On my knees for hours! The richmond update alpha B

You gotta love a man that spends hours on his knees.

OK, so it was pulling hundreds of staples from the floor after pulling the carpet and under-carpet stuff. Kinda dusty times.

Above is the before and after shots. Not the most artistic shots, but it conveys part of the work.

Today I made it over to the Richmond planning office, ordered 2 sets of 1947 era constructions drawings of the house (hopefully they are still on file) .

Found out some of the basic info for filing a build permit, but need to talk to the inspectors who are only free for consultation from 330 pm to 4 pm.

The permit cost is around $550 for a $10,000 construction budget. So even if I can low ball the construction costs by doing the work myself, I still have to pay market rate estimate for the permit ( what a contractor would charge).

If I can't get a over the counter permit, then it may be a 4 to 6 week approval process time.

Which would seriously bite.

Beyond the carpet rip-out ( I really love the wood floors underneath), I pulled two more walls down in the center bathroom, and hope to get the laminate flooring up in both bathrooms and maybe the kitchen tonight. Its only 1230 am.

The good news discovery is that the wood rot does not extend to the exterior wall. At least in the center bathroom. Though there may be signs of termites. Maybe. I hope not.

One more estimate bid to get.

So I need bids for:

General contractor

Painting ( will do this myself and should not waste the time, but need it for tax writeoff) the whole interior of the house ( plus neither my Dad nor my brother value my time on the house so need to prove it via bids)

Bathroom rebuild which is:
Plumbing
Electrical
Fan and vent ( a not so new code requirement) aka mechanical
Flooring ( tile or laminate)
Carpentry ( which may include new sliding insulated windows) plus studs and cabinets


Floor refinishing for the full house
or
Floor carpet replacement for the full house, plus laminate or tile for bathrooms

Kitchen rebuild which is:
New cabinets, cabinet frames, and countertops
Electrical
Flooring


My pal Amy Sun laughed when I told her I hoped to get it all done for 10 K.

It all depends upon what I can do myself.

Oona, a flaming Lotus Girl, and pal from RoboDock was the core yard worker and my key helper today. Yep, she is being paid and if I could, I would pay her double what I did today.

She is a hard worker and great to work with. She really kicked ass on the front yard, which is much closer to being presentable. She also rolled with me to check out This and That in San Pablo as a second opinion.

Her wisecracking about massive hanging lamps, and tub colors made it pretty fun.

So "This and That" has some great deals on interiors doors, sinks, toilets, and even double pane sliding windows with frames. And no yuppies.

Earlier in the day Oona was great at dealing with one of the two tree trimmer contractors that dropped by for an estimate. I was held up at the permit office so could not meet the guy. She even scammed a sharpening of the chainsaw ( which I had planned to do, really), plus a file off the guy. It was he that mentioned the dull chainsaw.
I had brought a sharpening tool up to Richmond but forgot to sharpen the chainsaw before I took off.

Watch out for this Flaming Lotus Girl, she is a charmer.

The guy even tried to hire her out from under me. She, of course, demurred.

The first tree contractor (Oona's new sharpening pal aka #1) came in at $2300 to only take out the 4 trees, the other ( #2) bid $2100 to take out the trees and take care of the front and back yard trimming.

So that is doable.

I still need to look into renting the gear and doing it myself. That is still a fair amount of duckets. I doubt if I could do as good a job as either of these guys, anywhere as fast, and would need to bring in other folk.

I need to check references but Dad is down with contractor #2, as am I.

Tuesday plan is to take out the other walls in the bathrooms, hopefully get the insulation out of the way of the ceiling, take out the ceiling, scrape down and sand the garage doors and repaint, take out a few more weeds, rent a truck, do a dump run, arrange for some contractor visits to start the bid process, start the design of the new bathrooms ( which may require a IKEA visit and other spots) plus make it to PA by 8 to vote.

Easy!

Don't have a clue on what is on the ballot.

Wednesday I'll be back in Richmond. This time with Dad to show him the progress to date. Then drive him back. He offered to take BART and Caltrain back but I just can't trust him to be able to manage it.
I'm kind of afraid that he would fall or something.
Then again maybe I should let him. He does have a cell phone now. It would be a good practice and confidence building lesson for him. Hopefully.

I'm seriously considering getting an iphone since my motorola is wonking out and is really sucky for charging.
The internal pins are bent or something so getting it to take a charge is a huge hassle.

Maureen has offered me a Palm as a loaner. Maybe I'll do that. I really should.

I don't have the dough for the iPhone, but I might be able to get one soon.

Amy Sun wants to hire me for a couple days of work at her new place in Martinez. That would cover the costs of the iPhone.

The Union wants my ass as well, but I'm booked til at least Monday. There is too much to do and other bids to get in and started for the kitchen, bathroom, and flooring.

I'd love to do the sanding and refinishing of the flooring but there is also a bunch of boards that may need to be replaced. Which can be a bit tricky.

Well, we will see. We will see.

OK time to stop slacking with writing, back to ripping and wrecking the house.
-kevin

blog entry: The Richmond house rebuild ( part alpha a )

I returned from Europe much earlier then I preferred, in part, by the requirement to deal with my Dad's rental house. However, the building debt and broken camera were also strong factors. ;-)

I actually had 20 days left on my interrail pass ( like a Eurrail pass) when I came back from Europe. I got it for a really sweet deal ( really sweet) so it did not really cost me per se to only use 10 days of the pass.

But it just killed me to come back when there was so much more travel time on it.

I really would have loved to have spent more time with my nieces in Paris, see the Le Machine studio in Nantes ( they make the machines for the French street performance group Royal Deluxe and had invited me over post RoboDock) , visit London, go to the Bienniale in Venice, hang out with some other folk in the Netherlands, work with Lyle in Italy, and so much more.

Travel is so addictive.

Anyways, In Richmond ( about 20 miles north of SF in the East Bay) is my Grandma's former residence. We have been renting it out to the same tenants for about 7 years. Which is a pretty long stretch.

Sadly, my Dad did not keep the deposit until I had inspected the place.

He let the tenants use the deposit for the last month of rent. Ooopsie.

The plumbing in both bathrooms is pretty fucked up with leaks, is plugged up, and the tenants took the washing machine, plus both the front and back year is a massive wreck.

I'm not sure if they could have done much about the leaks, but the backed up drains are an issue with me.

Not to mention the missing washing machine. Which I will. What the fuck.

Then they also ripped out a closet in the master bedroom and carpeted over the crawl space access door.

I've started ripping out all the walls in the two bathrooms and will give them a big update.

I'm considering updating the kitchen while I'm at it.

Can you say IKEA? Or Urban ore? I'm having decorating / architecture rebuilder fantasies. Its a evil sickness. But sans budget.

Saturday at 830 AM, I was at Builders, a most excellent ( and dangerous) architecture bookstore on 4th street in Berkeley. Sick. Scooping out bathroom rebuilder books. They opened 8 minutes late and two of us sick fucks were kinda feeling impatient out front. So I know I'm not the only one with the disease.

Then today, I just found a cool place today in San Pablo called This and That.

It was closed today ( good for them, keeps the yuppie fucks down). It looks like a combo of Urban Ore, SCRAP ( SF), and that other place in Berkeley ( Which has become kind of a rip off).

I had a blast today for a few hours cruising the industrial areas of Richmond for places to purchase materials.

Fun, Fun, Creative Fun.

Then Dad called and changed the requirements.

He desires the entire job has to be done on the legit side with permits so he could have the option of selling the house.

Which is beyond stupid in this current real estate market. The house selling part. Not to mention against the wishes of both my brother and I .

Next, Paul, the neighbor from the house next door (up the hill) dropped by today and pointed out a large over tall tree in the backyard. Like 80 feet tall. Maybe taller. I had noticed the tree before but did not really look up til now.

Its the tallest tree in the neighborhood. Its really tall. It defines the local skyline. And its in my backyard.

He desires the tree taken down due to shade issues, as well as danger to both our houses.

He is right.

I need to contract a tree removal service to bring it down. I figure thats $1500 to 2 K, at least.

All this really depressed me.

So much work to do. So much to do, especially getting getting bids, or filing permits, etc.

There is much rot in the walls and the underlying flooring.

I've already ripped out the wall between the shower and the tub. As well as the other shower walls and tile. And the shower entrance retaining lip and the rotten flooring just in front of it.

Which was a bit of a mistake, as I discovered last night.

My shower in the tub yesterday was nice, afterwards I realized the water from the tub was slow to drain. I thought OK, slow drain. Whatever.

I got dressed,

Then I heard a funny waterfall noise. It just did not sound right.

All the water was backing up in the ripped up shower drain ( I had taken a long shower so there was a lot of water), burbling up in to the shower pan / flooring , then rolling off the shower floor into the dirt under the house.

Nice effect, looked cool. A nice wide waterfall all the way across the shower making a mud pile under the house. Made me fell a tad stupid.

Until I dig up and remove the mud, it will make working down there sucky.

Looks like I know have to have the under plumbing / piping replaced.

As you can guess, I'm now seeing dollars floating away in all directions like stoned butterflies.

I took a nap.

Now I feel much better. I can deal with all this. I could not, pre-nap.

I'm on the rebuilders roller coaster. Up and down, fantasy and reality hitting in successive waves.

Now I plan to possibly temporarily take out the fence between our houses, rent a cherry pick, or scissor lift to cut the fucker down.

If I get a scissor lift, I do not have to take out our joint fence.

I'm a certified driver for both a cherry pick and a scissor lift. So i can do this. I may have to buy some new rigging gear. But I rather do that then pay someone else.

From there, I just need one other person ( ideally two ) to cut down the tree.

It isn't that hard. And should be much cheaper then getting a tree removal service. I think.

Now, the permits etc for the house rebuild, well that could delay getting the house back on the market.

So if you have any contractors you trust for work in the East Bay let me know.

Or inexpensive places for materials such as tile, drywall, plumbing, etc. Used or new.

From plumbing, to drywall, to carpentry, to flooring ( either carpets or refinishing wood floors).

I've heard it costs the same, and personally lean towards ripping out the carpets and refinishing the floors.

But as a landlord I should probably get carpets.

Hopefully, I already have all these folk already kinda figured out via pals of mine that I trust and know, but I'm just not sure if they are available.

A few I've called already called and they told me they
A. Do not work in Richmond ( too far away from Oakland / SF)
B. Or are booked til December
C. Or its too small of a job.

Many of pals are really good at what trade they do so I understand.

But it kinda bites. Hopefully some can at least advise me ( and some have).

I was optimistic to get the job done by mid November.

Now with this permit requirements, god only knows.

I suspect the City of Richmond and planning department are not the quickest. Will be hitting up both Kimric, and Tracy and Don for contacts.

So who knows.

Monday, I start to find out the real costs and time frame of this project.

Tonight, I continue ripping out walls and maybe, maybe translate my sketches into wanna-be architectural drafts.

Google Sketch-up is cool. But does not work the way I want it to.

I do so love my new Makita Saw-Zaw aka Reciprocating saw. That is a tool that I get and work well with.

-kevin


PS since I'm now an East Bay punk, if you live over here, do ring me for going out etc, since I can now do things over here more readily.

BTW email access will be kinda weak and irregular for the next month or so since I have to walk up the hill and jack into someone elses wifi signal.

A quickie wakeup ( the Halloween quake report)

I was inside in the living room. I ran for the door. Then felt it wasn't that bad. There was time to run to the bathroom, flick the lever to plug the tub and start the water flowing. Clean water is the crucial element for survival after a quake. Dehydration sucks.

Then a zip outside to safety. Just in case the quake got worse.

It didn't .

So I looked the quake up on the web.

What 1.0? Off SF towards the farrallons. That could not be right.

This felt like a 4 at least.

Good enough to get your adrenaline running and not a hard kick in the back, jolting quake.

Like a kinda freaky jolt I recall from 9th grade.

Where every one in my class ( and school) thought the person behind them had kicked their chair/ desk a foot forward.

This one was a roller. But it was kinda dark and i did not get outside quick enough to see the roll of fences from far away like in 89. Loma Prieta. Now that was a freaky one.

I checked our gas lines, called my old scout troop ( as well as the District office) and asked all to go check their neighborhoods for gas leaks, and to check on their neighbors.

As I did next.

Was really surprised that there was not a general mobilization plan for all the boy scouts back then, to do the right thing and to check on neighbors. Maybe now. Who knows.

Are we really better prepared?

Five minutes after the quake I turned off the faucet and the tub was partially filled. I didn't really think there would be bad after shocks.

The USGS says there is a 30% chance of a decent after shock in the next week.

I do need to refill my Burning Man / Earthquake water containers. The tub is a last minute substitute. And who knows if I'll be lucky enough to be at home on the next one?

I never filled my 20 gallons of water containers in the 2 days I was back from the playa, and before I jammed off to Europe. That could have been a stupid mistake.

The funny thing is that a pal of mine from RoboDock is doing a kinetiic sculpture piece out in Parkfield ( the town with the most amount of minor earthquakes in the US) right now. He is from Australia and is in town. So he really lucked out to catch such a nice tremor.

I wonder if the Halloween quake will affect his work? Conceptually or practically?

Dork O!

Yep, I bought a 500 gig drive today, offloaded a bunch of stuff, then hit up the apple store just before 6, and got the t-shirt and a fancy DVD of apples latest, 10.5.

For professional reasons only , of course. Gota stay on the bleeding edge ( not that this really is exactly)

Well I kinda had to cheat on the t-shirt and pretend I was leaving the store (t-shirts were only given to you when you left the premises) since it was obvious that they would run out of t-shirts before I made my purchase. And I could have saved much time and $10 bucks by buying the dvd at fry's. I figured for the line waiting time and extra 10 bucks I had to get the shirt.

I guess I'm kinda frugal like that.

Then Maureen called just after the purchase so I picked up a copy for her as well.

Now if I ocould have got maybe an iphone life would be sweet.

But no, I've just finsihed installing 10.5 runs. it is fast, it is cool. Took a few hours.

But I'm going out to a party at the cubetron guys house ( with hot tub) that my pal Dan Kottke ( apple employee # 3 invited me to). I had called him originally to see if he wanted to wait in line with me, he declined. So now on Monday I'm gonna bring him up to speed on dreamweaver. So maybe an iphone isn't all that far away in the future after all.

I will not bring laptop. I will not bring laptop. I will not bring laptop to the party.

I'm just not up to driving to SF tonight. As much as I want to go to Darrens party.

Sat I'll be the east bay working at what was my grandma's house in Richmond .

Sunday maybe I can get away and go to the Bernal Heights Soap box derby. Maybe. Hopefully.

Instead of an iphone I really need a replacement camera. I've now "lost" 2 in the past three weeks. I'm thinking of the 50 d? by Fuji. Would have bought one at Fry's today but they do not sell it. This has been a day of consumerism brought to you by Mastercard. Don't forget "Plastic is evil. "

At least I did not buy a monitor and a camera. I was good. Really.

-kevin

At Mutoid Waste Compound in Italy

It's just outside San Marino, close to the North coast of Italy. Specifically Santarcangelo di Romagna

I have only been here for a few minutes but already shot the all I could chasing the light.

Lyle Dog, www.myspace.com/doghead23 my pal from RoboDock that brought me, is part of Mutoid Waste.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muto...te_Company

If you dig Max Max , Judge Dredd, Tank Girl this is the real thing, who started the aesthetic, by brits and others but have moved to Italy.

This collective has amazing works and is in a gorgeous locale the likes I've never seen before with works scattered in front of peoples places.

The drive down was super easy with even a stop 30 km away from where I lived in Austria in 89. As well as a close drive by to Lago Di Garda where my great great grandparents are from.

Life is sometimes so wicked crazy.

And I may even get to see my nieces on Sunday in Paris. Things may be repairing on that front. I can only hope.

-kevin

Outta Berlin on my way to Austria and maybe Italia

I'm roadtripping with a sculpture pal from ROBODOCK to Italia via Austria and Innsbruck.

My brother has blown me off for Paris, so I have changed plans.

Quelle surprise.

Still I can't even begin to start describing Berlin yet from Kai of Dead Chickens and his groups space, to studio, to drinking til 5 am in Mittel and Kreuzberg. Then there is the legendary Bimbotown in Leipzig.

It was all possible via Maja and her network of pyro pals etc. Joanna, Lyle, Kai, Johannes, Eddie, and so many others.

I even have a fresh haircut from my pal Spider.

Tons of photos to process. I'm dangerously low on hard drive space and can't even burn a DVD for safety.

So it is.

Off I go in an newish flat black Mercedes Ambulance ( from Wales) with a few cool pieces in tow that belong to Lyle of the

I may be in Paris Sat to drop a thing or two for my nieces despite my brothers objections, then Amsterdam Sat night and Monday I fly back.


Really.


BTW I have a german tel # so if you desire a need to catch up please do so:
49 0 1522 4362924 ( no longer operating I'm back)
kevin

Notes from Berlin : Tues

Image of work by Hannes of Dead Chickens, in front of the Eschschloraque cocktail bar in East Berlin

So Sunday afternoon, I finally left the Kreuzberg district.
I still have not had a proper tourist visit of Berlin's known tourist spots.

I caught the S-Bahn over to Mittel, the central district that use to be partially East Berlin.

Massive changes in the past 4 years.

From squatters and cool shit, to today American Apparel store plus big ticket fashion house stores like Camper, or other far less hip/young but really expensive.

There in Mittel, I hung out with Bastiaan Maaris ( www.lhpo.de/ ) and Jeffrey Funt, who I met at ROBODOCK.

Really great guys. Bastiian I had heard of and his Large Hot Pipe Organs, via my SRL pal Geo, who codesigned the pieces. www.discogs.com/release/357315

I saw them and Geo live at ROBODOCK. Very Very Excellent works and makes great tone and music.

We goofed around for a bit with Jeffrey's newly acquired sound software, then hung out front of their apartment building at their local cafe for coffee.

I swear we were hanging out more then 90 minutes before we even got around to ordering coffee.

While chilling with these artists and long time collaborators, I met a few of their friends who would drop by, say a few words or hang out for much longer.

In particular, I met the well known ( for Berlin at least) Bob Rutman, then proceeded to hang out with him til 1 am. I kind of think of Bob as the Herb Caen of Berlin, but as the full time artist version.

I'm pretty culturally illiterate, so many names and artists I'm just not savvy on.

I just checked out his very nice web site:

www.rutman.de/flash5.html

Be sure to check out his music, paintings, and sculpture.

I was told about his minimalist avant garde music and instruments, and 3000 plus performances, but now I have a much better idea of his sound.

In the past, he toured with Andrew ( who I met via the SRL show in Amsterdam) of Einstrzenden Neubauten. BTW Andrew is also a great guy to chill with. I really have been phenomenally lucky with who I've hung out with and met on this trip.

Bob, is a 76 year old musician, performer, sketcher, sculptor, and painter. An incredible inspiration to me, and guy who everyone seemed to know and like.

A really nice guy.

No matter if we were walking on the street, in a dive bar, or at the new renovated and kinda shi-shi White Trash, people would approach. Apparently for his 70th birthday party the Berlin TV came out and did a show on him. A very cool guy with to hang with and learn from.

Smoking joints with Bob was an old pal, on semi-vacation in Berlin, Michael H.

So the three of us hung out for the eve for three or four hours at the new White Trash ( Which both were not so big on since it moved and became hip and gained a shitty yuppie crowd).

We then went to a little old school dive bar owned by Kai of the Dead Chickens. The Dead Chickens, create mechanical / kinetic art ( mostly pneumatic) and toured with the Flaming Lotus Girls last year in Australia on the Big Day out set of concerts.

A few of my FLG pals had raved about the Dead Chickens at ROBODOCK ( but the FLG did not have contact info for them in Berlin) so it was really good luck to meet up with them in person, just cause I was out drinking with Bob.

I made it back by 330 am, after a slight night bus route confusion ( could not find the right fuckin bus stop) for the S8 night bus. Course it would have helped, if they marked their bus signs a lot better here.

Then proud of making it home, I was taught a excellent lesson about lent keys.

Always, Always double check the keys before leaving the house. Always!

I was given a set of keys ( newly duplicated) to use by Maja for the flat I'm staying at. Well the 1st key worked, the 2nd did not. And she did not have a marked buzzer downstairs. Nor a buzzer on her door. And knocking did not work. Walls and doors are thick here, and I was afraid of making a ruckus.

So I crashed out on her doorstep ( I was really really wiped and little ( little) buzzed) for a couple hours til I could recover enough to go out again to find a tabac ( basically your corner liquor store to buy a phone card) then I could call her cell number to let me in.

It was all very punk rock.

Once again, I really wish I had a working cell phone here.

Curses to ATT and a non-unlocked phone. Curses to a certain someone who purposely did not help me get an unlocked phone in Amsterdam.

After getting in, I slept in til 1 pm or so.

After getting up and a pasta lunch, I spent 5 hours editing the English version of Maja's Whale project proposal.
Mostly as a gift to pay back for her great hospitality.

It looks like she has potential commitments of 150 K in euros so far, though she really thinks she will need quite a bit more.
So its a pretty big deal ( her biggest to date), and a project with many collaborators. Many pretty well known.

I might even be able earn a bit ( if the money comes through) for helping with a web site.

Which would be super cool.

I should be done with entering my edits on Tues or tonight. There were about 150 corrections in the 40 page document I would guess.

And no, if you are wondering, nothing if going on between her and I.

She is just super super sweet, chill, and talented artist, performer, and musician. Plus she has an explosives license in both Germany and Switzerland, and yes she does have a special buddy, so your chances are nixxed as well.

Wed, I hope to go to Bob, Bastiaan , and Hannes studio ( Dead Chickens).
Then go to Paris.

I still need to look into train or flights in the AM.

I still need to get paid by some hometown clients, and hopefully I can extend this trip by a week or so and go to an infamous monthly gallery party by Jim Whiting called Bimbotown www.bimbotown.de/de/ in Leipzig on Saturday and Maja's birthday party.

Jim Whiting is most commercially famous for the mechanical legs in Herbie Hancocks Rock-it video.

Its the 2nd to the last of this long running monthly freak robot gallery show party.
I've been told I really should go. An old cacophonist pal dropped $700 to change his flight just so he could go. Course he had the $700. I don't, not yet at least.

Though it is only $200 to change my flight.

I would be blowing off decompression. Which is no major loss for me this year, unless I have a date. Which I don't think I do.

I rather be in Berlin. I really dig Berlin.

All praise Bob.

kevin

PS the prelim credit page for the SRL Amsterdam show is up, it was really sweet tonight to see my name on the crew credits page next to Shockwave cannon, which I co-ran with Eric Hobien, at least until the power grid blew halfway through the show. The next 20 minutes of the show for me were spent chasing the power outage down and of course discovering it to be unfixable. So I did get to watch the last 10 minutes of the show, unencumbered, since i had nothing else to do.

That now makes three machines I've run in an SRL show ( Shockwave, Sneaky Soldier, and Pitching Machine) so far. Five years core crew, 12 years of shows, I wonder when I become a vet? Or if I ever will become one. Fuck it. Its art and I'm glad for every moment. I need no stinking badge. Life is its own reward. One can hope. You never know when that bus will hit you. And say a prayer for my SRL vet pal Todd he needs it right now.

I'm in Berlin and been going out a bit too much

I have yet to go anywhere outside of the Kreutzberg. Which is sorta of a Mission district for artists, except that it is Turkish. My pal Maja has a really large art studio with 4 rooms, a tow toilets. Currently she is putting together a really cool touring whale sculpture project. I'm doing a little payback on the free bed by cleaning, cooking breakfast this morning, and reviewing /editing her groups art proposal ( the English version) . Big Daddy of Cyclecide and Jon Alloway are here as well.
So I have a couple of Cacophonists to swap stories with and hang out.
The past 2 nights have been drinking tours of berlin bars and I'm feeling it.
So far we have been to Wild at Heart , a self styled California Punk bar ( great music) , the 49 ( a local dive), a breand new Tikki bar ( which will be a members only thing on its 2nd night open in the Trailer Park Museum gallery space, a gay bar with plush red fuzzy walls ( total fire hazard) called the Red Rose ( I think) , and another place called Mobil.

Maja's pal, Ollie, is a well known notorious bartender ( kinda like Flash but much younger) so with him as a guide we have been seeing all his fave places in the neighborhood.

Big Daddy has a bum knee so we have not been going to far, and our plans for normal tourism today were wrecked by being out til dawn.

I hope Sunday I'll see the Berlin tourist traps.

Its been a great decompression from the 14 hour days of ROBODOCK and the SRL show. Sunday or Monday I go to Paris.

-kevin