The Delian's Commonwealth

Flooring — round 9

They tell you that remodelling is one of the most stressful life events.  If finding a vendor isn't the hardest part of the whole process, then I'm in a great deal of trouble.

With the last go-round on the flooring, we had found that very few places seemed to carry the brand that we wanted in the species that we wanted.  I had pinned my hopes on one of the flooring stores linked from the manufacturer's web site.  I called them last Friday afternoon and they told me that their "guy" was up in our area on Tuesdays and Thursdays and he would give me a call to set up an appointment.  The weekend passed and I didn't hear anything, so I called on Monday, to be told that he would be in touch.

Monday passed and about the middle of the day on Tuesday, the "scheduler" (not "the guy") called and set up an appointment for between 1:30 and 2:00PM today, Thursday.  Despite everybody being very friendly and helpful, checking stock and such, I'm getting a little bit concerned.

By 2:30PM on Thursday, I'm very concerned.  "The guy" hasn't shown up or called, so I call the store.  "I'm sure he's on his way" is what I'm told.  Right.  About 10 minutes later, "the guy" calls — telling me some story about them getting a call to cancel an appointment and thinking that it was mine.  Hmmm.  He's several miles away, but promises that he'll be here by 3, or 3:05 at the latest.

Of course, he gets here at 3:20, because the traffic corridor (I405) from Redondo Beach to where I live is awful at any time of day.  Why am I so obsessed with the time?  I have to pick the boys up from a class at 4:00 and it's about 15 minutes away.  Things are tight.

"The guy" does the fastest job of measuring the place that I've seen yet.  In about 15 minutes he has an estimate ready.  A written estimate, which is the first one we've seen for this part of the project.  It's nicely laid out and covers everything.  Of course, the price for the materials is $4.00/sf more than I've seen it on the internet and $3.00/sf more than Home Depot.  On this project, that's a difference of over $5000!  Unfortunately HD doesn't have all three wood species so we can't get it from them.

On reviewing the estimate, I think that he over-estimated the amount of wood needed.  I had measured the place and gotten that measurement confirmed by another contractor.  Using the same wast calculation (8%) that today's guy used, I still come out about 100sf less.  (Yes, I accounted for the three different wood species.)  The amount of bull-nose needed for the stairs seemed to be a bit high, too.

It looks like we're going to have to get the materials from a place on the internet and find an installer.  I'm calling around to some of the real estate agents that I know, to see if they can recommend anyone.

This is what happens when you're picky, and want something slightly out of the ordinary.  If we wanted red oak flooring it would be done by now.

Update: I'm an idiot.  Complete and total.  The only excuse that I can come up with is that I was rushed when reading the estimate the first time — I literally had minutes to go get the boys.  What is my idiocy (beyond the obvious, that is)?  The price per square foot on the estimate is the installed price, not the materials price.  I was comparing that to another company's materials price, so of course there's going to be a difference.  Now that I've been able to look at this estimate in the cold light of dawn, it comes very close to what I had estimated for the project.  Some time ago I found an online construction estimator and calculated the whole thing myself.

So, if I can get over my discomfort with their reliability issues, we'll probably go with this company.

Flag burning

Yesterday, a proposed ammendment to ban the burning of the US flag as a form of expression failed in the Senate by one vote, after having been passed by the House.  I find the fact that such an ammendment has widespread support to be truly frightening -- it runs completely counter to our foundation.  I would be hard-pressed to find something more powerfully opposed to the First Ammendment than this.

It horrifies me that we would put a symbol in a higher state than the country and idea "for which it stands."  If this ammendment were to pass, burning the flag would be worse than saying "democracy sucks."  Of course, we could then expect these "patriots" to assualt any form of speech with which they disagreed.

I was particulary unhappy to discover that one of my state senators, Diane Feinstein not only voted for the ammendment, but was actually one of the sponsors.  Below the fold is the letter that I wrote to her this morning.

Software wars

Quite a while back, Mark Chu-Carroll of Good Math/Bad Math put up a post (link to his old blog) on a particular feature of some programming languages.  The actual feature isn't terribly relevant, except that some programming languages have it, while others don't.  What interested me was the reaction to the post and the direction that the comments took.

Kitchen remodel — round 7

It just creeps on...

After we go home with the design from the HD designer, we found that we wanted to make a few changes.  One change we had to make was to the new pantry.  The designer (and we) missed the fact that there is a soffit wth an air duct that lowers the ceiling right where the pantry goes, so that has to be reduced from 96 to 84 inches.

We also decided to replace one cabinet with one that has three drawers instead of an open space.  The other big change is to shorten the cabinet above the microwave so that we have room for a nice tile backsplash.  My SO gave me this tile (in a green glaze) for my birthday and it will form the centerpiece of the backsplash above the stove.

There was another piece of work left undone after the last session.  Our place has a tiny (28" wide and 19" deep) wet bar near the dining room and a pantry that is really too deep for that use.  We want to convert the wet bar into display/china cabinet and the old pantry into a broom closet, but with doors to match the rest of the kitchen.  This hadn't been done in the last design because the designer couldn't figure out how to get just doors or a face-frame and door.

We called in the changes, rather than making another appointment, and she faxed back the design and a cost breakdown.  It's within our budget, but heading for the high side.  All of the changes we asked for, plus the china cabinet are in the design now.  Oddly, there's a pair of doors listed (for about $300) that don't seem to have a use — if they're supposed to be for the broom closet, they're entirely the wrong size.  At least the designer now knows how to get single doors and face-frame and door only.  Nevertheless, we're going to have to go back for another round. *sigh*

There's a delay in setting up an appointment with the designer — in the mean time, the (ugly) bifold shutter door in front of the wet bar came off its track.  I just removed the whole thing, rather than spend time trying to fix something that's going to go away.  I'm glad I did that — we found out that we don't want the china cabinet built out all the way, which was the original plan.  It feels much more open if it's set back from the wall.  That thought, plus the fact that by trying to build this using standard (24") cabinets in a non-standard (28") space — we lose a lot of useful space that way, made us rethink the entire china cabinet.  We're going to leav it, and its decorative doors, off the plans and get some custom cabinetry done later.  It doesn't really need to match the kitchen in any case, since it's more a part of the dining room.

I tried talking to the installers about the lighting in the kitchen, but I seem to be doing things out of order, and I confused the person who answers their phones.  I'll have to find out what to do from the designer when we meet with her.

One last item: We've been going back and forth about flooring for the kitchen.  It went from laminate, to engineered hardwood, to slate.  Although the slate itself is cheap ($2.25/sf), installation is expensive ($18/sf) and that puts it out of our range — especially if we want to redo the flooring in the entire area, including the large space we use for hobbies.  It looks like we're back with the laminate floor, probably installed by yours truly.

So, for the project planners in the audience, the kitchen design is about 85% finished.  We meet with the designer on Thursday to finalize the cabinetry and start the next phase.

This is fun — sort of.  My current fear happens when I see all the stuff we have in the kitchen and hobby area and wonder where were going to put it and the new cabinets and flooring during construction.

Kitchen remodel -- round 6

We had our second round with the HD kitchen designer on Monday.  This went well, but wasn't without a few bumps.  One of the problems is the CAD program that they use to design with.  It has a tendency to insist on putting things where you don't want them, and is very balky at letting the designer move them.  There are probably some options that could be changed to make this easier.  Why do I care?  Aside from wasting quite a bit of time on this, I worked on CAD/CAM software for eight years, so I have a pretty good idea of what the developers did wrong.

We got everything laid out for the main part of the kitchen and talked about the counter tops.  Most of the countertop will be an artificial granite, called Silestone, probably the color they call Green River.  One segment will be a butcher block -- one of the contractors told us that we were fools to want that and even our HD designer commented that people are shying away from wood counter tops.  People are, somehow, terrified of bacteria.  There is evidence, though that wood is no worse than any other surface, if you keep it clean.  We want the wood because granite is very hard on knives.  If the wood needs resurfacing, all it takes is some sand paper and mineral oil.

There was one part that caused some problems, though.  This place has a small, awkward, wet bar and we'd like to turn it into a china closet with some nice display doors.  The designer couldn't figure out how to just order doors and/or a frame.  She promised to take another look and get back to us.

I feel pretty good about this approach.  The quality is there in the cabinets and the overall price looks like it's going to come in around the low end of the all-in-one contractors.

We can't commit to starting the project, though, until we can talk to the installers again.  We have to have some specs for the lighting changes that we want, so that we can get approval from the property manager.  Contrary to what the first couple of contractors told us, we are required to get permission for a lot of this work.  A phone call to the installers resulted in some confusion about the topic, so I'm going to have to go back to our designer and see what happens next.

Flooring -- rounds 5, 6 7 and 8

After we finished with the kitchen designer on Saturday, we went to look at flooring at HD as well.  We've settled on engineered hardwood, with a floating installation as being best for where we are.  Unfortunately, HD doesn't carry the full lines of either Bruce or Tarkett flooring.  Of course, we want some wood species that they don't carry.  Ah well.  The salesman suggested that we try the Expo Center, which is the upscale outlet for Home Depot.

We want American Cherry for the living/dining areas, as well as the den and stairs.  My office and the boys' room will be Brazilian Cherry -- these are the brightest rooms in the place and can stand a darker wood.  The master bedroom is the darkest room and it'll get the lightest wood, a clear Maple.  Yes, maple is my favorite wood.

On Monday I heard from the flooring store.  One of the species that we wanted isn't available any longer.  Combined with the fact that we already had to compromise on some wood (replacing the American Cherry with Beech), I don't think that we're going to use these people. The brand that they carry is just too ugly.

Round 7: Sigh...  Expo Center carries some different species of the Tarkett flooring, but not the ones that we want or the product line that we want.  Next try will be one of the dealers recommended by the Tarkett web site.

Round 8: Called one of the Tarkett dealers.  It turns out that the product line that we want has been discontinued.  That would explain some of the problems that we've had finding the wood.  Fortunately, Tarkett has a second line that is quite good and so we're going to get an estimate, probably next Tuesday or Thursday from these people.  The person on the phone was very friendly and knowlegable, so that was quite encouraging.

Kitchen remodel -- round 5

I've been busy this week, so I've got a lot of updates.  I'm going to start tracking the kitchen and flooring remodels separately -- we got disgusted with the all-in-one contractors and are going with separate people for the two projects.

On the kitchen side, we met with our Home Depot "designer" on Saturday.  It was pleasant, although we weren't prepared.  The person who booked the appointment should have told us to be ready with at least the manufacturer that we were interested in.  So, we spent some time going over the various manufacturers and settled on Thomasville, which is marketed through HD and a few other big stores.  We chose this style, but in a natural Maple.

Part of the session with the designer was spent trying to figure out how the contractor had measured the kitchen.  There was one unclear part and I didn't have the information in my notes either.  We did get the project started, though and gave the designer our requirements.  Because of some time constraints (the designer is on the clock), we scheduled another round for Monday evening.

More on standardized tests

Earlier, I posted something on the use of standardized tests, in response to a comment to this post on Pharyngula. One poster did respond to my challenge with this:

I can easily show that standardized tests measure (at a minimum) the ability to read the test.

This alone was a huge jump in the average literacy in my state when they first implemented a functional literacy exam.

There are a number of problems with that claim.  The first is causality — there's a fine post hoc fallacy here.  Where's the evidence that the standardized tests caused the improvement in literacy? The improvement in literacy and the standardized tests could be the result of a broad, renewed focus on literacy.  It's a beautiful irony, that a comment in support of standardized testing contains a serious error that would not be caught by that testing!  Personally, I'd much prefer someone who can't spell 'work' over someone who can't recognize what is probably the most common logical fallacy.  The first is an annoyance, while the second is an outright danger to society.  Errors like this one make it possible for alties to flourish, preying on the ignorant, as Orac will tell you — often in excruciating detail.

(There's also a certain amount of irony in the grammar of the post.)

Second, the measure of literacy is the standardized test. The improvement in literacy could just as well be an artefact of the test itself.  sgent claims that literacy improved when the literacy exam was instituted — what was the measure of literacy before and after the exam was begun?

I should also note that if the functional literacy exam noted above was this one, it contains a subjective component.  The students must actually compose a letter, among other tasks.  I have fewer problems with this kind of test than the much more common guess-and-bubble tests.

Frankly, since we've been making testing more and more important, I trust the results less and less.  When people's jobs, prestige and power depend on the results of tests like these, they're going to do their best to game the system so that they come out ahead.  This gaming happens to the detriment of the students.  I've watched good teachers struggle with this question: "Do I teach the subject, or do I teach the test?"  I've also watched some of those same teachers hate themselves and the system for the answer that they were forced into, bemoaning the loss of instructional time to test preparation.

In the previous post, I posed the question of "what are our goals?"  The follow-on question is "once we have our goals, how do we measure them?"  I have a good idea of what my answer to the first question would be.  Anyone who has watched a five year old knows that young children are little scientists, musicians, inventors, story tellers and artists.  I'd like to see them come out the other end of the education system just the same.  Not all scientists in the the mold of, say PZ Myers, but curious about the world (which is what is at the core of every branch of science.)  Not musicians in the sense of Isaac Stern, but able to appreciate music outside of the genre that defines their generation, and able to make music for themselves and their friends.  Not inventors like Thomas Edison, but able to apply their curiosity and knowlege to solving problems.  I'm not looking for another Shakespere, but someone who can tell a story clearly from beginning to end. Nor artists with the vision and skill of Van Gogh, but able to make and appreciate art for themselves.

I think that sgent's comment sets an extremely low bar.  He/she seems happy with the fact that a base literacy rate has risen.  I don't know if s/he is content with that, but I know that I am not.  That doesn't begin to come close to the goals that I've set above.

I also know what my idealist's answer to the second question would be.  In an ideal world, assessment of a student's progress would be made at a broad level, not at a detailed level.  "How well does someone write," not "do they know how to spell these 15 words."  There are variations in people's abilities — I'm far more interested in knowing that someone is working to their ability, than I am in knowing how well they do on a somewhat arbitrary scale.  Of course, assessing potential is even harder than assessing someone's current state.

In a practical world, I know that this ideal is impossible.  Subjective assessments are always difficult, and even more difficult to standardize.  They're also resource-consuming, and we're already wasting huge amounts of effort with standardized testing.

So, I really don't have an answer to my own challenge.  I truly wish that I did.

Standardized tests

Over on Pharyngula, PZ Myers posted a link to a very sad letter of resignation, written by a first year teacher.  The struggles of teachers, both in the public and private schools, are very familiar to me — that letter could easily have been written by someone I know.

In the comments to the post, Alon Levy wrote a comment containing something that I have tremendous issues with.

Once in a while somebody comes and suggests to make graduation contingent on passing a standardized tests, and out come all the idiots who think either that testing is inherently evil or that standardized tests measure anything but how good you are at taking standardized tests.

Nobody likes to be called an idiot, of course, but the cavalier dismissal of the opinions of many educators is flat out wrong.  At least he could provide some evidence that standardized testing has both necessary and sufficient value for the purpose he wants to use it.

Poem — The Rumblybumblysump

The Rumblybumblysump
Inspired by Edward Lear

Have you heard of the Rumblybumblysump?
Some say he comes in the night and eats the lump.
Some say he hides in the woods.
But she comes to dance the roods

No! no! no! It’s the Bumblyrumblyhump!
Some say he eats the gumps.
Some say he blums the dumps.
But he really drinks the sunks.

Copyright 2006, GK.

This was part of a class project on poetry.  Each student was assigned a poet to research.  Besides investigating and reporting on the poet's life and works, the student also had to write a poem in that poet's style.  The students illustrated their poems and read them at an assembly.  They were all good, but some of them were just fantastic.  G's friend got William Shakespere and did a very dark and magical poem that could have come straight from The Tempest.

G was assigned Edward Lear, which was quite appropriate.  He shares a love of drawing with Lear, along with a love of nonsense.  Here's the illustration for the poem.  Click on the image for a larger picture.