sorry, i just can’t be bothered to write descriptions. maybe later…
Author: janeen
our generous volunteers
last saturday i started my weekend by going to see the new harry potter movie with my childhood friend, marisa, who i hadn’t seen since october 2007! i returned to find a house full of busy bees…
my dad was drilling holes for blow-in insulation. my mom was priming the bathroom walls and ceiling. mathew was working on electrical wiring. everyone was very engrossed in their projects. i walked to the local store to buy paint then helped my mom with the primer.
on sunday mathew continued with his electrical work adding new outlets and networking cables. this usually starts with cutting holes upstairs (above left) then stringing wires through to the garage downstairs (above right.) it sounds simple but it can be very frustrating if the wires don’t behave and have trouble moving through the walls. last weekend mathew says he spent 5 excruciating hours on one outlet trying to pull wires through at an impossible angle.
meanwhile my parents and i worked on installing the cellulose insulation into the walls where my dad had drilled holes in the downstairs bedroom, kitchen and office.
in the garage, my mom and i were doing the noisy, dirty work of filling the machine hopper with the insulation material while upstairs my dad had the peaceful job of filling the holes and working the machine through a remote control.
his job did have some drawbacks as the reducing nozzle is only an inch wide so it would often get jammed and the whole process would have to stop. and it wasn’t often easy to un-jam the nozzle. also, sometimes there’s confusion with the switches on the remote control, if you turn off the agitator but not the blower, when you pull the nozzle out of the wall, you will shower yourself in snowy, grey, dusty recycled fibers. mathew and i have both experienced this and i think my dad did too.
in the late afternoon i heard a loud noise coming from the kitchen. what i found was mathew cutting the countertop. this downstairs kitchen is HUGE, possibly twice the size of an average san francisco kitchen, with way more cabinets than anyone could ever need. our plan is to eliminate some of the cabinets and bring the refrigerator closer to the stove and sink, then add a built in bench to create a dining area near the window.
last weekend felt a bit like we had tag-team volunteers, just hours after my parents left on sunday night, my cousin larry appeared. and as if he had known we hadn’t gotten a chance to go shopping and were running low on food, he brought all kinds of organic fruits and vegetables for us!
on monday morning larry got to work painting around the trim in the bathroom with a paintbrush, later he filled in the walls with a roller, then painted the window trim and wainscoting. he gave the room two coats on monday and another on tuesday. we think the bathroom looks great and it’s exciting to see it becoming finished. the floors are next…
we are so grateful to our generous volunteers. not only do they give their valuable time but they always seem to bring food. THANK YOU!!!!!! we know that mathew and i can be a bit perfectionistic and we sometimes have people working on things they’ve never done before, but we truly appreciate all of your efforts and enjoy spending time with you. with your help we are getting closer to our goal and one day will be able to spend time with you that doesn’t involve dust masks, work clothes or tools.
to strip, or not to strip
last weekend more quality time was spent with the rented wallpaper steamer. we were determined to remove the remaining stubborn wallpaper in the kitchen. some people wondered, “why not paint over it?” “why not just tear out all the plaster and replace with gypboard?”
1) painting over the wallpaper was what had been done by previous owners and in most places the paint just didn’t stick well and chipped off easily in large sheets. plus from the way it had browned and aged, we’re guessing the adhesives were not archival and would probably show through the paint over time. 2) and as with the rest of this remodel/restoration project, being as environmentally conscious and keeping as much out of landfill as possible was a big concern. tearing out plaster from all the rooms would require a large dumpster. removing old paint and wallpaper, produces just a few small garbage bins worth of waste. and the old plaster is so much more beautiful and durable than gypboard!
(above left) mathew is removing the door frame for the door that was removed and blocked off leading from the kitchen to the bathroom. (above right) after the trim and wallpaper has been removed.
when the kitchen was almost done i realized “coffee and a kick in the pants” had gotten damaged. all that remained on the wall was “kick in the pants”, “coffee” had somehow gone missing! it’s silly that we got so upset, but it was a clipping given to us by mathew’s brother misha, and it has been with us for 10-12 years! i eventually found “coffee”, it was trying to blend in with the discarded wallpaper on the floor.
around 8pm on sunday night mathew decided we should tackle the second entry/hallway. his only experience with wallpaper removal had been the kitchen and that WASN’T fun. the paint and wallpaper in this hallway flew/melted off the wall and mathew understood what my experience with my mom had been removing wallpaper in the bedroom. the plaster on this wall was in fairly good condition with only a few cracks. it looked like the previous owners had used some sort of red stain/paint on the bare plaster.
next mathew decided we should work on the opposite wall (not shown.) this did not go as smoothly and when removing the top layers the smell of mold surfaced. basically we were trying to remove paint and wallpaper from moldy gypboard and eventually decided to just replace the gypboard.
and in my free time i knit.
where were we?
this is what happened two weekends ago.
on saturday i sanded the wainscoting.
while mathew was down in the garage cutting and shaping the white marble that will go around the downstairs bathroom window.
(left) vacuuming, prepping for grout. (right) grouting. notice the new marble frame around the window?
(left) after grout has been applied. (right) white recycled tile and new marble window frame and sill.
on sunday i deserted mathew to attend my first of three letterpress classes at san francisco center for the book…
at home mathew had installed glass in the upstairs bedroom back-door.
here he is creating trim on the router table he made. this is the last piece needed to finish the upstairs bathroom window, for some reason it wasn’t added last year.
creating the curve that faces out.
(left) without lower trim. (right) after mathew added the trim and finished caulking the gaps. nice, huh?
apparently it was a day of odds and ends and completing unfinished projects. here is the exterior side door on the garage. (left) old, ugly, peeling trim. (right) trim removed.
(left) this looks like a good piece of wood to reuse… (right) this is what happens when the router decides to get creative and goes astray… [I was learning how to use the router table to make trim, so I figured the garage door beside the garbage cans is a good place to start. I had to set up guides at the side and top of the board to hold it firmly in place as it slides through the router, or it gets the dents shown above. – turtle]
the new exterior door trim before and after paint. possibly a little too beautiful for an exterior garage door? hopefully the garbage, recycling and compost bins will appreciate the new decor!
…and more tile.
last weekend we were excited to have 3 full days to work on the house.
mathew started by finishing the laundry room frame and wall siding on the new bathroom window that he made and installed. then he covered the plywood with some of that star paneling that was used upstairs on the walls. this will eventually be sanded and painted white to match the rest of the wall. i’ve almost forgotten that this used to be the bathroom door.
on saturday all i did was clean up recycled tile. we even got to re-use some of the white tile that used to be in the old (stenchy) pink upstairs bathroom. because the previous owners had used mastic (glue adhesive) instead of thin-set to install the tile, mathew found it was easier to clean using the heat gun in the garage. the white tile looks brand new!
on sunday i woke up with food poisoning so mathew worked alone for the rest of the weekend. he finished cleaning all the blue tile, cut and installed it to fit around the window, and floor.
and he even bought a dremel tool to grind out some of the old grout that wasn’t applied correctly. when i wandered down to take photos i was surprised by how much it sounded and smelled like drilling teeth at the dentist’s office. ick.
and mathew wouldn’t be mathew if he didn’t go one step further with the details. (left) he purchased, cut and corner-rounded some white marble for the window sill. the recycled white tiles are around the inside edge next to the window. more white marble will go around the outside of the window next to the blue tile, to give the impression of a window frame. it took us a while to decide exactly what to do in that space between the blue tile and the window. it would have been impossible (and not very pretty) to cut and install small pieces of the blue to fill that thin space. (right) and he routed and installed wainscoting top ledges that will go around the room. now it’s time for me to sand the wainscotting and make it pretty again.
tile. and other things.
here’s how the exterior looks after the painting has been done and the scaffolding removed. nice, huh? now when i look at the rest of the house and see peeling paint it makes me want to get out there and scrape, sand and paint. …but one thing at a time.
mathew finished making this bathroom window from the large old bedroom window that was replaced. he cut the metal, pieced it together, cut the glass (with much difficulty) and installed it into the frame. we’ll add a translucent film for privacy since it looks out onto the laundry room, but it really helps to add natural daylight to the room. (right) here it is again with the window trim moulding added which will be painted eventually.
during the week mathew put up kerdi membrane, a special water barrier cloth that goes under the tile where he had removed the old window, tub and shower fixtures.
last weekend we got to work installing tile in those gaps over the kerdi.
even though we’ve already had lots of tile experience, installing this tile was painstaking work. since we’re recycling it, it’s no longer in big sheets with mesh backing but in pieces, so we had to apply each small piece and eyeball it to make sure it lined up with the old tile.
(left) here mathew is cleaning out excess thin-set that squeezed out between the tiles. (right) and i am cleaning the backs of more tile to be installed. we need enough to go around the new window to the right and to fill the rest of this wall where mathew is working. it is a very SLOW process.
while we worked last weekend mathew came to the realization that this remodel has taken as long as it has because of mathew’s perfectionism and my desire to recycle and not contribute to landfill…
more of the same
the last two weekends have looked pretty much the same.
i’m slowly working my way around the bathroom installing wainscoting. (right) i’m especially proud of the places where i have to pre-drill or pre-cut for plumbing and electrical outlets.
since we’re recycling wood, i’m also piecing two smaller boards to create one large board most of the time. this was tricky because each board isn’t exactly the same width, there could be a difference up to 3/16″, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you’ve got that large a gap between boards and then it’s not so pretty. so it became a big matching game.
(left) this is my 4th pipe in the wall and it falls between two pieces of wainscotting. (right) i clamp two pieces together, measure exactly where the pipe will fit and drill the hole. mathew and i are surprised by how accurate my measuring has been.
installing wainscoting is noisy, dusty work so i just wear my respirator mask and ear protection pretty much the entire time. this is a dramatic reinactment where i’ve forgotten my protective eye goggles… if i had them on, you probably wouldn’t recognize me.
(left) this was my view of mathew for the last two weekends. (right) this was mathew’s view for the last two weekends.
now that the windows have been installed, mathew has put all the siding and window trim back in place. it sounds simple but involved lots of wood repair, sanding and priming. the brown stuff is bondo for filling holes and cracks, most of it he applied on saturday after the sun had gone down and the mosquitoes were out.
mathew spent this last weekend scraping, sanding and prepping the entire wall and window trim for paint (oh the noise! can you tell i’m not big on noise?) he did spend some time cutting left-over crown moulding, this involves carefully measuring tricky angles to fit it together under the small bathroom window sill. he wanted to have something pretty under the window in case someone looked out at it. (i’m sorry i don’t have any photos of the finished moulding. i’m not about to climb the scaffolding on this cold monday morning to take the one missing photo.) (right) here is an ugly “before” pipe photo instead.
you’ll have to tune in next week when we post photos of the finished, painted wall!
déjà vu
we’re reached the point in our remodel where everything is starting to look familiar because we’ve done it once before.
similar to when we were working on the living room on this level, mathew rented scaffolding to prep and install the bedroom and bathroom windows.
first he removed all the interior and exterior window trim and then he removed the big bedroom window.
(left) while all of this was going on, i came up from the garage, took a break from stripping wainscoting and noticed how easily the paint/plaster/wallpaper chipped off the bedroom wall. (right) and i helped mathew install the bathroom window. he set up shims on the window sill inside and had me hold them in place while he inserted the window from the outside. he had me use the level to make sure the window was aligned correctly then he screwed it in place from outside.
(left) next it was time to install the giant bedroom window, but first we had to carry it upstairs from the garage. this was no easy feat, check out the size of the stair well… mathew estimates the window weighs about 100 pounds, and the stairwell is so tight that mathew has to duck every time he walks up or down the stairs. we took the window out of the box and it has these big vinyl fins all around the window, which make it easy for attaching to the outside of the house, but impossible to hold onto or place down on the floor to rest. so we struggled with carrying this window, carefully up this stairwell without hurting the window, the walls or ourselves. let me just say, it was tiring and STRESSFUL. if it were daytime we probably should have carried it up the outside stairs, but since the box had already been taken apart and mathew was determined to install the window that night… we had dinner then came back to install it.
(right) this photo was taken the next morning, AFTER the installation. installing the window was stressful but not as much as carrying it upstairs! the tricky thing was that the window had to be passed through the opening then lifted up into place and installed from outside while standing on the scaffolding. at that point the scaffolding was set up to reach above the window; i had the idea to remove the top bars so that we would have room to maneuver the window outside.
first i went outside onto the scaffolding while mathew passed the window through the opening to me while climbing outside too. then i went back inside and placed the shims on the sill while mathew tried to balance the window on it’s crazy vinyl fins. next he lifted the window into place on top of the shims. it took some adjusting, adding shims until the window was level. we passed tools to each other through the new bathroom window. and while mathew was screwing the entire window in place i was holding a light up in the bathroom window so he could see what he was doing. what a night!
(left) before all of that, i was having fun chipping off the paint/plaster/wallpaper in the bedroom. that splodgy plaster technique (see white wall photo above) is really ugly but i managed to make the room even uglier! (right) mathew took this photo of the chips on the floor but that was nothing. they were seriously everywhere!
on sunday mathew worked on sealing around the new windows and replacing the exterior siding and trim.
i painted the gypboard and backer strips where the wainscoting will be installed, just one more moisture barrier.
(left) and then i got to work installing the wainscoting. because of the uneven floor i have to measure for each piece then cut them on the miter saw. mathew taught me how to use the air-powered nailer, a tool i never thought i’d use, because i hate the gun-like quality and the NOISE involved. it was after i’d installed quite a few of these tongue in groove boards that i realized it was a very simplified version of installing flooring. so, in the end i did get to learn something about flooring! you might wonder why these boards are so ugly… they are RECYCLED. these are the boards i’ve been stripping downstairs in the garage, eventually they will be painted white. in a way, this is MY project: i stripped the boards (with the help of the gee sisters!), i cut and installed gypboard and backer strips, now i’m cutting and installing the boards, next i’ll sand and paint them. except for the painting, mathew did this entire process for the upstairs bathroom in 2008.
(right) the gladiolus (bulbs i planted) have finally arrived!
a BIG weekend
i hope you’ve got some time to spend here… because this is by far the biggest blog post i’ve ever made since we started this remodel/restoration.
the foyer
(left) in january 2008 my sister-in-law, najia pulled up the linoleum tile that was glued to the old oak floor. (right) in august 2008 mathew’s dad, daniel came over to assess the existing oak floors.
last friday morning, 4.6.09, daniel returned with lots of his flooring tools. he and mathew got to work installing floors, something they haven’t done together since 1996?
(left) after mathew has sanded the old oak. [I sanded the old floor before taking it out so that I could compost it! Also, I was thinking that maybe I’d need to reuse some of it in Janeen’s office, as the wood in the office looked so bad. – turtle] (right) after the old floor was pulled up, paper was put down. the process started with cutting the baseboards with a jamb-saw so that the oak pieces can slip underneath them. normally when installing floors daniel will remove the baseboards, install the floor then replace the baseboards. since mathew and i had already refinished and painted the baseboards, and they are large, old, brittle and intricate, it didn’t make sense to pull them out.
(left) oak floor boards being installed. (right) daniel doing the first sanding after filler has been added to patch any cracks or gaps.
the finished foyer floor after lots of sanding and 3 coats of water-based urethane.
the hall
most of the rooms had carpets and linoleum when we first moved in. none of the floor coverings matched. this hall had (1) brown carpet over (2) really thick pink and blue linoleum over (3) really retro hard linoleum tile (above right, my parents removing it) over (4) a cool printed linoleum “area rug” over (5) red painted fir sub floor boards.
(left) the cool printed linoleum “area rug.” (right) sub floor painted red where it was exposed under the “area rug”
(left) daniel loves to blast music when he’s working. they’re wearing hearing protection most of the time so it makes sense that it should be loud. i’m assuming this is dancing and not some sort of flooring ritual/technique… [he’s managed to get his feet tangled in the air hose, and said he was doing the “floorman’s shuffle” (ie, trying not to trip). – turtle] (right) i took this photo right after i returned from my weekend trip on sunday evening. i surprised mathew when the flash went off after suddenly appearing in the kitchen.
(left) filling (“gooping” is what they called it. is that the technical term?) gaps and cracks in the floor. [twenty years ago, the only filler that floormen used was a brand named “goop” – it smelled really strongly, but held better in the floor than most fillers. the filler we were using now is a water-based filler. the old stuff is probably illegal in California because it has too high VOC.- turtle]. (right) the first sanding on monday morning. “look, no hands!”
(left) mathew edge sanding with a different sander. (right) the big sander tends to pull the filler up so here i am re-filling after the first sanding on monday evening.
(left) i watch as the first coat of water-based urethane goes on tuesday afternoon. (right) on tuesday night after going out for indian pizza (to celebrate my birthday) mathew and daniel sweep the floors with blue paper, after vacumming most of the dust, to remove the last bits of dust from the very fine sanding between coats.
(left) after the sweep, daniel and mathew applied the second coat of urethane. (right) and here it is after it’s 3rd and final coat!
the living room
(left) here’s what the red sub floor looked like. (right) paper added and the beginnings of the border.
the border is pieced and installed first then the rest of the floor is installed.
(left) mathew chose a 3/4″ walnut border to surround each room. he said that adding the border possibly doubles the work time. [at least! we did a five board border. When there’s a border around the room, every piece of wood that fits inside it must be cut perfectly to length — and with me as the perfectionist homeowner, 1/64″ undersize was barely acceptable. I know how the filler will jump out of cracks over time. – turtle] (right) approaching the final board.
the living room after filling, sanding, filling, sanding, sanding, sanding, edge sanding, vacuuming, coating, screening, vacuuming, sweeping, coating, screening, vacuuming, sweeping, coating. did i miss a step? [fine sanding “screening” is done between each coat to smooth out raised grain (we’re using water-based urethane), help adhesion, and smooth off any dust in the previous coat. oh, the final step: everything is covered in a fine layer of dust, so vacuuming of walls, trim, etc is the final step. – turtle]
sooo… i spent most of the weekend in santa barbara with margaret. we walked, we talked, we ate and sort of shopped. mostly we just caught up during our yearly visit.
the office
this is the CHAOS that was my office. since we moved in, in september of 2007, we haven’t bothered (or had time) to organize, plan, paint or even unpack this room.
on monday while mathew was fixing the turkish hacker fiasco (see previous post), i was packing and packing. my office has temporarily moved into our upstairs bedroom, and most of my stuff is in the downstairs kitchen and bedroom. then mathew moved all the furniture and here it is empty again.
the floors in this room are quarter sawn oak. they were old, dirty, tired and stained. daniel was most excited about this transformation.
here daniel is doing the first sanding. already a dramatic difference.
after the sanding they discussed what the next step would be. “to goop? or not to goop?”
old floors like this one were nailed individually and not installed with tongue and groove boards like they are today. so there are tons of little nail holes and gaps between the boards. the decision was to “goop” the floor. (right) mathew is applying the filler with a large spackling tool, working in fast, quick strokes. he’s trying to apply pressure in two directions to make sure the filler completely fills and sticks in the holes. i helped too but only covered 1/4 of the floor that mathew covered in the same amount of time.
(left) completely gooped. (right) the partially sanded floor after gooping. nice!
(left) daniel “rocket-man” vacuuming after the sanding and before the first urethane coat on tuesday. (right) how the floors looked late on wednesday afternoon when i was allowed to walk downstairs in socks. the radio had been on all day because after the final coat it was impossible to get to. daniel coated the floors and made sure he finished at the front door to make his final exit and leave after 6 days of live-in work.
the second foyer/hall
this is the hallway that leads to our upstairs unit. it started with carpet and fir sub floor underneath.
(left) mathew and daniel installing the border, then interior floor boards. (right) father and son happy to work together again. although i was told that working with mathew was like working with a really high-maintenance, picky, perfectionist client who never left the house… during the entire weekend mathew was BOSSY but daniel, as always, maintained a positive attitude with a smile on his face.
the process of flooring is NOISY, dusty and smelly. and hard on the knees, back and i’m guessing, hands. even though i had been looking forward to helping install these floors i was glad to be away for most of the noise. (right) sometimes the last piece of wood is an odd shape and size. here mathew is installing that last sliver after carefully planing and shaping it to fit perfectly.
dumpy watches as mathew goops. mathew was up sanding this bit of floor till almost 10pm that sunday night…
flooring is a hugely labor-intensive process but in the end we have beautful, beautiful new floors. thank you daniel and mathew! it was possibly the biggest birthday present ever.
(right) flowers from daniel. (i LOVE gerber daisies.) vegan chocolate cupcakes by janeen. i plan on celebrating for at least a week… but i’m running out of cupcakes. must make more.
whoa, hacking drama
Seems turtlemole.com got hacked! I think we’ve got it all back in order. Yikes. We got an email from my Mum telling us. Also, a bunch of other sites were down. Seems it was a server issue.
Back to the floors…