1921 Highland Park Craftsman Bungalow

Patio trellis/ pergola / whatever it's called!

2010-08-21T12:02:00.001-07:00

I've been very busy lately, but quite lame about posting all my ongoing projects. As an attempt to somewhat attenuate my blogging lameness, I'm creating this very short, somewhat lame, albeit wonderful posting. Here's an addition to our patio! Built out of redwood, this is a trellis I copied from a picture I found on the world wide interwebs. Here's another angle of our patio, which is finally becoming a little outdoor peace haven. Enjoy :)
We picked up the rockers a few weeks ago. They're Northcape Montego resin wicker rockers. Still waiting on the cushions we ordered for them! For now we're improvising with a few cushions we had lying around. The rug is made out of 100% recycled plastic, which I thought was pretty cool. Until next time, whenever that may be! Peace and love.

What's goin on?

2009-11-14T17:42:00.000-08:00

It's been too long since my last post. But what can I say, life has been happening. Wolfgang decided to "drop-in" on us on Sept. 11, and our lives have been a little different since then.
So now, 2 months in, I'm having a difficult time even imagining what it is like to do a project around here. But I'm doing many other projects-- diapers, wipes, bottles, swaddles, the list goes on and on!

Leaving my mark

2009-05-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

It's been frustratingly amusing over the years, discovering little "fixes" previous owners have made to this little house. I don't exclude myself from this eclectic crowd which all bear in common at least one trait: fix it the best you know how. Other things would perhaps follow, like playing catch-up because of corners we cut, or being too lazy to fix it the right way the first time. I try not to get caught hanging around with the characters in the latter group. Bad project-karma is coming their way. Before I say more, check out my most recent fix-it-the-best-I-know-how venture.

A piece of doug-fir baseboard had split whilst being removed for a nursery renovation. Loosely translated: I wasn't being careful and broke it. I wasn't worried, and knew I could glue it later without any problem. But then the 2-wk project slowly became a 4-wk project, and then a 3-month project. In this span, I believe I inadvertently threw away the 30x 2.5-inch split piece that was necessary for the repair. This is what I came up with instead.

I notched out a square around the portion that had split using my table saw for the long cut, and my jigsaw for the short cut. Then I cut a new piece of fir to fit the notch (yeah, I know the grain is completely different). Then woodglue and clamps, baby! On the front face, I sanded it with my Rigid random-orbital sander (note: slowly becoming one of my favorite tools, and blows my standard palm sander out of the water) until the two surfaces were level, and on the back I had to plane the replacement piece down 1/16" because it was a little thicker than the original baseboard.

I left my mark on the back just for fun. This way the guy or gal who pulls if off next time will know who to blame. Ha!

artifacts

2009-04-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some interesting things I unearthed in my backyard while landscaping recently :

My Home Depot Parking Lot Cellphone Experience

2008-08-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

It started off as a standard trip to Home Depot. I was planning on getting in, and out as quickly as possible--just enough time to pick up a few 2x4's for a new workbench.

--back story--

Well I should have learned LONG AGO to stop putting my cellphone in my lap when I drive. For some reason I have developed this habit, and frequently when I get out of my car, I forget it's there and it falls to the ground.

-- step forward to Home Depot parking lot--

I step out of my car and I hear the oh-so-familiar sound of plastic hitting pavement. But this time is different. Since I'm picking up lumber, I have my trailer. When I have my trailer, I park at the back of the parking lot where there are plenty of available spaces. At the back of the lot is a curb where there is a sewer drain. This is where my cell phone bounced after hitting the pavement.

I'm in disbelief. Impossible, I think to myself. Possible, I discover. It happened, almost as if by design--like that sewer was the ultimate resting place for my chronically falling phone, and it was finally home. "Are you happy now? Is that where you want to be?" I think, looking into the dark, nasty, oily depths of the drain. Not if I had any say in the matter.

After surveying the situation, I can't actually see the phone to know whether it fell in a puddle of water (or god knows what else). But I know it's in there, and I could at least salvage the SIM card if all else is lost. With this, I decide the best way to approach the problem is to remove the manhole cover above the drain. I'll just go in and buy a steel rod to pry off the manhole. So that's what I do. Somewhat embarrassed, I try to be as low-profile as possible. As I pry, the cover begins to move, but reaches a point where it budges no more. So I step on the rod and start bouncing, but the rod begins to bend. At this point, a man walks over to get a cart that is next to my car. He sees me and inquires about my situation. After a quick explanation, he offers to look in his truck for a better option. He comes back with a slightly larger steel rod, but the same thing happens. I thank him and tell him I don't want to waste any more of his time.

At this point to return to the store, in search of something more beefy. After purchasing a $10 heavy-duty crowbar, I return to the scene. I give it a whirl, but still no budge. Now, I've attracted several curious "day labor" onlookers, and I go up to the largest one (who I'll refer to as "the big dude"), offering $10 for the retrieval of my phone. He says no problem, and comes over. He tries for a minute but no dice. Several others begin to congregate, all asking me questions in various languages. I just point at the drain and give the universal telephone sign. They all have different reactions to this, but most of them join the ten-dollar-sewer-cell-phone challenge. After a few moments of wrestling with the manhole cover, one guy points out the problem that none of us had yet noticed. On either side of the cover, there are security bolts holding it in place.

The big dude, sweating, says "s**t".

The bolts are recessed and have large alan-heads. I make my 3rd trip into the store, and return with a $20 heavy duty alan wrench set.

Big dude is first on the scene. He's tries, unsuccessfully, to turn one of the alan bolts. He tries the other one, to no avail. At this point there are 3 guys on their stomachs reaching their arms into the sewer drain, and now one guy with a blow torch, trying to get the alan bolts to budge. Another walks over with a tree branch. Home Depot security pulls up in a golf cart to ask some questions. After explaining my situation, he sees no threat and allows us to continue.

"Ten Dollars!", I yell, "to the guy who gets my cellphone!"

Spirits are high in Home Depot parking lot. One man will walk away with a crisp 10 spot. At one point I count 18 men gathered around the sewer. A couple street vendors--one selling hotdogs, one selling safari hats-- come and go.

And then one of the guys on his stomach yells that he sees it. The chatter subsides and everyone moves in closer. Holding his arm out behind him, he yells, "get me a broom stick or something!!". One guy hands him the crowbar and the guy yells, "not the crow bar, it's TOO DEEP!!"

And then I remember I have a shovel in my trunk. I pass it to him. The attention is now focused on the guy on his stomach, with my shovel, who seems as if he is performing a surgery. I'm watching and hoping he doesn't drop my shovel. For a moment he struggles, and breathes out in frustration a few times, and finally begins pulling the shovel from the sewer, slowly. Everyone is watching anxiously--the guy with the extinguished blow torch, the guy holding the crowbar, the guy standing there with a tree branch, the hotdog vendor who has returned, and The Big Dude, who is seeing his $10 slowly slipping away. As the head of the shovel nears the surface. It reminds me of a movie where a rescue team is trying to save someone who is buried alive, or a child who has fallen into a well. And there it is. Covered in oil, with several pieces of garbage stuck to it, the phone is handed to me, proudly. I hand the guy with the shovel his bounty, as the others watch in envy. I decide to give The Big Dude, a 5 dollar bill for his efforts.

It's now 1 1/2 hours, $50, and one-nasty-cellphone later that I go in to buy my 2x4's.

Think twice before buying a Pottery Barn rug...

2008-08-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

But more specifically, a hand-tufted wool rug. For 2 years I wondered what exactly was causing the musty burnt-rubber smell in our living room. Guests will ask, "What is burning?" on a regular basis. My Dad was convinced we had an electrical problem of some sort. I'd been on my hands and knees several times trying to pinpoint the source of the smell, but now it is official.
Our Pottery Barn rug stinks. It's beautiful, but it stinks. After moving the rug to our den, the odor has also moved to the den. Apparently there is absolutely no way of ridding the smell (not baking soda, not professional cleaning, nothing), as it comes from a latex backing that is used in the rug.

This website explains it all.

A Happy Piano

2008-08-22T12:45:00.000-07:00

I counted the days that my piano sat neglected, shrouded in stretch wrap, during the den remodel. I'm happy to announce that it is getting more attention than ever now! It's a 1925 Chickering "Quarter Grand" model. Now that the floors are lighter, it really shines proudly in our newly remodeled den.

Window is in!!

2008-08-22T12:21:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately, Pella took two weeks longer to deliver our new window than they had initially said, so we were living with cardboard covering a hole in our den for a little longer than anticipated! But the window is awesome, and I'm happy to say that it went in without a hitch!! For 3 days now, we've been enjoying the added light, and an evening breeze in our den. Now that we can see the backyard patio, I'm hoping it will provide a boost of motivation for me to finish that project. Melinda and I found some really cool reclaimed bricks we'll be using as pavers. More on that project soon.

As the window delivery date approached, I had growing fears that the measurements I provided Pella weren't quite big enough and I'd have to open-up the frame a little. Thankfully it was just right .

Yesterday, I milled an interior window stool out of a douglas fir plank, and cut all the interior trim. This window project has given me a lot of quality time on my table saw and router. It's funny, now that I'm getting more comfortable with those tools, I prefer to mill my own custom pieces rather than go out and look for something already made!

What to do with a piano...

2008-07-30T17:05:00.001-07:00

...when you're refinishing a floor? My answer:

(aside from using it as a workbench)
Teeter it across the threshold like this.

It's funny, the moment I positioned the piano halfway in/out of the doorway, I thought to myself, "This would sure be a bad time to have an earthquake..."

The piano stayed like this overnight, as the urethane dried, and the next day, we had a 5.4 magnitude earthquake. I happened to be sanding the first coat of urethane on my hands and knees at the time, and stopped for a second with a disoriented feeling. My head was swaying back and forth, and I was thinking what a strange feeling the motion of sanding was giving me! It was that moment that Melinda walked into the den and said, "that's an earthquake!" I looked over at the piano, and it was swaying back and forth, much like my head. The entire thing lasted about 20 seconds, and the piano survived.

From the day I begin investigating...

2008-07-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

...behind the Douglas Fir baseboard under which fungus is creeping, I feel as though I have opened a very large can of worms. And I don't intend on going fishing. Or do I?

Pulling off the baseboard reveals even more fungus, as well as MOLD. I pull off a bit of drywall, and notice that the wall studs behind are rotted. Now some detective work.

Only the bottom 3 feet of the studs are rotted, which tells me that the moisture is coming from the floor, and wicking its way up the studs-- or so I think.

As I pull off more drywall and work my way to the corner of the room I make an alarming discovery. On the back wall, which is made of cinder blocks (because there is earth on the other side) the drywall is adhered directly to the wall with a construction adhesive. Is this common?

"What kind of hack artist
adheres sheet-rock
directly to a cinder block wall?"

"Oh no," I mutter.

Despite obvious concerns about adequate behind-wall ventilation (i.e. to dry out any moisture), it just seems plain careless to slap together a wall in this way and call it done.

Part of me wants to carefully put everything back how it was and sell the house. And it must have seemed like such a simple solution to the guy to did it in the first place. What an easy way to get off without having to frame a proper wall.

As I investigate further, I see that the water is wicking its way through the subfloor, too, creating fungus growth between the subfloor and the oak planks, causing them to warp drastically. At this point I sit down in the corner with my face buried in my hands, crying. The realization hits me that the entire room will need to be emptied and torn apart to fix this problem. I choose to wait.

Cut to 1 year later. You know those 'motivation burst' moments-- the ones where you are determined to fix a problem, and you don't care how drastic the measure. One of these hits me, and an hour later the room is emptied. I'm not sure exactly what is driving me-- anger with the guy to did it wrong in the first place, frustration with the problem as a whole, or fear of what will happen to the room if I don't act now. Regardless, I am tearing up wood flooring with a crow bar-- splintered, rotted, mold-infested, fungus-covered oak planks and plywood subfloor flying in all directions. That said, I'm somewhat careful to only tear up what is absolutely necessary, as the water has not crept all the way across the room. Since the drywall won't simply pull off of the cinder block, the only "somewhat easy" way I can find to remove it is to use a jackhammer. I've rented the lightest one from Home Depot, which I am able to hold it up against the wall and chisel away at the construction adhesive. As crazy as it sounds, it is the best feeling to see the drywall GONE, and the corners of the room stripped down to the concrete slab below. By this time, the room smells like a giant mushroom, because of all that is now exposed. God knows what I have exposed myself to, because I'm not wearing a respirator.

But at least now I can get to the bottom of what exactly is causing this problem.

...to be continued

Life's Lessons

2008-07-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

I admire those who can begin a house project and take photos along the way, post to their blog, and continue working on the project all the while. It takes discipline--that's for sure. I, on the other hand, have a hard time working all the way through any single project, let alone posting to my blog. I guess discipline missed me some time along the way. The beginning to this saga was the fungus we found about 15 months ago. Since that day, I've grown a lot.
Amongst greater life lessons about patience, frustrations, motivation, happy marriages, etc..; I also learned about a few smaller things in life-- wall ventilation, vapor barriers, drywalling, refinishing a floor, adding a window to a room. Throughout my next few posts, I hope to bring my blog up-to-date with everything that has been happening around here, as well as let you in on a few of the lessons I learned. Talk to you soon, Todd.

The backyard project continues

2008-02-11T07:40:00.000-08:00

Another project I've been working on for the past year is a total backyard renovation. This is really a continuation of my earlier post: Holding It All In. Words of wisdom on a project that involves moving earth: you don't really have a grasp on how big the project is until you start shoveling dirt. The best way to get a concept of how big a project really is: go shovel 3 wheelbarrows full of dirt, and see how far along that puts you in your project. That'll shed some light on it.

This is about where I am right now:

I'm digging a stairwell into the earth, and planning on finishing them off with some sort of flat stone. Flagstone? Ledge stone? And the wall itself will be river rock.

2008 resolutions

2008-02-11T06:55:00.000-08:00

My biggest resolution in 08 is to finish all of my ongoing projects. The first one will be patching up the overhang from which I evicted our resident raccoons.

Original post on on my other blog:

Raccoons in the attic... A continuing saga

8:56pm Thursday, Jan 11, 2007 | Edit Note | Delete

So, I'm lying in bed, and I hear some shit up in my ceiling. At first, I think someone is up there, about to rob us or something. The good news it it wasn't a robber, and I'm assuming you've already read the title of this note, so you know I have a raccoon problem. But the real problem is that the particular place they're living is not accessible to me. Unfortunately the part of the attic they decided to set-up shop, not really an attic at all. It is just a roof overhang, and is way too small for me to crawl into. The only option is to pull down the paneling that is nailed to the underside.

UPDATE 1: Late one night I waited for the raccoons to leave on their nightly escapade. Through previous observation, I noted that there were 3 raccoons living in the ceiling. Once all 3 raccoons waddled out of the roof, I worked quickly to block their entrance with wire mesh. The raccoons are now officially evicted.

UPDATE 2: It's a year later, and I've finally mustered the motivation to repair the underside of the overhang. Replacing the original paneling would look like crap, since it was badly damaged during its removal. I've decided to take the more attractive approach, and install tongue and groove planks.

Happy Anniversary, neighborhood.

2007-12-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

It's been exactly one year since we moved into our house! It's quite amazing how the neighborhood has changed in this short amount of time. Here's an article that the New York Times wrote.

Yes, things are changing here in Highland Park. My favorite little liquor mart, Star Liquor, just put up a new sign on their storefront. So did Tropicana Market, a little convenience store down on the corner... simple signs, granted, but a nice improvement over the previously painted signs. People are painting over graffiti very quickly after it happens now-- usually the day after. I still have yet to see how I'll react the first time I come upon someone 'tagging' a building here. My immediate reaction would be to tackle and punch them; although I've heard that confronting them might not be such a great idea. Yikes.

We couldn't have been more fortunate with the neighbors who live next door! Blaise and Rosa are constantly giving us fresh vegetables from their garden. Tomatoes, squash, zucchini, Japanese eggplant, kale, collard greens, etc, etc... They have great parties, with amazing food. Rosa should have her own restaurant--it would certainly be another great addition to the neighborhood-- but alas, she's a rocket scientist and would probably never leave her profession. Blaise is a musician, and it's been great to pick up my trumpet again and jam with them.

As a whole, people over here on the NE side of the city are much different than on the west side. When I'm doing yard work, people walking down the sidewalk smile and say hello (or hola, or buenos dias!), whereas most the people on the west side stare straight ahead typical L.A. style. I always found it awkward pretending not to notice anyone I passed on the street. Not only are the people different here, but there's different wildlife over here too. We have raccoons (yes the ones that used to live in my attic), opossums, and even a coyote living here in the neighborhood. We have hawks that soar overhead, as well as food for the hawks including squirrels and bunnies. We hung a hummingbird feeder outside our bedroom window that gets absolutely swarmed each morning. We have to refill it every three days or so.

So, lately I've been focusing more on living in my house, rather than working on my house. And it's been great. Is it strange that relaxation for me is a learned behavior? But right now I think I have about ten projects that are lingering in the halfway-done state. Work has been busy lately, so a lot of things are in limbo and I've been on a sort of hiatus from home improvement. I put up some Christmas lights last weekend, but it'd be a stretch to call that home improvement!

I think I'm A.D.D.

2007-07-31T12:14:00.000-07:00

I can't seem to focus on one single project. The wood floor is replaced in the den, where it had rotted from a leak. But I have to somehow match the stain of the rest of the floor. The wall is fixed too, but there's still one spot in the corner that needs to be drywalled.

I found some AWESOME french doors at this place in L.A. called Silverlake Salvage.
1065 Manzanita Street. (4100 block of Sunset, go South on Manzanita to Gateway. Right on Gateway another right in the first driveway. Look for the big white building). Telephone (323) 667-2875. I widened the doorway from the kitchen to the den by about 4 inches, to fit the doors. I still need to finish the trim around the doorway.

We have a problem on the SE corner of the house. There are trees growing from beneath the sidewalk and forcing up the concrete. The concrete has moved significantly since we bought the house in November of last year. The trees are called "Tree-of Heaven" and believe me, they are anything BUT that. I think "Tree from Hell" would be much more fitting. Some jackass brought them over here from China back in the 1800's. Oeuf. I have reason to believe that the roots growing under the concrete are the real reason for the foundation damage on that corner of the house. The seller had the foundation fixed before we moved in, but we all thought at the time that the reason was an earthquake. I'm not so sure anymore.

Speaking of the foundation repair, cracks formed in the plaster in the bedroom at that corner of the house, from when the foundation repair specialists did the house-leveling. I've also been working on repairing those cracks.

The sprinkler system in the front yard is working really well now! I re-positioned 5 sprinkler heads so that the entire lawn gets water now. It's greening up pretty nicely.

Some knuckle-head tagged the neighbor's garage with spray paint last night. Unfortunately it's a pretty popular spot for the local "artists" since it's a good flat surface that isn't lit at night. I'm thinking about putting up a little spy cam so I bust them sometime down the line.

Two new bars opened up on York Blvd. a couple weeks ago! We're happy to see that the area is attracting a little more night life, and that new things are going into the once-vacant buildings in Highland Park. It's nice to have some contrast to all the auto shops and dollar stores. Things are changing pretty quickly around here!

Current Restoration Project/ Wood Identification

2007-06-12T08:43:00.000-07:00

I've been restoring this c.1920's mahogany cabinet over the past week. I would have liked to keep the original finish, but it looks as though years ago someone had applied a shellac over the entire thing, which was now peeling off all over the place. So far, the project has entailed many hours of sanding (because I wanted to avoid chemical strippers), and I'm finally getting close to finishing it.

From what I can tell, the wood is cherry. The best website I've been able to find regarding wood identification is hobbithouseinc.com. His pics are very good, and the site is very, very detailed with many wood varieties. Wood identification is tough, though, because of all the little subtleties that differ with any given example of the same wood. This looks to be American black cherry, I guess.

The coolest detail about this piece, by far, is the wood inlay on the front. I have no idea how this is done, but it looks complicated. Specifically, the shading that was done to make the leaves look curled and three dimensional. If anyone knows the method of shading, I'd be interested to know.

The doors, which aren't pictured, are large panes of glass inside wood frames. Since we'll be using this as our entertainment center, I don't want everything showing through the doors plain as day. It'd be nice to hide the ugly electronics a bit, so I'm planning on making a modification to the doors. I'll be adding a few horizontal and verticle slats to give the impression of many smaller window panes. I think it'll make the piece look more interesting as a whole, as well as serve as a visual obstruction of the crappy looking A/V equipment. More to come!

My latest rescue

2007-05-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

One of my hobbies is restoring antiques. Specifically, finding "junk" of historical significance on the side of the road, taking it home, giving it a little TLC and making it part of our home decor. L.A. is the perfect place for this hobby. There's just enough history here to supply plenty of poorly-cared-for furniture, which just shows up on the street on garbage-day when someone decides to buy something new. Luckily for me (and L.A.'s landfill--i.e. the ocean), I'm a sucker for free stuff. Here's an old oak desk I'm working on. From the looks of it, it's from the 1940's.
The desk was in pieces when I found it. All the wood was lightly water damaged, but nothing my vibrating palm sander couldn't fix. The original top was a fir board, with a thin layer of masonite veneered to the top. Back in the day, this was probably considered a good look, but since I'm the one who rescued it from going to the dump, I feel like I can take the liberty of retrofitting it with a solid oak top. After I'm finished gluing the oak planks, I'll use my router to curve the edges, and urethane the whole thing. More pics to come!

Baby Possum

2007-05-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

As I was working on the leak/fungus problem yesterday, Melinda opened the door leading to our garage to find this little guy walking across the garage floor. We're guessing something happened to his mom, so we put him up for the night in our animal hotel-- complete with a heating pad, and a smorgasbord of fruit and catfood. He enjoyed them both :-) A possum expert is coming to look at him this morning, and determine if it's in his best interest for us to let him go, or give him more care at a refuge.

Any fungus experts out there?

2007-05-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Melinda called me into the den by saying, "Honey, can you come here? Something is scaring me in here." I wasn't sure what to expect, but ended up finding something not good. A bit of bright orange and yellow fungus, about the size of a silver dollar was growing at the base board. Then, sliding a piece of furniture aside revealed several larger growths in the corner. Then I noticed that several planks of the hardwood floor in that area were severely warped (and that we obviously had a leak of some sort). This portion of the house has no crawlspace beneath it. It's on a concrete slab, and is built into the side of the hill (one half of the room is essentially a basement, since it's built into the hill). Cutting away a portion of drywall exposed damp insulation, several completely rotten wall studs, some moist dirt with creepy crawlies, and a not-so-pleasant musty odor. The moisture is not coming from the top, it is definitely coming from the bottom. I'm guessing there is a crack in the concrete slab, or the concrete wall in the corner.

Away with the chain link.

2007-05-08T16:43:00.000-07:00

Today I cut the chain link fence out of our front yard. Chain link fences remind me of a penitentiary, and we're free at last!! Here are the before/after pics!

Holding It All In

2007-05-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

My biggest project this spring has been constructing a retaining wall in the backyard. Up until now, it's been 86 years that the lawn in this house's backyard has poured into the neighboring house's backyard. Throughout the years, occupants have done a lot, it seems, to try and retain the dirt--everything except build a retaining wall. I pulled all kinds of stuff out of the earth, including metal poles, old plywood, steel cables, pieces of corrugated metal, large sheets of asbestos, and even an old door, which still included the vintage octagonal glass knob and mortise set... score! For the wall, I chose to use the large pre-formed concrete blocks from home depot. The pink flavor. Not my favorite looking thing in the world, but a lot better then it looked before :-) All in all, the project took a month in a half, working only on my days off, and the wall consists of 240 60lb. blocks. Perhaps the most difficult part of the project was cutting through all the bamboo roots that span the hill where I wanted to build the wall. I learned a lot about the bamboo plant in the process. Mainly that the whole bamboo forest is one big plant, with the same root system. Luckily, cutting the root system does not harm the plant, and it will continue to grow as many different plants when cut into sections.. Also, during spring, when new shoots emerge, they can grow in excess of 20 inches in a day. Not kidding! The wall is now complete, and we're beginning to plot the layout of our zen cactus garden. Here's the wall from above, and from below:

2007-01-30T18:46:00.000-08:00

Today I was motivated to do something about my closet. Actually, I'd hardly call it a closet. More like a really really small room, with a rather inadequate wooden rod bowing (from the weight of the clothes) across the length of it. Pretty pathetic. But I have to say, it does have a window (people were SO SMART in the 1920's)!!
Here's the main dilemma: I haven't been able to find any decent looking craftsman or mission style closet rod/shelf supports. Does such a thing exist? Even if I knew what such a thing looked like, I could probably make it. But temporarily, I've installed a couple of Stanley® brand supports from Home Depot. And I have to say, they look like crap. Kind of like something you'd see in a cheap apartment that has all the beautiful hardware leftover from the 70's and 80's. If anyone knows of some alternative, please let me know!!! After installing the Home Depot Stanley® special, here's where things stand:
It's a lot better than what I had before, considering I can pile all of my crap on a shelf above my clothes, but I'd like to have something a little more 'period' looking. Since the ball is rolling with the whole organization thing, there's a little extra space left to add a shelf for shoes, on the left side of the closet. After a few hours of flying by the seat of my pants, I come up with a little shelving unit that I incorporated into the wood already present in the closet.
Unfortunately, the wall wasn't quite square, so I ran into a few issues that I'd rather not talk about. Let's just say that I probably should have finished the project a few hours before I actually did, because I was trying to figure out a way to make the shelving unit 'look' square, although it really wasn't. I finally ended up allowing the shelves to protrude beyond the face of the unit, and angling the front corners back toward the vertical sides. You'll see in the picture what I'm talking about.
It's not my best work, so I think I'll be painting the unit instead of staining it. This will (hopefully) hide some of the abnormalities. Here's the product, before painting. And hopefully I'll find some alternative to the ugly Stanley® brackets!!!!!

Adding a kitchen outlet

2007-01-30T08:49:00.000-08:00

As it would figure, the perfect little nook for our toaster oven has no electricity near it (see left side of photo). Instead, all of the kitchen's electricity is to the right-side of the sink. My hopes of putting an outlet on the far left wall were dashed, when I discovered there was a horizontal stud in the plaster, where the counter top meets the wall. After wasting some time trying to figure out how I would get through the stud, I decided to take an easier approach.
Pulling off the siding of an old house isn't as difficult as it would seem. The first step was to remove the window trim, in order to allow access to the whole piece of siding. Then GENTLY pry the siding to pull the nails from the wall stud. Piece of cake. I still managed to break one of the pieces.

I ended up taking electricity from the same breaker as the other kitchen outlets, to make things simple. And there was a junction box located conveniently beneath the kitchen floor.
After cutting a hole in the drywall, and installing the electrical box, I was ready to roll. The white cable seen in the photo is just a feeder. I ended up pulling a metal-clad cable to the electrical box to be safe. On the other side of the wall, I installed a GFI outlet, since it's in a (potentially) wet location, and a light switch, for a future project :o) And voila! A happy toaster oven . And happy siding!

Kitchen table made of old wood

2007-01-29T09:50:00.000-08:00

I have some pretty exciting news. Two days ago, as part of my normal morning routine, I was browsing through the 'free' listings on craigslist.org. I came across a listing for free wood. The person had just finished a remodeling project, and was giving away wood that was left over. I assumed this meant a few 2x4's and plywood. Well I went over to see if any was left, and much to my excitement, there was a huge pile of old wood. Yes, OLD wood! The person had torn out much of the wood in their 1920's house, and I filled up my trailer with the stuff, all Douglas Fir. They probably didn't feel like going to the trouble of removing layers and layers of paint. I guess it's good news and bad news. I really hate to see people tear out original wood while 'remodeling', but I love it if they're going to give it away for free. I'm just thankful they didn't throw it in a dumpster and send it to its demise.
Since my house already has all the fir woodwork it can handle, and on closer inspection of the wood, it was weathered from being on their front porch, I decided to make a shabby chic style high-top kitchen table out of it. As you can see, our cat Teddy enjoys it as much as we do. The layers of paint on the wood turned out to be a great thing. After chiseling off various layers to expose hidden colors underneath, we ended up with a pretty cool looking centerpiece for our kitchen! Now we just need to find a couple of tall stools.

Secret crawlspace entrance

2006-12-17T07:09:00.000-08:00

One of my upcoming projects is to repair the 'built-in' in our hallway. It's a pretty standard bungalow style built-in, with 4 drawers on the bottom, and a door opening on the top with shelves inside. None of the drawers slide properly, and I'm planning on adding rolling drawer-glides to each drawer. I know, I know, all you purists out there are saying 'no! repair and restore it to its original style!'. But I'm of the overall mindset that if something allows itself to be updated with a modern convenience, and still maintains its' original appearance, what's the harm? Especially if it significantly improves the usability. If you still don't agree, all I can say is 'you'll see'.
Anyway, when I was investigating the built-in the other day, I pulled out the bottom
drawer and found myself looking at the crawl space under the house. Someone (he) had put a LARGE (18" diameter) hole in the floor [I'm guessing] when the furnace was installed before we moved in. They (he) probably just needed a way to access and support it from the top when they were (he was) installing it (?). This is probably a good time to mention the nickname we've given to the guy who owned the house before us-- "Half-assed H------" (I don't want to say his last name, although I WILL say it begins with an H, and the nickname as a whole has a really nice ring to it). I'm sure he's a perfectly nice guy, but everything he did to the house is completely half-assed.

Bizarre 'car port' patio

2006-11-19T22:27:00.000-08:00

So, we have this interesting car port in our back yard. But it's not really a car port, because the driveway is on the other side of the house. It's a covered patio in the back yard designated for rainy-day BBQ's I guess. We're debating several options. Pulling the roof off entirely, and replacing it with wood beams/ grapevine. Or closing it in, adding french doors, and making it an additional 'loft' room.

Historical Highland Park, CA

2006-11-16T14:07:00.000-08:00

Some interesting information on the Highland Park neighborhood in southern california:

http://www.bob-taylor.com/highpark.htm

http://www.bob-taylor.com/dev-hist.htm

http://historichighlandpark.org/

WOODWORK: to paint or not to paint?

2006-11-14T15:53:00.000-08:00

The guy who owned the house before us had the intention of making a full restoration of all period details. He made many improvements, and then decided to sell. Amongst many other things, one thing he did was strip ALL of the woodwork in the house, including trim, moulding, built-ins...EVERYTHING (believe me, you don't need to tell us how lucky we are... we know)
I've seen this topic brought up in other peoples' home-blogs, and now we're faced with the same question: what to do with this wood? The wood is the same kind as every other historic craftsman: Douglas Fir. We are HUGE fans of exposed wood--lighter exposed wood. Our house is not large: 1000 sq. feet. We hate the thought of painting over wood that has been stripped to display its natural beauty; but at the same time, the confined space of our home would be greatly benefitted by white trim. Stained, varnished wood may just be too heavy for our home.

Offer accepted, YEAH!

2006-11-14T15:01:00.000-08:00

After two disappointing instances of being overbid on houses, we finally came out on top. If you ask me, southern california real estate is ridiculously priced--but will it ever cool down? It seems like people are always flocking to the warmer weather here, and thus the market will always be on the rise. Only time will tell. With that said, we're thrilled to finally be in a house (scheduled to close escrow on 11/28). No more moving from apartment to apartment, paying someone elses mortgage! Our lovely new-old home is a 1921 craftsman bungalow situated in a historic area in Highland Park, CA.