Remodel Kitchen

If you are shopping for natural stone tile for your kitchen or bathroom, be aware that the tile you see on the showroom display may not even resemble the tile that is boxed up in the warehouse. Naturally, the tile dealer wants to put his best foot forward, so he selects the best looking tile for the showroom. What you need to figure out is whether the showroom display represents 10%, 25%, 33%, 50%, 66% or 75% of the boxed tile. Ask them to bring out a box so that you can take a look.

Here’s my wish list. When I visit a web site, I would like to see the following:

• Location. List the address of all your showrooms.
• Map. Link your address to an online mapping service, such as Google Maps. Not sure why people still link to Mapquest. Google Maps just kicks butt because I can slide the map over with my mouse. Once you’ve experienced that, clicking on the N/S/E/W arrows to page the map over one screen feels downright antiquated.
• Store Hours. Why would a store not post their hours on their web site? This one I don’t understand. Why should I call in to ask someone when your are open. I’m only griping about this one because I see it a lot. Just a few clicks of the keyboard saves me from calling you, and saves you from answering my phone call.
• Inventory. Word-of-mouth business is huge here. Most of the stores I go to were either recommended by a family member, friend or contractor. However, sometimes they can’t tell me exactly the products that you carry. So, introduce yourself. You don’t have to list every single product. Just list the product lines you carry. Better yet, just list the top five most popular items in each product category.
• Pricing. Always love to shop around.

#1–3 are essential and easy to implement. #4–5 would be great. Of course, any photos to inspire the remodeler in all our hearts would be appreciated.

Wanted to get some pricing from Home Depot, but their web site is down. Tell me this, who takes down their web site a week and a half before Christmas? Better yet, let me know what you mean by “We’ll be back online shortly.” Do I check back in an hour, tomorrow morning, or next week? I’ve seen web site updates that all of a sudden stretch out for a few days. (And, I’m talking about Gap, from earlier this year.) Risky, very risky. Oh, in Internet time, I think shortly means by the time I click my browser’s reload button. Nothing is happening. Not short enough.

In California, lighting in bathrooms must be high efficacy, or must be controlled by a manual-on occupant sensor. The 2005 Residential Compliance Manual further states, “At least one high-efficacy luminaire should be installed so that it can be left off the occupant sensor circuit to ensure that all of the luminaires don’t switch off while someone is in the bath. Even dual technology
sensors may not detect a motionless and silent occupant.”

So, if you don’t have a 4-pin fluorescent light in your bathroom, then your lights must be controlled by an occupant sensor. Persons with dimmers need not apply. However, depending on the location of the sensor and the activities of any occupant, all the lights may go off. Well, there you go. Someone taking a shower in a wet, soapy area and the lights go off. Tell me there won’t be a lawsuit if the occupant slips and falls.

Let’s say the bathroom does have a high efficacy luminaire, in addition to an incandescent or halogen light above the sink. As the compliance manual states, the occupant should never just turn on the vanity light. Instead, the occupant should turn on all the lights, just in case the vanity light goes off. Now, how exactly is energy being saved when you have to turn on all your lights?

I still don’t understand how the State can mandate the installation of an occupant sensor that may cast the unwary into darkness when the State is aware of the sensor’s shortcomings. Why exactly is California sending people to Sacramento to require us to install a defective product?

I think after the lawyers get done with this silly law, we will all need to post a sign in our bathrooms warning family members and guests that the lights may go off on them while they are in the bathroom. Furthermore, before anyone may use the facilities, we will need them to sign a disclaimer stating that they are aware the lights may go off on them and that they waive all rights against the homeowner should they slip and fall in a darkened bathroom.

For hallways, dining rooms, family rooms and bedrooms, California requires that permanently installed luminaires shall either be high efficacy or shall be controlled by an occupant sensor or dimmer. Here’s the problem with this rule. If the ceiling or wall light that you like only comes in an incandescent, what do you do?

The optimal choice I would imagine would be to use an incandescent lamp with a screw-in compact fluorescent bulb. This is called a win-win solution. You get your style. The state gets its energy savings.

However, by requiring you to install a dimmer, what bulb will you be choosing now? According to GE, to use a compact fluorescent bulb on a dimmer switch, you must buy a bulb that’s specifically made to work with dimmers. Great! That’s one more thing to look out for. Actually, instead of figuring out whether a compact fluorescent will work with your dimmer or not, the easier solution is to just use an incandescent bulb. Who wins now?

Home Depot is ubiquitous. They have quite a few stores near where I live and work, so I’ve probably been inside four of their big box stores within the past year—five if you count their EXPO design center. Generally, each store carries a broad range of building supplies. I rarely find that they don’t have an item I need in stock. So, I’ve never really had the need to stop into Lowe’s, until recently.

I was looking for an exterior fluorescent lamp—the cheaper the better. And, I couldn’t find one at Home Depot. So, I popped into Lowe’s and wow! At least in terms of exterior lighting, they had a wider selection than Home Depot. They also had someone physically manning a station in the lighting section. No searching down each aisle looking for someone with an orange apron. This was the real deal.

The other thing I noticed was the check registers. They had a lot of check registers open. At Home Depot, I’ve usually seen 1 manned register open along with four self-serve registers. More than once, I’ve been stuck waiting a long time in line. No three’s a crowd. No opening a new register. I really don’t understand this. When you have someone already in line, ready to hand over their money, why hassle them? If I have to wait in a long time, I occasionally will just leave and come back during an off hour to complete my purchase.

I’ll still be going back on Home Depot just because their locations are more convenient. Can’t wait until Lowe’s builds out more stores to give Home Depot a run for their money. Competition is always good for the consumer, and Home Depot has been unchallenged for quite some time now.

Google Planimeter really needs a better name. Had no idea what a planimeter was until I looked it up. Anyways, obscure name aside, the Google Planimeter lets you guesstimate the size of a lot, block, or other bounded area of land. Using the Google Maps API, Google Planimeter lets you mark some coordinates on a map with the familiar Google Maps interface. So, you can alternate between map, satellite and hybrid view, just like on the Google website itself.

When you click on the map, the Google Planimeter display a flag. Set three flags, and the Google Planimeter calculates the area between the three coordinates. As you set additional flags, the Google Planimeter recalculates the area each time.

Of course, you’re not going to get the same degree of accuracy as when you hire a surveyor. But, for a quick and dirty estimate, this is the place to go. The real fun begins when in satellite or hybrid view. You can guesstimate the square footage of people’s houses, pools, basketball courts with this tool. Works better where Google has provided high magnification maps.

No one. A year after California’s Building Energy Efficiency Standards became effective, take a look at the selection of fluorescent lights available at Home Depot and Lowes. Even if you wanted to buy a fluorescent light, there’s almost no selection to pick from. I think the folks in Sacramento are well-meaning, but maybe letting people use screw-in compact fluorescents in their remodels is the best interim solution to the energy problem.

Here’s something else to ponder. The California Integrated Waste Management Board says that all fluorescent lamps and tubes should be recycled or disposed as HAZARDOUS WASTE because of their mercury content. And, how many people are actually recycling their fluorescent lights? Ah, the esteemed state agency has the answer to this question as well. In 2001, 15,555,556 fluorescent lamps were sold in California, and only 0.21% of these lamps were recycled.

I’m guessing that people may not realize that fluorescent lights cannot be disposed of with their regular trash. Also, if you don’t offer curbside recycling of fluorescent lights, then don’t expect people to recycle them. Seems really short sighted in my mind to require people to use lighting products containing hazardous wastes, but not coming up with a more compelling disposal solution. This may well end up being a replay of the MTBE scandal where to “spare the air,” additives in the the gasoline sold then turned around and poisoned the groundwater. All that mercury going into the landfills will probably have a similar effect down the line.

If you are planning to remodel a kitchen or bath, or build a new house, you should read the 2005 California Building Energy Efficiency Standards:

• during the design stage when you are working with an architect, and
• again during the construction stage before you head out to the lighting store to pick your lighting fixtures.

Here’s all you need to know: “The most dramatic change since the previous Standards is that high efficacy luminaires are required for almost all rooms in residential buildings.” In other words, if you are installing something other than fluorescent lighting (and using screw-in compact fluorescents doesn’t count), California imposes all these additional requirements—some easier to satisfy than others.

In real estate, the three most important things are location, location and location.

When remodeling or rebuilding a house, the three most important things are to measure, measure and measure. When you receive your initial blueprints, compare the measurements to your current living space to get a frame of reference as to how large your new bedrooms, kitchen and bathrooms will be. Things look larger on paper when your imagination is unencumbered by reality. Only when the walls have been erected do you pause and think: hmmm, that surely looked larger on paper!

Before you finalize your plans, measure again. Unless you are using custom-made cabinets, know that kitchen and bathroom cabinets usually come in 3-inch increments. So, if windows or other items need to be centered, make sure they will center with your cabinets, else will you be wasting an inch or two here and there using fillers.

Finally, plans inevitably change throughout construction. You might even switch vendors mid-stream. If you decide to change your cabinets or items based on the recommendation of a new interior designer, measure again to make sure the new plan fits in with what has already been done. Else, you’ll be getting very familiar with the change order.

One great tool to help you measure it the Leica Disto A3, a laser distance meter. Costs a lot more than the standard tape measure, but when you have a lot of measurements to take, it saves a lot of time. Press a couple buttons and you can take all the measurements for your closet space. The tape measure is still handier for short distances, but when you’re measuring long distances by yourself, you don’t have to worry about the tape measure being straight or folding or any of that other nonsense. As an added convenience, it switches easily between inches and feet-inches. Not sure why, but some vendors want their measurements in inches and others in feet-inches.