Front Window

So here are some photos of our front window progression. We started with clearing out all the plants from in front of the house. That big tree you see in the front was such a pain in the neck! I would have to trim off the branches about every 6 weeks, and it had hairs on it that would flake off like fiberglass insulation and hurt our allergies and itch like hell! I will certainly not miss this tree.




Here's now the front with the stucco taken off and the tree removed. They drilled holes in the side of the main house slab, framed and poured the concrete for the new seat window.




Now the Framing and New Sierra Pacific window (http://www.sierrapacificwindows.com/) is installed. We love these windows. Funny, this whole project idea was started by our need to replace our drafty noisy Aluminum Single pain windows with something better. Amazing how project scopes can change.
This Window will have a built in window seat, that hinges up to expose storage underneath for couch blankets and kid's toys.

Habitat Re-Store

So Bill Brundige, our wonderful general contractor, used to work with Habitat for Humanity. This was one of our main reasons for going with the T/I Guys. Bill recommended that we go to the Re-Store in San Diego (http://www.habitat.org/env/restores.aspx) and see what sorts of things they have. This place it pretty much a thrift store equivalent to Home Depot. Often they have perfectly good re-newed products that still have many years of good life in them, or they get surplus new supplies from excess building projects. Especially now in the new build market downturn where builders overbuilt track homes, there are tons of excess supplies available here at sometime more than 50% off new prices, even though they are still in the factory sealed box.
We rationalized that anything we purchase from this store has a much smaller environmental impact than anything new, because most of the footprint has already occurred before if ever reached this store. We have encouraged Bill to obtain as many materials for the remodel project as possible from any of the Re-Store's in the so cal area that he is familiar with.
So we are stopping by this store about once a week and grabbing what useful supplies we can find (tiles, wires, nails, tools, light fixtures, faucets) that might have a use in our house. Plus all the proceeds from the purchases go to funding Habitat in their social action programs.

Appliances Sink and Mailbox

So I brought Ilisa and Mom into the store to help finalize our appliances. As you might have read before I was big on the Bosch stuff. We're still going with the glass cook top, but when Ilisa saw the matching oven, she just didn't think it looked that great! Most of it came down to the look of the Microwave oven which goes above the wall oven. In the Bosch it looked like more of an afterthought, like a standard counter top microwave with tacky flashing around the edges so they can call it built in. So we decided to go for the Kitchen Aid Combo wall unit (http://www.kitchenaid.com/catalog/product.jsp?src=Built-in+Ovens&cat=124&prod=1342). And as luck would have it, Pacific Sales happened to have a returned unit at almost half price! Us Goldman's hate to pass up a bargain. The only defect we can see is a scratch on the hand of the oven, which is no big deal, because we usually keep a dish towel draped over that anyways for hand drying. So we got a $3600 combo unit for ~$2000. Plus one could say that we are recycling this unit since the carbon footprint has already been paid for by the original buyer. Oh and that's the nice salesman (Corey Funk, what a great name!) that hooked us up with everything.
Here's our kitchen sink that we all decided on (http://www.frankeksd.com/productdetail.php?prodid=299&node=10&group=53&lvl=-1). We went away from the two sink idea. I've found that to be able to easily put an entire lasagna pan into the sink and let it soak overnight is key to keeping water spills off the counter top. Plus Franke has lots of great accessories like cutting boards and drop in temporary 2nd sinks that really make this a great adaptable product. In this photo you can see the grate that fits right in, so your dishes actually sit a bit off the bottom and keep the sink cleaner.
We also looked at other materials for the kitchen sink, but when I call Ori @ Greenmaker to ask him, he said that SS is often made from recycled materials, and has a very high recyclable content.
Here's our mailbox. Not Ilisa's first choice, nor necessarily mine for color or design. What sold me on it (I'm looking at you Workshop 44) was the Zach Meyer's Symbol on the front. This is also the same symbol that was on my front door of the house I grew up in in Northbrook, IL. Just goes to show that nostalgia can easily out win any environmental, functional, or design criteria.

New Master Bedroom Addition

Well here's a few photos of our addition. They framed the footing, got through city inspecitons, then poured the slab for our new approx 15 foot square bedroom right onto the back of our house (sorry Mr. Orange Tree). We will then pour more concrete on the roof of this room, stain it, add some stairs, and hopefully have a little rooftop hang out spot where we might get a view of the Sea World Fireworks.


This is a rear shot of the house where a window will go. We'll be using some of the excess slab cut-offs as stepping stones until we redo the yard layout.

This is the view of the new room from our back patio. The sliding door for to let the doggies out is on this side. We will have to move the grapes, though I wish we could have run the grapes up to the balcony, but it would be way to messy. Anyone want a 10 yr old cab wine grape? We will most likely only move one of the two vines.

HVAC (Heater) Ducting

So the decision of the day was how we would mount the HVAC ducting. For the bedrooms the HVAC company (business name to follow) recommended that we place the new registers over each of the windows, since these are typically where the most heat is lost, and the warm air from the duct will actually blow down over the winder, creating a blanket of warm air, and thus more efficient. The registers will still be at head high level, which always bothered me. Heat rises, so putting the hot air ducting from the top does not make for the best airflow. Here’s where the $’s come in. It seams by a back of the napkin calculation that the energy we would expend over time from an electric ceiling fan would out weigh the cost of routing the ducts to lower. Plus this makes furniture layout in the room easier, because it’s harder to block the vents.
There will then be a 12 or 14 inch round duct (similar to one we found at Ilisa’s office) that comes out from the attic (where the new 92% efficient Gas Furnace will be) straight out at about a 10 foot high level. This will have nice brushed Aluminum vents two on each side directed at the Ceiling Fans in the Kitchen and
The hard decision what where to put the ducting tube so it will look and function the best and be the simplest. We conference called in the architect, Drew Hubbell who pointed out that many new downtown café’s and bars are going for this post modern industrial look. The HVAC guy also said that many places will paint the duct a dark color to add to its aesthetic value. The other option would have been to put soffet (sp?) ducts in the corners of the vaulted ceiling, but this would add more additional cost and complexity to the system with possibly less benefit.
The HVAC guy also said that he will be installing manual dampeners (close off valves in the duct) at each duct branch for each room. I asked that these mechanisms are adaptable to 24VAC actuators (electric motors). This will be great, because eventually I would like to put a zone based HVAC controls system in place that will open and close these dampeners based upon individual zone thermostats and/or timers and/or motion sensors, so that we only provide air to zones that require it, and hopefully creating a more efficient design.
It’s funny we have so many long term goals for this project, yet have to be realistic for what if affordable both in money (baby’s coming in a month, and the Prius isn’t paid off yet) and time (did I mention baby’s coming in a month). We did do our best to put in adaptable hardware so that as more advanced features and options come out (such as household energy controls systems) and water recycling systems we can change easily to these things without having to completely redo a system from scratch. All good things will hopefully come with time.

Ish is the man!

Our great colorist (ISH or Jesse or Yishai www.465gallery.com) here is our guest bathroom go over our design details. I can't wait to see what he comes up with. anything is better than the ugly wallpaper! We also will be upgrading this mirror, and ish will refinish the bathoom countertop.