Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Love your House! Now get out.
Wow, once listed, we have been getting lots of bids for our home. We decided on one that was $10K over the listing price, but needs us to get out in 3 weeks. Only trouble is, we're leaving town in 3 days, and might not be back. So we are back and packing- getting a truck and trying to get all our stuff out right away. Panic. So we're facing another difficult week, then we'll be homeless.
Sunday, June 26, 2016
We flee to San Diego
We have retreated to Mom's house at Point Loma- with my sister Orah and her DH Jeff keeping their eyes on Grace, who needs a bit of help at times to live an independent life. We will ask them and MM's Dad to keep various items not allowed in storage, like propane bottles, until we have a place to put them.
Sharon presided over Open house starting at 1pm, and we got ourselves out of the way. We re not the kind of people who could live in a house and keep it spotless, so we are taking refuge here for a few days, before we return to collect our camping gear and head out to MM's family reunion on the coast of Oregon.
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| Cozy nook for Mom in front of the picture windows. |
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| Sunset in Grace's back yard |
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| Lath sheltered patio |
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| Sinking sun adds color to distant offshore marine layer |
| But for now the late afternoon sun is a bit too stifling for me, and I retreat to the East side where a ledge overlooking a little Northeast facing garden. |
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| The garden features a huge Sago palm, with staghorn and maidenhair ferns, and night-blooming cereus. |
Looking out from this sheltered spot, screened from the street, is a good place for reading, writing, or people watching.
We listed our house today
You can now google our address and unit number and bang, our listing comes up. 13921 Kornblum Ave Unit 16, on many listing services.
At our advanced ages, neither of us has sold a house before. We are performing all the myriad of little jobs we need to do, in a kind of daze. Luckily our good friend Sharon Pierce has held our hand through this whole process, and things are going well. Sharon was our buyer's agent when we bought this, and she is the seller's agent now- so it's a full-cycle service. The adjective she chose to use for our place was "sparkling." Our house. Imagine!
Sunday:
Sharon will be here soon and we are going out of town for a few days. The last few items to store in Grace's and Dale's houses, that we can't put into a storage locker.
Didn't even try to make it to church, and we'll sleep in San Diego. Back midweek to review offers and grab our camping stuff for our Northwest tour.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
A Matter of a Minion
Inadvertently I end up dressed like a minion: eggyolk yellow tee shirt and classic bib overalls. No bread for toast? That's OK, I made whole wheat piñon pancakes. Today's caffeinated beverage? Leftover coffee or Earl Grey/hibiscus/mint iced tea.
What will I do today? Fashion an adaptor plate to mount a flush light fixture in a closet, install smoke detectors and CO detector, and add a strap to the water heater. Could I BE a minion?
By the end of the day, the LED light was installed, the smoke detectors were installed, and the water heater was strapped. All projects strewn with unperceived pitfalls, and the awe and wonder was akin to that you feel when seeing a dog walking on its hind legs. Not that they do it well, but that they do it at all. Though the closet light and detectors look pretty good.
Also good meals- besides the pancakes, turkey, tomato, and cheese rollups for lunch, and udon noodles with sesame vegetable broth and chicken potstickers, and fresh garlic green beans.
One setback- one of the outlets in Gloria's room gave up a crackle and flash, and gave up the ghost, tripping the breaker. We'll have to fix that on Thursday afternoon. Two steps forward, one step back. A failure worthy of a minion, though, with the sturm and drang involved.
We went to bed exhausted.
Monday, June 20, 2016
Our Zone Zero Microclimate
This is intended to be a ramble on beating solar heat effects, the failure of our air conditioner, air conditioning in general, and how we cope without one.
We are fortunate in our present house when it comes to climate control. We are sandwiched on the East and West by other houses that share a common, insulated, double stud wall with double drywall thickness on the living side of the wall. The adjoining townhouses have occupants who I assume make some effort to keep their own areas comfortable, and anyway with all that shielding from the elements there is little heat gain or loss from those sides.
When I moved in, we installed fiberglass insulation under the roof between the roof rafters, which made a huge difference in the temperature of the attic, and thus reduced reradiation through the ceilings of rooms without vaulted ceilings. All three bedrooms do have vaulted ceilings; however, the bathrooms and laundry rooms do not.
The house is oriented not quite North and South, but off by a bit- I wonder whether it's aligned on magnetic North without correcting 13 degrees counterclockwise as navigators must do in this area to get astronomical North. That would be a good question to look into, except that I probably won't bother now that I'm moving.
The orientation then has to do with whether and when the sun will strike the windows. In general terms, the south side being where the patio is, and with eaves above the second floor overhanging by about three feet the threshold of the sliding glass doors that look out on the patio, the sun's shadow starts out about four feet from the threshold and by the end of this day near the summer solstice it will come with an inch of the glass but not striking it. The sun will heat the brick pavement of course, and we will keep those doors closed and the area curtained off to reduce radiation through that glass. We recently had these doors replaced and the double-paned glass has been treated to enhance its thermal reflectivity, so we're fortunate there as well. Let's just say that the patio is not a place you want to have lunch on the warmest day of this year to date.
The north-facing windows are the original single pane variety- nothing special about these- each about four by six horizontally. At certain times and certain seasons they will get morning sun- logic suggests that would be in this season. I guess I will have to check these at dawn tomorrow.
The cement slab garage under the same roof on the North side is the coolest room in the house on a summer day, cooled by contact with the earth, and if there are no recently-driven cars inside it can be exactly the right place to do woodworking projects in midday. There is a door that connects the garage with the dining room through a short hallway, and sometimes I will crack open the outer door, open the inner door, set up a floor fan in the hall, and circulate cool garage air into the house on a warm day. That seems to increase comfort in the lower areas of the house: the dining room, living room, and kitchen.
The upper floor, especially the master bedroom on the South, is warmer than the lower floors, day and night. On hot days we keep the master bedroom blinds closed, while allowing some air to exhaust on the North side windows.
The townhouse complex being arranged along a 20 foot drive going East and West, about 200 feet long, is a pathway that channels and accelerates the usual ocean effect sea breezes. I have occasionally wondered whether I could make some kind of sail for gathering in some of that air on the North side and directing it into the bedroom windows and from there through the top floor, but that idea will go unexplored now as well. Generally speaking, the upper floor is about 5 degrees warmer than the lower one of all the windows are open. We tend to spend most of our waking hours downstairs.
Getting back to the dining area, in addition to ventilation via the cool garage, comfort is also enhanced by a ceiling fan with LED bubs, which when set to updraft causes a breeze on the backs of all those seated at the table, especially those near one of the two walls. This is probably the best "civilized" space to be to get through the heat of the day, sans air conditioning.
Of course central air conditioning changes all this. We have not had enough recent experience to fine-tune the distribution of cool air but here's the basics:
The air to be heated or cooled is taken up through a vent inside that aforementioned hallway between the garage and the dining room, runs through the plant which heats or cools it as required, and redistributes the air through equal sized vents throughout the house- two downstairs quite close to the intake, in the living room and dining room, and upstairs, one each in the three bedrooms and one in the master bathroom. The master bedroom has twice the volume as the bedrooms, and the duct to the master bathroom is currently mashed up a bit in the attic and so is throttled down a bit. The air returns downstairs through the open stairwell, unless a bedroom door is closed, which will trap the air or exhaust it through an open window or into the attic.
Some of the airflow can be redirected by use of the downstairs hallway doors at each end. If the garage door is closed and the dining room door is opened, the air will circulate as described above. But if the garage door is opened, and the outer garage is open a crack too small for stray cats (20 feet wide but 3 inches high), and the dining room is closed, then air return will be blocked and fresh air will be drawn in from the garage. Presumably with the house under pressure the air will find places to leak out- through bathroom fan vents, fireplace flues (master bedroom and living room) vents in the bedrooms and the atrium, to the attic, and out under the eaves, or through open windows and doors.
So far, as I've said, the forced air system operation is mostly theoretical. The darn air conditioning quit the first day we wanted to use it, after checking out fine a few months ago So the guy is coming out in a few days to troubleshoot the thing- I expect the coolant has leaked out or the compressor is blown. Of the two a leak might be harder to locate and fix permanently, but cheaper; a compressor replacement would probably cost $500 or more. But it's something we need to sell the house.
This is what I've learned from this house:
Earth-insulated floors do work.
The thermal mass which is the fireplace brick has held its cool temperature.
There are more resources I could make use of in another situation, like prevailing winds.
Other ideas I hope to use include berms, pergolas, water features, thermal masses, and plantings to capture, deflect, and shield living areas and create human-centered Zone 0 and 1 habitat without having to waste energy pumping heat out of and into an inefficient system.
We are fortunate in our present house when it comes to climate control. We are sandwiched on the East and West by other houses that share a common, insulated, double stud wall with double drywall thickness on the living side of the wall. The adjoining townhouses have occupants who I assume make some effort to keep their own areas comfortable, and anyway with all that shielding from the elements there is little heat gain or loss from those sides.
When I moved in, we installed fiberglass insulation under the roof between the roof rafters, which made a huge difference in the temperature of the attic, and thus reduced reradiation through the ceilings of rooms without vaulted ceilings. All three bedrooms do have vaulted ceilings; however, the bathrooms and laundry rooms do not.
The house is oriented not quite North and South, but off by a bit- I wonder whether it's aligned on magnetic North without correcting 13 degrees counterclockwise as navigators must do in this area to get astronomical North. That would be a good question to look into, except that I probably won't bother now that I'm moving.
The orientation then has to do with whether and when the sun will strike the windows. In general terms, the south side being where the patio is, and with eaves above the second floor overhanging by about three feet the threshold of the sliding glass doors that look out on the patio, the sun's shadow starts out about four feet from the threshold and by the end of this day near the summer solstice it will come with an inch of the glass but not striking it. The sun will heat the brick pavement of course, and we will keep those doors closed and the area curtained off to reduce radiation through that glass. We recently had these doors replaced and the double-paned glass has been treated to enhance its thermal reflectivity, so we're fortunate there as well. Let's just say that the patio is not a place you want to have lunch on the warmest day of this year to date.
The north-facing windows are the original single pane variety- nothing special about these- each about four by six horizontally. At certain times and certain seasons they will get morning sun- logic suggests that would be in this season. I guess I will have to check these at dawn tomorrow.
The cement slab garage under the same roof on the North side is the coolest room in the house on a summer day, cooled by contact with the earth, and if there are no recently-driven cars inside it can be exactly the right place to do woodworking projects in midday. There is a door that connects the garage with the dining room through a short hallway, and sometimes I will crack open the outer door, open the inner door, set up a floor fan in the hall, and circulate cool garage air into the house on a warm day. That seems to increase comfort in the lower areas of the house: the dining room, living room, and kitchen.
The upper floor, especially the master bedroom on the South, is warmer than the lower floors, day and night. On hot days we keep the master bedroom blinds closed, while allowing some air to exhaust on the North side windows.
The townhouse complex being arranged along a 20 foot drive going East and West, about 200 feet long, is a pathway that channels and accelerates the usual ocean effect sea breezes. I have occasionally wondered whether I could make some kind of sail for gathering in some of that air on the North side and directing it into the bedroom windows and from there through the top floor, but that idea will go unexplored now as well. Generally speaking, the upper floor is about 5 degrees warmer than the lower one of all the windows are open. We tend to spend most of our waking hours downstairs.
Getting back to the dining area, in addition to ventilation via the cool garage, comfort is also enhanced by a ceiling fan with LED bubs, which when set to updraft causes a breeze on the backs of all those seated at the table, especially those near one of the two walls. This is probably the best "civilized" space to be to get through the heat of the day, sans air conditioning.
Of course central air conditioning changes all this. We have not had enough recent experience to fine-tune the distribution of cool air but here's the basics:
The air to be heated or cooled is taken up through a vent inside that aforementioned hallway between the garage and the dining room, runs through the plant which heats or cools it as required, and redistributes the air through equal sized vents throughout the house- two downstairs quite close to the intake, in the living room and dining room, and upstairs, one each in the three bedrooms and one in the master bathroom. The master bedroom has twice the volume as the bedrooms, and the duct to the master bathroom is currently mashed up a bit in the attic and so is throttled down a bit. The air returns downstairs through the open stairwell, unless a bedroom door is closed, which will trap the air or exhaust it through an open window or into the attic.
Some of the airflow can be redirected by use of the downstairs hallway doors at each end. If the garage door is closed and the dining room door is opened, the air will circulate as described above. But if the garage door is opened, and the outer garage is open a crack too small for stray cats (20 feet wide but 3 inches high), and the dining room is closed, then air return will be blocked and fresh air will be drawn in from the garage. Presumably with the house under pressure the air will find places to leak out- through bathroom fan vents, fireplace flues (master bedroom and living room) vents in the bedrooms and the atrium, to the attic, and out under the eaves, or through open windows and doors.
So far, as I've said, the forced air system operation is mostly theoretical. The darn air conditioning quit the first day we wanted to use it, after checking out fine a few months ago So the guy is coming out in a few days to troubleshoot the thing- I expect the coolant has leaked out or the compressor is blown. Of the two a leak might be harder to locate and fix permanently, but cheaper; a compressor replacement would probably cost $500 or more. But it's something we need to sell the house.
This is what I've learned from this house:
Earth-insulated floors do work.
The thermal mass which is the fireplace brick has held its cool temperature.
There are more resources I could make use of in another situation, like prevailing winds.
Other ideas I hope to use include berms, pergolas, water features, thermal masses, and plantings to capture, deflect, and shield living areas and create human-centered Zone 0 and 1 habitat without having to waste energy pumping heat out of and into an inefficient system.
Half Steps Forward
This is a page dealing with issues concerning our renovation to date. Skip this unless you're in need of excruciating detail.
When we got started with our preparation to sell, immediately Sharon came to mind. She's the one who helped us as a buyer's agent to buy this house in 1990. She was a member of our former Episcopal parish, Holy Nativity, and since she and we have moved on to St Cross in Hermosa Beach. So it seemed natural to ask her to help sell, and give us advice on how to get the best price.
It seems that getting the best price involves getting our clutter out of there, painting out all our strong accent walls, and remodeling our kitchen. And another couple things: a second strap on our water heater and new low-flush toilets were required by law.
So among the first things we did was replace all three toilets. That seems to have started a chain of events which led to having to get our main sewer line snaked out. Then somehow a washcloth got flushed down a toilet, leading to another snaking, during which the plumber broke it off inside the pipes to our downstairs half-bath, which led to another major snaking which seems to have cleared the matter up, except that after the cleanout in the dining room wall was closed and covered, the wall gradually began to buckle and feel damp. Did I mention that by that time the walls had been freshly painted? So the plumber was recalled, and they agreed to seal the cleanout, which had threads degraded by so much snaking and therefore not sealing too well, and to replace the drywall around it. It took a week to get the drywall guy to get here, and after opening the wall declared that the area needed to dry some more and he would come back to finish the work as it was scheduled. The office would call and set it up. Meanwhile we set a desk fan in front of it to help it dry. Good news- the drywall guy is returning Monday. That gives us a 2 days to texture and paint it before the photographer comes on Wednesday.
Another thing we decided to do was to replace the carpeted area downstairs with vinyl strip flooring to match the kitchen and dining room we had done 5 years ago. After some missteps, the flooring was finally installed on Saturday. Well, most of it. The installer had underestimated the area by about 2/3 of a box. So what could be installed was installed, and the rest was to be filled in temporarily with some tile that was a color match but not a texture match, in a spot to be covered by a couch.
When we got started with our preparation to sell, immediately Sharon came to mind. She's the one who helped us as a buyer's agent to buy this house in 1990. She was a member of our former Episcopal parish, Holy Nativity, and since she and we have moved on to St Cross in Hermosa Beach. So it seemed natural to ask her to help sell, and give us advice on how to get the best price.
It seems that getting the best price involves getting our clutter out of there, painting out all our strong accent walls, and remodeling our kitchen. And another couple things: a second strap on our water heater and new low-flush toilets were required by law.
So among the first things we did was replace all three toilets. That seems to have started a chain of events which led to having to get our main sewer line snaked out. Then somehow a washcloth got flushed down a toilet, leading to another snaking, during which the plumber broke it off inside the pipes to our downstairs half-bath, which led to another major snaking which seems to have cleared the matter up, except that after the cleanout in the dining room wall was closed and covered, the wall gradually began to buckle and feel damp. Did I mention that by that time the walls had been freshly painted? So the plumber was recalled, and they agreed to seal the cleanout, which had threads degraded by so much snaking and therefore not sealing too well, and to replace the drywall around it. It took a week to get the drywall guy to get here, and after opening the wall declared that the area needed to dry some more and he would come back to finish the work as it was scheduled. The office would call and set it up. Meanwhile we set a desk fan in front of it to help it dry. Good news- the drywall guy is returning Monday. That gives us a 2 days to texture and paint it before the photographer comes on Wednesday. |
| Flooring covered with random carpet strips after an abortive attempt to install flooring with a texture mismatch with previous flooring. A two week delay, and then... |
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| Flooring installed, except one box short. So some tile temporarily was installed with texture mismatch, and more mismatched tile will follow on Monday to fill the gaps. The extra box now has to be ordered on Monday. |
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| MM learns a new trade, reluctantly. We replaced dozens of ivory colored standard electrical outlets and switches and cover plates with rectangular Decora style white devices. Ask MM what she thinks of 12 gauge wire and stand back. |
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| Meanwhile this furniture stayed outside on the patio, |
Sunday, June 19, 2016
A warm night in the city
Hawthorne, Sunday 6/19
We have been holding off using the air conditioning forever. Before we had it checked, we had not used it for 10 years. But during the renovation of the house for sale we had it checked and to our surprise everything was working just fine. Today the weather channel ap predicts the first day of one of our rare hot spells- with the highs expected to get around 88 for a number of days. It has been gradually getting warmer at night, too; and at bed time the bedroom was a bit too warm for comfort. Going downstairs for some water, I discovered that it was quite a bit fresher down there, and the newly cleared patio even more so. So I had a camp out. The camping gear was stashed in the hall closet, so I inflated a twin-sized air mattress and grabbed my pillow and a light throw and lay down on the bricks in the dark.
It was surprisingly quiet there, just over the wall from my late-drinking neighbors who rent the collection of tiny cottages there- on nights like this or anytime they have guests they flow over to the driveway immediately south of my garden wall, there to drink and tell riotously funny stories in Spanish, which I never can catch, and turn up the stereo in their living room and throw open their windows and doors to enjoy tex-mex music outside where it's cool. I guess the party was at someone else's house last night- neither drinkers nor young kids running amped up on sugar disturbed the night, and from far away I could actually hear a train passing in between the random bangs of premature smuggled fireworks for July 4th, and the evenly spaced pops of someone discharging a whole clip of ammo from their semiautomatic pistol, just for the hell of it, and the occasional siren. I was pretty sure no stray bullets could get through the stucco covered wall, and it was soothing to feel the light cool breeze. So I spent the early hours gazing up at the palm tree in the gloom, and dozing in the cool air, until it cooled off to climb the stairs up to the bedroom where MM slept oblivious to everything, slipped between the sheets and eventually dropped into oblivion myself.
We have been holding off using the air conditioning forever. Before we had it checked, we had not used it for 10 years. But during the renovation of the house for sale we had it checked and to our surprise everything was working just fine. Today the weather channel ap predicts the first day of one of our rare hot spells- with the highs expected to get around 88 for a number of days. It has been gradually getting warmer at night, too; and at bed time the bedroom was a bit too warm for comfort. Going downstairs for some water, I discovered that it was quite a bit fresher down there, and the newly cleared patio even more so. So I had a camp out. The camping gear was stashed in the hall closet, so I inflated a twin-sized air mattress and grabbed my pillow and a light throw and lay down on the bricks in the dark.
Friday, June 17, 2016
What is this about?
What is this about?
This is a blog by Hal Hurst about my wife, MM, and me, as we transition from an inner city empty nest to a more sustainable country life. Maybe it will have some value for others in planning their own escape -- either as example or cautionary tale. We'll see how it spins out.
The big picture will be filled in as I go, but for now here's the 100,000 foot view:
We have each retired from pretty good blue-collar jobs- me in aerospace technology and MM in nursing. We each got to the point where the dehumanizing daily grind of being cogs in the corporate machinery was unbearable, and retired because we had saved up enough money to make it possible.
We have built up some equity in an inner city townhouse and hope to use that to get us into 5 sustainable acres somewhere green as a haven for us and our children and generations to come. Physically, we are unexceptional. I'm 66 and have some of the health issues to be expected of a man my age- overweight and mild blood pressure , arthritic knees and at present some acute problems with foot ligaments that slows me down. MM is dealing with many of the same problems. But we agree that life is for living, and we will work with our limitations toward our goals.
On the positive side, besides our financials, I have spent my life acquiring skills and solving problems. I have been cabinet maker, carpenter, farm hand, refrigeration systems designer, ship fitter, electronics hobbyist, laser repairman, handyman, gardener, aquaponics hobbyist, developer of sub-irrigated planters, maintaining computer databases and complex spreadsheets. I feel by this point I am a walking solution looking for problems.
At present we are in the final stages of preparing our townhouse for sale. We have pared down our lifestyle and moved a lot of our possessions into storage, and plan another drastic round of simplification right now.
Zooming a little closer, there's permaculture. I've been reading up on it, going to a few places where permies hang out online and in the real world, watching online seminars, reading some more, and a lot of it makes sense to me. I have dined on a steady diet of how-to on everything from raising chickens to reforming the landscape to bring water to the desert. Check out the first chapter of Don Quixote for reference to another such scholar who thought he would put his studies into practice.
I therefore have reason to believe that I have a chance of establishing a comfortable retirement for myself and my wife, and a future haven for our descendants. Not work-free, but pleasant and manageable. Starting small with room to grow. Permaculture has already taught me a lot about organizing my priorities and avoiding pitfalls that would be tremendous drain on time and money. So I plan to incorporate permaculture where I can, but not worry about becoming some kind of paragon. And that is my goal in life.
I figure at my age I have one big adventure left, and this looks like the start of it. As I have been fond of saying lately, my retirement will keep me in peanut butter sandwiches while I work to fulfill my goals of sustainability. And, really, what more can I ask for, in the time I have left in this world?
This is a blog by Hal Hurst about my wife, MM, and me, as we transition from an inner city empty nest to a more sustainable country life. Maybe it will have some value for others in planning their own escape -- either as example or cautionary tale. We'll see how it spins out.
The big picture will be filled in as I go, but for now here's the 100,000 foot view:
We have each retired from pretty good blue-collar jobs- me in aerospace technology and MM in nursing. We each got to the point where the dehumanizing daily grind of being cogs in the corporate machinery was unbearable, and retired because we had saved up enough money to make it possible.
We have built up some equity in an inner city townhouse and hope to use that to get us into 5 sustainable acres somewhere green as a haven for us and our children and generations to come. Physically, we are unexceptional. I'm 66 and have some of the health issues to be expected of a man my age- overweight and mild blood pressure , arthritic knees and at present some acute problems with foot ligaments that slows me down. MM is dealing with many of the same problems. But we agree that life is for living, and we will work with our limitations toward our goals.
On the positive side, besides our financials, I have spent my life acquiring skills and solving problems. I have been cabinet maker, carpenter, farm hand, refrigeration systems designer, ship fitter, electronics hobbyist, laser repairman, handyman, gardener, aquaponics hobbyist, developer of sub-irrigated planters, maintaining computer databases and complex spreadsheets. I feel by this point I am a walking solution looking for problems.
At present we are in the final stages of preparing our townhouse for sale. We have pared down our lifestyle and moved a lot of our possessions into storage, and plan another drastic round of simplification right now.
Zooming a little closer, there's permaculture. I've been reading up on it, going to a few places where permies hang out online and in the real world, watching online seminars, reading some more, and a lot of it makes sense to me. I have dined on a steady diet of how-to on everything from raising chickens to reforming the landscape to bring water to the desert. Check out the first chapter of Don Quixote for reference to another such scholar who thought he would put his studies into practice.
I therefore have reason to believe that I have a chance of establishing a comfortable retirement for myself and my wife, and a future haven for our descendants. Not work-free, but pleasant and manageable. Starting small with room to grow. Permaculture has already taught me a lot about organizing my priorities and avoiding pitfalls that would be tremendous drain on time and money. So I plan to incorporate permaculture where I can, but not worry about becoming some kind of paragon. And that is my goal in life.
I figure at my age I have one big adventure left, and this looks like the start of it. As I have been fond of saying lately, my retirement will keep me in peanut butter sandwiches while I work to fulfill my goals of sustainability. And, really, what more can I ask for, in the time I have left in this world?
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