Gratuitous New Purchase Post

Looky looky! New dining room set!



We'd been looking for ages and coming up dry. Our prior table was too small to have family events, and it really didn't go with the house at all. And we were able to buy locally too.

Busy Girl

Wow, has it been since April? I've been insanely busy.

I go in spurts on the house. Been focusing on the yard as I enjoy an actually opportunity to spend some time outside. With a fairly wild yard like mine it is fairly amazing how much work it takes to simply keep it contained.

Since I'm a picture whore, here's some shots of a few things I've had going on

The old hallway light



And the all purty new one (Rejuvenation!)



Now this little project has taken a gabillion trips to the paint shop.



The window trim turned out to be a bit too bright white in the full sun. So I toned it down a notch. Now, in the shade, you can't tell the difference between the window trim and the light shade of yellow. *Sigh* This is taking*forever* to do.

So I peeled back the carpet where my cat had been peeing



These are aching to be exposed, but the carpet is still pretty new and I can't justify it. I ended up putting plastic down been the floor and the carpet pad to prevent any further peeing from hitting the wood. The enzyme stuff takes care of the smell but I still worry.

With hubby going from a comparatively safe part of Iraq to really not-so safe part of Iraq soon I got myself a cute distraction



His name is Henry.

I'm always giving myself hell in that way only overly ambitious, type A personality can do. I'm constantly berating myself for not ever getting nearly as much done on the house as I'd like.

To remind myself:

• Hubby is in Iraq. Thank you Mr Gates for another three months with out him!
• I work, including my commutes, 12 hour days, every day. I do get my every other Friday off, but I've got this unfortunate habit of going into work on them. Like much is getting done in the 2 hours before bedtime.
  
• I can clean house or I can fix the house. They typically don't mix. Errands and chores get neglected when fixing things.... who really needs to cook and buy food? I eat toast for at least two meals a day on the weekends. Peanut butter, it's what's for dinner!
  
• Next is the yard. My really really big yard, without any sort of irrigation. I can battle weeds, or could refinish the floor in the entry. Weeds grow back, and I get admonished by my landscaper mother-in-law.
• An then of course there is a variety of organizations to which I belong, hobbies that get neglected, my meager social life, etc etc.
• And of course, the ever present call of the Internet!
  

Yet here I sit, admonishing myself for all the stuff I haven't done to the house. *sigh*

A rare reason for lack of posting...

Hubby came home from Iraq for two weeks. Lets just say very little of substance got done around the house while he was home.

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The biggest thing we did was pick out paint colors, and play around with them on the back of the house. He had fun with that, he'll be pretty good at color selection after a bit. Doubt he'd admit that to anyone but me (hehehe). Still need to narrow down the window colors.

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Lets see... I got the evol pepper trees pruned back big time. It is a amazing how fast those trees grow, and what incredibly messy they are. You couldn't even pull up in front of the house without hitting some of the branch, though I'd pruned it back last year.

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I got the side door lock replaced, finally. The rounded off screw in the door frame had to be dug out, it wasn't budging an inch (even with a special drill bit). Now the lock can actually engage, what a concept!

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My little Miss Priss Kitty has given me quite the head ache. She won't go to the bathroom outside, insisting on a litter box. I keep in the garage, and somewhat intentionally forget about it to encourage her to go outside. Instead she started peeing on the carpet in the living room. A black light helped identify the exact spots she'd gone (I got all CSI on the kitty) but the enzyme cleaners don't seem to have worked all the well. I ripped up the carpet to make sure the hardwood wasn't damaged, and it looks good.

Camera help!

Before I change my mind and decide to go reward myself with (ugh) a new paint job for the house instead for my promotion, I need help picking out a digital SLR camera!

I'm having so much trouble picking between the Nikon D80 and the Canon Rebel XTi that I'm about to say screw it and spend it on otherwise guilt free house stuff. The Nikon is a better camera all around, but it has the price tag to prove it. Help! Is it worth it?

Paint colors!

I picked up a copy of Bungalow Colors to help start the creative juices flow on house colors. Excellent book, though I wish it had more stucco homes.

So here is what I'm thinking of:



It is a six color scheme. The colors aren't exact by far (it is a pale yellow on my computer), this is really more of a test of concept to see if I could do the two tone main paint colors. I'm debating on if I should do the window trim and sash in different colors, but I didn't feel like spending the extra time photo shopping.

House Plans

Over time we're going to finish off the ground floor of our house, but we're debating about floor plans.

We've got a very typical floor plan for a bungalow, as you can see here in my little drawing



Look! No door into the back bedroom! ;) oops.

What is cool is that the living space is on the second floor of the home, very typical in the Bay Area. What is *really* *really* cool is that the ground floor was never finished



It is a blank slate. I've got the entire footprint of the house just waiting to be finished off, after we've replaced the electric and plumbing. Here's what I'm thinking about at the moment



As you go toward the front of the house, the ceiling gets rather low as the house is on a hill. So I think it will do best as storage, maybe a work out room at most. The second bathroom is probably what will get done first.

The only problem is I don't need quite that much space for my sewing room. The washer/dryer in the drawing (next to the sink) is in the same place it currently is, to minimize cost. We want to add on to the back of the house some day, a two story addition that'll add a family room and another bedroom downstairs, and a real master suite upstairs. Which means the sewing/laundry room would be a pass through.

Maybe someday ground floor addition


Maybe someday main floor addition


The above arrangement is better on the trip to the bathroom from the proposed addition, but doesn't use the larger space well. Would it be worth it to move the washer/dryer to the other side (near the plumbing from the kitchen), to make better use of the larger space as a bedroom?

A picture of Spring

A bit of spring for everyone still dealing with snow. Things are in bloom here.



My back yard.

At least our disasters are sudden and over quickly

Now that was a pretty good earthquake I just felt there. Enough to make me get up and go stand in a door frame. It was strong, and thankfully quick. I'd say in the mid 4's at least. I could feel the house twisting a bit beneath me. Not a good feeling.

Earthquakes aren't nearly as amusing when you've an old house.

Heating woes

My kitchen is always *freezing.* California standards, but to me it is still cold. It gets into the mid to low 30's here at night in the winter, winter being an actual season we Northern Californians have.

Very few substantial changes were ever made to my house, save some minor remodeling in the kitchen, which left the original cabinets intact. The kitchen doesn't have a heating vent, and the original back door isn't insulated and leaks like crazy. (an aside - I've use a curtain from a decorating project 3 homes ago and a bath rod that didn't fit over the bathtub to put in a press fit curtain over the door. It's really helped with the heat loss, big time). It gets cold in that thar kitchen.

So here is my vintage 1938, American Gas Association approved furnace, built in Beverly Hills (ya think they're still in business? ;) )



I love this thing. Unlike modern forced air furnaces, it is dead quiet. It heats up the house nice and quick. I loath to replace it, though I know I will have to one day. Something modern that is more likely to break and noisy. Just wish you could have energy efficiency *and* quiet at the same time.

I was twiddling with the valves in the ducts to try to balance out the heat to the house. The bathroom received the lion's share of the heat, and the living room would freeze. Tweaked the bathroom, bedrooms, living room and dining room vents. I had an extra duct.

It went to the kitchen.

When the prior owners did their minor kitchen remodel they closed off the vent. So I get to freeze my butt off every morning when I make my breakfast. Joy!

Me vs the Locks Round 2

Locks 1, Me 0.

aaaarrrrgggghhhh.

So I finagle the door into letting me put a vertical mount door knob. Nothing major to report there.

Remember that decorative plate I talked about?

It made the door about 1/4 too thick. The screws can't engage with the door handle on the other side.

*mutters cursewords under breath*

Guess I'll have to put the old knob back on.

Weeee!

I was going to keep this blog 100% house stuff, but I can't help it. I just accepted a promotion and a hefty pay raise! Excited doesn't even cover it. I made Senior in less than 4 years out of college. I'm still in absolute shock at how this played out.

So this means I can get the house painted this year *and* not feel guilty for spending the money!

*does happy dance*

Vanity Post

Because I feel like showing off, pictures of my house's details


While the fixture is rather hokey I like the light pattern it gives off. It amazes me that in 70 years the faux wood grain was never painted over and is in such great shape.


The evil door knot that wouldn't be changed. It *really* doesn't go with the door! Love the inset door, so 1930's! Again the faux grain, though it has experienced some wear and tear. Any ideas on how to clean it up without destroying the finish?


Nice floor to ceiling arched window, with built-ins on either side. I'm finding I like the detailing found in homes in the 1930's more than earlier homes, it has plenty of personality yet is cleaner in its lines and not as fussy.


Now this plaster wall texture in the front bedroom has me a bit confused. I've never seen anything like it before. The lines to straight up and down wall with no wavering, you can *just* tell is was a 6" float because the lines are ever so closer or wider every now and then. I can imagine it would have been cheaper for an experienced person to do, but it would take some skill to get the float from ceiling to floor without it wiggling at all side to side.

Me vs door locks

I finally got around to replacing all the locks on the house. Yeah yeah, I should have done it ages ago. Was going to replace all the door knobs too but I decided enough was enough after the front door knob considering how much I was spending just on the locks.

I received them yesterday and have attempted to install all of them.

The original deadbolt on the door down to the garage was a quicky, home done job and not *quite* to modern standards. The hole for the bolt was drilled in crooked so one side of the lock barely engaged (and only if I removed the trim around the lock), and the recess for the plate is about 1/4 too small, so the new lock plate doesn't sit flush. The door had a fatal crack along the side not because it'd been kicked in like I'd thought, but because someone did a lousy job at installing the dead bolt orginally and it caused the door to crack. Something catches internally too because bad drill job, so fully unlocking the door is a major pain. Thankfully I don't have a need to lock that door much.

The back door went fine, no problems. The front door, not so much. The deadbolt just wasn't working right, until I figured out that I'd installed the interior thumb latch upside down twice. D'oh!

The door knob on the front door, aye. I've a pretty little cast iron decorative plate underneath a modern ugly cheap and worn door knob. I want to keep the plate, and use this latch. Turns out the old modern knob only works because someone tweaked the door and plate in the horizontal direction, widening both by that 1/4 of an inch on each side to allow the screws to pass through. My problem? The screws on the knob I'd bought are mounted in the vertical direction and those tweaks had been made horizontally. There was no way I could canniblize the old stuff and/or reconfigure the new stuff to work either, I tried. I'll have to take the door off its hinges to drill out 1/4" on each side or buy a new door knob.

And the down stairs side entry.... It has always been a tricky door to close, but it isn't used too often. The door knob wouldn't latch, and you had to lean on the door to latch the dead bolt. Replacing the lock was easy. The bolt just wouldn't fit into the latch plate in the jam any more, no matter how much leaning you did or jiggering. And of course the latch plate in the jam had rounded off screws so I couldn't move it easily. Back to the old lock we go . . .

Final Score: Me 2, Doors 2.

Pictures!!

As a follow up to this gardening related post, here is what we've done since then.



The clover is gone! There is bark! And weed control mats! And pruned roses! Sorry for the bad pic, but I was using hubby's el chepo camera that doesn't handle low light conditions well.

And now my favorite part . . . before and after on my windows!

The establishing shot...


A closeup of the bad one


I opened the window one day and the bottom part of the frame stayed put. Nice and leaky too, so I sprayed all the cracks with insulation.

And after


And the full thing


The room is **so** much warmer now. It is quite amazing.

I paid through the nose for divided dual pane windows without the fake looking dividers, but, I'm satisfied every time I look at them. They are Anderson windows, and the installers did a bang up job at putting them in, keeping the house clean and everything. I had one other window replaced, down in the garage, and they even replaced apiece of trim that was missing on the original.

Low Cost To Do Lists

To keep on track, I've developed a minimal cost to-do list on the interior of the house. I'm going to start working through this list. I'm going to strip most the paint as it is bubbling up in enough spots in the house to warrant it. And I can breath easier knowing we won't have much lead paint around anymore.

Entry

• Paint
• Refinish floor
• Curtain for little window
• New lighting

Living Room

• Strip wall paper
• Paint
• New Curtains
• New lighting

Dining Room

• Strip wall paper
• Paint
• New fan
• Curtains
• Fix baseboards
• Stain the new windows

Hall

• Strip wall paper (all 4 walls this time!)
• Paint
• New light fixture

Back Bedroom

• Paint
• Curtains
• New lighting
• fix door (it won't close all the way)

Front Bedroom

• Paint
• Curtain rods
• New lighting
• Replace cracked window pane

Bathroom

• Paint
• Refinish sink and tub
• New non-Ikea cabinet
• New semi-Deco style fixtures

Kitchen

• Paint
• New (insulated!!) back door
• New door to stairs (with kitty door!)
• Fix crooked Ikea cabinet door by buying new hinge

Medium/Long Term (expensive) Stuff

• Paint House
• Install yard irrigation systems
• New electrical system
• New plumbing
• Replace furnace and asbestos covered ducts (you know the steriotypical image of a big old scary furnace? That's my 70 year, still working, gravity fed furnace)
• Bigger water heater
• Second bathroom on the ground floor
• 3rd bedroom on the ground floor
• Sewing/laundry room on ground floor
• Remove crappy kitchen cabinets and replace with nice stuff in style of original
• New kitchen counter tops
• New floor in kitchen
• Rip up carpet and refinish hardwood floors
• Gas zero clearance gas fireplace installed in current faux fireplace
• Add on to house - a master suite on the main floor, another bedroom and a family room on ground floor.

Gardening fun

My back yard used to be nicely landscaped. The prior owners collected rocks, and have beautiful rock defined beds all over the place of really interesting rock specimens they'd picked up all over the place (including a couple of **huge** chunks of obsidian). The last 15 years as a rental meant it went to hell.

When we bought the house



By the time we'd moved in two months later it was full bloom with clover.

Honestly, I was content to let the back yard sit for a while. We're on an 8,000 foot lot, most of which is in the back and the whole thing isn't irrigated (required for your sanity in California). I live by myself as my husband is in the Army. I work full time too, nor could we afford any professional help. We've still ended up landscaping

My mother-in-law lives just far enough away to make visiting frequently not possible. She is a landscaper by trade, living and operating out of San Franicso (and used to its tiny, high maintenance back yards), so their is a bit of living vicariously going on. A back yard, including a rose garden, was quickly designed up for us. With a kids play area in the sketch (we don't have kids).

She got family to come over this summer and work on the garden, without really asking if we were ready to take this on. We weren't about to reject help if offered (or really, pressed into) You can see the fruits of our labor here



Very pretty, but with the boy deploying to Iraq again I just didn't have the time for it, especially with out an irrigation system installed and a clover infested yard. This is what resulted:



It is quite a pretty little meadow, though not good for anything trying to survive under the blanket of clover. This was after a 5 month maintenance moratorium on the back yard (the front was only mildly better). I knew she'd be asking about the garden, so I weeded about half the center planting bed and part of the walk way, as well as around most the roses about a three weeks ago. Save the roses most of the plants had died, though some of the bulbs had managed to push up in spite of the clover.

My in-laws came over yesterday and we did some more weeding, getting the whole of the circle cleared and the roses cut back and fertilized. She's going to come back next week so she can finish the roses for me and so we can put down plastic to block the weeds in the walkway.

I love the fact that she's willing to help out and work of my garden, but sometimes I really wish she'd let me get to this on my own speed. There is *so* much that needs to be done with this house but I'm having to spend lots of time on the yard or risk disappointing her or acting ungrateful, which I'm not. I wish I could find that middle ground - she wants to get ready to put grass in this summer.

I'll take some photos of the yard's current state next week.

Washing Machine Escapade

When I moved in, I bought a lightly used washer and dryer from my sister. Two years old, six months used. My dad brought them over and hooked them up for me, even buying the hoses.

After a bit, the washer stopped washing in hot water. It would run for a second, I'd hear bang from water hammer, and the exposed piping in the framed in garage would shake. I futzed around with the connections and determined that yes, water was flowing from the hot water connection.

I did some research and discovered that a similar model of washer had problems with the temperature compensating valve. It was a $20 part, and the toughest part was to get at it to change it. Figured the water hammer was being caused by the slamming shut of the temperature valve.

I buy the part and quickly discover figuring out how to crack open a washing machine isn't as easy as it looks. After about 4 months, I decided to suck it up just replace the damn thing.

But, on a visit, my dad tells me how to get into the washing machine with out taking it to bits. There are two little clamps in the back (which I'd jiggered with) and 2 clips in the front I wasn't able to see, with little alighnment pins in front that looked like screws when I was messing around with it. So I got the top off and I replaced the valve that day. Took about five minutes.

And guess what? I still had the problem.

I go, for the umpteenth time, to futz around with the water connection. For the first time, I notice the tag on the hose. It says "FloodSafe" on it.

Both of these hoses have excess flow valves in them. I'd never heard of excess flow valves being used for residential purposes, though the water hammer should have clued me in. This hose (both actually, I'd switched them even in my trouble shooting) were shutting off the hot water when ever the washer would kick on. I almost replaced my washing machine for $30 in hoses.

And now an engineer's rant:
Excess flow valves are one of those "what a great idea!" things that don't actually play out well in real life. They trip and shut the flow off when they aren't supposed to, and can be tricky to reset. And they don't always seat that well so they may leak by, and they can make troubleshooting a nightmare if you aren't familiar with them. But boy are they an easy sell!

How I learned what not to do.

My first newbie experience. This happened about a year ago, with in a week or two of moving in.

So I knew the toilet float valved needed to replaced. It sprayed out water from the top and was covered by a plastic cup to keep the water from hitting the lid, but it worked. It is the original 1938 low toilet, but the innards had been replaced at some point. After a week or two it started running when I was going to bed, on a week night.

Little Miss Engineer Type felt jiggling with the internal valve would be the solution to the problem. I quickly learned the first rule about old houses: Do not touch a damn thing unless you are prepared to replace it. The ancient plastic broke off from the top of the part and sprayed cold water all over me and the bathroom. And it stopped working, prefering to gush water at me instead.

Of course the original toilet stop valve didn't work completely, there was some bleed by. Which made replacing the float valve fun when you'd never done the job before. I prevailed after a number of attempts.

Next bathroom plumbing project, about a week later, was a new faucet. We had a hot tap, and a cold tap. Freezing or burning, no in between. The boy (who was stationed in Arizona at the time, I was living there by myself) had mentioned he did not like the situation, so I thought it would be great little surprise if he just came home to a new, single tap faucet.

I learned the second rule of old houses: Never start a plumbing job on a Sunday. I figured it would be a quick day job, hour or two at most. First thing I discovered: the cold water stop valve did not work at all. Figured all right, I'll replace it and the toilet stop valve in one quick swoop.

Have I mentioned this is a one bathroom home?

So I shut the water off at the curb (no house stop valve inside) dealing with all the nasties that live in curb vaults (three black widows at least). I proceed to remove the valves. Toilet valve goes in fine, no problems. Cold water stop valve goes in fine, not problems.

After about a minute, the cold water stop valve starts to drip water. But (*dramatic pause*) not from my nicely taped fitting.

*From inside the wall* Simply touching the pipe and valve had caused the pipe to leak inside in the wall. And there twernt much this novice could do about it, with the few tools at her disposal.

By that point it was 8 pm on Sunday night and I had no water in the house. So I called the plumber and he came over and cut the pipe off from below, as I did not want to disturb the plaster if I could avoid it. All the plumbing (and wiring) is exposed in the garage level of the house, which is framed in only. The plumber was rather amused by a 26 year old girl's attempts at plumbing.

To wrap things up, I was without a bathroom sink for three weeks. And ended up breaking into the plaster anyway, though I'd figured out a way to run the new pipe with only a hole the size of vice grips.

For those geeks who may be interested - hold the elbow with a pair of vice grips inside the wall. Have someone maneuver pipe to engage with threads. Spin pipe from below while holding the elbow with the vice grips. From below, engage the pipe on main line tee, letting the elbow above spin freely inside the wall. Line up elbow with wall, engage nipple with stop valve attached. No big hole in wall. Except that didn't quite work because of the root cause to my little problem.

The two stop valves, hot and cold, are perfectly spaced on either side of the drain, at 6 inches away. The holes in the floor heading up into the wall, visible from the garage, are perfectly in line with this. The cold water tee from the main line wasn't, it was offset by about an inch, just the right amount that can't be jury rigged with multiple fittings to line up. When the house was built, the pipe was simply forced into place to give it that nice, even appearance. It had been under strain for 70 years - of course it broke when I touched it.

The solution? Move the stop valve and floor hole over 1 inch to line up with the tee. And never force pieces of pipe to line up. Someone *will* regret it later.

And the boy ended up having to help me replace the plumbing I'd broken in trying to install him a faucet.

The story of our house seems like the place to start . . .

We bought our place a little over a year ago in one of San Francisco's up and coming burbs.



A beautiful two bedroom/1 bath place, which you can see some pictures of here. The house was built during the dying breath of the Arts and Crafts movement, with a "Mexiterranean" facade so common to Californian homes. The interior has curved plaster ceilings, with archways common through out the house(even over the bathtub!) and curved corner block mouldings over the windows and doors. Even better than that - the original faux wood painted finishes on most of the doors and wood work are intact, that is so sought after in 1920's and 30's homes.

It was a rental for about 15 years before we bought it, but we're pretty sure we are the 3rd owners, judging by the number of original fixtures and type of work that was done to the place. The vintage 1938 gravity fed furnace? That will have to go, even if it does still work beautifully.

The garage level of the house is completely unfinished, only framed in - and is tall and big enough for another bathroom, bedroom sewing room and storage/workout room to boot. Don't be deceived by the tiny front yard - the house is on a 8,000 sq ft lot! We're going to finish off the down stairs after replacing all the electrical and plumbing, then eventually add on to the house in the back so we'll have a master suite.

Work done so far, not a whole hell of all lot. We're broke! We've replaced the horrid and worn faux brick linoleum in the kitchen with some vinyl tiles my dad got for cheap, which'll do until we can ready for a full remodel. Done lots of gardening,
installed a natural gas grill, fixed (and created) a couple of plumbing problems (now that one is a story in of itself).

I'm quite lucky, my father is the buyer for a small industrial supply firm and can get me just about anything for cost or cheaper. The only problem? My husband deployed to Iraq a few months ago. Luckily, I'm the handy one in the family but I hate to put stuff in with out him at least getting to look at it first.

One thing I've been having trouble with is finding suppliers for things beyond lights. Most old home retailers seem to think old homes cease being old after 1920, or throw in some very Art Deco fittings which aren't always appropriate for my
house. Any pointers to web retailers would be great (that way I can share them with hubby).