RSJ Reflections

 

SEASONS GREETINGS fellow Rancho San Juaners from the Chiu homestead here at the far west end of Via Zamora -- immediately adjacent to our local "Cape Pamplona" launch facility.  I’m writing this blogpost to share with you all our most recent home renovation project -- one that some of you may find of interest.  After considering various approaches of enclosing our 20' x 20' “Capistrano room” we have finally found (what we believe to be) the ideal solution for our needs.  

 

As we certainly love the "open feel” of the standard unenclosed Capistrano room, we also found that dealing with the omnipresent issues of dust and small “critters” (like lizards, frogs, mice, etc.) to be an ongoing challenge.  Not to mention the cool weather months of the year (starting now) when the space is essentially unusable except during daylight hours.  So we searched for a system which offered a similar “open look”, yet also provided security and protection from the aforementioned natural elements.  And lastly, of course, the flexibility of allowing the system to be opened/closed to virtually any desired level on any given day.  

 

The choices were not too many as most of the solutions were the more common "La Cantina" style patio doors systems similar to the one that the builder installed originally.  There are many manufacturers of these types of systems (La Cantina, Millgard, etc.), and they all generally feature thick frame structures around the glass periphery, which aren't unattractive per sé, but blocked off too much outward visibility and looked too "busy" in an architectural and aesthetic sense.  Ultimately, our solution of choice was the more contemporary and minimal "frameless glass door" system by a company based in San Diego — CoverGlass USA (http://www.coverglassusa.com).  The system that they offer are sliding panels of very sturdy 1/2"-laminated tempered glass which glide on tracks, featuring individual panels that stack compactly on either side (or both sides) of the opening.

 

For those who would like to see the system in person, what we're planning on doing is to host an "open patio" in the new year, most likely sometime in February after the holiday rush has subsided.  We'll keep you all posted on when this is going to be, but in the meantime feel free to check out the CoverGlass USA website.  Also they do have a showroom location here in Orange county as well, at 2426 Newport Blvd, Unit E, Costa Mesa 92627.

 

Incidentally, since I also volunteer as the "webmaster" for our association, if anyone has any comments and/or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to us via the "Contact Us" navigation link in the header ... otherwise wishing everyone a SAFE and HEALTHFUL holiday season ... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

 

Here, behind the scenes of the website committee, we have been quietly developing a cool feature that was proposed by our new website committee member/volunteer Ron Kessler of Via Zamora.

With his extensive background in computer science and technology, he proposed an idea to the Board that we create a paint database of all the 140 homes in Valinda and Mirador.  Information for the paint colors existed, but only in hardcopy form, and it was very hard to make sense out of it effectively.

So without further ado, Ron quietly set forth in his garage/workshop/office, and in a little over a week produced a working application which listed all the various paint and trim colors for each and every house in the 70-home Valinda tract - selectable by street address.

So once you select your house (in the Valinda tract for the time being only), you will be able to determine the actual builder specs of the exterior stucco walls, the raised foam areas, the trim detail, and lastly the accent colors.

Furthermore, not only do you see the paint color callouts, but each of the four colors is linked to the Sherwin-Williams website which will give you further detail on that paint specification and its “neighboring” family of colors.

 

The URL for this database is located at http://www.rpkessler.com/rsj/.  Another feature of this system is that it will also list other homes within the tract with an identical paint scheme.

Unfortunately, we are unable to complete the database for the Mirador paint colors at this time due to incomplete and confusing information from the builder - but we are awaiting further information from them, and as soon as we get definitive answers regarding the actual paint colors used in each of the 70 Mirador homes, we are in a temporary holding pattern. As soon as we have made any additional progress in this area we will certainly update the community.

Many thanks to the proactive efforts of Ron for this very useful application!

 

Bert Chiu

Website Committee Chair