemed more sensible to stain the rails along with the floors. Oh, well. Thursday evening I spent some time out on the deck, re-securing the plastic coverings on the couch and bedframe that is stored there. Rain and wind (welcome, but why *now*?) had loosened the plastic in several places. This problem is made worse by the fact that the downspouts are not in place, so rain water from the roof is cascading down onto the deck at two spots. Speaking of rain, the floor people had to remove three doors in the upstairs area to facilitate finishing the floors. Two of these doors they stored in the new bathroom (good move), but the third one, inexplicably, they put out on the upstairs deck. I was unaware of this until this morning. At this point we can walk on the new floors in soft socks, so I did an inspection tour. The floors look really nice, but there was our bedroom door, completely finished, out in the pouring rain. Reva went out and repositioned it so that it is not directly under a scupper, but it remains to be seen whether it is ruined. Another question on our minds this morning is why the floor company did not put the 2" oak base trim in place and finish it along with the floors. We have been speculating -- "Isn't that going to be painted white?" or "No one told me about blah, blah." or, more optimistically, "We prefinish the trim at the shop and just put it directly in place." We are expecting these floor finishers to come in today to start (and maybe finish) applying the three coats of urathane; but it is 10:00 o'clock now, and it seems unlikely they would have time for three coats, even though the water-based urathane dries in only a couple of hours -- perhaps more slowly in rainy weather. Incidentally, we decided to use the water-based material to save time, and then later got some validation. "This Old House" had an episode about this subject, and gave a strong recommendation that water-based is the way to go. Equally attractive and durable, fast drying, and non-toxic. Clarence and Nancy Freitas showed up unexpectedly at 4:00 yesterday, but were unable to go through the house because the floors had just been stained. [[The floor people just arrived!]] Just talked with Tim and Don. Their plan is to get *everything* completed today. They say the first coat dries so quickly they can go almost immediately into the second coat. That takes perhaps 2 hours to dry, then the third coat goes down -- and may take up to 5 hours to dry. They are a four-man team today. Tim will be doing the final installation of base trim (which *is* prefinished -- see above) and also installation of some softwood trim under the treads on the face of the horse. They also will bring the door in and dry it off -- they had left it in a more protected position under the eaves, but apparently the wind had knocked it over against the outside rail of the deck. SO. Big day. If they really get all this accomplished today, then tomorrow we will be able to (at least) walk on the new floors. No doubt we will want to wait a couple more days before putting furniture in place; but sometime in the next week we will spend our first night in the new bedroom. That will mark the psychological completion point. Of course, there are several things left to do: touch-up interior painting, downspouts, install bathroom mirror and do exterior painting. We will have to wait for a break in the rain to paint the outside, but it seems likely that all this will be completed in the next couple of weeks. There are also a few things that we want Clarence to make right before we settle up. Stay tuned: Next week -- "The Final Punch List." Reva Basch (reva) Sat, Mar 2, '91 (12:21) In fact, the reason for Clarence's visit yesterday was to update *his* punch list. I think he's as eager to get this wrapped up as we are. Well, maybe not *quite* as eager. ;-) gnu abuser (rotten) Sun, Mar 3, '91 (00:43) Actually if his final payment is tied in at all to the completion of the punch-list (I'd bet it is) I'm sure he is very eager. :-) Stewart Brand (sbb) Tue, Mar 5, '91 (10:06) I've been meaning to ask... What is a punch list? Charles Stembridge (cstem) Wed, Mar 6, '91 (00:46) How about, in this case, the list of all the subs who deserve a nice pu... oh, never mind. Actually, its just a list of all the things that need to be finished before the contract can be considered completed. Reva Basch (reva) Wed, Mar 6, '91 (10:12) The stair rail guy did a terrific job in his 12-hour marathon day. You can never tell; he was the same person who had taken several hours, a couple of weeks ago, to install a flight of risers that the *floor* people (who were responsible for the stair treads... are you following me? ;-) ) said were done all wrong. And he bitched a lot in the process. This time, tho, Duane was *smokin'*! Jer called his boss the next day to register some strokes. The banisters and rails look good. All oak, still to be finished, but the complete structure makes such an incredible difference when you walk in the house. The decision to replace wrought iron with wood was the right one, no question. On Friday, after the rails were in, the floor guys were back to do final sanding, stain the old and new floors, and install baseboards. Saturday, a crew of four worked most of the day to apply three finish coats of water-based urethane. This was one of the wettest days of last week's rainy period, and we had the heat cranked up to 75 all day and night so the floor would dry. The last coat stayed tacky for a couple of days. Remember now, we're living in my office, which has an outside door. We've got to stay completely off the floors, right? So we go out (in the rain, of course, which was torrential at times), up the stairs, around the back of the house and in through the kitchen. Both kitchen doors have to stay closed so the cats can't get to the new floors. Cat door's in the kitchen, so they can go outside, at least, and they claw at the office door when they want to get in down here. Fun. So, Saturday night, we entertained friends. Hey, what the hell, right? %^) Five people, three cats, in one small room. We did go *out* to eat... Major moves since the weekend. Got up early yesterday, and spent a couple of hours before work unwrapping furniture that had been tarped against floor dust, and vacuuming and dusting major surfaces. When Jer got home, we moved what furniture the two of us could manage back into the living room, *and* into the new space. A milestone. A kind WELLbeing responded to my posting in News a couple of days ago, and has offered to drive over from Sausalito after work today to help with the really heavy stuff. We might be sleeping in the new bedroom tonight! Reva Basch (reva) Wed, Mar 6, '91 (10:14) Mark the painter is back. Looked at the work to be done on the stairs (both staining the banister and painting risers and trim) and shook his head. Clarence is getting a lot of freebies from him, he said. Now he's on the phone dealing with personal business. Not real motivated, I'd say... Stewart Brand (sbb) Wed, Mar 6, '91 (14:18) 1 line Why is it called a "punch list"? J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Wed, Mar 6, '91 (17:06) I think it's because they used to use a hole punch to "punch out" items as they were completed on really big jobs. Stewart Brand (sbb) Wed, Mar 6, '91 (18:54) Ahhhh! How about in this topic's case? Is there a physical list? Do things get checked off? Or what? Reva Basch (reva) Fri, Mar 8, '91 (13:18) There *is* a physical punch list, Stewart; in fact, there's been a series of them. We've tried very hard to impose some kind of "document control" on this process, to make sure that there's only one *current* punch list, and that old ones with obsolete "to do's" on them aren't in circulation. What usually happens is that Jerry and I come up with questions for the contractor, or notice things that still have to be done, and we talk them over periodically with Clarence. Some items turn out to be non-issues, but most are valid, to judge by his reaction. We're trying to avoid what I'm sure is common pain-in-the-ass customer behavior, i.e. generating the endless punch list. otoh, new things are added, especially at the end of the process (gopod - we *are* very close to the end of this! :-) :-) :-) ), because one trade's work messes up what another has done, and the first sub has to come back and fix it... that's especially true of painting, and we'll probably run a separate sub-list for Mark to work from, for the touch-up work that isn't obvious. Clarence was here yesterday afternoon, matter o'fact. He noticed that the taping had been done incorrectly on some of the walls, and the plaster was pulling away and/or cracking off. Obviously, that wouldn't have been a punch list item until the taping, mudding and texturing were done and the work had a chance to dry (and shrink). We walked through the house and pointed things out to him; his reaction for the most part was "put it on the list," which Jerry duly did. His handwritten notes will be added to the file in the word processor, and we'll print a new list to work from. The *big* news, though, is that we moved into the new space on Wednesday night! Tex and Hillary came and helped us with the half- dozen or so heavy and/or awkward pieces, and we transferred basics, like some clothes and bathroom supplies, to The Upstairs. We've slept very well for the last couple of nights, and it's glorious to wake up to a view of the City and the Golden Gate and Mount Tam... There's still some work to do (exterior painting, some finish carpentry and painting) but nothing that can't be done around us. And furniture has to be moved, and paintings hung and rehung, and some stuff bought, and all like that. But the space itself feels right; we're not bumping into corners or tripping on stairs, there's a nice flow to it, and the *light* is glorious. Sigh. This may have been worth it. ;-) THINGS TO BE FIXED OR COMPLETED 1945 SAN ANTONIO AVENUE MARCH 8, 1991 GENERAL. Clean and paint entire exterior of house, including outside shed and fence near parking area. Clean paint and/or plaster from metal parts of all windows. Clean entire interior of house, including all windows, inside and out. Remove all debris, nails, wood scraps, etc. from grounds all around house. A. Grade Level - First Flight of Stairs. 1. Fill and paint old banister mounting holes. 2. Clean hand prints and scuff marks on walls and doors. 3. Repair and print cracked corner at dry wall (left wall of first flight). 4. Paint risers and skirts - first flight. 5. Paint wall near first step of second flight. B. Entry Level Landing - Second Flight. 1. Clean paint and/or plaster on front door. 2. Refinish dark, unsightly step - second flight. 3. Patch and paint holes in horse - bottom and top steps of third flight. 4. Paint skirts and risers. 5. Paint wall below banister - stains and smudges. C. Main Floor Landing Area. 1. Patch and paint bad spots above return vent and near closet door. 2. Paint wall left of bathroom door. 3. Apply floor finish at top of stairs - missed spot. D. Bathroom. 1. Paint one spot on south wall. E. Old Bedroom (now known as "study"). 1. Paint area below and to the left of light switch - poor coverage. F. Livingroom. 1. Paint lower left corner near sliding door. 2. Repair and paint broken corners around passage to diningroom. 3. Paint over enamel spot above mantle. G. Kitchen 1. Paint around closet door edge. H. Diningroom. 1. Paint area above door to kitchen - wrong paint used. I. Third Flight and Middle Landing. 1. Paint skirts and risers. 2. Nail base trim more tightly. 3. Finish base trim around landing. J. Fourth Flight and Top Landing. 1. Install reverse flow damper and grill for exhaust fan. 2. Nail base trim more tightly. 3. Finish base trim. 4. Sand (and refinish) back edge of bedroom door for easy closing. 5. Paint ding on top edge of this door. K. Master Bedroom. 1. Paint five areas on east and north walls - odd appearance. 2. Clean white portions of sliding door. 3. Paint dings on door leading toward bathroom - left side. 4. Replace two malfunctioning dimmers on wall-mounted lights. L. Closet. 1. Rebuild entire center section of custom shelving. 2. Improve finish on right side shelving and vertical support. 3. Extend vertical support on right side to support top shelf. 4. Fill and paint trim around pocket door. 5. Nail base trim more tightly. M. Bathroom. 1. Reset screws, putty, and paint over screws on curving wall. 2. Clean and/or paint soiled and damaged finish - numerous places. 3. Patch gap in opening for overhead light. 4. Trim and mount door. 5. Mount replacement towel bar holder. N. Downspout. [This is a change order.] Add downspout in fragment of roof above office door. Bring around edge of house and feed into existing downspout on southeast corner. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Fri, Mar 8, '91 (16:35) Hey! Congratulations on the Move In... now when's the party? :-) Reva Basch (reva) Mon, Mar 11, '91 (08:20) We're workin' on it... a little more painting, a little (aaarrgh! Oh no!) touch-up taping and texturing. Then we move stuff back in from storage. Not that we need all that to have a party, but a few chairs would be nice. You guys will be the first to know. ;-) Jerry (jcs) Fri, Mar 15, '91 (14:47) Just a short posting to let you know what's happening. This is the end of, Lord help us, week 19. Yesterday the taper/plasterer came in to do some minor touch-up. Earlier in the week a finish carpenter (Paul) rebuilt the custom shelving in our new closet -- we complained, and Clarence agreed, that the workmanship on the first version of this was crummy. Tomorrow we expect Mark the painter to come in and do the last of interior touch-up, plus painting the new closet shelving. That leaves a small task for Lee McNair, tiler extraordinaire, the exhaust fan damper and grill, and two dimmer units in the bedroom to be installed. And then exterior painting. Little things that caught us by surprise. Did I mention the need for an additional downspout? One section of the new roof overflows directly over the door to Reva's office. $375 item. We have also become aware that all these new downspouts create a considerable amount of noise: drip, bonk, drip, bonk. We are telling each other it is soothing -- but I may try a chunk of sponge material at the strike point. And, sigh, dustballs. Yes, folks, dustballs, right here in River City. Right there in our new bedroom. How did that happen? Housecleaning, now there's a concept. Stewart Brand (sbb) Sat, Mar 16, '91 (11:29) How close is all this to your original and your final budget and schedule? J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Sat, Mar 16, '91 (16:39) And what about post-project depression? Reva Basch (reva) Sun, Mar 17, '91 (22:05) Oh, the budget thing we will work out. We have kept change orders to a minimum, but my gut sense is that we're several K over the original bid. No big surprises. Post-project depression? Not really, matisse. We're still incredibly exhilarated at being able to expand into the new space. The weekend that the floors were being finished was the lowest of the low - we were *so* constricted. Suddenly, we moved from one room-and don't walk on the floors anywhere else- into "here's your house." Y'know? Like what I imagine it must be to be pregnant - 8-1/2 months, ungainly, terribly awkward. And suddenly you give birth and - whoosh! - pressure's off, here's your new baby, enjoy... Saturday, Mark the painter came by with his girlfriend. He's cash-crunched, and can't afford to hire assistants. I don't think she's ever held a brush before. Minor touchups took all day, and they didn't finish. After retouching around the towel bars, she helpfully hung up the brand new teal blue towels my Mom had bought us... and of course, got white paint all over them. Hey, paint is wet when you first put it on. It has to dry. Duh. We ended up yesterday majorly bummed. It had been a not-good day for other reasons, but shit, man; isn't there a painterly equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm? Jerry (jcs) Mon, Mar 18, '91 (07:27) I will post a summary of estimated v. actual costs and time when all the figures are in. We will be perhaps five to seven percent over budget and it will take about 1.8 times as long as I estimated. We changed our mind over the weekend and decided against buying the extra downspout for $375 -- that just seemed too high. Mark will (presumably) be in today to finish (!) interior paint. I get *SO* exasperated with this fellow. He is *always* late -- sometimes by several days. He is scattered. He talks a blue streak. And he keeps his boombox blaring the most *inane* treakle. Cute, though -- big blue eyes, so sincere, so caring. Christ! He is planning to clean the exterior by using a high-pressure water hose prior to refinishing. I pointed out to him that at several places there are screened vent openings just under the eaves. "If you squirt water in there, it will come down through our ceilings inside." "Really? Gosh, thanks for pointing that out to me." Unfortunately, he was serious -- he really hadn't thought that through. Jerry (jcs) Fri, Mar 22, '91 (08:18) This is feeling really nice. With the exception of two small tasks for Lee McNair (tiler) the interior is finished. The rebuilt closet shelving is much superior than the earlier effort, and Mark Parker did a good job of repainting it. Yesterday I finished transferring my clothes into the new closet -- and I even got into sorting things: suits at this end, dress shirts here, sport shirts there, etc. Reva said, "Wait a minute. I thought *my* boots were to go on the floor under the bottom shelf." No problem. That's how I learn things. And let me tell you a couple of thing we have noticed about the new bedroom. First, the silly part. We are XX rated. Big XX on each window. Not only that, but each window has a large black and yellow label that says LIKIT. Truly. But seriously, now. What we are still discovering is the sheer gorgeosity of the view. While reading in bed, if I look just over the top of the book I am looking directly at the Golden Gate Bridge. And yesterday we realized something else. There are three tall palm trees just downhill from us. From our bed, they are perfectly framed in one of the bedroom windows -- the tallest tree in one panel, and the two smaller ones in the adjacent panel. We are having a low-key tug-o-war over purchasing a small table and two chairs for the deck just outside the bedroom. Reva wants a set that she has seen in the Smith and Hawkins catalog. I prefer one we looked at at HD Pool & Patio. Today at noon we are going to meet at Alcatraz Shade Shop and order Levelours for some of the upstairs windows. We will use these only where really needed; if the window does not receive direct sunlight, and if no one can see in, we leave it as-is. jane hirshfield (jh) Sat, Mar 23, '91 (16:30) I've just downloaded this entire file for reading. Michael and I are (we think) about to add a bedroom/bath to our one bedroom cottage in Mill Valley. This stuff looks invaluable-- thanks thanks thanks. Jerry (jcs) Tue, Mar 26, '91 (08:17) Sunday was a kinda pivotal day. Reva got all her clothes moved into the new closet. I went down into a storage area under the house and brought out, one at a time, all prints, paintings, wall decorations, etc. Then we spent a couple of hours putting things up. We have *lots* more wall space than we used to have. Then Reva got into the boxes full of knick-knacks that we haven't seen since last November. Sometime around nine that evening Reva approached me and put in my hand my small wizard statue -- my alter ego -- my friend and totem. I took him up into the new bedroom and we walked around looking for just the right spot. It was clear that he wanted to be standing in the bottom of the small porthole window, lifting his magical crystal ball toward the morning sun. Brought tears to my eyes -- honestly. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Tue, Mar 26, '91 (08:21) Kind of like putting a tree branch atop the finished frame of a building, high on the East side, where it will be the first thing the Sun sees in the morning... Congratulations folks... gnu abuser (rotten) Tue, Mar 26, '91 (21:11) I think post project depression is always better than pre project depression. :-) I'm going to download this topic and let a customer of mine read it. I'm the general contractor working for him on a 800 sq. ft. attic remodel. I think he will really enjoy it. Thanks for the topic! ps. Jerry and Reva--someone told me the next WOP is going to be at your house. :-) Robin Gail (robngail) Wed, Mar 27, '91 (14:51) Uh, rotten, I think you should wait until jcs and reva agree to letting others see it, as they mentioned above they have some feelings about others outside the well reading it as it currently stands... Stewart Brand (sbb) Thu, Mar 28, '91 (15:27) Oh please let and encourage him to show it to one customer. We all put a lot of time and affection into this conference for exactly that kind of application. Reva Basch (reva) Fri, Mar 29, '91 (16:19) rotten and I have discussed this in email. I told him as long as he wasn't pinning the printout on the wall of the General Contractor's Cafe...;-) Oh - the janitorial service has been through, sure sign of the End being in sight. Mark has actually begun exterior painting, much to our amazement, and Lee the tiler plans to come in tomorrow to do 2 small repairs. Action is definitely tapering off. At this point, the only decision I regret is having gone for obscure glass rather than clear in the stairwell. We were thinking "privacy," but we weren't thinking straight. Our clothes are upstairs now. We don't have to run naked to the downstairs closet to get them. Duh. Shows you how hard it is to visualize what living in/with a new space will *really* be like. Oh, and the bedroom is *bright* when the moon is full. It's like sleeping in a treehouse. ;-) Mike Farren (farren) Fri, Mar 29, '91 (21:19) Glass can always be replaced. You could use the old glass in a decorative thingie or something. Reva Basch (reva) Mon, Apr 1, '91 (14:46) True. btw, Mike, one of the major pleasures is the *wood* stair rail you persuaded us to go for. Mike Farren (farren) Mon, Apr 1, '91 (22:08) Great! Always glad to promote pleasure! Jerry (jcs) Tue, Apr 2, '91 (08:25) There are definite signs that things are getting back to normal. Last week I returned to my regular practice of five minutes of stretching exercises first thing in the morning -- salutation to the sun -- hail sunnies -- solar salutes -- whatever. And today I rode my bike to work for the first time since last November. Last Saturday Lee McNair came in and did a couple of small repairs in the tile work. It's really neat how things work out sometimes. Get this little dance: As Lee was leaving, he pointed out that he had found a broken tile in the shower floor (not what he had come to fix), "And I thought `Well, I'm here and I have the time--', so I went ahead and fixed that too." So I thanked him and he headed out to his truck. What he did NOT know at that moment was that Reva and I had already slipped a bottle of champagne into his truck, with an appreciative note. Sunday we had a major family Easter dinner. Lauren and Mark (my two), Reva's mother, brother and sister (Hertha, Larry and Karen) and an old friend on my side of the family, Lia. Lot's of ooohs and aaahs. Mark has a gift for decoration, and *he* liked it. So now the family has seen it, we can start branching out. Every couple of days we bring up the question of a serious party -- it'll happen in the next few weeks, keep tuned. And, yes folks, a certain amount of post buildum depression. I came home yesterday and realized that there was nothing new to look forward to. Everything has been finished (excepting 1/2 the exterior paint job). Nothing else new and pretty will be added now. Sigh. Clarence is apparently in a $$ squeeze. Technically, the contract does not call for the final $5800 payment until all painting is finished, but He has asked for half of that now -- interior painting *is* finished. Reva and I will agree -- but I'm going to get him to promise to push Mark (painter) to paint the exterior potting shed and redwood fence, as we have already agreed. And one last thing: In a week or so, we want to hire two persons and a truck to move stuff from the storage shed up to the house. This would be perhaps 4 or 5 hours of hard work. Anyone out there want to make a recommendation about who would be good to hire for this? J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Tue, Apr 2, '91 (15:15) That thank-you with the bottle is the kind of thing that *really* helps people feel appreciated - an un-asked-for show of thanks... Jerry (jcs) Fri, Apr 5, '91 (13:56) Very near the end now. It looks like next Tuesday the final bit of exterior painting will be finished. We will then make the final payment to the contractor. On Monday next week we have hired a couple of fellows to move stuff from the storage locker in El Cerrito up into the house -- then we can argue about where things go, what to store (where), what to sell, what to give away to charity, what to junk. We are in the process of editing this entire journal into a somewhat neater form. When that is finished, we will make it available in our home directory for anyone who is interested. In a final posting, next week, I will give a financial summary of the project, and also a comparison of expected vs. actual schedule. What a ride! Reva Basch (reva) Fri, Apr 5, '91 (14:54) >our home directory No pun intended, right? Reva Basch (reva) Fri, Apr 5, '91 (14:55) And I don't promise that Jer's summary will be our *final* word on the topic. After all, there's a foundation to settle, doors to stick, paint to peel... Plus all the good, serendipitous stuff we haven't discovered yet. ;-) Jerry (jcs) Mon, Apr 8, '91 (08:21) ITEM ALLOWANCE ACTUAL COMMENTS Cabinetry & Millwork 1,000 1,430 Oak cabinetry in bathroom Ceramic Tile 4,000 4,250 Floor Covering 3,500 6,420 Added 7 stairs, used 3/4" T & G, includes refinishing downstairs Stair Rail 200 1,488 Upgrade from wrought iron to oak Plumbing Fixtures 3,000 1,204 Electrical Fixtures 500 1,556 Added exhaust fan Exterior Paint 3,000 3,800 Varnish Stair Rail 600 New oak stair rail Closet Shelving 389 Added New Headers 575 Unexpected Move Electric Service 350 Added TOTALS 15,200 22,062 $6,862 -- about 6% overrun. Original Fixed Price $111,300 Actual Final Cost $118,162 Original Schedule - Completion January 18 Actual Schedule - Moved into new space on March 6 Final Payment April 12 J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Mon, Apr 8, '91 (08:51) Looks good to me - low overruns... and the time thing was tight to begin with. How many square feet of NEW SPACE did you add? Jerry (jcs) Thu, Apr 11, '91 (07:31) In the original house there were approximately 1350 sq ft, counting Reva's office area. The new top floor adds about 600 sq ft. Jerry (jcs) Thu, Apr 11, '91 (09:03) Mark is still plugging away at the exterior painting chore. Essentially everything is finished except under the eaves and the deck floors. We are looking for signs written in kittish - "No Cats on Deck". We have been living in the new space for about a month now. Last Monday all the stuff from the storage locker was brought back into the house. We are buying small furniture items to fill in the gaps where our existing furniture is spread too thin. The new Levelours are up. This is the fun part. All in all, we are feeling really good about the results. There are many positive things to report. Viewed from outside, the entire house seems to be "all of a piece." There is no feeling of an added room being tacked on to an existing structure. The new bedroom is a penthouse among the trees. The upper branches of a large live oak are within reach from the new deck outside the bedroom. The bathroom is downright sybaritic. And the luxury of a walk-in closet! No question: this is coming out the way we envisioned it. On the money side, the results don't surprise me. I feel that we did a fair job of estimating the "allowances," and a 6% overrun is not bad -- especially since this includes some additions and upgrades to the original plan. Regarding scheduling, it dragged on toward the end, and we really got weary with it all. With better coordination and management of the subcontractors the job might have been completed several weeks earlier. But, nevertheless, based on what EVERYone tells us, our experience has been about par for the course. The emotional stress and disruption of our lives has been considerable, but not overwhelming. Reva and I are both pretty adjustable. During the worst of it we sort of went into "endure it" mode -- not complaining, getting through it day by day, and hugging a lot. There is a personal aspect to this whole project that I have not mentioned before. My parents have built and/or remodeled numerous homes. The results were always striking; however, Joe Shifman invariably ended up bitterly at odds with the contractors. I was determined not to have that happen in this case. Which brings up the whole question of knowing where to draw the line about being hardnosed and picky. At one extreme we have gross errors, such as the stairway being built contrary to plan, and at the other extreme we have small blemishes in the paint. In between is a wide range of problems which may or may not be worth the effort to fix. And in many cases I found it almost impossible to figure out what the "reasonable" thing to do was. A swarm of factors, involving emotions, ego and money come into play. "Is the contractor sluffing off on this one? Trying to skate by without solving the problem?" "Are we being too picky?" "Will it really matter a month from now?" I am too involved -- obviously not able to be objective. But we have to make decisions and move on. So you do your best, shake your head and try to put the problem out of your mind. And my contacts with Clarence Freitas remain cordial. I have to give him points: he is a talented, knowledgeable, hard-working professional, running a complicated, demanding business. I doubt I would have the equanimity to deal with *his* job stresses on a regular basis. He and I have had some contentious moments, but we have gotten through them without hostility, and even, on occasion, with some good humor. I hope he feels this was a successful job from his viewpoint. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Thu, Apr 11, '91 (10:49) I continue to be amazed at the completeness and value of this topic. Thanks again jerry and Reva for writing this all down. james wolf (flow) Tue, Apr 16, '91 (17:51) Could you say something about the design phase. The architect you once mentioned seems strangely absent from this process. Reva Basch (reva) Wed, Apr 17, '91 (12:00) The reason the architect may have seemed "strangely absent" from the process is that he was a *designer* rather than an architect. I gather that archi- tects tend to get more involved during the construction process. I mean, I'm sure some designers stay involved, too, I'm sure, but that was not the case here. Chris did drop by one day to check things out, but that was it. We'll invite him back to see it, now that it's done. Oh - and yesterday was Pivotal. Mark the painter did the doors, loaded all his stuff into his van, and said goodbye. Clarence is sending a janitorial crew in to clean the outsides of the windows, but that's it. Fini. Unless something breaks, of course, in which case you guys will be the second to know. ;-) Jerry (jcs) Thu, Apr 18, '91 (07:59) When Reva and I started planning this addition we decided right away that we would get the drawings made first, as an entirely separate piece of business. We had previously had good luck finding a designer through Charlie Huddleston at Owner Builder Center, so we bought an hour of his time to get advice about how to proceed. He put us in touch with Chris Spaulding, a local designer. Chris came to the house and we outlined what we thought we wanted to do. Over the next eight weeks or so Chris brought us several tentative sketches, which we would critique and discuss. He was very good about explaining what code requires for things like glazing, wall loading, shearwalls, stair widths, etc. Aside from help with these technical matters, he was also good at helping us visualize the spaces, and understanding how the new rooms would "work". He was also patient and quite canny in his grasp of what we wanted and felt was important. He served us well. Gradually we narrowed the focus until we had an approach that we felt was the best fit possible among the various factors: what we wanted, what was financially feasible, what code permitted, what the existing structure could tolerate, etc. Chris then created the working drawings -- four "D" size sheets. Part of the deal was that Chris guaranteed the plans would be acceptable to the city. For this we paid OBC about $3000. It was also necessary to hire a structural engineer to do the mathematical stress analysis report -- about $600. When all this was in hand we went to the city and initiated the process of getting the building permit. This took roughly eight weeks, and cost something like $800. One of the things we did during this period was to invite all the contiguous property owners to the house for coffee and cake, and discussed our plans with them. We asked each of them to sign the plans, indicating that they had no objections. This they did. In the case of the house directly up the hill from ours (the only one that might possibly have a view obstructed) Reva and I went up to her house with her and we looked out all her windows to make sure that the new top floor on our house would not, in fact, affect her view at all. During this eight week period we also sent the plans to several contractors (five or six) for bids. We got contractor names from various sources: OBC, friends, the WELL, etc. We got three serious bids -- roughly $108K, $123K and $143K. The low bidder was Freitas Construction, middle was Matisse Enzer and top was Kelly Hale. In each case we talked with the contractor, explained how the other bids came in, and asked if they would like to change their bid. For instance, with Kelly Hale (whom we really liked, BTW) we asked him if perhaps his bid included some expensive features that we didn't really need. With Clarence Freitas, we asked if he was sure he hadn't overlooked something, since the other bids were considerably higher. Curiously, no one took the opportunity to change their bid. We checked references -- visiting several jobs, both finished and in progress. We could find no good reason *not* to choose the low bidder, so Freitas got it. We had a long session with Clarence and Steve Yatsco, going over every clause in the contract, deleting and/or changing many of them to arrive at an acceptable deal. There's a lesson here: the "standard contract" is written in a way that strongly favors the contractor. It would be foolish for the homeowner to accept all of this without question. In this particular case the contract form had perhaps 30 separate clauses and conditions. We must have deleted or changed at least 20 of them. This was very much a negotiating session. We would explain why a certain clause bothered us, they would explain what the clause was intended to accomplish, and we would argue about it until we got some sort of resolution. In most cases they simply agreed to delete the clause. In some cases we decided to let it stand. In some cases we changed the wording. We had typed up our own set of requirements and conditions, which were made part of the basic contract. I can't overstate how important it is to do all this up front, before the contract is signed. Everyone involved comes away from such a meeting with a more clear grasp of exactly what the job comprises, what the owners' major concerns are, what the contractor expects of the owners, etc. During this meeting we also went over the building plans in great detail. I asked them to explain how they intended to approach certain parts of the job. We pointed out aspects of the drawings that we thought might be confusing. We made sure they understood all the designer's notations on the plans. Finally we all signed the contract, shook hands, and the deal was struck. Stewart Brand (sbb) Thu, Apr 18, '91 (09:08) Impressive. Helpful. J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Thu, Apr 18, '91 (11:06) Here's a Number for future reference: The Actual Final Cost was $118,162 The amount of New Space is: ~600 square feet The cost per square foot: $196 (this includes foundation work and exterior painting neither of which directly adds new space, but such work is common on jobs like this.) The cost per-foot for the other 2 bids (assuming the same 6% overrun, which may or may not be fair) would have been: Enzer bid: $217/sf Hale bid: $252/sf Reva Basch (reva) Fri, Apr 19, '91 (15:37) Wow, interesting. It's scary to think of each foot of functional new space as costing almost $200. Of course, we get the air rights, too. ;-) Charles Stembridge (cstem) Sat, Apr 20, '91 (23:20) re: designer/architect not being on the job I suspect the reason you didn't see the designer on the site much was a simple matter of economic survival. As Matisse has figured the cost of building per square foot, I have tried on occasion to estimate the time per drawing sq. ft. for design work. For D size drawings, 40 hours per sheet is a good rule of thumb, including all the meetings, measuring your existing house, dealing with the engineer, building dept., etc. At $3000, the designer made approx. $18.75/hour. From that, he has to pay state and fed. income tax, 15% self-employment tax, office expenses, and try to save something for insurance, sick leave, vacation and retirement purposes. There's not much left to live on. (Does the Owner Builder Ctr. get a part of the fee, too?) The question of whether a designer/architect continues to play a role during construction has little to do with being licensed, but the old saw YGWYPF (you get what you pay for). A full-service design, which would include complete material and finish specifications, finish details, appliance and fixture schedules, as well as construction administration can cost between 10 and 12% of the budget--in this case $12,000+. You saved $9000 or so, but exchanged it for a good bit of your own time, worry, sweat and supervision. This isn't to say a full-service design would have gone without a hitch, but a lot of the time- pressured decisions that had to be made during the job would have already been made. And I would guess that *some* of the problems that occurred could have been avoided (e.g. the stair prob., the handrail, the downspouts, the glass). I don't recommend a full-service design for every job. In fact, most of the work I do is of the minimal-service nature, mostly because people are trying to spend as little as possible. It's hard to convince someone to spend money on something they can't touch (myself included). My main purpose is just to say there is an alternative, depending on how you want to spend your time and gray hairs. :-) The same argument can be made for acting as your own general contractor. Paul Kamen (pk) Sun, Apr 21, '91 (01:11) FWTW, there is a rule of thumb for estimating the number of person-hours to design a ship: Number of drawings required times length of vessel (in feet) equals number of hours. It seems to have an amazingly wide range of applicability - from a 12-foot 4-drawing sailing dinghy I did once to large commercial or military vessels with thousands of drawings. jane hirshfield (jh) Sun, Apr 21, '91 (14:58) For comparison, our 375 sq. ft. addition has cost around $3900 in design fees so far, plus $1000 in engineer's fee, $500 to get a ridiculous variance in order to build on top of our own foundation, and $350 for a soil engineer to glance at our back (sloping) yard for literally 3 minutes and print out some computer boilerplate. The real work starts tomorrow, when the tree folks come to cut down (sigh) a handsome live oak, soon to be reborn as firewood. 7:30 a.m., and it all begins. james wolf (flow) Sun, Apr 21, '91 (19:43) Oh Boy! Another one! Jane - would you? could you? We love to watch! Now that this one is almost over, the prospect of starting over is, as always, exhilarating! But then, thats why I'm a remodeler. (BTW, thanks for the design end, incomplete without it!) Jerry (jcs) Mon, Apr 22, '91 (12:53) Last Saturday the cleaning crew came and did all the windows, inside and out. That was the absolute end. No more workers are expected. A fellow (Juan) from Freitas came by to do a final inspection, but we did not make any demands for additional work. There are a couple of little things that need doing, but I will take care of them. Enough, already. Final payment has been made. The painter left several cans of finishing materials behind, each one labeled to show where it was used in the house. Clarence called to say goodbye. Incidentally, when I sent the last payment I also sent a complete copy of this topic -- up to last Wednesday. SO: The cleaned-up version of this topic will be made available in the next day or so. I'm talking with matisse to see how he wants me to handle that so I am not stuck with the disk storage fee. AND: all of you who have been interested in this topic are welcome to join us on Saturday, May 18, from 2:00 'til 7:00 for snacks, wine, and a tour of the house. The address is 1945 San Antonio Avenue, which is about two blocks above Arlington Avenue (invariably referred to as "the" Arlington), on the north side of Berkeley, near Kensington. Reva Basch (reva) Mon, Apr 22, '91 (14:45) Yeah!!! Parrrrdddy!!! We said something, back in the Gloomy Depths of Winter, about scheduling a party for January 18. I'm pretty sure that was the date. So, we're just four months late.... Stewart Brand (sbb) Mon, Apr 22, '91 (16:19) Jane, Jane, yes yes. Re paint---keep the cans or a record, so when it comes time to repaint, you *know* what you're repainting on. gnu abuser (rotten) Tue, Apr 23, '91 (00:13) Do we have to bring tools to the party? :-) :-) J Matisse Enzer (matisse) Tue, Apr 23, '91 (01:01) Write the code numbers of the paint on the back edge of the door to each room (with little arrows) By the time you want to touch up or paint something the stuff in the cans you have will be tar, not paint. -----------------------------AFTERWORD------------------------------------- This document was created by the various writers whose names appear in the postings. Each of them has been notified that the document will be made available to people outside the WELL, and they have given permission for their postings to be included. This document may be copied for personal use and for informal distribution. No portion of this document is to be published in any form without advance permission from Jerry Shifman and Reva Basch. In the unlikely event that the document is sold or published, any proceeds will be shared among the writers in proportion to the number of words each one contributed.