Hillsdale House

Done!

2009-01-18T20:31:00.001-08:00

Done! We are done! Done with William's room. Done with the upstairs addition. Done, done, done, done, DONE!

First, a few pictures of Williams' room before some final thoughts.

Here is the view from the doorway. The window casing turned out especially well.

This is a view from the closet. I'm very happy with the built-in shelves.

The finished closet including drawer pulls. As much as I want to throw my hands up in the air and declare victory, I probably should repaint the walls inside this closet. The old purple paint looks pretty bad. Then again, it's just a closet...

Final Thoughts

To be honest, I'm not sure if this is my last entry or not. There certainly is a lot of work left to be done on this house. As much as I want to say the upstairs is absolutely done, there are a few things that I left undone. I never put down shoeing, the quarter round trim that goes between the baseboards and floors. I will do that some day. I never finished the doors. The original doors still have white paint that needs stripping (I hate stripping paint!) and the new doors are still unfinished raw wood. There are a few other things like that I will get done. Someday.

The first floor is still half baked as well. We need a new kitchen, badly. The cabinets are crap, the counter tops are plastic as is the floor. I've debated moving the kitchen to where the dining room is, but am still uncommitted. Either way, there is a lot of work to be done there as well as in the dining room, wherever they end up. Someday.

Also on the first floor, the bathroom needs updating. Or, perhaps backdating is closer to my ultimate goal. I'd like to give it more of a period look with tile floors and a bearclaw tub, for a start. In addition, the adjacent room we now call the library, which used to be our bedroom, could use some built in shelves, new window casings, and perhaps an exterior door. Someday.

And, don't even ask me about our basement. It is a disaster. There is a lot of potential for a family room, media room, music room, whatever. But, for now it is just wasted space. It needs heat and floor covering. Someday.

For now, however, I'm happy just to be done.

Snow!

2008-12-18T11:27:00.000-08:00

Snow here in maritime Portland is not very common. We might have 1 or 2 days of snow per year, or go an entire winter without any at all. This week, however, we’ve had quite a bit. We got about 5” on Sunday and have had snow off and on every day since. There is more snow in the forecast through next week. It's a lot of fun at first, but now that the novelty has worn off, I'm ready for it to move on. Still, I never pass up a chance to get yet another shot of the house with snow.

William’s bedroom is almost done. The carpentry and staining are done. All that is left is painting the walls and brushing the finish on the closet built ins. This is the last room upstairs that needs work. After this, we will be officially done with the 2nd story addition. Whew.

I didn't stain the woodwork in the closet, which is consistent with the rest of the house. As soon as I'm done brushing on the finish, I'll mount the drawer pulls.

William's Bookshelf

2008-08-09T20:01:00.000-07:00

Today, I had some time to work on William's built in bookshelf. The basic idea is a shelf that is 6ft wide, 4ft high, and 1ft deep. I'm building this out of 3/4" cabinet grade white oak plywood. Here is where I'm at...

I ripped up a sheet of 4x8 plywood. There will be 2 4ft high sides and two 6ft long shelves. The 2 sides will require grooves for the shelves to fit into.

I'm fortunate that my table saw has a sliding miter table that words pretty well for cutting grooves. I just set the saw blade height to 1/4".

Here is what the 1/4" groove looks like.

Here are the two sides, I just need two shelves to fit into those grooves.

Here I have the sides up and the shelves in place. I put some 1/4" oak ply on the wall behind the shelves. Next, these shelves need a top, but I'm also going to put some braces between the shelves to improve the strength. This unit is for a little boys room, so it is only a matter of time before he decides to climb it. The shelves better be ready...

Next Project: William's Room

2008-08-02T20:49:00.000-07:00

Now that William is a teenage (15 months old), he's been clambering for his own room. And, we're very receptive to the idea. Only problem, his room is not trimmed yet. So, that's the next project. In addition to the usual baseboards and casings, I'm going to add a built-in bookshelf and built-ins for the closet.

First step was getting some more lumber. I got 4 sheets of cabinet grade 3/4" white oak ply (4x8), and 200bf of variable width 1" white oak boards. My careful calculations determined that I would need 2.835 sheets of plywood for the shelving, so I got 4 sheets because my careful calculations are usually wrong... No, I don't need 200bf of oak just for William's room, but I will definitely use the rest when I redo the casings downstairs (next next-project).

Since I'm just now getting geared up, here are some "before" photos. Let's hope I have some "after" photos before the end of the year.

Yes, that's a standard sized door. Although this room is only 10ft wide, the vaulted ceiling is 12ft high. The blue tape to the right of the door represents the bookshelf that I plan to build. It will be 4ft high and 6ft wide.

This bank of windows will get the usual Craftsman style casings like the rest of the house.

This is a modest closet at about 3ft wide by 5ft deep. I plan to put a simple system of drawers, shelves and hangers similar to those in our closet.

That's what 200bf of 1" oak and 4 sheets of oak ply look like. Btw, Crosscuts delivers for free in the Portland area, which is great considering I don't own a giant flatbed truck.

Update: Sunroom Done!

2008-08-02T20:12:00.001-07:00

Well, I think I can finally call the sunroom done. Last week, I put the final touches of paint with brush and roller and that was it. In general, I'm happy with the outcome. However, I can hardly believe it took about 4 years (off and on) to get to this point. My only concerns are that the stain on the storage area doors and on the main column didn't turn out very even. I'm going to just leave it for now, but may decide at a latter date to redo them.

Something else I'd like to mention is that this was the first time I painted walls without masking tape. And guess what? It turned out SOOOOO much better!!! A friend of mine had their interior painted by professionals and he was surprised to see that they didn't use masking tape. I have been frustrated that, no mater what kind of masking tape I use, or how carefully I applied it, the paint always seemed to leak through a bit. This time, I just took my time and carefully cut a line with the brush. The trick is to start about about an inch from the trim, then move down and closer to the trim until you are just touching, then keep going until the brush runs out of paint. Then, do it again. It is easier than it sounds. I will never use masking tape again.

Now some pics:

The sunroom is over the garage and the floor is about 3ft lower than the rest of the 2nd floor. This means a short flight of stairs. The original plans called for the "railing" to be a solid wall and the area under the stairs to be enclosed. However, I decided to make the railing open spindle like the main stairs and to open up the area under the stairs for storage (who wouldn't?). Unfortunately, Jenn has already claimed every square inch of the storage area. sigh.

One thing I wasn't sure about but decided to leave in the original plans is this large circular window. I just don't think it looks "Bungalow". Some square and open-able windows probably would have been better. That said, most people who come visit say they love the circular window. So, what do I know?

The original plans called for tongue-n-groove pine ceiling with rough fir beams. After the beams were up, with metal hangers, I didn't like it. I tried sanding them to make them look cleaner, to no avail. So, I decided to cover them with 1/4" white oak ply. This, much to my surprise, created a more traditional box-beam look, which I'm pleased with. Happy accidents are fun.

Another change, actually suggested by the builder, was to change the flat ceiling over the stairs to open vaulted, which matched the rest of the 2nd floor. This left a curious triangular space that we decided to put two fixed framed triangular windows. This looks great and adds even more light, but does seem to draw the heat out of the room during cold weather.

Weekend of Stain: Sunroom Edition

2008-04-21T23:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the big weekend of stain for the sunroom. Jenn took William to the coast while I stayed at Hillsdale house and generated a toxic cloud of staining fumes (the house still stinks). The result? After 14 or so hours of brushwork, I ran out of stain. But, I got everything but one of the doors to the storage area and the support column stained. Below are some pics. Tonight I got the last bits all stained and I think I can call this phase complete (however, I didn't get any more pictures with everything stained yet).

Here is the quarter view of the stairs and storage area. Daytime pictures of the window casings didn't turn out so well because of the backlight. I'll try and get some evening or night pictures of them.

One of the few things I learned from HGTV before I decided it was stupid and stopped watching is the term "pops". As in, staining your risers and treads contrasting colors really pops. Actually, I just thought the treads would be easier to see while walking around in dim light if I didn't stain them a dark color. I made that decision with the main stairs and copied it here.

Inside the storage area, I laid down some left over 1/4 oak ply and finished it without stain. I really like how it turned out. It's a shame it will likely always be covered.

Before shot:

Sunroom Progress

2008-03-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

I was able to work on the sunroom this weekend, the first time in a while. The current focus was a pair of doors for the storage area under the stairs. I got them built, but didn't have time to mount them. I hope to pick that up during the week or next weekend. I'm pretty much done with the carpentry work and will start the finish work soon. The room is going to need a lot of sanding... I'm still optimistic that I can have this room, plus Williams room done before his 1st birthday in May.

Here's some pics:

The Two Doors

Wide View of the Stairs

The "Before" Pic

Sunroom At Night

2008-02-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

I've been working on the sunroom trim recently. Hope to finish up with the carpentry phase soon so that I can start the sanding. There will be much much much sanding. The biggest tasks left for the carpentry are the glass doors to the storage space under the stairs. At least the wainscoting is complete.

Sunroom Getting Some Wainscoting

2008-01-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

This weekend, I'm back to work on the upstairs addition. Today, I am in the sunroom working on the wainscoting that runs up the stairs on the north wall. I have the plywood and the 1.5" cap mounted. Next, I need to fit the 1/4" trim pieces, which is what gives it a nice clean look. This will eventually be stained the dark "red oak" like the hallway. Although I'm not going to put the wainscoting throughout the room, I think it will do a nice job of tying the sunroom in with the adjacent hallway and the rest of house. Here's some pics.

Wide shot from the room

Looking down the stairs

A look at the stairs including the under-stair storage, which will need some doors.

A New Year, a Final Chapter, a New Project

2008-01-01T16:54:00.000-08:00

Now that the holiday crunch is over and the dark wet days of January have set in, it is time to reflect and plan. I have finished work on the downstairs coat closet and the upstairs 2nd bathroom, short of some minor touch-up painting (no pics yet, will post soon). This leaves two rooms still incomplete: the sunroom and William’s bedroom. These are the last two chapters on the 2nd floor addition. For the most part, all that remains with these two rooms is some trim. The carpentry in the sunroom is nearly complete, with just a little bit more trim work before I can start the staining and finishing. William’s room needs baseboards and casings before it is ready for finishing. I’m never sure how long things like this will take, but I expect it all done by summer. Hope so...

What Remains

Here is a recent picture of the sunroom stairs.

As you can see, the sunroom sits several feet below the 2nd floor because it is built over the garage. The railing is built to match the main stairs. I would like to add some frame-n-panel doors for the storage area under the stairs. I'd also like to add some wainscoting against the wall to the right. That's about it.

The New Project

Once the upstairs is *finally* completed, the next phase of this overwhelming house remodel will be the 1st floor. This project will include swapping the kitchen and dining room, increasing the size of the bathroom, adding an exterior door to the library/guestroom, replacing the front door, and generally retrimming the 1st floor to match the work upstairs. Doesn't seem like a lot of work. I'm sure a pro with a dedicated crew could do that in a month or two. But, depending on how much work I do myself (e.g. do I make my own kitchen cabinets?), this could take a while.

After the 1st floor is complete, if the 1st floor is ever complete, we will need to tackle the basement. Now that the basement waterproofing treatment seems to have worked, we can realistically plan for finishing the space. This means improving the heating system, moving a wall here and there, rewiring, and most satisfying will be some floor covering. But, at the rate we're going, the estimated completion date would be something 2015. *sigh*

Happy New Year. May you finish your remodel before us.

Rediscovering the Storm Windows

2007-10-28T14:05:00.000-07:00

When we first moved into our house, I noticed that there were some strange wooden storm widows in the the garden shed. I might not have figure out what they were for except that they had labels written on them like "master bedroom," "bathroom," etc, and they had hooks on them that matched brackets on the house. The first fall we were in the house, I dutifully retrieved the storm windows from the shed and mounted them on each window as the labels directed.

However, I was pretty unimpressed with their performance that winter. During our first spell of the infamous "East Winds" (which have their own ominous theme music), you could feel a cool breeze coming through the gaps near the windows. "These things are a waste of time," I thought. The next winter, I tried some of the plastic wrap window stuff that I had seen promoted on one of those "House Tips" segments on the local tv news. An absolute must for old houses, they promised. These are those sheets of plastic that you mount with tape and then use a hair dryer to get the wrinkles out. I did this. However, the first time the cold east winds returned, off came the plastic. What a waste. I no longer get house tips from the local tv news.

Since then, I've not tried much. The east winds blow each winter and we maybe put towels around the windows, which don't work so well. As a result, we've had some pretty high heating bills. This year, I resolved to solve this problem once and for all. The plan was to remove the glass from the crappy old two piece frames and build new single piece frames that would fit into the same grooves as the old ones. I'd seal up the glass panes and mount the frames with foam weather stripping.

Day 1, I get the old windows out of the shed and start to look at them. Building new frames was starting to look like a lot of work and these old frames looked better than I had remembered. Maybe if I just got the foam strip insulation, I could make them work after all. I went ahead and mounted the storm window for the bathroom, which faces east, but ran out of time before I could start any more. Last week, we had a minor spell of the east winds and I was pleasantly surprised to find no sign of air leaking inside the bathroom. Hmm, I may have something here. Today, I had just enough time, and stripping, to get the rest of the east facing windows mounted. I'll need to get some more stripping and do the rest of the downstairs windows.

Before (bathroom window)

After:

The bedroom windows

They don't look great, but I think they will be effective this winter. Next year, I can always clean them up better and repaint them. They sure beat the heck out of paying a brazilion dollars for replacement windows.

Note also that these windows can be opened from the inside to allow safe egress in case of fire.

Weekend Project: The Bike Door

2007-10-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

Today I was able to get the door mounted and trimmed for the bike storage under our main stairs. This completes the carpentry phase of this project. I will need to stain and finish the wood the next time Jenn takes William out for a weekend.

Saturday, I got the glass mounted in the door. It took longer than I had hoped, because I cut the glass a bit long. If you've ever cut glass, you know that it's hard to cut less than a half inch off. You can either snip at it, or grind it off. I decided to go buy a grinder. I know I'll be needing it again.

Here is the door. I put it on the front porch to get the picture.

Here is the door in place. I like how this all turned out.

Here is the "before" shot taken two years ago. Wow!

Portland on Google Street Views

2007-10-09T21:32:00.000-07:00

Google Maps now has Street Views for Portland. I think this is very interesting, though it certainly spooks a lot of people who are concerned about privacy. However, I like the idea of checking out neighborhoods at ground level. This would have been an excellent tool when we were house hunting.

Here is the shot they took of our house.

Weekend Project: Coat Closet w/ Bike Storage

2007-10-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend's project was to trim out a coat closet and make it functional. But first, some background. We have a strange L shaped area under our new main stairs. On the left is a full-height doorway that that reveals a conventional sized closet area. However, behind that space is a some left-over area that's 4 feet high, 3 feet wide, and 8 feet deep. This area was described by the architect as "storage space" accessible through the back of the closet. However, I had the builder leave a 3x4 foot area open to the right that is adjacent to the front door. At some point, it occurred to me that this space would make a great place to park a couple bikes, or a "Bob" brand baby stroller. Part of this weekend's task was to not only make the left side functional as a coat closet, but also to build a door for the "bike storage" area.

Unfortunately, I didn't finish. Saturday, I cut my stock and started to assembled the bike door and a jam. I mounted some trim and built a shelf. Today I mounted two coat rods and got the doorjam in place, but didn't finish the door. The plan is to put 3 panes of glass above the 2 panels, but I didn't have the right dimensions of glass on hand. So, this week, I'm going to go to the glass store and get some more. But, I should be done with the closet (minus the wood staining) by next weekend.

Here is the coat closet emerging...

Here is the bike storage door (before glass)

Here is a wider view of the stairs taken earlier this year while I was still staining. You can see the closet doorway on the left and the "bike" doorway on the right.

A Craftsman Kitchen?

2007-10-04T21:54:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot about kitchens recently. I've never liked our kitchen. It's small, cramped, and ugly. This week, I started getting bids to have our kitchen remodeled. The thought was that I would work on the millwork upstairs while some pros took care of the kitchen downstairs. I thought the first bid was a bit high at $20K, but the second one came in at a whopping $50K. It's looking more and more like I'll be doing most of the kitchen work myself.

Our Current Ugly Kitchen

Woof!

The plan is to move the kitchen from it's existing location in the southwest corner of the main floor to an adjacent room in the southeast corner. This new room was originally a bedroom and is a mere 12'x10'. But, that's the best we can do without building yet another addition.

I don't think I'm asking for a lot. I'm not hoping for a lot of whizbang, geewhiz, heart racing gizmodo. Just a place for cooking and storage. No island. No breakfast nook. There's no room. Just sink, fridge, range, cabinets, counter tops, and lighting. That's shouldn't cost a lot, should it?

I do want the kitchen to have a period feel. It may not look like a hundred year old kitchen (they were pretty sparse back then). But, I do want to borrow from the styles of the early 20th Century Bungalows. The new kitchen will have a simple, galley style layout with cabinets and counter tops on both sides. I would like mission-oak cabinets. I would like mini-pendant lighting (even though the low ceiling will provide a challenge). I would like a natural stone countertops (those DuPont creations clash with the all-natural Arts and Craft creed).

I know there are a bunch of books out there on the subject. I haven't bought any of them. I am just now beginning to go through our local library's collection. The library has plenty of books on the subject and some of them look promising, helpful.

I have time. I don't even want to start working on this until after the New Year. By then, I hope to be completely done with the millwork upstairs and will be able to focus entirely on our new kitchen.

Weekend Project: Shelves in the Bedroom

2007-09-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

We need shelves. It seems like most Craftsman Bungalows have a lot of shelves: shelves for books, shelves for collectables, open shelves, shelves in cases, shelves in various rooms of the house, built-in shelves. But, our house doesn't have much in the way of shelves, yet. So, this weekend's project, requested by Jenn, was to build some shelves above the linen cabinet in the bedroom, a place we want to make the baby changing station. I embellished this with an idea to also build shelves in the bathroom above the vanity and toilet. These are simple open shelves without the complication of cases with glass doors. Easy as pie. (pictures below)

I ripped some variable width solid oak 1x down to 9" for the shelves above the linen cabinet and the vanity, 11" for the shelves above the toilet. It's nice to have such wide boards on hand. Next, I screwed some 1x1 into studs on the walls and slipped the shelve boards into place. That's it. I'm going to leave the wood raw for now, but hope to stain it the same dark reddish-brown color as the rest of the woodwork.

In other news, our famous Portland rain has started a little early this year. We've had 2" of cold hard rain over he past 3 days. A few weeks ago, a company called John's Waterproofing did their thing to our basement. Basically, they cut out the floor around the perimeter of our basement and installed some metal tracks that look a lot like gutters. Then they covered it all up with fresh cement. The work includes a life time guarantee. The hard rain we just had would have left at least some water on our floor, but our floor remains dry. I hope it stays that way. It will likely be a long wet winter.

Next up for me, I started trimming out the downstairs closet. I hope to have that completed by the end of next weekend. After that, it's back upstairs to put the last touches on the remaining three rooms. I so hope I can have that all done by the end of the year.

Here's the shelves:

Weekend Project: Trellis Over Garage Door

2007-09-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

For quite a while now, I've wanted to build a trellis over the garage door. Now that the city building permits are closed, I have the time to screw around with some fun little tasks like this.

I took a spare 12 foot cedar 2x6 and ripped it into two 2x3s with the table saw. Then, I cut off each of the ends at a 30degree angle to match the support beams over the porches. After that, I made some simple 20" 2x2s out of some leftover scraps. I mounted the two 2x3s on the knee braces over the garage, then spaced the 2x2s 8" apart. I used 3 1/2" deck screws to fasten the 2x3s down, 2 1/2" deck screws for the 2x2s. Here are some pics:

Before:

After:

Close Up:

This house is starting to look pretty darn nice, I think...

BREAKING NEWS

2007-09-05T10:02:00.000-07:00

The city building inspector was just here and approved the final changes I made to the exterior steps and smoke detectors. This means the building permits for the second story addition, opened over 4 years ago, are now closed.

Wow!

Front Walkway: Done!!!

2007-08-12T15:00:00.000-07:00

Yea, I finished something!

The front walkway is now done. I got a stone chisel this morning and cut in half a few pavers for the remaining gaps. Once that was done, I gave it the top sand treatment. Total time: about 8hrs.

Weekend Project: Front Walkway with Pavers

2007-08-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

For the most part, the work in the master suite is all done and we have moved back up there. It is nice to be back in a room with lots of windows, light, and air circulation. Ahhh.

This weekend's project is the front walk. The city inspector said we had to have better hard landings on each of our exterior steps before we can close the building permits. Whatever. From almost the day we moved in, I've wanted to put a cobblestone path from the street to the house. Since then, we've added a 36' front porch with cedar stairs, terraced the front yard, and added flagstone steps. Now, we need a path from the flagstone steps to the front porch.

Before:

Here you can see the flagstone steps in the foreground and the front porch with steps in the back.

Although there are several steps in putting down pavers, it is reasonable to expect to be able to do 100sf in a day with 1-2 people.

1. Excavate. You need to dig down far enough for 4" of crushed rock, 1" of sand, and however tall your pavers are, which for us was 2". So, did I dig down 7"? No. As you can see from the picture, there is a large maple tree right next to the front steps and I'm not digging up all those tree roots just for this path. I did my best, which was about 2-3".

2. Lay down landscaping fabric. Landscaping fabric will help prevent weeds from growing up throw the pavers and disrupting your path.

3. Spread out your 4" of crushed rock (I did between 2-3"). I've read that we should use something called 3/5" minus, which basically means a bunch of bits that are no larger than 3/5" plus a bunch of dust. I ended up using 1/4" minus based on a local vendor's recommendation.

4. After your have carefully spread and graded you crushed rock, realize that you have skipped step 2. Yell a few choice words, and then decide you ain't ripping that crushed rock out and decide you can live with a few weeds.

5. Pound down the crushed rocked with one of those obnoxiously noisy gas powered vibrating compactors that you can rent from one of those agonizingly incompetent big-box stores. I skipped this step and instead experimented with laying down strips of plywood that I jumped up and down on for a while. Some of the passing pedestrians looked at me funny, but I think it worked well enough.

6. Spread 1" of "paver sand". I think pretty much any old garden sand will do. However, you probably shouldn't use beach sand, because it has salt in it. Carefully grade with a long strait edge. I used a 4' level. If any of the rock shows throw, cover with more sand and start over.

7. Begin placing pavers while trying not to touch the sand. If the neighbor walks by with his curious dog, yell at them if they get too close to your sand.

8. Once all of your pavers are set, dump a bunch more of that "paver sand" on top of the pavers and work the sand in between with a push broom. I did a simple "subway tile" type pattern, starting in the middle and working out. This was slightly complicated by a slight arch in the path that goes around a few choice tree roots.

That's about it. I got most of the pavers put down today, but I forgot to get a stone chisel and didn't think I could cope with a trip to Hell Depot tonight. I'll try again tomorrow.

Until then, here are some pics.

1/4" minus crushed rock:

The Plywood Method

The First Row

Beer:30

As you can see here, since each row is offset from the other, there are gaps at each of the row ends. I'll need to use a rock chisel to whack a few pavers in half to fill those gaps. Once that is done, I can spread some sand and call it done. Not bad for a weekend.

Painting and Repainting

2007-08-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

Hah, it finally looks like the master bedroom is move-in ready (again). My sister, her husband, and my mom all came over for 3 strait days this week to help with the work. What started off as a mission to do some simple touch up painting, turned into an effort to completely repaint the master suite. First, we did some touch ups at the bottom of the stairs and the upstairs hallway. This went well. The soft yellow paint is holding up well and the new and old paint blended well. However, next we tried the same thing with the blue paint in the master bedroom.

It is funny how the light works in this house. In the soft light of afternoon and evening things can look deceptively OK. But, in the intensely bright morning light a mediocre paint job can look awful. It was obvious that the blue paint had faded in the three years since we first painted. The new and old paint was not blending well and almost the entire area was in need of repainting. This we did. Now, it looks great. Thanks again to my family for helping out! Pictures below.

Up next, I need to refocus on the remaining code issues. As of the last inspection, the exterior stairs and interior smoke detectors were not acceptable. I need to take care of this by the end of the month (it's August already!).

But, I have something else that I'd like to examine. Almost every winter that we've been living in the house, we've had problems with water in the basement. Some winters are better than others, some much worse. Last year was more typical with some damp areas on the floor of the north side of the basement near the furnace and puddles on the south side near the stairs. However, some winters have been far worse, most notably January 2006. After it had rained nearly the entire month, we had an inch of water over 2/3rds of the basement! Horrible. So, I'm starting to get some bids from basement waterproofing specialists. I'm currently focused on interior solutions where they excavate around the parameter of the concrete floor next to the exterior walls and embed gutter like drain tracks which lead to a high quality sump pump. At this point, I'm not sure how much it will cost. But, I really want a dry basement.

Now, some pictures of the freshly repainted upstairs.

This is the bedroom area

This is the "sitting" area (doesn't every bedroom need a "sitting" area?)

This is the built-in linen cabinet between the bedroom and sitting area

This is the vanity in the bathroom.

Here is the top of the main stairs

The Work Ahead

2007-07-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

My sister and her husband have volunteered to come down from Seattle to help work on our house this week. Our immediate priority to getting our bedroom back into live-in condition. A while back, we decided to move out of the bedroom so that I could install the wood trim and finish it. I thought it would take a few weeks, but that was several months ago. If all goes well, the bedroom will finally be move-in ready by next week.

Beyond being able to sleep in our own bedroom again, we need to *finally* close the building permits. They have been open for 4 years now! Wow! I never would have started this project if I had known it would take over 4yrs. That said, it's not even close to being done. Let's hope it doesn't take another 4 years...

I just finished taking some pictures around the house and I'm going to show some of them and list what I think needs to be done. The stuff required to close the permits will be the highest priority (beyond just moving back upstairs). But, we still have needs beyond the upstairs. We need to solve the leaky basement. We need a new kitchen. We need a new dining room. We need to bring the remaining main-floor rooms in with the new craftsman-bungalow look. Another 4 years? I hope not. But, I wouldn't place a wager on how long it will take. If there is one thing that I've learned during the project, it's that few, if any, people can tell you with any accuracy how long a project will take. So, with that, here are some pictures around our house in Hillsdale.

First, The Exterior

Our front walk is still just dirt. We have the retaining walls, we have steps, but we need to put in a brick or stone path from the street to our porch. During winter this is muddy and slippery. Besides it just doesn't look good.

We have no less than 4 exterior steps, none of which meet Portland's building code. For one, they need grippable handrails (these are too wide). For another, they need hard landings at the bottom, not the uneven dirt.

Over the garage door is this half-completed trellis. I need to complete it and plant a wisteria (which has been sitting in a pot for about 3 years now). I also have dreams of putting a pergola along the south side of the house, but that may never happen.

The northwest side of the house has several issues. First, I had to dismantle the fence gate so that the painter could get his man-lift into the backyard. I would like to build a nicer and more interesting gate, at some point. Also, that window is to our library/guest room. Some previous owner drywalled over it on the inside (probably because of the gas meter), but I would like to restore it and get more light into what is a pretty dark room.

This area behind the garage is not very useful. It's just dirt and broken cement. I'd like to put some brick or stone in here and make a nice patio out of it. Some day.

This area is on the other side of the back porch. It's got some drainage issues and is soggy much of the year. One thought is to extend the porch over it or transform it into a patio area.

All of the exterior columns on our house rest on visible cement blocks. They don't look all that nice and I'd like to cover them with something, perhaps that "cultured" river rock.

OK, now inside.

This is our kitchen. Yuck! It's not only ugly, it's not very functional. I hope to move the entire kitchen into the room that we currently use as a dining room. I'm not going to do this all myself and plan to get some bids this winter. This room may then become the dining room, although it is awfully small. I've kicked around the idea of building an addition off the back, but that's a very expensive solution. I won't do either for at least a year.

This is our main stairs. In general, I'm pleased with how they turned out. But, they still need some work. The walls need touch up paint around all of the woodwork. I didn't do the best job of hanging that door on the left and it sticks a bit. It's also still raw fir that needs to be finished. On the right side is a half-height doorway that needs a door. I plan to build my own, something nice and Stickley like with glass and oak.

Our upstairs hallway is a wreck, as you can see. It needs a good cleaning and the walls need touch up paint around the woodwork.

This is the upstairs hallway bathroom. As you can see, it's about half done. I need to complete that vanity cabinet, trim the room, then finish the woodwork.

The Sunroom

This is the room above the garage that we call the sunroom. It's got a lot of potential. It has lots of glass on 3 walls plus a large skylight. In addition, it has it's own balcony. But, it still needs a lot of work. The woodwork is still raw and not complete. The stairs are not fully trimmed. The storage area under the stairs needs doors. Etc., etc., etc... Lot's of work here, but it's going to be a wonderful room.

The Master Suite

This is the entrance to our master bedroom suite. It's a big space, possibly too big, taking up nearly half of the upstairs. Probably the first problem is that there are no doors. I have the bedroom door, but it is not hung yet. The door to the closet and bathroom still have white paint on them that needs to be stripped. I'm going to have a pro do that work since they can do a better job and I won't have to deal with the toxic waste...

The closet turned out pretty well. Since it is such a dark area, I'm didn't stain the wood. It has 1 coat of finish, but needs a second before we can move in. There are some glass doors for the shelves that are not complete and a little be more trim work required. I hope those cloths rods I build can hold some weight. We'll see.

Here is the bedroom area. That's 12' to the upper beam on the left. The height creates challenges. The walls need to be washed (they still have dust stuck to them from sanding the floors!) and they need touch up paint. The wood trim throughout the master suite still needs at least one more coat of finish too.

Here is our bathroom. The double vanity turned out pretty well, considering I built it from scratch. The doors turned out well although the drawers are a little stiff. Once the knobs are on I can call them done.

So, that's it for now. Lots and lots and lots of work. But, with each room completed, we are getting closer to having a house we can live in rather than one we always have to be working on. Right?

Work

2007-07-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

on this house

is about

to start

again!!!

Watch this

This crazy, fun, frustrating, bizarre, wild, educational, exhausting, exhilerating, demoralizing, enriching, expensive project is now 4 years old.

Are we ready for another 4 years of remodeling our little house in Hillsdale?

What do you think?

Been Busy?

2007-05-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

I got a comment from Aaron asking about the house and wondering about the lack of posts (and pictures) recently. I have three excuses that I'll share now. I'll list them chronologically.

First, I've been pretty busy with my paying job. As a software engineer, it's always exciting to get elbow deep in new technology. My current project requires me to be fluent in web development technologies such as XHTML, CSS, and Ajax (this in addition to C#.net and SQL Server). Pretty cool. I now have a much better understanding of how sites like Gmail and Flickr work.

Second, I've spent nearly every hour not advancing my understanding of web development working on the woodwork in our master suite. As I type, the woodwork is all built, sanded, and stained. I have not yet started putting the finish coats on yet, but plan on doing that next. Between these two excuses, I've not had time to write in this blog or post pictures. But, now here are a few pictures:

This is the vanity after I had completed the building of the doors and drawers (my first drawers!!!), but I had not yet sanded or stained.

This is the vanity taken while I was about halfway done staining the bathroom.

And for my third excuse, although I haven't written about it here, my wife and I were expecting our first child on May 14. He came a week early.

This is William. He changes everything.

Looking for Craftsman in the Closet

2007-03-27T22:33:00.000-07:00

I've been busy the last week or so working on our walk-in closet for the master bedroom. At one point, I had nearly talked myself into just throwing some pre-made closet components in there and calling it a day. But, my irrational need to build things took over and before long I was ripping, gluing, and screwing pieces of cabinet-grade oak plywood together to make my own closet components. Last weekend, I built the two sets of shelves for the west side of the closet, this weekend I got two additional shelves on the west side that will eventually contain all of our hanging cloths. I was struggling to find a way to include some kind of signature "Craftsman" element, but then decided that I could make some mission style supports for the west-side shelves. I don't have a picture of them yet, but they will look a lot like the spindel assemblies for the stairs.

Return to the Master Suite

2007-03-18T23:46:00.000-07:00

There’s been a flurry of building activity here again at the Hillsdalehouse. After taking a few weeks off, I’m once again attacking the master suite in hopes of getting it finished by a new self imposed deadline of May. Getting it finished means building a few odds and ends, then a whole lot of sanding, staining, and finishing. In order to help get this done quicker and with less inconvenience, we’ve moved back downstairs to our original bedroom. It’s kind of funny to be back down in the old room, yet familiar.

First up, of the odds and ends to be built, is a built-in linen cabinet for the bedroom. The cabinet will sit in the entry area opposite the bedroom door and will be used to store sheets, blankets, etc. I started working on this last weekend and have gotten as far as building the carcass (base, sides, and top), and mounting it in the nook. The base is made out of some scrap 2x4s, topped with some scrap fir ¾" ply, then covered with some ¼" oak ply. The sides are panel and frame and the top is 1" solid oak measuring 24"x40". Overall, the cabinet stands 32" tall. Inside, it is 35" wide by 22" deep. It is turning out pretty well (picture below). I still need to add a shelf and some doors.

Next up, I spent this weekend turning two sheets of ¾" oak ply into two sets of shelves for the closet. This went reasonably well, although the 4x8 sheets are extremely heavy. I had to use a hand-held circular saw, rather than a much more accurate table saw, to cut them down to the needed pieces. But, I managed. The sides are 2’x4’ and the shelves are 2’x3’. The hardest part was trying to cut the grooves in the sides for the shelves to fit into (picture below). I probably should have used a router, but I don’t have a proper bit (or the experience). So, I used my table saw. I thought this would be easy since my table saw has a pretty good sliding table. But, it turned out much harder than I thought to keep the heavy 2’x4’ oak ply square while moving it past the saw blade. This got so frustrating that I lost it momentarily and started yelling at the saw which immediately drew Jenn’s attention, thinking I had finally cut myself. She seemed relieved to find that I still had my digits and my tantrum subsided. Eventually I got the grooves cut, though two of them turned out much too wide and I had to finish a few of them with a chisel. I used glue and screws to assemble the sides and shelves, and then I moved them into the closet. Next, I need to fasten them to the wall and build a top. There is still a three foot area between to the two sets of shelves that I’m not sure what I’ll do with yet. I’m thinking some kind of laundry hamper. We’ll see.

The closet shelves that I built this weekend are for the west side of the closet. The east side will be a combination of hangers and shelves. I haven’t completely figured this out, but I hope to get started on it this week. After I get these things built in the closet, I need to return to the master bathroom. The vanities still need two sets a doors and a set of drawers. I’ve never built drawers before. Should be an experience. Hopefully not too many tantrums.

Here’s some pics.

Linen Cabinet

Closet Shelves

A Warm Spring Day

Staining Craftsman Woodwork

2007-01-16T14:36:00.000-08:00

The focus on the house continues to be on the interior woodwork. I'm trying to make the interior look as much like an old Craftsman Bungalow as I can. I have built the casings for most of the doors and windows upstairs. But for the past few weeks, I've been working on the main stairway, including the archway at the bottom of the stairs and the window above the stairs.

I don't know, you might call the stairs Mission style, or Stickley, or whatever. I have been just trying to make something that goes with the overall Craftsman theme of the house. I have changed the little bits of trim in order to get something that looks decent. It has taken quite a while. I had originally thought I could have this done before the wedding this July (2006). Ha, right.

Finally, this weekend, I was ready to start staining the stairway. I'm still using Minwax's Red Oak, which turns white oak a nice warm reddish brown that reminds me of old Stickley furniture. I managed to get the archway stained, as well as the stair railing, risers, sides, etc., but I still need to stain on the window casing above the stairs. I hope to do that soon, perhaps this weekend.

Here are the pictures:

The Archway.

The Lower Stairs with newel posts, railing, and shelves.

Sheba sits on the heat vent before the stairs.

The upper stairs.

Sept. 2005

More pictures here

Would You Move Your Kitchen?

2006-12-08T00:21:00.000-08:00

Currently our kitchen is in a state of limbo as we finish the upstairs. The thinking is that once the upstairs is complete, the kitchen must be next. We’d like to replace the really awful garage-grade cabinets, plastic countertops, beat-up sink, ragged floors, and the stove/range with only 2 working burners. We’re talking a complete tear-down overhaul. However, there are two big problems with our house that have really been bugging me lately.

Floorplans: exiting dining is top right (southeast), kitchen bottom right (southwest)

Problem one: Our "dinning room" (which was originally a bedroom before a previous owner added a doorway to the kitchen and double doors to the backyard) provides the only convenient access to the backporch and backyard, creating traffic right down the center of the room. Not a good place to put a dining room table, not to mention chairs, a sideboard/buffet, or other dining room furniture.

Problem two: Our kitchen is a rather small dead-end space with no room for expansion. I mean there is no way we could expand the kitchen in any direction. Either we learn to live with a small kitchen, or...

What if, rather than rebuilding the kitchen where it is, we move it to the adjacent existing dining room and make the kitchen a dining room?

It wouldn’t hurt the kitchen to be a room with high traffic, since kitchens tend to be high traffic areas. In fact, since we often entertain on the backporch during summer, having the kitchen closer to the backporch would be much more convenient. Having the dining room in the dead-end space would be fine since, even though it is a small room, we will be able to center a table and still have the ability to walk around the table to get to the chairs (not sure about sideboard/buffet, etc., but stay with me here...).

When I presented this idea to Jenn, she said "I’m tired of living in a house that’s always under construction." OK, good point. But, consider that we both agree the existing kitchen needs to be torn down and rebuilt some time soon. One bonus of building the new kitchen in a different room is that you still have the fully functional existing kitchen while you’re constructing the new one. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have a kitchen at all during the time it would take to rebuild in the same spot. Jenn agrees that this is a good point, but is still looking at me like "why did I marry you again?"

The next obvious question is, how much is this going to cost? The main difference with moving the kitchen to the dining room is the new plumbing rough-in and the electrical. I’ll need city permits and to hire pros to do that kind of work. Not sure how much that will cost, but it shouldn’t be too much, I hope.

Either way we won’t take on the kitchen task for at least several more months, possibly a year. There is too much left to do upstairs and we both need a break from the construction chaos, if only for a while. But, the idea of swapping the kitchen and dining room will provide some food for thought.

The Woodwork of a Craftsman Bungalow

2006-12-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

I've noticed that there is a fair amount of new construction around town that borrows from the old Craftsman style. Although the facade of these houses may have the odd triangle knee brace or square column, the interiors I've seen lack the great old Craftsman woodwork. To me, that's the difference between a Craftsman house and all others. It's the woodwork that I remember from the houses in the Irvington neighborhood that I grew up in. Now this is my burden. As I try to "recreate" an old Craftsman house, I now understand why new construction doesn't have so much of the old detailed woodwork. Labor.

For the past few months, I've done nothing but try and add the Craftsman style woodwork. It's a lot of work and it is going to take me many more months. It doesn't help that I'm not trained as a finish carpenter, that I never even worked with hardwoods before, and that my employer still expects me to work full-time. So, I work on the woodwork most weekends and many evenings. I trial. I error. And, slowly I see signs, things I recognizes from the old neighborhood. The interior is starting to look, well, Craftsman. This is encouraging. I seem to be on the right path.

What have I learned? 1/4" oak plywood makes for nice wainscoting panels. Always pre-drill solid oak before hammering a finish-nail. Minwax's "Red Oak" stain on oak creates a nice dark reddish-brown that reminds me of old houses. Left-over floor finish works on vertical surfaces too. But, the most important thing I've learned is that it takes a lot of time, practice, and patience to recreate Craftsman woodwork.

A week ago I stained the upstairs wainscoting. Some pictures are below. Up next, I'm returned to the main stairs to get the them prepared for staining and finish. They will get the same color as the wainscoting. After the stairs, I hope to get to the woodwork in the master suite. I need to get this done by May as we are expecting a new resident here in Hillsdale house by then.

Did you fix the light yet?

2006-09-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

The city inspector was here this morning. The first question he asked after exchanging pleasantries was about the closet lights. A comment was registered on our permit by the electrical inspector six months ago that the recessed lighting in the closet was not code. He told me then that a recessed light's light bulb must be covered with a glass lens, or the light bulb could be replaced with a sealed beam.

"Did you fix the recess lighting in the upstairs closet?"
"What? Oh, you mean replace the light bulb?"
"Did you fix it?"
"Umm, well, no."
"Well" he said slowly "this is going to be a short inspection."

He was right, it was a short inspection. So, I absolutely positively must replace three recessed light fixture trims with ones that include a glass lens. I now have 6 months to get this done. I think I can do that.

Back to Work

2006-09-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

The wedding was great, the honeymoon was wonderful, but now it's back to work! There is a long list of things left to do. Probably first up will be the sunroom.

I just received an order of 200bf of 4/4 white oak from Crosscuts. This should be enough to trim the upstairs (I HOPE!!!). Each room needs baseboards and casings on the windows and doorways. That's a lot of 1x4. However, it doesn't come delivered in 1x4s, but rather 3 sided random width. So, first up, I need to make a whole bunch of 1x4 out of the white oak. This means a whole lot of table sawing and a whole lot of sanding away saw marks. Gasp.

Like I said, first up is the sunroom. I need to lay down the baseboards, then get to work on the casings. There are 6 windows and two doorways. That should take a while...

On Our Honeymoon

2006-08-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

We won't be working on the house for the rest of this month. We will be on our honeymoon in Scandinavia. However, we are blogging the fun at Scand Trip 2006.

We'll be back to work again in September.

Wedding Day

2006-07-23T22:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday was probably the best day of my entire life. Thanks to everyone who made it possible, most especially Jenn.

Photo by Shawn

Photo by Lynda

Been Painting, Have Pictures

2006-07-09T18:52:00.000-07:00

That's it really. Just been painting the exterior for the past 2 weekends. Last weekend we got the siding painted and this weeekend we worked on the trim. Still not done, but we're getting close.

The wedding is now in just two weeks. Eek...

More pictures here...

Weekend of Independence. Ha!

2006-07-02T18:19:00.000-07:00

Independence day. A time to gather the family, picnic, watch fireworks, and reflect on our freedoms. Or, it’s a time to paint the house. This all depends on your priorities. Who knows, perhaps by next year we will gain some independence from our house.

Jenn suggested that we paint the house a barn red with the trim remaining a bright white. The contract is rather bold and I like it. The plan was to paint the main body (the gray siding) the new red color. But, Jenn also suggested that we paint the panels of the columns the same color. The idea is that this will bring the columns and house more together rather than leaving them as separate entities. We painted one column just to get an idea and I think it works.

One important lesson learned: not all caulk is paintable! I repeat NOT ALL CAULK IS PAINTABLE. Doah!!! After carefully caulking various holes and gaps I discovered last night, in the small print on the back of the caulk canister (not paintable). Geez, you’d think they would make that point a little more boldly. First we tried to just paint primer over it. I mean, primer paints over anything, right? Nope, it just beads up like water on a freshly waxed car and won’t stick to it at all. So, I had to spend several hours this morning REMOVING all of the unpaintable caulk using a scraper and sander. I won’t soon forget that.

Despite this set back, we still made progress today. With our friend Shawn's help, we have two coats on the front, and one coat on the north and east sides. With any luck, we will finish with the red paint tomorrow. Then, we can spend the day of our nations independence painting the white trim.

Here are some pictures:

New Balcony Railing!!!

2006-06-10T10:44:00.000-07:00

Moments ago, the good people from Custom Iron Design were here to install our new balcony railing. Wow, I'm very happy with it. It looks great. This is the last major issue that was keeping us from closing the building permits, which have been open now for nearly 3 years. Another major milestone, and a nice railing too.

If you are in the Portland area in need of some metal railings, I highly recommend Custom Iron Design. They were reasonably priced, friendly, and delivered on time.

Wainscoting Update

2006-05-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

Whew, after 3 days of working on the wainscoting in the upstairs hallway and stairwell, I'm tired. I fell short of my goals (don't I always), but still did manage to transform the look of those areas. I got all of the baseboards in, the panels are up too, and got about 2/3 of the rails up. Next I just need to finish putting up the rails and then the framing trim. I'm too tired to type much more so here are a bunch of pictures (btw, Jenn spent the entire weekend working in the yard and is pretty tired too).

Here is the upstairs hallway as seen from the "office nook".

The office nook

3 different finish nails.

I'm using 4p, 8p, and 16p finish nails.

Upstairs looking towards the sunroom

The stairs (no rails yet)

Wayne's Coating

2006-05-28T21:48:00.000-07:00

We're spending our holiday weekend doing (guess what?) work on the house. We started off the weekend at the local nursery to buy a bunch of plants to restore our front yard with the help of my sister. Jenn is spending most of the weekend planting with help from her mom. Things are looking good out there and it looks like all the plants will be in the ground by tomorrow.

I'm indoors putting wainscoting in the upstairs hallway and stairway. First I put the baseboards in. Next, I'm putting some paneling up. After that will be header railing and some trim framing. Unlike Jenn, I won't finish tomorrow. But, I hope to get most of the boards in place. I hope.

By the way, I've heard enough episodes of This Old House to know they pronounce it wanes-cotting. But out here (waaaaay out here) we pronounce it Wayne's coating. So there.

Here is the hallway as of late Sunday afternoon:

Here is Jenn getting some plants into the ground:

Stormy Though Productive Weekend

2006-05-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

I had a productive weekend. I got the finish put on the trim in the living. I'm actually using left over floor finish (water based poly). Despite the fact that claims to have an "extra ingredient" to promote settling, it works very well. Three coats later and I'm ready to pull the tape off. I must say I'm very happy with how the trim has turned out. This gives hope and inspiration that the rest of the trim in the house will turn out equally well. That's good, 'cause I need all the inspiration... Next up, I started work casing the doorways in the upstairs hallway. Right now, I just have the verticals in place, but I built the first header (for the door to the sunroom) and should get that mounted tonight (although there are two NBA game 7's on tv tonight).

Here are the pics:

Just starting on the upstairs hallway.

Staining the Case

2006-05-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

Last night I stained the casing on the living room trim. I used Minwax red oak, which produces a dark redish brown which at least reminds me of the woodwork seen in old houses around Portland. I'm not sure this picture captures the true color, but it may give you an idea. I like it.

As always, click for larger view.

Casing the Joint

2006-05-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

I was able to spend a little time working on the livingroom window trim casing this weekend. I'm really very happy with how the headers are turning out. I just like the look of craftsman style casing headers. It is one of the things that attracts me to this style and they are fun and rewarding to build. With each one I add to the house, it some how becomes a little more 'Craftsman'. Fun.

The livingroom windows are waiting to be trimmed.

Jenn holds the right side casing header. I really like this look.

I must assemble each header, glue and clamp them. These 36" clams are a bear for this kind of work. Since I'm going to have to build dozens of these headers over the next few weeks, now may be a good time to invest in some more manageable clamps.

Yes, we got another one

2006-05-06T09:03:00.000-07:00

This dumpster is for yard debris. I will be spending my weekend trying to fill this thing.

The fantasy blog stock market?

2006-05-02T20:25:00.000-07:00

OK, this is rather strange. There is a web site where people buy and sell shares in other people's blogs. Valuation seems to be based on incoming links. And, http://hillsdalehouse.blogspot.com is listed with a valuation of $21,208.63. I'm not sure if I should be proud or a little creeped out. Here is the listing for my blog and here is pretty much everyone else on the HouseBlogs ring. The internets are a strange...

Grumble Grumble Grumble

2006-05-01T22:19:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted to find the previous owner that did a crazy crappy half-assed job of something or other and just smack them upside the head? Or at least grab them and cry "why did you do this to the poor old house?" I was having one of those moments tonight while I was trying to put the new baseboards in the living room. Some crazy drunk remodeling dude decided it was perfectly OK to mount a new electrical outlet right at the baseboard line, chew up the wall, then patch it all up with enough spackle to stick out 1/2" proud. This made mounting the new baseboard flush impossible. So, I'm trying to sort of push the electrical box around and the whole spackle wad concoction disintegrates. Oddly enough, I just laughed and took this picture.

After I regained my composure, I decided that I had better fix this whole mess rather than try and hack another concoction that would lead a future owner to curse me. While I was at it, I decided to throw in a wall sconce. This took the entire evening. The baseboards are no closer to being mounted, but at least I've got an outlet at the proper height, a flush wall, and a little more light. I'll try again with the baseboards tomorrow.

By the way, the little bits of blue tape mark the studs. Just though you might be asking.

The Living Room

2006-04-30T18:37:00.000-07:00

Greg and I have been working on the house in an effort to get it ready for the wedding. I’ve been working on the living room for over a month now. It started with painting the wall from the living room to the kitchen. Then it was the some what simple task of repainting the ceiling.

First Greg and I scraped the peeling paint of the ceiling. We were then slowed down when we primed the ceiling. Parts of the ceiling were slightly yellow and we couldn’t seem to cover it. It took two coats of primer and four coats (in some areas) of ceiling paint.

Then Greg decided to remove the crown molding. This meant there was a white stripe all along the top of the walls. I thought, no problem. I’ll just paint the stripe yellow. I still had plenty of paint left from painting the wall into the kitchen. That night I looked at it and started to worry. Sure enough, when looking at the room in the morning sun light it was obvious where I had painted the night before. I needed to repaint the entire room.

I went to Miller on Saturday and got another gallon of Cane and started painting. I finished the yellow brush work this morning and this afternoon I did the last coat of white brush work on the ceiling. Now all I have to do is clean the floors and we’ll have our living room back. Yippee! I am really looking forward to it. Our dining room (our temporary living room) may have a better view but the living room has better evening light.

I’ll post some photos of the new and improved living room once the floors are cleaned.

Archway and Siding

2006-04-29T23:16:00.000-07:00

Once I got the table saw thing sorted out, it was back to working with oak and fir. I'm gearing up to trim the living room and I'm making my own siding for the front porch.

First up, I cut a couple of oak boards down to 1x4 for the two baseboards in the living room. The new table saw managed that pretty well. But, more interesting is the 1x6 for the beam above the archway. I cut the ends at 30 degrees to match the beams on the front and back of the house. I like it.

I found out that if you try to go to a siding store and buy some 1x10, it doesn't even come close to matching the 1x10 siding of 64 years ago. Image that. When I showed the salesman a piece of the old siding for comparison, he suggested that I hire a local company that specializes in recreating millwork for old houses. To which I said, HA, I can do this myself and marched out of there like a man who knows what he is doing. I don't. But, that said, I'm now milling my own 1x10 fir siding. I'm using some left over 1x6 that I bought for the door jams. Good thing I way over estimated how much of that I would need. What I'm doing is ripping the 1x6 down to 1x4.5, then joining them to make 1x9 (which is just right minus the tong-and-groove). The only other thing is to cut a 30 degree bevel on each side and pow: siding. It sounds like a lot of work, but there are only 7 pieces of 53" each. Not so bad.

My Tablesaw: R.I.P.

2006-04-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

My little portable tablesaw died last night. I went out into the garage and tried to fire it up to do a couple rips and it just sort of burped and that was it. It never turned on again. Sigh. That little saw and I have been through a lot together. Two houses, numerous projects, cedar, fir, oak. I mourned for about a minute or two, then drove out to the store that will remain nameless at 9pm and bought the best tablesaw they had in stock. It seems to work pretty well.

Rest In Peace

Potato Chips Off The Ceiling

2006-04-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

Back in October of 2003, soon after the original roof was removed, we had a lot of rain that worked its way passed the tarps. Although no structural damage was done, the water took large sections of the living room ceiling paint with it. We were left with a stained and peeling ceiling that, in places, looked like there were potato chips stuck to it. We are just now getting around to fixing it. That is the current focus.

Jenn got all of the furniture out of living room and we prepared to scrape the peeling ceiling. We are only pulling the worst of the paint off and hope to minimize the seams between the bare spots and the layers of old paint. Next, we are going to hit it with a coat of primer and at least a couple coats of ceiling paint in hope of softening these lines between the layers of new and old paint.

Not only is a lot of paint coming off with the scraping, but so is a lot of ceiling texture. Since we don't really know what is in either the paint or the texture, we are trying to protect ourselves. We are wearing decent face masks, enclosed goggles, and head socks. IÂm not sure this is excessive or inadequate, but it does make us feel better. And, if we run short of money, we can always go rob the nearest liquor store. Just kidding.

While we are restoring the ceiling, I'm also pulling the old crown molding off. The crown was thin and painted and was not doing much to improve the look of the room. For now, we are just going to go without any crown and see how we like it. We have no crown upstairs and like the clean look. We can always add it back later. I have filled in all of the old nail holes and gaps in the plaster with joint compound. This will need to dry, then we can prime and paint it.

I will, however, take this time to retrim the base molding. I just need a 1x4 white oak board on the east and west sides of the room. IÂm going to just cut and fit it first, then worry about installing it after the we are done painting. I'm more than a little nervous about trimming with those old plaster walls. Then, after the baseboards are in place, the next question becomes how dark to stain the wood. But, I am going to wait on that decision.

I'm also playing with our new digital camera. These pictures were taken with a Canon Rebel XT digital SLR. So far I like how the camera handles, but the optics of the "kit" lens leaves something to be desired.

Closet Lights Not Code

2006-04-05T08:48:00.000-07:00

Oops. The city's electrical inspector was just here. We did well except for the lights in the closet. We have recessed light fixtures in the two new closets with standard flood bulbs. He said this is considered a fire hazard. If the light bulb explodes, the hot filament could start a fire. Code requires either a lens over the bulb or we can put a sealed beam light bulb in there. Since, whenever I mess around with these recessed light fixtures I end up screwing up the springs, I'll just get the sealed beam light bulb.

2nd Bedroom Closet Needs a Sealed Beam Bulb

Master Closet Needs a Sealed Beam Bulb

Despite this, he passed us under the condition that we fix the problem with the closet lights. This gives us yet another six month extension on the general permit! Yippie...

What I’ve been working on

2006-04-03T22:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Greg and I moved nearly two tons of garbage out of the house and into a giant dumpster. It was a lot of work but well worth it. We almost have a garage again! This weekend was also spent on the house. Greg worked on doors and I painted.

I primed and painted the wall from the living room to the kitchen that had been drywall white.

The entire wall is now living room yellow. I even painted the stairway to the basement. I didn’t do anything in the kitchen though since the plan is to remodel it one day.

My next project is to tackle the ceiling in the living room.

Take a look at all that lead paint! This project will have to be done in stages. It’ll take me a couple of days to get the furniture out of the dining room and then move the living room furniture into the dining room. Yes, it’s a sad fact that we use our living room way more then our dining room.

Once the furniture is out of the living room, I can start removing the paint from the ceiling. After that, all I have to do is prime it, paint it and then move the furniture back. Piece of cake. It should only take me, oh, several weeks. :)

The Doors

2006-04-03T22:28:00.000-07:00

No, not Jim Morrison (although he is my uncle, no really). Two more doors and one new problem. I got the door to the 2nd bathroom upstairs and the door to the main closet hung. These two went pretty smoothly. I might even go as far as to say that I may be getting the hang of it. That said, I won’t be volunteering to hang family / friends / neighbor’s doors any time soon. Hard work.

Main Closet Under the Stairs.

2nd Upstairs Bathroom Door.

The new problem though is that the master closet doorway was framed a full inch too narrow. Grrrrrrrr. I never thought that I should measure these things while the framers were still here (that was nearly 2 years ago now). Now, it would be pretty hard to widen the doorway without doing some serious collateral damage. Jenn suggested that I cut the door an inch more narrow. But, the new doors are veneer making that a tricky operation. One thought though is the cut one of the old original doors. They appear to be solid old growth fur. So, the new plan is to pull the original door currently being used as the master suite door and trim it down one inch on the hinge side then hang it as the closet door. Not sure when I’ll do this since our main objective now is to just get the building permits closed.

Master Closet Door (not hung yet)

Degree of Difficulty: has a funny indent and is not a stardard width

Speaking of building permits, the Final Electrical inspection is tomorrow morning (between 8am and 12pm). Hopefully this will go a little better than the last two inspections. What we really need is an additional 6 month extension. That will be our last. We’ve really got to get the last few things finished. No more delays.

Also, speaking of Jenn, she’s been working hard painting and has agreed to also make contributions to this blog. Whew, it was just too much work for me... :-)

Daylight Savings Time

2006-04-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

I for one welcome our new Daylight Savings Time overlord. It means more daylight in the evening that can be spent working on the house. As we go into the final stretch in getting this house ready for July 22, we'll need all the help we can get.

Next city inspection is this week. We need a nod for the "final electrical" in order to extend the permit for 6 more months. This is the last extension. Tick tock.

Musée d'Orsay. Paris, France. May, 2005.

Apologies

2006-04-01T07:49:00.000-08:00

I haven't been blogging much lately, and for a very good reason. It's very hard to admit a mistake, especially for me. And, I've made one of the biggest and most expensive imaginable. It's perhaps the biggest mistake of my whole life. I built a 2nd story on a cottage style house. I mean, who was I kidding?

I admit, part of it was the taunting. People would stop us on the street and ask why we replaced a perfectly good war cottage with a giant McMansion. They’d say the faux bungalow was completely out of place in a neighborhood of marvelous mid-century ranches. They called the overhanging roof, expansive porch, and square columns way too neo-craftsman to be taken seriously. They even said the symbolic circular window of the sunroom was pretentious. I tried to be stoic and fight back the tears, but I was crying on the inside. Why did I do this to the house, the property, and the neighborhood?

And, it wasn't just the angry taunts of passing strangers. Jenn and I found the extra space of the addition difficult to deal with. For starters, we kept getting lost. We would head up to one of the rooms, only to get lost and have a hard time finding our way back. I'm embarrassed to say how often this happened to me. I once tried leaving bread crumbs, but Jenn's cat kept eating them. We tried some color coded yarn leading to each room, until I tripped on them and almost broke my neck. I never imaged how hard an extra 1100 square feet would be to navigate. But, what could we do?

The most obvious solution would have been to sell the house and buy something smaller. That would at least solve the problem of getting lost upstairs. But, that wouldn't appease the growing crowd of angry craftsman hating people collecting out front. We owed it the house, the lot, and the neighborhood to undo this immense mistake.

We knew it wouldn't be easy, but we had to dismantle the addition. It was hard, considering my problem of getting lost, but once the roof was off I was able to use the old fashion sun and star navigation techniques. Pretty soon the walls were gone, the stairs were removed, the porches were ripped out, even the pretentious circular window in the sunroom was gone. Once the 2nd story was torn down to the ceiling joists, we were able to rebuild the hip roof. It now looks very much like it did before we started. The backyard is still a muddy mess, but the front looks pretty nice. I'm especially happy with the showing from the tulips this year.

People don't stop me out front of the house to scold me for the addition any more. In fact, the other day someone said "you're crazier than I thought". Whew! The tax appraiser was by and just shook his head. He won't be getting that bump in property taxes from me! Ha! The heating bill went down a little since we’re heating less space. Now I don’t get lost upstairs ('cause there is no upstairs to get lost in). All is well again at our little house in Hillsdale. From now on, I'll just be blogging about the furniture I build out of the construction scraps. I figure those red oak floors will make lovely coffee tables.

Here's the crane operator removing the last glue laminate beam.

Here's a view of the backyard after the 2nd story and the back porch were taken out.

Now the roof is back in place. Whew, what a mess though.

Here is the fully restored front of the house. Look at those tulips!

That Liberated Feeling

2006-03-28T10:49:00.000-08:00

Jenn got us a giant dumpster for a weekend of spring cleaning. By giant, I mean 30 cubic yards. This thing was a monster. When I first saw it I thought “there is no way we are going to even come close to filling this.” I figured we needed about half that much space. But, once we got started, we could hardly stop. We started looking around the house and finding things we could live without, things we would LOVE to live without. It wasn’t long before that dumpster started to fill.

We were very strict about not putting hazmat into the dumpster. Any old paint, paint thinner, or other chemicals were set aside and taken to the hazmat people at the local transfer station (for free!). All clean cardboard and solid metal objects were also set aside (a lot of cardboard type stuff was water damaged when the basement flooded, so we just threw it away). Despite this, there is some guilt. We probably could have recycled more. But, there is this liberating feeling about getting rid of old junk. If you can pick it up, carry it to the dumpster, and throw it in, it’s gone. That’s it. Done. You are liberated.

We spent nearly the entire weekend hauling stuff from the backyard, garage, and basement into the dumpster. We were soooooo sore and tired by Monday. But, the backyard looks so much better. The garage is a garage again. The basement has much more space now too.

Jenn took a before and after picture of the dumpster. I'll try and post some more before and after pictures of the cleanup.

Free at last, free at last.

Doing the Doors

2006-02-28T22:28:00.000-08:00

I've started work on the interior doors. There are 6 of them all together. Each one is a 30" fir single panel door made by Rouge Valley Doors. The hardware is oiled bronze with glass knobs from Rejuvenation. 5 of the door latches are tube latches, which are very easy to install. You just have to drill out a 7/8" hole about 3 1/2" deep and the tube shaped latch assembly slides right in. Then you just have to drill another 1/2" hole crosswise for the door knob shaft. I installed the latch and hinges on the 1st door and I hope to have it hung by tomorrow. Here are some pictures.

More Pictures

Mains Stairs Getting Closer

2006-02-26T22:58:00.000-08:00

The story of the main stairs is approaching the final chapters. This weekend I got the last of the 1/4" oak ply cut and fitted. This included around the bike storage area, the backside of the lower steps, and other miscellaneous spots. This pretty much concludes this phase of the steps. It should comply with the local building code, which requires that all substructure be covered before the final inspection. The steps still need to be trimmed and finished, but this is going to have to be good for now.

Next up: interior doors. A few weeks back I bought 6 brand new interior doors that need to be bored for door knobs and chiseled for hinges. I’ll also need to build the jams and hang them. That will take a while. But, I’ve got all the wood and hardware, so it’s just a matter of time and energy.

But for now, a look back over the last 2 years of work on the stairs.

Picture taken April, 2002 during the purchase inspection (that's not our table but the home seller's table). Ahhh, it looks so warm and peaceful. Only the floorboards under that table still survive today.

Picture taken January 15, 2004 (over 2 years ago). The first week of working on the stairs. As you can see, the steps have been framed, but no closet yet.

2 years ago. The steps and closet are framed and the electrical wiring had just been put into place.

1 year ago. We had just painted the drywall and were about to install the floors. As you can see there are no treads or risers on the steps. What a mess.

Picture taken today. This picture is sort of kind. The various pieces of ply don't fit snugly and don't really match. They are like frankenstairs... But, I'm hoping with some more trim pieces and the finish, they will look like nice.

Picture also taken today. This is the back side of the stairs. There is this curious little space between the closet wall and the steps. I'm not sure what I'll do with it. Perhaps a coat rack?

Still Working on the Stairs

2006-02-23T22:03:00.000-08:00

I made a little more progress on the stairs (under the stairs) last night. I got a few of the plywood pieces cut and fitted. Now the shelves look more like, well, shelves. They look more like how I had intended. It's still a long ways from done. There will be molding strips to cover the gaps in the ply. But, it's getting there. Slowly. Getting there.

Under the Stairs (again)

2006-02-19T19:54:00.000-08:00

I'm back to work under the stairs. The original idea was to put a series of shelves that would look a bit like stacked boxes (or, as one person observed a Tansu step cabinet). So, I built three panel-and-frame boxes, attached them together and slid them under the stairs. Sounds easy, but it was a tight fit and took forever to get them slid in without getting a little bit crooked and then caught. Ugh. But, after fighting with them for a while and waking them with the hammer a few times for good measure, they got into place. Then, it was just a few screws to anchor them in.

Next up I need to cover the framing with 1/4" oak ply. I hope to be able to finish that this week. After that I will need to trim it out before doing the finish work. The finish work (staining, etc) will probably have to wait until the weather is warm enough to open up all the windows in the house.

Here is what they look like:

As of Sunday evening

Ready to slide them in.

Assembly

Here are some Tansu step cabinets. Not the actual inspiration, but interesting none the less.

Paid Comments?

2006-02-05T10:25:00.000-08:00

There is something strange going on. I think anyone who has kept a blog over the past year or two has noticed the comments left by computer programs (bots). They tend to stick out. Usually it goes something like:

"Love you blog! It is very interesting and I’ll be back often. Here is another interesting site that I also like very much. Link"

The point is to get you and other people who read your blog to follow the link. The links also boost their web site's "Google score", so that their site is more likely to appear in the top few results in Google's searches.

For me, the final straw was when I got 7 of these bot comments within a few minutes of posting a new entry. It is easy enough to stop the bots from leaving comments on Blogger. You just turn on the "word verification". Since turning this on, I have not had a single comment by a bot. I think. However, I have noticed something new and I’m wondering if other bloggers have noticed this too.

Now I’m getting comments that are similar to the comment left by bots, but they are just a little bit more personalized. Again, they compliment my blog, and again they leave a link to another site. The most recent was left by someone called "afanter". Afanter’s profile indicates this person is a "Marketing Writer" who belongs to two blogs including one called "Hip-Home, Home Improvement Projects". The person suggested a site called "Counter Culture, The kitchen revolution starts here."

So, I went to that site. It’s very slick, though not especially informative. Each entry has a comment left by someone who is really pumped up by the post like one left by someone calling themselves Sarah Jane says "Wow, this is better than having my palm read!…" Oh, please. Turns out that this Sarah Jane, and most of the other commenters on this site, also contributes to the blog Hip-Home.

Oops, gotcha.

I may be jumping to conclusions here, but it seems obvious to me that the members of Hip-Home are paid to leave comments on blogs. They are paid to direct traffic to client sites and they are paid to leave hyperbolic comments on those client sites. This bothers me. I think it is deceptive and misleading.

My blog is for me. I maintain my blog because I enjoy writing about our home remodeling experience. I enjoy sharing the experience with friends, family, and strangers that also share an interest in remodeling. I love the comments I get. I have received comments from all over the world. The comments have been fun, interesting, and encouraging. I do not have advertising on my blog. I do not get paid a single cent for my blog. I do not like having my blog used by people who do get paid to promote other web sites. Please, if you are paid to promote other web sites, you do not have permission to promote those web sites with comments on my blog. Enough said.

Reversed Plumbing Fixed!

2006-02-02T21:22:00.000-08:00

Dave was here on Wednesday to reverse the pipes leading to the master bath. It was pretty easy and only took him a couple hours total. He did a good job and manged to switch the pipes over at a bend so that you wouldn't notice the patch job. Very nice. Now the hot taps turn on hot water and the cold taps turn on cold. Wow. But, the best part, now the toilet fills with unheated water. That might bring the electric bill down a bit.

In other news, the basement is still a disaster. Portland has had over a foot of rain since the new year and it would appear that most of that has ended up in our basement. Ugh.

Can hardly wait for summer.

The Final Plumbing Straw

2006-01-17T10:23:00.000-08:00

I've known for a while that the plumbing in the master bathroom was roughed in backwards. I found this out when I started installing the faucets for the tub, sinks, and shower. They are all exactly backwards in that the hot tap produces cold water and the cold produces hot. That is both easy to fix and easy to just live with. So far I have chosen to just live with it.

But, recently I noticed that the toilet was filling with hot water. That's a problem. And, I went into the bathroom this morning and the water in the toilet was so hot that the seat was soaking wet with condensation. Yuck. I've also noticed that our electric bill was unusually high for this last billing period (we have electric hot water), and I've notice that this toilet takes much longer to fill than the other (not sure if this is related or not).

So, I decided to call the builder in hopes that he will find an easy way to fix it. There are two separate pipes in the basement that feed this bathroom exclusively and it would seem relatively easy to cut, cross, and reattach these pipes to fix the problem.

I haven't talked to the builder (Dave) in about 18 months. I called the last number I had for them, but just got a generic voice mail message. I checked and they are still licensed in Oregon, so I’m sure I’ll be able to contact them. I also tried calling the sub-contract plumber listed on the permit, but also just got generic voice mail. I’ll keep trying.

Local Area Flooding

2006-01-11T09:37:00.000-08:00

It has rained a lot in the Portland area over the past three weeks. All of the Willamette Valley and Costal Range is under a flood watch or warning. And, our basement is taking on water. The basement is leaking in at least 2 places and leaving puddles throughout. The most concerning is the puddle next to the furnace. The new furnace was installed directly on the floor. In hindsight I probably should have asked the installers to raise the furnace 2-3 inches off of the floor. The forecast calls for more heavy rain.

This is the first time in two years that our basement has flooded. The last time it flooded, we didn’t have the gutters on the house yet and water was clearly building up at the foundation. I did hope that with the new gutters keeping water away from the house, that we would not have a leaking basement again. It looked good. It did not leak all of last winter, though last winter was unusually dry. In contrast, this year has been unusually wet and here comes the flood.

The solution? French drains around the exterior of the house? Cutting grooves into the basement floor to channel the water towards the sump-pump? Having the furnace people raise the furnace off the floor? Yes, all of these may help. The reality is that this basement has always leaked, was designed to leak, and we’ll just have to live with it. That’s part of the reason why we added a second story.

Water seeps in on the south side of the basement.

Water seeps in on the north side of the basement next to the furnace.

There is a sump pump right next to the furnace, but not all of the pooling water is draining into the pump area.

Under the Stairs

2006-01-04T21:35:00.000-08:00

New project for the new year: under the main stairs. What we have is a large space under the main stairs. The architectural plans call for the space to be enclosed in drywall. But, I just hate wasted space. We could use more storage, a place to put our shoes, packs, etc. My first plan was to put in little cabinets. But, I thought that if people had to take the time to take their shoes off, open up a cabinet door, put the shoes in there, then close the door, it might not get used very often. Well, I wouldn't use it very often. So, I thought about having an area under the stairs where we can just kick our shoes off. It wouldn't have to be very tall, but it would be nice if it is wide and close to the floor.

Here are the steps as they look today:

As you can see, there is space available under the steps, and to the right (which is currently used to store Jenn's bike). What we want to do here is have a place to store shoes, gloves, hats, packs, etc.

Here is the plan (done crappyly with MSPaint):

On the floor is a space for kicking off shoes. Above that is a shelf that we can put additional shoes or other items. Above that is a taller more narrow space that would be good for a backpack or two. We could still add a door to the backpack spot. In addition, we still have the space on the right that can be used for storing bikes or whatever. The bike storge space will definitely get a door.

Next up, actually doing some of this work...

Happy New Year!!!

2005-12-30T09:46:00.000-08:00

This will be my last entry of the year. And, boy, what a busy year it was. We put down and finished 900sf of oak flooring, built 1 and a half stair cases with open spindle railing, did two full bathrooms and redid a third, a back porch with railing, [went to Europe for 3 weeks!!!], had the house painted, had the front yard landscaped, hung some doors, and finally built two interior columns.

*whew*

But, this coming year promises to be even busier. We've got to close the building permit. That's it. No more. This must come to an end. This means we've got to fix all of the remaining issues, with highlights including the balcony railing, the front siding, the remaining interior doors, and the space under the main stairs. Then, even after the permits are closed there will be work to do. We'll still need to trim out the windows and doors, the baseboards, the shoeing, the wainscoting.

But, it won't stop, even then. The main floors will still need a lot of work. The living room needs it's ceiling redone and the windows trimmed. The kitchen will be completely gutted down to the studs and floor joists, then rebuilt with new flooring and site-built cabinets. The dining room needs a built-in sideboard and the library (our former bedroom) needs some shelving. That should take us through 2007, at least.

So, on that thought, happy New Year!

Greg & Jenn

Left Interior Column

2005-12-28T23:43:00.000-08:00

I was able to finish the preliminary work on the left column in the main hallway. I got the substructure, the panels, the shelf and the collars all mounted tonight. Tomorrow I hope to mount the horizontal boards that will bridge the gap between the two columns. These boards will be solid oak 1x6, about 12ft long, and be cut at the ends with a 30 degree angle. They are supposed to remind one of the beams across the porches, kind of tie them together. Hopefully I'll get that done tomorrow. This weekend, we will be out of town. We are going to the coast (Lincoln City, Oregon) for the New Years weekend. The weather is supposed to be stormy, which should make for some good viewing.

Here are some pictures of the left column. I'm hoping when it is really finished that it will have a proper Craftsman look to it. I still need to apply some trim molding, sand, stain, and apply some finish. But, I won't be doing that until late spring or early summer.

Here you can see how I framed the upper tapered portion:

Interior Columns

2005-12-23T23:15:00.000-08:00

I've been working on the columns in the main hallway of the first floor. So far, I have the right column done for now and I just started working on the left one. I probably won't get too much done over the weekend (what with Christmas and all -- remember Christmas?). By "done" I mean I have the panels cut and fitted and the collar and shelf pieces are in place. The collar was done, similar to the exterior columns, with 2 steps. The top step is 2" and the next one is 1 1/2" (from 1x white oak). This makes for an nice effect. The shelf is also made from the 1 1/2" oak. The top of the shelf is exactly 3' off the floor. The base portion of the column is strait 5"x10.5", but the top portion is tapered so that it is 5"x10.5" at the shelf, but 5"x5" at the top where it meets the collar.

But, enough type, here's some pictures:

The right column (done for now)

The left column (base panels and shelf are in)

Before (right column)

Tree Gone

2005-12-23T23:04:00.000-08:00

Our neighbor didn't waste any time. The 60' oak tree fell Monday afternoon and by Wednesday it was all cleaned up. Nothing remains except a stump and one wrecked fence.

Here are the tree guys making waste of the oak.

And here is our new backyard in the Post Oak Tree era.

The tree guys picked up every last twig. They even raked up the sawdust from the chain saw. Nice Job!

Tree Down: More Pictures

2005-12-20T22:37:00.000-08:00

Here's a few more pictures of the 60' oak tree that fell into our backyard on Monday. My neighbor says he will have it cleared tomorrow (Wednesday). I'm really glad he is taking care of it so quickly. If it had been on our side of the property line and fallen into our yard, I'd probably let it sit there a few weeks...

Click on pictures for closer look.

Oh, and here is a shot of the backyard the day before the tree fell, taken by Jenn. You can see the oak in the top right corner.

Timber!!!

2005-12-19T18:04:00.000-08:00

We got the ice and winds that were predicted. But, it seemed liked the worst of it was over when a warm front pushed through around 6am today. We made it to work, though late. However, when I get home, I'm startled by what I see in the backyard. This is what I see:

Turns out around 3pm the neighbor's old oak tree finally gave up. Covered with ice and fighting the wind, it finally fell over, taking the fence with it. The good news is that, not only was no one hurt, but no other property damage besides the fence is noticeable. It was just so strange to look out the dining room window and see the entire backyard filled with a down tree. Wow!

White Christmas?

2005-12-18T16:14:00.000-08:00

A White Christmas came early to Portland, OR today. Around 1:30pm we got some sleet mixed with snow, which eventually turned to just snow. I'm sure if you live where it snows all winter, you're probably thinking "big deal". But, it's the first time in 23 months that we've had snow in Portland. So, here, it is a big deal.

The snow is nice, but they're predicting freezing rain over night. Freezing rain is no fun at all. Yuck.

So, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, etc. I'll be spending time working on the interior columns, at least while the electricity holds out.

Plotting An Arch

2005-12-13T21:28:00.000-08:00

I’ve been pretty busy with the "paying job" lately, but I have had some time to work on the house. Mostly I’ve just been slapping oak plywood on anything that doesn’t move. Seems to be working too. Much of the "visible substructure" in the sunroom and the main stairs is now a lot less visible thanks to the ply. Now, I’m ready for the next sorta big task: the main hallway arch.

The idea of this design is to get something similar to the beam and columns on the front and back porches (see picture top left of page). There will be a horizontal beam that is held up in place by two flanking square tapered columns. I've also always like the half-height walls often found in the original Craftsman, usually between the entry way and the living room or living and dining rooms. Those half-heights are often connected to the ceiling with a square tapered column. It's just very Craftsman. I'm trying to get a similar look here. I'm trying.

Here is my crappy MS Paint rendition of what the right column will look like. It will have a base that is 3' high, then a ledge, then about a 4' tapered section, finally a cap on top. Look familiar? Hope so. I hope to start working on it this week.

Oh, and an updated picture of the sunroom stairs:
Before:

After:

I just need to add some doors and apply some finish...

Christmas at Hillsdale

2005-12-10T16:49:00.000-08:00

All I want for Christmas is a completed house...

The Cheshire house:

When it smiles, it disappears...

Followup Number 3: Code Violations

2005-11-16T23:37:00.000-08:00

While the landscapers were busy in the front yard, and the glass guys got the shower door install, and Jenn's been working on the main floor bathroom (more on that later), I've been knocking off those nasty code violations. I've been focused on the master bathroom right now. First, I hung the door. Another first! I've never done that before. I mean, I've taken a door off of it's hinges and put one back on, but I've never built a jam, nailed it up, etc. It wasn't too bad. The framing for the doorway was pretty close to square. I suspect installing a jam is pretty hard when everything is out of wack.

So, to build the jam, I bought some fir 1x and ripped it so that it was just barely wider than the doorway (stud plus drywall worked out to 4 3/4", plus or minus 1/16"). Then, I cut the top piece length to be exactly 1/8" wider than the door. Then I cut the 2 side pieces so that they fit just a little loose in the doorway. I then took one of the side pieces and lined it up against the hinges on the door (this is an old door that was used on the main floor before the remodel). Then I chiseled out enough for each hinge, attached the hinges, and set the pins. It worked great. After pulling the pins back out, I assembled the frame so that the side pieces fit outside the top piece. I nailed it into place in the doorway and used some left over cedar shingles to shim the gaps. Then, I put the door up and put the pins back it. Worked great. Later, I ripped some more fir 1x (2" wide) and centered them on the jam frame. This time the top piece went up first, then the side pieces fit under the top piece. Does that make sense? Well, here's some pictures:

The door on the floor, making sure the hinges line up.

The jam frame is in, before the 2" jam piece.

Nice chisel job! I won't show you the top hinge though...

Oops, I just realized that I don't have a picture of the door mounted and the completed jam. Sorry.

OK, that was Sunday. Tonight I got the skirting on the jetted tub built and mounted. It's a simple oak panel-and-frame construction with 3 extra verticals in the center to give it that 'mission' look. Ha, I sometimes wonder if I'm over doing it a little... Here are some pictures:

Here is the skirting mouted in place. Someday I'll stain and finish it. Someday.

This is the last picture with the cardboard skirting. The cardboard actually made the city inspector laugh.

Assembling the frame.

Dry fit of the frame before I cut and fitted the panels.

Followup Number 2: The Shower Door

2005-11-16T23:14:00.000-08:00

Well, we finally have a shower door. Southwest Washington Glass brought the door over on Tuesday and it only took them a little over an hour to get it into place. But, the installer was almost finished when he realized that one of the frame pieces has the wrong finish. It is supposed to be brushed nickel, and the hinge rail is chrome.

*sigh*

So, I called George Morlan, again, and told them the problem. They said they would call the manufacturer and get back to me. When I got home that evening, there was a voice mail from Morlan saying that the manufacturer would send me a new hinge rail. Great, now I have to install it? Doesn't seem quite fair. I haven't called anyone back yet. I'm waiting to see what happens when the frame piece arrives.

Other than that, it looks pretty nice. We got the magnetic catch rather than the standard latch and a handle upgrade. We might even use this shower for the first time tomorrow.

Here it is:

Followup Number 1: The Front Yard

2005-11-16T22:59:00.000-08:00

Jenn and I met with Bernie form Cascade Landscaping this morning. He showed us how to use the sprinkler programmer / controller unit. Pretty simple. Too bad we really can't play with it now. Yesterday they drained all the water out of the system to prepare for winter. We'll have to wait until spring before we can set it to go off during the prime dog walking times... :-P

I finally have some pictures to show of the new rock wall in all it's completed glory.

These rock steps will eventually be part of the path to the front door.

Jenn likes the new rock walls.

Contractors, Contractors, Contractors

2005-11-14T16:51:00.000-08:00

The best thing about doing it yourself, is not having to deal with @#$%^@!#$ contractors! But, from time to time, I find a job that I just don't want to deal with. Two cases in point being the installation of a shower door, and the sprinkler system.

I've been having trouble getting someone to come and install the shower door. The door we ordered from George Morlan arrived last week, but the installer that they recommended (Southwest Washington Glass) has not returned my calls. I was thinking it would be wise to have an experienced (and recommended) installer do the job and make sure the heavy glass door is installed correctly and is water tight. But, I have called them twice over the past 2 weeks without getting a response. So, I called George Morlan again and asked them to recommend someone else. They would not. Ugh! So, I told them about all of the trouble I was having trying to schedule an installation. The guy I talked to agreed to call the installer himself, but I never heard back from him. Finally, this afternoon, I called George Morlan back again, talked to the same guy, told him I was seriously thinking about canceling my order, blah, blah blah. Well, I finally got a call from the installer (the actual guy, not his receptionist). He took down on my information and said heÂd call back with an installation time. He didn't. So, I'll have to try and call him again tomorrow. Once again, I'm at the mercy of a contractor. Grr, Grrr, Grrr, Grrr!

Oh something else funny, speaking of contractors. I went home for lunch today, when I saw someone drive up and take a look at the sprinkler system. He said he was the "backflow inspector". The landscaper had left a message last week saying something strange about the backflow inspection not going well, but I didn't really understand it. Today, the backflow guy said they buried the connection so low that it made it hard to test. It wasn't a code violation, just made testing harder. I didn't ask why he couldn't complete the inspection last week, but he could this week. I may never know.

To be fair to the landscaper, everything else has gone smoothly. Now that the city has signed off on the backflow inspection, we should have our final walkthough with the landscaper. Hopefully we'll get a good lesson on operating controller, which looks more complicated than my laptop computer. Also, the rock wall turned out great, but I don't have a decent picture to post yet. Next time.

Rock Wall Update

2005-11-03T22:25:00.000-08:00

Before appearing at Hillsdale House, the Wall had a bit part in Shakespeare's A Mid Summer's Night Dream.

Here's an updated picture taken this morning. They weren't totally level, as I had hoped, but still it looks good. The landscapers changed it around during the day today, but it was too dark when I got home to take any decent pictures.

I like how the wall wraps around the pine tree like a knee-high turret.

Also, I finished and mounted the 2nd mirror in the master bath, but sadly no pictures...

Forecast Calls for Mud

2005-11-01T22:58:00.000-08:00

Hillsdale house is looking more like Hillslide house these days. We hired some landscapers who have the yard all ripped up right now. And, wouldn’t you know, it has started to rain, hard (something like 3" in the last 2 days).

As you can see from the picture, our yard slopes a lot from left to right. There have been noticeable ruts from the rain eroding away the topsoil over the years. So, we’ve decided to build some rock retaining walls that should level things out and give the yard a more terraced look (and hopefully keep our soil from washing away). Probably the biggest and smartest decision we made so far is NOT TO DO THIS OURSELVES. I know, it is hard to let go and let other people do things. But, got to.

So, as long as they are putting the rock wall in, we thought we might as well have them put in automatic sprinklers. Ouch, that’s expensive, but it is something else that we don’t want to do ourselves. Besides, it will be nice to have a front yard that takes care of itself. They are also going to deliver a few truckloads of new top soil to put behind the new walls. Later on, Jenn and I will plant some stuff and put in a cobblestone path to the front steps. Until then, forecast calls for mud.

Before:

After:

2003

The Last Nice Day...

2005-10-30T23:27:00.000-08:00

This weekend was all warm sunshine, crunchy leaves, tile grout, and mirror frames.

Saturday was a nice day and we got to see a little sunshine for a change. That’s especially nice since the current forecast calls for rain every day for the next 7 days. Ugh. Welcome to November in Portland. But, Saturday was nice, probably the last nice day in a long time. I mean, it actually got above 60 degrees. Wow.

Rather than spend all that nice light working on the house, I took a little time to take some pictures. I got a few nice ones of the leaves the recent wind and rain left all over our yard. I have to say, in summer, it’s nice having two large maples to keep us shading and cool, but in fall we get carpet bombed by those two. Fortunately Jenn has volunteered to do the raking while I work on the inside.

Saturday we did take some time to grout the backsplash around the tub in the master bath. The grout we chose is kind of slow to set. In the past, we’ve sponged it off the tile face after 15 min, like the directions say, ended up removing too much, and were left with cracks after it cured. This time we left it for several hours. This made it harder to get it off of the face of the tile, but did leave a lot more grout in between the tiles. Maybe too much grout. There aren’t very clean lines between the tile and I may end up taking the Dremel to it. Did I mention I bought a Dremel? :-)

Sunday I finally got around to building a frame for the bathroom mirror. The idea was to build something simple that has a shaker/Stickley look to it. First, I made some 1"x3" white oak stock. Then, I made a simple butt-joint frame around a stock 24"x36" mirror I got from Hell. I also wanted a little shelf in front of the mirror. With all that, the mirror was a little too tall to fit in between the light fixture and the backsplash tile. So, I cut the mirror down to 24x32 and, with the frame and shelf, it all fits. I’m glad I got a good glass cutter back when Jenn and I were briefly into stained glass... Now that I built one mirror frame, I need to build two more just like it: another one for the master bath and one for the 2nd upstairs bath. Hopefully I can get that done this week. Next up will be the skirting on the jetted tub. I do prefer wood work over tiling!

Tiled

2005-10-20T22:20:00.000-07:00

Jenn and I finished mounting the tile for the various backsplashes last night. We did the vanity in the master bath Sunday. Last night we did the tub in the master bath and the vanity in the 2nd upstairs bath. It was pretty easy. Last night only took us about an hour. You just put the adhesive on the wall, mount the tiles, then wiggle them into place. The hardest part is getting the tiles all even and well spaced. The 3" tile comes with a mesh backing, grouped in a 3x3 grid, so that each group of 9 tiles is about a square foot. This does make it easy to lay out square footage pretty easily. The problem, though, is that the mesh can make it harder, not easier to wiggle the individual tiles around to get everything well space. We spent most of the time just wiggling tiles around and eyeballing against a level. Too bad I lost my laser level. That was useful. May need to buy another...

Here are some pictures:

Master bath vanity (with mirrors and cabinet doors, this might look finished...)

Master tub (yes, the skirting is made of cardboard -- it's on the todo list)

2nd Bath Vanity

Wet saw in the shower

Failed Inspection, Big Time

2005-10-10T14:31:00.000-07:00

The city inspector was just here and, surprise surprise, we failed. But, we failed worse than I had thought. There was over 30 code violations! Ugh, 30! I knew it was going to be bad when the first thing he said was that the missing siding on the front porch was not acceptable. I had no idea. I thought the only things I needed to worry about were safety issues like railings, electrical, smoke detectors, etc. But, at least in Portland, you must have all framing and substructure covered. That includes sub siding, which you can clearly see on the front porch where the dining room window used to be. But, this also meant that every doorway upstairs that does not yet have a jam is a code violation. This also means the visible framing under both the main and sunroom stairs is a violation. He found a few others. Below is a complete list with pictures.

However, there is a bright spot. The inspector was very nice about the whole thing. I suppose he could have took one look at the siding, said "YOU FAIL" and walked away. Instead he spent about a half hour walking through the house pointing out everything that he said wouldn’t pass. This helped me make a complete list. He patiently answered every one of my stupid questions like "why?" and "WHY?". Instead of criticizing my work, he was actually very complimentary and seemed genuinely impressed with the work so far. When I explained that the permits expired in 2 days, he looked over the permits and found that the "mechanical" permit (for the furnace extension and the bathroom vents) had not been finalized. By okaying the mechanical permit, we automatically get another 6 months extension. Yippee! Plus, since the electrical also has not been finalized, we could get yet anther 6 months if we really need it. October of 2006?!? I hope not. I’m tired. Jenn is tired too. We’re both looking forward to just living in our house, rather than always working on it. But, looks like we’ll be working on it this winter.

Click here for a complete list of work that needs to be done with pictures.

Stair Railing Are All In Place

2005-10-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally finished getting all of the railings in place for both the main stairs and the sunroom. Whew, that was a lot of work. It didn't seem like it would be that bad, but it took hour after hour after hour to get them all measured, cut, and put together. Don't quit your day job, Greg.

This weekend it was all sunroom stairs. I spent about 16 hours getting the railing all put together. Saturday, I got the newel posts, handrails, and baseboards in place. Today was spindles. It took 3 spindle assemblies to get the steps covered, then 6 more for the top of the stairs. While I worked on assembling the spindles, Jenn was busy sanding the 1x1 stock. What a team!

Tomorrow is the a big moment of truth for the house. I've scheduled a 'final' inspection with the city. I don't honestly expect to pass, but I do hope to at least get a list of 'code violations' so that I can start knocking those off. The only problem is that the permits are due to expire on Wednesday (10/12). I believe I'm entitled to one more extension, but I'm not absolutely sure. We'll see. Tomorrow is a big day.

And now, some pictures:

Main Stairs:

Sunroom:

Latest Pictures

2005-09-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

I promised before we left this weekend that I would post some new pictures of the painted trim. So, here they are:

Back from Ashland, Oregon

2005-09-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

We had an excellent time in Ashland, OR this weekend. We did all of the things you might expect. We had some great conversations with Jenn’s Dad and his girlfriend, we had some excellent meals at several area restaurants, and we saw some great live drama at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I think Jenn and I enjoyed Twelfth Night the most. It was a fine production and we laughed a lot. Richard III and Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus were also very good.

For the festival, we usually stay in a lousy, overpriced corporate-chain hotel. But this year we stayed in a B&B called Nightingail's. The innkeeper, Gail, does an excellent job of making you feel at home. She is a retired high school English teacher who is very knowledgeable about Shakespeare in general, and also knows much detail about the festival. The house is beautiful, the beds are cozy, and the breakfasts are delicious. I highly recommend!

Naturally, I had to engage Gail about the house. She bought the 1902 Four Square a little over 10 years ago. It had been turned into a pink mock-Victorian (gasp!). However, she lovingly restored it to its "less pretentious" originality and prepared it to be a B&B. This included tearing the insides down to the studs and upgrading the electrical, plumbing, and heating systems. The transformation took a little over a year. And, it doesn’t seem the house has aged a day since then.

I asked Gail about this curious window in our room that faces the interior stairway. She says it is original and was used to help vent the upstairs. Nice stained glass.

Good News!

2005-09-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

The good news is that the painter is done with the exterior trim. Yippee! And, I must say, it looks very good. I was a bit skeptical earlier about loosing the wood tones and textures, but the newly painted trim looks sharp and helps the cedar shingles stand out more. Very nice. Plus, the painter says he found some mold on parts of the over hang, which makes me that much more relieved we got this done before winter. I'll post new pictures and more information about the painter next week.

The other bit of good news is that we WON'T be working on the house this weekend. Yippee!!! Jenn and I are spending the weekend in Ashland, OR to see the 2005 Oregon Shakespeare Festival. For the past 70 years, Ashland has staged world class productions of Shakespeare as well as other plays. This year, we're going to see 12th Night, Dr. Faustus (Marlowe), and Richard III (love that War of the Roses stuff!).

While we're enjoying ourselves in southern Oregon, I'm sure we'll still be thinking about those in the Gulf Coast. It now appears that Hurricane Rita is headed straight for Houston, TX. I know people in Houston. The company I work for has a division in Houston and I work with them frequently. I'm happy to report that their office shutdown early Wednesday morning and they all evacuated the area, though I haven't heard from them since. Hopefully they'll be OK and the storm isn't as bad as predicted. Let's hope.

Inside and Out

2005-09-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

Work is progressing here, both inside and out. The painter was busy all week painting the trim and overhang outside, while I've been busy getting the railing put in on the main stairs inside.

I have to confess that I kind of like the house better before the painting. I like the wood tones and textures of the raw trim. But, to be realistic, the house must be painted in order to preserve that wood. I guess I could have tried an oil or some other means of preserving it without paint, but that would likely mean constant maintenance. Besides, the painter is doing a good job and I'm sure I'll get use to the nice clean look of the trim. And, we will still have the cedar porches with the pine ceilings and the shingles on the 2nd story. There will be plenty of natural wood on this house. But, Jenn and I both agree, we've got to paint the rest of the house. The grey has got to go. The plan is to paint it a nice dark red. But, we won't be able to do it this year. There is ALWAYS next year...

Before

After

While the painter has been busy outside, I've been busy inside. I added the last handrail to the mainstairs and a few more spindles. I've now done 12 spindle assemblies for steps (I'm building them in my sleep now) and need to do 8 more for the main stairs. There are also two overhangs, one on the landing, and the second at the top of the stairs, that both need spindles. That's a lot of spindles. I've been ripping them out of some variable width white oak one-by that I got from Crosscuts. Jenn has been helping me sand the spindles after they've been ripped, which has helped a lot.

Main Stairs

As soon as I get these main stairs done, it's MORE stairs. The sunroom stairs haven't been touched. I will need to get treads and railings on them before we're ready for inspection. Much to do.

Sunroom Stairs

A few more steps, a few more spindles

2005-09-11T19:39:00.000-07:00

I managed to get just a few more spindles on the main stairs this weekend. It's slow progress, but they are making their way down the steps, one step at a time. Here is a photo of the 4 steps with spindles.

Here is an exploded view of the spindle assembly:

You can see in the exploded view just how the spindle assembly is put together. There are 5 pieces of 1x1 white oak and 10 screws. 6 screws hold the assembly together (3 on each end) and 4 screws hold the assembly in place on the step (2 on each end). I also glue the pieces together for added strength.

Oh, in other news, the painter starts on Tuesday to paint the exterior trim! He says he can paint all of the trim in 5 days (brush, no spraying), but depending on the weather, that will probably take close to two weeks. I can hardly wait to get that done.

Progress on Main Stairs

2005-09-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

Just a brief note as we are expecting company in less than half an hour. I have made some progress on the main stairs (finally!). I got the hand rails in on Saturday. Today I've been working on the spindles. OK, I got a grand total of 3 spindles up. But, I learned a lot on this effort and the rest should go a little more quickly. The spindles are made of 1x1" white oak and are joined together by threes for each step.

Here is a picture of the hand rails after I got them up.

Here is a picture of the first step with spindles.

Monday is supposed to be a fun day, no work on the house. But, we'll see........

Are We Lucking Not to Live in Hurricane Country?

2005-09-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

It is tough not to think about what is going on in the areas affected by Katrina, even though over a thousand miles away here in Portland we’ve had little direct impact. Gas prices have gone up about 50 cents, but are still less than $3/gal. But, we’re following the news here everyday. All of the destruction, the suffering, the chaos makes me sad and grateful that I don’t live down there. But, that said, it could happen here too.

Portland is surrounded by dormant and not so dormant volcanoes. We all know what Mt. St. Helens can do. But, if Mt. Hood were to wake up erupt with the same size and force of St. Helens’ 1980, Portland would likely suffer a similar kind of destruction as we now see in New Orleans. Also, while Portland isn’t known for major earthquakes, it is still earthquake country. With a geologic history of 9 (Richter Scale) quakes, we could have a major major quake with similar damage to the city. So, this weekend, while I’m thinking about the suffering in the Gulf region, while I’m writing my check to the Red Cross (my employer is matching 150%), I’m also going to take time to make sure I have the tool to turn off the gas, enough water and canned food to last a week or so, and fresh batteries for Jenn's boombox. Because, it could happen here, it could happen anywhere.

Blog Got Spammed?

2005-08-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

After my last post yesterday, I had 7 comments. All of the comments were completely unrelated to my post and my blog, all were encouraging readers to go follow links to another site. They were all obviously not left by humans, but rather "bots" that automatically look for any blogs to post their advertisements to. I've seen these before, never more than 1 at a time. But this time I got 7. I just deleted them all.

So, my question: is this happening to your blog too? Does anyone know of any effective counter measures?

New Living Space: The Master Bedroom

2005-08-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

Our living space expanded once again this weekend. We decided it might be smart to move our bed upstairs before we put the railings on the main stairs. Even though we don't have a proper frame for it, we thought it would just be easier to get the mattress and boxsprings up the stairs before the railings are in place. Work on the treads kicked up a lot of dust. So, we had to clean that up as best as possible, including damp-mopping the walls! We also needed to wait until the finish on the treads was fully cured. On Saturday we moved up.

Our first night in our new bedroom was warm, but pleasant. We left the windows open on both the east and west side of the bedroom and there was a nice breeze that would blow right through the room. The sounds of rustling leaves from the two large maples that guard both the front and back of the house in stereo was soothing. I think we're going to like our new bedroom.

Now that summer is nearing an end and the building permits are once again nearing expiration, I must focus again on the stairs. I've now got all of the wood I need to build the railings. I hope to have them mostly done by this time next week. I hope.

I have posted two new pictures. These are both looking out the windows towards the front of the house (these are the same windows that you can see in the picture of the front of the house -- top left of this page). The bedroom window is the north side of the dormer (left side while facing house), the south side is above the main stairs.

Bedroom Window At Sunset

Back to Work on the Main Stairs

Lazy Summer

2005-08-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

It has been a warm and lazy summer here. As much as I need to work on the interior stairs, we've been mostly kicking back and relaxing on our new back porch. Ahhh.

But, last night I finally got the sealant coat on the treads for the main stairs. That's the first step in applying the finish. Hopefully I can finish the finish by this weekend and start working on either the railing on the main stairs or the treads in the sunroom.

I've been trying to hire someone to paint the trim on our house. That's not easy when you consider that most house painters are pretty busy this time of year. Most of the people I called out of the phonebook never returned my calls. I did get one guy in to look at the house. He gave me a written estimate that seemed very high. I finally got a second guy who said his fee would be in the same range as the first guy, but the second guy never got back to me with a written estimate. So, I decided to bite the bullet and hire the first guy, but now he isn't returning my calls either. *sigh*

It is just so much easier just to relax on the back porch and watch the warm lazy summer go by.

Back Porch -> Living Space

2005-07-17T19:04:00.000-07:00

I’ve been slowly trying to turn our backporch into living space. That’s tough when the backporch is an ideal location for staging remodeling tasks. But, I have a new pledge to keep this area as clear as possible, especially during the summer, so that it can be used as a great place to view the yard and enjoy the summer. Now, the saws are all in the garage, as are the bucket of screws, the cordless drill, the hammer, the level, the chalk line, that obligatory box of miscellaneous tools, and the piles and piles of scrap wood. I swept and I hosed it down. Jenn and I just started giving it a good oiling and it already is starting to look "finished". We’re hoping to finally live in this space this summer rather than just endure it. Who knows, we might even be ready for our first backyard BBQ since the remodel. Hope so.

I only use wood oil on cedar decking. I have learned never to use products that include either sunscreen or sealants (e.g. Thompson’s, etc). They leave a milky film behind that doesn’t age well and takes a belt sander to remove. However, the oil gives the decking a nice natural color and protects the wood from drying out. The oil I use is extracted from (some kind of) nut shells (I forget which).

One of the challenges with this backporch is that part of it is covered (under the roof overhang) and part of it is exposed to the weather. My experience has been that decking which is covered rarely requires oiling (perhaps ever 3-4 years). But, decking directly exposed to weather, especially Portland rail, may require yearly oiling. I plan to oil the exposed portion twice this summer and may end up oiling it every summer from now on. Ideally one should oil cedar decking whenever it is dry. As long as cedar doesn’t dry out, it will continue to repel water and look good.

In other house news, the cedar-shingle siding is weathering very well. It still has most of it’s color and doesn’t show any signs of aging. I’m going to wait another year before attempting to oil it.

The plum tree is now covered with nearly ripe plums. All of the heavy fruit is pulling the branches down, nearly to the ground. We also have a lot of raspberries, blueberries and strawberries right now. However, our apricot tree is not very happy. It appears to have some kind of disease or pest, don’t know what. Next year we will be sure to dormant spray all the fruit trees. Apparently dormant spray is not poison, but rather an oil that discourages insects. But, it needs to be applied during the last weeks of winter just before the tree's spring blooming. Our backyard now has the one plum tree, a grafted apple tree, an apricot, a pear, and two cherry trees. I hear you need to prune fruit trees too... I have much to learn about fruit trees. :-)

And now, some pictures:

Back Porch/Deck Done!

2005-06-26T17:19:00.000-07:00

It's done. Well, sort of. As always there are a few loose ends to pickup. Later. But, the main need, getting the railing and skirting up, has been completed. That's good. It's a big milestone. Now I can return to the inside (just in time for the heat) and work on the stairs...

Here are some pictures. As always, click on the picture for bigger size options.

So, what didn't get done outside. Well, I was covering the butt ends of the decking with some trim when I ran out of finish nails. Also, it started raining pretty hard. I could go to the store and get some more nails and I could put a rain coat on, but it's a lot easier to quit, declare victory, and go blog about it.

Notice that the deck is pretty wet...

Outsourcing

2005-06-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

I'm sloooooowly coming to the realization that I cannot, and probably should not, do it all myself. Jenn helps when she can, but since I let the general contractor go, I've been doing much of the work myself. As things stand with the permits, I need to finish the stairs before October. It will require a lot of detail work that needs to be nearly perfect since it will be the focal point of the main floor. I just don't think I could get a finish carpenter to do it right without costing me an arm, a leg, a first born, etc. I'm going to do the stairs this summer.

But, summer is the time of year to paint the exterior of the house. The trim, rafter tails, and overhang are bare wood that has been exposed to two winters now and probably shouldn't see a third. The trim must be painted this summer. But, I'll be too busy inside. Jenn doesn't like ladders (the roof is 26' above ground in some places), and besides she's pretty busy keeping with the yard. The pitch and height of the roof means it will be difficult and dangerous in parts. It needs to be done right away and it needs to be done right. We're going to need to outsource.

So, how do we pick a painting contractor? I did a quick Google Local search and it appears there are millions of house painters in Portland, which is a little strange since our metro area only has about 1.5 million people. The phonebook confirms a huge number of painters available.

So, we're going to have to pick a few, get some quotes, and pick one. Soon, 'cause summer doesn't last long.

Leftover Decking Means Wedding Bench

2005-06-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

If you have ever built a deck, you have probably wondered what to do with all the leftover scraps. I discovered a few years back that one good use for cedar decking is to build simple garden furniture.

We realized when we got back from Europe that our friend's wedding was coming up quick and we didn't have a clue what to get them. The last time some close friends got married I built them a bench out of some leftover decking from my old house. So, I thought, since I have a whole lot of scrap cedar from the 2 porches, I'd build another bench. This is actually the ninth piece of furniture I've made out of cedar in the past few years and it took me about 10 hours to cut, assemble, sand, and oil.

Here are a couple of pictures (click on the pictures for different sizes). First, Jenn poses for me on the bench.

Second, the bride and groom pose for pictures on the bench. They seemed to like it very much. Whew! :-)

Beware of EIFS!!!

2005-06-19T23:24:00.000-07:00

The Oregonian is running a series of articles about when building projects go horribly wrong. Sunday's article focuses on the biggest threat to a house in western Oregon: rain. There is a growing trend here, and elsewhere in the nation, of new construction that turns out to be rotten to the core within a few years. These construction failures result in anxieties, costly repairs, and often lawsuits.

Article here (sorry, minimal registration required)

One of the most recent culprits is a relatively new synthetic stucco generically known as Exterior Insulation and Finish Systems, or EIFS. This stuff may sound great since it includes a layer of polystyrene which increases the insulation value of the wall and helps to keep moisture out. But, if water ever does gets past this siding (for example a poorly installed window or flashing), it stays in the walls and is not allowed to ever dry out. It will then slowly rot everything around it including your framing, subfloor, etc. One quote from the article:

"It's not just that you have to replace the siding... You have to replace the building under the siding. And you can't and don't know it until it is too late."

Numerous examples around the Portland area were sited including condos, a hotel, and individual houses. So, if you are thinking about using EIFS, you might want to look into it further and find out if it is a good idea for your area. If you have already used EIFS, you might want to have a professional check it out thoroughly and make sure it has been installed perfectly and has never leaked.

Frankly, I think if you are using a building material like this, you are just asking for trouble. It seems it is only a matter of time before something goes wrong. Especially if you are restoring or adding on to an older house, you should try and stick to more traditional materials. This isn't to say you should not stick some fiberglass in the walls, your local building code probably requires it. But, there is a reason why your 50-100 year old house still has its original wood siding, while the vinyl siding on your friends 5 year old house is faded and cracking.

We're Back!

2005-05-31T12:14:00.000-07:00

We are back from our 3 week trip to Europe! We had a really great time doing the whirlwind tour of Spain, France, and Holland. We stayed in some great hotels, ate some good food, and saw some of the most beautiful architecture. But, now we must get back to our Portland lives. We must go to our day jobs, and we must get back to work on our old house.

First up will need to be the back porch railing. It is still only just barely framed. I think this will likely take a couple of weekends. Then, we must do the main stairs. That will take a lot of meticulous finish carpentry. It will likely take more than a month to build and finish. Finally, there is the sunroom stairs and balcony railing. Lots n’ lots n’ lots of work left to do. Oh boy! :-)

More to come...

Hillsdale House Hiatus

2005-05-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

As mentioned last time, Jenn and I will be on vacation in Europe for the rest of May. So, we wont be working on the house during this time, and, as you might expect, wont be blogging about it either. But, I can assure you that, come the first week in June, we'll be hard at work again. We have lots of railings to put up before the house is "code".

If you are interested, both Jenn and I will be blogging our trip here: http://gandjtrip2005.blogspot.com/ We'll try and provide an update whenever we see an internet café.

Before I go, I'd like to briefly thank everyone who has supported this site. The encouraging and informative comments have been invaluable. I would especially like to thank House Blogs for including me in "the community", Hewn and Hammered for wishing us luck so long ago, and everyone else who has generously included a link to us on their site (I will return the favor). THANKS!

Back soon...

Every Dogwood Has It's Day

2005-05-01T00:02:00.000-07:00

Our pink dogwood in our backyard is having a great year, the best since we moved in. The only problem is that it is blocking the view of the house, and blocking some of the view FROM the house. But, Jenn says "don't you dare touch it!" Maybe she'll let me trim it a bit, but only after it's done blooming.

Check out these blooms (click for larger):

We've been too social to work on the house so far this weekend. I'm hoping to work on the railing tomorrow. But, the forecast calls for rain.

Either way, tomorrow is going to have to be the last day we work on the house for a while. Jenn and I have been planning a trip to Europe for the past 4 years. Each year, something happens and we can't go. Well, this year, we managed to rub two nickels together and our respective employers are allowing us 3 weeks off. We hope to see a little of Spain, France, and Holland. We leave this Thursday (May 5th). The joke between us is that we are spending the money we saved by doing this remodel ourselves. Ha!