Heather's Blogpile

As usual, click the image to see a larger size version.

I've had an interest in Frank Lloyd Wright-design homes for years, but most are in Illinois or Wisconsin. Except one - the Wright home designed for Washington Star report Loren Pope. Originally built in Falls Church, VA, later scheduled for demolition to make way for Route 66 construction, it had been moved to the grounds of Woodlawn Plantation in the 60s. I'd been meaning to visit the home for years ... Well, today we did it!

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Click to enlarge the view!

Grass is starting to grow around the far end of our yard, forsythias are blooming, and the Hostas are popping their shoots up out of the ground. Even the fish are more lively now that the days are warming up.

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(Click to enlarge)
(Notice how the manufacturer's square hole for the pipes DOES line up once the legs
are properly installed - and how high and useless the hacked-up holes now are)

We were scheduled to meet "the owner" on Tuesday 12/20 at 3PM, but he'd emailed us late Monday - due to An Emergency he needed to reschedule from Tues Weds 3PM. He arrived at 3:40 ...

He was eager to sort out the bathroom problems, to have his guys come in and make it right, but after the last two fiascos, Emma and I had vowed to his laborers wouldn't work in our house ever again. We walked upstairs and looked at the bathroom, and pointed out some of our problems, all of which he tried to minimize or dismiss.

He said his main guy never did work like that, even as we sat in the living room with the the butchered vanity on display (see cat picture in previous post). He said that wasn't a problem, because the back wouldn't been seen once it was installed. We mentioned how his man even took a chop out of the back of the drawer, but he just wasn't dealing with the shoddy worksmanship.

We had sent him email explaining that we wanted half of our money back ($3k of the over $6 we have paid so far) to resolve the contract, he offered to give us $1500 of our money back, and we settled on a refund ($2500) ...

We agreed that the contract has ended and we want nothing more from him - and he left. Then I rushed off to cash the check immediately, just in case ...

I guess I'm going to have to learn how to do all this work myself now ... sigh ...

Posted by Heather at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This project has gone so wrong I've built a webpage just for it - see http://www.thewebgal.com/homework/bathroom.html

A few years back, Emma was in the half bath just behind the stove in the kitchen and she noticed a dark spot on the ceiling. When she reached up to touch it, her hand went right through the surface, into wet plaster! Thats how we found out we had a problem with the tile around the tub in the upstairs bathroom. I pulled the old tile down and found another layer of tile under that - 2 rows deep! I'm a fan of HGTV and all the renovation shows, so I knew I could save some money if I did the initial demolition. Break out the googles and have at it! I stripped the wall down to the bare studs, then packed it full of Fiberglass insulation to keep the room comfy.

We spoke to various contractors and got bids, and finally signed a contract with one firm May 18, 2005. It was our first experience with contractors - and its been like all the home remodeling gone bad movies you ever saw ...

They came in and did some initial work, but its been a comedy of errors (but ...it ain't funny!). We wanted to get the fixtures (tub, toilet and sink) in an offwhite color - so when their estimator wrote up the the contract he said "offwhite, almond/biscuit - any color but white" .

So of course, when they brought the new tub, it was white. Fortunately, we noticed while it was still outside, before it was installed, so we reminded them of the contract and had them take it back and exchange it for an almond tub.

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Least you think I sit indoors all the time, amusing myself with a cuddly cat and Doctor Who, here's a shot of our latest pet - living out back in the pond! ...
Everyone should have one - or two ... they keep down the 'skeeters!

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Backyard July 17, 2000 | Backyard Aug 9, 2004
Click either picture to enlarge

If you consider that my recent posts here have all been about pushing the range of an Apple Airport Express adapter, you might think I spend all my time indoors at a computer screen. But in truth, its just part of the things that keep me busy ...

Of course, we have the backyard pond to maintain, and about 18 very tall trees ... recently reduced by one. Thats the problem with living among old tall trees - the shade is wonderful, but even with regular watering and deep root feeding, they only live for so long. And in the 4 years we've lived in this home, we've had 4 large trees cut down. Its troubling, but on each occasion we found a huge amount of decay hidden within the trunk, so its actually a blessing to take the trees down gently at our pace, instead of waiting for them to crash down in winter, loaded with ice.

As you can see from the pictures, the last homeowner let the yard go to seed - so I've spent a lot of time clearing weeds and undregrowth from a lot of the yard. Somebody in the past had even filled in the little pond years ago - but I show how I got the pond set up in pictures and pages here

Its a lot of work, but its very pleasant to go sit in the chairs on a sunday morning with a nice cup of coffee and watch the birds play in the trees. Very soothing - like a vacation in our own backyard.

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Lavender - left rear, Peppermint - left center
Basil - front left, Rosemary on the right.

Posted by Heather at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click to enlarge

Emma made the calls and got the folks at IKEA customer service to locate and ship the long-missing parts for the Beech Bonde shelf system. We got a call Weds that the parts had arrived, so i went by the Woodbridge store after work Thursday and picked up all the extra shelves and such. I made time this weekend and got all the pieces screwed together, and even got most of our CD collection rearranged and sorted out.

No, it was NOT sorted in "chronological order" and, yes, I HAVE seen High Fidelity!

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Click to enlarge

The media-room project so far - the dark wood "rack" with the lamp on it is an old Teak stereo rack unit from Scan that will go away - visualize the room with the CD shelf flanked by a pair of narrow shelf units.

Its been a while since I posted an update to the Media Room Redecorating we began around Thanksgiving. I painted the room last fall, after I built a "light box" just below the ceiling on 3 walls and put the "light rope" into it. That gives the room a very nice glow from above (I'm a big fan of indirect lighting) and is especially nice in a room like this which is designed for watching TV and listening to music. Part of the plan was to get rid of the old Sauder shelves that held videotapes and cds and replace them with a more Danish/Scandinavian style display system. We looked around and decided that we really like the Bonde shelf system from Ikea - but only in the Beech finish. Its available in Birch, but that was a very pale wood, and the white finish was too artificial for us.

We are fortunate to have 2 IKEA stores in the area, one is a bit south of DC in Woodbridge VA, one is just north of DC in College Park. There is even another north of Baltimore in White Marsh, MD, but thats further than I want to go!

Continue reading "IKEA - Bonde discontinued?" »

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Click for a closeup

The holidays were very busy time for us. I've been working through a number of pre-holiday projects putting up new shelves to finish the Living Room, trimming out and painting the TV room - but the finished look was worth it.

There wasn't a lot of shopping heading towards Christmas - Emma and I keep the presents low-key so its make it more a time of family and love (and cookies!) than any big consumer spend-fest.

We'd made plans for my Dad to came over Christmas Day, and we fixed a classic dinner with turkey and ham and all the sides ... then the next morning we headed to Richmond to be with Emma's family. Her dad is a Methodist Minister, retired after 50 years in the pulpit! This fall Emma's mom was diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis - basically, her lungs are failing. Its a slow slide downward - but they've already signed the living will and have contacted the hospice folks. They live across the street from her sister - which is a lot better than when they lived in Roanoke, nearly 5 hours away. Anyway we travelled to see them, and to give her sister some well earned time-off. We zipped down there again after work Weds to be with them on New Year's eve. We came back late New Years Day - and I was looking forward to relaxed weekend. Weather forecasts were calling for warm days in the 60s! I had visions of pulling the bike out of the shed for some New Year riding - but instead I came down with the flu, and stayed indoors all weekend - congested and sneezing and miserable. Yuck ....

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