Sorry I haven't been posting a whole lot here; I've been busy with a few other projects. One is yet another expression of my unfortunate materialism: check out bagcheck.net. I'll try to get moving on Hewn & Hammered again this coming week!
ofuro: Japanese soaking tubs
pictured above: a beautiful custom wooden ofuro designed & built by Bartok Design
A few years ago, I remodeled my bathroom, and removed a traditional shower/tub combo. In replacing it with a tiled shower stall and a tub, I faced a dilemma: how to fit these two new items in the same space? Luckily, my solution was Kohler's Greek Soaking Tub, substantially deeper, wider and shorter than their traditional tubs. However, I originally investigated building a custom Japanese soaking tub - or ofuro - before discarding that idea in favor of my lower-cost Kohler alternative.
My father is facing a similar project: he wants to turn the upstairs in his 1917 Craftsman home into a small apartment, with the 1/2 bath currently there becoming a full, albeit tiny, bathroom. Being that the entire upstairs of his house is finished in rich rough wood - mostly raw redwood planks and other woods - he wants the bath to be similarly subtle and consistent, so I recommended an ofuro.
One of the best resources on the subject is Bruce Smith & Yoshiko Yamamoto's Japanese Baths book - lots of eyecandy and ideas in it. But here are some other resources that may be useful.
- Hydro Systems' 4040 round/square soaking tub
- Neo-Metro's luxury baths
- THG's Yoko
- Neptune makes some larger whirlpools in a vaguely Japanese style
- MTI has a huge line of luxury baths, including several space-saving corner models and a few deep soakers
- online retailer Signature Hardware has a nice consolidated listing for several different makers of unorthodox bath & soaking tubs
- I saw a Cabuchon tub recently installed in Portland, Oregon; it looked great but I couldn't exactly strip down and take a bath at the cocktail party where I saw it
- Bathpro's Yubune are short and deep
- TeakTubs look gorgeous but I'm not sure how safe they'd be on a second story, but as long as they're sealed well, I know teak shouldn't split or swell, so maybe they're fine
- Robert's Hot Tubs makes some really nice tubs, several of which are bathroom-sized
- Bartok Design's custom Japanese tubs are beautiful and minimalist
- Driftwood Design also makes custom wooden baths
- master carpenter Hiroshi Sakaguchi also makes custom tubs, all of which are absolutely gorgeous
- of course, if the floor is strong enough, you can always frame & pour your own concrete tub to fit any possible shape or space
- for less than $900, you can have a portable ofuro that will fit in a large shower stall or which can be placed above a drain on a tiled floor - something you can take with you, and one of the simplest solutions to this sort of problem. No reason you can't use a flexible filler, with a hook on the wall above it to turn it into a shower!
selling your home when you have small children
Our friend, real estate professional Joel Macdonald, passes along this good advice for those of you with small kids who may be selling - or getting ready to sell - your home:
When you are selling your home, having the property in the best showing condition it can be has got to be your highest priority. Being able to get that feat done when you have kids can be a tough assignment at best, let alone to keep it in that condition all the time your home is on the market. There are a few easy actions you can take to keep your home showable even with little ones living their regular lives.
Organization is the Key Thing
Children of all ages tend to stockpile toys of all kinds. They like variety. As a parent you might have gotten used to the sight of clutter, but someone who is not used to being around small children can notice it. The first step to take, then, in getting your home ready to go on the market is to organize your children's belongings so they can easily be put away and mostly out of sight. This can be approached by getting and using toy chests or storage boxes. Find storage that fits into the space without being too obvious.
Clean up the Exterior of the House
Putting things away on the outside of your home is important as well. Try finding ways to set up, or store, the children's outdoor toys in a neat and tidy way to present the outside of your house well. Toys that cannot be stored in a garage or outdoor storage do not have to be all put away but they must not present a cluttered appearance.
Of course, the regular practice of clearing out things that are not needed in a systematic manner is just as pertinent to the young family members' things as it is to all the other old treasures. This is an excellent skill even if you are not going to move. Children as well as adults have to learn to make decisions. Learning the process of letting things go and moving on is a necessary part of life. This process can be a growth opportunity for the children, though it will be important to get their participation and not force their decisions. That would only interfere with the lesson to be gained.
Keeping It Up
Some discipline will be required to keep everything in order after you
are all organized. Trying to keep everything reasonably neat after it
is sorted can be difficult, but it is not impossible. Once you have
your storage set up, keeping everything in order will be much easier.
Limit the number of different things your children are playing with.
You can even make the goal of keeping the house straight an adventure
or challenge for your kids. They in turn may even remind you to keep
other things in the house organized as well.
Don't try and keep your children from all their regular play while you are selling your home. There is no need to turn your home into a sterile clean home where it would seem no children would be allowed. Many people in the market for a family home are happy to see a house that is inviting to live in, with toys in use. Just be aware that it should be kept on the neater side of normal.
If you have children who are messy painters it might be a step-saver to put down a rug for them to play on that can be put away when potential buyers come to see the home. That way you can prevent any cleanup needed to pop back into the neat appearance of a newly cleaned home. Keeping the finger paints put away and out of sight during the time the home is offered for sale might be a good approach too.
It's not too impossible, is it, to allow the children to continue with their normal lives while you are offering your home in the good condition that a real estate sale demands. A little patience and attention, together with organization and daily attention to clearing up clutter, will make the sale of your home with young children much more manageable.
Article provided through Automated Homefinder, the Boulder home specialists of Colorado.
Does the Mills Act decrease public school funds?
California's Proposition 13 is the bane of public education in the state - and for the most part benefits the richest single segment of the population, relying on the old straw man of "senior homeowners on fixed incomes" (when tax credits for that demographic would be far more equitable in keeping folks in their homes). However, it's only one of many archaic and unethical pieces of the tax code keeping our public schools underfunded.
The whole story is much more complicated, but a recent grand jury report in San Diego took the focus off Prop 13 and turned that energy to vilifying owners of historic homes - only it turns out they got the story wrong. Kelly Bennett of Voice of San Diego reports:
One of the most heartrending arguments for dramatic changes to the city of San Diego's historic preservation program is that its tax discounts for homeowners results in an annual revenue loss to the San Diego Unified School District of nearly $1.5 million.
That sum factored in media reports, propelled damning rhetoric in a county Grand Jury report and became a talking point of Mayor Jerry Sanders in press conferences and on the Roger Hedgecock radio show earlier this month. And so, the city's Mills Act program looked quite like a fat tax break to homeowners in some of San Diego's wealthiest neighborhoods at the expense of schoolchildren. And this at a time when schools are preparing to slash staff levels and budgets.
But it's not true.
The school district didn't lose $1,486,317, as was claimed in the Grand Jury's report titled "History Hysteria." The state reimburses the district to make sure it has a particular level of funding for schools, even if property tax revenue drops, according to the state Department of Finance and San Diego Unified School District. The program does mean losses for the city of about $600,000, for the county, and for several other municipal agencies due to the tax discounts.
The number blunder exemplifies some of the confusion swirling in the debate over one of the few programs for which San Diego leads the state. San Diego has entered into far more Mills Act contracts, more than 800, than any city in the state. The contracts with homeowners of historically designated homes trade a break in property taxes for a homeowner's promise to keep the facade up to snuff.
Read the full story at VoSD; photo by Sam Hodgson.
3 practical suggestions to get your home ready for sale
Our friend Joel McDonald writes regularly on real estate & home ownership topics. He sent in the following article a few days ago:
Prepping your home for sale, especially an older home with its accumulation of what you like to think of as endearing personality quirks, can be a daunting task. Even in the best of circumstances, the preparations going into selling can be stressful, complicated, and can demand a ton of work. That's especially so if you're like most sellers and prepare your home for sale a few weeks before putting it on the market.
Plan ahead
Waiting until the weekend before selling your home is going to cause you way too much stress and anxiety - not to mention a lot of unnecessary expenses. Create a list of things that need to be fixed now, and get to them a weekend at a time every few months. By taking your time to do a few tasks in the year or two before selling your home, you will be saving yourself a lot of hassles when it comes time to actually sell. Not only will you be less stressed, but you won't be as rushed to get things fixed, and you'll do a far better job. (If you hire someone, you'll also likely keep some cash in your pockets by hiring them in the off season, not in the summer when most contractors will be booked, or have higher rates.)
Taking the best picture possible
You don't get a second chance to make a first impression, and when buyers are looking online, that first impression is the photo of your home. Don't fool yourself into thinking that you can get away with a snapshot from the curb at high noon (which is the worst time of day to ever take a picture.) One of the best things you can do to get ready to sell is to keep a camera handy for capturing that moment when your home won't seem colorless because the picture was taken in the unforgiving glare of the noonday sun. It will look much nicer in the early morning or late afternoon, or under sunny clearing skies after a rain. Murphy�s law predicts that if you wait until the last minute to take a picture for the listing, it will be gloomy the entire week your agent or the photographer shows up to get it done.
Even if you're not planning on selling in the immediate future, next time after it rains, see if you can take a picture of your home with a rainbow behind it. In the spring, make sure to get an late evening shot with the amber sun glowing on your gorgeous flowers on your front porch. Tiny details like that make make a huge difference.
If you don't need it - store it!
Rent a storage locker well in advance, and start making occasional trips to it with the stuff you don't need. Tackle your kitchen, garage and basement first since those tend to accumulate the most unnecessary clutter. If you don't use that coffee pot taking up room on the kitchen countertop more often than several times a month, put it away or store it. (In fact, even if you do use it, if it could be easily stored in your cabinets - store it!) The less "stuff" is cluttering up your countertops, the bigger the kitchen feels. If your kids don't play with the toys that are sitting around the family room, have a yard sale or donate them to Goodwill! The less stuff you have around in your home, the bigger it feels!
With just a little advance planning, you can take a great deal of stress out of selling your house.
Visit Automated Homefinder for all of your Colorado real estate needs.
some things are beyond our control
A few beautiful old homes here in Sacramento were damaged or, in one case, totally destroyed by falling trees and other debris in this first of the three storms scheduled to hit us before Sunday evening. Most of these photographs are from the Sacramento Bee. Click the image for a slightly larger version.
Martha Stewart's Arts & Crafts Christmas dinner
Reader Bob Sindelar of Sindelar & O'Brien Antique and Design imagines the following bit of holiday humor: Martha Stewart's planner for a very special Arts & Crafts Christmas dinner...
DAY I: Build pavilion for the dinner -- something in a bungalow motif. Use native woods. Strive for a Greene & Greene look. (Use original hardware from the collection if time gets too short to hammer my own.)
Quarter-saw white oak from the stand I felled last year. Build manger. Use through-tenons and pegged construction, adding corbels to the underside (Joseph may have been a carpenter, but he was no Gustave Stickley!).
Fume and set aside.
DAY 2: Shear sheep. Card and spin wool. Weave. Fashion into swaddling clothes.
Phone Dale at the Boathouse. Book time at furnace. Pick up Lino at airport. Blow life-size glass putti. (Use gold foil inclusions; the silver looked tacky in that eight-foot, sand-cast sleigh Bertil and I did last year!)Swaddle. Place in manger.
DAY 3: Pluck goose. Fashion quill pen. Make red ink from the crushed skin of holly berries. Address 250 dinner invitations in a calligraphic hand.
Design award-winning new typeface. Carve from heart pine. Set type for dinner menus. Pull 250 prints, hors commerce, and pencil sign. Illume in six colors, plus gold. Bind in limp covers. Set aside.
DAY 4: Run off individual linen place mats and napkins on loom. Embroider with guests' initials in original Arts & Crafts design based on the Dard Hunter sketch book I found at that wonderful yard sale last week for 25¢.
Design and cast bronze mounts for those terribly plain, Tiffany salts.
DAY 5: Fuel the Aerocoupe. Fly to Colorado. Select and fell Blue Spruce for the Great Room. Fashion sled from trimmed branches. Recruit dog team. Mush tree to front yard, waving gaily to ordinary folk along the way. (They will remember this for years!)
DAY 6: Soak frostbitten toes in Weller jardiniere filled with fresh mountain spring water, to which has been added 8 oz. arctic ice. Reserve water for the ice sculpture. (Remember to wash jardiniere before serving the mulled wine!)
Clean funky old sideboard I found on the trash pile yesterday. Paint in colorful Peter Hunt design. (I'll need a place to put those three-color Grueby bowls for the soup.) Be sure to cover up that "R"-inside-a-sawmark carved on the back, probably by some bygone child.
DAY 7: Melt down old copper tubing removed from Victorian house I restored last week. Pour and let cool. Roll into sheets. Radially hammer individual place card holders. Patinate and set aside.
Hit local flea markets and garage sales. Gather enough "Ruba Rombic" in seasonal colors of Jungle Green and Ruby Red to use as party favors. (Don't tell dealers their Consolidated "Ruba Rombic" is really Kopp "Modernistic." They don't want to hear it. Particularly not from Martha Stewart!)
DAY 8: Strip Thanksgiving turkey carcass; dry. Paint red. Distress. Apply gold leaf to highlight. Invert and hang on front door. Fill with freshly cut pine boughs and cones. Add left-over mashed potatoes to pine cone tips to simulate snow. Top with jellied cranberries for that festive note.
For dinner music, record traditional Christmas melodies on period instruments, playing each myself and mixing in my studio later. Laser CDs, enough for each guest.
DAY 9: Harvest bee hives. Make wax; color with crushed and pureed fresh cranberries for that just-right Christmas-red. Line 120 toilet paper rolls saved over past year (waste not; want not!) with wax paper. Using as molds, cast bee's-wax candles. Remove and discard TP rolls.
Line drive and walk with Loetz oil-spot vases. To each, add 1-1/2 cups Gulf Coast, summer sand, to weight. Insert red candles (wick up). They will look lovely, glowing warmly, against the snow! (If summer sand is unavailable, substitute winter sand, but increase to 1-2/3 cups.)
DAY 10: The Day of the Dinner - E-mail holiday greetings to the 37 on-line discussion groups I moderate. Be sure to preface with "Off Topic." Remember to ask them to respond by PRIVATE e-mail!
Greet guests, asking after each of their children or grandchildren byname. So as to reduce guests' well-deserved feelings of inadequacy,carefully add a light splash of Beaujolais Nouveau to the skirt of the country suit I whipped up this morning.
Smile modestly. Try (sincerely, this year!) to appear slightly flustered.
Sign and dedicate 250 copies of "Martha Stewart Collects."
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