Remodel: The Media Room

So, yeah, I'm sitting here in what will be the family room/home theater of our remodeled vintage home listening to Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures (on aged vinyl no less!) and essentially chilling out after a hard day's work (consisting mostly of manual labor) when I realize that I hadn't posted in… oh, forever! I thought that I might consider posting again tonight given that I've had more than two days off in a row. Ya see, posting about the lagging progress of "things" gets a bit discouraging when work is frenetically busy and we're not home enough to round out and bolster the proverbial "life/work balance" (certain things come to mind). Couple that with interfacing with home loan bankers and their "hours", lagging energy after work, and my family's busy schedule, and we have the perfect recipe for… um… what is the term for it? Oh yeah, "delays". Mmm, tasty delays! Savor that bitter flavor! Besides, I'm damn tired tonight having shoveled a bunch of dirt and moved many bricks about to recreate the walkways we really liked. 

[The previous record is over (I started typing late, sue me), so I'll drop the needle on Closer (again, on vinyl, duh!) to keep the vibe going.]

Where was I? Oh yes, delays! Whoa! A lot has happened. (well, not alot acording to some people.) The exterior is paint ready. (Photos coming.) The interior is at the "rough-in stage" with bare studs and 2/3rds complete plumbing and electrical. I've jumped in by adding the low voltage wiring for networking, video, and audio, but those efforts don't equate to a finished home.

[A call for the alarm company has brought down the beer buzz I'm floating on. ::sigh::]

Thinking of the unfinished home, I realize I need to post several photos of the outside to get things up to date, but trust me, there has been a lot of progress. Then there's the photos of the interiors to give everyone perspective on the spaces that have come together. In some ways, it boggles our minds!

I'll have to get on those postings!

G'night!

Remodel - February 7

Just a quick update to let everyone see the progress on the remodel. As of this morning, the remodel currently looks like this if you're standing at the base of the studio steps:

Obviously I haven't been keeping this blog up to date, but I hope to backfill the missing period either via photos or another quick video.

Remodel - Time Lapse v.1

 

After I'd been shooting photos of the construction for a while, I realized I could have been making a time lapse video. I went back and looked through the photos I took and found I had been relatively consistent in my camera angles. Thanks to some time spent in Photoshop, I was able to stitch the photos together and make them into something somewhat watchable with Windows Movie Maker. I hope you enjoy the quick video... and like it says, "More to come!"

Remodel - Front Porch

October 9th

The front porch demolition started a bit after the back of the house. A few minor items had been removed up to this date, but the west window (which serves as a weather-break) was removed for storage. Behind the framing was another post that matches the one on the east. This was a great find and will most likely be restored and returned to its original place on the porch. It will also probably serve as the basis of the pattern we will use for the other posts on the porch.

November 2nd

The roof of the porch was removed to reveal all of the original woodwork still intact! Also revealed was the "paint shadow" of the previous porch design. From my time spent researching our house and pouring through old photos, the brick design was probably porch #3 and the "paint shadow" suggests the design of porch #2. We're rolling the design further back to recreate something more like the original porch. This photo also captures the hexagonal asphalt shingles that were put on top of the bottom-most wooden shingles.

November 6th

The demolition team removed the brick pillars, cement wall and floor. Beneath the few inches of concrete of the floor was several cubic yards of decomposed granite. Not what we expected! The cement floor used to sit right against the wall (which isn't good) and we had presumed the cement was a thick slab that reached down to ground level. On one hand, thin concrete made disposal easy. On the other hand, dirt sitting in direct contact with wood is worse than cement is. Minor signs of rot and termite damage hinted at what might sit behind the siding.

November 13th

The DG was removed and stored for later use (perhaps a path to the backyard to the east). The remaining plants around the front of the house were scraped away to make working easier. With the big dumpster removed, we got our first view of the old "four square" Victorian without anything else attached to it. Wonderful! Lots of photos have been taken to document this state of the house.

November 14th

The beginnings of the new porch footings were excavated and dirt beside the existing wall was also lowered. The siding that was in contact with the cement and dirt was removed to reveal more damage than was expected. Good thing we opened this up! Several of the joists had rotted or been eaten away to nubs that would eventually fail. The original piers were also mostly gone, but had been filled in with cement block to reinforce the front wall. This area will be repaired and/or reinforced before we build the new porch.

November 17th

The footings were excavated to their final depth and... the tractor broke our sidewalk in several places. We were initially upset with this, but upon closer inspection, the sidewalk was probably put in around the same time as the porch. The pattern and trowel marks didn't match the surrounding sidewalk, so we will replace it with something closer to the old designs in front of our house.

Remodel - Month 1

The remodel. This is the granddaddy of all projects here at home. Those of you who know my wife and I have heard of this coming... for well over a year in the "it's coming" sense, but even longer if you have spent any significant time around us. Since this project will take around eight months, I thought it would be cool to document the process to give others an idea of what's going on. Sure, if you ask us, we will tell you it's a bit chaotic right now, but consider this: we live in a Victorian farmhouse that was originally built in 1895 and then modified for the course of eighty-something years. Some things were added, others removed, and in the end, we thought the resulting exterior looked like a great old house with a bizarre late 1970-era tumor of a room addition growing off the back of it. We have always wanted to fix that particular aspect of the house and we are now getting our chance to address it.

October 3rd

The demolition started on the back of the house. This proved to be a solid nudge to my wife and I, as we weren't exactly ready to move out. Honestly though, when is a person really ready to have their house razed? In our case, it was not the best of timing. Both of our jobs had kicked into overdrive rather than starting into the Fall at their usual and predictable pace.

October 5th

A couple more days into the demolition and things are looking a bit... um... ragged. Yeah, "ragged" will work. Coming home to this set us all on edge. The roof was gone! Then again, what should one expect when a home demolition has gotten underway? (I think the roof was removed on the 4th and then the rest of the siding and the porch were removed on the 5th.) We started prepping the "studio" for habitation that weekend.

October 13th

Having a brief rest from the demolition around us, we were getting somewhat prepped--both physically and mentally--to move out of the house that weekend. My father-in-law came down Saturday and helped me move the major appliances into the temporary setup in the garage. Thanks Larry! If it wasn't for this jumpstart, things would have been really rough.

 

We spent our first night in the studio that Saturday. We were downsized from a 1552 sq. ft. house down to 528 sq. ft. and it was already proving to be a challenge. What do you bring with you? What do you pack up and "leave behind"? How do you reduce nearly twelve years of living (and the associated accumulated and inherited "stuff") down to a one-room studio apartment? This is going to be an adventure... or so people are telling me!

 

Early rains also contributed to the slowdown, but everyone else seemed to have something to take care of. Andie and I got/had to straighten out more of the living space in the studio and moving additional things in.

 

October 22nd

Another weekend had come and gone. We had been living in the studio for ten days now and things were getting better... micron by micron. Cooking was proving to be a challenge, as we are both used to a gas range and oven, plus a full array of appliances and accessories. Now we have a two-burner electric rangetop, a toaster oven, and a microwave! Then there's the next question: what food and drinks do you keep in the mini-fridge and what are you going to run downstairs to grab from the fridge in the garage? Who needs a StairMaster when you live like this?

October 23rd

The crew is making short work of the demolition while still doing what they can to preserve any reusable materials. I really like that our team has a goal of reusing what they can, donating anything that we don't (or can't) use, recycling what we can, and responsibly desposing of what is left. Another back door was installed further into the house the day before to add some security.

 

October 24th

Okay, it may not look like much has happened in this photo (and parts of the previous photo are showing around the edges--I'm assembling them into one file for a timelapse .gif later), but trust me when I say there is a lot of progress on this one. The team has continued removing the drywall, but they are also salvaging whatever insulation they can so it can be reused elsewhere. Keep in mind that we are working within Title 24 energy consumption regulations.

 

October 25th

A lot of the debris from the demolition has been cleared to the large "rollaway" dumpster and now the amount of demolition is becoming more evident. I thought "I always thought my house had good bones, but they are showing now!"

 

October 26th

Again, it doesn't look like much has happened, but there is a lot of stuff that needs to be removed when a house is demoed. In this case, there was some wainscotting lining the bathroom and the breakfast nook that we wanted to reuse, so it needed to be carefully removed. Then, there was a lot of drywall that still was hanging around waiting to be stripped off.

 

October 29th

Now the bones are really showing! If Monday was any sign of the coming day or two, there wasn't going to be much left of the "new" part of the house. Over the weekend we got a chance to take a look at the strangely patched-up openings in the wall. There were doors in the dining area and nearby bedroom, along with a heretofore unknown window in the dining area as well! Interesting. I took several photos. It was also great to discover that the previous construction projects our house suffered through spared the boxed eaves. This was a great discovery, as we are trying elements of the original house intact.

 

October 30th

Here is most of the team discussing the plans for the rest of the day. I dropped by to check on progress and got a peek into what happens when we're away. There's a bit of a mess, but this is a testament to what they do during the latter course of the day. The team also goes to extra efforts to clean up the day's demolition detritus! Thanks goes out to them and especially Richard, our project manager. Thanks guys!

Notice how there isn't much of the 1970s portion of the house remaining?

 

October 31st

Happy Halloween! I came home a little early to take care of some discussions with Richard and get set to go "Trick or Treating" with my family when I was greeted with this sight--a circa 1895 house reduced to its original rear perimeter. Amazing! I know it's a simple concept, but it's another thing to experience it. This is a big deal to us! Next, the team is heading to the front porch to demo that problem into oblivion. I'll post those photos soon.



 

 

 



The Dark Playlist

I mentioned a playlist I have assembled that seems to serve as my "soundtrack" lately... it mostly consists of:

• Dead Can Dance - select tracks from their entire catalog
• Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard - select tracks from "The Gladiator" soundtrack
• Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard - "The Dark Knight" soundtrack
• How To Destroy Angels - How To Destroy Angels Ep
• Jeremy Soule - Icewind Dale and related game soundtracks
• Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts i - iv
• Robyn Miller - soundtracks and exported "soundscape" elements from Myst, Riven, and other games in the Myst series
• SPK - songs from Zamia Lehmani
• Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - The Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo soundtracks
• and the soundtrack to Bungie's "Myth: The Fallen Lords"

 Enjoy.

Birthday Massacre

[What's this? A second post in six months? It must be a miracle!]

Right about the time I discovered Johnny Hollow, I also found The Birthday Massacre... within a day or two of my birthday... heheh, go figure! I must be in a darker mood lately, as some of their songs are among the "happier" sounds coming out of my speakers at home and at work. Like most dark music does, my muse seems bouyed above whatever troubles were dragging "her" down, and I found myself becoming more productive with this "soundtrack" playing in the back ground.

Currently, I'd categorize The Birthday Massacre as "Goth-pop", but that may simply be my gloomy mood overriding what would otherwise be a proper categorization. I don't mean any disrespect to the band by using that label, as many Goth bands might find it anathema, yet I merely mean some people might find their music more approachable than other Goth-rock (or the songs coming out of my speakers lately). The video for Blue is delightfully creepy, with animated porcelain dolls lurking through the hallways of the trapped woman's mind. (Okay, she may not be physically trapped but the imagery points towards an inflicted insanity).

Check 'em out via their playlist on YouTube

The Muse Stirs...

I've been busy doing other things lately, mostly working and helping keep the day-to-day running, but every so often I get a chance to sit and "do something else". Yesterday, I was cleaning tools out of the studio--preparing it to serve as our living space during the impending remodel of the house--when I decided to listen to some music via YouTube. Somehow, the musical vein I was chasing ended up playing this song/video by Johnny Hollow:

To make a potentially long story much shorter, I really wish I could create this kind of art. I would use it in so many ways, but alas, I have too many competing demands to learn how at the moment. Perhaps someday. I must buy their albums soon! In the meantime, I will have to merely enjoy the wonderful music that Johnny Hollow has created... and journey through the "mindscapes" their music is painting in my brain. Have time to listen? Check out the playlist or click on the "Watch on YouTube" link in the video below...

The Thinning of the Cellar

So I have this "cold box" I keep the bulk of my beer in (check it out  if you don't know what I'm referring to). I have mentioned a few times that I need to drink some of the beer in there to make room... for more beer to take up space, which then needs to be consumed to make room for more beer... ad infinitum.Well, I finally have been ::ahem:: working on that over the past several weeks. Since I haven't had "The Guys" over much to help me out with this laborious endeavor, I have had to tackle this beast of a "task" mostly on my own. Let me tell you, the going has been slow... but here's what I've enjoyed over the past few solitary (or shared with my brother) beer:30 sessions;

• Ballast Point -- Indra Kunindra (India-Style Export Stout): This stout is brewed with curry spices, coconut, kaffir lime leaves, cayenne, and cumin. Damn! I had to go back to Holiday Wine Cellar to buy a few more bottles. I took a couple to share with the crew at The Bruery, but the rest are for the cellar. It's really good now, but let's see how this one ages! Maybe I'll have to get a few more to drink fresh. Yeah. That's it, fill that cellar back up!
• Coronado Brewing Co. -- Barrel Aged Barley Wine Ale (Ale brewed with honey and aged in oak brandy barrels): Yeah, it's like that. This beer snuck up on me. Usually I prefer bourbon barrel aged barley wine ales, but this one said "Dude, respect this" and, well, I had to. It's a pretty good beer that exhibits the charactistics of its history; barley wine, brandy, oak... yep, they're in there. I had to go buy a couple more to have around in case of "emergency" situations.
• Deschutes Brewery -- Fresh Hop Mirror Pond Pale Ale: Well, I think I was expecting a bit much from this beer. For some reason I was thinking "wet hop IPA" but instead I got "fresh hop pale" which was a little underwhelming. No biggie. I enjoy their "Hop in the Dark Cascadian Dark Ale" periodically.
• Deschutes Brewery -- The Stoic (A Prized Potent Belgian-Styled Quad of Stirring Depth and Complexity): A wax sealed bottle. I find this intriguing... I'm going to have to find a couple more bottles of this to really help me with my assessment of this beer. The label says "[...] malt beverage brewed with pomegranite with 16.5% being aged in oak wine barrels and 16.5% being aged oak rye whiskey barrels." This demands more "investigation".
• Port Brewing Co. -- High Tide Fresh Hop IPA: Nice... yeah, nice. Great fresh hop aroma and flavor. I wish this could be concentrated a bit more and bottled... wait, there are a few breweries that do this. :)
• Port Brewing Co. (Carlsbad) -- Plant to Pint: Another "fresh hop" IPA. This beer was great, especally with the bright flavors in my veggie pizza in their Carlsbad location. Man, I miss getting out there to sample the fresh local brews.
• Shipyard Brewing Co. -- Imperial Porter (Pugsley's Signature Series): For some reason, I thought this beer was better than it tasted this time. Last year I had a few bottles and I really enjoyed it, but this year... meh. Perhaps I'm simply jaded by the vast ocean of superb craft beers in the near vicinity. 
• Stillwater Artisinal/Mikkeller -- Our Side (A Collaborative Gypsy Ale): Nice. To be honest, the memory of this beer is a bit "fuzzed" by the beers before and after on the Saturday night I had this, but I remember nice hops, balanced flavors... overall, a great impression. I still have one in the cellar and will have to drink it before it is past its prime.
• TJ Brewing Co. -- Cerveza Bufadora (Premium Lager Beer): Okay, so I don't like lagers for the most part. This lager I like. There. I said it. TJ Brewing Co., you can quote me on that. Congrats on bringing me back around to craft-brewed lagers!
• Uinta Brewing Co. -- Cockeyed Cooper (Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine Ale - Crooked Line Series): To be honest, I was hoping for a bit more bourbon, but this beer was still good. Malts are balanced by the hops with a touch of bourbon sneaking into the flavor. I have one more in the cellar that will be busted out during Thanksgiving... to share with my brother... yeah... it's gonna go good with the whole "cooking the bird" process I undertake every year.
• Jason Fields & Kevin Sheppard, Troegs, Stone Brewing Co. -- Cherry Chocolate Stout: I'm gonna be honest here... I like this beer, but I was hoping for something more viscous, like our Imperial Russian Stout. I know that the collaboration beers are just that, beers that the brewers contribute their expertise to brew.In this case Jason and Kevin contributed a great Cherry Chocolate Stout during our Homebrewer's Rally, and then we meshed it with our "Stone style" and one other brewery, namely Troegs. Ah, long story short, I have one more left and will see how it tastes in six to twelve months.
• Stone Brewing Co. -- 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA: I had this one in various incarnations... dry-hopped, cask, draft, and from the bottle. Holy crap! I love this beer. I'll do what I can to get this beer on the regular brewing cycle, but I don't know how much my vote will count for.
• Stone Brewing Co. -- 2009 Imperial Russian Stout: Um, see the next entry, but substitute IRS or OG. yeah, this is my second favorite beer that Stone produces.
• Stone Brewing Co. -- 2009 Old Guardian Barley Wine-Style Ale: What's a growler fill among friends... er... among worthy beer peers? It's nice to work for Stone and get a chance to compare Archive beers to what I have in my cellar. Sometimes I take the time to pop open a bottle from my collection if I doubt the storage conditions my bottles have endured. Usually, however, I consider the growler fill a progress report, a status update to let me know how my beer is aging. "OG" is my favorite among the Stone beers I can get throughout the year, but I only can buy a case each winter. Hmm... the dilemma... how many can I drink before I sequester the remaining bottles deeper into my beer archive? Four? Six? Eight?! Often times, the count is eight. I force one into the "permanent" archive" and keep the rest in the "drinking shelf"
• Stone Brewing Co. -- Lukcy Basartd: Another progress report. I've always thought of this beer as OAKED 1.5 Bastard, as irreverent as that sounds. Alas, this beer was not intended to age, and that is starting to really show. I don't think it's bad, but it seems to be a bit past it's prime. I only have a bottle or two left, so they will probably disappear during the holidays.
• Stone Brewing Co. -- Arrogant Bastard Ale: A sixth barrel on tap at home. Please see the IPA keg entry below...
• Stone Brewing Co. -- IPA: this is a sixth barrel (5.16 gallons) I have on tap at home. I would have to say that this is my favorite IPA. Working at Stone has provided me the rare opportunity to sample a countless number of IPAs over the years... and I keep coming back to Stone IPA. It's just that good. I'd probably say the same thing if I didn't work there and have a nigh endless supply readily available.
• There are probably others, but my son and I have actually made a run to the local recycler to exchange the bottles for $$$ he is applying toward his personal college fund. Hey, gotta teach 'em young, or they may never appreciate the value of it!

 Not counting the small multitude of beers that I had to select from during the Volunteer Appreciation Party

• The Bruery -- Tart of Darkness
• Ska Brewing Co. -- Steel Toe
• Stone Brewing Co. -- 13th Anniversary Ale
• ... and seven others which I don't recall immediately... but will update this blog if I remember and have the time.

While I am at it, here are a few beers I tasted while at the tasting room at The Bruery in Anaheim this past Saturday, all of them damn fine:

• Oude Tart
• Humulus Wet
• Birra Basta
• Autumn Maple
• and a pair of Belgian-style golden ales (one spicy) that I can't remember the somewhat goofy name of and aren't in RateBeer's list! That's the spirit of craft beer.

All in all, it's a tragic situation I find myself in, isn't it? ::snicker:: Okay, so I am enjoying it, but I really think my beer is for sharing! Friends across the globe, you know who you are, I emplore you, visit and let's pare down the number of bottles in the larder together!

...and yet I have neglected this blog for five months. ::sigh:: I presume you're used to it by now. We'll see each other again soon enough. Cheers!

Fiction: Out Back

Just ahead, deep shadows had gathered behind Badger's place hiding the delivery entrance from sight. A glint of light in the darkness--a reflection from the parking lot lights across the alley--drew me to the fire escape's ladder. Using the planter wall as a launching platform, I ran up it and kicked off toward the lowest rung letting my hiking staff fall. Reaching up, my fingers caught a hold of the painted metal and I tightened my grip. My momentum carried my legs forward straining my grip.

"Damn it!" My right hand pulled free. I twisted, nearly losing grip with my left hand. I windmilled my right arm to get my body to twist back. Slowly, I turned far enough to get both hands on the rung again--just in time too, as I was starting to lose grip with my other hand. I monkeyed up the ladder until I could get my feet up to the bottom rung.

"Just like high school." I noted to myself as I climbed up the ladder. I clambered up to the second floor and tucked in next to the window. I remembered coming up here with Badger's brother, Doug. Their dad hated us using the fire escape to get into their apartment above the shop. Badger usually ratted us out to their dad. He was a jerk back then too.

I settled against the brick and tried to gather my thoughts. The "Devils" gang were after me. The cops were following me too. I am single and live alone in the house my grandma left me. My job as a support desk technician was boring, or at least that's what Ed, my neighbor, tells me. Most of my friends lived about twenty miles away and lead similar lives. My collection of paperback books and roleplaying games wasn't valuable to anyone other than geeks like me. My fridge has three different kinds of mustard, half a bottle of Coke, some tortillas, a partial bucket of leftover fried chicken, and some bleu cheese. Well, maybe it's simply blue. I didn't have much of value outside of my backpack and laptop.

Wait.

My laptop.

There was that side job I did for Amy in customer service a couple of weeks ago. She needed me to repair her laptop hard drive. After doing the work, she said she would pay me after we got paid. She didn't show up for work after that and I thought she went back to Denver to help her sister take care of their mother. I should have figured that story was a lie. Who skips out on almost two weeks of pay? I had a copy of her hard drive in my pack on my external drive just in case she showed up looking for it again.

This spot, sitting on a fire escape ten feet off the ground with the Devils chasing me, was not the place to fire up the laptop to go mining for valuable data.

Coming out of my self-reflection, I listened for the booming of the street racer's stereo. I couldn't hear that noise or the whining of it's exhaust. I took the risk and climbed down the ladder. My backpack and laptop bag pulling me down faster than I cared to go.

Landing again on the back entryway, I turned toward the rear entrance to the liquor shop.