John White Sewer Line Video

John White Sewer Line Video

Using a push rod fiber optic camera, drains are probed, recorded on video.

When a property lacks a proper "clean-out", or a direct drain access, inspectors often have to enter through a roof vent, or by removing a toilet.

Most of the sewer lines I've inspected were an amalgamation of ABS plastic, cast iron, and clay. Rarely I see copper drains, a material usually reserved for supply lines.

Sometimes the inspection not only seeks to ascertain the condition of the pipe, but to prove a city sewer connection. While I've only encountered a single property without a sewer connection, many properties have no sewer connection permit on file (there isn't a connection permit requirement). This permitting detail is usually revealed in the Los Angeles City Residential Property Records Report, also called the 9A.


Operators also utilize a Locator, which can pinpoint the snake's progress and depth. Locations are marked with fluorescent paint or small flags.

On my beat, most drains exit the rear of homes, possibly towards an early septic, and then turn 90 degrees toward a driveway or sideyard, along which they travel to the street. Some continue through rear yards away from the street, en route to an alley connection.

The John White people record to DVD, adding narration, a guide through a watery world that sometimes includes insect life. Great fun for the kids!

The service costs around $300.00.

A is for Architecture

My son attends an LAUSD charter school South of downtown.
He's learning the essentials, letters and numbers, social skills and spanish, and a little about the nearby residential architecture--that's my contribution.

I perform most of the pickups and drop-offs, varying my route, sometimes heading aimlessly East or South, criss-crossing the surrounding neighborhoods, furthering his education.

There's a series of choice tracts around the school: the A.J. Blake tract (a gun shaped block between Maple and Crawford, E. 36th Pl. and E. 37th St., plus the area between 36th St. and Pl.), Strong and Dickinson's Woodlawn Tract (a triangular shaped block South of E. 37th St. pinched between Woodlawn Ave and Woodlawn Ct.), the Ford tract East of Crawford, and the topper: Potter's Woodlawn.

All of these images are from the astonishing collection of homes in the Potter's Woodlawn tract.
The oldest homes in Potter's Woodlawn were built in 1886, but most date 1899 to 1904, though there's a great range including some 1920's infill.

Like any L.A. neighborhood with superb, albeit sometimes neglected, turn of the century architecture, and a less than affluent core of residents, L.A.U.S.D. has gobbled up dismayingly large swaths. Still E. 36th St. between Main and Maple is a sight to behold. I'll return to some of these images for more detailed descriptions.

Post Season Baseball

Rooting Interests

The Rockies are compelling. The Red Sox franchise steeped in mythology. But make no mistake, I'm pulling for Cleveland. I always root for the longest suffering.

Joyously, drought sufferers the Red Sox and White Sox have captured two of the last three championships. The Angels 2002 title nearly satisfied the criteria, except it came at the expense of the Giants (whose last championship was in 1954). It isn't that I dislike a dynasty, but I prefer happiness spread around. (The economists equivalent of wealth redistribution.) The Indians haven't claimed the top spot since 1948. Only the Cubs famine is longer (1908).

I rummaged through my post card collection and I found these two Cleveland scenes. The first is a linen card, probably early 1950's, of Municipal Stadium, the Indians home before Jacobs Field. The description on the rear reads, Cleveland's Municipal Stadium from the Lake Erie side. It is an iron and concrete structure seating 78,000 persons and costing $2,500,000.


The second postcard is older and likely commemorates an industrial league playoff between either the Omaha Panhandlers and the Cleveland White Auto or the Hanna Cleaners and Telling Strollers, played in 1914 or 1915 in front of 100,000 people at Brookside Park.
Brookside Park, became one of Cleveland's first municipal parks in the 1890's, is well known for summer sporting contests and serves as the home of the Cleveland Baseball Federation, the oldest amateur baseball organization in the country (1910).

Go Tribe!

Architectural Musings/Sunday update

I've been fiddling with this entry the last couple days. It's a test submission, as I attempt to alter the blog, allow for comments, create new links, and organize by category. These changes are all in progress. In the meantime please give this a re-read as I've added commentary.

I took this still in the Broadway Square area.

Obviously the massing typifies the Craftsman style, while the treatment in the two gables is atypical.

Siding applied vertically or in varying directions (see photo below, from the Adams-Normandie area) was common in the Stick style, though here the ends are carved (almost pendant like), and the effect is more reminiscent of the Swiss Chalet style, wherein rough cut boards were sometimes nailed to a wooden underlayment.


It also reminds of the Tudor style, renowned for half-timbering, mimicking Medieval infilled timber framing.

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Saturday October 13th from 1 - 3 pm, I'm having an open at 1114 W. 40th Pl., a Craftsman duplex near the Southwest corner of Exposition Park.




Sunday October 14th from 2 - 5 pm, 2361 W. 20th St. will be open. More on 2361 W. 20th St this week.

New City Living Realty Listing

My broker has listed 2102 Hillcrest, located a block West of West Blvd., and one block South of Washington Blvd., in the Washington Boulevard Arts district.

I've got the means to deal on this one early, so perk up. Hillcrest will be open next Tuesday from 11 - 2. (as will 2361 W. 20th St.)


The fireplace and chimney were rebuilt post Northridge. It's one of the most tasteful rebuilds I've seen, with original built-in bench seats on either side.





The garage was improved with permit, doors and windows added, along with a toilet and sink.

$619,000.00

More details to come.

Trading Vintage Plumbing

When John offered up this vitreous monster, a pillbox tank with a bead and reel-like design, the trading got heavy. I countered with a splendid deco tank, plus a 20's wall mount sink with fab backsplash. Other pieces emerged.

It was great, all that talk about vintage plumbing, the Trenton mills, and early sanitary engineering. John and I completely lost track of time, it got dark, and finally our spouses intervened. They seemed sore. 'What up with that'?

Mitt Readers

With purchase volume in steep decline, in a marketplace laden with challenges, real estate agents and financial services people are doing what they do best--rationalizing.

Many are championing the slowdown, with delusory party chatter such as, "I didn't care for that frenzied market, it was neither grounded nor compassionate"; or, "that time was unsupportable, bad for the industry, I'm better suited to a normalized market". Still others praise the current market conditions as,"clearing the gold rushers, returning quality and service to the marketplace, like a fire that reseeds the forest."

What a bunch of malarchy. "Absolutely," I want to respond dryly, "who needed all those quick-moving transactions and expense-less commissions--I sure didn't. Shoot, I'm not even sure if I cashed all those checks."

Of course, I mostly represented buyers before the last two years, so I didn't get to partake fully in the salad days. Now my representation is split more 60/40, buyers/sellers. Humorously some of the frightfully condescending listing agents (as in, "I handle only listings ahem"), conveniently remember me now, and my varied group of clients . "You always had buyers," their grovel begins, en route to a description of their 59 junker pieces of inventory.

Of course the prophets, sibyls, and gurus are full of hooey too. Some were predicting a market collapse as early as 2002. Now that the storm clouds have finally amassed, the new headline grabbing targets the market nadir. Housing horoscopists, harnessing the shock factor, and pandering to media's extremist impulses, offer absurdly wide-ranging value loss predictions.
Some augurs are trying to redeem their horrid handicapping, with righteous claims of vindication. As if predicting change is any big deal. Things always change, it's about knowing when.

Just ask a bookie.

Raised Panels

My wife photographs baking creations to share with fellow foodies. Camera phone photos, text, text, text; camera phone photos, text, text, text.

I like to take photographs of panelling. Some of the most primo panelling, most wonderous wainscots, are found in museums. A wainscot, is a decorative facing applied to the lower portion of an interior partition or wall.

Reminder: I'll have 2361 W. 20th St. open tomorrow from 11 - 2:30, and 1114 W. 40th Place open from noon - 2. Both houses boast a board-and-batten wainscot in the dining room. A quintessential Craftsman-style feature.

Boiserie (often used in the plural boiseries) is the term used to define particularly ornate decorative (or carved) panelling, particularly popular in 17th & 18th century French interior design.

A boiserie, unlike wainscotting, can be floor to ceiling.

Spelling Bee

Cimarron St. runs North to South, mostly alongside and parallel to Arlington Boulevard, through numerous mid city and South L.A. neighborhoods.

For what was Cimarron named? There's several possibilities: a river in Northeastern New Mexico, wild, mountainous sheep, a strong tea drink of Portuguese origin (chimarrao). In Spanish, cimarron refers to African slaves who ran away from Spanish masters.

Lately and for reasons I couldn't account, I'd trouble spelling the word, often adding a second "m." On a walk last week, the source of my spelling discomfiture became clear, different street sign renditions.

Both photographs were taken at the intersection of 27th & Cimarron. Below and above.

Sunday's Action

I've 2361 W. 20th St. open Sunday October 7, from 2 - 4 pm, following an unsuccessful escrow terminated Friday. The property actually shows better now, than during our first marketing stint, in part because the garage has been cleaned and organized.





2361'll be on the "caravan" Tuesday as well, from 11 - 2:30. $779,000.





Brokerage associate Suzie Henderson will host my other Tuesday open at 1114 W. 40th Place (noon to 2). A West Park duplex, perhaps better suited to single family use. I'll only offer 40th Place a couple weeks longer. (Should it remain taker-less, it'll return to rental duty.) The price? An eye-tearingly low $529,000 for over 2100 square feet and a nifty two car detached garage, within sprinting distance of USC.

The Parrots of South Central

The parrots are back, in large number. Mostly Mitred Conures or Mitred Parakeets (Aratinga mitrada), natives of Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina, they congregate in South Central every fall to forage on ripening palm dates.

Endangered in many parts of the world, the wild parrot population is booming in Southern California. According to ornithologists, the birds are sustained by a prevalence of exotic plantings, magnolia flowers, figs, kumquats, and dates.

While it's illegal to set loose non-native birds, a few observers credit the emancipation of pet store birds in San Gabriel, the release of a private aviary in Malibu (during the 1997 fires), and botched smuggling (some imports are banned), with the basis for much of the population.

Southern California has thousands on parrots (estimates run as high as 40,000), divided amongst ten species. The Mitred Conures that invade Jefferson and Arlington Parks measure 15 inches in length, and are green, with red spots on their wings, and small patches of red on their heads.

Impossibly loud, the squawking parrots drown street noise, air conditioner hum, even the low rumble of passing jets. It's hard to mind though, their appearance seems so unlikely, almost magical.

Things I Found in September

1. Five dollar bill. In the gutter of 37th St. near Maple. The bill was folded in half, submerged in black water. Spread on the dash, it was dry before I crossed Figueroa. I'll wash my hands anytime for $5.

2. Chair. Mahogany mission-style desk chair. Left behind by renters on 31st St near Arlington. Departing residents discourteously topped the parkway with abandoned dreck. Black collection containers, early to the curb, were over-stuffed with clothing and plastic organization aids. Other furniture included a broken headboard crowded with Disney characters.

3. 1930's - 40's alarm clock. On Arbor Vitae, near Van Ness. Doesn't seem to work, though I haven't opened it up. Anybody want it?