Live from the 323

Brightness in the dark

2011-05-10T12:36:00.000-07:00

As you already know, if you read my previous post, this hasn't been a particularly sunny period of my life. Since I lost my job in March, I've had the displeasure of watching our family sink into an ever-deeper financial abyss, bringing our home renovation to a screeching halt. But I don't want to dwell on that today. In fact, I'd like to do just the opposite. At times of darkness, sometimes that stupid cliche about looking on the bright side holds some merit. So I offer you a subject of brightness. Here it is:

This is the parkway in front of our house as it looks today. At this size, it's probably kind of hard to see anyway, but this picture doesn't really do it justice. The flowers when you see them live and in person are pretty spectacular, and walking along side them makes you feel like you're strolling through a lush suburban garden. It is exactly as we intended it to be. But better. Just looking at these flowers brightens my mood. Just tracking their progress from little sprouts into glorious, bloom-happy full-sized plants has been an inkling of pleasure in a period where such delights are too few.

This brings me to another bright spot: Our neighbors. With the spring and the explosion of flowers and blossoms all over our property, I've had the happy occasion to speak with numerous residents near to and far from our house. My encounters with them are not accidental. They stop me cold, usually as I'm climbing into my car, so they can rave to me about the work we've been doing on our property. It almost never fails. As soon as I walk out of the house, whatever person is there, walking by, walking a dog, delivering mail, jogging — whatever — that person feels compelled to come tell me that they love what we've done with the house. They wince as they describe the house as it was previously. A blight on the neighborhood. An eyesore. A shit hole. On one occasion, a woman ran nearly half a city block to get my attention. She said she lived up the way in Beachwood Canyon and had been hoping to catch me for a while.

These encounters make me feel like a movie star who just appeared in that role that for some reason everyone connects with. I guess a renovation isn't only about what you get out of it. It can also be about what you give.

If it sounds like I'm bragging, let me say here that I am fully aware that my husband and I can't take all the credit. It has taken a cast of thousands to get the front of our house looking the way it does from where it was when we started. Notable among the players are:

Pia Dominguez of Barefoot Landscaping who did our initial landscape design including choosing the plants on the front parkway — though not on the side parkway, which is fodder for another post.
Stumper Landscaping — They did the actual work on the landscaping. Bill Weber at Stumper, I must say, is a sprinkler genius and one of the nicest men I've ever worked with.

I'll post a more thorough list if and when we ever finish the front of the house. For now, the parkway will have to suffice. I guess a dark side of this bright side is how crappy the curb looks, broken and crumbling in many places. With the city and its financial crisis, I'm not expecting any repairs soon.

And at least I know with our own financial crisis we're in good company.

The Money Talk

2011-03-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

I’ve been fighting with myself over this post for a while now. Like a lot of people, I was raised to believe you don’t talk about money — at least not any of the money matters that actually matter. You don’t tell people how much you make, and you never, ever ask what they make. You don’t ask how much a person paid for their house, their car or really anything, though you are free to discuss whatever figures a person volunteers. But on the flip side, you don’t volunteer that information either. Money is sensitive and relative and can cause hurt feelings or jealousy or disrespect when people know the actual numbers. You’re just better off not talking about it.

And yet, what is more crucial to a renovation project than money? And what benefit is this blog if it doesn’t help you through the big decisions in a renovation – and don’t so many decisions revolve around money?

What makes me think about money today is that I lost my job again. It’s actually the second time I’ve been laid off in two years. Both lay-offs were not performance-related, just the economy doing what it’s want to do. But regardless of the reason, I’m out of work, which cuts our total household income almost exactly in half.

After my first layoff, I was out of work 10 months. As frightening as that was, there was also a lot of joy in it. My previous job environment had been pretty ugly, and being free from it held some relief. I’d been burning to work on some of my own projects and potentially start a business. And as a working mom running a home renovation, I’d had so little down time that boxes from our move — two years earlier — still lurked in corners around our house, not yet unpacked. Having some time to cut through the household clutter was just a delight, whether or not we would sink like rocks financially. And don’t get me started on having more time to spend with my kids.

This time around, the situation is different and more dire. I relied on my credit card a lot during my last lay-off, and in fact ran the card to its limit. And there at the limit it remains, leaving me without any credit cushion this time around. This time around the layoff was so sudden and so unexpected that it happened to catch us right in the middle of landscaping the front yard — a moment when we were particularly cash poor with all the payments to landscapers and fence-building contractors. In fact, my last conversation with the fence builder went a little bit like this:

Fence-builder: So, we are finished with the fence and ready to take it for powder coating. Oh — we mentioned before the powder coating would be extra, right? That will be an extra $1,800.
Me: I don’t have that money.
Fence-builder: OK, then we won’t do the powder coating. That means the fence is finished, so you need to make the last payment it. That will be $2700.
Me: I don’t have that money. I can try to have it for you in a week.
Fence-builder: We need it today.
Me: I don’t have it today. I could write you a check, but it would be bad. Can you wait just a week so that I can gather my resources a bit? I just lost my job.
Fence-builder: You lost your job? Then we definitely need that money today.
Me: Well, I can give you blood. Perhaps that’s worth something on the open market? I do not have $2700 today, but I have blood.

The fact that this conversation took place rather noisily in our front yard did not, I imagine, do wonders for our reputation around the neighborhood.

If you don’t know me personally, perhaps this whole story sounds a little trite. The economy has, after all, been bad for a good, long time. How long, exactly? Let’s see — how long have we been in this house? Four years? Yes. The economy has been bad approximately four years. And maybe, if you don’t know me, you are thinking that I am irresponsible. I ordered the fence — how dare I order something that I don’t have the money to pay for?

But my point is that this is a really integral, fundamental part of a renovation for any regular working person. There are times when your chips are up and other times when they are down, way down. For us, at this moment, the chips are so far down that it’s hard to imagine there is a place called up. It’s funny — I thought the chips were down back in 2007 when we spent six months without a kitchen and washed all our dishes in a decaying green pre-renovation bathroom sink. I thought they were down when we slept with our six-month-old baby on an air mattress in the only room in the house that had finished walls and an actual light fixture (but no curtains, mind you). I thought they were down when we had to have hydraulic pumps brought in to actually lift the entire house from its center because we learned a pipe had let sewage seep for nearly 20 years, causing the whole structure to sink. The list goes on and on. But the hardest of all to face is the idea that after suffering through trial after trial, our efforts may still be for naught. We could lose it all. Even if we don’t foreclose, if we have to sell (clearly at a loss in this market), it means some other person or family will reap the benefit of our efforts. The house we custom-designed for ourselves and our family will be someone else’s property.

Standing where I stand today, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I have no job and no job prospects. Maybe some great job will come my way tomorrow — or maybe we will stop paying our bills and watch as the empire slowly crumbles around us. If you are reading this post because you stumbled across this blog while trying to decide for yourself whether to take on a renovation, I hope it does you some good. I hope it forces you into a gut check of sorts. If you found yourself in the same situation, would it all be worth it?

This isn't my last post on this subject. There is a lot left to be said about the money issues surrounding a home purchase or renovation. And maybe if more people had put their manners aside and had these conversations five years ago, the housing crisis would never have happened, the economy would never have slowed to a near stand-still, and I'd still have a job.

Instant Grassification

2011-01-02T19:22:00.000-08:00

For a while I was chasing my friend Alex's landscaper. Alex told me that the guy put a lawn in his yard and took a lot of pleasure in calling it "Instant grassification." That's kind of how it works with sod, though. It really is kind of instantly wonderful. Ours went in this week, along with a few plants, and I am enjoying this feeling like I suddenly live on a golf course.

Here's what I see when I step out my front door:

I never did find that landscaper friend of mine. After about 3,000 calls, I gave up. But I'm glad I found Stumper Landscaping, because Bill is a true expert when it comes to lawns and sprinkler systems. I bet he could grow grass on the Mojave.

Trees!

2010-12-29T07:18:00.000-08:00

We planted a bunch of trees. Actually, I say "we," but I actually mean Stumper Landscaping, the little mom and pop operation that has taken our singular request for sprinklers into a full-fledged front yard makeover.

But before we look at the trees we planted, I want to take a look back — pay homage, really — to the trees we removed from our property. I think they are worth documenting if for no other reason than their sheer weirdness. If trees were beauty queens, neither of the ones we removed would be a Miss America. But one of them was an arborial wonder so odd that it even stumped the Stumper, our landscaper, Bill. He — and just about every landscaping professional and non-professional alike — said he had never seen anything quite like the Chinese Elm that the previous owners of our property had trained to grow over the chicken wire fence that surrounded the property. If you look at the pictures below, you can see how the thing — at least a branch of the thing — had woven its way like a vine through the fence.

I was a little sorry to part with this tree because with its great height it provided a modicum of privacy to the master bedroom on the second floor. But I have to say, once it was gone I was pleased with the change. The tree was simply planted too close to the house. The roots were growing under our front entryway and generally shrouding the area around our front door in shade and darkness. The zombie branch thing was weird and the variety of tree very common — nothing really special or worth saving. It just had to go. Here is a look at our house pre-tree removal:

That is not a hedge, it's a branch.

My camera was out of batteries on the day I took these shots, so I just snapped a bunch with my phone.

That last tree is actually an ornamental pear that was right at the edge of the property. There was nothing really weird about it except that it was planted too close to the sidewalk, but other than that it was just untamed and scraggly and just your run-of-the-mill eyesore. It too had to go.

Since we removed the trees we've actually done quite a lot of work on the yard. (Again, we being Stumper Bill.) We took out an entire dumpster full of soil, weeds and debris that had collected on the property over decades. We flattened and graded and laid weedblocker. We built a retaining wall at the corner to give shape to an area that will soon be a seating area.

And we planted trees. Here they are:

Dodonea Viscosa Purpurea
(Hopseed Bush)

Ornamental Plum

Pomegranate Wonderful

Lagerstroemia
(Crape Myrtle)

Willow tree

Eureka Lemon tree, came with a couple lemons already on it

Tabebuia
(Pink Trumpet)
on the parkway

The willow again, with 2-year-old Blaise.

They may not look like much now, when it's the dead of winter, but I am thrilled to know I don't have to go through another spring and summer with nothing green to show for it. I so look forward to seeing these things grow, take shape and bloom over the months to come.

The Painted Lady

2010-06-12T15:26:00.001-07:00

Before

After

The house is painted! And there's not much more to say than that. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Painting Commences

2010-06-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

I was going to begin this post by saying it was like Christmas morning here on Friday when the painters arrived to begin work on the exterior of the house — but then I realized I must have used that opening line before. The fact is that every time we begin a new project, the day the workers arrive is like Christmas morning. It's exciting. It's full of promise. And the biggest gift of all is to make progress.

And so it was. The painters showed up and began their work. In case you're interested, we are using a company called Detail Painting, Inc., based in Hollywood not far from here. I chose them because their ratings on Angie's List were through the roof, and so far they have lived up to their reputation. They have gone over the house with a fine-toothed comb, repairing plaster, propping up rotted wood exterior beams, and scraping away the old to make way for the new.

And what colors, you ask? Well, in the end we caved and got some professional help with the decision. A new but dear friend, Catherine, recommended Teresa Grow, who is the principal designer and owner of a company called Madison and Grow, which makes the most exquisite wallpaper. (She showed us her portfolio.) In fact, Jim and I liked both her and her wallpaper so much we are strongly considering using both inside the house. But that might take a while. I'm on a roll with this exterior stuff.

So the colors we finally chose were all from Dunn Edwards, and they are:

Dunn Edwards Paints DE6231 Shaker Gray
LRV 13:

Main body of the house

Dunn Edwards Paints DE6222 Weather Board
LRV 28:

Garden walls, front door, garage door, side garage door

Dunn Edwards Paints DEC761 Cochise
LRV 58:

Soffit/Trim

Now, despite what it might look like here, in all its digital glory, that Shaker Gray color is DARK. We put big swath of it on the front of the house, and I've seen caverns in New Mexico that refracted more light. But I'm both trying to keep an open mind and genuinely liking the contrast between the window frames and fireplace and this dark, rich color. We'll see how it looks when it's covering out entire house.

Until then, I leave you with our house, as it looks today, as yet unpainted:

What Color Should We Paint Our House?

2010-05-03T07:30:00.000-07:00

Antique Earth (top) Manuscript (bottom)	Gargoyle (top) Dark Olive (bottom)
Samples on the garden wall	Left to right: Antique Earth, Manuscript, Gargoyle, Dark Olive

So, our renovations took a bit of a hiatus. It gives me kind of a thrill to write that in the past tense, because it's nice to think of myself as looking back on it rather than seeing it as a scary part of my present life. I was unemployed for 10 months, but now I'm back to work with a steady income, which means that we can continue what we started with this house, now three years ago. The Great Recession may not be over, but it's over for me.

One of the biggest challenges for a renovator in being unemployed is that suddenly you are spending so much time in your home space, and you have a chance to really contemplate all the things you want to do. But you don't have any money to do them, so you have to just sit on all those desires. I guess the silver lining is that during my time off, Jim and I had a lot of time to talk about the order of progression for the next steps in our renovation, and about which of the renovations top our list. I had lots of time to book contractors to come out and see the place and bid on various projects so that when I went back to work I could just hit the go button.

We agreed that exterior paint needed to be the next big project, primarily because it's messy. If we waited to do it, we'd probably get paint on whatever other projects we would have done. So that's the plan. And we've narrowed our choices down to a range of colors, as you can see in the pictures above.

Here is a picture of our house as it looks today:

(You can click on it for a closer look.)

Our initial thought was that we wanted something dark. Our windows are a fixed color. They're almond vinyl and can't be painted. So we're going to make the color of the windows the accent color for the whole house and paint the trim the same color. So we're looking for something kind of dark, with a hint of green.

And here are a few photo references from houses around West Hollywood:

What do you think? Which one works for you?

Masterful Bath

2009-09-24T19:11:00.001-07:00

Before

After

Oh, how long I did yearn to see this before and after photo with my own eyes.

This toilet room in its "before" state was a nearly perfect representation of the previous owners' taste in decor. Not only did they like to use a lot of fancy wallpaper like what you see above, if something happened to the wallpaper — like, say, a stain or a tear — they just papered over it. Never mind that the paper didn't match. I mean, wallpaper's wallpaper, right?

We lived with this look in our toilet room for close to 2 years. And as bad as it was, it beat the room next door, a full bath, which was reduced to a construction zone. We tore the room out within three months of moving in -- stripped the walls down to the studs, left gaping holes that led to the outside, tore linoleum off the floors. We never thought it would be that way so long.

But this bathroom was our biggest challenge so far in this house. The shape was so awkward and the size, too, so strange, that it took us nearly a year just to design the thing. We didn't know where to start. All we had were a few simple goals: We wanted to keep it a full bath, which meant we didn't want to lose the bathtub. Losing the tub would mean the house wouldn't list as a 3 bedroom 2 bath should we ever decide to sell. But we're shower people, not bath people. We knew we wanted the shower to feel spacious and luxurious. That's where we would be spending our time. In a space as relatively small as this one, the obvious choice would be a built-in shower/bath combination, but something about that felt really downscale. After much debate, many trips to Expo in Westwood, several torn up copies of Dwell magazine, and hours spent trawling home decor Web sites, we arrived at a round Japanese soaking tub. Once that was settled, the other pieces began to fall into place.

It has to be said that we got a lot of help on the designs for this room from the now defunct Expo, a subsidiary of Home Depot. They had a service where you could get a personal decorator to design your room, and you either pay $750 or spend over $5,000 and get it for free. I think our tile order alone put us over the $5K mark, so it was not a tough decision. It also has to be said that we blame a lot of the delay in our designing the space on the first designer Expo gave us. It wasn't until we asked and were switched to a designer by the name of Carmen that we started making some real progress.

Other than tile, we knew we'd do better pricewise buying materials on the Internet. It kind of pains me to think of how much money we spent on hardware, until I factor in how much we saved not paying retail. I mean, if you want to know why Expo went out of business, all you have to do is look at those price differences.

Before

After

Another interesting decorating device the previous owners employed was to paint over windows. Don't like that extra bit of light? Nothing that a little paint can't handle. That and decals. Damn, did it take me days to get the decals off of everything when we moved in. I worked the sliding glass doors with a scraper until my hands were worn and nicked. We replaced the louvered window above with a 40" X 67" picture window. The shade is a woven wood with taped edges from JustBlinds.com and cost $153.38. It has a privacy backing on it.

Before

After

They loved their decals. Not sure if you can see how deep the new tub is, but it actually goes down into our floor. I think it's 34" deep, but it only rises 17" above our floor. We were able to do this because our house is on a raised foundation and there was ample room in the crawl space below. The tub filler is perfectly flat — kind of hard to see here — but if I had it to do again, I would put it in the ceiling. You'll see in the pictures below that we put one of the shower heads in the ceiling.

Before

After

Previously, the bathroom had a double sink and smacked of 1950s luxury. Gold faucets. Ornate cabinets below. Yegh. In the "After" picture above you see the soaking tub on the left, and on the right you are looking directly into the shower. The square in the middle is an indentation in the wall for shampoos and soap. We installed a window above to let a little light in and moisture out.

Before

After

This is the view from the master bedroom, currently occupied by our au pair. We extended the wall and put in a true doorway, framed craftsman style. It's a slider.

Before

After

Just another view from Karina's room. I only have so many "Before" pictures, so I gotta milk them.

Here are some names and details for anyone who wants to geek out on them:

Tub: Americh Beverly 4040
Tile: 3 kinds
Coffee sandstone: polished — for the walls on the bathtub and shower side
Coffee Sandstone: honed — for the floors
Rhythm dark Glass — for the walls on the sink side

There's a fourth tile on the floor of the shower but I can't find it in my records. We had to order it at the last minute because the designer didn't realize you couldn't have 10 x 20" tiles on a shower floor. You have to use a really small tile to prevent slippage.

Doors: Valley Sash & Door in Burbank, stain-grade douglas fir
Lights: I'll have to get back to you on that.
Mirror: Ikea. It's funny, but I bought this mirror used on Craig's List for $20, and it used to hang in the entryway of our old house. But that crazy round shape went so perfectly with the tub that we had to keep it. And by the way, I got ripped off at $20, because that's about what they sell it for new at Ikea.
Glass Shower Doors: Alladin Glass in Canoga Park. tel: (818) 700-7833. I found them on Angie's List and thought they were great.
Toilet: Toto
Construction: Conger Construction. Call Oscar Conger at 323.327.3630. I highly recommend him. An honest man who does good work. I really enjoyed working with Oscar and his men. How many people can say that about their contractor?

As I put this together, I'm realizing I'm missing a lot of details. So for now, I'll skip to the pictures. I'll try to do an update with more details when the hour is a little less late.

Accidental Makeover

2008-12-27T13:14:00.000-08:00


Before	After

We finished one bathroom before ever moving into the house. It was the upstairs bathroom, and we needed it to be done before we moved in so that we would have at least one place to shower and pee. We did it black and white and in a style that fit with the Craftsman look of the back of the house, and for some reason it didn't take long at all for us to choose the look. By contrast, the second bathroom took almost a year to design. It has been under construction for well over a month now, and as I write this the workers are prepping the walls for tiling.

The construction of this last bathroom became a bit more pressing when we realized we would need the adjoining bedroom to house our new au pair, Karina. By a near miracle, our contractor managed to close off her room from the bathroom construction just in time for her arrival — truly a photo finish. Karina slept in Poppy's bedroom her first two nights while the paint in her own room dried.

So, in finishing the bathroom, we managed to knock out another room in the process. This is the downstairs bedroom, and I think the pictures tell most of the story. What you can't see in the "before" pictures though is the smell. When I first came into this house, I was sure it was occupied by homeless people. This room in particular had a smell that packed a wollup.


Window before	Window after

And the closet still doesn't have any doors on it, but we're working on that. It's an unusually deep closet, so I'm still considering adding some shelving. I read an ingenius tip for a deep closet in some shelter magazine. You put shelves in the back half of the space and hang clothes from a bar in the front half. Then if you need something from the shelves, you just reach through the hanging clothes. I'd like to try it.


Closet before	Closet after

Here is a quick breakdown of this room:

We replaced the window with the same Superior vinyl windows in the color Almond that we've used in the rest of the house. The door next to the window is a vintage door from architectural salvage stained dark and the frame is Craftsman style but new. The door to the bathroom is a single-light white lami from Valley Sash & Door in Burbank. We chose a modern door here because the rest of the bathroom doors are modern, as is the bathroom itself. The door frame is Craftsman style — but you know it's new because there wasn't really a doorway there before — just an open walkway with shutters and apparently some curtains. The light is a George Nelson knock-off from the annual Modernica sale. The bookshelves are Ikea and have been with us since Richard Drive. That's a whole other blog posting. The rug is from Home Depot. I went there looking for some industrial strength, kid-proof floor protectors and came away surprised at how many cool rug styles they have. The rug is thrown over hardwood floors — which we discovered under the old owners' carpeting and refinished along with the rest of the house before we moved in.

And here, a final pic of the room in use:

Karina, unpacking in her new room with Poppy, the day of her arrival.

Show Time

2008-12-10T15:09:00.000-08:00

Before

You would think that being on maternity leave I would have all the time in the world to update my blog.

Doesn't exactly work like that.

In fact, I've been burning to post these pictures of our most dramatic makeover of all for a long time. Now that I'm about to return to work, I'm forcing myself to take advantage of Poppy's naptime to do something other than pick up toys.

Hard to believe it has been almost a year since I first spoke to the folks at the shoe "Desperate Spaces" on HGTV. I came across their casting solicitation on Craigslist while perusing the TV listings. We have some friends who have done well renting their house out for shoots, and I figured some producer somewhere must be trying to find a house that looked like a crack den to use in his/her production. Among the ads was one that said "Do you have a room in your house that is so bad it makes you feel DESPERATE?" And I thought to myself, take your pick. You could do a whole series on the rooms in my house that make me feel that way. So I answered the ad, and after a lovely visit from segment director Art, Jim and I found ourselves — and our office — accepted to the show. Within months our space would be getting a TV-style makeover.

I don't want to bore you with too many details, but here are a few that most people want to know when they hear we were part of a TV makeover. The show took 4 months to plan, but only 2 days to shoot — that's a full-blown makeover in two days. The budget for the room was supposed to be $2500, but we feel we got much more than that out of it. We were not only pleased with the result, we felt the whole process was very smooth and we had a good time doing it. The whole production team was very respectful of our home, and the designers went to great lengths to accomodate our desires. While we did not have a say in the final design, we were able to tell them about things we liked and disliked and challenges we were facing in desiging the room. They really came up with some interesting solutions. The production was pretty grand and made quite a spectacle of our house for those two days. For instance, here's how the front of our house looked during the shoot:

During

You'll find the "after" pictures below (remember, you can click on any image on this blog to see a much, much larger version of it), but here are just a couple things of note that they did: They took out the whole fireplace. That was huge. It wasn't a working fireplace, although there is a full-blown chimney on the other side of the wall. We think it probably got damaged in some long-ago earthquake, so they just sealed it up. It was a hideous hangover from the 60s, so good riddance. Here is a picture of the fireplace in process:

During

You'll also notice a brick wall in the "Before" Picture above (at the top of this post). That was not actually brick, but a faux brick — I don't even know what to call it — it was just faux brick that was hung on the wall. If you knocked on it, it actually rang hollow. Taking that out was one of the first things we did. You'll notice that the show replaced the 7 mis-matched bedposts that served as a stair railing with something much more cool and modern. And they hung a very heavy bookcase on the wall above our cold air return, making a wall that had previously been somewhat unusable (because you can't block a cold air return) suddenly usable again.

OK, 'nuff said. Let's get to looking at the after shots.


After

Just want to give a special thanks to the whole staff and crew of Desperate Spaces. The house really felt like it turned a corner after this re-do, and we are very appreciative. You can view just a tad more about this makeover on the HGTV Web site at http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hdesp/episode/0,3183,HGTV_30737_59868,00.html.

Clearance

2008-09-11T04:59:00.000-07:00

We cleared the yard.

This is one of those projects that definitely falls into the category of I Just Can't Take It Anymore. I couldn't tolerate another day living with the plants and leaves and crap we took out. You can't really see it in the before pictures here, but there were these five sort of tree-shrub plants that were just about human size scattered around the yard, and I found them really scary. They were like great zombies with raised arms and loose-hanging flesh. At the last minute we decided to take out a full-grown fig tree of sizable girth that hulked in fully half of the yard. I was torn over taking down a mature fruit tree which could bring, if nothing else, resale value to the house. But the fact is, the figs it produced were flavorless, and it attracted just about every kind of pest, from flies, to racoons to rats. I'm so pleased with the result, so good riddance.

We paid $550 to Rene at J&J Tree Service to do the job. He's the same tree pro we used last year to butcher the half-dead Chinese elms and extract the yucca monster from the front of the house. He's super quick and thorough and I think his prices would be hard to beat.

No, the toys in the pictures below didn't come with the house. My mother has been on a Craigslist toy binge and picked up these two ugly little numbers for our 2-year-old daughter. They may be a bit of an assault on the eyes, but Poppy loves that little slide and boat-shaped sandbox. Until we put in landscaping, why not give her a little playground at home?

We're far from finished on this yard, but just clearing it made such an impact.

Dirty Laundry

2008-08-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

Never thought a laundry room could make me so happy.

Although I still haven't had a chance to sit down for the money talk with you, suffice it to say that the international credit crisis has put a damper on a lot of our renovation for the time. So instead of mapping out grand plans for what our next project will be, we've been choosing them based on what we absolutely under no circumstances can tollerate any more. Case in point: The laundry room. What made this room a particular nuisance before we redid it, was that it was adjacent to the kitchen and so visible from all the front rooms, and also that we tore the ugly linoleum floors out months ago to see what was underneath. The tar paper that we found below was torn up and mottled black and no matter how much cleaning we gave it, it still felt disgusting under your feet.

The reason we didn't do this room earlier is that we couldn't decide if the look of the room should be an extension of the kitchen, or of the back bathroom which has yet to be designed. Before our money issues cropped up we had visions of extending the room out and creating some space, but in the end we dumped those in favor of getting the project DONE.

Here's a breakdown of the project:

Doors:

Home depot. The one leading outside is alderwood, which I love. Very little grain. I think it cost about $300. The one leading to the kitchen is oak, which I don't like nearly as much. Something about the grain gives a really traditional look to wherever you put it. We learned a thing or two about our own tastes in stain during this project. We've always leaned toward a really dark stain for the trim elements, but in this case we chose this light chestnut stain and were really happy with the result.

Window:

Believe it or not, that little bitty window cost about $400. Same brand and style of the rest of the windows in the house, Superior in vinyl purchased through Lowe's. I felt that it's small size and extremely high placement was a bit of a creative risk, but it was also the only way I could see to fit a window in there and also meet the practical needs of the room: A stacked washer and a large storage space, like a broom closet, pantry or even just a big rack full of supplies. Since I took these pictures we've gone with the rack option, and I couldn't be happier. The window really worked out.

Paint:

We found a color called "Butter" on sale at Restoration Hardware that we thought coordinated nicely with the Arabian Red of the kitchen. But they didn't have it in anything glossy enough for a laundry room. I took the paint chip/sample to home depot and they matched it perfectly in a paint texture called "kitchen and bath" which allegedly resists mildew.

Tile:

Same we used in the kitchen. Porcelain tile from California Tile in Burbank. This turned out to be a good choice because extending the tile from the kitchen with that clear door makes the kitchen feel bigger.

Light:

Restoration Hardware, on sale for $79. You know, it's not that I'm a fan of Restoration Hardware. Those mall chain stores never thrill me. I hate Pottery Barn, and I might hate West Elm even more for posing as high design. But it just happens that I keep finding things at Restoration Hardware that work.

Labor:

Clearly the most expensive part at $3,500. Francisco, of Castro Construction went off the grid for a while, but thankfully returned just long enough to get us through this job. He's about to be a daddy, so congrats Francisco!

Door Hardware:

Omnia Industries, Inc. Style 32 Latchset in stainless steel purchased from ATG Stores online. We liked the way this style echoed the knobs on our kitchen cabinets.

And that's it for this room. Amazing how even a project as small as this can feel mammoth when you're going through it. The dust. The washer and dryer in your dining room. The parade of workers going in and out. But looking at the before and after shots, I'd say it was worth it. Take a look below for the after shots.

The Great Wall

2008-04-06T13:35:00.001-07:00

Absolutely shameful, how long it's been since last I posted. What can I tell you that you don't already know? Just so busy!

The house, in fact, is stagnating due to financial circumstances outside of our control -- like, the collapse of the entire mortgage industry, to start.

But before I go into that, I present you the last great change we made to the house before we ran completely out of money. Yes, we built a wall.

I didn't take great pictures of the wall before we enhanced it, but let me describe it to you: Cinder block, about 4 1/2 feet high, painted Pepto-Bismol pink. The previous owners had added some height to it by propping up about 2 feet of press board along the length of it -- but at least they painted it the same shade of pink. A few rains later, the press board had disintegrated in places, fallen down, and any passerby could just glance right into our living room. Add a couple graffiti tags and, well, you get the picture.

Since the base of the wall was actually pretty sturdy, we decided not to knock it down. Instead we brought it to the regulation height of 6 feet and covered it in the same stucco found on the rest of the house. I've never loved stucco, but at least it all matches.

Still needs a paint job, but happily, I can prance naked in the living room again without random people looking in on me.

Fan Mail

2008-02-03T08:05:00.000-08:00

Since we moved to this neighborhood, Jim and I have enjoyed so many encounters with our neighbors. We're such a local curiosity that it's been fun to invite our neighbors into the house and show them what all the construction has been about. We've received messages of support -- and often relief -- all the way around. Almost universarly, our neighbors have expressed how pleased they are that finally someone is fixing this eyesore up.

That said, I just wanted to share with you a lovely message left, purportedly, by one of our neighbors, on both our car windshields -- two copies, just to ensure we'd get the message:

Dear Neighbor,

I understand, that it is a huge undertaking to buy a house for your family, and try to refurbish it , all while trying to go out and earn a living for them.

I also understand that, you would want to refinish the inside of the house for your family's well being & comfort before tackling the outside ...

BUT, Enough is Enough ... You have a RESPONSIBILITY to your neighbors to do something about the exterior of your home! It's a fucking scandal, and it's been like this for a long time.

Again, I'm not telling you to spend your money outside, when there are important things to attend to inside. But, get your lazy ass out there and clean it up (get rid of the fence, the vine/branch, the foot tall weed-lawn). That doesn't cost a thing, it just requires you to put forth some effort.

I know what it's like to be up til 1 or 2 am, everyday for a year, swinging hammers, and then get up and go to work the next day. But, I'm going to venture a guess and say ... YOU"RE NOT THAT GUY. I don't see it. I don't hear it.

Show some self respect, and clean up your property.

And a hand written message at the bottom:

BTW. I wrote this only after listening to so many other neighbors complain.

Didn't even sign his (or her) name. The coward.

Now, I'm not sure that I even want to do this message the honor of ridiculing it. I'll only say how much I love that last handwritten line -- an intimidation tactic that I, myself, mastered in high school. "It's not just me who thinks you're a bitch. Everybody's talking about it."

I'm thinking small person, down on himself, looking for someone to kick to make himself feel better. Wish I could tell him it just doesn't work like that.

Kitchen Completion

2008-01-15T23:11:00.000-08:00

It's probably pretty boring to start every new post with "I know I haven't posted in a while ... " I'm sure you can guess at my excuses: Work, plus life with a toddler, plus not much progress on the house to write about.

But it did dawn on me that I never really posted the final pictures of the kitchen, so here they are!

And because I feel this part is important here's a quick snapshot of the costs and resources:

Construction, by Castro Construction: $8,000 (includes tearing out old kitchen, tearing down walls, insulating, drywall/plaster, plumbing for sink, pot filler and gas range, under-cabinet lighting, installing garden window, tile installation, paint, hauling)

Garden window: $1,400 at Lowe's

Cabinetry: $5,000 (yay, Ikea!)

Kitchen layout/design by RF Design: $350 (highly recommended, if you're doing an Ikea kitchen!)

Cabinet installation by Richard Castedon (Ikea's recommended vendor -- they did our whole job in one day): $2,285

Granite Countertops (materials & labor) from Celestine Stone: $3,600 (must add here that I really enjoyed working with Scott Busse of Celestine, a dead-ringer for Puddy from Seinfeld.)

Viking Range and hood, purchased on Craigslist: $5,000

Fridge, purchased on Craigslist but replaced free-of-charge by G.E.: $1,000

SubZero wine refrigerator, Craigslist purchase from a homey in Montebello: $500

Siemens dishwasher, Craigslist purchase from an interior designer in Beverly Hills: $300

Panasonic Microwave from Cosco (Christmas gift from my folks): $129

Danze Parma Single Handle Pre-Rinse Kitchen Faucet, purchased from FaucetDirect.com: $285

Danze Parma Single Handle Wall Mount Pot Filler, purchased from FaucetDirect.com: $223

Danze Parma soap & lotion dispenser, from Faucet Direct: $50

Kitchen Sink, a Kohler aquired on Craigslist: Free!

Tiles, from California Tile Distributors in Burbank: $975

Pot rack, Craigslist: $100 (I was surprised at how expensive these can be)

OK, so looking over these numbers does give me minor heart palpitations. Especially now that we are bumping up against the ceiling of our credit line, it's hard to see those figures in black and white. But I think I'll save my money anxieties for another posting. For now, let's just take a moment to quietly, and a little belatedly, celebrate the completion of the kitchen. All the money and struggles and haggling, and moments of torturous indecision, the dust, the noise, the inconvenience of coming home to find NO SINK -- all of that -- has paid off. We are extremely happy with how this room turned out.

I must also add that we made a little money along the way. We sold the china cabinet for $700 on Craigslist, and we had purchased a whole suite of appliances for $2,000 which we later sold for $2,200. The guy who sold them to us also threw in a kitchen sink and faucet. I sold the faucet on eBay for $175 and the sink turned out to be the only thing we kept. We installed it, and we love it! Anyway, that's a net gain of $1,075 plus a sink.

Next up, one last area to redesign. The back bathroom and laundryroom. Once we get that done, we can move on to the exterior. Money gods willing.

Window Magic

2007-11-17T13:09:00.000-08:00


Before	After

The new windows arrived this week, which added to the fun already going on in the kitchen. I don't know if you can tell from these pictures, but it's amazing what a difference they make to the look of the house. It looks a bit less like it's haunted or just abandoned.

Again, these are Superior brand vinyl windows in the color almond. The upstairs are all double hung, which makes them easier to clean, and the downstairs are single hung. They're all Low E, (whatever that means) but we didn't go for the Argon gas option because our rep at Lowes said it just doesn't make that much difference.

Behold! Windows!

Taken for Granite

2007-11-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

While you were celebrating Halloween, it was Christmas morning at the Pascoe residence. The installers came and put the cabinets into our kitchen. Poppy, dressed as a Ladybug, toured the space and made known her approval.

And now for a rude awakening. The next step is counter tops. We decided on Black Galaxy granite. Jim and I don't particularly like "noisy" granite with lots of flecks in it. Black Galaxy is deep black, but with a subtle coppery fleck.

Long story short, when Ikea priced out the granite for this not-very-humongous kitchen, I got sticker shock. At $6,000 these counters were going to cost more than most of the cars I've driven in my lifetime. Put together. I reluctantly surrendered my credit card, but while the Swedes had their way with it, I got to thinking. This is the age of the Internet. I don't pay retail. I buy on Craigslist. I never make a big purchase without first consulting eBay. Why should this be any different?

And as it turns out, the granite that at Ikea costs $83.50 per sq. ft. goes as low as $13.50 online. That's for the raw stuff, so it's not really fair to compare -- but even with "fabrication" as I'm coming to learn that it's called, I'm looking at a serious discount over the Ikea rate. What was I thinking? Luckily, Ikea gives you 48 hours to change your mind.

The downside is that the counters are unlikely to be installed in time for Thanksgiving. But at a savings of potentially thousands of dollars, it's seriously worth the wait.

Pssst. Hey, buddy. Wanna buy a china cabinet?

2007-10-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

If you've read this blog for a while, you've probably realized that I'm a bit of a Craigslist addict. I've nearly furnished two entire houses all from Craigslist. I buy on it, sell on it, and usually I do pretty well (although my mother has been giving me a run for my money these days. Only this week she unloaded a hideous old chandelier from our house for close to $300. Go mom!)

But even the experienced Craigslister can hit a wall. My wall is this china cabinet. I just can't seem to unload it. The thing is a monster. It's huge. I figure there's got to be a lot of value in just the materials alone. But beyond that, it's beautiful. Maybe my pictures don't do it justice, but it really is. The only problem is that it's a bitch to move.

Anyway, I started posting it at $1000. I've been dropping steadily and am now at $750. At this point, I'm starting to feel like I could give it away. Our kitchen is nearly finished (Does anyone else hear that sound? Is that angels singing?) and I'm kind of ready to feel that space where we tore the wall down. How low do I have to go to unload this beloved monolith?

For the next week at least, here's the ad on Craigslist: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/fur/463004927.html

Anybody want to buy a china cabinet?

Red Room

2007-10-28T20:05:00.001-07:00

The kitchen is red.

'Nuff said.

Buy G.E.

2007-10-22T14:01:00.001-07:00

I'd like to take a moment to herald the praises of one of America's fondest and most well-established brands. General Electric.

These praises I sing because of a recent purchase I made on Craig's List. You might not believe it, but the fridge pictured at right retails for about $4000. It may look pretty average, (if you can see past its adhesive wrapper) but in fact it's counter depth. It's also wrapped in stainless. Where most fridge's have black sides, this one has stainless sides. And it's G.E. Monogram, the Monogram line being G.E.'s high, high-end line.

So, I answered an ad on Craigslist and paid $1000 for said fridge. The seller told me it was only a year old and virtually unused. Long story short, I got it home and found that it did not work. The refrigerator did not refrigerate. (Quick aside: Why is there a D in fridge but not in refrigerator?) And beyond that, a lot of the parts in the freezer section appeared to be rusted. GE sent out a repairperson, and though the fridge turned out to be not one year old but three, its broken compressor happened to be under warranty. Before I had a chance to so much as raise my voice or make up a lie about how the fridge I paid thousands for was suddenly not working, before I could produce a single poison pen letter claiming to be the original owner, the G.E. rep said, "Well, I'll just get a new unit out to you. Is Tuesday OK for delivery? And because they no longer make that model, we'll have to give you the current model, is that OK with you? Oh, and by the way, the warranty will start over from the day your new fridge arrives." Did it matter to them that this broke-ass refrigerator was a Craig's List bargain basement find? If it did, they weren't telling.

So that's why the fridge pictured above is wrapped. That's original packaging applied at the factory. That's evidence that his fridge is brand spanking new. Which is why I must say: New or used, buy G.E.

So, I finish this post with a few pictures of our kitchen in its current state:

A pile of boxes the size of a compact SUV piled in our living room, full of Ikea cabinetry waiting to be installed.	The floor tiles have been installed -- but are papered over in preparation for painting. The walls will be Dunn-Edwards' Arabian Red.
		View from the dining room of what would be looking into the kitchen — which is covered these days by a sheath of plastic.

Trophy Cat

2007-10-05T17:01:00.000-07:00

While we await the cabinetry for our kitchen, which is scheduled to arrive from Ikea within 7 - 10 days, I'd like to take a moment to reveal to you that I am living with a serial killer.

Fraidy Cat. AKA Mr. Gato. For the past two months, he's been on a murderous spree to rival the greats: Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, the whole Manson Family. This cat has a blood-thirst that won't be quenched.

I discovered his first trophy while sitting with Poppy watching a little prime time HGTV. "What's that smell?" I asked Pops. It was a hot day. Mid-summer. "Is it me?" Armpit check. "Is it you?" Diaper check. Only after hours of assuming myself the one to have "dealt it," did I rummage through the blankets wadded up and bundled around the couch — the way TV-watching blankets are want to be. A tell-tale spot on the sofa — a mystery stain — led to further investigation toward that end of the couch, where a cardboard box full of random not-yet-unpacked items (a kind of box, it must be said, that can be found in many places around our not-yet-unpacked house) sat in shadow. Peeking into the box, I eyeballed trophy number one. Fully in tact. Unmoving. Tail askew. Dead to the world. Wrapped gently in a blanket as though Fraidy had carefully cuddled him to death.

Trophy number two appeared in Poppy's room. Again, wrapped in a blanket (every serial killer has his pattern, I guess). I suppressed a scream as I nearly stepped on him, barefoot, early in the morning before Jim or Poppy had stirred. I almost wretched as I lifted the blanket and held it at arms length all the way to the big trash outside the house.

The next trophy appeared on the leg of my blue jeans lying on the floor of our bedroom. When I threw it out and deposited the jeans in the washer, Jim said, "You're not going to wear those?" Funny.

Days later, another near miss. Bathroom floor. Green throw rug. Easy to overlook through my morning haze. Practically gagged on my toothbrush mid-scrub.

And I never found the final resting spot of the latest trophy. I only saw it in passing, it's tail dangling from his Fraidy's mouth. It was smaller than the rest -- a mouse rather than a rat. Fraidy emitted a resounding growl as he slunk by with it. I shudder to think where he might have put it.

And my response to this mass-slaughter? Well, it's what I've heard it should be. "Well done, my strong, virile man cat! Nice going, protector of all Pascoes! Conqueror of the vermin population! You dazzle me with your hunting prowess!" He is, after all, only bringing me his trophies, right?

Well, before you go thinking that this blog has gone off the rails and evolved into some kind of dull diary of family life, let me bring it all back around to the renovation. Today, when the workmen lay the cement floor in the kitchen, they will be covering up what I know to be Fraidy's portal. There's a hole in the floorboards that the gato slips through when he's got the jones for a kill. I like to envision him going through that hole and wending his way out to the yard, and then perhaps to the neighbor's yard where I would like to believe the rats reside. We did, after all, have the house tented before we moved in (prompting Poppy's nanny to put in a plea to PETA on my behalf, and to beg me to "capture" the rats instead of killing them and to take them to another location to be liberated). But if they're under the house, at the very least they can be contained there, once the hole is cemented over.

Contained, and perhaps cornered, by one skilled and experienced hunter.

Looks Good on Paper

2007-09-28T16:17:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't posted for a couple weeks, mainly because we haven't made much progress. I hate these weeks of stagnation. But while we wait, why don't I tell you about a cool little service offered by Ikea?

We decided to do an Ikea kitchen, mainly because their prices are incredible. By happy coincidence, the Ikea aesthetic fits nicely with our rather modern tastes -- AND Ikea kitchens have tons of fun features, like drawer dividers for pots and pans, pantries with drawers instead of cabinets and garbage cabinets. Just kind of cool and well designed.

But they also offer this cool service through an outside vendor. For $350 these young designers will lay out your whole kitchen for you. They come and take measurements, then they do these 3-D renderings to show you what the final product will look like. They've been out to measure twice and have been really knowledgable about what Ikea offers and how to make it all fit. I've got to say, I'm impressed!

But don't take my word for it -- take a look at the layouts they produced above. Click on an image to see it really BIG. And there's another service through Ikea, a contractor, who installs the whole thing for $100 per cabinet.

Even with all of this expert help, Jim and I are still facing a decorating connundrum. We need to choose a floor tile, backsplash tile and paint color that match the "warm brown" cabinets and black granite countertop we've chosen. With such a dark-on-dark base, we want something lighter, and maybe with a splash of color. How it hurts to think our indecision could hold up the whole project. My goal -- if I dare say it -- is to have this kitchen done by Thanksgiving. That's the big holiday in our house -- we host it every year and invite both sets of parents. It's a production.

Will we make it? Stay tuned ...

Kitchen Confidential

2007-09-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

(click on any picture above to see it MUCH larger)

Just want to show the latest situation in the kitchen. Hard to tell it's even a kitchen yet, except for the makeshift sink in the middle of it all. The space is already brighter, in large part because of the (newly lowered) garden window. But also contributing to the light is the absence of wall between the kitchen and dining room. You can see in the picture on the left that Francisco's men erected a counter-height divider — evidence that I lost the battle for bar-height. Jim's victory there means more openness between the two rooms and probably more light in the kitchen, which is always a good thing.

We had Jeff, the Electrician Magician, in to soup up the electrical in the room. One fun thing about designing a kitchen from scratch is being able to add quirky details that you've always dreamed about. For me, it was a bank of outlets. I never feel like I have enough of them in the kitchen, and you need them for so many things: The blender, the mixer, the coffeemaker AND the espresso maker. The juicer (so what if we don't have one yet?) the toaster, and the list goes on. So I had Jeff put an outlet, like, every two feet.

Did I mention that it's been years since I had time to cook?

Gab's Home Page

2007-09-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

Are you on any of the social networks? MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, Shelfari, Twitter, etc.? If so, come be my friend! I aggregated links to all my social networks on my home page. (Yes, my home page. For all you teens out there, a home page is sort of a pre-cursor to MySpace. It's like MySpace without the perverts -- or maybe with the perverts, but without Rupert Murdoch ... Rupert Murdoch and perverts -- well, I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere, but I can't think of it right now.)

I'm no designer, but so you have it, here's a link to my home page, Gab's Livingroom: http://www.littlebird.com/livingroom.

Come be my friend!

Worse before It Gets Better

2007-09-06T22:57:00.001-07:00

Just when I thought the kitchen couldn't get anymore gutted, I came home to find this: The entire wall between the kitchen and dining room GONE. And the garden window, which I had asked to be moved down has been removed and is now on the kitchen floor. It's progress, but the kind of progress that requires patience, because more trauma has been inflicted on the scene than had been previously and it just feels like forever before this monster job gets wrapped up.

This evening Jim and I ran errands at the mall. The Glendale Galleria to be exact. And while a part of me finds the place excessivly cringe-worthy due to its being the mall of my youth, (Let's face it. This is L.A. It's the mall I'm from.) It suddenly dawned on me that the mall is infinitely more pleasant than home. Especially for Poppy. There are wide expanses of carpeted flooring for her to run around (and fall down) on. No construction dust. No loose nails or shards of drywall. Climate controlled throughout. And multiple eat-in food options -- an essential for someone with no kitchen to go home to. At this point we don't even have a sink.

If it weren't for the temptation to shop, I'd move in.

Back to Windows

2007-09-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

I return now to the windows. You saw the before pictures (and can see them again if you just scroll down the page). Now, here are the after pictures with our newly installed Superior vinyl windows in the color Almond:

Lower living room, inside and out:

It was only in looking at these new windows that I realized that the color our house is currently painted is an exact almond. So the window frames don't really pop right now because they're the same color as the house. That will change when we paint the Jewel of Hollywood a deep olive green.

Upper: living room, inside and out:

And finally a look at our new kitchen garden window. For the record, I would like to say something that will probably make my husband very happy:

JIM WAS RIGHT
He told me the bottom of the garden window should be the same height as the counter top. I argued that it was OK, and indeed preferable, for it to be higher than the counter. Now that it is installed, I see he was right. It's so hard for me to bring myself to do this, but I'm going to ask our contractor to lower it. Here it is:

Take-Out, Anyone?

2007-08-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

I'm sidetracking off pictures of our new windows for a moment to bring you some pictures of our kitchen, as it looks today:

And this one, which was actually taken yesterday:

Windows on the World

2007-08-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

What an odyssey we have been on, trying to figure out windows for the Jewel of Hollywood. There are so many different brands and types within brands that you almost need a degree in windows to make the decision. Wood vs. wood clad. Vinyl vs. Aluminum. Double pane, triple pane, low E, argon gas-filled. Designer series with shades built into the glass. Casement, single hung, double hung, fixed. Pella, Marvin, Milgard, Andersen. The specifications go on and on.

So, it has taken us six months, but we have finally reached a decision, and a couple of test windows are actually in the house. How happy am I going to be to replace these eyesores?

Surely you've observed that the previous owners had some interesting strategies for dealing with decor dilemmas. (Tear in the wallpaper? Just slap another paper on top of it. Who says they need to match?) One of their more interesting fixes blocked out a few windows around the house. Rather than properly remove an unwanted window, they just painted over it. Case in point, this window in the lower living room. Painted over on the outside, boarded over on the indside.

And then there is the matter of the air conditioner. As painful as it is for us to part with this important appliance, we cannot deny its obscelesence. Since we had central air and heat put into the house, we have no use for this. Pity.

And here is what will replace these two ... what I will loosely call "windows":
Our choice for the entire house, is a Superior Windows vinyl window in the color almond. Vinyl both because it's cheaper and because I like they way they feel when you open and close them. Almond because for some reason most brands only carry vinyl windows in white and almond, and I felt that putting white windows on our house would be like wearing white shoes with an ivory dress. I think the almond coordinates nicely with the gold and tan tones of our two wacky fireplaces. Superior because they were the only ones whose vinyl windows could be made into either single hung, double hung or casement, who also made a custom garden window (more on that as the kitchen progresses).

I'm thrilled with our window choice. I think it's going to make a big visual impact on our house. I'll post again when these first two have been installed.

Poppy's Room

2007-08-13T23:00:00.001-07:00

As promised, here are a couple shots of Poppy's room, as it was and as it looks today. Still missing is the final baseboard, and my humble home-made curtains mercifully mask those dirty-to-the-point-of-opacity original windows. The bars are gone — we actually had to have them removed before we could close escrow because of some new law. Undoubtedly for the best. As always, click on a picture below to see it much bigger.

Before

After

My photos of the room as it looks now are also forgiving in that they don't show the light fixture,which is still a bare bulb. Jim and I have been at loggerheads over what to put there. We agree that a fan is best — but which one?

Before

After

I don't have an "after" version at this angle, but here the before:

And I don't have a "Before" at this angle, but here's the after: Looking at these pictures reminds me that we have indeed made some progress, as much as it still feels as though we're living in a construction zone. If only the rest of the house could be such a playground for Poppy!

Stairway to Heaven

2007-08-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

Every so often, we finish a project at the Jewel of Hollywood and I say, "Well, this room is done." But inevitably I add, "Except that the baseboard is missing. Oh, and that closet door. Oh, and the windows need to be replaced. But other than that, it's done."

The stairwell is no exception. I was going to call this post "Before and After" but that might be premature. Everything on the stairwell is done — except the windows, which have yet to be replaced. Still, I think it's fair to indulge in a little before and after. Let's do it, before I muck up the scene by installing a security gate for Poppy at the top of the stairs.

Click on any image below to see it larger.

Before

After

You can't tell too well by this picture, but the walls are much smoother, because we actually took them down. The left wall was sagging and we feared a beam had come down or something. It hadn't, but by replacing the original plaster with drywall, we achieved this silky smoothness.

As you can see, we pulled back the carpet and brought the stairs back to their original wood. The original risers were badly damage, so Mark the Floor Guy replaced them with this new oak that we are not particularly fond of. I got kind of a sorry surprise when he first did them because he took out all the original moulding at the top of each riser and replaced it with a new moulding at the bottom of each riser for a look that was decidedly 1980s. Fortunately, he was kind and didn't put up a fuss when I asked him to go back and find, and strip and replace all the original moulding, which is what you see here.

At the top of the stairwell, we removed both the mirror — and the mirrored wallpaper. We put in a new light fixture from Lighting Liquidators in Glendale. You'll also notice a new light switch at the top of the stairs and also a thermostat. There was no AC upstairs when we bought the place, and I don't know how the former occupants lived without it. It gets really hot upstairs, even with the new insulation we put in.

To the left (or to the right if you're looking below) you can see we have not yet replaced the bedposts which were clearly installed during the 50s. I actually sent a picture of them to Mission Millworks in South Pasadena to see if they could manufacture something with more of a craftsman feel for us but — get this — they're too busy. They have so much work that they don't want to do it. Sheesh! Rejection stings!

Before

After

Looking down the stairwell, you get a much better view of the original wood stairs. And the original handrail. You have no idea what I went through trying to keep that handrail from being thrown away throughout construction. I pulled it out of the dumpster. I pulled it in from the rain. I pulled it out of pile after pile of debris. It's no small miracle that both handrail and original hardware survived! We had them all dipped, stripped and refinished along with the doors.

Just broke my heart to part with that beautiful chandelier. And that wallpaper. And that glorious carpet. Just looking at them brings back the smell of the place in my mind.

Before

After

At the top of the stairwell, this built-in turned out nicely. Julio's men couldn't get all the white paint off (90-years worth, mind you), so there are still a few flecks here and there. But it's lovely to have that original hardware.

And that's all the before and aftering I have for you today. If I can get Poppy's room cleaned up a bit, I'll post those before and afters next, because her room is done! Except for the baseboards. And the closet door. And the windows.

The Other Man is ... Craig

2007-07-19T23:44:00.001-07:00

There is a man in my life, besides my ever-loving husband, Jim.

Yes, I've been having an extra-marital affair with CRAIG. He's my obssession. He occupies my thoughts day and night.

Craig, as in Craigslist, has taken me on an emotional rollercoaster these past few days, but check this out: It's a Craigslist bonanza.

I spent my Wednesday evening on the road to Torrance in pursuit of this magical Craigslist find. It's hardware for our front door (the door we have not yet chosen). After losing the Ugliest Door in America contest, (rigged! the contest is rigged!) I needed to console myself with just the right pretty thing. Some girls buy shoes; I go on Craigslist.

Isn't it spectacular? I bought it from a guy who did a beautiful refurb on an original craftsman. After buying this hardware, he decided to forego stainless and did the whole house in rubbed bronze. His change of heart is my gain. I don't think I could have found door hardware to make me happier if I had shopped retail.

Then there's the range. Our entire kitchen remodel has been held up by the range. Until last night we didn't have one. Killed another evening with a treck up to Calabasis, and now we do. It took three guys plus my husbandly mancake to lift this bad boy off the truck. This 400+-pound Nordic wonder now lies in wait in our garage.

Here's a pic of the guys moving it in.

Perhaps I spoke too soon?

2007-07-10T18:27:00.000-07:00

Those upstairs doorframes I was just complaining about? Look how nice they are with a coat of dark stain. Two coats, actually. Two different colors. One is a dark walnut, and the other red mahogany.

Our ass-kicking painter, Julio, got his guys to give the wood one more good sanding, and then he gave me a couple of good dark stains to choose from. I explained what I wanted, and he really got me!

All I know is that I think they're delicious. A million times better than what they used to look like! Thanks, Julio!

(click on the picture for a close look)

Stripping for Pleasure

2007-06-17T17:29:00.000-07:00

I'm getting impatient with our door situation. When we paid for the interior of the house to be painted, included in the price was the cost for stripping the original Craftsman doorframes around four interior doors. The painters stripped the frames, but there's still a lot of paint left, and also burn marks, where the strippers were a little too aggressive with the heat gun.

We sent all the doors out to a professional to be "dipped and stripped," and they came back much cleaner than our door frames.

Personally, I felt that stripping these frames was necessary for Poppy's safety because of the lead paint that surely lurked below (several) layers of non-lead paint. But now the question is, do I go in with some sand paper and chemical paint stripper on my own to clean these up, or can I get the painters to improve upon the job they've already done, or will it even matter if we put a dark stain over the whole shebang?

The bottom line is I thought stripped down doors and frames would be really lovely. But these look like barf.

(click on the image above to get a really close look)

Architectural Mash-Ups

2007-06-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

Dwell Magazine has a article in this month's issue called "Mid-Century Mash-Ups" that highlights a San Franciso Victorian that was updated in the 50s with all sorts of cool built-ins and other mid-century details. The article got me thinking about my love-hate relationship with the Jewel of Hollywood's two competing eras.

The back of the Jewel was built in 1916 and appears to have been born a Craftsman, as evidenced by the mouldings around some of the upstairs door frames and ceiling of the master bath. But somebody must have had a windfall in the 50s, because the house got a thorough re-do around that time. They squared off all the ceilings (bye, bye mouldings) and doorframes, and made an addition to the front of the house that removed any trace of what was probably your traditional Craftsman porch.

So, part of me sees this as a tragic bastardization of an original Craftsman. But there's this other part of me that can't believe how lucky I am to have a house that fulfills two competing parts of my own taste. I mean, who wouldn't want to restore an original craftsman? On the other hand, how cool is it to be able to go crazy mid-century on a house, bring in modern elements and make a swanky, loungy, edgy kind of place? We are lucky enough to get to do both in one house.

When we were crashing at Celia & Jim's downtown loft, I read some of Celia's House Beautiful magazines -- though I thought it was a little weird that someone who lived in this amazing loft with huge windows and industrial floors subscribed to House Beautiful, but then Celia is a woman of many mysteries. Anyway, I read a couple articles about these people who built amazing new homes on ridiculously huge properties in fabulous neighborhoods. In one of the articles, the architect had purposely designed the house to look as though it had an addition. He said something to the effect of, 'If you look at some of these older homes, they start out small and people add on, so I wanted that to character to be part of this design." In another of the articles, the interior designer purposely mis-matched some of the paneling and the wallpaper so that it would look as though pieces had been added over time.

What these people are trying to achieve is something that we've got in spades at the Jewel, and that's character. You KNOW the jewel is not a McMansion. And that's really the beauty of living in an architectural hybrid.

The bottom line -- at least for me is -- don't fight it. Embrace it.

The Payoff

2007-06-03T21:58:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I ask myself the question that renovators throughout history have come to ask:

"Why am I doing this to myself?"

Why have I wreaked this renovation havoc on myself, my family, our lives? We had a house. It was finished. It had beautiful views, and working plumbing, and books on shelves, and a green lawn. Is it worth giving all that up? Is it worth the dust and the parade of laborers, and the money -- of course, the money -- and the stress and the heartache and the perpetual, never-ending mess, just for a better location?

Today feels like the answer is yes. Jim, Poppy and I finally got a chance to make the most of our neighborhood a little bit today. We walked from our house up Beachwood Canyon to a flea market in Hollywood Village. You know Hollywood Village. It's right below the Hollywood Sign and grew up around the original real estate office for Hollywoodland Real Estate. I won't digress to a history of the Hollywood sign, but if you're interested, NPR's got a quick primer.

(Disclaimer: These pictures are somewhat lacking in authenticity as I forgot my camera on our actual walk and had to return in my car after the fact to snap where we'd been. I might have gotten away with it, too, except that the frame of my car found its way into the picture below.)

Before hitting the market, we dropped in to the Village Coffee Shop for cups of joe and some grits for Poppy, which she consumed -- but reluctantly, and with a look of utter disgust.

Across the street, the flea market was small but friendly, with a bake sale at the entrance. There were babies, and people with dogs, and lots of stuff that looked like one-time swag for sale, including a Holga camera that I think Jim is still regretting not buying. The vibe was just surprisingly neighborhoody and sweet and casual and NEAR.

So, we moved to the Jewel of Hollywood for the commute (or lack thereof). But now that we're here, we're liking the neighborhood more all the time.

As for whether or not it's all worth it, I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Crack is Whack

2007-06-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

Behold, the crack in our living room wall. This is a new addition to our decor. Didn't photograph too well, but it's definitely there.

We knew from the first walk through that the floors in the house were a bit lumpy and uneven. What can you expect? The house is over 90 years old. It wasn't until we moved the piano and the china cabinet in that we noticed that the center of the house had a noticable slump. When I opened the doors to the china cabinet, they naturally pulled to the right, while the piano looked like it might at any moment slide to the left. (see below - china cabinet on the left, piano on the right.)

We called the wonderful folks at Seismic Safety who restored the rest of the foundation and asked what they could do. Four hydrolic lifts placed under the slump brought the center of the house up a full inch-and-a-half, and left this and a handful of smaller cracks in the walls along the way.

It's hard not to be discouraged when I look at this split. Two steps forward, one step back. But I have to remind myself it's just drywall.

And sanding. And mess.

And money.

OK, so ... maybe I have a reason to feel discouraged.

Not Just for Teens

2007-05-29T14:06:00.001-07:00

Are you on MySpace?

Come be my friend!

http://www.myspace.com/gabrielle323

I would like to have more friends on MySpace, but everyone my age seems to think it's just for teenagers or it's just to find sex. Or to find sex with teenagers.

Whatever. What you do on MySpace is your business, but come be my friend!

Not a Dumping Ground

2007-05-28T21:27:00.000-07:00

A lot has been happening at the Jewel of Hollywood. So far we've tented the place to fumigate and restored the foundation. We took down all the interior walls, brought the insulation up to code, put in copper plumbing, upgraded the electrical, put in new heating and cooling, put the walls back up and painted them, and refinished all the floors. But for all that effort (read: $$$) the outside doesn't look any better. In fact, since we extracted the yucca tree monstrosity and cut back the Chinese elms, the place actually looks worse than when we bought it.

How bad does it look? Well, take Thursday. Ashley and I had plans to meet at the house, and Ash, not surprisingly, beat me to our rendez vous. When I called to say I was running late, she said, "Get here soon. There are two strange men taking pictures in your yard." Sure enough, I arrived to find a photographer and his model -- a term I use loosely -- making themselves at home, composing their shots against the backdrop of our lush estate.

I approached with caution. "Um, can I help you?"

With a dismissive wave of his hand, the photographer said, "We're just shooting here." His alleged model said, "Dude, I think this is her house." This I confirmed by both nodding, and by standing my ground. Like, I'm not just some passerby who was intrigued to encounter a real life photo shoot and came in to get a closer look. I'm here because I make WAY too big a mortgage payment not to be.

Now, where the model seemed to be aware that what they were doing might constitute trespassing, the photographer's attitude can best be described as "Well, exCUUUUSE ME!" He said, "Oh. We assumed the place was abandoned." After snapping off a few more shots, reluctantly, the pair withdrew to the edge of the yard. As the photographer lifted a leg over the remnants of fence he said, "Mind if we leave the way we came?"

While exiting he added, "It's a good thing you bought this place. It was a dump before," and his every word dripped with sarcasm -- especially the last.

He then turned his camera on me. "Mind if we get a couple shots of you as well?" And, in fact, I did mind. Clearly, it's not that I am oblivious to the Jewel's aesthetic shortcomings. But at the same time, I'm not sure I want my house to be the poster child for downtrodden Hollywood, either. And I sure as hell don't want to be the poster girl for stern-faced landowners who quash artistic endeavors by callously evicting them from thought-to-be-abandoned property.

Long story short, they depart. Cut to Sunday morning, just a few days later. Through the saggy canvas sheaths adorning our front windows (Yeah -- we'll get curtains eventually, but first we need to replace the windows.) I notice a plastic bag. I hate it when people throw trash in our yard -- which they do, let's face it, because the Jewel has been a neighborhood dumping ground for so long, and old habits die hard. So I pick up this plastic bag and am rather infuriated to find that it's filled with dog shit. And just as I come to the realization that I am holding a stinky bag of something foul, I look up to find another such bag only feet away. And raising my gaze, I see another. And another. And another. Bag after bag of dog shit, rimming our property.

The bags are too numerous and appeared to suddenly for this to be an accumulation of careless cast-offs. And as I walk the edge of the yard, plucking up these flimsy stink bombs, I can only wonder who in the neighborhood we pissed off. What did we do to invite this smelly attack?

And does it have anything to do with the belligerent photographer?

I Married a Stripper

2007-05-20T18:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Jim and I got a couple doors from Santa Fe Wrecking, the same place where we bought our bathtub. These are a couple of vintage models to replace a couple of super-thin '50s eyesores in the house. I was planning to send them out to a stripping place to bring them down to bare wood, but Jim has taken it upon himself to do the job. Our plan is to stain all the doors, door frames and baseboards a dark walnut color.

I regret to say that -- even though we filled up a humongous dumpster with all the garbage in the house and had at one time cleared the entire yard -- the picture below is what our yard looks like today. It's been a dumping ground for too many contractors. You can see Jim at work through the tree on the left.

A Renovation High

2007-05-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

I got the floors of my dreams by sheer luck.

The front part of the The Jewel of Hollywood is built on a concrete slab. The minute I found this out, I started dreaming of polished concrete floors. Lofty, industrial, distressed concrete floors.

And voila. That's what I got. We pulled back the tiles (NOT asbestos, as previously thought) and undereath found a thick layer of black adhesive. So for a while the floors were black, which wasn't terrible, but I wanted concrete! We called on a flooring "expert" who couldn't get the black out. But then our painter, Julio, said he knew how to do the job. It takes serious chemicals to cut through 50 year old adhesive. When the workers showed up to do it, they said, "We're going to get HIGH today!"

Maybe I should have stuck around.

One Room Down, Eight to Go

2007-05-09T14:59:00.000-07:00

The upstairs bathroom is officially finished. (Well ... basically.) Here is what we did:

We bought the claw-foot tub from the Santa Fe Wrecking Company for $175 and paid to have it re-glazed. The tub we chose was a rusted P.O.S., but they put a gorgeous new finish on it, which I have already damaged by dropping the very heavy drain stopper on its rim. (Ah well, it's only money, right?) Hardware on the tub we ordered over the Internet. It's all Sign of the Crab. (Could that name be more fabulous?) Pedestal sink from Home Depot. Kohler -- nothing special. Tiles from Mission Tile. Hex tiles on the floor, subway tiles for wainscoting, and 4-inch square tiles surrounding the tub from the wainscoting to the ceiling.

The piece de resistance is the toilet. A Toto model which Jim claims is uncloggable. He researched it to the hilt, so he should know.

What you can't see in these photographs is the big mistake. The big mistake is that the plumbers put the tub in without centering it under the window. It kind of makes me long for a tub like the one Brooke has been hauling from house to house. It's a rare 6-foot model, where ours is the standard 5-footer. A 6-foot tub would have really made this bathroom sing.

But as it is, I can't complain. An oval mirror, a couple covers for the outlets, and we'll call this room DONE.

America's Ugliest Door

2007-05-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

Sure this door is ugly. But is it the ugliest door in America? I sure hope so! I entered our door in a contest called just that, the Ugliest Door in America contest, sponsored by Therma-Tru doors. The grand prize is ... you guessed it. A brand new door.

Today is the last day to enter, but they're accepting submissions through 11:59 p.m. (because midnight would, I guess, technicallly be tomorrow, generating untold confusion.)

Happiness of Tile

2007-04-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

Jim and left the loft an hour early this morning to visit the Jewel of Hollywood. Our mission: to lay the tile pattern in the upstairs bathroom. The rest of the bathroom is pretty much tiled, and it looks GORGEOUS thanks to Daniel at Elements of Tile.

Life at the Loft

2007-04-16T21:19:00.000-07:00

Poppy is growing up a nomad. In the time since we first started breaking down the old house to now, she's lived at four locations and has virtually learned to eat. The picture above is of yesterday's messy encounter with a sweet potato.

But life at the loft has been good for her. She can scream. She can roll around on one of two big, soft beds. She can watch the Sopranos uninterrupted.

She likes the loft.

Saved!

2007-04-15T21:46:00.000-07:00

When I posted about moving to the Super 8 Motel, it looked like things couldn't get any worse. But the Super 8 was like the Four Seasons compared with where we went next.

I found this place on Craig's List that Jim and I call The Flop House. It called itself a hotel, but it was really more of a hostel. Shared kitchens and bathrooms. Tiny rooms. But always conversations to be had in hallways and in the common areas with lodgers of all ilks. The place wouldn't have been so terrible if we weren't trying to cram enough stuff to support a family of three into a miniscule space. And if the doors weren't so badly hung that they dragged across the carpet whenever you opened them.

After 10 days of flopping, we got the best imaginable offer! Celia and Jim invited us to house sit at their fantabulous downtown loft! They weren't the first friends to offer up their home to us, but they were the first with a) enough space so that stuff + us + unpredictable baby wouldn't be massively in the way and b) who would not be there anyway and so would not be putting our friendship in jeopardy because — let's face it — guests and unwashed babies smell after three days.

House sitting sounds so much better than crashing. We will be forever indebted to our loft-dwelling friends!

I leave you with the view from the roof-top deck this evening. It's a moody sky.

Homelessness Persists

2007-03-30T12:24:00.000-07:00

As of Saturday evening, our new address is the Super 8 Motel in El Sereno. Looks like we will be hotel hopping for the next couple weeks.

Never Move

2007-03-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

"I would rather have root canal."

So says my mother about moving. She's right. Moving is the most hideous of all pastimes. Even if you hire movers, the process is ASS.

Maybe the torture of moving would be lessened slightly by having a finished house to move into, but I'm not so sure.

What I do know is that the movers took all of our furniture away on Sunday, so Jim and I are camping in the old house until this weekend at the earliest. But as of April 4, the new tenants take possession and we are officially homeless.

We're the only people I know with two houses and no place to live.

Cancer-Free House

2007-03-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

Good news! We got the lab results back, and the flooring in the lower living room turns out not to contain asbestos! What this means is that it will be much less expensive to remove.

I would really like to turn those floors into polished concrete, but so far cannot find someone willing to do a job this small. Jim tells me the room is 333 sq. ft.

Even if we have to keep that ugly tile as-is, at least we know it won't give us cancer.

To Tear Down vs. Not to Tear Down

2007-03-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

When you do a house from the ground up, the costs start to add up.

Demolition: $8,000
Foundation: $10,000
Heating & Cooling: $13,000
Plumbing: $8,000
Windows: $15,000 - $50,000 (no, we're not spending $50K on windows!)

Ten thousand here, ten thousand there -- pretty soon you're talking real money. It's natural, in the midst of this all-cash blood letting, to begin to wonder if you've done the right thing. (That is normal, isn't it?)

A few months ago I went to the bridal shower of my good friend and colleague, Rochelle. The shower was held at a brand new house in Brentwood. It was your typical dream house. Massive amounts of space, gorgeous floors, gorgeous fixtures, gorgeous everything. I talked to the owner a bit and he told me his original plan had been to take the house that had been on the property and just re-do it. "But then I realized," he told me, "that for just $100,000 more, I could tear the place down and just start over."

This conversation haunts me. Sometimes I wonder if we should have just torn the Jewel of Hollywood down and built a McMansion. The current house, an original craftsman so bastardized in the fifties as to be made a true architectural hybrid, might not be worth saving.

Of course, we don't have that extra $100K (if that's all it would cost) to rebuild it. We barely have the money to do what we're doing.

That brings me to another economics equation hanging over the Jewel. The property that the house is on is zoned RD 1.5. What that means is that the land is zoned for four units.

Four condos, multiplied by $800K per condo comes out to $3.2M. The land (with the current house) cost us $750K. Assuming we put $150K into it, we're talking 3.2 minus $900K. That leaves $2.3M. Minus a million for construction. That leaves $1.3M. After all the fees and realtor commissions, let's call it an even $1M. Is it worth $1M to tear down the jewel and build condos?

You tell me.

What we saw this weekend

2007-02-19T23:35:00.001-08:00

Here is what we saw when we went in 2/18. Only days three after we closed escrow, the plaster was off the walls.

Upstairs, west-facing bedroom.

The lower living room. Jim fell in love with the tiles in here -- until we found out they were made of ASBESTOS. I'm hoping to restore these floors to polished concrete.

The "out" sign below means that wall is scheduled for demo.

The man below is Louie, our trusty contractor. He has become a pretty important person in our lives. These walls are pretty interesting. This is the old "lathe and plaster" style of construction. Before there was drywall, this is how it was done.

You can see more of the pictures from 2/18 by clicking here.

Starting from the Ground Up

2007-02-15T15:03:00.000-08:00

We close escrow tomorrow.

But being in escrow hasn't kept us from going into the house and getting estimates on everything from security systems — well almost getting, since the guy from ADT security never did turn in a bid — to heating and cooling.

The process of receiving and comparing proposals from all these various contractors is a pretty mind-bending experience. Take for example our foundation. When our stellar inspector, Lisa Yetter, took a look under the house, she pointed out that there did appear to be some crumbling around the perimeter of the foundation. There also appeared to be a badly cracked beam running across the center. "It's not urgent, it's not a huge amount of work," Lisa told us. "But get to it when you can."

Now, I don't purport to know anything about foundations, but I trust Lisa. I also have relied heavily on Lisa's Roladex full of contractors over the years. She threw out two names of local foundation specialists for me to call.

The first specialist I'll give the bloggy name "Stone." This wasn't my first encounter with Stone. I'd hired him about four years ago to inspect a foundation of another house I'd put a bid on, and he'd come back with a proposal that I'd found respectable. He was able to pinpoint the exact problems with the existing foundation and also nail down a price for adding a finished winecellar to the extisting basement (just a crawlspace, really). He seemed to really know what he was doing. Thus, out of the two names Lisa gave me, I called him first.

Stone's bid for the foundation on the Jewel of Hollywood came back at $40,000 — a figure that stopped me cold. How could Lisa have been so wrong? When he told me, I experienced the cartoon effect of thought bubbles over my head filled with images of new kitchen appliances and bathroom and tile fixtures popping one by one. We haven't really nailed down an exact budget, but whatever it is, I knew $40K would be a heaping chunk of it. So I asked Stone if there was anything we could put off for later.

"Oh, so you want to do the cosmetic stuff first?" he asked indignantly. "I turn down jobs from people who do the cosmetic stuff first."

A pretty saucy answer, I thought, from somebody looking to take more money from me than it cost to fund my entire graduate school education. But my heart was still with Stone. I'd paid him for the inspection, and by increments I was working through the denial phase and into the phase of accepting the economic realities of a remodel. I believed what everyone has been telling us — that you've got to budget 20% more than you expected to spend. It always costs more.

But then, I had the number of this other foundation specialist. At $150 a pop, just the inspections for things like this can start to get expensive. But Jim reassured me that paying for a second opinion would be money well spent.

We'll call this second contractor "Seismic Shazam!" They came. They inspected. They proposed. And their bid was $9,780.

Suddenly, I felt as though I'd just made 30 grand.

Um ... Hello? Is this thing on?

2007-02-04T06:59:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is. My very first post. Looking forward, I have no idea where this is going to go. I don't even really know why people write blogs, but the words narcissism and exhibitionism come to mind.

It's just that I find myself at the beginning of a lot of big projects -- a family, a new house -- and I guess I just feel the need to document the changes.

For today, let's start with the house.

Can't wait to take down this sign:

Here is the lovely exterior as it looked when first I saw it:

The house was originally built in 1916, though only the back rooms. The front part is an addition that was made in the 50s.

Below is the lovely interior. This is what we call the "Lower Living Room." This is the part that was built in the 50s. The most telling detail is the stone fire place barely visible to the very far left in this picture. An incredible mid-century wood-burner that appears never to have been used.

Did I mention that it's a fixer?

You can see more of the house in all its glory on Flickr.