Home renovation, a.k.a. demolishing

The following pictures show the progress my house has undergone since we purchased it in December. We made the choice to start removing walls, doorways, etc back in February, and it hasn't stopped. Luckily we haven't spent very much money on the house remodeling yet, as everything has been removing what already exists. Our first "big" purchase was last week, which is a new ceiling fan, which is now being readied for installation.
Anyway, there are captions for these pictures, as it is sometimes difficult to figure out what you are looking at.

Thesis...doneish

Finally. After what seems like an eternity since it started, I am done my masters thesis. From a fledgling idea back in September/October, to a 50 page paper, it is finally done.
Is it my best work? No way. I got bored with the topic only a few months into the work, which was about 4 months ago. But it's done.
Now my next steps are to defend it in a week or so, then turn in the actual hard copy to be bound and stored at the University for others to read. Of course I doubt anyone will ever read it, and if they do, I truly feel sorry for them.

Who cares?

Since my friend was surprised I hadn't mentioned him, I will...
Michael Jackson died. WOW...so sad... Not really, I could care less.
People are shocked at my lack of care about it. At work they were surprised I didn't even like him. I never did. I remember when his Thriller video was out and everyone loved him. I didn't care for his music then, nor do I now. Guess it all feeds into my lack of liking anything pop-y or my needing the heavy thrashing noises I listen to.

I did find his death interesting though. I'm curious to know if we will finally learn why his nose became so small, his skin so white, and his chin made to look like an ass. Will they decay? If he's entombed, will his skin even shrink?

Another funny piece of this whole story was my nephew. He's 16. He didn't even know Michael Jackson was black, or that Janet was his sister. Hahahahahaha

Random...

Read this at lunch and it made me laugh. It is an excerpt of an article on AutoblogGreen about Bob Lutz from GM talking about the Volt:

The whole thing is well worth a read, which is to be expected coming from Lutz, who's quotes we're sorely going to miss when he eventually retires for good. Nowhere else will you read such choice gems as this: "As I've said, just because the grocery store expands its offering of organically grown vegetables doesn't mean it shuts down the meat counter."

Original post

Being an avid organic food eater, and also almost 100% non-vegetable eating, it really struck me as humorous.

Philly Rocks (for the most part)

So....I got to go to a release today...of a plan to make Philadelphia sustainable, to be the greenest city in the US. Big goals, but ones I can support.
Anyway, I got to see Van Jones present our mayor. Van Jones now works for Obama....President Obama. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Jones) He presented Mayor Nutter, who officially released Greenworks Philadelphia.
Wow. My city. Becoming THE greenest city. Can it be real?
Well, I certainly hope so. Either way, here's the plan:
http://www.greenworksphila.org/

April Fools Day

So I read a lot of various April Fools Day posts to many different websites. Some of the funnier ones were car related, one being a Kia Soul with a wind deflector bigger than the car itself. Anyway, I missed this one yesterday, and since it ties my passion for cars with a sustainable option, I had to post it.

Link

Prague, our last long day

So today we set out to do a final few things in Prague, as tomorrow will be an early day since we have to catch a taxi at 3:50am Sat morning.
We took the subway to the tram to walk across the Charles Bridge....in the snow. We went outside today around 10, and it had been snowing for a few hours. No accumulation really, but still a weird morning. At the end of the bridge, we saw pissing moving fountains that will write what you text to a number, a wall dedicated to John Lennon, the same artists' babies from the tower on the ground with smooshed faces, and a memorial to communist era rebels.
From there we wanted to get to the Prague Eiffel tower, aka Petrin Tower. We went to take the Funicular, a tram similar to Pittsburg's hillside cars. CLOSED. So we took a tram all the way around to the top, walked to the tower, and CLOSED. Oh well, at least the view on the way down was nice.



After that, we had no goal really. We revisited the one place we went Monday to see what we missed, then headed to the center area.
For dinner we ended up at another of the brewpubs, where I had Svickova. Interesting combo of food. Our 2 meals, 3 beers, and a mug with tip was ~$30. Love the prices here.

Well, likely my last post from Czech Republic. It has been fun, but I can't wait to be home.

Prague notes (on beer)

So I went alone through parts of Prague yesterday in search of beer. I have been here almost 2 weeks, and have drunk many types of pilsners. I went out to find some I hadn't had, as well as ones for me to bring back to the US. On Tuesday night I found a Guide to Beer in Prague book. (I bought a similar book in England about Belgian beers.)
Anyway, I now had a guide to take me to the best beer around. Guess what, more pilsners. I can't say I have ever been a huge fan of pilsner beer, but now I have a better appreciation for the variety of them. And it didn't stop me from buying 4 more bottles to bring back.
We also ended up eating at a brewery in Prague. They had one called Oldgott, and another called X33. The X33 was touted as the strongest beer in the world based on initial sugars. It was, well, sweet and tart. Much like a Flemish sour without the sour fruit flavor.
But at least I got a few new beers to me. While I may not fully understand the tradition of only what I'd consider to be "lite" beers, I can at least say I have experienced them now.

Brewery:
http://www.umedvidku.cz/

Czech Republic - Prague Day 1 & 2

We spent about 5 hours walking the city on Monday. Many hours, many miles. We saw a lot of various sites, but the intent was to wander about with no real aim. We went to a huge church to the south of the downtown area, and spent some time in and around the square.
Yesterday, we went to see the Prague Castle, and meet up with Jana, the student we met in Slavonice that attends the University here in Prague. Here are some pics to start.

Prague Astronomical Clock:


Prague Castle:


Prague as seen from castle walls:

Czech Update

Well, the days finally went fairly quickly, even though the days have been really long. I last talked about Day 2, and it is already Day 6. Wow...
To start, we've done a lot since Day 2. We worked all day Monday and Tuesday gathering data for our designs. It was long and annoying sometimes. We had to do surveying for the sites because there were no contour maps of the city. I spent about 3 hours Monday afternoon in the snow and wind measuring elevations. Not exactly what I imagined.
Tuesday, I assisted another group gather their elevations since my team spent the time drawing out our data. I helped as I could, taking pictures, running errands, etc. However, by Wednesday night, I was thoroughly annoyed at the one person in my group. She was an arrogant B**** that didn't ask for me to help, but instead commanded me. I kinda got vividly annoyed...oh well.
We did have a good time Wednesday before then though. We visited Brno, which is about 2 hours from Slavonice. It is the fourth largest city in the Czech Republic, which means it is even smaller that Pittsburgh. Either way, it was a nice change from the slower life here in Slavonice.
We spent the day with our new teams (no more B****) working on a portion of the city. I like the new team, and actually provided some design input. They are no where near thinking sustainably, but at least I was able to provide a rainwater harvesting system and some other simple measures. I guess I can't ask for much. Honestly, after I left school last night, I walked for about 45 minutes in the snow through the dead city, just thinking. None of the UPenn students really comprehend the meaning. They just design aesthetics, not design sustainable aesthetics. Very infrequently has anyone truly wanted to change this city to be greener, more conscious of people, nor more economically viable. It is all about pretty hardscapes and trees.
Anyway....it is about 2am, and I should leave since we travel to Vienna tomorrow. I can't wait to see it. I overheard we may have time to ourselves. It is possible I will wonder off completely alone and just scope the city for myself. Who knows...

Czech Day 2 Update

So day number 2 in Slavonice was even more packed full. We went on tours of neighboring towns, ate at a restaurant, came back to the city, then went to see a concert. Yes, a concert in a town of around 2700 people.
The tour was amazing. I saw a few really great castles like these:



Oh, BTW, that one is for sale too.

I also toured the exterior of a gothic church:


And that one....it had a vault full of human bones stacked in a pile within the wall around the cememetary.

The remainder of the tour was great, from driving through the countryside, to the small towns, to seeing the old abandoned (and even some never used) bunkers, to being atop a bunker and capturing this panoramic photo:


(Apparently, as I stood atop the bunker taking photos, my long hair flowing in the high winds, my friends waiting for me in the vans thought I looked like a heavy metal album cover.)

After we went back to Slavonice, we were presented with two presentations. One was on the Green Belt that is planned to replace the swath of land previously dominated by the iron curtain. The second presentation was a more specific program of how to attract visitors to that green belt in a way to support cross-country usage and cooperation.

Then the finale. A group of us (about 6-8) went to see a band labeled as "Grind Core" that was here from Brazil. I couldn't pass up the chance to see crazy music in a small town. Our Czech colleague declined the invite, for she had been to such events. The warning she gave made us think it would be drunks/drugs and violence. It had drunks, but none of the other two. It was not my musical preference, but being there was a lot of fun. Of course those of us there REALLY stuck out.

I returned to my room...and again the jet lag making me not tired, so I again stayed up transferring the hundreds of pictures from the day before.

DAY 3 - TO BE CONTINUED

Mungkee's Blog, Czech Edition

I am writing this from my quiet room in Slavonice, Czech Republic. I do not have internet here, so I am writing this in Word to be pasted into my blog tomorrow.
Anyway….
Today is my second full day here in Slavonice. It honestly feels like I have been here much longer. Both days have been loooong, and I have seen/experienced a lot. However, I know that a week from now, it will feel like I haven’t been here long at all.
Yesterday (March 7th) was our first full day of activities. We started the day with a locally made breakfast comprised of various cakes, and some odd dishes I didn’t really understand. (Neither did our Czech student that joined us.) We spent the morning getting a general tour of Slavonice. We visited the well regarded vault inside the building:

Vault pic:


From there, we were told about the structure of the city including the underground tunnels that wind through the town. We prodded them to allow us to go into the tunnels briefly. Here are some shots of that tunnel:

Entrance to tunnel:


Tunnel:


(Honestly, I must be old. Today, my thigh still hurts from crouching in the tunnel and walking that way.)
After the tunnels, Sascha continued the tour of the city, which while small, has very many conflicting aspects to it. Here are some of the major highlights:


After we ate lunch (I had a chicken leg/thigh with some rice), we went back to the school where we had another tour of the city. This tour took us through the main square. The tour guide was Czech, and the interpreter apparently left out some words, as I was talking to Jana (the Prague student) that told me she was not repeating everything.
The tour concluded, and we were assigned our groups for working. I am paired with 3 Landscape Architecture students from Penn and the student from Prague, who is doing sorta the equivalent of a duel LA/Arch degree. We grouped later in the day to tour our portion of Slavonice, the North end.
At 6:00, we returned to the school to be greeted by the city. Wines, hors d'oeuvres, some small talk, then off to dinner. There were about 5-6 of us that needed more food. We went to the one local bar/restaurant. I asked Jana her opinion on local food, and they had a special called Skokova,a beef dish with cranberries and dumplings. It came out on a plate, with the meat topped with a lemon and whipped cream.

Dinner:


After dinner, we had been invited to go to the “Rough pub” by Sascha. As a group we went, expecting a horrible time. We arrived in this cellar pub, to find it smokey, but otherwise beautiful. Brick arches, nice tables, clean atmosphere. We stayed, played fusball, finally leaving around 1 AM. Once we returned, I was not tired, so I transferred pictures, took some more, and stayed up until 2:30ish.

DAY 2 TO BE CONTINUED...

The Wonders of a House

I have recently begun to slowly remove pieces of my house. The idea was to enhance the current very segregated room situation, to make the house flow better. Well, as expected I would come across some interesting finds. Well, I was ready for a lot, but not some of what I found.
I removed two doorways from the stairwell into the adjoining kitchen and dining room.

Original doorways:


First weekend:


Second weekend:


With them both, there were 3x5 posts used to construct the door frame. 3x5! Non-load bearing even. Just to frame a doorway. Oh, and they also were old construction... based on the square head nails used to put it together.


Anyway, when I removed the walls, I was greeted by holes in the floor. You'd figure they go to the basement, which they kinda do, but they also go to my stone foundation. Directly....no insulation, no anything in between, just a hole and a few loose foundation stones, right there, behind the base molding.
Anyway, that was only a part of it.

One great thing though, was the discovery of the beautiful brick work under the plaster and lath. (Yes, just plaster and lath, nothing else until my exterior brick wall.)


So after having removed two doorways, I felt the need to start on the living room. A prior owner installed a drop ceiling. The wonders of the 80s will never cease to amaze me. I knew that under the drop ceiling, there was around another foot of ceiling space, and I really wanted to open it up. So I figured I'd remove the tiles.


So what to do next? Ceiling was off, but the lights are still mounted to the ridiculous metal drop ceiling frame, so it couldn't come down without a replacement light setup. Well, I decided to remove the "box" over one window set. What was this "box" exactly...no idea. We knew we had a leak in it, but what was underneath it?


Well, after a few hours of diligent and careful removal (again, I am deconstructing with the intent of reusing everything I can), I found it hid.....
nothing but framing.




Well, I still had a little left in me. And I could now see the beauty of the wood floors on the second floor from underneath. I had this idea before even starting that if the joists were in good condition, I'd expose them and build in between them to hide the floors. But the floors....wow. They are old aged dark wood, with no imperfections. No reason to cover them. So....I exposed some of them to see the beauty.

Imagine that over the entire ceiling of the living room. Heavy large joists with beautiful wooden slats above it. Why was it ever covered with plaster and then dumb 1980's drop ceiling????

Anyway, I am off of house deconstruction duty for a few weeks as I am headed to the Czech Republic later this week. Of course, that doesn't mean I won't be picturing/imagining my next steps. The ceiling, the large wall to be removed, the green wall outside to insulate the brick......

Oh, did I mention I plan on finishing all this before I die?

Czech Trip

So I am posting this after about 2 weeks of knowing, but I am going to the Czech Republic for at least 12 days this March.
It is for my grad program, and I am going with another student. We are adjuncts to this trip, which is based on Landscape Architecture grad students from U Penn. Not quite sure of our exact role yet, but from what I understand, it is a design charrette for this town:

View Larger Map
A small town, located just across the Austrian border. A few nights in Vienna, a few in Prague....

So when will my recent luck fade away? I don't think I have ever had so many amazing things happen to me in such a short time before.

Philadelphia Sustainability Awards

So I was approached by the partner of the architecture firm I now work for on Friday. I was asked to help write a nomination to the Philadelphia Sustainability Awards. This is the third year of the awards, and I have attended the previous two. Well, I was expecting him to ask me to do it for one of our clients, but it was for something much more close to me. It was for my summer coursework.
I spent the day writing the nomination (with help from a great friend) to nominate not just the course itself, but the teachers and more importantly the students.
Now I don't know if we will win an award, but to even be considered is more than I could have imagined just two years ago. I recall two years ago...working at Philips, talking to my current classmate, and he and I both talking to who would the following year be our program director and a professor. Two years later, he and I along with 4 other classmates are nominated. Who would have believed it then?
Here is our nomination