California Cooler
Last night I had a dream I was stuck in a basement. When I climbed up the stairs I was in the attic. Where was the house? I wondered. Then I realized that this was the house; that architects and real estate developers have spent fifty years ignoring basements and attics to get more bang for the buck in their buildings; that maybe we should return to an architecture of basements and attics if only for the green benefits.
Instead of designing just living space and throwing an oversized HVAC system to regulate heat gain and air flow, etc., we should consider an architecture that connects to the earth and reaches to the sky. We should look at that remarkable produce storage mechanism that relies solely on the passage of air from the basement to the attic, the California Cooler, a staple in the California Bungalow of the early 20th century.
People lived for years without the benefit of air-conditioning; if we could employ a few time-tested passive means to achieving energy efficiency in our buildings, perhaps we wouldn’t need to overload the grid with electricity demand. We could save energy costs and improve the quality of indoor air at the same time, never mind the added storage space.
What could be cooler than that?
Monday, October 13, 2008
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Good People, Bad People
Part 1 Building Our House
In building our house we found ourselves dividing up the subcontractors into the good ones and the bad ones. Rarely was anyone merely competent.
THE GOOD PEOPLE, in order of appearance were:
Tom Courtney
Having worked with him before I knew he was the contractor of choice. And although he warned us that our plans were too ambitious, we still thought we could afford him. Until we got his first bill and realized we couldn’t. To help us out Tom graciously offered up his subs with whom we would be contracting directly, which saved a ton of money. But without Tom’s pull, some of them were less motivated to perform well job (see “Bad People“ below).
Guy Thomas
This man is definitely the dirt whisperer. He spent months grading, benching the slope, over-excavating and recompacting, etc., to make this project work. The only problem was we had no idea all this work was necessary when we embarked on this project. In the bid breakdown, we had allotted only a fraction of what it ultimately cost to do this work. Which put us upside-down with our budget even before the foundations were poured. Still, I count him as a good guy because he was pleasant to work with and truly tamed our site.
John Ecker
A master concrete guy.
Dick Marriott
A quick framer, fairly priced, though it was difficult to get him to come out do the finish work at the end.
Michael Sandford
Pan Pacific Metals did a great job with the metal siding.
Steve Malsbury
In addition to the gutters and downspouts, this guy formed, by hand, the metal eaves as well.
Rick Pycz
This mason did such a great job with the fireplace that the inspector was impressed enough to ignore the fact that Rick did not insert the 5’-0” high bond beam that is usually required by the city.
Brad Spolar
A tile specialist borrowed from Pae’s mother, Brad even indulged Pae’s desire for red grout in the Guest Bath, to great effect.
The Stainless Steel Guy
I can’t remember his name, but he was good.
Max Macias
We felt very lucky to find Max to do our drywall. Not only did he live up to his promise to deliver walls “as smooth as a baby’s butt,” but he managed to work out the complicated geometries of our entry hall.
Mary Sargent
After suffering through a series of not-so-great painters, we went with Max’s recommendation. She proved to be knowledgeable as well as skillful, and was able to help us determine which colors would work best in which rooms.
Alan Myers
The man who came in and corrected all the mistakes of the bad electricians (see below).
THE BAD PEOPLE
Live Wire Electric
These guys were nothing but trouble. Since we’ve lived here, we’ve had to have other electricians come in a fix their mistakes – receptacles shorting out, sloppily installed switches, ungrounded fixtures, etc. The problem with these guys is that they were clearly irritated that Tom Courtney sent them over here, away from their usual Pasadena/San Marino/La Canada territory, into the hood. They were contemptuous from the start but the problems really started happening when they lost the plans that I went over with the only bright spot in their company, Mike. Even he was flabbergasted that the plans had disappeared; but at some point they refused to send him over because, since he was the only guy with brains in the outfit, he was needed on the big money projects that the rest of the company must have been screwing up without him. And then, the coup de grace, the undergrounding of the power line. They brought in their own grading guy who, unlike Guy Thomas, was as moronic as they were and did not excavate all the way to the power pole. So it took weeks of begging, pleading, and finally threatening him to come out and complete his work. Then, once the trench was dug and the power line in, Live Wire was supposed to embed it for most of its length in concrete. Which they came out to do. But the idiots did not bring enough concrete so there was a twelve foot gap that, again, required weeks of phone calls to get resolved before the inspector could sign off on it so we could get our C of O before the deadline that IndyMac bank had set for us. Again, begging, pleading, threatening. I just don’t think the head guy over at Live Wire would believe that his people could make such a huge mistake. Finally Tom Courtney had to lay down the law and they finished the job. What a nightmare.
Marrone Plumbing
Again, this was a case of a few lousy workers leaving a really bad taste in my mouth. They had no problem hacking away at our cabinetry to put the plumbing through, leaving us scant shelf space under our kitchen sink. They redeemed themselves by sending in the guy with brains at the end.
Quality Craft Cabinets
Here’s a rule: if they use the word “quality” in their name, they’re anything but. These guys were by far the low bidders but that’s no excuse. Their workmanship was terrible. We had to have them come out two or three times just to adequately reinforce the drawers, some of which are still sagging, one of which won’t remain shut. They won’t even return our calls anymore, even when we call under pretense of more work.
Joe’s Quality Painting
Again with the quality? (see above) This guy gave us a good bid then proceeded to encourage us to go with a “time and materials” contract. “Sometimes it works out better for me, sometimes it works out better for you,” he said. Right. Never again. He did lousy work then charged us way too much. Then his workers came early one morning, took their compressor, and then claimed someone stole it. Then Joe wanted us to split the cost of a new compressor which I agreed to until I realized it was another scam.
Jordan Air
Another case of a sub upset at having to do a favor for Tom Courtney. Not only were the units undersized, but the vents were practically useless. We’ve had to hire a series of HVAC guys to come in and piece together a system that actually works for us. What really pissed me off about the workers at Jordan Air (I think one was Howard Jordan’s son) was that they took a hammer to the corrugated metal siding to make the condensers fit. Morons.
Jack Ruttan
I don’t know how we would have gotten our windows in without Jack, but he was so personally offensive, especially to any Mexican within earshot, that we had to get rid of him. We thought it was good timing, after he had installed all the really heavy aluminum windows; however, he had not put in the flashing yet, and we’re still suffering for it.
Taylor Brothers
I know everyone loves these guys, and sure, they’re nice enough. But they were total assholes about our front door. I mean, granted, it was oversized, and had a special operable window inside it; but did they really have to put MDF in the bottom panel? So that in the first rain, after the paint had cracked, water seeped in and expanded it like a sponge? It took months, MONTHS, of bothering them to get any sort of response. They kept saying they did not guarantee doors that large. Fine. But the problem was in the panel, which could occur in a door of any size; were they really going to stand by putting MDF on a panel that not only faces due south, but is painted black? Finally, B&B doors, the people who actually fabricated the door, felt bad and came out and fixed it.
THE LESSON
I don’t know if there is a lesson, other than the relative amount of attention the Bad People get compared to the Good People: those who go in, do their job quickly, quietly, and skillfully are appreciated, then removed from thought; those who come in and blunder about, take too long, create chaos – these people stick in your craw, they continue to irritate, like a pebble in your shoe, until whatever havoc they’ve wrought can be resolved. The lesson is, maybe it’s better to be forgotten.
Part 1 Building Our House
In building our house we found ourselves dividing up the subcontractors into the good ones and the bad ones. Rarely was anyone merely competent.
THE GOOD PEOPLE, in order of appearance were:
Tom Courtney
Having worked with him before I knew he was the contractor of choice. And although he warned us that our plans were too ambitious, we still thought we could afford him. Until we got his first bill and realized we couldn’t. To help us out Tom graciously offered up his subs with whom we would be contracting directly, which saved a ton of money. But without Tom’s pull, some of them were less motivated to perform well job (see “Bad People“ below).
Guy Thomas
This man is definitely the dirt whisperer. He spent months grading, benching the slope, over-excavating and recompacting, etc., to make this project work. The only problem was we had no idea all this work was necessary when we embarked on this project. In the bid breakdown, we had allotted only a fraction of what it ultimately cost to do this work. Which put us upside-down with our budget even before the foundations were poured. Still, I count him as a good guy because he was pleasant to work with and truly tamed our site.
John Ecker
A master concrete guy.
Dick Marriott
A quick framer, fairly priced, though it was difficult to get him to come out do the finish work at the end.
Michael Sandford
Pan Pacific Metals did a great job with the metal siding.
Steve Malsbury
In addition to the gutters and downspouts, this guy formed, by hand, the metal eaves as well.
Rick Pycz
This mason did such a great job with the fireplace that the inspector was impressed enough to ignore the fact that Rick did not insert the 5’-0” high bond beam that is usually required by the city.
Brad Spolar
A tile specialist borrowed from Pae’s mother, Brad even indulged Pae’s desire for red grout in the Guest Bath, to great effect.
The Stainless Steel Guy
I can’t remember his name, but he was good.
Max Macias
We felt very lucky to find Max to do our drywall. Not only did he live up to his promise to deliver walls “as smooth as a baby’s butt,” but he managed to work out the complicated geometries of our entry hall.
Mary Sargent
After suffering through a series of not-so-great painters, we went with Max’s recommendation. She proved to be knowledgeable as well as skillful, and was able to help us determine which colors would work best in which rooms.
Alan Myers
The man who came in and corrected all the mistakes of the bad electricians (see below).
THE BAD PEOPLE
Live Wire Electric
These guys were nothing but trouble. Since we’ve lived here, we’ve had to have other electricians come in a fix their mistakes – receptacles shorting out, sloppily installed switches, ungrounded fixtures, etc. The problem with these guys is that they were clearly irritated that Tom Courtney sent them over here, away from their usual Pasadena/San Marino/La Canada territory, into the hood. They were contemptuous from the start but the problems really started happening when they lost the plans that I went over with the only bright spot in their company, Mike. Even he was flabbergasted that the plans had disappeared; but at some point they refused to send him over because, since he was the only guy with brains in the outfit, he was needed on the big money projects that the rest of the company must have been screwing up without him. And then, the coup de grace, the undergrounding of the power line. They brought in their own grading guy who, unlike Guy Thomas, was as moronic as they were and did not excavate all the way to the power pole. So it took weeks of begging, pleading, and finally threatening him to come out and complete his work. Then, once the trench was dug and the power line in, Live Wire was supposed to embed it for most of its length in concrete. Which they came out to do. But the idiots did not bring enough concrete so there was a twelve foot gap that, again, required weeks of phone calls to get resolved before the inspector could sign off on it so we could get our C of O before the deadline that IndyMac bank had set for us. Again, begging, pleading, threatening. I just don’t think the head guy over at Live Wire would believe that his people could make such a huge mistake. Finally Tom Courtney had to lay down the law and they finished the job. What a nightmare.
Marrone Plumbing
Again, this was a case of a few lousy workers leaving a really bad taste in my mouth. They had no problem hacking away at our cabinetry to put the plumbing through, leaving us scant shelf space under our kitchen sink. They redeemed themselves by sending in the guy with brains at the end.
Quality Craft Cabinets
Here’s a rule: if they use the word “quality” in their name, they’re anything but. These guys were by far the low bidders but that’s no excuse. Their workmanship was terrible. We had to have them come out two or three times just to adequately reinforce the drawers, some of which are still sagging, one of which won’t remain shut. They won’t even return our calls anymore, even when we call under pretense of more work.
Joe’s Quality Painting
Again with the quality? (see above) This guy gave us a good bid then proceeded to encourage us to go with a “time and materials” contract. “Sometimes it works out better for me, sometimes it works out better for you,” he said. Right. Never again. He did lousy work then charged us way too much. Then his workers came early one morning, took their compressor, and then claimed someone stole it. Then Joe wanted us to split the cost of a new compressor which I agreed to until I realized it was another scam.
Jordan Air
Another case of a sub upset at having to do a favor for Tom Courtney. Not only were the units undersized, but the vents were practically useless. We’ve had to hire a series of HVAC guys to come in and piece together a system that actually works for us. What really pissed me off about the workers at Jordan Air (I think one was Howard Jordan’s son) was that they took a hammer to the corrugated metal siding to make the condensers fit. Morons.
Jack Ruttan
I don’t know how we would have gotten our windows in without Jack, but he was so personally offensive, especially to any Mexican within earshot, that we had to get rid of him. We thought it was good timing, after he had installed all the really heavy aluminum windows; however, he had not put in the flashing yet, and we’re still suffering for it.
Taylor Brothers
I know everyone loves these guys, and sure, they’re nice enough. But they were total assholes about our front door. I mean, granted, it was oversized, and had a special operable window inside it; but did they really have to put MDF in the bottom panel? So that in the first rain, after the paint had cracked, water seeped in and expanded it like a sponge? It took months, MONTHS, of bothering them to get any sort of response. They kept saying they did not guarantee doors that large. Fine. But the problem was in the panel, which could occur in a door of any size; were they really going to stand by putting MDF on a panel that not only faces due south, but is painted black? Finally, B&B doors, the people who actually fabricated the door, felt bad and came out and fixed it.
THE LESSON
I don’t know if there is a lesson, other than the relative amount of attention the Bad People get compared to the Good People: those who go in, do their job quickly, quietly, and skillfully are appreciated, then removed from thought; those who come in and blunder about, take too long, create chaos – these people stick in your craw, they continue to irritate, like a pebble in your shoe, until whatever havoc they’ve wrought can be resolved. The lesson is, maybe it’s better to be forgotten.
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