Party Like It's 1989

May 21st of 2009 felt like December 31st of 1989 because, in a way, it was the end of the 1980's all over again. GAS Demolition impressively performed the work and hauled away all debris in one day. No more geometric architectural details, no more glass block, and no more white, fake saltillo tile with inch thick grout. The homeowner's association has granted approval for renovations, so let the work begin!

Foyer wall removed. I've decided to leave the electrical panel where it is. Only the low-voltage HVAC relay panel on the far right will be relocated.

Excised foyer wall on the left with gutted wetbar center. Notice the ugly geometric drywall soffit above the wetbar has been removed.

Detail of area where geometric drywall soffit used to be. Notice the romex wiring dangling from the ceiling. This was hidden inside the soffit. No clue whether this is "live" or not. I should add this to the "Idiots" post.

Kitchen sans cabinetry and flooring. The black residue leads me to believe there was either parquet flooring or vinyl tiles glued down at some point.

Kitchen area where the washer/dryer addition used to reside.

Living room with concrete subfloor visible. Thin brick painted white was uncovered after drywall was removed from the fireplace. I have no idea why anyone would drywall over brick on a fireplace.

Bathroom post demolition. The tub surround tile was applied onto a mortar bed 5" thick. Someone didn't want that coming out without a fight.

Bedroom with avocado green carpet discarded. Removing tackless strips rivals stripping door jambs as the bane of my existence.

Things and Places I Like...

Durham's Water Putty: I never bother with spackle or pre-mixed patching compound. Water putty is easy to mix (I suggest mixing in an old Tupperware container you don't mind ruining) and I've never found a product that dries as hard and remains as stable. I even use it to patch wood, i.e. fill unwanted mortises in door jambs and gouges in window sills. If you're just repairing drywall, Fixall (aka Fix-It-All) works really well too.

Gorilla Glue: Need to repair something that will ultimately be painted? Gorilla Glue is your best bet. It's much stronger than standard PVA wood glue and requires less clamping, but almost always requires sanding off the excess that foams out of the joint. Elmer's make a good knockoff product called Ultimate Glue that's a little cheaper.

eFaucets.com: Great selection of material in-stock and best prices I've found on the internet. I purchased my American Standard faucets from them when my search for a local distributor came up empty. Since when did American Standard products become hard to find?

A & M Sandblasting: Have metalwork such as A/C grilles or electrical panel covers that are too expensive to replace, but are rusty and/or moldy? Get 'em sandblasted and repaint them yourself. A & M Sandblasting is in Chatsworth and their prices are a steal. They powdercoat too.

Linoleum City: Of course they're who to go to for linoleum in Los Angeles, but they also have a large selection of resilient flooring (VCT, vinyl sheet, FritzTile, rubber), cork, hardwood, laminate, ceramic tile and carpet. Staff is beyond knowledgeable about their products, which is a real plus.

Idiots

Some of the things we do to our homes are just plain idiotic. This condominium has more than its fair share of those.

This recessed light was installed in the A/C ducting soffit in the dining room. The installer pushed too hard with the hole saw and drilled a hole in the A/C duct the exact diameter of the recessed fixture. It was then discovered fixture's can would not clear the ducting, so it was discarded. Duct tape was fashioned to create a fire barrier and the fixture was glued into the drywall void with a hot-glue-gun.

In order to supply an added alarm system with power, a previous homeowner tapped into this outlet. To patch the hole created, they merely wadded up butcher paper, stuffed it next to the outlet and plastered over. I'm amazed this place never burnt down.

HOA Board Meeting and Flooring Concerns

The homeowner's association board of directors meeting occurred on May 14th of 2009. A full twenty days after I closed escrow. I attended the meeting and still did not receive a verdict on whether my plans for renovations are acceptable or not. I was told I would have a verdict by Monday, May 18th. However, I was advised that my choices for flooring materials are not strictly limited as long as I install an acoustic underlayment to accommodate the homeowner beneath me and to abide by the State of California building code which requires the floors of multi-story apartment and condominium buildings to achieve an IIC (impact insulation class) rating of at least fifty. This squashes my plans for polished concrete floors. The board mentioned at least one homeowner in the building has polished concrete floors and lives above other homeowners, but apparently the underlayment requirement applies to me and not him. I'm disappointed because polished concrete floors would've been an economical choice that would've provided great resale value due to its popularity. My goal for flooring is a material used consistently throughout the entire unit, including the kitchen and bathroom, with no variation and no thresholds. I refuse to install carpet. To me, ceramic tile is completely played out and I despise grout. Hardwood or laminate flooring is attractive, but not advisable for installation in kitchens and bathrooms. The look of natural stone such as marble or honed slate is too opulent for this application. The performance of vinyl sheet flooring is impressive, but almost all vinyl sheet attempts to mimic either ceramic tile, slate tile or hardwood...which I don't want. An exception to this rule is the vinyl flooring from Lonseal, especially their Lonnova UV. I've seen this stuff in person and it's amazing. Mirror-like gloss and metallic, but upwards of $6 per-square-foot uninstalled and I'm not paying that for vinyl flooring. Vinyl composite tile, or VCT, is a great economical choice (around $0.90 per-square-foot uninstalled) that's certainly authentic for the mid-century-modern home. My opinion is that AzRock makes the most attractive VCT. While poured terrazzo flooring is out-of-reach for most homeowners (upwards of $60 per-square-foot installed), FritzTile offers an affordable solution (around $5 per-square-foot uninstalled). FritzTile is terrazzo in tile form, but to be honest, I don't really like terrazzo.

Despite my admiration for VCT and the desire for the cost savings it provides, I don't want a tile product even if it doesn't require grout. I don't like the grid lines. If I didn't have the money for another product, I'd be happy with VCT even with the increased maintenance requirements (annual sealing, polishing, buffing, etc). But I can spend more, so I choose natural sheet linoleum.

To be honest, linoleum was always MY first choice due to it being soft and warm underfoot unlike concrete, but linoleum isn't exactly cheap and concrete would've provided better resale value. Linoleum is still pretty stigmatized because of the drab appearance of past products and the maintenance it required versus vinyl sheet flooring, which eventually caused linoleum's extinction in the 1970's. Nowadays many people refer to linoleum and vinyl sheet flooring interchangeably, but they're very different. Linoleum has recently made a comeback and it's more attractive than it ever was due to innovative manufacturers like Forbo. Armstrong recently resumed production of linoleum after abandoning it in 1974, but Armstrong's products seem to be geared more towards commercial installations and the availability of their product is scarce compared to Forbo's linoleum product titled Marmoleum.

Linoleum will provide a homogenous appearance like concrete, yet it's more durable (the concrete itself is durable, but even simple masking-tape will lift off the concrete's sealant) and it's more comfortable to walk on. Chances are linoleum will be more attractive too, because I doubt the cracked, splotchy, gypsum light concrete subfloor could ever be stained or polished into a presentable material. The product I've chosen is Forbo's Marmoleum. One of the many great things about living in a big city is the variety of goods and services available. Despite its resurgence, linoleum in residences is still pretty obscure and who would've thought there would be a linoleum distributor a couple of blocks away, then alone one named Linoleum City? I love Los Angeles.

Above are several choices of Marmoleum. #2 is my favorite, but I cannot use it because it's a strange color. It's called "Papyrus White," but it's not really white or gray and it's not really ivory or tan either. It's got a slight green tint to it and it doesn't jive well with anything white. If I was planning on painting the walls a light grayish-green, this would be my choice...but I'm not. #6 would be my second choice, as it closely resembles used, beaten concrete, but it's a little dark and too olive green for my tastes. It's very nice though. #4 is actually called "Concrete" and it does resemble a clean, freshly poured slab, but there's something about it that I don't like. I think it's the gray with the ivory marbling. It just seems like the marble vein should be the darkest color present. #1 is too yellow, #3 is too baby-blue and #5 is too orange.

I Begin to Regret My Purchase

May 6th of 2009, 11 days after the close of escrow and still no word from the homeowner's association about my renovation plans. I took the initiative to bring in a structural engineer to give me a verdict on whether the two walls I want to remove are load-bearing or not. The homeowner's association cannot provide any structural plans. The first wall is in the foyer, blocks a window, and creates a dark, depressing entry when the rest of the unit is filled with natural light. The second wall separates the kitchen from the dining room. I would prefer an open kitchen and so would a large majority of potential buyers upon resale. I don't know if people want to show off their kitchens more than they used to or if cooking has become more of a social activity than it has been in the past, but no one wants closed off kitchens anymore.

Unfortunately, the wall between the kitchen and dining room is load-bearing and cannot be removed. Even if the homeowner's association would permit me to transfer the load with a beam and columns (which they won't), the price tag of anywhere from $8,000 to $15,000 to do so, makes such an endeavor cost-prohibitive. If I would've known this wall was unalterable, I wouldn't have bought this place, or at least I would've drastically reduced my offer. Well, at least the foyer wall is not load-bearing and can be removed. Thanks to Gerald Joo, P.E. at Solid Structural Engineering for the prompt and affordable structural consult.

Load-bearing wall separating dining room from kitchen.

Partition wall in the foyer with embedded circuit-breaker panel and low-voltage HVAC relay panel. Notice the plumbing and electrical conduit on the left. This portion of the wall will remain.

Close of Escrow

On April 24th of 2009, after 57 days in escrow, I finally became the owner of the 1970's porno condo. Escrow was extended twice without a per diem. Once, because my lender did not want to fund the property without the homeowner's association waiving their right of first refusal in case of foreclosure and secondly, because the seller's choice of services saddled me with an escrow and title company so slow that they took a week to close AFTER I signed all loan documents. In any case, the transaction is over and I can begin the next battle which is petitioning the homeowner's association for permission to gut the condo, remove the influences from the 1980's and revert the condo to a mid-century design that will more accurately reflect the building's original intent. However, this is not an entirely honest statement, i.e. the building's original intent was never to mimic the work of Charles and Ray Eames, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe or Cliff May, but the building was constructed in 1965 and I'd rather create the illusion of authenticity, and ape the mid-century-modern aesthetic, then leave the unit looking like a salvaged set from "Miami Vice." I have exactly 60 days to accomplish this task before I must move in and vacate my apartment rental. I do plan on moving in without the kitchen completed because the lead-time on cabinets is too great.

The first thing I tackled once escrow had closed (actually the day before the title was recorded) was to remove all door casing and strip/sand all the door jambs. Sloppy, runny paint-jobs and too many coats of paint are a real pet-peeve of mine. Since this unit had 15 years worth of apartment tenants before 29 years of condominium owners, you can imagine the amount of paint on every surface within reach. Multiple coats of paint upon drywall is of little concern, but once door jambs and other high traffic areas are coated too thick, you'll never get a subsequent coat to stick unless you sand off a couple of layers. Problem is, latex paint will flake off and gum up your sander...if you don't want to change sandpaper every 5 minutes, use a chemical stripper and scrape until you reach bare wood. It's a miserable, tedious task, but better than repainting every year.