Finally the Final!

Hooray!!!

Well it is official! On September 1st, after a lengthy inspection we received 

final approval from the City. Basically that gave us the green light to move

 back in the house. Hurray - no move Apartment! No more Self-storage!

Hello stuffed to the rafters Garage!!

So on September 4th - We packed up the apartment and moved the arduous

 2 blocks back home. (U-Haul was quite mystified why we only put 7 miles on the truck!)

Which the timing couldn't be closer- the boys started school the next Monday.

So basically it gave us the weekend to move the boxes, and toss them more

or less in the appropriate rooms. To unpack and sort out later.

Wow! It was an helluva lot of work and stress! It was around May 1st when demolition

of the house first began. At the time, I thought I might just be a nuisance and pop by the

construction site every day or so. Little did I realize that this would become

my new full time job. Pretty much there everyday - sometimes 4-6 hours!

Whether it be shopping for materials - overseeing workers, or just

cutting checks.

But the house is looking and feeling great. For once everything is fresh and new.

 No tattered siding, peeling paint, or sagging ceilings.

...Or backyard to cut grass.

We haven't had time or money to get the lawn and grass re sodded.

It going to need all new sprinklers and landscaping design. Figured we can tackle that later.

Here is a picture of me and my contractor, Eddy.

Thanks to him  - we were able to pull this house remodel off and on schedule.

Here is Eddy accepting final payment.

Thanks to all you who have subscribed and followed my first attempt at "Blogging:"

In the end, I couldn't update nearly as much as I had planned. (Day by day??...right!)

But we have appreciated all the support and kind words. It had become quite the endeavor,

and we wish many of you could be closer here to enjoy the with house with us.

To close - my mantra...

"Somebody owes me a Summer!!!"

Kids at Work

Disregarding any child labor issues - we enlisted the help

of the boys to get the house finished. Every little bit of

effort helps to move one step closer to moving back in.

Sam helping to prep the wood doors prior to stain.

The boys cleaning the patio - one step

towards moving in!

Shay vacuuming the floors in preparation

for flooring.

Siding - Part Deux

A Drum roll please....

Here we go again - yet another load of fine quality

Hardy-Plank siding. What exciting color awaits us this time??

Well no surprise - we played it "safe" and stuck with white.  Initially we were concerned

that all the white would be too overwhelming - but the end result has been fantastic.

The side of the house -still awaiting the venting detail

Here is the back of the house - with the addition of a patio trellis.

(Not to mention the panoramic vista of our junk pile!)

Playing Catch Up

What was supposed to be a daily ritual of documenting the progress on our house,

has slipped to a weekly bi-monthly adventure. Plus to be honest, after the initial dramatic

destruction, there are days when little seems to be happening. Sure, we might be

 installing controversial new outlet covers, but is the audience really ready for that??

So here are some catch-up snipets of the latest goings on around the homestead:

TILE:

What would a wet place be without tile? Here are views of the outside patio and Master Bathroom.

We also tiled the Laundry Room, Office Bath, and Guest bath.

Master Bath undergoing tile

Nearing completion -  save for the window details

Also with standing shower, sink and vanity.

Here is the main patio off the Master bedroom -

sizing up the pattern for the tile.

Mind you these are special tiles for outdoor use;

They have a rough finish to them ...

...otherwise one drop of water on them,

and you'd go skating off into the grass!

 The final product.

OLD  VENTS:

One distinctive feature of the "Old House" was the attic venting. Of course

when it came time to redo the exterior of the house, we wanted to

keep these signature pieces.

The third vent came to surprise us. It had been hidden all these years by

a fake front added to the garage. We never even new it existed

until the workers were tearing down the garage. I rescued it from

the trash pile and set it aside with the other vents.

It took some cosmetic surgery, but I was able to patch the two main vents up easily enough.

The former garage vent was a different story - the house vents had access holes to slide neatly in .

We didn't want to cut a hole in the garage - so I had to take it apart and redesign it.

The initial garage vent was probably 10 inches thick.  In order

to keep the profile slim, I had to get that down to a max of 3 inches!

Complete with the knob and tube insulators.

It took so figuring - but it worked out well. As a bonus cheat, we

installed some black plastic waterproof liner behind it -

to give the illusion of depth. It was great to be able to

keep these details from the original house!

I could show you how the House Vents turned out -

But that would spoil the surprise!

KIDS BORED AT LOWE'S:

Honestly, they would read just about anywhere!

WINDOWS PAINTED - WITH TRIM COLOR:

After all the fuss and set-backs, the final windows.

So we are essentially on the home stretch - interior and exterior almost complete.

Our goal is to be able to move back in by the end of the month.

(Hopefully!)

New Siding - Whoops! Take 1

So things were going swimmingly on the house. Very smooth! What possibly could go wrong?

 We just poured the concrete, had the interior drywalled and patched, plumbing and electrical roughed in.

I guess that should of been a cue that we were going to be thrown a curve.

We had chosen from the very beginning to go with Hardi Plank,

a fiber cement hybrid siding which is essentially molded in the color of your choosing.

With the tantalizing promise of virtually never having to paint the siding ever again.

And after dealing with this cedar siding like this - - it was looking pretty tempting.

So we chose a swatch called "Navajo Beige' which seemed to be a slight neutral "warm" gray.

 Our original house color was an off-cream white. So this promised to be the closest choice.

Besides, from a City design-review stand point, we promised them a

near white house with blue/green trim.

What we didn't know was Hardi-Plank has a 3-week lead time. So after we ordered it,

we had a opportunity to sit back and wait. Luckily during this spell

- we went through our craftsmen exterior window design debate.

So after 3 weeks, we got the shipment of Hardi-Plank and the installers went to work.

 After planking nearly one half of a wall, we discovered to our horror that this benign

 Navajo Beige actually had a trace amount of yellow in it.

If Hardi Plank were a "Happy Bunny."

It also had the magical property of magnifying

 the yellow intensity as each progressive layer was added.

During Installation:

What we feared it would look like after they finished it!

So with the prospect of a yellow house - we quickly put the brakes on and halted construction.

Which ultimately involved..

A) Stopping the workers.

B) Having them remove what they installed.

C) Sending the remaining planks back to the manufacturer.

D) Reorder the new color.

E) And restarting the 3 week process all over again.

Oh Did I mention:

F) How thrilled the contractor was with us at this point???

Uhm,..Not so much.

Grauman's Theater - Alameda Style

So how do you explain that you just poured a gazillion yards of concrete to your kids

and wouldn't let them in on the action?

So we reserved a little corner strip next to the driveway.

Before concrete

After Concrete

Almost seems too smooth. What we need is a crack team of determined boys
to take on the task..but where to find such volunteers?

Reporting for duty!

Hollywood Blvd eat your heart out - here are the real stars!

Bit of the Past;

When we moved into the house, oh some years ago, the previous owners

also had their family leave their mark in the concrete. I managed to get a

quick picture of it before the workers hauled it away.

Looks to be dated 4/18/67. Even the dog had a paw print in there!

Nice to carry on the tradition.