Note: Since completion of the house I have also decided to allow guest bloggers to post articles related to remodeling. This continues the education process.
TIMELINE
Architect Selection - December 2002 through January 2003
Getting a Permit - January 2003 through November 2004
Construction - November 2004 through September 2006
Post Construction - October 2006 through ???
Water Flow Issues
Both latches on the exterior doors need repairs, the nice wood deck built around the palm tree needs to be replaced due the trees expanding girth, all circuit boards have been replaced in every appliance right after the 5-year warranty expired, etc.
One of the most recent, and confusing, issues has to do with my water flow. If you remember in earlier blog posts, I wrote how the plumbing was designed so that I could turn on multiple showers, dishwasher, washing machine, etc., all at the same time and not notice any drop in water pressure. Well something has happened somewhere where only one shower can be on and the pressure is noticeably reduced. I have no idea if it is actually lower water pressure from the city due to the drought conditions in California or if my tankless water heater is clogged up. Does anyone have any ideas on how to go about checking this out? Please comment below if you do.
In hindsight, when the plumbing was put in, I should have installed a flow meter to help monitor water consumption. It would be a real easy test to check the flow if I had one installed right now.
UPDATE 1/22/15: Exactly one year later and I finally solved my water flow issues. It really didn't take that long but it got bad enough where I had to do something about it.
I unscrewed my 8" shower head and lo and behold it was clogged with about 1" of sediment at the filter. I rinsed it out and a few weeks later the problem came back. I went through this process a few times as I think the California drought is causing extra sediment to get into the water supply due to the low reservoirs. Also, the extra minerals are causing all kinds of hard water stains and clogging of the tiny orifices in the shower head. I took a Dremel and a wire brush attachment to polish off all the deposits. It worked great and now my pressure is back to normal.
Out of curiosity, I went to a faucet down in the laundry room where I can easily unscrew the filter. Guess what? An inch of sediment in there as well. I'm routinely going around the house and emptying sediment now about once every month or so.
So what do you do to fix this? I think I need to bite the bullet and put in a whole house soft water unit. UGH!
Ceiling Tile Store is now OPEN!
Be sure to check out the Coupons/Rebates page to see if there are any deals to be had.
Maintaining this House is Something Else!
Exterior Paint - The South sides of the house start to fade due to the constant sunlight received throughout the year. On average, we have been needing to paint the South side of the house every 12-18 months at a minimum. For this we are using a clear coat of Varathane on the shingles and the bark-colored Cabot stain on the redwood trim. Just last year I had the garage door sanded down and refinished along with the house as it was fading bad with only a clear coat on the mahogany. I had it stained and recoated. Now it looks like a million bucks.
Tankless Water Heater - Once a year I have to flush the tankless water heater with vinegar. It's not difficult to do but just another thing to do.
Hot Tub Pump - I just had the hot tub pump replaced with about 3 months left on the warranty. Whew! Apparently, it's better to keep the water pH on the high side to prevent corrosion of the parts.


Koi Pond - The koi in the pond are HUGE!!! I'm glad to see the pond thriving but that being said, I just got through my annual cleaning of the pond. It costs about $650 per year! They take out the fish, scrub all of the algae off the rocks, clean out the filters, check everything, and refill it. I'm sure there's more to it than that. It takes 3 guys about 4 hours. See the koi pond cleaning here. But wait, there's more. The lights in the pond are failing and I have been told that the new lights out now are the way to go and will last for 10 years or so. So there's another grand or so. Stay tuned.

Now after all of these things, people always say "you wouldn't do it again, would you?" I would do it all over in a second! I love this!!!
Bye for now......Mike
Craftsman Curtain Rod Bracket Installation
Rich Wright, the contractor of my house, made the curtain rods and brackets out of left over mahogany from the construction. He had to build a jig to hold the base bracket in place and ensure that it was aligned straight.


This picture shows the mounting really well. There are two screws that mount the base piece into the wall. The cover piece has a hole in the center where a 3-inch screw goes through the rod (not shown) and into the back support bracket. That hole is then filled with an ebony plug.

We ran into an issue with how to do a bracket for a corner window where each window had it's own curtain. Here is the solution, a corner bracket that takes each rod in at a 45 degree angle.

Test fitting a curtain rod into the brackets to make sure everything fits.

Now it's time to make the curtain rods. Each mahogany rod was custom cut to the length required for each window and door. I numbered the ends of the rods when finishing so I could remember where they went later. After some light sanding to bevel all edges, I sprayed on 3 coats of Varathane to seal them. This is the same finish I used on the curtain rod brackets.



Meanwhile, this block of ebony was cut into tiny squares to plug the holes in the brackets after installation.

And now for the final product. Well, almost final. I still haven't put in the ebony plugs but you can't really tell in these pictures. The rods extend one inch past each end of the brackets. The curtains have tabs with buttons so the curtain can be removed if needed.


Craftsman Curtain Rod Brackets
The brackets are made from my leftover Honduran mahogany. Here are the long awaited pics of the unfinished brackets and the finishing process.
Here you can see a complete bracket and the two halves that make it up.
The brackets are match drilled. We had to number them to keep the sets together.
All of my materials: curtain rod brackets and Varathane clear semi-gloss.
Taking all of the brackets apart in preparation for finishing. Ebony plugs will fill the holes.
The brackets are apart and ready for finishing with Varathane.
Craftsman Curtain Rods and Curtains
If you remember, I have a lot of mahogany and ebony left over from the job so we will be using that and make it ourselves. On a related note, my contractor Rich Wright asked me if I could create a web site for him in exchange for some work I may need done. What great timing! Rich will be building the curtain rods in exchange for his site.
This Old House Magazine
I worked with one of the This Old House writers for about a month to get her all of the information she needed. After pitching it to the editor, it was decided they would not do anything with it due to the lack of before pictures.
If any other magazine people are reading this (American Bungalow, Sunset, etc.), you can feature this house if you like as it has not been in any magazine....yet.
Kids Arts & Crafts Area
We Won the Pond Competition!
The Palm Tree Was Removed
Another Magazine Called!
Flushing the Tankless Water Heater and Streamlining the Hot Water System
I have a Takagi Mobius TM-1 tankless water heater that receives cold water and outputs hot water on demand. The initial problem I had with water being on demand was I would have to let the shower run for 3 minutes just to get hot water. To remedy this, I had a 10 gallon electric heater hooked up to the hot outlet of the tankless water heater to maintain a reservoir of hot water that I would recirculate through the house every 30 minutes through the use of a recirculating pump.
The problem I have with this setup is my electrical bills have been really high and I'm sure the electric heater is not helping matters so I'm trying to find ways to lower that expense. I'm not sure how much I'll save but I think it may be as high as $50 per month.
The following pictures show the tankless heater and recirculating pump right after the electric heater was removed. The plan is to bypass the electric heater and go straight from the tankless water heater to the recirculating pump.
Since the system is open, I decided to flush the tankless water heater. You are supposed to do this every year but it has been two years since I installed it and haven't done it yet. We are using two bottles of white vinegar.
A small pump is connected to the cold water line entering the tankless water heater and a return line from the hot side is fed back into the bucket.
Here you can see the whole setup in action.
Biometric Fingerprint Garage Door Opener
What I like about it is that you can program a contractor's fingerprint into it for the one or two days he needs access without giving a numeric code. When he's done working, remove the fingerprint from the system and he's locked out!
We Really Need Window Shades
In the meantime, I wanted to share with all of you that I just purchased some eyeshades which are extremely comfortable, soft, and they block out 100% of light.
Click here for more information.
The Central Vacuum Won't Turn Off
Koi Pond Gets One Last Update Before Landscaping Contest
In preparation, Cor van Diepen of Paradise Landscaping, came over with his assistant Cesar (see April 16 blog post) for one last touch up before the judges come over this weekend. They spent time on details like making sure no rubber trim was showing and that every rock was in its place. There were a few bubbles showing at the waterfall that he called 'foam' and said we would lose some points if that was there when they came by. I'm going to see if I can find something to get rid of it tonight.
Cor thinks we have a really good shot at first place! I'll let you know next week. Maybe I'll get to stick a sign in my front yard. :)
A Magazine Called
Koi Pond Cleaning
While Cesar scrubbed the rocks, Cor cleaned out the biotic filters. The picture below shows the lava rocks that sit in a bag at the top of the waterfall. There is bacteria living in those rocks so they get a superficial cleaning.
You are probably wondering what happened to the four fish. Well, after about 30 minutes of no water, the pond was refilled and the fish swam out of their holes. Amazing!
Landscaping is Blooming Well This Spring
Concord grapes are starting to appear.
The artichoke plant is growing FAST!
One of my plans was to have wisteria grow up the columns around the house and frame out the different entry ways. I may be a few years off from that but they are growing quite nicely and the purple flowers are strikingly beautiful. I'm going to have to get a small trellis built between the columns as the wisteria will be tall enough to grab on soon.
Neighborhood Church Annual Yule Parlor Parade Homes Tour
Dining Room Table Being Built
The table is modeled after a table in the Robinson House, another Greene and Greene design. With both leaves in, it can comfortably seat 14, without the leaves it can easily seat 8. It weighs in at about 150 lbs for the base and 150 lbs for the top. The extensions are wood sliding on wood, there are no metal sliders. Also notice that your knees won't hit anywhere around the table.
The Mailbox Post and Mailbox Get Installed
Sanded and Stained Front Door and Garage
Adding a Barbecue Island
The block was built just off the house. We tied it in using the stone veneer to make it look like one wall.
The structure was framed out with aluminum studs. The dark green posts are steel.
The gas line was run in from under the house.
Golden Buckskin flagstone was used on the top to match the patio and the face is stone. It looks like the barbecue island was here all along.
Garage Floor Upgraded with RaceDeck
The pieces snap together like a puzzle making it real fast and easy to complete. The hardest part was emptying and refilling my garage. The installation below took all of 2 hours.
Next Page
Be sure to browse the 2,000 picture Photo Gallery for more step-by-step construction details.