Decorative wood

Part of the "finishing fun" is to see the special woods arrive. Though our house is far from exotic, appreciating the many wood designs and finding people who continue to practice wood working has been a pleasure. The door frames are so complex, we will be using seven separate wood pieces to complete each side. Until we began this process, we never even realized how much craftsmanship went into every door.

Door framing is a close imitation of the original.

Baseboards arrive crafted by a local wood worker. A blade that perfectly matches the old baseboard has been created to produce our matching baseboards.

Wall space is used as drying racks due to the extreme heat outside.

Back to doors and floors

As the temperature tops 105 degrees. We sludge along without air conditioning. Our new best item is the whole house fan. We start it up around 8:30 pm when the outdoor temp drops to 88 degrees and the indoor temp persists at 92 degrees. Sucking in the coolness of the outside world is magical. We watch the temperature drop and breath a sigh of relief. We made it through another excessively hot day.  Our night temperatures drop into the 60's. The air and walls and even the furniture drops in temperature during the night. Technically, the "thermal mass" is cooled at night to keep us comfortable during the following day. Despite this wonderful scientific cooling method, we will be thrilled to have a bit of artificial cooling next week when we fire up the air conditioner.  Why haven't we tried out our new air conditioning system yet? Simple. The saw dust, paint spray, plaster dust and general airborne debris is death to the air conditioner.  The best way to ruin a new unit is to run it and fill it with crap. So we patiently wait until the coast is clear.

So, back to the doors and floors. The doors got primed and repaired this week. Beautiful.

By-pass closet door on left, bedroom door on right. Both had suffered fire damage which has been completely removed during the priming process.

By-pass door after sanding and priming.

Laundry pocket door after being joined in the middle, prepped, primed and calked. It looks like one seamless door.

The floor and shower tile is going in. Lots of discussion about "period appropriate" textures, colors and styles. We went with a "carrera-look" porcelain 12 by 24 tile hoping to capture the marble look without the marble care. 

The laundry room is the priority. When it comes to inconveniencing friends, using their clothes washers is one of our biggest concerns. Can't wait to get this room up and washing.

Powder room gets the same floor, less is more. Fewer choices means fewer arguments.

Master bath will reflect more of the same. The shower pan is still a mess, but the floors look easy to clean and simply beautiful. 

The most exciting part of getting the tile onto the floors is that we can move forward and start bringing over the wood floor.  After it has been in storage for over a year, we can't wait to get it ready for installation. It will be installed unfinished and get sanded and stained in place.  We will lose the air conditioning once the sanding begins. But the thrill of seeing the floors appear will cool us plenty.

The Portrait of a Sub-Panel

This is our beautiful, balanced, perfectly coordinated sub panel. 

 Why do we care?  Look at these labels! Look at the exacting distances and finely coiled wires.  It is perfection!  Thank you Joe for being so careful and so incredibly talented.  This is a masterpiece.
Every time we open this box (which we hope will be nearly never) we will think of you and how you made the job easier for the next 120 years of electrical repairs in this house. A massive improvement over what was done in the past 120 years.

Painting wood windows- how do we manage the pealing and sticking?

This first photo is the PROBLEM! Freshly painted windows and all this sticking and tearing makes them look terrible.

The heat, thick layers of latex paint and infrequent opening has all contributed to this ugly window jam. I refuse to have my new windows look like this.

Have I said that our contractor, with over 20 years of experience restoring old houses, has a solution for everything? Well, he does. No problem is unsolvable for this guy.

SOLUTION: Don't use paint!  Use solid color stain. It absorbs into the wood, is white mat and will allow for smooth opening and closing of the windows without sticking. This is new wood and will absorb the stain and apparently the wood will be as protected by stain as by any other paint.

First coat of the white stain on the inside.  I am so excited to see this idea put into my house.

June progress- The Wall Comes Down

A temporary wall was put in place March, 2016. It remained as our "exterior" wall for over a year. A temporary door was added around April 2017 when the sub floor was in place. Prior to having this exit, we regularly walked the circumference of the house to use the powder room, which as been our "kitchen sink" for many months.

On June 5th, the wall came down.

For the first time, we are able to look from the front to the back.  The dry wall process required that plastic sheeting be hung to keep the dust to a minimum.

The framing for the opening has been put in place and dry walled.

Mudding has been finished in the Dining room and kitchen.  Lights, windows and walls.

The square hole in the wall is where our "hidden" linen cabinet will be. One of our neighbors who used to teach construction dropped by and looked over our project. He said "Seems like you have everything". Then, I said, "Except a linen cabinet, I just can't find a place to fit one in."  He said, "Well, I see a place". And despite the fact that he had not seen the full plans, he suggested we open up the bedroom wall and use the 6 inches in the wall added to the 21-inches in the dining room built-in and create a linen cabinet that has access from the bedroom side and is a false front on the dining room side. Ingenious!!

We measured it out and it will be perfect. Below the linen cabinet is another "hidden" cabinet with a false front, wait ans see how that turns out.

May Madness- The evolving dining room

The kitchen and dining room are the heart of the house. We certainly hope that will be true in our little old house. Compared to the tiny, one person farm kitchen and even tinier dining room, our new space holds lots of promise. We love the west facing windows,  open feeling and "table for 10" dining area. The pink insulation day was a big one. After looking at wires, plumbing, gas lines and measuring carefully every future nail hole we might want, it was a glorious day to have it all get covered up. Hopefully, we will never see it again.

Entry area has the whole house fan and two of the 30 recessed lights. Everything is on dimmers to create whatever mood we are in the mood for.

Our dry waller tackled the lower areas single handed. These are 12 foot sheets of drywall. Unbelievable. Note the "secret opening along the left side. This is my linen closet that will have doors on the bedroom side and have space for linens inside the dining room wall built-in. A false fronted built-in cabinet will be our little secret.

Side door area.

Look at all of those recessed places.  Lights, chandelier, fan. What else could I possibly want.

More drywall sheets. All hands on deck.

Taping day.

Starting to look like a real house. Mudding, floors and cabinets are next!!

May Madness- Beautiful (sort of) back door

This poor door has gone through the proverbial wringer, but finally hung, she seems to be swinging along well and ready to give another 120 years of service. Doors are tricky, you have to make sure the swing, hardware, locks and glass are all on the right sides to make it work as designed. .\Due to changes in plans, this door had to have several face lifts to get everything in the right place.  But here she is., in her glory and with the same "Apple" sticker that she had when I met her in Berkeley. nearly a year ago

From the inside you can see the gentle glint of the glue chip blue stained glass accents. these corner were originally broken so we decided to doll them up a bit.

Drywall surround

Heavy duty brass nob and lock will stand the test of time. All of our hinges and locks are reproductions because 120 year old hardware becomes a constant repair job due to wear and tear.

Pretty little lock cover adds a bit of elegance to the porch entrance.

Hidden lock was all the rage in the 1890's.

May madness- Exterior details come together

In the true Queen Anne Victorian style, interior details including moldings, baseboard and rosettes were all the rage. But the exterior also had it's own levels of moldings, color accents and decorated posts.

Exterior dormer with triangle vent. Each vent is different in style and shape. This one was salvaged from the original house.

Repaired and primed, ready for color.

Red accent is carried from the original coloring of the front round dormer vent.

"Fish scale" siding is hung on each dormer to provide texture and variety. These fish scale shingles were pre-painted.Note the completed porch columns. They balance the height of the porch bringing a traditional feel to the otherwise new structure.

AA close look at the upper molding, flat facing, under piece (it has a technical name that I forget) and a second layer of crown molding will be placed once the fish scales are in.

North facing dormer has completed fish scales and crown molding. It is awaiting it's unique vent.

Not quite as artistic as the original carpenters may have created, this vent will also be painted red and with the color we hope the small notches will become more visible.

Reflection of sun set in the windows really accents their position and height.

All 5-6 layers of wood decoration travels the surround of the house giving it a detailed Victorian look . The paint colors will be critical in helping this detail stand out, but not overpower the small house. Inset areas of pillars will also be called upon to carry some color but subtlety is the key. Window sashes and frames are all in place.

A second look at the side view, all of the moldings and sidings are now in place. The porch floor is complete and still covered with tools.

Side cement stairs have been partially demolished to allow room for the new cement landing and stairs. Existing stairs did not fit safety code and after we had two people take a tumble, we decided safety was more important than history. Sorry old stairs, you served us well. They will be concealed inside the new cement envelope, but the 6 by 6 foot landing will make for a much more comfortable entrance into the dining room/mud room. Note the huge air return running behind stairs. The new HVAC system will move much more air and hopefully keep us very comfortable.

Exterior clean-up started by removing the debris that had accumulated along the side fence. I don't have a pre-photo, this is after lots and lots of hauling. The edge of the deck has rotted out,  so another project added to the list. The back fence area will be sparse Jade plants to allow for easy raking and limited trimming. Also want to protect the oak trees from too much summer watering.

Moving our picnic area from deck to slab keeps me from getting board.

My rock succulent garden was in the way of the porch stair plan, so I say good-by to this little gem. Demo is so much easier than creating.

The back corner is a safer place for my plants and a few carefully selected stones. This area is also "under construction".

The planter has survived pretty well with ladders and paint and cement on it, so the succulents and rocks will go to enthusiastic neighbors.

View from the back door shows the planter gone, we threw some artificial grass down to keep the dust controlled. Not sure how this area will sort out, but at least it is ready for action.

Note all of the field stones. They seem to multiply.

Rotten deck.

From the master window. We hope to get this area in shape before the construction is finished. Seems like a bit of a race at this point. The last thing I want is to get the house done and have 100 more projects out back.

"Tidy Friday" came this week and it was time for a real clean-up.  The yard has increasingly gotten more and more debris shoved into corners and along the fence. This is the deck after a full day of tidying.