I've been BUSY.  Work, house, kids...sleep...you name it.  So, I'm going to do a little update right now based on project.  Get ready for some pictures!

At least in our house.  Those lovely high beamed ceilings really tests ones patience.  Yesterday, we (me and Adrian) primed our living room.  After protecting the floors and bringing in the tools, we probably started around 3:30pm.  We were done by 7:45pm.  4 hours to prime one room is a bit much for me.  And we really didn't even finish because we still need to take the curtain off the big window.  We're really concerned about that.  I'm positive we're going to break the window.  Wish us luck.

We have a painter coming in today (between 2 and 5--what BS...color me the ass, as I was typing this the guy called...our appoint was for 10:30!) to give us a quote and we have someone else coming in tomorrow to help us paint if that the other painter isn't able to do the work.  We don't have much time to do this and we're having a time picking colors. 

When we got the house, we knew there was work that needed to be done.  We didn't realize it would take this long.  Right now, we still need to do the following:
fix the electrical
get a new window
paint
redo bathroom floor
the yard

We have to be out of our apt. by Feb. 1st.  It doesn't look like any of this is going to be finished before then.  We may also have to extend our chimney.  I had a chimney inspector out and he said it was fine, but I don't think so. 

It would be wonderful if our friends would help us paint or dig up the yard, but everyone seems to have disappeared since they first offered to help.  Oh well, it's to be expected.  We got the same treatment after Alton was born, loads of offers to help, but no actual help.

To top it all off, we still need to pack a lot of stuff and move in.  Not to mention that we still need to work during the entire time.  Can I clone me yet?

Okay, not all of them, but what's with those people who say they'll show up and don't?  Do they really think we have nothing better to do than to sit around waiting for them to show?  Or how about those people who are willing to give us a quote without measuring or even seeing the house?

We got a quote on retiling our bathroom.  $5500.  The guy said he'd go over there while the floors were being redone.  Called me with the quote.  I had asked the floor guys if anyone came over.  'No'.  Well, that's just great, so I asked the guy, "What color is my bathroom?"  He said, "What do you mean?  It's just your standard bathroom."  Um, not really...it really shouldn't escape anyone's notice that my bathroom is PURPLE!

Whatever.  Then there's the painter lady who gave me the quote to paint my house $2200 + $100 per color.  She never set foot in my house.  Just asked me the square footage. 

Or how about the guy who insisted that my husband be there.  Kept going on and on about the need for my husband to be there.  When I told him that we weren't going with him because of his outrageous estimates ($11K for electrical he didn't even look at) , he asked, "Oh, can I talk with your husband?"  So I said, "Oh yeah, I also don't want to work with a sexist asshole like you.  Lose my number."  Or the guy who came in, I walked him through everything and asked for written quote.  He balked.  "Why should I give you a written estimate, when I just told you?"  Oh, did I mention that out of the list of 11 things I wanted a quote on he gave me a quote on 3 things, the total:  $14596. 

But there have been happy stories:

We got our floors redone for a lot less than we expected and they look great.  Granted the floor people ripped the roller shade not 2 min. after I walked out the house; came back in after putting the baby in the car and two guys were staring at the hole they made, no apologies or no offer to replace.  They also sanded some of the paint off the tile on the hearth for some reason. I also wish they were a lot more diligent about keeping the dust out of the other rooms.  It was really like they didn't try.  But our floors look good.

We met a general contractor who specializes in older homes and he really knows his stuff.  He's more expensive than we wanted to spend, but I'm impressed by him. 

We had our home earthquake retrofitted by Stern's Construction.  Gilberto and Salvas came in right when they said they would, finished when they said they would and were very professional.  They cleaned up everything too. 

Gushing joy!  Heart palpitations!  Dancing jags!

What can have me so damn excited?  

We bought a house.  

We.

Bought.

A.

House.

Good lord, I never thought I'd say those words.  I had visions of living my life forever in my two-bedroom not-even-550 sf. apartment.  I'd joke that we'd have 4 more kids and they'd take over the bedrooms while we'll be relegated to sleeping on the sofa.

And now...

We bought a house.  It's a HUGE (to us) house.  It's still only 2 bedrooms and 1 stinking bathroom, but it's 1347sf of ours.  All ours!  Excuse me, while I do another jig...okay, that was Lord of the Dance-worthy if you ask me.  

The funny thing is that this house is like our apartment on steroids.  

Mr. Fab in front of his new house.

Spanish Colonial Revival, thank you very much.  Batchelder tiles on the hearth (thank you, again!), and the World's Ugliest Bathroom:

Yes, I know it looks pink, but it's lavender, like MotherTalkers lavender (see sidebar).  Cute on the computer, not so cute when it's your tub, sink and friggin' toilet.  Mr. Fab is in love with the bathroom.  Damn fool, won't even let me gut it and make it attractive like blue or green.  Needless to say, the little girl is just dying to see the bathroom.  She wants to do ballet in there.  

Oh, did I mention that it has a basement?  I didn't?  Well, it has a basement:

Big enough for an office, way too small for a mother-in-law (yay!).  Just need to make sure it's earthquake proofed, so I don't have a a house falling on my pretty little head.

But most of all, while I'm thrilled to get away from the hipsters, my landlord and most of my annoying-assed neighbors, I'm most thrilled to be able to do laundry any damn time I want, without scrounging for quarters.  Yay me!  

Today, we bought a stove, microwave, washer, dryer and a refrigerator the little mister won't stop talking about.  Tomorrow, we're getting tile and some furniture.  Saturday, our stuff gets delivered and we're getting some plants!  I can finally plant stuff in the ground.  And the ground gets sun!  

Oh happy days are here again!

Man oh man, I could have sworn that I had at least updated this site sometime this year.  Looks like I haven't.  Well, we've been through some changes.  I'm pregnant and due in December so our house building plans were put on hold.  You can read more about that over on my pregnancy blog.

Now that the baby is almost here, I am looking to get this project off the ground.  We are looking for a bigger place to rent for the next year or so while our new place is being built.  Naturally, we'd like to stay in the LA area and we're still looking for land.  Hopefully, we'll be able to buy some land within the next month. Honestly, I'm glad we waited. After last year all the prices went up, then the rains came and the land washed away. Lesson learned.

Anyway, I hope to be able to update this as things are happening.  I wouldn't hold my breath though.

That's right!  You get 2 posts today.  Why?  Because I love you.  Not really.  I'm posting again because I just checked my blog stats and whoa-mama, I'm averaging about 30 hits a day.  I know, some of you aren't that impressed, but considering my business site (www.anikascreations.com) doesn't even get that much some months, I'm pleasantly surprised.

Geez, you people whine. I know I haven't kept this updated, but I have a life, too!  Okay, here's an update.  We have no money!  Oh you knew that?  Okay, we still can't find land.  Prices are going up and up and honestly, if we're going to drop some serious cash on a piece of land, then we want soils and such already done.  We just saw a piece of property in Playa del Rey for $650,000.  Yes, the price of a fixer in my neighborhood.  What to do?  Poor Miss Ilia is so yard-less and we all 3 still share a bedroom.  It's distressing and pathetic all at once.  So, once again, I appeal to you.  Please keep a look out on some land or a cheap house that can be razed, no problem.  We still are avoiding the Westside, Silver Lake and Echo Park areas, so keep that in mind too. 

What else...oh yeah, thanks to all of you who have donated money and offered materials and labour.  You rock! 

Let me close by saying, thank goodness this year is ending. It started off like crap and ended like crap; politically, culturally, emotionally and financially.  Luckily for us, our truer than true friends are still around and have been super supportive.   Thanks to you all. 

Happy New Year, let's hope 2005 doesn't blow by half.

Yippee!  We are going to be working with Bill Teramorse.  Bill worked with Adrian on many telecommunications sites a few years back.  We really like Bill and his wife Tunde and are excited about working with them on  this project.  Now, if we can just get some land and get the ball rolling!

I know...you just read my gush on modular homes.  As much as we like them, we're thinking that for the same money we can have a uniquely designed house.  We're still going to do the prefab thing, but it has to be on the right lot.  We're thinking that what we'll do is buy some cheapy land someplace and get a 2bd prefab for that location and rent it out.  What we really want to do is buy some land in on a nice tropical island and put our prefab on it.  What a gorgeous getaway that would be.

We're still looking for land.  I've been speaking a a real estate agent named Dan Wernicki and he specializes in land sales.  Great for us!  Dan really knows what he's talking about and he's nice, so we're happy with going with him. 

Thanks for reading!

Anika

Our future home...we don't need or want it to be too big.  2000 - 2700 square feet should be big enough for 4 people, our offices and a guest suite.  We really don't need a formal dining room or living room, just what we'll use.  I picked up this book "Creating the Not-So-Big-House" by Sarah Susanka.  It's a great book full of wonderful ideas.

I had considered a modular home before (back in 2001), but looking at the floor plans and houses it just wasn't appealing.  A few weeks ago, I spoke with Lauren at BuildMax.  She was very helpful and mentioned modular homes as an option, so I decided to give it another try.  About 3 days later, we went to a birthday party and I met a guy there who also wants to build his own home.  We talked about modular houses and he mentioned Dwell Magazine's Home Design Invitational and the winning house created by Resolution4Architecture.  It's absolutely breathtaking and perfect for an upsloped lot.  I sent an email to them about cost, but haven't heard back yet.

In visiting fabprefab.com, I stumbled across the Glidehouse which debuted at Sunset Magazines Celebration Weekend this past May.  The house is gorgeous and had the exterior we're going for.  Unfortunately, it's cost about $120 - 180/sf to make AND shipping to LA is about $10K per truck.  At that rate, the house will be a little over $325K, not including pool, garage, landscaping and appliances.  In otro palabras...over our budget. 

Tooling around fabpreb's website, I also found the weeHouse.  Wow!  Simplistic in every way, the modules work to give you all the room you need without wasting space.   With just 4 modules as the home, it comes out 1904sf at $237K.  Sure, that's a little over $124/sf, BUT their shipping to LA is only $3500 per truck. 

Last week, the Los Angeles Times had a story on modular homes and mentioned Rocio Romero's LV House.  I had completely forgotten, but I had read an article on her house a few months ago.   These are pretty basic, but they don't come already made.  The pieces are just shipped to you.  Granted, that means that even me and Adrian can put them together, but how is that different from me just ordering everything from STOCK Lumber cut to size?  Anyway, we're thinking that the Fish Camp will be a perfect pool cabana/outside entertainment area.  It runs about $10K, so we'll see.  Otherwise, we'll just use the weeHouse module instead. 

The best thing about the modular houses are that most of them come with the interior and exterior finishes, flooring and ceilings and walls.  The Glidehouse comes with bamboo flooring, slate floors and countertops in the bathroom and kitchens (which is cool if you're impressed by slate...we aren't), all interior/exterior finishes, your choice of paint color and they'll work with your landscaper with site design.   The weeHouse modules has Andersen doors and windows (yawn...we prefer Dynamic's doors and windows), Ikea frameless birch cabinetry, and a Kohler one-piece toilet (hopefully low-flush).  The LV House, is just a kit.  It's up to you and your contractor to place interior walls, finish the flooring and doing all the finishes inside.  Also, no insulation and guarantee is offered.  It's $31K, so you obviously get what you pay for.  According to the site:  The total cost of ownership, depending on regional labor cost and your own finish preferences to run $75,000- $113,000 or more. Depending on the fees paid to a general contractor this could increase by 10% to 20%.

We'll be working through this, but the weeHouse modules are in the lead as far as a modular home is concerned.  I'll get my working changes up soon.

Anika