Plumbing installed

Finished the plumbing this morning so here is the finished product.

Countertop Installed

Today was the day for the installation and it took only two hours. It went pretty smooth except when they were installing the large piece. It was really tight and I was waiting to hear a big CRACK as it split into multiple pieces. But these guys were good and shortly it went into place.

The faucet is not installed because I have to wait till tomorrow to do the plumbing. But I wanted to get the photos up ASAP like I promised.

We have a squatter

Windy for San Diego

Couple of days ago we had a storm move through and it was windy. Not like Wyoming, but for us windy.

Cherry Blossoms

Yesterday the Japanese Friendship Garden at Balboa Park had their annual cherry blossom festival. The Consul General of L.A. Opened the ceremony however we did not arrive on time to hear him speak.

We did not stay too long since the garden is not real big and it was packed. Way  more people than I thought would be there and very difficult to move around. As you can see the trees were just beginning to blossom out. Maybe next weekend we will get a chance to stop by again and see how they look.

Attached is a short video of the drums and then a dance. The Red Cross had a booth set up to collect donations for Japan.

Japan

Countertop

Next project are the kitchen counter tops. When we first remodeled we were unsure so we got IKEA laminate counter top. It was less than $150 and I installed it. We knew that it would be temporary.

Unsure of what to use we looked at everything: tile/butcher block/concrete/granite/marble. We decided to go with marble. The first thought was Carrera but after looking at the slabs it was too gray and it reminded me of tombstones. After looking at 4 different slab yards we were even more confused and disappointed. Bianco Carrera is the cheapest at around $12 sqft but we didnt like it at all. Calacatta Extra or Calacatta Oro caught our attention because the veins are larger and more defined however it is much more expensive, like around $45-50 sqft.We also looked at Bianco Venatino and Statuary Vein.


We were getting depressed because on top of the $45-50 sqft it would also be an extra $35 sqft to fabricate AND you have to buy the slab which is around 60sqft when all we needed was 33sqft for the kitchen. So the last place we went Marmol Export had Calacatta Extra in a smaller slab and it was only $26.50 sqft. Bingo!!!


We went with Granite Gallery to do the fabricating and they came out to make the template on Sunday. Our sink will be an under-mount Kohler white cast iron single bowl and a pull out faucet. Instead of having it polished we have opted to hone it.

This is the front (our slab)

 

This is the back and is closer to what it will look when honed.

Step on a crack

One of my biggest concerns about this house is also one of the reasons that I wanted to buy it, living on the canyon. We have awesome views of sunsets and wildlife but we also live right on the edge. I don't know how long ago the wall and patio was built but I would probably guess around 40 or 50 years. Over time gravity has done its work and we have numerous cracks from the movement of the earth.

I have always been concerned that rain water gets into the cracks and accelerates said slippage. This weekend I finally decided to fill in the cracks. A while back someone tried to patch a crack with some type of caulk but either they were very inexperienced or drunk. I dug out any of the old stuff and reapplied a vinyl concrete patch.

 This was the previous patch job

Furnace Saga Part 2

Last week our new furnace was finally installed. I really wanted to wait until the fall to get a new one but there was no way I wanted to continue to live in a sub-arctic zone. OK so it was not that bad but the penguins are not happy as you can see in the pictures.

There are so many HVAC companies so I looked on Kudzu to try and narrow it down on who to select. If you have never used Kudzu you should check it out. It is a place where customers can rate just about any type of business. I  narrowed it down to two companies and I think either one would have been a good choice. I ended up going with Sherlock Heating and Air because it was a little less and if you do not like the furnace they will buy it back within the year.  I thought that was impressive.

One guy did the whole job. He arrived at 1030 and was done just before 1500. I was impressed. When he arrived I told him that I would be taking many pictures for the blog and he was good with that.  Some people have a problem but he was a great sport, when he finished a certain point he would call me so I could take more pictures.

I am so glad that I did not try to wait it out until this fall, we have another series of storms for this week and they are saying that the snow level could be as low as 2500 feet.  While we are not nearly that high our daytime highs will be in the 50s and the lows will be in the 30s.

There were gaps in the floor so he sealed them for better airflow from the returns.

This is the old furnace heating elements.

The new heating elements. Amazing what 50 years of technology will improve upon.

Old vs. New. He had to add the ducting to connect the much smaller new furnace.

As you can see the penguin is pissed.

Finally installed!!