Friday, July 9, 2010
Uniformed
Probably the quickest way to ensure your employees will mutiny: force them to wear a uniform. Suddenly I feel the extreme urge to get tattooed or pierced. Who knew that ill fitting polyester in the form of a 1970's gas station attendant could make one feel so surly? I now sympathize with cafeteria workers and postal carriers eerywhere. No wonder they're angry!
Monday, September 28, 2009
One of the more annoying things in life is how one project leads to another, leads to another. The knowledge and fear of this domino effect has prevented us from doing just about anything to our house, other than small maintenance.
We've talked a lot about the projects we want to do, we've picked out paint colors and discussed remodeling projects, but with seven years of home ownership, the only projects we've taken on is painting both bathrooms and the entryway.
The crippling fear of a home improvement project is not without merit. We live in one of the few mid-century modern homes in our area. At least, one of the few still in relatively original condition. Our house was built in 1961, and our research leads us to believe it is one of maybe only three homes in our area built by the architectural team of Wexler and Harrison , though the jury's still out since it was built in 1961 and our neighbor's in '62 and '63. Maybe more research is in store for me, and perhaps a fact finding mission to Palm Springs... see, already off onto another list of projects.
So, we want to do things right, but we also want to do things cost effectively, environmentally conscious, and with an end goal of making our home more energy efficient, it is about 85% glass after all.
So with all those fears in mind, I finally took on my first project today: repainting the eaves. An easy project, you might think. A project every homeowner probably dreads, but still dutifully takes on every couple of years (or hires someone else to do). This project actually started a year ago, when we picked out paint colors for A's new art studio. So, we still had paint left from his eaves, and since the two structures will match, no discussion on paint colors.
So the scraping began without difficulty. Most of the paint was solid, until I came across a bit of trim that had been attached by the "previous owners" or flippers as we'll call them. And, the domino effect begins: It's not actually wood, but some sort of compressed cardboard, and I'm thinking: That all has to go.
We've talked a lot about the projects we want to do, we've picked out paint colors and discussed remodeling projects, but with seven years of home ownership, the only projects we've taken on is painting both bathrooms and the entryway.
The crippling fear of a home improvement project is not without merit. We live in one of the few mid-century modern homes in our area. At least, one of the few still in relatively original condition. Our house was built in 1961, and our research leads us to believe it is one of maybe only three homes in our area built by the architectural team of Wexler and Harrison , though the jury's still out since it was built in 1961 and our neighbor's in '62 and '63. Maybe more research is in store for me, and perhaps a fact finding mission to Palm Springs... see, already off onto another list of projects.
So, we want to do things right, but we also want to do things cost effectively, environmentally conscious, and with an end goal of making our home more energy efficient, it is about 85% glass after all.
So with all those fears in mind, I finally took on my first project today: repainting the eaves. An easy project, you might think. A project every homeowner probably dreads, but still dutifully takes on every couple of years (or hires someone else to do). This project actually started a year ago, when we picked out paint colors for A's new art studio. So, we still had paint left from his eaves, and since the two structures will match, no discussion on paint colors.
So the scraping began without difficulty. Most of the paint was solid, until I came across a bit of trim that had been attached by the "previous owners" or flippers as we'll call them. And, the domino effect begins: It's not actually wood, but some sort of compressed cardboard, and I'm thinking: That all has to go.
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