BungleHome

Return of the Living Dead

2010-11-29T17:08:00.000-08:00

It's been ALMOST 2 years (well, minus one day) since my last posting here. I hope to get a few more entries off in the few remaining days in our first home. I gather that that line resonnates something fierce with many fellow housebloggers, what with the zeitgeists haunting about since the "Burst", as it's been called. The tale I have to tell is rife with many timely testimonials of the worldwide news threads, and perhaps there is something to gleen from this personal angle. So, I invite you to take my hand as I walk you through our story, of First-Time Home Ownership, vintage restoration and modern suitability, parenthood, being hunted, survival and yet falling prey to the 'system'. Consider this as a manuscript for our first publication (in the era of 'blogs, does this really carry as much gravity anylonger?). Stay tuned for our first-of-many installments, sure to keep your interest rivetted, without giving anything away yet.

Tainted

2008-12-01T23:29:00.001-08:00

I love living in an old neighborhood. I still seem to know more about my neighboring houses than about the occupants inside after 2+ years here. Still, the neighboring acquaintances I have cannot help but be colored by the histories of the houses they live in.

Take the first house that was built on our street, the ‘Patriarch’ we call it. The several large houses about it had been built for the owner’s children’s families about 10+ years later. It is hard to see our neighbors of the ‘Patriarch’ as NOT the Head of our Street, as though they just inherited the title [the remnants of the Original family are long gone now].

The High Style Queen Anne built for a Dress Maker still seems to house an uptight household, and the Arts & Crafts owners all seem mellow, approachable and just the right fit. Projectionism, indeed…but perhaps not entirely.

We are drawn to things that can reflect ourselves positively (in our own mind). Dog Owners are drawn to breeds/mixes that suit their lifestyle and pace. A car is not always a good reflection of oneself because (mostly for economic reasons) a car is sometimes just a car, not something we had much say in acquiring.

So is the same reservation held for homeowners? Surely the percentage of those whom can afford whatever they so desire is rather insignificant. We all settle to some degree on our wants/needs and what we can barely afford. But I think the impetus to NOT SETTLE as much as one can in regards to homeownership is far stronger than for, say, a vehicleownership. Home is HOME, and for those that find themselves drawn to more vintage neighborhoods (and high-maintenance houses), the quasi-tangible ambience of a house’s essence become a driving factor, and thus, a home becomes a public ‘reflection’ of ones household.

The Sticks and Stones of this Home are as much the Blood and Bones of our Family. Bless us all.

Still Alive

2008-11-15T08:36:00.000-08:00

With the last entry here dating back in July (4 months ago), it's time to either abandon this blog altogether or be more active with it. Fittingly, that seems to be the general status around here, with everything in flux. We are fighting to keep the mortgage from foreclosure and I am now in the market for a new job. Add to that the fact that our family car was totaled in front of our house not two weeks ago (Hit & Run) and our insurance wants to total the car for ~$1500 (which is about 15% of what was JUST put into the car). BIG CHANGES are ahead whichever way they turn out.

So, back to our Prairie Bungalow and her re-habilitation:

Work has been progressing in the interim, and I do have picture to share soon. Currently, we have been working on an overalll re-design to the floorplan as well as preparing one wainscotting panel in the Dining room for finishing.

On the design, we are primarily aiming to:

- Add a master Bedroom, Bath and Studio on a new second floor (stairs in kitchen)
- Add a Laundry Room below the main floor

- Re-configure Kitchen

- Make Built-In Buffet a pass-through to Kitchen

- Eliminate closet with the window on the front porch

- Eliminate closet with 3' depth and provide add'l 1' to bathroom

- Provide REAL closets for the two existing bedrooms

- Re-design Bathroom with add'l 1' and new bathtub (currently shower stall only)

Big list, I know, and it hasn't been exactly easy. We have not been satisfied with the stair configuration to get to the second floor. I also am not pleased with the overall form of the house after our first pass (too boxy, not articuated, and certainly not "Prairie"). We are not worried about this as we are still in our early schematic design to see what fits.

For now, here is what how the Entry should work out::

"As-Is" with the trim/base removed and the abrupt little closet wall abutting the door -

And here is the proposal (sans 2' square windows on either side - modeling laziness, not elimination). Note the inclusion of the bench seat along the back wall. We are intending to have this larger Foyer echo the woodwork/paneling in the Dining room, that is with less "wall" space for color.

Home Again, Home Again, Jigety-jig

2008-07-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

Michaela made the front page of the Napa-Solano paper today! Below is the link to the same article.

http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_9817935

As we have very recently have moved back home after a 3 month stay at Stanford's Ronald McDonald House, we have yet to resume our happy housemaking efforts. There is still much to unpack and put away. But very soon we will have Bungalow-wise entries to post. Stay tuned!

1-2, Cha-Cha-Cha

2008-06-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of our newest family member, Merril Sophie. As you can see, she likes to dance. Now I know why you're supposed to papoose the little wiggly ones. She is only 2 weeks old in this set and happily mews like a kitten.

Recapitulation

2008-06-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

Much time has passed since I seriously "houseblogged" (~1 year). This pretty much means that I have previously had little to blog about house-wise. Before I get into the Here-n-Now, lets start off with a quick summary:

2006 - Fall & Winter
- We close the deal on our first house, after much hunting in a blood-thirsty market [peak of prices, no less]
- Initial preparations begin, those that make "living with" difficult; many lessons are learned ['if it matters, do it yourself' if you can,for example]

2007 - Spring
- We move in and the progress slows to a crawl as our infant learns to do so herself.

2007 - Summer
- We confront our first domestic emergency.
- Our firstborn gets a much-needed Heart operation and spends the whole season in Hospital.

2007 - Fall & Winter
- We get back into the swing of Life and spend most of our time just being together in an half(done)house. Little house improvements are made, while fewer are mentioned here [perhaps a post-post is in order...]

2008 - Present
All of this year has been about our nuclear family sofar. The first part was dealing with the diagnosis that our firstborn's heart was actually failing, despite the surgeries. We did all we could to get her on the Heart Recipient's Transplant List, and a mere 55 days later we get the Call. We also got a little visitor (aka - daughter #3 is born).

TODAY

We are a week away from reuniting back at our bayside prarie palace, as Michaela should be relased from Stanford [Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital] soon. My gas bill will drop by 2/3rds and we can start to look at real home improvements/restorations. It won't be long now until our first two daughters can wield a hammer...

....he...heLOOO.....LO!

2008-06-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

[is this thing on?] WOW it has been a while since I have 'blogged on this thing!!!!

Well, much has changed since we last logged in (August 2007). We now have THREE daughters!!!! And I am MORE pleased than PUNCH!!!! Imagine coming home to (4) Girls!!!! I am the luckiest guy on the planet!!!! The latest one is dubbed "Merril Sophie" [Pictures will follow]. This one is (so far) SO QUIET! She has little to complain about (except the shortage of Daddy's cuddles).

Michaela [our First Born] received an "Heart Transplant" on the Day known as "April Fool's Day" this year [2008](though no Fool was to be found). She dealt with the first month as the best of any, and is soon on her way HOME!!! It has been rough and it has been scary, but she has still been with us and we are the better for it! We are bound for the Berkeley Kite Festival and the 4th of July Fireworks (PLACE to be determined). Aftewrwards, the Discovery Kingdom is NEXT on our list. we aare a FULL family now!

~mgk

Homehomehome...We Are HOME!

2007-08-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

Wow! We have been home one week now...this is after an additional month-long stay in-hospital (totalling 2 months). I hadn't bothered to update the houseblog yet because, well, no house-related progress had been made during the interim. This all started on May 30th, when our 3 yo daughter who has Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) went in for an open-heart surgery [not a direct part of her 3-part surgery]. After a month in recovery, we went home, only to return back to the hospital within a week. In short, she developed a further infection and her life was in serious danger for some time. There was plenty of drama to go with that stay, and she was so depressed for most of that time.

During that time, I focused my blog-writing prowess on her 'blog [carepages.com], and completely neglected the house & it's 'blog. I spent most of my time driving, as I work Northwest of home (1-2 hours), and the hospital was Southwest (~2-3 hours). I have written enough for a book on her carepage by now, and if you care for the details, I will happily point the way. So for here, let me just say that Michaela is doing very well now and is her happy charming self again. The only caveat is that her total heart-function is still not very strong, which means that she may not be a candidate for the 3rd heart surgery (Fontan)...this would then mean that she may be getting a heart transplant before she turns 5.

So, I suppose I now have a fresh set of eyes to look over the house and the projects I have started (read as: NOT FINISHED). I will be making a new priority list and endeavor to start marking off the tasks ASAP, because like all home owners, the task not-yet-started is infinitely more sexy than the one that stares at you unfinished for months...and I DON'T need any more of those.

In no particular order, here are a few of those:
- install door hardware on back door
- finish installing last ~25 sq.ft of hardwood flooring
- install toe plates for new wood floor
- prime & paint plaster walls in dining room
- strip paint from built-in bookcases & china cabinet
- sand wood trims, rails & built-ins in living and dining room
- shellac all that wood (and find another source of quality shellac)
- replace 8 mini-lites in entry door with beveled glass
- replace plumbing with copper tubing

My wish list is actually infinitely longer, but this would quell my angst for some time.

Drama-mine

2007-06-27T13:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since our 3yo's heart surgery began. Last week, she was able to come home, not so much because she was doing better, but because she was doing worse staying in the hospital. With so many alarms, nurses, doctors (& residents) "messing" with her, wagging needles and probes about, her anxieties hit a threshold and she began to do worse. After we bargained to get her home and recover in the comfort of her home, she started to do well again...until this past weekend.

By Sunday, she had developed a 102° F fever, was overcome with fits of coughing and her Oxygen Saturation levels dropped. We took her in to her pedatrician, who deferred to her to her cardiologist, who had her admitted into the Pediatric Cardiac ICU discharge wing, where she was moved to the full PCICU. This, by the way, is at her former hospital where her former surgeon commands. She tests positive for a bacterial infection somewhere about her chest, and the threat of another open heart surgery looms overhead.

The akwardness of facing her former doctor had been palpable and complicated matters, and with this possibility of another operation, she is being moved yet again to Stanford...where she undergo another battery of testing and whatnot. We feel naueous.

Camping a l'Hôpital

2007-06-17T13:20:00.000-07:00

Michaela (our 3 year old with HLHS) is still in the hospital (3 weeks now). Since my last posting, she has bounced back to ICU 2 more times and the stay has not been jolly. It has been decided that she has Paradoxical Vocal Cord Dysfunction. The paradox is that there is no physiological reason for her to have difficulty breathing or swallowing, however a serious problem persists such that her Oxygen Saturations drop to about 40% and her heart rate climbs to 160 bpm.

Basically, this is a psychosomatic condition that is induced by stress, anxiety or aggitation. While some people clench or grind their teeth involuntarily due to stress, she closes off her vocal cords thereby restricting the flow of air into her lungs. The Ears/Nose/Throat Docs wanted to either permanantly paralyze a vocal cord or leave her with a Tracheostomy to overcome this problem, thinking psychotherapy ineffective for her now. Our answer was "absolutley not". First, neither "fix" the problem, and second, both are fraught with major risks of their own and severely reduce her quality-of-life (no voice, lifelong feeding by tube...)

Our goal was for her to get out of the hospital environment ASAP (thereby eliminating the major source of stress) and go from there; Yoga for Kids, and the like. Well, all this has been the brief description of the saga here, but I'm sure you can understand that it has not been easy. Ironically, however, the heart surgery portion of this stay has been great...it's just this "other" stuff that has come up in the meantime to make this a miserable experience. How much of home repair is like this, I ponder.....

The Girl is Alright

2007-06-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

Michaela, our 3 year old with a congenital heart defect, had a good heart surgery last week at Stanford. Amazingly, they were able to perform this procedure without putting her on bypass, and without lowering her body/brain temerature to ~16°C!!! This has made an enormous difference on her recovery, which seems to be progressing along swimmingly.

They were, however, suprized to find an infection that had been "simmering away for the last 2½ years", encased within some scar tissue. This was on an abandoned Gore-Tex shunt that joined her right ventricle to her pulmonary artery that was left inside after her second heart surgery. In other words, it had been contaminated by her previous surgeon!!! Had this inflamed and burst it's cocoon, it would surely have been fatal for her, and it could have happened at ANY time.

Of course, there are a number of complications, like having all her IV-sites blown, and a possible temporary or permanant vocal chord paralyzed, and still having oxygen saturations in the 65-70% range, rather than the upper 80's (you and I are at about 100%...give or take). But it is still early in the recovery process and she looks marvelously well. Very little swelling and warm hands/feet for the first time in her life. Here she is after a visit from Grandma.

2-chamber heart

2007-05-30T01:30:00.000-07:00

No house was harmed in the making of this post. Instead, we spent all day with our 3 year old, Michaela, as she underwent a battery of tests for Pre-Op at Stanford's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For those of you who are unaware, Michaela was born with a serious congenital heart defect, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. This is where the left ventricle doesn't develop in utero, and therefore the aorta never fully develops. This is the part of the heart that distributes the oxygen-rich blood to the body, and should be the largest and strongest part of the heart.

We found out several months prior to her birth, and were given 3 options:
- Heart Transplant
- 3-Part Surgery
- "Compassionate" Care.

The later option means you take your child home without medical intervention until they expire 2-10 days later. Until about 20 years ago, this was the only option. The former two options became available in the early 80's. Baby Fae was one of the first infant transplant recipients, although she lived only a few days. We, however, chose the 3-stage surgeries for our precious daughter, and pray every day that we made the right decision. It means that she will live with a 2-chamber heart, and that heart would have to work twice as hard for her.

Her first operation, call the Norwood procedure, was performed at 4-days old and the second stage, called the Glenn procedure, was done at 4-months. I could write reams of copy on all that has transpired through those days, but I shall refrain. Instead, I will share this: We have decided to move her surgical services from her previous hospital (UCSF) to Stanford for another mini-reams-worth of reasons.

She isn't yet ready for the 3rd stage, called the Fontan, where they complete and close the 2-chamber heart system, and so an additional heart surgery is needed. The issue is to open up the bottleneck in her aorta where the completely reconstructed arch meets the existing transcending aorta. The pinch you see at the top is caused by scar tissue that just wouldn't grow with her. Angioplasties are just not effective on this. Unaddressed, it would force undue pressure on the heart, valves and lungs.

She has this new proceedure planned in the next 2 days. Of particular concern is that she will be on bypass for a signficant ammount of time, and the "goods" are in a rather tricky spot to get at. She is also old enough to understand what is going on.

Although the prognisis is quite good, it still scares us aplenty, and she could certainly use your prayers. So if you sincerely wish to know more, email me and I would be happy to answer any questions and invite you to her care page we have set up. Otherwise I plan to leave short update posts on this as it progresses.

The Bane...part 3 - Getting Ready For The Sequel

2007-05-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

So the rotted, perforated, rusty pipe has been replaced (albeit temporarily) from the "box" to where it climbs it way up our embankment, which ammounts for about linear 7' feet. And YET we still have a leak somewhere!!! Hmmm, make that "somewheres" because it seems to be leaking in several places: Up top, in the middle, and at the end.

The rate of the leak is significantly less that it was with the "sieve", but I am going to have to get to it sooner than I planned. Replacing our entire plumbing line has now claimed top spot in my ToDo list.

As of now, I plan to replace it all with copper, but my final decision has yet to be made on that. There is a significant learning curve for me regarding brazing copper tubing, whereas CPVC gluing seems pretty straight-forward. There's also the expense issue as copper prices seems to be at its all-time high. But I still like the anti-bacterial properties of copper and feel that it somehow is more durable (though I doubt I can substantiate that belief). Noise level is a non-issue for us if it is even a issue in the first place. Well here are the issues I have ready about in the debate of Copper versus Chlorinated PolyVinyl Chloride. Here's were I do my Tevye impersonation:

"On One Hand....On The Other Hand..."

- Copper has a long track record.......CPVC is new, unknown long-term effects
- CPVC is cheaper and req. few tools.......Copper is expensive and tool intensive
- Copper has anti-bacterial properties.......CPVC may leach some chemicals/toxins
- CPVC is faster to install.......Copper is expensive and work intensive
- Copper is a fine conductor of electricity, good for grounding (we don't yet have it)
- CPVC isn't prone to corrosion.......Copper will discolor, but is not likely to corrode
- Copper is flexible/impact resistant.......CPVC may snap upon shearing or impact
- CPVC is presumably quieter.....Copper makes some noise, but don't we all?
- Copper tubing is small and fits in small spaces......CPVC is fat and cumbersome
- ...

There IS no other hand:
- Copper has more size and fitting options
- Copper just looks better

If you have your own thoughts on this matter, please share your observations with me and leave a comment. I am a raw novice on plumbing, but I can be a fast learner.

The Bane...part 2

2007-05-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

First of all I must confess that I had nothing to do with this phase, being the actual repair, though I wish I could claim so. Instead, I went back to work, but even if I had been present, the best I could have accomplished would have been as a gopher (“go-for”); Plumbing is not my thing. Instead, after 3 trips to the hardware store, the WonderParents fixed this, so that we now have them to thank for our once again running water.

Conquerage

Day 2 began with the parental units cutting into the sidewalk. The diamond saw didn’t quite reach the full thickness of the slab, so our kind neighbor lent a hand. Being a concrete contractor, he had the tools to help finish that part of the job. Hurrah for compassionate good neighbors!!! We are again so lucky.

As they set about the task of replacing the leaky pipe, they discovered just how brittle the 50+ year pipe was. This resulted in having to replace the pipe all the way from the meter to the ivy (~+6'). Working down the rabbit hole was just too confining so the already crumbling wall came down. No worries there as it already needed to be replaced anyways.

Horror

Once the pipe was exposed, the source of this leak was obvious. Perforated is one word. Swiss cheese are a few more as are “DID WE DRINK WATER FROM THAT??!?!?” Well, we are so glad at least our little girls drank only bottled water. Just look at that pipe interior (below). Sometimes it’s just better to not know. But this is how I had imagined all municipal (and domestic) plumbing pipes to look like inside. Not that I know for sure, but those I suppose are deep calcium deposits. But there are so many holes that I’m sure some rust got in there.

But then again, the water never tasted nor looked tainted by iron or rust. So in all likelihood, the constant high pressure would have forced any loose particles out rather than in the line. Never did a glass of water have little specks in the bottom, and laundry whites still looked relatively white, so I guess we are safe, BUT STILL…

Another Item for the ToDo List

We will be replacing all our pipes before we drink from this tap again. I suppose we should just get it tested, but because the whole of the galvanized pipe we located was heavily rusted, we are resolved to just replace it anyways before it bursts, too. So over time we shall begin to lay a new line and re-plumb the house (and include the new and relocated fixtures we intend as well). And then we can just abandon this line. I intend to do this myself, and take my sweet time doing it, too. Plumbing lacks that sense of self-satisfaction of, lets say, painting. This shall be my induction into the not-so fine art of domestic plumbing. What joy!

But for now, we can bathe and wash and water. Now we just need to fix up that concrete frontage, until the next time...

The Bane of All Old House Owners...PART 1

2007-05-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

Plumbing!!! Though I’m sure Electrical runs a close second. When we looked at the sidewalk in front of our house on Sunday on our way out, we noticed a puddle of water. I dismissed it thinking that it was just runoff from a late night of watering the lawn (in which I fell asleep during for a few hours). So when we returned at the end of the day, the puddle was now a little spring, and water was now running down the gutter. I opened up the water meter box only to watch the number go whizzing by. Now either someone was taking a shower and doing the laundry while we were out, or we had ourselves a serious leak.

Shutdown

So I go and fill as many pitchers (for drinking) and buckets (for flushing) as I can find before I go and shut off the main. The sun had set and there was nothing to do about it until the morning. After a frantic end-of-Mothers’ Day call to my parents, I coerced them into coming to our rescue.

To The Rescue

As good parents skilled in Home Repair do, they came. All Monday morning we traced down the water line from the box to the house. We dug it up near the house, at the end of the lawn before the slope down to the street, and at the retaining wall at the foot of the stairs. Let me first say this: Digging amidst the ivy is no fun; hacking away at it with an ax, however, is. “Die, ivy! Die!” I kept thinking. The stuff never seems to go away, and it only keeps spreading. You may wonder why I hate ivy so, and I would tell you that rodents make homes in ivy, and transients park empty bottles (broken and half-empty) inside. As an aside, my Father-in-law, likes the ivy, and went to the trouble of purchasing and planting more ivy where we had previously made a bald spot! ...as if it wouldn't grow back on it's own.

In this photo, the pipe is marked by the screwdriver and the line roughlt followed the tape measure, flagged by sticks. A nice long screwdriver makes a good probe, btw. Now I will also admit that I was blaming the lawn crew whom I thought two weeks earlier had nicked the line with their rototill. The pipe is as shallow as 6” under. But as we flagged the pipe along the way, no where else did there seem any evidence of a leak other than close to the main box by the street. Digging out to the pipe elbows at the retaining wall to sidewalk was no fun either and took some time. It was deep and the soil was not only a dense clay, but also packed with softball sized rocks (presumably to protect the water pipe).

Locating the Leak

With the pipe elbows exposed, from the turn up from under the sidewalk to the turns from the retaining wall to the upslope, we turned the water back on. And we waited until the water would show. It appeared inside the box and on the other side of the retaining wall simultaneously (see topmost photo). The leak was somewhere in between the two, which means under the sidewalk on our side of the meter. This is our problem. This is a problem that will have to addressed on the next day as this day was nearly over. But at least we know where it is within 4'. Stay Tuned....because we are STILL without water!!!

...T'other side of the Fence

2007-05-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

...Where they say the grass is always greener. That was until now. In this entry, I wax about the new greenery we have. Yes, this is a Gardening Post, even tho I vowed to never do one previously. I do house-type stuff, not nature-type stuff; I prefer to leave that to, well, Nature. Roxana, on the other hand....

So we have this great front window in our Living Room, perched atop the hill in the Heritage District that even peeks at the SF Bay & Mare Island (in two places), even though the glazing suffers from sandblasting over-spray. But, as we look out to admire the view, our eyes are drawn to the lava rock & wild weed landscaping our front yard sports. Then we see the lush green grass our identical neighbor boasts. Green with envy, to say the least, especially because they have no children to make use of that turf and we have 2 growing little girls.

What would they do with a rock garden but throw them all about? (Lava) rock gardens are intended as a low maintenance landscaping solution, which is ironic because they breed an impenetrable network of weeds under that weed-barrier tarp. By the time that fabric is breached, it's too late...they're everywhere! Now, I don't actually have any pictures of this sorry state of our yard because it was just too unpleasant to look at and not worth the pixels. So, my father-in-law stepped in (in a very good way), and suprized us with a crew to install a lawn for us!!! How cool is that?

The first day was spent carting off all the lava rocks, weeds and fabric. Also, we had them rip up a few plants we had little concern over. The rose bush, we begrudgingly had relocated. I mean, what kind of person kills a plant that produces roses, anyways? The day ended with the clayish soil being rototilled.and about half the area being marked out for lawn-age as you see in the above photos. Day 2 was all about laying the turf down. Voila! a water-hungry plot of land! O! but it will be played on and avidly appreciaited by all.

And NOW we have this plushy green joy to look at outside our window. Much prettier than lava rock, wouldn't you say? Btw, that tree is a plum tree of some sort; pretty in the springtime. So, R has been busy with the gardening lately, with much continuing help from her father. A few new pots here, a dash of color there, and now it's starting to look quite homey. Soon, we will lose that CMU wall for something a bit nicer...and then there's the cursed ivy.

By the way, the picture to the left includes "the cat" in tow, after a brief escape to go chow on the new lawn. He has become ever more insistent on getting out since seing the new grass below his inside perch (the big window). Once he darts out, he begins eating grass at a furious rate, and eats even fast as you approach him. I suppose this is better than having to chase him around the yard. The young tree in the background (behind the Foxglove) is a Japanese Weeping Waterfall Maple. With it's lacey foliage, it remains rather small and takes the form of an umbrella...as long as we don't kill it someow. Here it is before it was planted, and you can still see the lava rock I was ranting about before it was removed.

Well, this all occurred two weeks ago, and now we have a new dillema. Just this weekend, we had out waterline burst, and I was certain the lawn crew had something to do with it. Come back soon, and I will relay the (ongoing) saga of Plumbing in the Anterior Dimension.

Lesson No. @!%!**#~@#!!

2007-05-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

Installing a light fixture in the dark: Don't

Okay, so this one may seem a bit obvious to all of you, but just you wait until You get that cherished light fixture you had to have re-delivered (because the first one was received broken) and you get home from work late and can't find any portable lamps.

For weeks we had been put-off by the cheap bathroom fixture dome light that graced our front porch. Even the nickel plating was corroding away. It was no early/mid-century standard, either, but a knock-off from the 70's. We had been looking for a proper replacement from some time and finally smitten by the fixtures from Hubbardton Forge.

So when it finally arrived mid-week, I was over-eager to get this beauty all hooked up just as the sun was going down. I nabbed up the closest tools I could find, including the only portable light I knew the immediate whereabouts of: an LED "battery-free" flashlight that you must shake vigorously for a short charge. I was hoping to beat the sunset, however.

Perched up on a ladder, I got that cheap lantern dismantled, disconnected and discarded in no time. This is where I come to the realization that there is no fixture box to protect the electrical connections or to mount the fixture bracket to; there is only a hole in the 3/4" beadboard (hardwood) ceiling were the aged electrical tubing protrudes from.

So, I am past the reversal line of this project and must push on. I know I will have to someday soon replace this old wiring before the dried out sheathing breaks off. I will also have to install a proper fixture box that's a bit larger than the 3/4" dia hole. By now, the sun is down and I have only one long screw holding the mounting bracket hand screwed through the thick hardwood. This takes both hands, and I have the shake-a-light tucked under an arm. But I must stop every few minutes to give the flashlight another shake.

By the time I get the light hooked up & taped, assembled and "hot", I turn it on and step back only to realize that I mounted it crookedly by about 5-degrees! So I knew better than to mount a light in the dark, right? Well, thankfully I already knew I would have to revisit this project in the future. Consequently, now that the ugly light is gone, the sorry state of the beadboard has become highlighted and vies for our disdain along with our cadywompus light. Just have to toss that onto my To-Do pile. More Stripping in my future, Whoo-hooo!!!

It's My Birthday!

2007-05-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

Or so said Michaela all week long. We celebrated her 3rd birthday at out first "home" event last weekend, having just moved in about 2 months ago. She had been so looking forward to her birthday party all month and it reached a fevered pitch last week, always reminding us just in case we forgot. I have to say, though, it was almost more of a debutante's ball than a 3 year old's birthday party; she was such an extrovert and was in her element. The one thing she didn't get was the piñata, content with only a tap with the stick. In the aftermath, she asked "Uh oh! Why did he break it?" and "Need to fix it...go get tape". She feigned no interest in the entrails of chocolates and sugar as though it were tainted.

One gift we got her was a Thomas the Tank Engine™ set. In her years [sic] of sitting in waiting rooms and visiting various toy shops, she has developed a real joy for playing with toy trains. This is not a girl who adores stuffed animals or dolls (or, sadly, the cats either); she likes shapes, books, and puzzles...and penguins, of course (they're so silly).

So although we were unable to get even half of the "need to finish before the party" items (like the floor or painting, or the back door knob...), the soiree was a hit. And now we can resume our glacial pacing. Next up....sleep.

ColorForm Fun

2007-04-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

Wow! We sure were able to get a lot done this past weekend! I keep telling myself that because it felt like we worked it, and yet we were able to cross only one thing off that aforementioned list.

In truth, we kinda got the Living Room painted. Kinda, like, ‘not really’. We did get the walls cleaned, patched, sanded and primed, tho. Saturday started with getting the girls ready to spend the day with Abuelita (Grandma), and two hours later they were off. Again, our primary goal was to work on the things that we could not do while they were here in the house. This means ‘stuff’ like priming with the shellac-based primer that seals in the smoking odors of the PO and prepped the top coat of “renters’ high-gloss bone white” paint for a new coat of our liking. The stuff is highly noxious but you need not de-gloss a surface for it to adhere (using TSP or sandpaper).

Another Diversion

So, just as the girls drove away, the cat [we have 3, but it will always be the same one who makes mention on this blog] managed to find the sole flower from the garden Roxana had just placed in a nice thick glass vase on the fireplace mantle the night before [Of note: we have NO house plants and no flowers in the house for this reason…but once in a while we always try].

Well, just as I turn around and see the beast, he nabs at the meager foliage and attempts to yank it out of the bottle, only to send it shattering to the Living Room floor, coffee table and new rug. Luckily (sic) it deflected to smash on the fireplace threshold, but the itty bitty glass shards were everywhere. I had to pick these up by hand and vacuum as I did not want to sweep them across our still relatively new hardwood floor.

Preparation

An hour or so later, the Living Room was relatively vacated and clean, and I released Goatie from his ‘confine-ment’ (shut into a bedroom). We then proceeded to mask off the trim and floor and patch & sand the walls. One nice thing about craftsman homes and the like is that actual wall space is quite minimal when it comes to painting, much of it being taken up by trim, wainscoting and acquisition by the ceiling. Allow me to reiterate the rule that 90% effort is in the preparation, whereas 10% is for the actual ‘work’.

And then we were ready to prime the walls. This particular primer is incredibly runny, but it sticks to anything and anything sticks to it, ripe for plenty of options.

On Color

So we get the point of laying down the color. We were looking for something along the line of a muted/aged yellowish-orange. The Behr paint color we selected (which frankly looked VERY different online from the paint chip sample) was called ‘Squash’. The color we got was different still from either of the 2 translations we saw previously. On the wall, it looked quite more saturated, like a much younger color than the ‘mature’ one we were looking for.

Standing there, Roxana (color theorist she is) looks to me and declares “that’s a kindergarten yellow”. And just then, it hits me. I hear the song in my head “the wheels on the bus go round and round…” as I realize that this is the color of a school bus. This is NOT the color we wanted, not that I don’t like this color, just not on the wall. This is the same color you find on a Number 2 pencil, not in an austere-yet-friendly semi-social gathering space!

Joining The Club

After reading from so many other housebloggers on the difficulty of getting the color just right, we had thought we could nail it on the first try. Wearing our smugness on our face like egg yolk, we must contemplate our options.

We can adopt one of the many faux texturing techniques utilizing another color to sway it toward the hue we desire, with sponge or rag or whatnot. This is what we shall most likely do as it will take the least amount of time/effort. So we have left the masking in place for the time being.

Venetian Plaster

I, however, was pushing for the Venetian Plastering technique. And I really mean a hybrid akin to that, as traditional Venetian Plaster was attempting to recreate a marble effect, complete with a polishing to a slick shine. I don’t care for marbled walls or for a high gloss shine. What I want is an aged mottling of some color. Either way, it is rather labor intensive.
When Roxana & I were in college studying Architecture, one of the trends in studio was to model one's projects with MorphBoard. I don’t know who really came up with this, but we picked it up from Architectural-rockstars Morphosis (Santa Monica based) in the 90’s. Their models would look like they were carved out of something, and it was sexy.

Phhht! to foamcore and museum board and flat dead colors!

[NOTE1: The above 3 pictures are borrowed from the article at ArtSparx] [NOTE2: The following 2 pictures are courtesy of Morphosis, they show their models of the Performing Arts Pavilion (Los Angeles ~1992) and the Chiba Project (Tokyo ~1992) respectively]

MorphBoard

MorphBoard was just the cheapest chipboard (cardboard) we could get (like free), and a series of layers (3-5) of modeling paste mixed with acrylic paint spackled on and then sanded [modeling paste is a medium for painters (art-kind) to give 'body' to their paintings. There are various grades and some have too much latex to be sandable]. Some would choose variations on a single color, while others would select complimentary colors (opposites). We tried graphite shavings, brass flakes, silk tread... It was sort of a challenge to see if one could make the nastiest looking board based on the colors or sloppiness one chose. The problem is they always ended up looking sweet after the final sanding, you could do no wrong.

Now plaster is not a far cry from modeling paste, as both adopt color and are sandable. So I suggested we go for this, as we both had plenty of experience making MorphBoard, this should be no different. But in the end, I lost the debate for now, and I have to admit that I agree. This prolongs a ‘weekend task’ for a month or more, as our renovating pacing is snail-like while our daughters are so little. And besides, as my wife put it, “there are other hobbies to pursue as well”, like painting (art-kind), sculpting and making miniatures.

And here's a gatuitous picture of our 'other' cat. He, also, was a rescue cat. He's albino and completely deaf. He is large, lanky and his meow is more like a yell, so we initially named hime Yeti. But because of his sugary-sweet disposition we have taken to renaming him Pink Maus. Pinky is also epileptic. But, perhaps we should have called him Ziggy Stardust 'cuz it seems like he comes from Mars and he's got that languid catwalk-thing down. Either way, he doesn't mind all this name changing business.

Toddlerhood & The Art Of Home Maintenance

2007-04-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I really mean Home Restoration, but I kinda prefered that title, juxtaposing Zen with Toddlerhood. I mean that there's a certain fine line between blissful parentage of little ones and the desire to run out the door screaming. Fixing up an (overly?) idealized old home seems quite akin to this. And only moreso because in the battle for my weekend time, the girls always win, and the house is left with late night stealth restoration leaving me feeling like a ninja (props to Home Improvement Ninja), high in tension yet strangely in the zone. It also doesn't help that I am notoriously clumsy and am penchant for dropping hammers and such. But these silent restoration sessions are now the order of things since we have moved in and my girls cry "Daddydaddydaddy!!!" while I am home, rather than "going to the house to work" while we were still renting not long ago.

To give you an example, the (single) window I recently replaced on the front door was done with only 5 well timed semi-silent whacks of the hammer so as not to awaken the sleeping occupants, so stealthy was I. And the back door upgrade was effected while the almost 3 year old napped in the adjacent room. I opted for my aphonic hand tools over my "get it done quick" powered ones that time, and I actually perferred them afterall.

So this is the first actuall weekend since moving in that we plan on devoting to our restoration efforts. This has come about because (a) our almost 3 year old will soon be 3 years old, and we plan to host a little birthday party for her at the new home as she still calls it and the house isn't quite ready for prime-time, if you follow me. The other reason is (b) we were able to procure a day of babysitting with a grandmother. While other married with childrens take these opportunities to date like teenagers, married with children and old homes use it to do that dusty, messy, noisy, paint-fumey work that has been staring at them from the To-Do list since Day One. And maybe, just maybe, we might sneak in a quick little date at the end of it all.

We will be trying to focus on the work we could not do while the girls are in the house, so stay tuned to see what we really could get accomplished. This is what we hope to do:
- prep the plaster walls in the living & dining room for a primer coat of paint
- paint those walls (after we actually decide on the color & technique)
- finish the last bit of flooring in those rooms (yes, we have some bare spots still)
- get the built-in seats sanded and re-hinged
- finish stripping the built-in buffet...the countertop cavity where the mirror is

Wish us luck!

the Cat

2007-04-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

Why would I blog about a cat on a houseblog? Well, I shall tell you. Because of HIM, we had to 'up' a project on our todo list. Here is the culprit:That's him, the one 'IN' the catgrass that we had just planted. Here is another one where he was trying to steal my lunch, the theif. Shortly after adopting him, he would come to us in the mornings with curled up whiskers like he had just gotten a perm until we finally figured out that he was checking out the toaster to see if it had anything swipe-worthy (like we toast bacon or something in there), STICKING HIS MUG IN THE SLOTS WHILE IT WAS HOT. He would steal broccoli from a cooking pot like it was a filet mignon, and growl at us if we tried to take the steaming vegetable back. Keep in mind that he is sitting on my monitor as I type this and maneuver around his furry butt (my screen is mounted below my desktop).

So I hope that I have adequately established that this cat is a beast. We initially named him B-goat...as in Billy Goat, as in "eat everything within reach", but he hassince earned a plethora of monikers in the meantime. Here are just a few:

Mr. Shino Bicho Complainer Saucy Sandy-Claws Chicken-Hawk Troubles

Anyways, back to why I would blog about a cat here. Roxana went out to the backyard to do some gardening with Michaela while the 6 month old slept. This cat always throws a fit if someone goes outdoors without him. Understand this: He is an indoor only cat; we do not let him out, even occasionally or as a treat so it's not like he knows what he's missing. BUT, if he does get out, he just goes to eat all the grass he can, or beat up any neighbor cats he sees (BTW, he caught a possum once, a Richmond, CA, possum while we were living there...twice his size!). At least he's easy to catch.

So, while he throws his tantrum about wanting to go out, too, Goat jumps up and pulls the deadbolt on the back door, locking my wife and oldest daughter outside, while the baby slept inside, he making a racket all the while. So with no other options, Roxana breaks the flimsy plexiglass on the door to open it back up. Now I had to either replace the silly plexiglass glazing with proper glass, or just replace the door altogether with something more substancial.

And if you have been following this blog at all, I'm sure you'd guess that I would choose the later and go for the upgrade. You would be right. We liked that the back door had a window to let more light into our cavernous (sic) kitchen, and yet we wanted a door what would go with the rest of the original doors throughout the house (5 interior doors). They are all just a simple framed door with a single inset panel. So we went with such a door, but with a double glazed full panel instead. Same by proportions, but different.

So, I spent that weekend mortising the hinges, and mounting the deadbolt (albeit a bit more stiff). I am no expert at hanging doors and windows, but I can do it with realive success. Besides, I got to play with my new planes and chisels (I love hand tools). You will notice that the door looks crooked, and it is because the house is sinking in that corner most egregiously due to the neighboring apartment building sporting a failing retaining wall. This is the result of a 5-6" drop in that far corner! Now sure how the apartment people got this redwood retaining wall by the city when they did, but now I have to deal with it. Anyone know building law & how I can get them to fix this?

So, when we get around to either leveling or lifting the house, the door 'should' fit correctly, and all the frozen peas I keep dropping will stop rolling to that far corner like they are posessed.

Note: This entry will be updated very soon, with more pictures, and a slightly emmended text. Stay posted, m'kaye?

Pimp My Door (part 1)

2007-04-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

Okayyyy, as I keep droning on about the damage I did to our front door (ie. breaking a little window), I shall finally conclude this bombination with it's resolution: New Upgraded Glass. Well, maybe just *a* new window for now.

Why do I feel this entry is worthy of more than just a picture and a "here-you-go", you may be asking? Well...because I really had to think about this one before I did it, and it appeared that another such window was replaced at one time without so much thought. I didn't want to damage it further than I had.

Here's the dilemma (which turned out to not really be a dilemma afterall). Each of the 8 little window openings is actually just a simple cut-out of the solid door. The glazing is held in by 4 beveled strips of oak on either side, glued and nailed to the door. I knew that if I could somehow remove one of the peices, the others would be cake. But being that the nails holding each peice were finish nails, I was faced with choosing to (A) gouge out a nail (and leave an ugly divit) or (B)pry the first strip out until it snapped in half. This is what some former owner chose to do.

Sinkage

I figured there had to be a better way that wouldn't leave damage. So I opted to just sink the nail. I got myself the smallest drift pin (center punch, if you will) I could find, 1/16". These are more common in the auto repair or mechanical realm, so try looking in such a shop. I marked the depth on this tool with some tape and hammered the little nail clear through.

Pry-ers and Pliers

Then, using a thin knife, I dislodged the glued bond. This also breaks the shellac/finish skin and prevents any chipping/splintering. The peice is then pried out laterally with a stiff spackle knife. And there you will see that little sunken nail still in the door that you can now pull out with some needle nose pliers.

More scoring with the knife and then the remaining peices can be pried out normally. After cleaning up the opening surfaces, I set the new beleved glass in with glaziers putty and glued the little wood stops back in along with another finishing nail in the original hole, albeit slightly larger/longer than the previous ones.

And Voila! I have to say it's looking pretty nice, especially up next to those plain panes which also happen to be a bit sandblasted (grumblegrumble). My only regret is that we were hoping for more bevel, but at $1.22 each, I really can't complain.

A Diversion

2007-04-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

Yeah, like I need another one! Well, this one actually helps me. We (my office...an architecture one) held a sketch-off one recent weekend. All 50 of us were given snazzy new sketchbooks on that Friday and told to submit one drawing (or whatever) of any subject/medium by Tuesday by 11. Well, the weekend came and went as life with little ones (read as 2 daughters under 3 years old) tends to do. The evenings are no better as I am so wound out and can barely make it through and episode of the Wire or somesuch.

So I get up on the morning of to get ready for work at the time I am supposed to get up (which is a rarity these days), and I decide I need to have something to submit. Afterall, I got this new sketchbook and it's the least I can do to be a team player. No time to tune my pens (the rapidographs that I love but are infintely fussy and a pain in the rumpus if you don't use them daily and just let them sit and dry out), so I grab a quasi-trusty old mechanical pencil (disposable kind)...the one that suffered a wash in the laundry and has the busted tip that I salvaged from another broken mechanical pencil.

An hour later, I deem I would be arriving at work the time I usually do (9:30) so I stop, unfinished and acceptably satistfied...not really to my personal standards, but worthy of a show of submission (like I kinda tried).

Well, as you have already figued out, my drawing won [danceskipwhee] Apparantly hands-down and I was given a 4g iPod nano (red) for my troubles! How cool is that? This is our first iPod, btw, and I have to admit that I love this iPod culture! [grooooooove]
They already had the back laser-engraved:

Quattrocchi Kwok
We make stuff up

I was told during judging to talk about my peice so all I pretty much uttered was "(mumblemumblemumble)...confluent behaviours from disparate objects in effluency". After the general laughs I titled my bit Confluency. Truthfully, this is how I draw subject/process-wise. It's what I know, or rather, "it is what it is".

Alive and Kicking

2007-04-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow, have I been out of the bloggers' circle for some time. It's been almost 1½ months since I last graced this medium. But, fear naught, for though there has been little told of our doings, much has been doing in the interrim...but alas, little has been done. I mean to say that many house-restoration projects have been initiated, but none of them have actually been completed, thus explaining my scarceness. I had hoped to post "finished" projects, rather than "just started" ones, but I suppose I need to get over that hang-up already.

So, although this is just a check-in, I shall outline the entries that I have in the works and assure you all that they shall be posted in short time, whether I have finished the job yet or not.

First up: Front Door (8) Mini-Window Replacement/Upgrade
After I broke a window just before we moved in, I vowed to upgrade the plain glass with a beveled glass. I have since replaced the broken one, so now we have one fancy window out of 8.

Next up: Back Door Replacement/Upgrade
Our back door was rather flimsy, with the half-panel window of thin plexiglass (not very secure) even flimsier. While Roxana was out in the garden with our 3 yo Michaela, our indoor-only cat bolted the door shut while throwing a fit about wanting to go out too, thereby locking my wife & daughter out of the house. She had to break this pithy faux window to get back inside. I therefore chose to replace the whole door rather than just replace the window, since we intended on doing that anyways (but much later than immediately). I have the hinges and deadbolt mortised in and secure, but have yet to do the knob and finish-coat the wood.

And then: Front Porch Light Upgrade
Tired of the bathroom fixture light on our sexy porch (with a view of the SF Bay), we purchased a fitting new one from Hubbardton Forge (Ooooo! I love their fixtures!!!). Well, after I installed the light (in the dark, mind you), we realized how awful the porch ceiling looked. Beforehand, it was the light that we noticed as the eyesore, now with our beautiful light, the bead-board ceiling looks hiddeous, as though we had not noticed it there before. It needs a thorough scraping/stripping and a new finish.

And currently: Window Coverings!
This, we are still trying to figure out. Neither Roxana nor I are particularly fond of curtains, but neither do we favor the akward bulkiness of blinds, either in the window cavity which would block some of the window, or over the trim, while all of our trims/rails are tied together so seamlessly and look quite sharp uninterrupted. But something needs to be done ASAP as our 4'x9' uncovered front window makes us feel like we are starring in our own reality program, we feel so exposed. So, after much ado, we are opting for some form of Shori panels (for light but privacy day-wise) along with curtains (for privacy night-wise). In the meantime, we have been using childrens' puzzle foam mats which looks quite silly, imho.

And more in the coming month:
- finally finishing the flooring!
- prepping and texturing the living/dining walls and a painting
- hardware upgrade on the living/dining built-ins

So, stay tuned and I will be keeping this site up-to-date again.

Threshold, Door, Meet New Floor

2007-02-23T09:51:00.000-08:00

This is just a dumb ole' technical post (and a retro one at that) being we have done little more than domesticate our home since the "move in". However, I have aquired the tools and materials to pimp our front door, as I had alluded to earlier. On that note, we have opted for the beveled glass inserts rather than an obscurred artglass filler, and props go to the homies what gave up the good advice, merideth & davidlbc. After looking in the local gaziers for the proper inserts (1/4" thick glass w/ a fat bevel), I realized the price was too puffy for me. Instead I found a stained/lead glass supplier who was able to get them to me for ~$1.50 ea. Not as thick nor fat as I'd hoped for, but adequate and a steal at that. That will be my task for this weekend.

Now,since we are already in the foyer, I should like to point out to you the incident that brought me to the above circumstance. It was the last day I would work on the house prior to our occupying it, and the task was for me to complete the flooring in the foyer. This meant a number of peripheral issues needing to be addressed:

- flashing where the flooring met the outdoors (this is about waterproofing)
- reseat the threshold (now 3/4" higher)
- cut off 1/2" from the bottom of the door
- remount the door (actually 1/4" higher, but not because of the floor)

Here you see the nastiness that was before. This is only a gratuitous shot; not much to say here. We (parental supports & I) proceeded to lay the flooring up to and just beyond the first door jamb you see on the right of the picture. I chose to keep the existing oak threshold (at least for the time being) so we ran the floorboards to ~3/4" beyond the interior edge of threshold. As you may realize, the endgrain of a board more easily soaks up water/moisture than does the edge (think about grain like a tight bundle of tiny straws), and leaving the endgrain facing outside spells disaster. For this reason, one must place a terminal cap board perpendicularly and span the opening rather snuggly. I had a 1/16" clearance where this cap met either jamb (for eventual expansion). I won't bore you futher with calculations involving the coefficients for ash and the wet/dry bulb temperatures of the region.

After I got the first floorboard past the jamb (to establish the lay-line), I trimmed the cap you see here to a width just shy (3/4") of the exterior edge of the oak threshold (not shown). I will explain the reason for this gap later. I also need to point out a curiosity of this (and perhaps many ~100 year old) house(s). The (original d-f) flooring does not sit on top of the (original d-f) foundation. Again, the (o) floorboards stop just shy of the wall studs, and this meant that the (o) threshold that you see here was separate from it and there was a 1/4" gap that I really don't know how it was covered. We don't build like this these days.

Instead, you lay the floor joists on the foundation & sill plate, and sheathe that with a sub-floor (typically 3/4" plywood). You then start your wall framing on top of this tabula rasa, threshold included. Well, not so here for some reason. And a garage is the same way. The interior concrete slabs are poured up to the foundation walls (rather than with the foundation). This may account for it being horrifically fractured and fissioned. Some day....
Anyways the consequence of that was that the top of the (o) threshold was higher than the top of the (o) flooring. I had to plane down the new end cap ~1/4+" to make it lock with the tongue ends and make for a flat finished surface. Fuss-fuss-fuss. I then fastened it down with wood screws and a fat bead of liquid nails, flashed the edge with a bit of handy-dandy all-purpose Z-bar (as shown), more liquid nails and screws, and voila! We are waterproofed! The (not-exactly orginal) oak threashold goes atop this, and a nice water-resistant wood trim piece (like teak) will go under that and cover the face of the Z-bar.

Next up was the door. The initial problem was the door was mounted so there was a gap in excess of 1/4" at the top. This is something you can stick your finger through, or watch heated air escape from on a cold night. We took the door off its hinges, epoxied the screw holes on the jamb, and waited for it to cure. Next the hinge mortises had to be re-mortised to allow for the reseating of the hinges. A nice sharp chisel works great for this. After planing/sanding off the remaining excess off the door to make it fit (which was actually less than 1/4") we re-hung the door. This actually took 3 times to get the fit just right, and it was on that last re-mounting that I broke the window getting it off the sawhorse. That was 5 weeks ago now that I have been staring at a taped up window every day....And I imagine changing these mini-panes are not going to be much easier than this was. We will see by my next post, unless I am electrocuted by my re-wiring fix-up first.

The Name is BungleHome

2007-02-02T14:18:00.000-08:00

I had my first real heartbreak from a careless mistake (bungle) on our then-soon-to-be Home two weekends ago, albeit a really small one. This was the last day on which to work on it prior to our moving in, and all was looking sweet. Whilst re-establishing the threshold (re: new floor), I had to continuously remove and re-mount the beautiful (original) front door to make sure it would fit ‘swell’. Upon the last re-mount, fatigued, late in the day/night, I broke one of the 8 mini-windows as I tilted it off the saw –horses. The end of the saw-horse went “kra’tinkle” right through. Sure, I can say that the door was too heavy to stop on its way down, or that it slipped out of my grip as sweat beads ran down my fatigued arms, but to be truthful, I just wasn’t as careful as I should have been.

Now, our house is left with a gap-toothed grin on it’s pretty visage. I realize that this is a minor thing, and there are no other windows smaller than these 5”x5” squares, still, the error felt devastating. Perhaps because this moment was marking the last I would be able to work on the house prior to our moving in. The remainder of my time must be spent in packing and moving, and (almost) all other house issues must remain as-is until we inhabit it. Quite the welcome, wouldn’t you agree? Newly laid floors, freshly painted walls and ceilings (mostly) and wood trim and paneling paint-free, and a taped-up window staring back at us.

Well, you know what they say about being served lemons? Boil’em, mash’em, stick’em in a pot…no, wait, that’s ‘taters. Well, anyways, wethinks we may take this opportunity to our advantage and perform a little pimping upon said door. The glass is not from a fourcault or similar process where it has a slight variation in its surface (as in its looking “antique”), and could indistinguishably be replaced. Nor is it a thicker beveled leaded glass. It is completely common, and therefore calls for its replacement(s) to be uncommon.

Now, nice thickly beveled glass would be a fine replacement for this door, but it is seemly difficult to locate. Stained/patterned glass is not, however. And I suppose there is something to be said for color coordination. This one is an orange with yellow mist and has a iridescent surface. It is probabally the closest to how we intend to paint the walls in the living/dining room. We will paint them in some sort of textured/mottled pattern, albeit not quite so loud as you see here. The ceilings are already a softened yellow. and the little bit of plaster wall we have left will be painted an orange/marigold-ish texture.

We could instead compliment it with a blue toned glazing, like the cobalt or light azure/sky. These in particular do not look transparent/transluscent, however. We like colors, but don't want to look garish (is that word a derivitive of gauche?).

Another option is this "raindrop" textured glass, which from the outside might look like it's all hot-n-steamy inside.

Hi, Honey, We're Home!

2007-01-30T10:38:00.000-08:00

Hurrah! We finally made it. As of Sunday, we have moved into our first home. Do-mesticated! We have been living in and out of boxes so-to-speak as we (un)pack our material possestions these past few weeks and for weeks to yet come. This means spreading butter on the muffin with a spoon 'cuz we haven't found the knives yet, and walking through the house with such an exaggerated hipsway as we navigate around the piles of boxes and "unprocessed" furniture. Efficient movers, we are not. It's more like uprooting a knarled old tree... by hand. All those dangley parts We have yet to deal with the flotsam of oddments left behind and gather them all up and clean our last abode. Moving is such a curse to artist-types, artists fond of collecting strange and marvelous bits (like camera parts, lenses, armatures, etc.), bits that have never been truely organized and put together, along with the plethora of paints, clays, woods, tools.....

I sometimes fantasize about being a simply amused un-complicated person with none of the collecting propensities I have (this is where I sigh). Well, anyways, we are moved in and that makes us happy. Our girls (5 mo & 2 ½ yo) are happy and Kaela likes the 'slippery' new floor. The cats...well, there's more exploring to do before their verdict is out. It seems one of the neighbors' cats is amused by taunting our cats (whom are indoor only) and that can only spell trouble.

A Footnote about Flooring

2007-01-15T09:16:00.000-08:00

- REV.2 -

Wood flooring comes in all colors, lengths & sizes. It comes in a variety of widths and thicknesses, too. Just hope that the floor you bought doesn't. Now I would like to call this a review, but there are a few too many caveats that disqualify that (more on this later). By appearance alone, we were duly impressed with the Bellawood 5" Ash (select, pre-finished) that we acquired for a pleasing price. But as we got to installing it, we found a number of variances that should not be. Specifically:

- 1/16" (max) difference in width
- 1/16" (max) difference in thickness
- both ends not being parallel

I can only hope that this is not endemic in all wood flooring. We purchased our flooring as a quasi-odd lot. They claimed it was mostly due to being in the warehouse for so long, rather than for manufacture defects and therefore retains its 50 yr finish guarantee. This was the same floor we had wanted beforehand, type, size & grade, and it was all they had which was exactly 105% of what we needed. Happenstance, no? So until we actually purchase an "official" set, I will have to withhold my review in regards to their milling accuracies. For now, my rule of thumb is to avoid all gaps I can easily slide a folded sheet of (20 lb) paper into, or an empty envelope. This is what I have to do in each of the above cases to some degree for each board I put down.

Now, variations in color and length are expected, even desirable. Having a board that is just "*" wider than its adjacent one will cause tremendous grief when the next row comes along. The same goes for boards that are wider at one end. What happens is that you will have a sizable gap between your floorboards, one that will welcome dirt, grit, hair, etc., and will stare back at you when you try to admire your otherwise beautiful floor. There are three solutions...well, four, but I don't like that fourth one. I am listing them is decending order of preference.

(1) The first thing I try is to sand down the bump-out, assuming it is rather less than that 1/16". This bump-out is the result of boards that are not of uniform width, rather than mis-alignment. I use a palm sander on the face above the tongue of the piece stapled down, and on the lower lip of the groove on the piece about to be laid. You need to do this latter part or it wont slide in flush. (2) If it is nearer to that 1/32" difference, I will shape only the board about to be put down. This may involve extensive sanding, but I am not so good at sanding a level face over, say 12" at that depth. Other wise I will pass it through a table saw. I might do this differently if I had a rabbet or shoulder plane, of the Lie-Nielsen variety. O! How I wish I had a plane. I will have one by the time I get to laying the floor in the rest of the house. whish-whish.

Here is a 5' board I had to 'shape' that had ~4' which needed 1/16" shaved off. That's 4-feet. There's no way I could evenly sand 1/16" off 4' (O! How I wish I had a plane). I just hadn't noticed that the preceding board (upper right) was that much narrower until after I installed it. Rather than rip it up and find another (I could spend half my time doing this), I chose to move on and deal with it. I chose a board of the wider variety (why are they not uniform???) and shaved off that difference on my table saw, then beveled the edge with the sander. It fits, is nearly imperceptible, and keeps the leading edge straight for the next row. I will have to hand coat these edges later with an aluminum-oxide finish.

(3) A less desirable solution is to come back and fill the gap with wood putty. I will have to do this in a number of places. I will also have to find a way to seal it, probably with a tiny paint brush and a polyurethane finish. This is acceptable, because it is in the recessed seam and not directly walked upon. But it's still a visible "fix". (NOTE:I will have to do this because I missed it while installing intially) (4) Even more undesirable is to try to take up the difference by wedging something like a screwdriver into the subfloor and bend it into place. This is sometimes necessary, especially if the board is longitudinally warped (aka, crooked). But if doing this throws your leading edge out of line, you will be doing this evermore, and dealing with other repercussions, as well.

Another problem I've been encountering is a variation in the thicknesses of boards. Now this is relatively normal, which is why prefinished boards have beveled edges to make up for any differences in milling. To me, 1/32" difference in thickness is acceptable, but 1/16" is not. The solution: Don't intall a board that is that much thinner/thicker. It's not that you'd stub your toe, but you would definiately be aware of it, even see it. I do NOT recommend shimming or remilling the groove or bottom to level it out as you are inviting squeaks into your floor instantly. Just be mindful; you should notice it on the initial dry fitting, whereas it easier to overlook the width issue mentioned above. This is something that an unfinished floor benefits from as they are sanded down prior to finishing. But overall, this has been less common to confront from what we have seen.

The last issue is one I deal with 90% of the boards I put down, one of unequal butts. I am rather disgruntled that the machine that mills the end tongue cannot do this parallel with the machine that mills the end groove. Both ends should be 90°, or if not that, then at least be parallel with each other. I know this is the case because the joint lines run straight through the two rooms and do not bend or curve away (taking great pains to ensure this). Why, therefore, am I left with up to 3/32" gaps at the bottom of the end joints? The one you see here is only 1/32" and will be sanded. For these lesser instances, I can just sand the groove-end down to match, but in the greater discrepancies, I have to angle the chop-saw .25-.75° to re-cut the groove end. And of course, I then re-chamfer the new edge with a sander. Feh!

Note: More pictures will follow soon, within another
day or so, some to be replaced. Need to retake some shots, so stay tuned.

Cracking Good Plaster, Eh?

2007-01-12T12:26:00.000-08:00

Something I failed to detail previously about painting the ceiling was the way we chose to resolve the cracks in the plaster. I once mentioned that the foundation has "issues", including a foolish resolution of it's failures by butressing. This does little to help anything, and merely "looks" beefy. The sloping of the house is evident from the dining room through to the back of the kitchen. In the dining room, it seems to drop ~2-3" out of level. I will soon provide a picture that captures this. Now, how we decide to fix this is still on the table, whether we lift the house and pour a new foundation or merely level the house on the foundation as it is now.

Either way, that type of deflection had given birth to a number of cracks throughout the plaster, and lifting/leveling the house will only do moreso. So to fix these micro-fissures, I took to them with a small hammer & chistle, aggressively knocking loose the areas about. I wanted to make sure that if it was going to stay, it had to want to stay. Well, sadly, a significant ammount of plaster near the cracks was too blasé to stay.

So I had to fill these chasms with something that would be forgiving to future movement & jiggle. Rather than common spackle that would crack and chip, we opted for an elastomeric compound. There are a number of products out there that qualify, and this is not a review. We chose one (knife-quality) and it worked, but it was not so easy to apply but adhered admirably afterwards. Still, it shrank significantly and needed several coats to level out(~3-4 applications), but took 12-24 hours to dry before it could be re-applied. Sanding high spots down was kinda like arguing with a pre-teen; it yeilded, but begrudgingly. So because of this, it was best to get the desired finish without sanding. Tool marks/scrapes in the compound usually soften out when it drys, to your advantage. Just think of this stuff like the medium between regular spackle and silicone caulk. I'll include pictures next time, both prior and post painting. Starting tomorrow, we resume our flooring of the living/dining room and foyer.

Let's Go Bowling

2007-01-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

We’ve a lane open for all you Hepcats! We began laying down new floor this weekend, after a weeks-worth of whirlwind activity that ended with freshly primed and painted ceilings. My ever gracious (and industrious) parents worked all week to help us push the house along so that we may move in mid-month. For those of you betting against us moving in on this fourth rescheduled date… congratulations. That’s right. We will reschedule our move-in date ONE MORE TIME (and may this be the last-last time). This comes after much hand-wringing and consternation and not without a massive and valiant effort by those involved.

Our timeline allowed for having the flooring complete by last Sunday, but beginning task that was delayed by you’ll-never-guess-what; it starts with a “str-“ and ends in a “-ping”. Yes, never underestimate the time to strip. Rather than leave some stripping to be done over a beautiful new floor or freshly painted walls, we all worked laboriously to get as much of that finished that would lie in harms way. All that remains to be done is inside both built-in bookcases and buffet. Because we were not able to complete the flooring on Sunday, we will not be making our previous move-in timeline. I mean, it could be possible, but many other essential things would be sacrificed, like making the bedrooms and closets smoke-free scented. There’s nothing like turning all your jackets into smoking jackets, is there?

It was Friday evening that we had the essential stripping, neutralizing, washing and sanding complete, rather than Wednesday. So instead of having the ceilings painted before the weekend, they had been painted mostly on Saturday, and part of Sunday. It was early on that later day that we began to lay down the floor. Dad & I spent the former day prepping the floor, sealing the hole from the original centralized heater and laying down the felt.

Prepping the Floor

Now, Bob Villa recommends using a layer of rosin paper between a new wood floor and a wood-based subfloor, but we used 30-lb felt (roofing type). 30 & 15-lb felt is impregnated with asphalt, ideal for moisture resistance from below if you’re over a basement or crawl space such as we are. Typically rosin paper is for floors over a climate controlled space, like a second floor or apartment. Rosin paper’s role is to only prevent the floor squeaks from wood-on-wood, as it is a pushover with moisture. To maintain a flat surface, we lay the thick felt end to end, rather than overlap as you would on a roof. Flatness takes precedence over barring moisture when it comes to floors, so moisture retardance is quite adequate for our uses.

Eliminating Cigarette Odors & Painting

As for painting, my mom took on that task. Again, it seemed prudent to have the ceilings painted BEFORE we put in a new floor, and it was quite good that we did. We opted to prime the ceiling with Zinsser B-I-N Primer Sealer. This seems to be the best product hands down for eliminating aged cigarette odors. It adheres to both oil and water-based paints (such as latex), and does not need glossy surfaces deglossed to adhere properly. It is shellac based, and therefore has denatured alcohol, so wear adequate respiration for this. Paper masks are no good. It dries and is ready for painting/recoat in 45-60 minutes, although it outgases for some time afterwards. Ventilate and be free. Also cleaning brushes is done differently; the product recommends washing the brush in ammonia, and then household cleaner afterwards, though I imagine denatured alcohol would do the trick. Painting with B-I-N is not easy chore. It is runny like cooking oil and loves to drain from a brush tipped sideways.

For the final coat, we chose a flat latex of a color called Rich Cream. Its rather a yellow just orange of center, with only white without complimentary color to de-saturate the hue. We toyed with colors having names like Lemon Soufflé, Melted Butter and Banana Cream; I found myself salivating. Who makes this stuff up? I rather wish it were YellowB5 or somesuch. Now every time I look up at our ceiling I’ll think “mmm…coffee/pastry”.

Laying Down the Starter Row

So as she finished the painting in the dining room, we started laying down the floor. Most sources recommend starting against one wall or another, but with the built-in bookcases flanking the center rooms, we wanted to center the floorboards between those. Being 5” planks, their placement would be more notable. We marked the center, measured to the wall where the foyer entrance resides and marked the second point equidistant at the front end of the living room, to run the boards parallel with that wall. This entrance (perpendicular to the bookcases) would be the second noticeable place if the floorboard joints look funny. That settled, we ran a chalkline the full distance to the buffet and screwed in backer boards. This keeps the first few lines of board from drifting out of line when the impact of the nailer hits.

Then my mom, perched on the ladder still painting the ceiling, pulled the equivalent of a back-seat driver. Who does flooring from a ladder? She asked if we shouldn’t center the board, rather than the joint, on the center line. Blinking nonplussed, it slowly occurred to us that she may have a point. She pointed out that the boards may end with a joint ~½” from either built-in, which would be bad (think ¼” wide board here). So we mocked it up, and discovered that she was EXACTLY right. I still marvel at how she does this, and I’ve known her all my life!

So we unscrewed our nice straight line of backer boards, and re-fastened it 2½” over. Here you see our original center line and then the revised one (including a faulty snap of the line). Then we began the actual flooring using a rented pneumatic flooring nailer/stapler and 2” staples. We used a slotted block which fit over the tongue to hammer the boards into place rather than hammering the tongues directly, risking damage. By the time we got to the built-in, we had plenty of board from the joint. Phew!

When we got close to the fireplace and the nailer couldn’t fit, I had to pre-drill pilot holes and hand nail the boards down. The hardwood boards would split if I hadn’t piloted them. I also had to drill a countersink shoulder and use a center tap to get the nails clear of the tongue. When I get too close to the wall or seat even to do that, I will need to top nail them in with finishing nails, countersink and putty over. I’ll show this soon, so stay tuned. One final picture, however, is as it stands after the first day of actual flooring.

The Secrets What Lie Beneath

2007-01-05T15:56:00.000-08:00

I am going to talk about many things, including why I hate carpets and wood strip flooring. Primarily, this post is to be about why we DID NOT move in on New Years weekend and what we found under those carpets. When I began ripping up the carpet on Christmas weekend, I noticed merely a few stains on the underside of the carpet, but a veritable potpourri of stains and damage across the ¼” x 2” white oak strip flooring beneath. Over-watered houseplants, incontinent pet syndrome and perhaps a few domestic mushrooms plagued this floor. And it seemed that water was left standing in many places, thanks to the sponging traits of carpets and their mats, which had warped and shrank the meager wood parcels that someone once called flooring. I cannot think of how to salvage this, even if I wanted to, that is. This does not to mention the plethora of heavily rusted staples from a previous much longer standing carpet. I dread to consider how that one looked prior to its demise.

You see, the carpet that *I* tore up was relatively new. My guess would be about 6 months old, long enough to spill a few things and filter a few dozen cartons of cigarettes. It still smelled like stale tobacco smoke, yet showed few actual signs of wear. I imagine that when the POs [Previous Owners] decided on selling the house, they did away with the previous carpet as the first part of prepping the sale. This older carpet might have been 30 years old or more, but had left many signs of its trialsome life behind.

So after concluding that the oak strip flooring was unsalvageable, I decided to rely on the original floorboards. The bedrooms still had them, although one bedroom had its boards painted brown for reasons yet unknown. My parents had come to our rescue to help us out; being the seasoned homebuilders/renovators that they are, this was a MAJOR relief.

The original ¾” old growth quarter-sawn tongue & groove Douglas Fir boards told me a tale of woe surpassing that of the puny oak strips. First of all, being thin and narrow wood strips and NOT t&g, they require a plethora of nails to keep them in line. And when some PO decided that wet mopping a wood floor was a good idea, this army of nails decided to rust and leave corrosion stains through the floorboards in too many places (though not shown here). This means that no amount of sanding will remove the stains, though I suppose some bleaching might work. Well, the same continued for the incidents during the carpet years because as wood strips, the dust, silt, cleaners and water seep through each gap, and reside evermore underneath, spreading out with every step of the foot.

Not only that, but when those malevolent strips were first put in, the installers seemed to have used some pick axe in the poor flooring to nestle up the oak nice and snug (but not snug enough). These ½” deep holes are found about every 3 feet, and some of them, like you see here, had been sloppily mis-placed. We figured that the amount of time/effort/money it would take to redress those wrongs and apply an adequate finish to the dougfir, we might do better with a whole new floor on all accounts.

So after much deliberation and sleeping on it, we decided upon and found a great deal on ¾” x 5” pre-finished Ash, and it has a 50 yr guarantee on the finish. Here is a mock-up. We are quite pleased with how it compliments the baseboards. This will be our task this weekend, but it means that we should have the ceilings painted beforehand…AND WE HADN’T EVEN CONSIDERED COLORS YET! But thank goodness that this is Roxana’s area of expertise, color theorist as she is. I trust her explicitly.

Here you see a corner of our living room all bare a neekid. Just a little shellac here, paint there, and a floor to come soon, and voila! All this week has been about preparing to paint, which means we have to finish with the stripping, neutralize the residual stripper left behind and mask off everything else. To neutralize the stripper, we are scrubbing the wood and adjacent surfaces with mineral spirits, and then washing it all down with a 10% solution of cleaner (Simple Green, in our case) using nylon abrasive pads.

Perhaps I shall soon provide an addendum to my Chemi-Strip Primer, or more "advanced" techniques, I am such a profession now. Our next post will be about painting the ceiling and the colors chosen. Phew! (This is now an expression in our 2 ½ year old’s repertoire and a hoot to see). Until then...

Stop Clock! STOP!

2006-12-28T11:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I had to take some of my own advice, good advice it was. In a previous post I suggested not putting the proverbial clock in front of ones face whilst stripping paint, or else suffer misery and damaged wood. What with our move-in/out date fast approaching (end of this year), I found myself chanting the ill-helpful mantra "I'm not gonna make it. I'm not gonna make it....". Toss in a couple of adorable girls and sexy/fabulous wife I cannot tear myself away from and a heaping helping of Christmas, and I found that the stripping spirit had vacated the premises. So had my sleep. My stress had reached insomniatic proportions. Delerium was a friend with whom I would confide in.

So then we will have to move in later...again. This is the fourth time we have had to postpone our domestic transfer (aka- move).

This past weekend I began ripping up the foul carpet, and it was foul indeed. Below the carpet padding was a wood strip floor atop the original floorboards. I confess to not knowing the state of the original floor yet. The top layer lay witness to a much older carpeting, one that appears to have spent much of its life in wetness. The abandoned staples made this confession to me, as well as bold complaints of some previous pet.

I will say this clearly: Carpets are nasty things that hide filthy secrets from their occupants.

Evict them, I say. In my next post I will include pictures of these indescretions. This had brought us to the conclusion that it would be best in terms of time/money to remove this top layer of flooring and either see if what's beneath is salvagable or lay down a new floor. This is instead of sanding and refinishing the floor in several coats. Not really being something we anticipated, there is much about laying down a new floor I do not yet know. Time for another crash course.

Sharks Patrol These Waters: a Retro-Rant

2006-12-18T10:12:00.000-08:00

Today I'm dredging up an old draft of a post (4 month old) for mere amusement. I was green in many senses of the term, so look not too harshly upon the thoughts below...They were from a draft after all. This was written after our 3rd unsuccessful offer on a house, and prior to dealings with the house we now have. We had gotten word that local agents talked about black listing us and I was fuming mad, but ultimately paranoid, so I sat on this.

Don’t let your fingers dangle in the water (or so it goes, with due respect to indie band Morphine). It becomes increasingly more clear that the ‘way for the realtor’ is terribly unclear to me. It seems the more we pursue our house hunt, we encounter more and more unpleasantries from the agent-side of buying a house. The foibles of the many realtors we’ve acquainted have left us with a simmering dislike of the profession. Particular crimes include:

- False listings
advertising a 3-bedroom house, where one 'bedroom' is in the basement with 6‘-2” to 7’-0” ceiling height, and another has no closet
- Overly aggressive approach to “helping you find the right house”
when we really want to do the research ourselves at our own pace.
- Expecting the buyer to "find the right house" after 3-5 viewings
- Persistently NOT returning calls when requesting a viewing or just info
- dropping not-so-vague hints that they "really need to make this sale"
- using fictitious competing 'buyers' to get you to up your offer
- Flipping properties before they have even gone on market
to pocket themselves an easy 20%-100% markup (and thereby keep the market high)
- Selling Agents who don't bring your offer to the owner
so they can find their own buyer, thereby claiming double profits as Buying Agent, too

Am I bitter? Yes. Yes I am, perhaps mostly due to the fact that a realtor often earns as much or more selling a house than the Architect does whom had built it. It is the Architect whom has the extensive education/experience, strict regulations & licensure, liability, and CREATIVE SKILL…and the realtor? I won’t even bother, except to say that they all seem to drive Lexus’, BMWs & Mercedes and are overly concerned with the state of their fingernails.

Still Strippin' - A Psychological Approach

2006-12-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

If somebody ever tells you that stripping paint is easy, go ahead and bite their finger off. It is probably being waggled at you as they say this. It’s not to say that it’s particularly difficult, say like reassembling a Wankel rotary engine, but is more akin to exfoliating oneself armed with only a pair of Hello Kitty™ tweezers; it takes a very long time to work through every edge, corner and crevice and you keep finding bits you previously overlooked. It almost aches as much, too…bit by bit. Sometimes I imagine our house is screaming with every passing scrape, other times, it’s just me doing the imaginary scream. This does nothing to make it more bearable. And then I look back over what I had just accomplished, and realize that it can be measured in mere inches.

It’s those edges and corners & such that take so long…and those places that were never stained/shellacked prior to painting…and undersides and curves. Will it never end, I keep asking myself. I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have a proverbial clock/calendar to stare at.

So kiddies, the moral here is: if you plan to strip paint (especially roomfuls), do not put yourself in a position where you keep looking at the time when you have to be finished. Find that "zone", that zen moment, and just focus on what you are working on now, and not what you have to have done then. It would be better if you had no particular time to be done, but that is seldom practical. Just try to not think about it too much. You will have alot of time to practice this.

The View From Cloud #13

2006-11-21T10:55:00.000-08:00

>sigh<....O! how I dislike/distrust contractors...

As an Architect, I have had many dealings with shifty contractors not-of-my-choosing. This is not to say ALL contractors of the building trade are disreputable. I have worked with a number of professionals whose reputation is arguably beyond reproach (and I've learned quite a few things from them, too). But, there is a large enough population of knaves to leave me leery of entrusting someone to work on my house.

That said, I shall show you yet another expensive misdeed from contractor laziness/carelessness. This particular instance is from a PO's hire. The window you see is neither clouded by glare nor paint overspray, nor overzealous sneeze. The window has been pitted by sandblast. When this house was painted some time ago, a contractor chose to sandblast the exterior window frames/trim prior to repainting, rather than stripping them by hand. It appears that they didn't subscribe to the "95% preparation, 5% decoration" rule, thereby not bothering to mask the windows well beforehand. Besides, cutting time in half for painting, sandblasting does a good job at cutting the wood down, too. You sandblast engine blocks and steel ships, not wood windows! The exterior trim now has softened edges and I have counted some 13 panes of glass sofar that have sandblast damage, the one shown here being the largest (8'-0" x 3'-0"). This will be the most costly to replace, as I will have to HIRE SOMEONE TO DO IT FOR ME!!!

a Spoonful of Sugar...

2006-11-20T09:59:00.000-08:00

I have an idea toward resolving the damage from HackFest that occurred in our Living-Dining room. What I need is to motivate others to do this time consuming work for me. My role is to be really patient and not varnish the wood for a while (which I wasn't planning on doing yet anyways)...Oh, and have lots of dollar bills on hand. What you see here is a mere prototype, but the essence is there. I shall leave a candybowl out and invite guests to play “match the missing piece”. I imagine sitting in the living room, engaged in some in-depth conversation with a friend as they absently fondle the chair rail, for instance, when their fingers glance upon a chunky hole. The topic abates momentarily, as they exclaim having seen a similar piece in the bowl. After fishing it out and confirming the fit, they shout “Jenga!” or some-such, and promptly glue the chip in. I would guess that what you see here would amount to $1000 that one could potentially earn easily enough. Not shown is another bowl’s worth containing the Dining Room Collection. Also, the chips will also be pre-stripped, unlike what you see here. So, anyone wanna play?

Chemical Stripping – a Primer

2006-11-08T14:25:00.000-08:00

Here is my guide to CAREFULLY and effectively stripping paint from wood trim/paneling using chemicals…eco-unfriendly noxious chemicals…chemicals with dangers on-par with the dangers of the lead paint you are probably removing. Okay, perhaps I cannot qualify that, but it is none-the-less bad stuff, those chemicals. This is what I shall discuss here.

-1- Protect Yourself
-2- Protect Your Walls & Floor, etc.
-3- Protect Your Wood
-4- Take It Off, Take It All Off
       paint bulk
       residue
       stain/varnish
       et al

If you are not reading this because you are about to do some stripping on your own, I suggest you merely peruse the not-so-pretty pictures and move along. I suspect even my *shiny* prose will succumb to the #messy# nature of stripping paint. But if you, dear reader, still chose to stay with me, then let us begin. Or rather, let’s talk about beginning to begin.

PROTECT YOURSELF

First, PROTECT YOURSELF. That bears saying again….PROTECT YOURSELF….The best way to protect yourself is to hire someone else to do it, but then you may be foregoing #2 & 3, as I had experienced (see HorrorShow!).

Stuff You Will Need:

(tape any holes over)

(protection against splattering)

(neoprene or 2-layers of latex…buy a box)

(think “open windows” and perhaps a fan)

Methylene Chloride is usually the effective agent in this class of strippers. A general rule of thumb is that the effectiveness of the stripper is proportional to the pungency of the vapors. If it smells like lemons or potpourri then you might just be stripping grime rather than paint; It should make you back away flailing your arms for fresher air. And always read the warning labels and “In Case of Emergency” bits just cuz.

Make sure your respirator seals around your face (a beard will prevent this so I would then recommend either shaving or investing in a full-face mask). Test the seal by covering the filters with the palms of your hands and suck in. Reseat if needed, or try washing your face.

As for gloves, I use latex because they are cheap and plentiful. I use 2-layers for 2-reasons. Firstly, because the stripper burns on contact, two layers delay the burn long enough to give one time to wipe it off beforehand. The other reason is that eventually the top layer will tear or begin to melt through and it’s good to have another layer underneath protecting your skin. If/when it gets onto your skin, immediately wipe it off and wash it with cold water.

PROTECT YOUR WALLS & FLOOR, ETC.

Our second stage is also known as prepwork. Mask off walls and other surfaces from the areas you will strip with masking tape (& paper). Also lay down and tape a relatively non-permeable paper or tarp over your floor. Butcher paper works but so do a number of other disposable covers. Because we will dispose the tobacco-scented carpet, it will double as our tarp. Remove outlet/switch covers, thermostats, doors, drawers and anything else you can, even if you mean to strip these, too (my former workers neglected to do even this…lazy); it’s much easier to strip these things separately and outside. Ideally you would remove all your wood trim and do this outside, but that takes much more time/effort and adds further risk to damaging your precious wood (though some people DO do this).

PROTECT YOUR WOOD
This is really just to remind you to be patient. It’s so hard to do this sometimes because it takes a really long time to strip properly and sometimes you just have to see some progress, so remember that it’s remarkably easy to damage your wood permanently and difficult/near-impossible to fix/replace. Focus on the four phases and their goals mentioned below, and do not try to more than that. I mean to say that while you are Scraping the Bulk of The Paint Off, do not become overly concerned with getting it all down to the bare wood; if it comes off, it comes off, but if it doesn't, leave it and get it on the next phase(technique). Do not become careless, as evidenced in the picture above by my ex-workers. Should you have a Victorian-era home with lots of curvy trim, well, you have my pity. Curved surfaces are excruciatingly time-consuming and difficult too, and hand-carved elements…well, I am sooo sorry if you have any carved elements that need stripping. In the later case, think toothbrush and dental pick, tabletop and Gregorian chants. >whack<

TAKE IT OFF, TAKE IT ALL OFF

And so it begins. These are the tools I recommend by order of sequencing:

A. glass or metal receptacle (not plastic as you see here; see why?)
B. plenty o’ cheap paintbrushes (you will not be re-using them)
C. plastic scrapers (this is your friend)
D. stiff metal scraper/putty knife (this may be your enemy)
E. stiff nylon brushes (another friend)
F. maybe a small brass brush (another enemy)
G. large supply of paper towels
H. metal trash can

Stripping 5-7 layers of paint is done in about 5-7 passes, no matter what the product claims I’m sorry to say. This first pass (or four) will be to get the bulk of the paint off, wherein you see as much wood as you see paint residue, much like you see here. Note that there is still much paint present, not to mention the stain/varnish. This early part of stripping takes little force.

Phase 1 –Paint Bulk: (damage risk: 1 of 5)
what you need to know

- Focus on a contiguous surface (single facet) like a long trim piece or panel portion
- worry about edges/transitions on a separate pass
- only 2-5 square feet at a time (I work on 2-3 separate areas each in different phases)
- work on higher pieces first
- get on as much stripper as will stay on the surface without it dripping off
- wait the recommended time (5-20 minutes typically but no longer)
- scoop softened/curled paint w/ plastic scraper relatively gently
- wipe into can
- repeat until you reach the goal of 50/50 wood-to-paint visually
- this will take more than one pass

Phase 2 – Paint Residue: (damage risk: 2)

This is relatively similar to the previous phase, with the difference being sludge. After another thick coat of stripper, instead of peeling paint rolling off like curtains, you will be scooping a goopy mess of discolored sludge as the remaining paint residue melts and mixes with the stripper medium. Use both hands and push the sharp edge of the plastic scraper hard through the slop with the grain of the wood. It is more likely you would mar the plastic before you damage the wood, unless there are already spawls/splinters in the wood to catch. Just be mindful as you are doing this and you’ll be fine (If you do this with the metal scraper you WILL do damage. This is why my trim/walls were damaged. See photo near top of this post). Instead of just dumping the sludge into the can, wipe the plastic scraper clean on a paper towel before taking another scoop off. If you don’t wipe it clean each time you will just smear the melted paint goo across your wood. One paper towel square will be good for 1 square foot of stripping. Continue this until you accheive the goal: you should see primarily wood with very little visible paint remaining. This may take more than one pass. When complete, lay down another thick layer of stripper and wait.

Phase 3 – Stain/Varnish Layer: (damage risk: 2½)

You can get quite a bit of the original stain/finish off, thereby reducing the amount of sanding needed. The damage risk is low if you go slow. Pull the metal scraper with enough force with the grain. Don't pull so hard that you see wood pulp peel up. By now you will have done 3-5 coats of stripper and the wood will begin to soften on the surface. The force you exert on the blade now will squeeze some of the stains out of the wood similar to a squeegee to a sponge (wood is not entirely dissimilar to a sponge). The sludge you extract should be very discolored, only less so than previously. Always have control over the blade and do not let it “get away from you”. Your goal is to remove most/all shiny spots due to varnish. This often takes more than one pass. When complete, lay down another thick layer of stripper and forego the waiting this time.

Phase 4 – Bits and Bobs: (damage risk: 1-3)

Any dings and dents in the wood prior to stripping will still have paint in them, as would any cracks or old nail holes. This is when you use the nylon bristle brush. It is soft enough for the already softened wood. The stripper will also draw out more stain as you scrub-a-dub and agitate the wood. You may need to use a small brass brush to get deeply imbedded or stubborn spots, but be careful as the brass will leave a tarnish on the wood if you scrub too much/hard (stainless steel bristles may scratch the wood so use with extreme caution).Then promptly remove the excess sludge by the method outlined previously with the metal scraper. Also continuously wipe the surface with a clean spot of paper towel. Many paper-towel-bearing trees will be sacrificed through this process, but when complete, you should have a pretty clean surface, excepting a few dental pick worthy spots. Your goal here is to have a realitive nude surface. You can tell you've done enough when the gunk you scrape and wipe off is only moderately discolored. This usually takes more than one pass. Now you should be ready for sanding.

One final note: Please dispose of your old and probabally leaded paint, stripper residue and myriads of toxified paper towels properly/responsibly. Contact your local Hazardous Waste facility or City to find out where to take it. You don't want this stuff leaching into your water.

Post-Interlude

2006-11-01T12:35:00.000-08:00

I took the night off from home-repair so we could take our girls out trick-or-treating for the very first time last night. We chose to comb our new neighborhood, though we have yet to move in. It's fortunately only ~3 blocks from where we have been renting this past year. Marley was a lobster and Michaela was originally going to be Boo-in-Monstersuit (from Monsters Inc.) because so many people comment on how much she resembles this Pixar character. Sadly, time to construct/sew this costume was not present, mostly due to the circumstances outlined in HorrorShow previously. Plan B was for her to go as a spider, but she DID NOT take to this costume one bit. Plan C was to mention the word 'princess' to her, and her immediate response was 'okay' (this means an emphatic 'yes' in Michaela-speech: example- [me] would you like to play Bombardier with your wood blocks and the cat waterbowl? [Michaela] okay).

So off we went to their first trick-or-treat session, as we introduced ourselves to our new neighbors. I have to say that we were duly impressed with the kindness with which we were received and genuine sense of community we felt. Our eyes glazed over idyllic as it hinted at what we always hoped for. Michaela seemed a bit less impressed opting to hide behind me, until she saw all the chocholate she was being given. 'Thank you' and 'bye' immediately followed. I think she was starting to get it. Now we'll see if she asks to go trick-or-treating every night...

So after that interlude, I look forward to resuming the paint-stripping after work for the next two weeks. I *hope* I can get enough done so that we can move in mid-month. Next post will show some pictures of my progress, and perhaps a quasi-tutorial of how I strip and how long it takes to get it down.

One question: What's the most effective way to get rid of Tobacco odors that permeate the house?

My guess is to scrub every surface with Lysol and papertowels. Any better ideas out there?

HorrorShow! a Hack-n-Slash episode

2006-10-29T08:15:00.000-08:00

In keeping with the spirits of this season, I shall update you on our progress with a tale of terror and woe. These tragic circumstances occurred merely a half-fortnight ago and came to light by the din of a 40-watt bulb in the wee-hours of the night. Though it has been some significant time since our last posting, believe me when I assure you that we had indeed gone forward with our plans as outlined in that correspondence. I sit here this Sunday morning typing to you one-handed as I console baby Marley from the aftereffects of this horror with my one-remaining arm.

As you might recall, we had hired someone to strip the paint/stains from the wood paneling and trim in the Living-Dining Rooms. He would then sand and finish the wood with a lacquer or similar shell prior to our moving into our first home. He would also rip out that nasty tobbacco-stained malodorous carpet, We would hope that the floor underneath would be manageably intact. He began his work two Thursdays afore, and after my initial review I was satisfied with his care and progress.

What you are looking at here is what I deemed as the initial paint-stripping pass, getting the bulk of the build-up off. We figure that there were ~6 layers of paint and one stain/shellac layer. I personallly have seen much worse (14 layers) but this would still be money well-spent, I thought to myself then. I had noticed a paper dust-mask on the wayside and concluded that this was no protection from the noxious chemicals from his remover, So I returned in the morning with a proper filtered mask and goggles for his safety. All was progressing as planned and we would move into our new-old and recently stripped (read as: 'formerly-pink') house as anticipated. I would not return to this scene until late 3 days thence, on the weekend. What I found by the dim lighting horrified and appalled me....

Squeee-eeee-eeeee-eeeeeee

As I walked into the room that night, I could see by the dim wash of streetlight coming through the windows what looked like wood chips on the Dining Room floor. Not the kind that you'd expect a woodchuck to chuck, but more like the fallings of a burly lumberjack's work. Large holes and missing edges had developed on our trim and panelling in our prized Dining Room. No ammount of sanding would mask these marrings. As I turned around, I could see the unmistakable signs of a flaying on our wainscoting. This bespoke not of careful nor methodical process but a maddened spirit seeking violent harm. This "hacking" debacle was evidenced throughout the room. Woodchips large and small were in exodus from their former places in the walls and trim. Looking around agast, my eyes happened upon the once-smart-looking picture rail, and it appeared absolutely shredded. It really looked as though the paint had been removed by chisle and hammer and a wild bear. All this happened over one day, what had initially started out so careful and proper, that I could see no connection between the two intervals of work. What had happened, indeed?

Apparently, feeling somewhat daunted by his task, our employ choose to hire two friends of his to assist, one of whom was "experienced" in paint-stripping for some 30 years, so he claimed. I took the day off work to speak with them directly Monday morning. On one occasion, the "friend" had the audacity to claim that all the wood was previously damaged like that, pointing to the location on the built-in bookshelf dividing the Living-Dining Room where the columns once were. After dismissing this and explaining about the once-present columns, I bent down to pick up a handfull of woodchips asserting that THEY did this. He merely shrugged and said that I shouldn't expect perfection. I expected them to not destroy the 200-year old wood, like the other fellow was careful not to do whom worked on the Living Room. He retorted with a claim that it could be easily fixed by a little extra sanding...that it was all ready to be sanded in fact. Not with all the paint and residue remaining I returned, and they would have to sand ~1/8" off everything to mask their carelessness. No way would I have them continue any more. The damage was done and extensive, and I am still mulling over how I will fix it. Needless to say, I dismissed them from this job (read as: fired) with nothing more than their initial payment. In a way it was a pity as (I believe) the fellow that we personally hired did an acceptable job and had he continued with the quality of his work all would have worked out fine. But he was responsible for the care of our house and failed in that regard to manage his 'friends' efforts.

So now the onus to complete this is on me prior to moving in. And I have learned in a personal way that (most) contractors will get away with everything they can without a watchful eye trained on them. Their motivation is to get it done, not get it done well (or right), as they won't be living with their work, staring at their mistakes and slipshod efforts every day.

zzzzzz>snrt<.. huh, whaa.. Oh, Hello

2006-10-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow, is sleep a precious commodity with a newborn & a toddler in tow. It's been a spot of time since our last entry, and I must confess, that I really have little to update you with, Houseblog-wise. So as of last week, the House is ours! Keys in our hot little hands, yet Reality reckons, here.

Ideal:
- snap out as-built plans and schematics for our renovation
- get our snazzy plans out, submitted and approved
- get the "ole girl" hoisted into the air (built by shipwright carpenters, right?)
- demo the old foundation/lay the new foundation
- build the lower floor's new walls
- reseat the house and hookups
- strip ALL the wood panelling and trim of their pink (probably lead-impregnated) paint
- scrub all the walls and ceilings of their tobbacco-stink and rip out the malodorous carpet
- move-in (magically) over the weekend after December 1st

Real:
- took preliminary measurements for as-builts, but have yet to input it
- schematics? uh, sure, we have some ideas about here somewhere......
- we will have to get Appropriateness Approvals before we can submit to the city, and they meet once a month...and what we intend to do teeters on the line of appropriateness/inappropiateness.
- lifting of the house PRIOR to moving-in is a financial fantasy. Why? because getting to the actual stage of lifting the house, actually, is far more time-intensive than our dream-bound brains could comprehend, and paying a mortgage AND rent for more than 2 months ... far from priceless. We will have to do this part while we are living here

Furthermore, the fact is that raising little-ones who cannot yet wave a hammer for you require you to also not be waggling a hammer about either. And as it should be, these are precious and magical days with our girls, full of wonder. We instead are planning to HIRE someone to strip for us (the paint, people...). Someone who can get it done far more quickly than we, so that any dust and fumes will begone by move-in day (noxious chemicals and kids shouldn't mix). This way, we will be moved-in by November, and the rest of the house-projects take a more leisurely pace.

This Just In...or Out

2006-09-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

Our second daughter was born a week ago (8 September). We dub her Marley Ella. All went well with the birthing process, on both ends, even though one party attests to 'soreness' (understated). Marley was born at 11:12 am, 7 lbs 14 oz, 19.5 inches. We are so happy; we are so tired...

Mini-Tour (part III)

2006-09-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

And now we conclude with the tour with the emphasis on the service portions of our humble house.

the Kitchen

Here you see it's fairly sizable for a small house; definately amenable to adding a food-prep island w/ breakfast bar. Behind me in this photo is an enormous coat & hat rack suitable for a Boston pub and a hide-away ironing board. The kitchen was redone at sometime and looks to be ready for another re-doing. But it functions and will probabally be placed on the will-call list as far as renovations go. Behind that whatchamacallit is the dining room's built-in. I fantasize about completing the countertop here and making a pass-through to that buffet...with a counter-balanced drop-down door to preserve the mirror there (see image in previous entry). The rest of the kitchen currently houses the laundry and 'nook'. We plan for it, possibly, to house the stairs the the proposed floor below. But dig that crazy pull-down 50's(?) lamp. Keep!

Interlude

It was my birthday this past weekend. 6² to be precise. Roxana & Michaela made me a birthday cake. Here she is giving me a kind of hug where she snuggles up. It was a fabulous day. Also in the news, R is about to recieve the first treatment to induce birth for Marley today. This is where things speed up exponentially.

The Bath-sans-bath

Seems someone thought a shower stall was better than a tub. Eh, too much like a public washroom. This is clearly a newer construction/alteration, one which we would like to reverse. So, we will need to look for either an old tub (preferably not a claw-foot cast iron), or a modern acrylic one. However, having not had an acrylic tub, we fear they may scratch or buildup gunk too easily. So much to learn here. Our hope is to build a beadboard wood casing around it. We should be able to add nearly a foot in width by moving the 'shower' wall which ajoins an overly deep closet on the other side. The rest of the bathroom is managable for the time being, but will need a serious quasi-superficial makeover when funds and time allow...like when the girls graduate from college.

the Garage

And finally we have the 2-car garage, on the back of the lot off the alley. It looks to be untouched since first errected. It will need lots of love to keep it errect. We intend to use it as a woodshop in one half and a swingin' lounge in the other...or maybe just park the car there. We can also park another car out with the 'elements' beside it when/if we pave it over.

Mini-Tour (part II)

2006-09-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

Having toured the Private Quarters of the house in yesterday's post, I shall now move on to the Hospitality Sector. [note: this entry will be ammended soon with more photos and stuff, so horses be held...]

The Living Room

The picture window is a beautiful sight to behold...if it wasn't for that 60's apartment complex across the street... grumble. Still, modern flat glass panes were just dawning on development at the time so I imagine this was a luxurious inclusion. If you look closely, between the trees, you can see the ruddy hills of Mare Island and imagine General Vallejo's marooned white mare running free and haunting the locals. If you look closer still, you may be able to see some water. The hillside we spy is in the 'top' of the painting. We hope to be able to lift the house ~8', wherein we would have a better view over the apartment-o-rama before us. I'm still puzzled how this was built in an historic neighborhood.

Well, along with the view, we also get a fireplace. This is not something we had counted on. For those of you NOT living in California, this may not seem like an issue worth mention, especially because it is rather bruto. But fireplaces have always been optional here and included for sentimental reasons rather than functional ones. This is why the so-called hearth is on an exterior wall, and not centrally located in the house. It is flanked by two shuttered double-hung windows, benches and a smart 2'-3" high wainscotting around the room. Note: pink trim

the Dining Room

We will have a room deserving of it's own soundtrack, aptly performed by the the Dining Rooms. Über-cool, but not-so pretty in pink, this room will look ever sweet in rich wood. We are loving the wood trims and panelling. No ogees nor curves there; just straight geometry. The floor will also lose the tobbacco-soaked mauve carpet, and that fan... feh! The back of the built-in bookcase you see deserves a heavy post (as does the opposite one out of frame). And I'm dreaming of a box-beamed ceiling. Unlike the ones you see at Lowes.

I find it rather funny that in all our years of renting, we've never had a dining room before. Thus, no dining table. I suppose this is ideal, as we will have the chance (some day) to acquire a dining table fit to our dining room's ambiance. The funny part is that this room will probabally be table-less for some time because the table we use currently was a lab table in it's previous life and not quite appropriate for the staging we envision here. Although a mortar & pestal and a number of colbalt blue glass jars all marked 'poison' might look kinda hip here. hmmm.

Mini Tour (part I)

2006-09-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

Well, as we have yet to draft out the as-built plans (cursory measurements have been taken) and schematic designs, I thought I might take you on a little web tour of our soon-to-be (O! how I tire of that prefix) house in it's 'given' state; this is as-in, before we get our hands on it. You've seen the street front in previous posts, so I shall commence with what's beyond the front door.

the Foyer

Note the classic Arts & Craft door. Note the crank door chime. Note the paint that I will have to scrape/strip off. The foyer leads into the first bedroom, as you see here and the living room on on the left. Sadly, this is the only room where the door and wall trim is NOT painted over with pink latex. This miniscule space is currently at the crux of many decisions to be made, however. One of which involves the bedroom ahead.

Because this room originally had no closet, one was carved out of the foyer and claimed one of the two matching sidelights (as seen from the porch). Now frankly, we're not one of those fond of having the contents of our closets viewable from a front porch window, but neither are we keen on offsetting the balance of this "first impression" entryway by clouding the windows or eliminating one.

Bedroom #1

So, for option 1a, we may demo the closet and return the space to the foyer. The bedroom would then either get a more standardized closet on the opposite water wall (where the bathroom adjoins) or be delegated to use as an office/den. If we keep it as a bedroom by relocating the closet (option 1b), it would reduce the room to about 10x10. Not terribly lush, but adequate for a little one (daughter)...at least for a while. We might then see about the possibilities of cantilevering a bump-out ~2' similar to the dining room currently, restoring the size of this room.

Btw, the floor of this room is painted, and we can only hope it is in as good a condition as the floor in the 'Master Bedroom'. So therefore a heavy prescription of stripping/scraping/sanding is in order. Also note: pink trim.

'Master Bedroom'

Okay, does an excess of one linear foot make a master bedroom? How about 6+ windows? Or how about building a different master bedroom altogether on the floor below...when we get a floor below. Either way, this is a rather pleasant room to behold, lots of morning light and a potential cross-breeze/gale. This room seems to need merely a refinishing, and perhaps a reworking of the closet. Said closet is rather small but much is taken by an overly deep hall closet. We could easily claim another 2 feet here yeilding a 6' wide bedroom closet and a built-in hall linen cabinet. It's also quite deep at 2'-10"!!?! And what's with the closet window again? Is this normal? Also note: no pink trim...it's white this time.

If it Quacks…

2006-08-22T10:22:00.000-07:00

O, how we have pondered this question: What type/style is our soon-to be house? Is it an Arts & Crafts cottage, a Craftsman Bungalow, California Bungalow, Prairie House? We figure that the closest typology is a Prairie Bungalow, but even that shoe fits kind of funny. The fact is that there are a significant number of homes very similar to this one in Vallejo, all with slight variations in size, detailing and quality but with essentially the same layout. The house in Berkeley previously mentioned (the rotting one without the floor mentioned here) was of the same design even, and I understand there are a number of them in Eureka, CA as well. But then again, I suppose that there are only so many different ways to design a 2 bed/1 bath house on a deep/narrow lot with an 8’ ceiling and 2/12 slope hip roof. Ultimately it really doesn’t matter WHICH style it is, because all ‘styles’ (as well as stereotypes) are manufactured descriptions anyways. This house is merely what it is. But it’s a curious question, none-the-less.

The nearest description I could find was in the book Vallejo’s Architectural Heritage (1977) which lists this house under the heading of 'Wrightian Speculative Units'. They are defined as speculative (read as proto-tract) housing for Vallejo’s working class dating from roughly 1911-20 and distributed unevenly throughout the old neighborhoods. They cite Frank Lloyd Wright’s early publications of prairie houses (seen in House Beautiful and Ladies Home Journal of that era) as source material, but little real similarities can discerned. Most probably, these are houses designed not by architects but by the carpenters who built them. It’s also possible that they were from kits, though the broad range of variations make that seem unlikely. If my assumptions are correct, I would love to confirm them by seeing the supposed published plans in a book or magazine. Distinguishing characteristics:

- Horizontal emphasis as a 1-story house (sometimes w/ basement)
- Low-sloped hip roof w/ wide boxed-in eaves
- Conjoined living-dining room separated by built-in bookcases
(and specific to this house..)
- Bedrooms face East; Living/Dining face West
- Emphasis on square in detailing
- Double-hung windows w/ single pane on bottom, and 2-then-4 (6 total) on top
- Flaired watertable

Another question I have: Is that flaired watertable detail specific to West Coast craftsman homes? I am having difficulty finding any references to it elsewhere but see it commonly 'round these parts. I may not even have it named correctly. Anyone? By the way, the stucco you see does not appear to be original to this house as the original 'Garage Unit' off the back alley has small-scaled cedar clapboard as siding.

Jubilation!

2006-08-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

And thus begins the transition into Phase 2 of this project (and ‘blog). With our offer accepted, signed, and in escrow, we can almost call ourselves ‘Homeowners’. Almost. Transition. Quasi-domo. Had I mentioned that R is kinda pregnant, 8 months kinda? So why can’t we call ourselves homeowners yet? I figure that we are or we are not until proven otherwise.

This is our fourth bid for a house in this town (when they say three’s a charm…what’s that make this?). So let’s first do the numbers:

1917 craftsman/prairie house
2 bedroom/1 bath
1124 sq.ft. living
4333 sq.ft lot

Allow me to introduce to you:

And to revisit our previously posted checklist-

Here is what we need for our fulfillment of "home":

minimum 2 bedrooms with the ability to expand to 3 in the future √
a sizable enough yard for our girls to safely play in √
SF Bay Area √
'safe' neighborhood √
workshop (detatched space for eventual home-business) √
painting studio [not as yet..but soon]
under $400k [no, but close]

Bonus points for the following:

Arts & Crafts bungalow √
an 'old' home (+/- 100 years) √
all original doors/windows, hardware, fixtures √
near downtown living [1.5 blocks away] √
solid/cohesive neighbors & 'hood √
9'+ ceilings [sadly, no]
'corner market' nearby [1.5 blocks away] √
park nearby [1.5 blocks away] √
historic significance [nat’l reg. historic ‘hood] √
water views [Mare Island and upper SF Bay] √

Bonus-Bonus points for yet more:

+ top of hill on south slope
+ alley access & non-decrepit garage
+ built-in bookcases & buffet
+ plate rails & painting rails
+ double-hung windows that work
+ porch w/ classic A&C door!
+ fireplace!

We will need to do alot of paint stripping and carpet ripping, among other tasks. Also noting from the above picture, a boxed column (or 2) is/are missing! As are the cabinet doors on the bookshelves. O! workworkworkwork.....

Our next task is planning for the renovation, long- and short-term, big and small. This will mean contacting contractors and drafting drawings. So I will need to get in there again soon to start measuring for the as-built plans. What, you might ask, are we planning on doing with this our 'old' house? Well, firstly, we want to lift it and replace the buttressed foundation with a proper one (more on this later). While it’s up in the air, we plan to give it a proper basement, or more accurately, a ‘downstairs'. This means adding 6'-7’ to the house, and getting an even better view in the process. Can you say "Sweet"?

Dance-Skip-Whee!

2006-08-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

How else do I express that we have Home-age (and Mortgage)? More info coming soon.

Have I forgotten you, Gentle Reader?

2006-08-04T14:11:00.000-07:00

No, I have not, though I have bitten my proverbial tongue to a rather raw stump as of late. Yes, I have a post that's been brewing and unfortunately, it will have to wait. Let me just say that R & I are still looking and have another bid in place. The aforementioned house (see here) seems to have wafted away. Perhaps the owner is waiting for that active leak (read as 'domestic spring') in the basement to wash the house away, hoping to collect on the insurance. Well, actually, they are holding out for their listed "there's no problem with the foundation, and we rather like the outhousey bathroom" price. Well, good luck to her, I say, followed by "next!"

One house we were considering was loctated o-so-close to the downtown library, water front, ferry terminal and main street...2-blocks actually from each. The price was steep, it had a buttressed foundation (aka- faux foundation), it was tiny in size but it was so, how do I say,...cute (cringe). Regard!

It is owned by the listing agent who prettied it up and staged it nicely. Days after our viewing, we noticed all the windows were sweating from the inside. When I say 'all the windows', I mean even the windows on the built-in buffet doors. It seems the plumbing burst and flooded the interior, with the relative humidity going through the roof, as they say. Looking in the front window, we could see the nice wood flooring with a high gloss finish that only comes from a large pool of water sitting on top. It was the end of the weekend, and I dreaded to think how long it had been left like that. We called and left a message with the realtor and then drove away. Well, any consideration we might have given it was a moot point because there was already an accepted offer in processing. Besides, it had a 15' wide public sewage easement in the back yard. Lovely. 'Next!"

Woes

2006-07-17T08:17:00.000-07:00

The extended deadline for our offer on the aforementioned house has come and gone. O! To be retired and mortgage-free! (I envy them) So the owners are requiring "more time to evaluate our offer", which to us sounds like "we are waiting for a better offer, and can wait indefinitely...but don't go yet, we might use you to start a bidding war". I still remain blindly optimistic while R takes the pragmatic approach, so we keep looking...in the meantime. This is good, as the more we look, the more refined our tastes become. This isn't such a qualitative statement of our "posh" standards [insert laugh] as is it an observation that we more quickly rule out/in the houses that we run across. Drivebys, indeed.

Courtship

2006-07-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

It’s funny how the process of courting a house is so dissimilar to the process of courting a mate… especially when both relationships hold the potential for “sharing life everlasting”. R & I find ourselves looking for charming but problematic houses, signs of serious neglect, for the purpose of ‘talking down’ the owners from their inflated expectations in this slowing market. This would be an atypical approach in the dating scene. We see a failing foundation and the little cockles in our hearts start to flutter, as ill sounding as that may be. We shy away from that “pretty as a picture” cottage, with fresh paint still agleam, bursting green sod/lawn and floozy-like flowers abloom (and more often than not, vinyl window replacements). We suffer from that fool-hearty notion that “we can do it…yes, we can!”, when it would be imminently better if we didn’t.

PWN your home!

I mean that I cannot imagine approaching the parents of my then-wife-to-be, proclaiming that their daughter was indeed “cute”, but in need of some “serious and expensive work…unstable and broken foundations, neglected siding, sagging plaster, leaky plumbing”. I would have been (rightfully) kicked to the curb. But yet, we seek out houses in terms of their potential…SPECIFICALLY in terms of that potentiality. We suffer from Pygmalion’s Syndrome and seek our own Eliza Doolittle. Part of the reason is indeed the aforementioned ego issue, but another issue for that is a sense of ownership. To know one’s house inside and out, having coursed through every joist and stud, plumbed every pipe and wire, and grouted all the little hex tiles in the bathroom seem to espouse the sense of ownership seen in Melville-ian ship captains and computer gamers of their rigs. If building completely new were feasible for us, we would opt for that, but paying both rent AND a massive mortgage is just not going to happen right now. Purchasing a so-called "blank canvas" seems to be the second-tier option for us first-time buyers, and an older home (read as pre-1945) has a more desirable starting point (forgive us our naïveté).

So we still await the results of our bid, which happened to be significantly lower than asking price. We weren’t outright turned down and our deadline has a day left, and I take that as a good sign that they hope for a better offer that won't come before accepting ours (I can hope too, can’t I?). The market seems glut with houses for sale, many we have been watching this whole year (“Price Reduced!”). And still we find ourselves amidst the hunt, until we hear from this one. But somehow the din of “top of hill”, “historic district”, and “original hardware” sound well above the shouts of “FAILING FOUNDATION”, “LONG NEGLECTED SIDING”, “BATHROOM….bathroom?”. Oddly the inherent charms of so many other houses seem to pale. It's the essence of this house [see below] that has grabbed us, and not in the particulars. I may be projecting, but this house deserves an "extreme makeover" much in the same way that homely friend of Marsha Brady did [name: Molly, was escorted to the banquet by an astronaut in the end]. The potential is so already there! (I must be sick).

The Contender

2006-07-07T16:37:00.000-07:00

I guess it all started a few years ago, when we found a Craftsman house in Berkeley listed at a price we could afford on our single income. Sure, it could use some love (well, ALOT of love by the looks from the pictures) as it had been uninhabited for the past 10 years. Sure, the diseased/dead 80’ conifer in the front had completely split and lifted the front foundation about 2’ involving ~ 20% of the house (note: trees have as many rights in Berkeley as do people). But peering through the only non-boarded-up window (in the front door) we could see fine built-ins, original hardware and tons of woodwork. We fantasized for days about what we would do with it and how.

When we finally got a walkthrough, we almost literally did…through the floor. The holes in the floor were huge, gaping, and plentiful in every room, and ready for more with every step. But that wasn’t what daunted us. We caved with that heavy sigh when we saw the east and south exterior walls were left with only the stucco (no lath/plaster, no studs, no floor/joists. All of it had completely rotted away, and still I marvel at how this curtain of stucco could support its own weight, not to mention the roof too. It looked so solid from the outside. It was $260K and well beyond our scope. ‘Fixer-upper’ indeed! Anyways, all the dreaming we had done had accomplished one thing: we were hooked. We just HAD to find another old house, one that we could rescue.

Enter the present…

A few blocks north of where we are renting, in the Nationally Registered historic neighborhood of St. Vincent’s Hill, there sits a deteriorating 1905 quasi-Victorian (no particular style), 2-bed/1-bath + basement. The owner is now 80+ and lives in LA. This was her mother’s home purchased some 90 years ago. Very little has been done to this house, as even the toilet is a mere shed added onto the house. In short, we are privy (pun, there) to ALL the work that is going to be needed. But here are the bits:

1100 sq.ft. living plus full basement @ 7’ height & windows along N & E
6500 sq.ft. hilly lot with alley access (& new detached garage)
10’ ceilings
2 bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen (all of ample size)
near-fullsized basement (currently 7' headroom)
original doors, windows, lights & hardware
built-ins & woodwork
2 blocks from waterfront & city restoration projects
6 blocks from center of downtown
views over the bay and city

Overall, it possesses all the primary criteria and 6/10 of the secondary with the potential to gain 3 more. The caveat is that it needs a new foundation to replace the original non-mortared bricks, bulging out in places. This aspect alone has frightened away all other buyers, but oddly it has actually exited us! Sure, let’s lift the house! I know the guy to do it (even drew up some plans for a home of his he was moving). [The mind reels…increase basement headroom to 8’, finish out space with another bedroom, bath and studio, nearly doubling the living space]

And since it seems to hold no sway to any particular style and the fact that it is a rather ripe canvas, we are discussing the nudge...no, SHOVE, toward the Arts & Crafts which we so desire. Among the many assets it may hold, roof overhangs are not one of them, sadly. Nor are mullioned sashes, though, if I am going to restore the (original) windows, I just as well could build them in myself. I am planning to work on some rough sketches this weekend, in which case I will post them here.

Begging for Bungalows

2006-07-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

Being my first post, in my first 'blog, on my first webpage, I'd like to welcome you all! Thus shall I begin my/our documentation of building a "home" for our little family, most hopefully of the bungalow variety, while being un-shy of restoration/repair/rebuild needs. My wife, Roxana, and I, Michael, are both trained in architecture, San Francisco Bay Area natives, and as-yet not homeowners. Because we are now fully committed to changing that last aspect about ourselves, I figure that now is a good time to start this little journal... for those yet to embark on this precarious journey, for those waxing nostalgic about their past forays into homeownership, and for us to laugh at (or cry) in a scant few years from now. Today marks the day of our bid submittal!

If you are not familiar with Bay Area living, lets get one thing clear...housing is freakin' expensive, and that encompasses an area larger than many states. What one would pay for a 2-bed/1-bath house anywhere around here would buy a mansion in most parts of this country. But still we chose to stay here, and have narrowed our search to Vallejo, CA. This city is located on the NE of said bay, Marin to our West, Oakland/Berkeley to the South, and SF to the SW. San Jose and the Silicon Valley are 'way down South' at the bottom of the bay.

Vallejo was the first capital of California (for less than 1 year), and then became the first Naval Shipyard for the Pacific Fleet. Since the closure of the military base on Mare Island in the early 1990's, the city had acchieved it's slow decay. Evidence of this 'patina' can be seen everywhere, yet today, there are massive plans/strategies to revitalize the city proper, the waterfront, and the island. The promise of potential!

Here is what we need for our fulfillment of "home":

minimum 2 bedrooms with the ability to expand to 3 in the future
a sizable enough yard for our girls to safely play in
(we have a 2 yr old and another due in September, 2006)
SF Bay Area
'safe' neighborhood
workshop (detached space for eventual home-business)
painting studio
under $400k

Bonus points for the following:

Arts & Crafts bungalow
an 'old' home (+/- 100 years)
original doors/windows and hardware
near downtown living
solid/cohesive neighbors & 'hood
9'+ ceilings
'corner market' nearby
park nearby
historic significance
water views

Fairly tall order, we know, but we can dream. Tomorrow, I will describe our current prospect and object of the forementioned bid.