the beauty of the Bemis

How many times do you walk down the isle of a store looking at bazillions of versions of what you need having no idea which one to buy? If you're in sales this deer-in-the-headlights look is easily recognized and a huge opportunity as the shopper is putty in your hands; you can pretty much sell them whatever you need to move. Sadly.

A few years ago I broke a toilet seat in our house. I guess I got a little agro when lifting the lid or closing it or something and twisted it enough so that the plastic hinges were no longer feeling very secure when you sat down. Shelley and I went to the Home Depot and down the bath isle where we promptly both got that same look… There were SO MANY TOILET SEATS. Some had padding, some had special coatings, some were painted, some were stained and some were just butt ugly. But not enough of them were butt ugly so the options we had left were still pretty overwhelming.

Eventually we found what seemed like a pretty darn good, basic seat for something like $5.63. It was painted, wood and probably the cheapest seat in the entire store, how can you go wrong? It was a Bemis.

As we paid the cashier he took one look at our purchase and said, "Ah, you can never go wrong with a Bemis!" Confirmation is awesome.

Last weekend we went and did it again. Not sure if we are hard on our toilets but this time we replaced all three seats in the house. And you know what? The Bemis was STILL only $5.74. I was so happy I decided to chronicle the installation.

The packaging is as basic as the product.

Which I for one appreciate. Why do so many manufacturers insist on shrink wrapping the item, putting the wrapped item in a box, that box in a bag and then that bag in another box that has been stuffed with plastic peanuts? No wonder our planet is only going to last another 30 years.

Installation is practically tool-less, all you need a screwdriver. Just pop the hinge covers off and unscrew the plastic bolts and remove the old seat.

Ah… clean beginnings!

Installing the new seat is cake. About the only thing you could screw up is installing the nut upside down so be sure the beveled/concave side faces the porcelain.

Tighten the bolts (but not too much, they're just plastic), snap down the hinge covers and she's ready for a test drive! Behold the Bemis.

In case you were wondering, this is about the extent of how handy I am around the house.

Technorati Tags: Bemis,toilet seat

house plans–first draft

Yes. Last Friday Shelley and I were able to meet with our architects and see the plans they had drawn up for us.

Normally they provide three different options to clients but because of a delay they had time to produce four options for us. Nice.

Given the location of the lot in relationship to our neighbors and to the view all of the options had the house as close to the street and as tall as possible. For some reason this is not what Shelley or I were expecting but it does make sense.

Given our budget the options ranged from about 365 – 460k. And that was not including their fee so some decisions are sure to get presented to us in the near future. Honestly, I am not so worried. I think neither Shelley or I care too much about fancy finishes or fixtures or trim, etc. so hello plywood walls and floors! Budget problem solved.

This weekend we sat down and poured over each proposal and made a list of 'wants' and 'dislikes'. Tonight I'm going to meet them again and present our list so they can see what direction we are heading and then generate a design that is much closer to the final version.

Working with Daren and Lisa is fun and interesting. One of the reasons we chose them is that they have a dynamic that we feel (read: hope) will give us a house that we both will love. They do NOT always agree on stuff and frequently contradict each other but not in a combative way; more in a way that solves problems. I like that.

Technorati Tags: Chadbourne + Doss Architects

Our house; finally it begins!

On 9 July Shelley and I closed on an empty lot in the Mt Baker neighborhood. It has always been a dream of mine to build a house from scratch and now – like it or not – we're going to get that opportunity. Thank you Shelley for being on board with this.

Without a doubt I feel like we're going 'all in' to borrow a poker analogy but it's so exciting! I suppose when you get ready to spend your life's savings it should be pretty exciting. So far here is what we have had to do.

Find some land
Not as easy as you might think! Seattle (we wanted to continue to live in the city or at least close to it) is pretty dense and most of the land is taken and has had something built on it. You know that house that sold next door and got replaced by two townhomes? Exactly.

Huge thanks go out to our realtor Ken Latz who worked with us for over a year (was it two?) and got a co-worker to cover for him while he was out of town on vacation so we could close as soon as possible.

We looked at house after house thinking that perhaps a remodel would suffice and lots of lots (had to try that, sorry...) but no location seemed ideal and if there is one thing that is important when you are going to build instead of just buy it's location. Needless to say we finally found one.

Borrow the money
Rates are crazy low but banks are totally gun shy thus you have to jump through a bazillion hoops to get a loan. Everything from tax returns to existing bank account statements to (in my case) child support documents had to be provided. The banks want to lend you the money, they just need to do some major CYA before they give it up.

Feasibility study
So you got your lot but is it safe to build on? That is what we had to find out. There is no buzzkill like buying some land and then finding out you can't put a stable foundation on it. :( To assist us with this we hired Dean Homes who got a geotech on site, looked for any historical issues and did some major hand holding with the existing owner to ensure they were happy throughout the process and that everything was left in its original condition in case we decided not to buy.

Hire an architect
Luckily the feasibility study said the lot was sound so now it was time to hire an architect to come up with a design. And let me tell you, Seattle is RIFE with architects, holy cow. We asked an architect friend for some recommendations and a general contractor friend for the same and ended up with eight.

Interviewing eight people/firms is tough. Shelley and I both have full-time jobs and other things that impact our lives so trying to squeeze in 90 minutes for each candidate was difficult; especially since everyone would prefer to do this during business hours... Add in getting there and getting back and all of a sudden a 60 or 90 minute interview turns into a three hour lunch. In the end we did not interview everyone that was recommended to us. We stopped when we found a good match and that was Chadbourne + Doss Architects.

This is a husband and wife team; both are architects and one is also an interior decorator. Both seem very progressive and it was the dynamic of the team that eventually sold us. That and their references.

ASIDE – checking references for everyone you interview takes even more time... I know, let's all throw a big pity party for Martin.

Let them know what we want
Sure, you expect to have to tell your architect what you want but I did not expect this. They gave us some HOMEwork (get it?) that we had to fill out. Pretty cool really.

One of the references claimed they pretty much wrote a book when they filled this out and the first design presented to them was it; no major changes necessary. I have no illusions about doing the same but hey, these architects must be good, eh? Here's hoping.

Have a party
If you start something huge you need to celebrate and we did just that with a few beers on the lot. Then we took some 'before' pictures.

Here is the lot seen from the street. The street is on the east side.

This is looking west from just inside the hedge.

Here is the happy couple along with my father.

And here is a walking tour of the lot.

The house that Jack built. Only it's not built yet and Jack's name is Shelley and Martin.

Technorati Tags: Ken Latz,Dean HOmes,Chadbourne + Doss Architects