November 28th We begin again.

Back on March 28, 2016

We submitted what we thought were final plans for approval and we were positive construction would begin within the week. For many reasons, our plans were not approved, nearly 30 items were called out and would require explanations, exhibits and what I called my "defense". It took until June 2016 to finalize the "dissertation" and submit the 30 pages of "explanation" to the commission. It was approved in less than 10 minutes with great enthusiasm over our efforts to enhance, preserve and give one of these historic homes another 100 years of life.

With our Hisorical waivers in hand, we set August 1 as our new start date.

However, there were some "small" changes that needed to be done to the structural elements since we added a covered back porch.   Our front porch is our favorite "room" now, so we did not hesitate to add a mirror image of the front porch onto the back. Turned pillars and matching railing will balance the house end to end.

But covered porches are not as easily added as we had anticipated. Roof lines were adjusted, weight bearing beams were added, decorative pillars were modified for strength and months of passing the plans back and forth from the architect, to the engineer, to the contractor, homeowner, and round and round we went for months. 

We have now been living in our "half house" for 8 months and find it cozy. We have everything we need, except a kitchen sink, and have become regulars at the local sandwich and coffee shops.  As the seasons have passed, I can say that is is far easier to stay warm in a cold house, than comfortable in a hot house.

With much frustration and final reviews, the plans were approved sometime in November. Our attentions that, at one time, were totally focused on "the remodel". Are now divided between preparing another house to sell, welcoming a new grand baby into the family and planning our annual family Christmas gathering.

When we got word that construction was beginning, we basically didn't believe it.  The guys showed up to do demo, and we hadn't even moved our belongings out of the demo area.  Complete denial.

Here are a sequence of photos dating back to March and showing the progressive destruction of what was once our home.

Photos are probably the best way to capture the evolution of space and time.


March 2016

Small bathroom demo begins. Due to safety concerns, the original tub didn't make the cut. We opted for the scald and drowning protection provided by current tub standards.

Kitchen demo happens so fast, we don't even take a pre photo.

Kitchen cabinets practically come away from the walls willingly.

Original high, double-hung kitchen window was closed using plywood many years ago. Around the same time the 10-foot kitchen ceilings were dropped to 8 feet.

Original window frame and original 10-foot ceiling joists can be seen along with the outline of an old door leading to the bathroom. This bathroom door must have been closed long ago. It continues to be a mystery why anyone would lower 10-foot ceilings.

The original back porch reveals the original window frames as the layers of drywall and plywood are removed. The ceiling for this part of the structure is only 7 feet high to the roof, so it will be removed. We will save the windows and frames to be used in the final structure. The red wood beams will be removed and reused along with all of the exterior siding.

Framing for original porch screens are uncovered. The sloping ceiling and low roof line will be removed to allow for a standard 10 foot ceiling to match the two other bedrooms.

Glass and frames from the old windows will be reused in the kitchen cabinets. Lead paint on porch ceiling shines through. The original greens and yellows are still vibrant. 

From March through November, the back of the house stayed essentially unchanged as we waited for permits to build. At this time, the exterior of the house was completely intact along with the utilities. We had our washer and dryer and stove hooked up and usable.

Debris from the demo was sorted and the sinks, tub, hardware were given to Habitat for Humanity or others in need. Light fixtures and fans had all been added much later and were not original to the house. We saved all of the cabinet pulls and used them on the wine cabinets. The brass and porcelain pulls were likely original. Window and door hardware was all saved and will be replaced.

Laundry room before demo.

Laundry room following demo. A privacy wall was constructed seen on the right, to keep dust out of the main house. 

While we wait for the permits to be issued, we have a lot of time to find doors and order floors.

I went to a salvage yard in Berkeley, California and searched through over 3,000 doors that had been salvaged from San Francisco Victorian houses. I needed to find 6 Eastlake doors to, not only match our Eastlake pattern, but we needed specific sizes to fit the plans.  Additionally, in three areas, we needed exact twin doors to make our doorways complete.

Eastlake doors were designed with a pretty consistent 5-panel design, but the sizes of the panels varied greatly and the design around the panels had wide variations.

After spending an entire day looking for doors, we now have a total of 10 Eastlake doors with 3 sets of "twins" to complete our historical remodel/addition.

Still in the salvage yard, here are some of the doors we will use.

Identical sets are really hard to find. We gleaned every solid Eastlake door we could find at Urban Ore. Note the excellent condition of these twins.

Prior to understanding the tagging system, we pulled each door out and compared it to our photos. These doors weigh over 100 pounds a piece, hence the advice to bring gloves, solid shoes and a "door buddy" before tackling this warehouse of 3,500 doors.

These were all categorized as tall doors. Over the years, they get cut to allow for carpet or tile so none of them are the same height.

When they say "tall" they mean tall!

These two twins were rescued from a fire. They have lots of smoke damage, but are not burned. They should clean up beautifully.

Here is a twin set with 4 panels rather than 5. These extra tall doors will be connected to make a large pocket door.

Miles of doors, most are from old homes, a few are new.

We found this gem, with it's Apple sticker. Unlike many Victorian doors, this one was wide enough to meet the current requirements for exterior door access. Despite it's many years of wear as an exterior door, it is a beauty that will do well as our rear entrance. The knob and locks will be moved up and the wood will be reinforced and patched. The old locking mechanisms really require a lot of space and the wood can break down after years of use. We will use colored glass on this exterior door to match the interior door shown below.

Salvaged from a beautiful Victorian home in Stockton, this door was originally part of a double front entrance set. It is only 27 inches wide, not wide enough for any of our doorways.

The door came from this 1890's home. The grand staircase lead to the front double door. Later, the front entrance was moved and only one of the original doors was used. 

Our door was stored in an out building and was thick with dust. Restoring it involved pulling it apart at all of the seams, cleaning and re-glueing each seam while squaring the frame to eliminate the warping that happened over the years. 

Here is the "twin" door still being used as the front entrance to this grand Victorian home. Note the random color pattern.

Our little "orphan" started out looking rather sad. Many old homes have doors stored in attics, garages or barns. It is worth while asking around to see if anyone in your neighborhood has any doors. We found two in our own garage and my friend found this one in hers. When I first saw it, I thought it looked hopeless.

Unwilling to let this gem get put aside, we decided to use it as a cabinet door with back lighting to make it the focal point for our dining room. 

It needed some pieces of glass and, upon closer inspection, we found that most of the original glue chip panes had been broken and replaced by other types of stained glass. Most of the colors no longer matched, so there were basically 8 different colors and 4 different textures in the 16 panes. We decided to find some glue chip panes and see if we could make a pattern using the original glue chip and the new panes and remove all of the other panes.

Glue chip comes in many thicknesses, so once we ordered some panes on line, we had to first select similar thickness and similar colors. Because each color only had odd numbers of matching panes and we have a 16 panel design that does not lend itself to using odd numbered colors, I set up a "viewing box" using a large clear pane of glass and putting a bright light behind it to get an idea of how the door would look using different designs.

Here is the resulting door with an asymmetrical color pattern.

Despite the appearance of mis matched colors, when light is evenly distributed behind the door, the true colors glisten with the glue chip pattern giving it a sparkle. Here is the finished product preparing for winter storage. She is hardly recognizable.

Here is the set up I used to create a pattern that my geometrically inclined husband could tolerate, while using every single pane. We couldn't use many panes we had because they were too thick.  We had to integrate singles into the pattern while keeping the mis matches away from each other.  Luckily, the glue chip deflects light and even with perfect matches, the colors changes based on the direction of light. In the end, it looks really beautiful.

The artist that gave this old door it's new life, took several months cleaning and re-gluing it.

With so many joins and wood dowlings, once the weather got wet, he needed to move all of our doors out of his mountain workshop and down to a drier elevation. The joints were already beginning to swell.

Along with completely restoring the glue chip door, he also had to help our three sets of twin doors. The sets had perfect panel matches, but were not the same height or width. One of the sets is going to become one huge pocket door, so he had to insert dowelings to hold the two doors together into one. This 8 foot tall, seven feet wide door weighs more than 400 pounds. The two doors will have to be hung separately and then put together and glued once they are in the frame. I can't wait to see how that one turns out.