Driving away customers.

With the downturn of the economy - I hoped companies would take this time to learn what it is customers really want. Namely - better customer service.

Sadly, I still don't see any evidence companies care about getting a customer to return. They know we have a lot of choices right? So... pissing a customer off - only sends them to another establishment. Here is an example.

One of the more frustrating things about rehabbing the crapshack has been buying tile. We'd started out at Home Depo. But - they don't really carry much tile anymore. Plus there is only so much tan I can take.

Our next stop was the Expo Design center. Which is just a division of Home Depo. They have tons of choices. They really do. But getting tile through them has grown to be really irritating. We've gotten tons of tile from them in the past, but something has changed. They've decided to make buying tile from them as inconvenient as possible.

We wanted to buy some really unremarkable black mosaics made by Dal-tile. We would have bought them directly through Dal-tile, but they don't sell to the public anymore. So the only other place we knew to get them was from Expo.

I was a little surprised that for such an plain unremarkable tile, it was going to take two weeks. I know it seems fussy to think I shouldn't wait a couple weeks for tile - but honestly you can get most anything shipped anywhere in a week these days.

That wasn't the most irritating part though. To get my tile - I have to drive 25 miles to San Leandro, Ca.

Dal-tile won't ship the tile to the Expo Design center at all. They ship it to a warehouse in San Leandro. I have three Dal-Tile stores within 25 miles of my home. My local Dal-tile is less than 2 miles from my house. Yet they will not ship it to any of those stores either. They are franchises - so they wont accept something shipped from Dal-tile Atlanta for instance, that wasn't ordered by them. So, I have to go pick it up. Which really irritates me. Like I have nothing better to do.

This has also forced me into buying from boutique tile stores. Which still sort of sucks. I still have to travel about 25 miles, but most of the stores I've bought from since buying at the Expo - has given me the items that day. One store it took two days. But it is still better than having to travel and wait over two weeks. Expo will certainly be the last place on my list to get tile from now.

More about yesterday.

So - yesterday was the day I was suppose to get my tile for the master bath floor. I'd ordered it through the Expo Design center a couple of weeks ago. Remember I was pissed about having to drive about 45 minutes away to get it?

We get to the warehouse. Well.. it was actually hundreds of warehouses which were poorly labeled. Unless you think standard size printer paper is a good enough sign when people are driving past hundreds of tiny office style warehouse fronts.

At any rate - we find the correct one. We start the process of getting the tile from the back of the warehouse. And drum roll please....

They only have half of the order. But the warehouse can't find out where the rest of the order. Because they aren't actually connected at all to Expo. They just recieve deliveries.

So, I call the Expo design center who tells me the tile is ready to be picked up. Which makes me hot. I tell them I'm at the warehouse, and if the tile is there I want to pick it up.

After 3 calls from the design center I'm told the remaining part of my order is suppose to be transfered to the Expo design center later that day. I should call "will call" later to get it.

I'm ready to flip out at the point. If my tile can be shipped to Expo what the fuck am I doing at a warehouse in San Leandro. I was told that no tile gets shipped to the Expo store anymore.

So we start driving home. When it occures to me - I should call will call now and see what they say. After two more calls from Expo will call I find my tile will not be there today. It is in San Diego. And they aren't even fucking shipping it till Friday.

Let me just tell you - it is two boxes of tiles for my shower tub area. It's maybe 3 foot by 5 feet.

You can get anything shipped via gound service in California in 1 day. And they aren't even shipping my two boxes of tiles until Friday. Are they kidding me? That will be three weeks by the time it arrives.

I've had a laptop shipped from China in a week. Fuck I'm pissed.

Anyway - I tell the will call guy I'm not yelling at him, but they better be ready for me to yell at someone when I come to pick up my tile. He then tells me I can talk to a maanger right then.

I proceed to tell him that I'm not ordering tile from them anymore. They have lost of a customer. He does what managers do - then tells me the following story.

Allegedly the reason they changed the rule not allowing people to pick up tile at the Expo store is because they had a sales representative that would place massive orders. And they would have huge pallets just sitting around and taking up all the space.

So - instead of reprimanding the sales rep - they made it so all their customers were inconvenienced and needed to pick up tile at the warehouse. No matter the size of the order.

Yeah... that makes good business sense. Now I'm double not ordering from you again because you can't control your f-ing employees. Yeah.. I'm still pissed.

Whatever makes you happy.

I don't think I've set foot in a tile store in a year. It's no secret I have a pretty intense love affair with tile. The feeling of rubbing my hand over the surface to feel the texture. And, that feeling you get on your hands of the moisture completely being sucked out of your skin from tile dust.

When the market crashed - so did new tile coming in from other countries. So, I don't feel like I'm missing too much.

I did find myself at a tile shop this weekend though and ran across this material. Which I love.

To you - it looks like bland tile. To me - it looks and feels like concrete. A very minimalistic industrial look I really enjoy.

I'd give you some links to usage. But... the Italians drive me batshit crazy with their sites. It has to be all flash, and ridiculously annoying. Think I'm joking?

Take a look at this youtube video. Leaves me feeling like - can I see some of the effing tile please?!

A crush on glass.

I never thought I would say it - but - I'm going to put up glass tile again.

I don't know what it is.. but I just can't keep away from it. So when I ran across these - I had to buy them.



You see - glass tile is easily the most complicated product on the face of the earth. And if you have never installed this stuff before there are all sorts of things you don't find out until you are in the project. This is why it took my husband and I - 10 months to do this shower. Thats right. 10 months. It was the most painful project ever.



As a matter of a fact - from planning to completion - was almost a year and a half. My first post about it.

The main issues? Light refraction as you can see in this photo.



Also a problem - depth of color. Unlike normal tile, glass tile has depth quality that you have to take into account. This makes grout color really complicated. It sort of makes the color bleed into the glass tile.

We thought we would just go with white - like we saw at the home improvement stores, but it looked horrible. Like paste. Eventually we wound up mixing our own color, but it took 17 tries to get the color match correct.

Hopefully this time it will go better. At least those bubble tiles never got stuck in my head and made me want to put them up.

Other tile posts here.

I can't understand how that happened.

Home Depot revenue falls 27%.

Listen - some of this is because of the slowing housing market. But, a lot of it is because customers are just tired of dealing with people who aren't trained correctly. Or simply don't care about customer service. Take this for example.

My ongoing saga with the tile I ordered almost a month ago. Here.

Today, I called the Expo Design center to try once again to track down my tile. You may remember last week I got a call saying they were going to have it delivered to my house on Friday.

When I called Expo, I immediately asked to talk to a manager. Who happened to be the same manager I talked to when I wigged out last time. David Chavez. Yes.. I'm putting his name!

He offered to track down the tile and call me back. This is what he tells me:

Him - Your tile is at the San Leandro warehouse ready to be picked up.

Me - I am not driving to that warehouse again. I was told this would be shipped to my house.

Him - Well, if you want it shipped to your house it is going to take a lot longer.

Me- What is a lot longer?

Him - about a week.

This is where I lost it. Honestly - I started yelling at the guy. Which I rarely do - but, I'm just at my limit with customer service right now

Me - A week! You can get anything shipped anywhere in the states in a week, and you are telling me its going to take a week to have something shipped from an hour and a half away? After my tiles sat in San Diego for a week?

Him - well... they don't use UPS or FedX to ship things.

Me - Look - I spoke directly to you last week about this same issue. I was told these tiles were going to be shipped to Expo initially. Which is what pissed me off the first time. Since I'm unhappy I'm driving all over town to pick up three boxes of tiles, when I'm told the other two were going to be shipped to the store.

I am not going back to that warehouse for two boxes of tiles when I was told they were going to be shipped to the store intially- then to my house. I can't believe Expo inconveniences people to this degree.

Additionally - last week you asked my to give Expo another chance. It's like you don't even remember having a conversation with me last week. (You can read it here)

Your people called me to say these tiles were going to be shipped to me. It makes customers more unhappy than if you would have kept the original schedule - because your staff went out of their way to call me to say they would be in early. I told you I wasn't going to buy from your company again because of the inconvenience of buying tiles from Expo.

I was just pissed and ranty. To be honest.

So, to sum things up. I've had to talk to Expo more than 10 times on this order. Just to try and even find out where my tile is.

To pick them up - I would have to waste between 3-5 hours of time. All for 45 square feet of tile.

The people in all the Home Depot stores are trained equally as horribly. They got rid of all the older people who were probably costing them a lot of money, and replaced them with kids who have never even picked up a hammer. Kids who are apathetic to what real customer service means - or can even retain a thought for a minute or two.

Home Depot needs to get back to its roots and provide customer service for the "do it yourself" set. Isn't that what their whole business model was built on? "You can do it"?

Well - not if you can't buy the items you need - or get anyone in a department to provide simple customer service.

An old crush revisited.

Since it was still raining today - we decided to visit the tile store. I must confess, I have a real fetish for tile. I have no idea why.

What I love even most are the tiles I think no one in their right minds would actually use. Below are a few examples for your pleasure.



Oh yes! That color burning your eyes is salmon.





These. I actually like. Although, finding a design that didn't look overdone would be complicated.

Yeah.. if you thought I was in my right mind, you've been reading the wrong blog. Duh.



I never understand the endless choices of tiles that look like wood grain. But they are somewhat fascinating.



And tile that make your project look like an old leather desk. Somebody must use them. Right?

Here is one from a recent tile store visit.



Other entries on my tile fetish here, here, here, and here.

Today's fear of tiling moment.

Yeah - I know you guys are missing me. You can admit it.

My floor has been kicking my ass and serving me up some bitch hand. It also wants to prove to me that I'm not a teenager anymore. I know! It was a shock to me too.

So, today in an effort to recover, I went looking for better prices on granite. In which I ran across some crazy ass tile. You know (at least I think you do) how much I love unusual tile. To mock. And, commiserate with the poor contractor who has to install it.

Sadly my tile nerve is so dead right now. I couldn't even get excited about this stuff. But I took pictures anyway.



I hope this stuff comes on a sheets. Otherwise I can only imagine tiny Cambodian children spending hours enslaved in McMansions installing this stuff.

The rest of this stuff is just generic mood ring-y semi precious stone type tile. Or not. Maybe I dont know what semi precious stones are. And I'm too tired to look it up. Yeah - I know google is just sitting right there. I'm not going to do it.





Except for this head cheese tile.

I'm a slave to Mother Nature right now.

Today the painting crew arrived (me) and it decided to be super windy making everything 200% harder. Your tarps won't stay down, and putting them around windows is a new challenge I could have used without. I have to get paint down on that wall they stripped the stucco on. And man does new stucco eat paint.

On Saturday Mr S, and I met with a tile guy and hired him. Even tile guys are booked a week or two out. I feel kinda sheepish admitting I am putting tile back on those pony walls because it sounds like I'm going to tard it out.  I don't ~think~ I am... but you can never tell if what you see in your head is going to look like in real life. And I'm going to post pictures eventually so I think you guys will figure out that I put tile back up there.

Photo Update.

I know you all thought it sucked. It just needed a light. Who in their right minds would put in a black floor?



A funny (now) side note on that floor. When I had my last set of painters in. I think I've been through 4 sets now. I told them I would go crazy if they messed up my black floor.

So, the obvious choice for them was to not cover the floor when they smoothed out the texture. When they wanted to get paid, I told them I was with holding a hundred dollars until the floor was cleaned up. They bitched and moaned that all it would take was soap and water. I said if they cleaned it - I would pay them the hundred bucks. I'd made a special point after all to tell them I would freak out. They covered the other floor which was tan and wouldn't show every speck of dust. They completely turned me down. For a hundred bucks! Which would have taken them maybe 15 minutes.



A shot of the floor I laid and the back of Alpha contractor. Mr S. Cut all the tiles - but I placed every one of those 18x18 inch tiles. My new favorite toy is a suction cup. You can get them at OSH for a few bucks. I loves me some suction cups.

Now I have overachievers syndrome though - because my tile guy who did the showers is crazy amazing. If tile lines bother you - he is the man for the job. So now I compare all my work to his. Which will never be good enough now. Tile contractor is also my contractor of the year. He is low maintenance. You show him a computer generated photo of what you want. You come back in two days. It looks exactly like that.

Who will save your soul?

Some interesting dynamics have cropped up at the crapshack in the last few weeks. You want to know what it is?

Religion. Thats right. You heard me.

Normally I run a religious free zone. But recently - religion has become huge for me at the crapshack. Mainly because I have no feeling at all about it. I pretty much think it is a waste of time. I'm glad it gives people comfort - but don't expect me to pay attention to anything regarding religion. Mr S. considers me downright intolerant. For reasons I still don't understand. Maybe its because most of our conversations about religion consist of " really... they believe that - no seriously". There might be some laughter.

But - I don't dislike any region or people because of their faith. I pretty much think everyone is churchy to some degree. Although, it is pretty easy to find people who are ambivalent or uninterested about religion in California. At any rate.. I'd have to dislike most people. And of course I sort of do.. but not because of that.

Generally its because they are in my way. If you can tie that into religion.. well have at it.

In recent weeks however I've begun to realize a few of the contractors were pretty churchy. Well, let me rephrase that - Super Christians. I'm not joking. Rapture religious. Listen to religious radio.

Whatever.. I don't really care. But it is amusing though, because I'm about as opposite of that as you can get. And I've had to curb liberal deity cussing. I mostly do it when I injure myself or can't get something to work. But...I figure it is pretty inappropriate. I've had to curb cussing a lot actually. It sucks ass.

Anyway - last week Alpha contractor was trying to save my soul. I'm top on his prayer list now. After several weeks of his religious advances.. I finally had to tell him I don't care what happens to my soul when I'm dead. So far he's been good since. But, I was laying tile at the house today and my girlfriend from across the street was over. The tile guy ( who is amazing - I can't wait to show you pictures) was listening to religious radio. I was busy doing my project and not even paying attention to the radio until my girlfriend pointed it out. Which immediately made me think " shit..another guy I have to stop cussing in front of". I hope he hasn't been offended this while time. He's a really good tile guy.

At any rate.. I barely can handle myself appropriately in normal public. Let alone - super Christians. What other challenges is this house going to throw at me. I mean.. come on! Don't I have enough going on?

Rain or shine.

My tile guys rolled up today with the cadillac of saws. When we hired them I figured they ~could~ do these extra big tiles, but it wasn't until I saw their saw that I was fully confident. This thing is a monster. They said it weighs like 100 pounds and I'm not sure they are exaggerating. They said it cost like 2 grand. It's gotta be at least 4 feet long!

I was actually entertaining doing the tile myself because of all the construction stuff - tile is where I get completely anal. I have tape measure eyes. I can take the time to make sure things don't catch my eye. But now I'm glad I paid someone. Plus, it's good to watch the professionals so you don't start doing stupid stuff when you are weekend warrior-ing. I need to keep my skills updated too.

Does everyone really want to be the same?

I finally gave into the sea of beige trend. I should have some updated pictures of the crapshack within the next couple of days. But - this has spawned a whole set of questions about the color beige. It is like a cloud that follows me.

Tile guy says - "it's a good thing you chose beige for this bathroom. Everyone in this city seems to like everything really simple - and beige". In Sacramento everything is different. They like marble and very ornate over the top tile. You can't get away with that in this city. You should give people what they want. Beige."

Me - But if everything is beige - what distinguishes your house from every other house?

Realtor friend - Nothing! And they like it that way.

I asked these same questions to Mr S. who replied - everyone wants to be the same, but a little better than you. But not too much better as to stand out.

I'm finding all these comments a little hard to believe. But then I started thinking about the Weeds song. Now I'm starting to waiver.

Do you think as a society we have gotten to a stage where people just feel more comfortable just being the same? Because, I'm starting to have flashback from those really old sci-fi movies where people wore those unitards that were usually white or grey. But - since reality doesn't always mirror sci-fi - the uni's would be beige instead.

It isn't even like I'm trying to make things off the wall. Just something slightly individualistic. But I have to admit.... everyone is getting to me. Maybe I should just choose beige for everything. Which really takes the rest of the fun out of flipping a house. Anyone can just install beige tile, carpet, walls, and granite. There must be someone crying out for something that isn't the color beige. Right?

There is finally a light at the end of this deck tunnel.

The guys made a lot of progress today which was amazing because when I woke up at 7am it was sprinkling. At 7:30 the guys arrived and weren't sure they were going to be able to work. But the walls were still dry, so they went for it and the rain held off. They almost got a full wall done.



I think I lost my first contractor because of these tiles. The grout line is 1/16th of an inch. And as you can see, 1/16th of an inch over 22 feet takes a bit of skill. Everything was going great with that first contractor but he was super particular about the quote. He wanted me to chose things like the color of the floor on the deck super early. My project has been going on a month now and I just made that choice maybe a week ago. The first guy wanted that info before he even finished the quote.

I figured if he was the particular about knowing those details of the project that early, maybe I should tell him about those grout lines. Initially I'd chosen a cheaper knock off of these tiles. And he was like - oh no. I won't lay a tile out of it's tolerances.  Meaning the manufacture hadn't blessed a 1/16 inch grout line, so he wasn't doing it. So, I ran around to find a tile that the manufacturer did explicitly rate for a 1/16th inch grout line. He said he'd do it, but I don't think he really wanted to. I think that's why he gave me such a short quote period (7days) and then ignored me for 7 days.

Other than wasting two months of my time - it turned out better this way and cheaper for me. But that first contractor basically did all of the leg work for another guy to stroll in and take all of his glory. I just don't get it. I don't have a single complaint about my new crew. And I'm getting exactly what I wanted from the first guy.

As a side note - it's not often that the only child in me comes out because I wasn't spoiled at all. I was the opposite of spoiled. But when a contractor leaves his 2000 dollar tile saw and all of his tools at my place - I really get a strong impulse. I'd be like - I'm not doing that. But perhaps it's a really good sign that trust is finally coming back to the marketplace. My whole job has been a lot of risk on their part as far as the outlay of services and materials. Especially materials.

I mean, if I didn't pay they'd put a lien on my house, and I have a great view...... so.... But still.

Weekend warrior victory.

One of the kitchen tiles in the rental had a big chip in it and I'm trying to make the place look the best so it can be appraised. And thankfully I'd already learned how to take tiles out from another project we did late last year. Turns out, once you get the grout out - the tile will come out fairly easily. Of course, you need to use one of these Oscillating Multi tools to remove the grout. Don't go cheap. There are a bunch of other tools that claim to do this. And maybe they do. But this thing is worth it's weight in gold. It cuts pretty much anything. It's saved my butt close to a handful of times already. I'd already cut out the grout line by the time I took this picture.



Start near a corner and hammer a chunk out, then you can start using a chisel to pry the pieces you break up.



After you get the tile out you have to chisel out all the mastic so you can lay the tile the same height as the rest of them. Now I just have to go back and grout. Looks like it almost never happened.

Moving ahead.

Yesterday - my soul was as as black as the tar I had to rip out and have reinstalled in my bathroom. I was starting to become superstitious about my house. Which is so totally unlike me. But, for a minute I was starting to think Jeff Lewis was looking sane.

You remember my house is a dead people house. Right? I was starting to think I might need an exorcism to extricate the bad mojo, and get my project moving.

Fixing houses apparently can make you the most bi-polar freak on the planet. Take one step out of your comfort zone, and things go badly quickly. Which is where I've been at for the past two weeks.

It all started with this master bathroom. The one that was up on jacks you ask? Why yes.. that one. I knew the bathroom was f-ed. What I didn't know was - the previous owners had pulled out some support beams.





From the first inspection of the house on - I was under the impression the bathroom was up on jacks due to all the dry-rot. Until alpha contractor arrived and told me my house was not going to pass inspection if I didn't fix it. Oh yeah - it isn't lost on me that it wasn't flagged on my inspection, but you can guarantee that some other inspector will flag it just to fuck up my day. In this market.. you can't take chances like that.

Anyway.. I get through that bit of madness, and I'm ready to put in the waterproof barrier for the walk in.



The previous owners had already removed the tub - so I figured having a walk-in would be somewhat unique for the neighborhood. My roofer told me he had done tar burn downs on like 20 of these types of showers. This is a process of burning tar sheets to weld them together to form a waterproof liner.

Normally you have a guy with a tar bucket come in - but in California, tar isn't really used as much anymore. When you see roofs being put on, they don't pull a big flaming tar melting machine around with them. So I figured - times change. Building codes change, and this is the new modern way they do these things.

Nope! Alpha contractor comes in, and has a fit. It isn't sloped right. Water is going to collect in the corners. At any rate..I need to call my guy to have him rip it out. Which he does - but my tile guy can't do his work. Which sets him back several days. And, oh by the way - he is coming from Sacramento. More than two hours away. So he drove out that day for no good fucking reason.

Anyway - today I had a roofer out. Who has done the job to alpha contractors satisfaction. It's my tile guys' roofer. Who also came from Sacramento. Even though I had to pay his gas both ways - it cost me 400 bucks less than anyone I could get locally. I just hate having guys travel 4 hours to do a one hour job.



So, the moral of the story is - I now know the correct way to do one of those walk in showers, but I would rather lay down in a hot bed of tar before I feel like doing another one.

Still waiting.

Mr S. and I decided to take the weekend off. Except when I got neurotic, and thought my texture guys were screwing something up - so I pleaded for Mr S. to go check. He gladly obliged.

Anyway - I got to sleep in for the first time in a couple of months. It was a stormy weekend and the neighborhood was so quiet - you could hear a pin drop.

Today, I haven't even left the house. But - I feel much more sane. I was a little on the ledge on Friday. I handed the key to the house to my friend who lives across the street and told her it was hers. I couldn't take it anymore. Between the contractors trying to bleed me dry, and all the personal dynamics - I had completely lost control of my project. Again.

So - I thought I'd take this opportunity to show you were we are at in the master bath.



Its been rainy - so these are a little darker than in reality. The color is somewhere between the last photo update and the photo above.

I'm super glad I took photos the whole way. It's so easy to get lost in the project. So - I can hardly believe this room used to look like this. I mean - I remember.. but you forget a little until you see the photos again. I just get caught up in things not progressing.

Last week - Expo called to say they were going to ship the tile for my shower pan to me. They were suppose to arrive on Friday. They didn't. And you know... it's sort of more annoying than if they would have kept the original schedule.

I mean - they took the time to call me and tell me the tile would be in early.. and then didn't get it to me early. Am I the only one who finds that annoying?

Since the master bath is pretty much stable - I'll start posting pictures of the other rooms soon. I was going to give you pictures of the main bath today, but I don't feel like tracking down the before pictures with the yellow tub I had to rip out.

Who ya gonna believe?

"Oh the irony - as bulls celebrate the best jump in retail sales since 2016, the scene for retailer stocks is an utter bloodbath... 

Earlier today, US Retail Sales in July rebounded dramatically to a 0.6% MoM gain - the most since Dec 2016 - driven a surge in motor vehicles (record incentives) and department stores (more inventives?). Year-over-year saw upward revisions and a rebound to a 4.2% rise in July. 

The last two month's declines in Retail Sales have been revised away magically and we have now gone 5 months without a decline..." Source.

While Zero Hedge focuses on brands that no one cares about like JCpenny, the real economy is happening behind the scenes in places that people who only write about the economy but don't really participate in any meaningful way will see.

For instance - positive equity is an extremely powerful thing. Very few people are underwater in their houses at this time. So they feel safer to do some work on them. You don't throw a ton of money into a house that is underwater. Now that most people are not underwater....let the remodeling begin seems to be the mantra. They have a lot of time to make up.

I've been trying to get a project done all summer. And it's just about like pulling teeth. You literally can't get a contractor for months. To prepare for my project I started going to tile stores about four months ago. Only to roll up at 9:00 in the morning to a packed parking lot. Two weeks ago I was in a tile store and the place was again packed. All of these people had a designer in tow. I could not believe it.

This is a trend I've found out is about a year old, so it doesn't surprise me that retail has been revised up for previous months. That could actually be real.

People might not be spending at malls ( oh wait - I was at a mall this weekend and it was so packed it almost made my head explode). Gone are all the discount signs. I didn't see any evidence of a mallpocolypse. Although I didn't set foot in a JCpenny because I haven't shopped at that place since I was a kid. Maybe people just don't like stale brands like JCpenny. Let theme die already so they will stop taking up space and bloggers will stop bitching about them. No one shops there for like 20 years. It's why they almost died about 5 years ago. No one cares except bloggers.

I think focusing on these dinosaur brands makes writers not see the real things that are happening in the economy. You have to BE IN the economy to know what is happening with it. And I can assure you - people are spending money like they haven't in a very long time.

I think that number could be real. Even with the crazy carpocolypse stories dragging down the numbers. I think retail might have come in hotter. Really. Just go outside and try shopping somewhere. ANYWHERE!

I WISH it all were not true- because I have a project I need get completed by winter and I'm having a fuck all time of it. I have never seen things like this.

I am completely serious here.

When did pinatas become racially offensive? And why? Is it the candy? Or the club you beat them with?

What? Tell me! I honestly don't know.

I initially heard about this story on my local news. You can read about the whole story here from the L.A. Times.

"Everyone's an art critic when it comes to a $195,000 mural for the LAPD's new Hollenbeck station.

The tile mural was meant to depict a quaint Sunday in Boyle Heights. Many angry residents say it makes their neighborhood out to be a crime-ridden dump filled with fat women, stray dogs, beer-swilling men and illegal street vendors. And don't get them started about the pinata. "

I was mostly ignoring the segment. Everyone seems super sensitive about everything these days - so I tune a lot of this stuff out. Until I heard the East L.A. residents were upset about the pinatas depicted in the mural. That gets your attention. Right?

I mean.. don't get me wrong. The piece does look in bad taste. But what do I know. I'm not enlightened enough to understand art. Ask any artist you critique.

And let me just say - I really dislike tile murals. But really? Pinatas?

Personally - I think tax dollars should not be used for art. I've felt this way since my own city commissioned an art piece for one of our libraries. The only problem was - the art was about famous people in history. But, the artist couldn't spell. There were 11 misspellings in the piece. It was a little embarrassing, and made national news. When our city wanted the artist to fix it - she refused.

For me - there was an even larger issue - California has a law that you can't rip out a piece of art without the artists consent. I think for the amount taxpayers contribute to city art, they should get to rip out whatever craptacular art they want.

I just don't understand it.

Today, I spent most of the day shopping for more tile for the crapshack. We decided we might as well pick up a vanity at the same time. I was going to tell you all what a nightmare it was to get it home. But instead my crapshack neighbors decided to give me a better story.

So - I pull into the crapshack driveway to unload the tile and the vanity. My trash cans for the house are sitting out front on my property. The cans had been in the backyard - but the painters moved them so they could paint the place. But remember - they are still on my property.

I pop out of the truck and decide to throw a small box into our green-waste can. The one you put mower trimmings and green debris into. I don't have a recycle can right now, because I dont have trash service at the house. I haven't needed it. All my contractors have trucks and bring a dump trailers with them to remove trash. Which if you've been keeping up with the crapshack progress - I've had an enormous amount of stuff removed from that house.

Anyway - I open the green can, and it is completely full of lawn clippings. So, I opened the trash can - also completely full. So full in fact, I can't even stick my small box into my own trash can.

I'm immediately pissed, because it is filled with beer bottles and fast food bags. But - the beer bottles are right on top. Some of these same ones I found on the property when we first bought it. On the side of the house that borders white trash neighbors. The crapshack had been vacant for a year - so I figure white trash neighbors were just throwing the bottles over the fence. Same brand/size (40's) and everything.

Since I'm fed up with white trash neighbors - so I ring their door bell and ask white trash wife if they have been using our trash cans. The conversation goes roughly like this:

Me - Have you guys been using our trash cans?

Her- Nooo. Why? What's in them?

Me- Beer bottles and fast food stuff.

Her - Oh no. There is no drinking here.

Let me just say - when I recounted this part to Mr S. he completely busted up laughing. When we bought the crapshack they had broken bottles on their driveway. I didn't remember if they were beer bottles or not.. but come to think of it - not many soft drinks come in bottles anymore.

Me - okay, because that is completely inappropriate.

Her - well, it might have been the guy across the street. Then asks if I was sure it wasn't my workers.

Now - there are tons of things wrong with my workers. Believe me. Some days I can barely defend them - but if they can drink that many tall boys and still do that much work on my house - they'd have to be alcoholics. There is no way I wouldn't smell that kind of drinking on those guys. And there is no way I'm not looking for that kind of thing. I can't afford the liability. If there was anyone I even had a hint of being drinking - I'd fire them immediately.

At this point I go to walk away and unload the stuff in the truck. White trash wife comes out of the house to look in the cans and starts saying she can't believe I would accuse her of such a thing.

Is she really thinking I'm taking her seriously? Their house was the second most-trash-strewn house on the block. (Mine was first). And lets say - it was my contractors. For the sake of argument and all. The lawn has never once been cut at that house. It's barely even become green in the last two weeks. Just this week - I was thinking I needed to start getting someone to cut it.

So - she's expecting me to believe that the neighbor walked across the street to put his lawn cuttings and trash into my cans. Even I would think I was being crazy or petty if I wouldn't have just blogged about this same issue two weeks ago here.

Anyway - it just pisses me off, because that costs me money to get rid of. Each time my contractors take away trash - it costs me money.

These neighbors have to be high if they think I'm paying to get rid of their trash too. The city would charge me 40 bucks for a pickup. Isn't it enough I've already vastly improved their property values?

Stuck in your head.

I'm always a little surprised at myself, when I initially am not that fond of something, and it winds up being something I completely love. So much so - that I will go out of my way to find it.

Which is how Mr S. and I found ourselves at another tile store. It's called Porcelanosa. It really is one of the most beautiful showrooms I've seen. Its very modern, and doesn't have any country kitchy stuff that doesn't interest us.

Some stuff is a little over the top. Like this sink. It's glass.





I'm not sure who in their right minds would have a glass bottomed sink. But it does look kind of neat. A marriage ruiner - but still very neat looking.

Anyway... it all started out with these tiles.



When we saw them recently - they really stood out because they were 12 inches by 35 inches. It's a pretty unusual size. I couldn't imagine how they could be used. And they had this weird moray pattern. They just seemed odd to me. I didn't really like them.

But, I was intrigued because of their unusual size, and wound up looking for a store on the web to see if they showed any design pictures of them. Turns out - the company who makes them had a store here locally.

This is how they are displayed at the tile store. I completely fell in love with them.



The rest of these are just other design displays.



OH! Except for this one. Remember those bubble tiles I've talked about a few times? Here. It turns out they don't look as odd as I thought. They had a display of them.



They still aren't my style - but I found them interesting.