Perimeter Structures
Brought to you via a Blog Post because the Forum topics don't have an entry for "Home Improvement.
I call upon all my Buddies who possess many marketable skills, including big, ugly, messy things like, oh, tearing out an entire kitchen before lunch and eating dinner in a brand-new kitchen the same day. Or, those among you who've rehabbed houses. Or, built you're own power plant. You know who you are.
Here's the situation:
The house in which Aged P and I reside was built in 1958, in a Southeast L.A. County tract. The walls surrounding the back yard (Cinder Block?; Concrete Block? I don't know what it's called,, really), are, well, I'm surprised any of them are still standing at all - no rebar. All three of the walls have been falling apart for years. There's one section of one side wall (@22', from midpost to back corner) that's mostly in a heap in the next-door neighbor's yard, and desperately needs to be replaced. We've had a number of estimates that were, quite frankly, shocking. All the walls, at least on this side of the street, are leaning over, one way or other, have openings where blocks have departed over the years due to a combination of earthquakes and trees that looked really good when they were planted way too close to the walls. In our yard, there's only one tree that grew from a root of unknown origin - a volunteer, actually - that stands about 4-1/2' from the wall in question. It's my beloved Chinese Flame (AKA Lantern) tree that sprang up long after a previous, much bigger, much closer to the wall, tree had been removed, long ago, decades ago. She's in the aforementioned corner of the yard. On the other side of the back wall - adjacent to my tree - are a Carolina Pine and a Queen Palm that are each against the back wall and, in point of fact, are holding up what's left of that part of the crumbling back wall, for several years, now.
The estimates we've gotten on that 22' section involve removal of the broken wall (which, having been built in 1958, is made of a block thickness that some turdbush, mouth-breathing, inbred, knuckle-dragging group pf bureaucrats in Sacotomatoes decided, some time ago, are unacceptable), must be replaced with thicker bricks), so new material is factored into the price, which ranges from $2200 to $2500. To me, THAT'S the unacceptable part of it all. The neighbors on the side of the wall into which the wall has fallen seem to be somewhat sullen about it. They offered, unbidden, to share the cost. (Dad, a few weeks ago and had gone next door to beg use of their phone when he thought he'd locked himownbadself out of the house while I was thirty miles away, on a Friday afternoon, which translates into a two-hour drive. They got to talking about t then. My plan was to not even broach the subject with them, leaving it up to them to insert themowbadselves into the situation at their will, when they'd see the work being done. (I don't like these people, and I think they likely hold us (or, me) responsible for trees that were planted before my birth, as well as earthquakes.) Nonetheless, because Dad had discussed the matter with them, and told me that they were going to seek other estimates, I found myownbadself in the unenviable position of having face time with one of them and talking over the various estimates we had variously obtained with the "she" half of the "them," a couple weeks ago, I suggested that the best go-to would be the two wall men whose company names that include the word "masonry," and whose estimates were in the middle of the range, whilst she was inclined to hire the guy whose flyer begins with the word "landscaping", and, who gave the highest estimate. She said she'd talk it over with the "him," and would call me. I have heard from neither "her," nor "him," since. Neither have I seen either of them outside their house since. (This is not unusual - since they retired, their wont has been to hole up in their yurt, and rarely venture into the sunshine).
So, I woke up this morning, and instead of the regular "Well, that's a surprise," (that I woke up at all), "What about a Cedar, or Redwood, fence to replace the entire, roughly, 60' side wall?" The estimates (for the 22' section of block) were $2200, two $2250s, and a $2500 - the "Landscaper."
This is where you, my Beloved Buddies come in. I trust all of you people infinitely more than anything I may Google. Can you ball-park the cost of the removal of a roughly 60" Block Wall and replacement with a Cedar or Redwood, 6' fence? And, to any of my fellow Golden Staters, whose brains are bigger than mine with regard to such matters: Given the exigencies of all the crap that constantly lands on us any time the brain-trusts in Sacotomatoes poop out a new idea to improve their leftist "Utopia," is it even legal to erect a wooden fence between two yards, one of which has a swimming pool (not ours)? As an example of our illustrious legislature and bureaucratic State's efforts: I recently found out that, if you wish to engage in the private sale of a cemetery plot or two, betwixt the Glorious State and the cemetery itself (mandated, of course, by the knuckle-dragging paper-pushers upstate) the considerably fat wad of cash that leaves the buyer's hand will weigh less than half as much, by the time it reaches the seller's hands. And, one more: We have, at our doorstep, the biggest ocean on the planet, which through desalination - a technology that's been in active use for as long as there have been submarines, aircraft carriers, a thriving agricultural industry in Israel, and two desal plants on Catalina Island - has kept at least two planned, and begun, desalination plants locked up in red tape for years.
There. I've said it. I hereby pass the talking stick.
Thank you. And, I apologize.
Brought to you via a Blog Post because the Forum topics don't have an entry for "Home Improvement.
I call upon all my Buddies who possess many marketable skills, including big, ugly, messy things like, oh, tearing out an entire kitchen before lunch and eating dinner in a brand-new kitchen the same day. Or, those among you who've rehabbed houses. Or, built you're own power plant. You know who you are.
Here's the situation:
The house in which Aged P and I reside was built in 1958, in a Southeast L.A. County tract. The walls surrounding the back yard (Cinder Block?; Concrete Block? I don't know what it's called,, really), are, well, I'm surprised any of them are still standing at all - no rebar. All three of the walls have been falling apart for years. There's one section of one side wall (@22', from midpost to back corner) that's mostly in a heap in the next-door neighbor's yard, and desperately needs to be replaced. We've had a number of estimates that were, quite frankly, shocking. All the walls, at least on this side of the street, are leaning over, one way or other, have openings where blocks have departed over the years due to a combination of earthquakes and trees that looked really good when they were planted way too close to the walls. In our yard, there's only one tree that grew from a root of unknown origin - a volunteer, actually - that stands about 4-1/2' from the wall in question. It's my beloved Chinese Flame (AKA Lantern) tree that sprang up long after a previous, much bigger, much closer to the wall, tree had been removed, long ago, decades ago. She's in the aforementioned corner of the yard. On the other side of the back wall - adjacent to my tree - are a Carolina Pine and a Queen Palm that are each against the back wall and, in point of fact, are holding up what's left of that part of the crumbling back wall, for several years, now.
The estimates we've gotten on that 22' section involve removal of the broken wall (which, having been built in 1958, is made of a block thickness that some turdbush, mouth-breathing, inbred, knuckle-dragging group pf bureaucrats in Sacotomatoes decided, some time ago, are unacceptable), must be replaced with thicker bricks), so new material is factored into the price, which ranges from $2200 to $2500. To me, THAT'S the unacceptable part of it all. The neighbors on the side of the wall into which the wall has fallen seem to be somewhat sullen about it. They offered, unbidden, to share the cost. (Dad, a few weeks ago and had gone next door to beg use of their phone when he thought he'd locked himownbadself out of the house while I was thirty miles away, on a Friday afternoon, which translates into a two-hour drive. They got to talking about t then. My plan was to not even broach the subject with them, leaving it up to them to insert themowbadselves into the situation at their will, when they'd see the work being done. (I don't like these people, and I think they likely hold us (or, me) responsible for trees that were planted before my birth, as well as earthquakes.) Nonetheless, because Dad had discussed the matter with them, and told me that they were going to seek other estimates, I found myownbadself in the unenviable position of having face time with one of them and talking over the various estimates we had variously obtained with the "she" half of the "them," a couple weeks ago, I suggested that the best go-to would be the two wall men whose company names that include the word "masonry," and whose estimates were in the middle of the range, whilst she was inclined to hire the guy whose flyer begins with the word "landscaping", and, who gave the highest estimate. She said she'd talk it over with the "him," and would call me. I have heard from neither "her," nor "him," since. Neither have I seen either of them outside their house since. (This is not unusual - since they retired, their wont has been to hole up in their yurt, and rarely venture into the sunshine).
So, I woke up this morning, and instead of the regular "Well, that's a surprise," (that I woke up at all), "What about a Cedar, or Redwood, fence to replace the entire, roughly, 60' side wall?" The estimates (for the 22' section of block) were $2200, two $2250s, and a $2500 - the "Landscaper."
This is where you, my Beloved Buddies come in. I trust all of you people infinitely more than anything I may Google. Can you ball-park the cost of the removal of a roughly 60" Block Wall and replacement with a Cedar or Redwood, 6' fence? And, to any of my fellow Golden Staters, whose brains are bigger than mine with regard to such matters: Given the exigencies of all the crap that constantly lands on us any time the brain-trusts in Sacotomatoes poop out a new idea to improve their leftist "Utopia," is it even legal to erect a wooden fence between two yards, one of which has a swimming pool (not ours)? As an example of our illustrious legislature and bureaucratic State's efforts: I recently found out that, if you wish to engage in the private sale of a cemetery plot or two, betwixt the Glorious State and the cemetery itself (mandated, of course, by the knuckle-dragging paper-pushers upstate) the considerably fat wad of cash that leaves the buyer's hand will weigh less than half as much, by the time it reaches the seller's hands. And, one more: We have, at our doorstep, the biggest ocean on the planet, which through desalination - a technology that's been in active use for as long as there have been submarines, aircraft carriers, a thriving agricultural industry in Israel, and two desal plants on Catalina Island - has kept at least two planned, and begun, desalination plants locked up in red tape for years.
There. I've said it. I hereby pass the talking stick.
Thank you. And, I apologize.