This was one of the few purchases that we didn’t anguish too much over because really, aren’t all sinks more or less the same? Anyway, we really, really wanted a farmhouse (aka “apron”) sink. They have been a little overplayed in the past couple of years but it seemed like the perfect thing to capture the sort of vintage-y look we were going for. There aren’t too many models to choose from in Canada, and we ended up going with the Franke (though really, it’s by Villeroy and Boch though) because it was the only one that had close to the right dimensions. We considered the Ikea DOMSJÖ sink but read some bad reviews about poor craftsmanship and cracking, and decided not to chintz out. Modification of the Ikea cabinet to house the non-Ikea farmhouse sink is an entirely separate post, complete with its own drama. Let’s just say it’s not a straightforward process.

The faucet was also fairly easy to narrow down — not only did it have to coordinate with the sink, but I also had specific requirements for a) one on/off waterflow control that could be regulated with, say, the side of a hand (for those grimy situations) and b) some sort of integrated pull-out sprayer to get to those hard to reach spots in dishes. We checked out the aisles of Rona and Home Depot and came to the conclusion that not only were their faucets for the most part very suburban looking (to put it nicely), but they did not were not designed with farmhouse sinks in mind.

Once more, the modest options available to us in Vancouver meant that we were left with looking at faucets at a few small retailers. The only store that had something appropriate seemed to be Cantu, and then it was just a handful because most of their options were very modern. One model left us gasping at its pricetag, and then there were two. The one we ultimately decided on was by Hansgrohe, still somewhat pricey but with a decent reputation. And on a lark, we checked to see if it was on Ebay. We lucked out and found the model we wanted at significant savings there. Unfortunately, I no longer remember the model name — why, you ask? Well, we did purchase it, and got it delivered while a trip down in the US, and then on the return flight, the airlines promptly lost it. Poof, gone into the ether. Right around then, we happened to be at the new chi-chi, ultra-confusing Cambie location of Home Depot and they had a similar looking “Metro” Hansgrohe faucet laying around in a random bin for a fantastic price (none of the staff seemed to really know anything about it). Sure, it was a bit more modern looking but by this point we didn’t really care.

The day arrived when the whole thing came together: the cabinet could finally house the sink, the granite finally had the hole in the correct spot for the faucet (it wasn’t done correctly the first time), we had the second faucet, and the water was turned back on! How exciting not to have to wash our dishes in the basement bathroom sink anymore! And visually they both worked really well in the kitchen, and made for a nice contrast against the black granite.

As we turned the faucet on, we realized that the thing really blasted on. By blasting, I mean that when you press the handle, either the water is all the way on, or it is off. And “on” meant lots of splashing and in some cases, a nasty ricochet of water bouncing off of plates right into your face. To find some nice, trickling middle ground requires some serious finesse and patience, not an easy nudge of the hand. Also, it’s somewhat difficult to describe, but the “needle spray” holes that surround the circumference of the spout drip even when it’s streaming water in “regular” faucet model. Icing on top is that the fixture overall is a bit wiggly. Hard to believe for a faucet that can retail for $500.

As for the farmhouse sink, it did mesh well with the vintage vibe. What we didn’t realize was the sink interior isn’t angled to encourage the water to flow down the drain. This means that various pieces of rinsed off food, debris and suds etc get stuck in its corners, much like the completely rectangular modern sinks. Huh, can’t believe a relatively expensive sink could have this design flaw. Good thing we have our pull-out spray, even if a washcloth is needed to clean up its watery aftermath…On the plus side, the width of the sink means you can wash large pots and pans with no problem. Not to mention you can cram a lot of dirty dishes in there!

So, all in all, good look but not as great functionally as we thought it would be. We’re not sure if we can stomach removing the faucet and sending it back to the manufacturer for the mystery drip and wiggle. It might just have to be one of those things we accept.

Lessons learned:
1. Check out the drainage situation in kitchen sinks, make sure that it’s angled so gravity can take over.
2. Try to avoid modifying Ikea base cabinets for farmhouse sinks if at all possible.
3. If there’s any way to check out the pressure of a faucet before purchases, try to do so.
4. Having some way of leaving the pull-out spray “on” (without pressing continuously on a button) would have been a very handy feature.
5. Higher-end products doesn’t necessarily mean better design. Sigh.

I’ve been having a problem with my Flickr Photo Album plugin–when selecting photos with the plugin to appear in a post it seems some are replaced with a “This Photo is Currently Unavailable” error image.  This would happen even though the photos are available.

After much research I learned that this error happens when you update a photo because Flickr plays some tricks with its urls making the plugin think that the photo isn’t there, even though it is.

Its nice to have a diagnosis, but what’s the treatment?  Well, Google wasn’t much help.  But, stumbling around the plug I did manage to find a way to fix the problem.

So, after you have updated a photo flickr…

View your full photo album in Wordpress.  You can do this either by

• going to http://your_blog_root_url/photo-album/

Or

• Open your Wordpress admin
• Select “Settings”
• Select “Photo Album”
• Click the link /photo-album/ next to the “Photo Album Syndication” label

Then all you need to do is click the “Refresh Photos” button.  But, that will only refresh the photos displayed on that screen.  Some of your albums might have more screens.  If so there will be a  “Next Page” link.  Click it, and click the “Refresh Photos” button again.

Repeat till all those error images are gone.

I’m sure there’s a better, faster way to do it, but this is the only way I’ve been able to figure out

The honeymoon is long since over. I’ve spent weeks with chemicals and heat guns stripping the several layers or latex and oil and whatever paint from all the fine grooves–and both the doors and the windows are really nothing but fine grooves.

Here are some of the lessons:

• Call around to paint supply stores (not Home Depot, but places that only supply paint) to find a lead paint test kit.  Here in Vancouver the General Paint store on Venebles is just about the only place you’ll find these kits.
• A heat gun is better than chemicals on long flat runs of wood, and if timed just right can get multiple layers up just as quickly and easily as a single layer of paint.
• You have to be very careful not to burn the wood with a heat gun.  You won’t start a fire, but it will blacken the wood, which is almost as bad as a fire if you’re planning to stain rather than repaint.
• Chemicals are better for stripping the paint from the details — and the harsher the chemical the better.  With multiple layers of paint the amount of time water-based strippers take would have stretched this ostensibly simple project out by months (seriously).
• Here is most of the stuff you will need:
  • At least 2 saw-horses or stands. If you have more, then you can strip more objects at the same time.
  • Any old half-inch paint brush
  • Largest tin of PolyStrippa you can get. Poly seems to be slightly better than Circa 1850.
  • A 1″ or 2″ putty knife
  • A heavy paint stripping knife
  • A small and large plastic paint stripping knife
  • Some 220 grit sand paper
  • A couple different sized wood blocks to wrap the sandpaper around. Make sure you have at least one thin wood strip, which will help you sand those fine crevices.
  • Some steel wool.
  • A pair of leather work gloves to help avoid getting slivers as you sand.
  • Lots of rags or newspapers to wipe tools and the last bits of paint. Careful with the newspaper as the ink might run.
  • A metal container about the size of a pop can for the chemical stripper. I ended up lining a small plant pot with tin foil.
  • A heat gun with an extension cord.
• Add to your total cost many meals because you simply won’t have time to make anything yourself.
• Add to your total cost a ruined pair of pants and shirts, because you’ll drip the chemicals and softened paint all over yourself.
• Be careful with the heat gun on the glass — the heat might crack it.
• It will take you about 5 times longer than you first expect.
• And lastly: Do not, unless you really, really need a period original window, undertake this task.  Just get a brand new window made.  The price, whatever it is, will be worth it.

      

GE Miller Website

Thanks to Firefox, Wordpress lost my original post.  I know the fanboys love FF, but through death by a thousand cuts, I keep learning this lesson:  Don’t use FireFox.  From poor stability with flash files, to losing my place when opening new windows, to losing Wordpress posts, FF gives me more trouble than even lousy old IE6 (which come to think of it, has never given me an ounce of trouble).  Okay, rant complete.

My dad sent me a link to home renovator G.E. Miller – too bad they’re on the Island.  Not only do I like their work, but they’ve also posted a series of pdfs with some valuable tips.  Unfortunately they need a new design firm.  This information would have been better as plain HTML, and their site is entirely built in Flash with all the usually navigation and accessibility nightmares.

To find thier tip sheets, hover over “About” and then click “Vision” from the fade-in submenu.  On the right side of the content will be links to all the pdfs. 

More renovators should publish this kind of helpful, non-advertorial content.  It certainly increases their credibilty as people who care about the work and not just making a sale.

Up to that point I had been using the Google, the Yellow Pages and the BBB site to find renovation contractors.  But in my desperation to fill this gap quickly, I turned to Craigslist. 

Why on earth didn’t I just start there?!?!  I found a mountain of various contractors available to do most of what I needed.  Within a couple hours I had a sizable list of contacts that I called the next day.  From start to finish it took me less than a week to find a suitable replacement.

This is annoyingly ironic, because I’m relatively sophisticated in terms of online information — I mean most of my work is related to online information in some fashion.  But for whatever reason, it didn’t occur to me to use Craigslist.  And that probably cost me 6 weeks.

The lesson here is, forget Google, forget the Yellow Pages, forget the BBB site.  Just start with Craigslist.

One of the side benefits I found with this is the folks who post there necessarily have email and know how to use it.  This makes a huge difference in speeding up conversations when you can just email plans, designs, and lists.  If they have a Gmail account, even better, because then you can collaborate over Google Docs–in real time if necessary.  Talking to someone over the phone while working together on the same live document is radically faster than the old analog way.

This past weekend was filled with digging to fix some mistakes that we’ve made in our front yard over the past year.  So I thought I’d commemorate it by sharing some valuable lessons I’ve learned:

1. Check out (and improve) your soil before doing anything.  I’m not saying you have to buy one of those fancy soil testing kits, but get to know your soil before even planning.  If the soil even remotely sucks, start improving it.  We didn’t think to do this and that’s how we ended up where we were this weekend.  As an experiment in the spring, I had improved one little shady patch’s soil and we could see that it made a dramatic difference.  Since everything else was languishing, I decided that all the original beds that I had planted (well, the plants that hadn’t died already) had to get uprooted so that I could start over.  Our soil has a lot of clay and to improve it, we added sand, some fake peat moss (the more ecofriendly coir), and some nice topsoil and mixed it all up to about a depth of a foot and a half.  If you have the time and muscles, then a two foot depth plus would be even better.

2. Acknowledge what’s realistic.  In our case, it was coming to terms with our own laziness.  There’s no way we’re ever going to remember to water our plants everyday in the dead of summer; the timer I bought for the hose had user-interface issues and never would work; and  we didn’t have time to look into drip irrigation…so all of the plants we bought are drought-tolerant (though let’s just pretend that the real driving factor is that we are incredibly environmentally sensitive and into xeriscaping!).  Likewise, I’m not really a gardening enthusiast, so I had to choose plants that were hardy and don’t need too much babying.  I just couldn’t see myself digging up plants in the fall to overwinter, or running out with tarps to protect them in January.

3. Observe the light.  Places that we thought were sunny turned out to be not that sunny, and on the flipside, shady places weren’t nearly as shady as we thought it would be.  It may pay to place a potted plant and put it in its potential home  for a couple of weeks and just see how it responds to the light before planting/investing in it (or plants with similar light condition needs).

4. Recognize that there’s a huge mismatch between landscaping/gardening books and your local gardening center/nursery.  I kept checking books out of the library and they would make all kinds of plant recommendations, and I would go to the nursery and none of them would be in stock (and forget about asking someone on a weekend, it was always a challenge to find someone to assist you).  In the end, for me the lazy/ambivalent gardener, it was easier to just go to the nursery and choose from what was actually available and in stock rather than invest too much time into planning.

5.  On the other hand, garden center staff, even when you can find them, tend not to be very knowledgable or helpful, so you may still need some books to do some basic research.  What I found was that I would do is a) go to nursery to create a shortlist of plants that might work b) go back home to read up on the plants (see if they are invasive, what conditions they like etc) and then c) go back to the nursery to buy them.  The first time we made a massive shrub purchase for hiding the retaining wall in the front yard, the guy who “helped” us recommended plants that were ill-suited for our conditions–plus he managed to sell us what were essentially invasive, ugly weeds (stupid Scotch Broom that I just recently tore out)!

6. Don’t buy your plants all at once.  I’ve found that the garden center’s inventory changes seasonally.  They tend to stock up on whatever’s just about to bloom so that it will sell well – so if you buy all of your perennials at once, you’re going to end up with something that only has color for about 2-3 weeks out of the year (yes, it happened to me – almost all of my plants in one bed now bloom in May and look pretty pathetic the rest of the year!  See #9).  If you’re not terribly knowledgable about plants like me, then it may make sense to fill your yard out incrementally so that it has multi-seasonal interest and you also don’t have to do any special plant sleuthing (or heaven forbid, mail-order!) to find anything “out of season.”

7. Don’t overlook the boring plants.  This one was hard for me to accept.  I don’t really like those ho-hum “understory” plants and bushes but without them, things just don’t look right or filled in.  Plus, they are a consistent backdrop, especially if they are evergreen - reliable and without drama.  We went with some basics like Holly, California Lilac, and Heavenly Bamboo. 

8. Buy multiples of one type of plant.  Yikes, another hard one for me to come to terms with.  I couldn’t commit and wanted one of everything and let me tell you, that looks pretty horrible when you put them all together.  Buy at least three of each kind of plant/flower, especially if it’s small.  Things look better and more professional in clumps and clusters.  And for some reason, I prefer the look of an odd number of one variety too.

9. Annuals.  I get why people buy Annuals now – it’s because they flower and flower and flower.  I’m still not doing Annuals because I’m a low-maintanence kind of person and can’t be bothered with digging all the time, but I totally understand why they are usually part of the equation.  There are some Perennials that similarly work hard, so you may want to seek them out.  Or you may just want to find those Annuals that self-seed.

10. Timing is everything.  If you’re on a right budget or just want to experiment cheaply, I would highly recommend buying all of your plants in September.  Everything is on sale, usually between 50-85% off.  Find out when the first day of the sale is and hit it up then before the selection gets too shabby (and so you can fulfill #8 – you’ll need multiples!).  It’s a good time to plant because it’s not that hot outside and in a place like Vancouver, they will still have about 1.5-2 months to get settled in before the cold really hits.

11. If you don’t know what you’re really doing (ahem, me again), don’t even try to worry about an historically styled garden or yard.  I checked out a couple of books on Bungalow and Craftsman style yards, but to be honest, it was just too overwhelming and frilly — lots of gazing balls, high-end custom made fences, and formal garden design. 

12. Oh, and those “inherited” plants that came with the house?  In the end, we gave away because they just didn’t work for us and they too were all solos.  I felt bad about sending them on their way, but am coming to terms that it’s okay to move on to something new.

So far I’ve been using the following tool to manage this renovation project:

Google Docs Spreadsheet

• For collecting a log of which contractors and which suppliers I’ve contacted, when, and the results. This is crucial for keeping track of who you need to follow up with.
• For listing all the work that needs to be done in detail.  This is helpful to give to contractors when the come for a quote.  It also help make sure all the contractors are quoting on the same list so you can compare apples to apples.
• For sharing live documents rather than exchanging attachments, which makes version control a breeze.
• And of course for tallying up costs of both labour and material

Microsoft Project

• It may be a little heavy handed, but I already own it.  The Gantt chart is incredibly useful for visualizing the entire project over time, how long each job will take and the dependencies between each job.  Not sure I could plan out the scheduling without a Gantt chart.

Sketchup (www.sketchup.com)

• This is an invaluable tool.  I want to marry Sketchup.  Designing the kitchen, bathroom and landscaping would have be practically impossible for us without it.  I realize people have been doing this on paper for years, and some guys designed the pyramids without even that.  Still, this tool allows you to see exactly what you imagine, and quickly.  Take the time to get over the learning curve, start with detailed, accurate and precise measurements, and you’ll be set.

Email is usually a tool I find very helpful.  What often happened to me was that I’d call a contractor, discuss, and then email a link to all my photos and models.  It seemed like a really helpful thing to do.  Pictures are better than words for describing a design, and the models contain enough detail and measurements that it shouldn’t be necessary for the contractor to spend their time coming in person to quote.

The results, however ,were often that the email would be ignored and I’d have to follow up with another phone call, only to get some ballpark figure based on… well I often wasn’t sure what, because I wasn’t sure if they’d actually seen the photos and sketches.  When this happened I simply dropped contractor from consideration.