Remodeling Talk...

Avoid Setbacks & Unexpected Costs

It’s all about careful, advanced planning…

Home remodeling is an elaborate process, with many steps that must be executed in the proper sequence. Inexperienced remodelers and their customers often make critical decisions too late and suffer setbacks and unexpected costs as a result. What follows are a few of the most common examples to illustrate just how important it is for a remodeler to involve the customer, make mutual decisions, and execute steps in the proper sequence.

or the sinks placed lower in a kids’ bathroom. The plumbing must be set in advance of the final installations.

3. Kitchen Appliances

1. Light Fixtures

Though it seems like a final cosmetic touch, lighting decisions must be made at the rough-in stage because fixtures require different types of electrical wiring and precise placement behind the walls. If you want a dining room chandelier centered over your table, the remodeler needs to know the size of the fixture and the placement of the table at the electric rough stage. Sometimes it’s enough to know that you want a certain type of fixture in a certain place, but at other times, an experienced remodeler will ask you for exact specifications.

2. Plumbing Fixtures

Finish-out fixtures – some of which may seem purely aesthetic – must also be decided early. That’s because plumbing fixtures come with components that must be installed before the sheetrock and tile are put up. You may also want to customize their layout. Maybe you’d like the shower head installed higher if you’re tall,

Kitchen appliances require especially careful, advance planning. For instance, a 48-inch professional style range and other non-standard appliances need to be planned early so that the kitchen can be designed around them. Cabinet decisions are made after the framing and structural shapes are finalized. This is counter-intuitive (no pun intended) for new remodelers and homeowners attempting their first remodel, and delays and added expenses are often the result.

We’ll help you avoid these problems by involving you early and often in all of the important decisions we make together.

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working on the (garden) railroad

Stanley Schere started working on the garden railroad in his backyard 30 years ago. He has 1,000 feet of track, 13 locomotives, 60 train cars and 11 handmade buildings, but this miniature railroad is never finished. “The devil’s in the details,” Schere says. “I like to do things that are different. I like realistic details.” A covered bridge over the tracks features miniature workers, frozen in their work to finish up the roof, for example. Schere built that bridge and 10 other buildings from plans, and he puts his personal stamp on each one. He adds steps and ladders where they would make sense, and also signs, lights, flagpoles and people. The engine house has a slate roof composed of tiny tiles. The houses and apartment buildings are based on ones Schere saw in Galveston. He also buys birdhouses at Walmart and makes them over to fit into his railroad, since they are very close to the proper scale. Schere built his first model train car when he was about 15 years old. It was a Missouri-Kansas-Texas car, from a line known as “the Katy,” and that is still his favorite line. “They’re hard to find because it’s one of those railroads that no longer exists,” he says. He recounts a three- minute version of the Katy’s history, hinting at a vast knowledge of the railroad business, past and present. He’s held a lifelong passion for all things rail. Schere’s garden trains are a little bigger than what most people imagine when they think of model trains. The cars are 17-20.5 inches long and almost 7 inches high, and his track is about 2 feet off the ground. This isn’t a cheap hobby. Schere says a locomotive can cost between $250-$600, and each car costs between $70-$115. “It’s expensive, but you don’t blow all that money at one time,” he says. “Four feet of track costs about $20, for example.” Schere created this railroad world over many years because it makes him happy, and he’s happy to share it with anyone who wants to see. A few times, he’s passed out fliers in his East Dallas neighborhood, inviting neighbors to see the trains run. Few ever come, but Schere runs them frequently anyway. He does it for the joy of conducting trains.

—Rachel Stone

Slideshow

Q&A: Sally Rodriguez

She is a coordinator for the Dallas Park and Recreation Department’s planning, design and construction division, but Sally Rodriguez is also, unofficially, the department’s historian. It’s a job she stumbled upon, much like she did the hundreds of aerial photos and historical renderings unearthed over the years as Rodriguez has combed through closets and file cabinets. Two years ago, she compiled her White RockLake finds into a book, and for the next few months, Rodriguez will share further historical images of neighborhood parks and recreation centers in the pages of the Advocate

Did you play in Dallas parks as a child? I grew up in the L Streets, and McCree Park was just across Plano Road. I probably spent more time in the creek than actually in the park. I also spent a lot of time running around Flag Pole Hill through the cedar trees with my friends, as most kids probably do.

You managed rec centers and parks for years before moving to city hall in 2001. At what point did you become the department’s historian?

What I tell people is the first year I was here, I was in a position no one had ever had before, so besides learning the trade, I started looking in closets. It’s amazing what you can find in closets. I was looking for something in the large flat files. That’s where they have all the plans laid out flat on large pieces of paper. As I was digging through, I found a very large aerial of White Rock Lake from 1942. No one had ever seen it. Some of it is just finding things people had forgotten were in the files. I was looking for something in Hamilton Park, and I found a hand-colored rendering of the pavilion there that is now being restored. That still happens — I’m going for one thing, and then I end up finding something else.

Do you dig constantly? I work with the architects in the back as they do restoration projects, and I go and find backup material for them. One of the things that everybody in the back knew about was these aerial photos. The first Christmas I was here, when it was really quiet, I found a three-drawer file cabinet full of aerial photos. They were used by the park planners, put in plastic sleeves and drawn on, very much like today’s planners use GIS [geographic information systems] on the computer. But what the aerial photos do is tell stories of communities as they develop.

Do you have a favorite part of Dallas park history? My favorite topic is White Rock and the Civilian Conservation Corps [CCC]. After having attended several reunions of those alumni, I have a very soft place in my heart for them. The history of our country passed through them. Most of them were poor, the Depression hit them very hard, and this was one of those ways out. A lot of them got the education they needed, the training they needed, and a lot of them then went into World War II. I have met a lot of three-Cers who were also Pearl Harbor survivors, and if you go to our state and national parks and look at the work they did, it’s still around and it’s still very meaningful. You know, there’s just not very many municipal parks that have CCC work in them. It’s mostly state and national parks. So we have a real treasure in that we have a lot of structures at White Rock.

Your favorite park is White Rock, I assume?

Yes. It’s part of everybody’s story. I remember the first time I took my daughter to ride bikes around the lake. I remember “submarine races” — for anybody my age or older, that’s what we called parking at the lake. I learn stuff when I got out and do presentations, like the number of people who met their sweethearts at White Rock. The history of White Rock kind of transects people’s lives if they grew up in the area, and that’s why White Rock is so beloved.

—Keri Mitchell