Natural Modern

With the theme of  "Natural Modern", a new conceptual space plan has been developed with the goal to create a modern environment that was minimal in concept but included a nod to nature. The space needs to serve different functions from entertaining to casual eating to watching TV, with the goal of warming up what could have been a rather cold small space.

Dark bamboo flooring anchors the space and is broken up with a zig-zag rug defining the living/media room. A sectional sofa is used for TV viewing while the two lounge chairs are used when entertaining for overflow seating. The sectional is intentionally large in scale for this small space, helping to balance the visual weight of the mural wall.  Ironically, large pieces often serve to make a small space feel bigger just by visually being able to accommodate a larger item.

Clean contemporary lines have been contrasted with some unexpected natural elements such as a driftwood side table and cowhide ottoman. Small spaces benefit from furniture that can be used for multiple purposes, and the ottoman can be pressed into duty as needed for extra seating. Dramatic visual impact has been created with the rock photo mural which is immediately seen from the front door and serves as a backdrop to the wall mounted TV.

Just off of the front door is a narrow steel table creating a landing pad for keys and mail. A mirror above allows for a last look before going out.

The modern look continues into the small dining area with a round wooden pedestal table maximizing the space for simple upholstered chairs.

Pared-down shapes combined with natural elements create an environment that is interesting, warm and modern.

Kitchen Cabinets are Ordered

It looks like we will be getting kitchen cabinets after all! We went ahead and ordered American Classics Cabinets from Home Depot.

The plan was to order stock cabinets to take advantage of Home Depot's 20% off sale, but since the wall cabinets are not stock and are made in a different location from the regular stock cabinets, there was a good chance that the stains would not match. That would not be good. So it made sense to special order everything.

The cabinets are still a very good value, and I still ended up with a $500 discount bringing down the cost to $2,865.00 and they'll be delivered in 2-3 weeks! Custom cabinets would have easily been three times as much and taken twice as long to be finished. Could it be that we are reaching the last phase of this project?!

The AutoCAD drawings show what the kitchen will look like after the cabinets are installed. Drawings are critical tools in design development as they allow you visualize how things relate to one another in space.  For instance, in Option 1 (not shown) I had 30" high wall cabinets that I thought would be perfect for this tiny kitchen. Once I compared the 30" cabinets with the 36" high cabinets in the elevation below, I realized that my initial thought was wrong and that the taller cabinets were the better solution. As a bonus the tall cabinets will offer more storage...always an issue in a small space.

The next part of the kitchen remodel will be ordering counter tops and appliances.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Benefits of using Prebuilt Kitchen Cupboards (mydecorarticles.com)

New Direction in Cabinets

After months of waiting for custom cabinets that never arrived, we decided it was time to cut our losses and move forward with cabinets from another source. It was a difficult decision since our cabinetmaker is family and has had a string of bad luck and personal challenges. We decided that removing this burden from him can enable him to focus on more important concerns. Seriously, whether or not we get cabinets is not that important.

It feels like we're off to a new start and we're anxious to get this project done and the budget is getting tight, so we’ll need in stock “off the rack” cabinets. My first stop was Ikea. They have very good cabinets at a great price in an array of styles and the drawers have excellent glides. The down side is that everything needs to be put together. The deciding factor was that none of the wood stains would work with our existing laminate floor, so on to the next source.

Next stop, Lowes. Small selection of basic, but attractive cabinets at a good price by Kitchen Classics. The drawer glides can’t beat Ikea’s, but you don’t have to put them together…a huge bonus!

Home Depot came next, and the winner is their stock American Classics in cognac. Constructed out of solid wood for the raised panel doors and drawers, not only is the color a near perfect match for the floor, but they are 20% off! I grabbed a tear sheet with all of the selections and sizes and went home to lay them out in AutoCAD.  

These cabinets will be fine for our little rental. They look good and seem to be solidly constructed. In my head I had envisioned something a little simpler, a little more “mid-century”, but I won’t be living there. If I was living there, I probably wouldn't match the cabinets to the floor either. They're a little nicer than some other stock cabinets I’ve seen and certainly a step up from the usual white apartment cabinets I’m sure we’ve all had to live with at one time or another. 

Paint Drama and Bathroom Lath

I'm about done with painting the interior. We're saving a lot of cash by  providing this "sweat equity", but naturally there have been challenges along the way.

I primed all of the new textured drywall as well as all of the existing walls with Kilz. I've always had really good success with Kilz, and all was great until I pulled a tiny bit of blue painters tape off a wall and discovered that the primer wasn't sticking. Further investigation showed that paint was coming off in large patches on two walls in a bedroom as well as a hallway wall. Joy. I ended up borrowing an electric sander and grinding down all of the new primer and old paint. These areas had to be re-textured, repainted with primer and then the final coat. A lot of extra work because I didn't bother to prepare the existing surface. Bad designer! Believe me, I learned my lesson. ALWAYS take the extra time to do the prep work! You'll save yourself a lot of time as well as headache in the process. And besides, you won't look (and feel) like an idiot!

The paint I selected was Behr "Swiss Coffee". Yes, it's a standard color, but it's readily available at any Home Depot; its good quality as well as budget friendly. (I was able to buy five-gallon buckets and go through the contractor check out line and save an extra 10%). This yellowy off-white is actually really nice in this tiny house. The trim and doors will be Behr's "Ultra Pure White', giving a slight contrast to the walls. Since the house will be a rental, the goal is to have a basic color that will appeal to as many people as possible.

The other challenge was the paint finish. Again, since the house will be rented out, I thought it would be a good idea to use a paint that had a sheen to make the walls easier to keep clean, so I went with an eggshell finish (except for the bathrooms and kitchen, which are semi-gloss). I decided to use it on the ceiling as well, again for cleaning reasons as well as making everything easier to paint. Unfortunately, the scraped ceiling didn't cooperate. Even though the ceiling had been textured to match the walls, there were still areas that were far from perfect, and the sheen of the eggshell finish brought much attention to these imperfections. The best solution short of major work on the ceiling was to repaint the entire ceiling of the house in a flat finish. More joy. The imperfections are much less visible now.

I have also learned that I could have used a flat enamel which would have given me the look of a flat paint (which I prefer) with the cleanability of a paint with a higher sheen. Live and learn. I'll be using a flat enamel in my own place after this project is done.

The bathrooms are moving along as well. The shower areas in both bathrooms have been lathed, inspected and approved. The only issue was that some lath had bent and some concrete had oozed into the pocket door space. This area had to be re-lathed and new concrete applied and now all is good. There are always problems that come up and you just have to go with it. There is very little that can't be fixed or adjusted.

Work has started on the electrical as well as the tile. Doors are going in as well. It's finally starting to look like a home!

Drywall is Up

Drywall is finally up, inspected and approved...another milestone in this very long marathon! Corner bead is being added to the window openings and the new drywall is being taped and mudded before its final inspection.

It is always amazing to me the difference drywall makes in the process. Its often difficult to get a feel for a space while it is in the framing stage, but once the drywall is in place the rooms become real and space can be visually recognized. In the room below I created a larger closet and moved back the original wall about 12". In the framing stage visitors weren't able to see much of a difference, but now the room feels much larger now that the drywall is up defining the new space.

With any luck, I can start paint next week. This will be the one "sweat equity" project that I will be attempting and at just the right time. The budget is getting thin and with my labor we should save a substantial sum of money (that has already been spent anyway!)

I was really unhappy to find a crack on the top of the low stucco wall close to the front door. Its been an especially rainy couple of months, and unfortunately, water has leaked into the wall structure swelling the studs, causing the top of the wall to crack. We could re-stucco at an additional cost, but my concern is that it may not be a permanent fix. Plan B is to seal the crack and cap the wall with a simple piece of exterior paint grade wood. Certainly not my first choice, but it is the most practical at this point in the project as well as the budget. You can't always get what you want, but to get to the end sometimes you have to compromise to find a solution that will work with the visuals as well as the budget.

Habitat Homes

Habitat for Humanity will be building three new homes in the Washington neighborhood of Long Beach, as well as refurbishing a nearby residence. This and other neighborhoods in the city have recently received new attention from the City Council now that downtown is well underway in its revitalization. This is a very positive development. For many years it has appeared that the focus of attention was only on downtown at the expense of the majority of residents in other less affluent areas of the city.

When I first moved to Long Beach I lived in a tiny studio apartment not far from the habitat location by Drake Park, so I know first hand that the area can be a little rough. But it is rich in architecture. Many craftsman bungalows, Spanish and colonial revival homes grace the area, but that's for another post.

The groundbreaking was on a very stormy Saturday morning and was attended by Mayor Foster, Councilman Robert Garcia as well as Congressperson Laura Richardson of the 37th Congressional District.

According to the speakers, there will be approximately 100 foreclosed homes in the area that will be purchased with grant money by the city, fixed up and sold to low income city residents. This is a great idea. Empty houses encourage blight and crime. Taking this existing housing resource, fixing them up and returning them to the people who live there will encourage these new homeowners to have more of a steak in their own neighborhoods. This can only benefit the neighborhood and city as a whole.

Currently the site is a muddy vacant lot, but in a few months there will be three new homes for some lucky Long Beach residents!

New Grocery Store for Downtown Long Beach

The old Vons grocery store serving downtown Long Beach has at last been torn down. Although a critical business for downtown residents, I'm glad to see it go. Although I'm usually a fan of saving old buildings, its functionally obsolete and has been an eyesore for years. The new Vons being constructed will be a great upgrade for the neighborhood and will maximize space in the crowded downtown area by having parking on the roof allowing for a larger store. This will be what any downtown needs and in many cases just don't have...a decent grocery store that serves the local population.

I'm especially happy to see that the design of the building will look upscale and modern, and will not have any Tuscan architectural references which are so common in Southern California. We live in the 21st Century far from Italy! I just wish the builders in South Orange County had been aware of that little fact, but that's another post.

Good News for Remodeling

According to Market Watch, the end of 2009 showed an uptick in remodeling. Requests for home additions and remodeling projects were up 110% in Miami compared with the previous year. Requests for kitchen remodeling were up 166% in Phoenix, 120% in Chicago and 112% in San Jose. This is a hopeful sign that things may be slowly turning around. Considering how the industry barely has a pulse, even a slight gain in sales would translate into a huge percentage increase, so it's important to take this still hopeful information with a grain of salt. That said, its sure good to hear good news for a change!

Fart Fans, Hot Moping and Inspection

After the bump in the renovation road during the holidays, we were able to find an eager electrician that was able to complete the unfinished electrical work. He was able to install an exhaust fan in each restroom, (AKA "fart fan" according to the inspector, an apt description), and finish up any remaining "pig tailing" that needed to be done on the outlets. He also added new outlets where needed finishing up this stage of the rough electrical. Hallelujah!

We also had the master bathroom shower "hot mopped", a smelly process that requires several layers of felt paper and boiling tar. I stayed out of the way and out of the bad air, but the end result was a water-tight black basin filled with water to prove the point to the inspector. This contractor did a great job. Sounds a little crazy to say this, but the end result was truly beautiful to look at (or maybe I had taken in too much of the asphalt fumes).

The inspection was last week. We lucked out with a personable inspector who went out of his way to let me know of any possible problems we might encounter with future inspections, like where motion sensors would be a good idea and options for operating ceiling fans by using dimmers or remote control devises. He had a good sense of humor as well. 


The only glitch was that apparently one of the trusses had to be cut out in order to get the furnace up into the attic. My contractor told me that the attic access had to be enlarged, but he said nothing about cutting out part of a truss. A truss is a structural element that supports the roof, so it would have been nice to know that a segment of one had been removed.!  Luckily, this isn't a huge deal. We'll just need to box up the larger opening according to the inspector's direction which will tighten up the missing part of the truss and all will be fine. 


With only that one surprise, we were signed off on the rough framing, electrical, plumbing and mechanical. Next stop, drywall!

Contractor Challenges

Ah, the wonderful world of contractors!

I consider contractors to be professionals. After all, they are often paid substantial sums to do what some consider the impossible. They need to be licensed. They are trusted with keys to homes and businesses and often have access sensitive materials and valuable objects. It's too bad that the reality is that they often come across as flaky and unreliable.

Case in point: we contracted with a company to move our furnace to the attic with a promised deadline of Friday. I visited the jobsite finding the contractor M.I.A. Repeated calls go unanswered and the promised deadline is missed. Now, I've been in the business long enough to know that schedules need to be reasonably flexible. All he needed to do was let me know that he needed more time....no problem. But failure to communicate with a client (me) is a cardinal sin and creates a loss of credibility for the contractor. A vital part of any contractor's livelihood is referrals. Will I refer him in the future? No.

I'll hear from him on Monday because he's done this before. I also have not paid him in full. Never EVER pay for everything upfront. That way you have some leverage over the contractor. An upfront deposit is fine so they can buy materials, but pre-paying in full is a huge mistake.

I also had to fire our new electrician. He came highly recommended and I was very impressed with him when we walked the job together. However, during the time he was working on the house last week, he suffered some kind of breakdown. I received a very disturbing, agitated call from him having nothing to do with his work. I was also alerted by a neighbor that he was pestering other workers on a project across the street. Not wanting to wait for a third strike, I decided it was best to move quickly and let him go. I wish him the best and hope he gets the help he needs.

It's never easy or pleasant to fire anyone, but I need to be concerned for the safety of my neighbors as well as the other people working on the job. Locks were changed and a new locking side gate installed.

Like all of us, each contractor has their own baggage. Its important to do your best to communicate with them often, as well as show up at the jobsite unannounced. Its also important to realize that no schedule is set in stone and dates will change. Also, a renovation is a collaboration, not a dictatorship, so drop any notion that you as a client have the right to disrespect your contractors. That doesn't mean you can't be angry and let them know your frustration when things go wrong or deadlines are ignored. Just keep the lines of communication open.

Contractors need to remember that they are providing a service, and that includes "customer service". Contractors need to realize the importance of communication as well, and that it is far better for a client to hear bad news from the contractor instead of finding it out for themselves without an explanation. Communication can only increase the credibility of the contractor. Finally the old addage of "under-promise and over-deliver" is crucial for the client/contractor relationship.

Cliche but true, working with contractors can be like herding cats...just be prepared for the unexpected and be flexible. Keep a sense of humor as you use the broom (or club) to guide the cats to the finish line.

Now, about breakdowns....I have no guidance on that. Sometimes even when you go with a great recommendation and a good gut feeling, you get surprises!

The good news for the week is that the kitchen has been gutted and the construction debris removed (thanks Reggie!). I'm happy to report that the old appliances will be recycled. I also got a solid recommendation for a new electrician as well as a new contact for flooring.

And the adventure continues!

The Work Continues....

I'm happy to report that work is proceeding nicely on the renovation. It certainly looks chaotic, but we've made progress! The furnace is being relocated to the attic, and in it's place a combination utility/linen closet has been framed. An awkwardly placed closet in the new dining room wall has also been walled off. The closet has been removed from the living room and a new larger closet has been created in the adjoining bedroom.

Electrical upgrades have also started today. The original wiring is aluminium, which over time can short out and cause a fire. The best solution would be to replace all of the wiring with copper, but that is not in the budget. The next best solution is "pigtailing" at all of the outlets and switches. When properly done, it creates a "bond" between the aluminium household wiring and the new copper outlet wiring. This greatly lessens the chance of fire. This is not a do-it-yourself project...hire a licensed electrician to get the job done right.

The electrician is bringing all of the kitchen and restroom outlets up to code as well as adding new exhaust fans in the restrooms and ceiling fans in the bedrooms.

The next step after the furnace and electrical are done is having everything inspected. Do I see light at the end of the tunnel?

Asbestos is gone!

The asbestos that was a component of the "cottage cheese" ceiling, old floor tiles and ductwork has been removed. AQHI did a great job, securing the permit from the Air Quality Management District, scraping and hauling it all away and disposing of it properly. AQHI specializes in environmental waste remediation, and I could not be happier with the results.

For many years asbestos was used in construction, and the houses in this community built in the mid 1960's were no different. Now it is commonly known that asbestos is a dangerous carcinogen, but in the past the public was kept in the dark for many years about how serious the health effects of asbestos exposure often are. In fact, as early as 1930, an internal report by the John-Manville Corporation reported employee fatalities related to asbestos exposure. Other documents reveal that Owens-Corning, John-Manville and other companies were complicit in supressing information on deaths, illness and general misery brought on by asbestos exposure. This is a sad example of unbridled corporate capitalism where the only interest is the bottom line.


Currently it is estimated that each year 10,000 people die in the United States from asbestos-related disease, which includes one out of every 125 men who die over the age of 50.

Laws have been enacted to limit public exposure and asbestos generally is not used in new construction, although it is still not banned outright. The website for the EPA has great information on asbestos use and mitigation. Luckily, in most cases asbestos can be lived with if it is left undisturbed. It becomes a danger once the tiny fibers get into the air and they are breathed deeply into the lungs.


If you have a house built up until the early 1980's that has a textured "cottage cheese" or "popcorn" ceiling you are considering removing yourself, do yourself a favor and have the material tested for asbestos. Search "asbestos testing" to find a qualified testing facility in your area. They can provide a simple kit where you can provide a small sample to verify if it is contaminated.

Now that the asbestos headache is past, we can get on with the rest of the renovation! Next...moving the furnace and more demolition!

Work on the renovation continues...

Work continues on a house my partner and I own in a beach town here in Southern California. What should have been a fairly quick remodel has turned into a long slog with delays caused by my day job (the nerve!) as well as....well, life. It was a case of "out of sight and out of mind" for a period of time for which I was completely responsible. Had this been a regular job with a regular client this remodel would have been on the front burner and finished. I now believe that the most challenging client I can have is me. What is that saying about any lawyer representing himself has a fool for a client?

There was (and is still) quite a lot to do. The place had sat empty for several years and needed a lot of work just to get it up to 1980's standards. We are having the asbestos acoustic ceiling texture (cottage cheese) removed, as well as the contaminated flooring and duct work. This is scheduled for early November. After that comes plumbing and a new furnace and.....the list goes on and on.

We're both very pleased with how the exterior turned out. It's a different color than any of the other houses on the block and it helps to set it apart from our neighbors. Since this is a very small mid-century house, I decided to keep things simple and big for maximum curb appeal. The subdued paint scheme helps give it a more upscale feeling. The house is not located in Tuscany, so no columns or terracotta, thank you. Two large pots help frame and define the entrance, while the Energy Star rated fluorescent light fixture, believe it or not, gives off a great soft light. Helpful hint--get a very low wattage lamp (bulb) that is "warm white" or a color temperature of 2700 k. It doesn't take much light to accent the front door. The inexpensive 6" address numbers from Home Depot project off of the low wall and reinforce the general mid-century feel.

Once the front door is painted and installed the exterior will be done. Can't wait!