DIY rant

I spent about 8 hours scraping wallpaper today, which gave me a lot of time to think, but mostly I thought about this DIY conspiracy.

There is literally an army of people out there trying to convince the average person who couldn't make a bird's house in shop class that he can save time and money by undertaking major projects on their own home.  I'm not sure if they are shils for the home improvement stores -- peddling the modern-day equivalent of snake oil -- or for the builders themselves, who know they'll be called after the homeowner has thoroughly botched it -- and that they can charge double to fix it.

I was quite clear that I was going to hire someone to strip the wallpaper and replaster the walls, but builder #3 (of 5 we've interviewed so far) convinced Jess we could save money by stripping the walls ourselves.  Now, I understand this was the builder's way of avoiding the crap job, but unfortunately Jess was already convinced.  She borrowed a wallpaper steamer from a friend, dug out a couple of scrapers, and off we went.

To be fair, it has turned out to be much easier than I expected -- I had read about anaglpyta and was expecting a nearly-impervious vinyl wallpaper.  Fortunately, the previous owners had cheaped out and had used an inferior paper product, which peels off without too much effort.  The wall steamer then loosens up the glue and paper backing, making quick work of both.

That said, it still takes 3-4 hours per room, and we're only halfway through.  Jess' brother and nephew came over yesterday and helped, and while watching a three-year-old scraping wallpaper was very sweet, what was hilarious was that Jess -- finding all 3 scrapers in use -- picked up a plastic knife and continued working.  I wish I'd taken a photo.

Having come this far, we'll persevere.  The electrician is waiting to start, but I'm holding him off until I know what we're doing about the boiler.  On Tuesday, we're going to see a few of the projects builder #5 has done, though I suspect builder #4 is going to give us a better price and be able to start sooner.  We got the quote for PVC windows but are waiitng for the quote for aluminium windows.  And we've decided to do full laminate flooring throughout the house -- we just haven't decided which color yet.

The architect completed his drawings and determined we will have to move the bathroom wall when we build the stairs into the loft, so we need to decide if we want to do that now, while we're remodeling the bath, or wait until later.  Augh!

House

I feel like everytime I talk to someone, the entire remodel changes.  Here's a brief history of the past 6 weeks.

1) Planned to do a large ground floor extension; replace the electrical; refurbish the kitchen; replace carpeting upstairs; strip wallpaper and replaster the house.

2) After we got a cost estimate, decided to do a small ground floor extension.

3) Decided not to do any ground floor extension in favor of a loft conversion in the future; decided to open the kitchen and install an island.

4) Decided not to install the island but change the kitchen door into a window and make an L-shaped kitchen, instead.

5) Decided to convert the dining room door into a patio door; realised this would leave two small gaps in the carpeting; decided to replace the downstairs carpeting as well.

6) Decided to replace the upstairs and side windows as well (mostly for energy efficiency).

7) "Found" the second kitchen window, requiring us to completely re-design the kitchen for the 6th time.  Decided to move boiler and washing machine upstairs.

8) Decided to refurbish the bathroom, partly to accommodate the washing machine, partly to get rid of the frogs, and mostly because the electrician pointed out the wire for the shower heater was run right through the shower line, and we could be killed at any time.

9) Decided to remove the chimney breasts upstairs before installing the flooring (they were already removed downstairs).

10) Decided to replace downstairs toilet, after realising it was pink.

11) Decided to insulate the loft, after discovering the previous owners did not (even though they said they had).

Of course, as with all of these changes, deciding to move the boiler means planning our energy requirements for the next ten years!  That's because, although the boiler is brand new, it is hooked up to an ancient storage tank which happens to be in a closet in one of the bedrooms.  In addition, the cold water is a gravity-fed system with a tank in the loft*.  So not only do we have to figure out where the new boiler will go, but whether or not we need a storage tank, and whether we want to get rid of the cistern now or later.  In addition, we need to find out if we need a pressurized system to get get sufficient pressure in the loft, and I want to be sure it is energy efficient, which means possibly installing an air source heat pump, or possibly even solar water heaters.

Whatever we end up doing, the one thing I don't want to do is spend money doing it one way now and another way two years from now!

* Wikipedia has this to say on water supply: "The UK domestic water system has traditionally (prior to 1989) employed a "cistern feed" system, where the incoming supply is connected to the kitchen sink and also a header/storage tank in the attic. Water can dribble into this tank through a 1/2" lead pipe and then supply the house on 22 or 28 mm [about 1"] pipes. Gravity water has a small pressure (say 1/4 bar in the bathroom) but needs wide pipes yp allow higher flows. This is fine for baths and toilets but is frequently inadequate for showers. People install shower booster pumps to increase the pressure. For this reason urban houses are increasingly using mains pressure boilers (combies) which take a long time to fill a bath but suit the high back pressure of a shower."

Bosworth kitchen, take 2

Yesterday I walked up the drive along the side the house and discovered a new kitchen window.

I'm not kidding. The previous owners appear to have papered over it and hung cabinets in front of it. It's a big window as well -- about 1.2 meters square -- and while it just looks out at the neighbour's window, it will still let in more light, so we're going to open it again.  However, as you can see from the picture, we no longer have any storage space in the kitchen!  The boiler and washing machine now have to move upstairs, and we'll get a large sideboard in the dining room for dishes -- fortunately, we have plenty of space for that. (Anita suggested built-in cabinets to match the kitchen, and I quite like that idea.)  So we're not quite there yet...

We did get some good news from the engineer: We don't need an RSJ (steel beam) in the kitchen, although it quite worries me that the upstairs wall is not actually supported by anything.  (The engineer described the upstairs wall as 'clinker bricks,' indicating they weighed very little; however, Wikipedia defines clinker bricks as denser than regular bricks, so I don't know and frankly don't care.  If the engineer says I don't need a US $600 steel beam, I'm not going to argue.)

So far we have spoken to 3 builders, 2 electricians, 3 architects, 1 engineer, a kitchen designer, and a floor refinisher.  If judged on the amount of talking and planning we've done, we should have finished weeks ago. Tomorrow I have to call the engineer to see about building regulations, the builder to tell him we want to remove the chimney breasts, the electrician to tell him I want dimmer switches and garden lights, the architect to schedule another time to meet, and a plasterer who was recommeneded by a co-worker. I still have to find someone to replace the windows, a plumber to move the boiler, and Jess and I have to discuss bathroom layout and lighting options.  And this is a small remodel!

Bosworth kitchen

Had a play with the Ikea kitchen planner.  Actually, I've had a lot of plays over the past month -- first we were doing a galley kitchen with an island, then we were replacing the door with a window and doing a "U" shaped kitchen, then we got rid of the island entirely and made an "L" shaped kitchen.  I'm still waiting for the structural engineer to tell me we can actually do this (it involves installing a 10-foot reinforced steel beam) but I'm quite hopeful.  It's not going to have a lot of storage, but it's 50% more than we currently have, plus a decent refrigerator and a dishwasher! :-)

Before you ask:

• The washing machine will be built-in; the Ikea planner just didn't allow that
• It will be a 'sage' color, not that particular shade of sick
• The floor in the dining area is currently white carpet, and I thought black tile would be a nice contrast.  However, Jess pointed out the patio doors will leave two large gaps in the carpeting, so it looks like we'll have to remove that, anyway.  If so, we'll probably lay down an engineereed wood floor.
  
• The refrigerator, at 28 inches wide, is described as "American style" because it is so big.  However, true American style fridges are 35 inches wide (and called "French door" refrigerators).

It is incredible the amount of effort and planning that has to go into even a small remodel like this.

London life

Some random photos from my camera phone:

Assimilation

For some reason, I've been thinking a lot about this a lot. Is it
active or passive? Are there stages of assimilation, like grief? At
what point are you considered to be assimilated--is it when you are
familiar with something, when you are comfortable with it, or when you
are accepted into it? When you are assimilated, have you gained
something, or lost something? Can you feel like you belong to two
cultures, or neither?

Obviously there is a reason for this: Just as I am feeling comfortable
with Britain, I've started tackling a new religion, Jess and I are
moving into a new house, and I'm about to move on to a new project at
work. That's a lot to assimilate, and my instinct is not to open
myself up to it, but to close off and try to control it. Small
changes are an irritant; large changes overwhelming

Each time I move, I find myself going back to my old area to run
errands, because I know where things are. When I got to London, I
clung to the US, watched US news, and began every other sentence with,
"In the States..." It took me a year to be familiar with British
customs, and two years to be comfortable with them. Today, I feel
assimilated, but I'm not fully accepted--my accent marks me, and many
people assume I'll be returning to the States someday. However, I no
longer feel like I'm part of the US, either.

I remember stuggling so hard to say things like 'cheers' and now I say
it automatically--even when I'm in the States! I think differently, I
dress differently, I behave differently -- nothing dramatic, but
enough for me to notice -- and if I can no longer define myself by
these superficial things, I have to dig deeper to find the real me.
And I can't help but wonder, as more and more of my life changes, what
I will eventually be left with.

REALLY smart phone

I've been playing around with Tasker, on my Android, and it's quite a head trip. It lets you set up all sorts of rules and tasks, such as 'when I'm home, turn on wifi' and 'when I'm at work, switch to vibrate'. Right now, I'm working on a rule that says 'If I'm at the tube station and on my way home, automatically send a text to Jess.' I haven't quite got that sussed yet, and when I do I'm sure Jess will ask me to quit it, but it's a fun little brain teaser.

I looked back on my post from June of last year and found of my top six apps, I'm only using three:

1. Remember the Milk, an online task organizer which automatically syncs with Astrid on the phone (I'm still using Astrid on the phone, which is brilliant, but the syncing services were all awful.)
2. Google Calendar
3. Soocial, which syncs my contact lists on Gmail, Hotmail, and phone
4. Memento, which lets me store notes in any format I like I'm now using Springpad, which manages notes, to do lists, movies, events, restaurants, and more in one crazy mess that somehow works.
5. Nimbuzz, which manages all of my IMs (Windows, Yahoo, Google, and Skype, all in one place) Nimbuzz no longer supports Skype, but Skype now has its own Android app.
6. Last.fm for streaming radio This one just came off the list today, as they announced they would start charging for the Android app. I'll still use it on the PC, though.
However, I've added many more to my list:
7. Alarm Clock Plus, which is brilliant -- you can set an alarm to play a random song from a playlist, and increase the volume every 30 seconds. It can even announce the time, weather, and morning's news headlines! (However, I found that freaked me out a little bit.)
8. PlayerPro, a music player, which integrates with isyncr to sync with iTunes on the laptop wirelessly. How cool is that? (Tofether they cost me £5.)
9. OI Safe, a free app that securely encrypts your info, so I can safely carry around all of my financial information without worrying about losing the phone.
10. MyBackupPro, a non-free app, but the only one that will backup OI Safe. :-(  However, if I ever lose my phone I will be able to restore everything, over the cloud.
11. OurGroceries, a grocery list that syncs on the web and (more importantly) on Jess' phone.
12. FoxyRing, which automatically adjusts the ringer volume based on the ambient noise. (It also has a cool widget that lets you turn the phone on silent for a certain length of time, which is important as I have a habit of coming out of the movie and leaving my phone on silent for 2 days.)
13. iNap, which uses GPS to trigger an alarm (great for train journeys!)
14. Kayak, which has long been my favorite travel comparison web site, now also allows me to manage trips and automatically adds them to my Google calendar.

So that's my list of must-have apps for the Android. I'm sure there are similar alternatives for the iPhone, but I still don't like Apple.

Flat life

I rented a one-bed apartment when I was going to school. However, I was working full-time and going to school at night, and probably spent more time on the road than in the apartment.

And that was it. I moved into a one-bed house, then a two-bed, then bought a 3-bed, and finally into a 4000-square foot mansion in Pennsylvania.

For the past four years, however, I've been back in apartments, or flats as they're called here. They haven't been bad--the loft in downtown LA was spectacular, living in Brentford along the Thames was a joy, and my flat in Ealing -- where I stayed for 18 months -- was fine until the end, when noisy neighbors moved in upstairs. Since September I've been living with Jess, primarily because I thought I thought we'd be moving into a house by December.

Jess owns half of the ground floor of a Victorian house converted into four flats, a one-bed that is probably smaller than my first apartment. I really shouldn't complain--the upstairs neighbors have the same amount of space, sans garden, and they've been there for 21 years...and raised a son.

However, Jess and I are very excited -- and getting more excited by the day -- of moving out of the flat and into our house. Of course, it's still a semi-detached -- with a "party wall" between us and the neighbors -- but we don't have anyone living above or below us, and we have a private yard. We talk about having people over for dinner, or just eating dinner at a table instead of on the sofa. We think of what we can put in the spare bedroom, or on the patio. We dream about what we want to do in the garden, to create a little oasis of tranquility in our lives. I can't wait to have a bathroom I can turn around in, instead of backing in or out.

At 98 square meters (just over 1000 square feet), it's nearly half the size of my house in Lomita, but I can't wait. Something I took for granted for 15 years now seems like heaven to me.

More London adverts

RSJ

RSJ stands for 'reinforced steel joist' and it's how you open up a brick house. Of course there are several different types, and you need a structural engineer to tell you what size.

On Sunday, we met with the prototypical Englishman: jolly, friendly, a little self-depracating, and could talk for England. He said it would take 20 minutes, but he was there for an hour and a half, and in the end couldn't tell us what we needed to know.

That's because he discovered the upstairs wall was offset from the downstairs wall, so he couldn't calculate the load. Instead, he has to come back to do some 'probing' (ie destruction) and even though Jess and I are legally committed to buying the house regardless of what happens to it, it still seemed rude to start punching holes in walls while the current owners are still living there.

So he'll be back on the 18th, which is fine because I don't actually need to get permission from the local council, I just need to notify them I'm doing it (and pay a £300 fee, of course).

However, while he was there, he and Jess went into the attic. (I didn't go because the ladder was unsafe.) When the architect was there a few weeks ago, she poked her head in the attic and pronounced that if we did a loft conversion, it would be small and there wouldn't be enough room for a bathroom. The engineer thought that was nonsense. I don't know which is true, but Jess was quite pleased, so I'll go with the engineer.

My job this week is to line up a plasterer, an electrician, and a builder, so we can get started on the 18th. Of course, last night Jess pointed out we couldn't run off to California while all of this is going on, so we may have to revise our travel plans...

Groundhog day

Of course, that's an American holiday, although Bill Murray did his part to make this bizarre ritual universally recognized. Tomorrow, Jess and I have decided that if we do anything wrong during the day, we have to repeat it until we get it right.

It should be an interesting day.