the kittens turn 1!

for those of you on facebook, this post and the wedding post may seem redundant. but in case you missed it, the kittens had a birthday party!

their evite card.

i hand-knit their favorite balls and bones as favors. most of the guests were cat-people so they went home with toys and tuna. but for the non-cat-people there were other options. 🙂

our first guests were marisa, arthur, their three kids and marisa’s parents, lynn and philip. the kittens are still not good with small children. they both hissed at trevor when he arrived! and sadly this is the only photo i got of marisa’s family! arthur on the lower left, lynn at the upper right and one of the kids on the lower right. my parents are on the other side of the table.

i wasn’t very good at taking photos of the humans at the party. 🙁 i missed some really cute photos of kyle with arwen downstairs, and my dad having a quiet visit upstairs with arwen and bella.

marisa did me a HUGE favor and picked up the cake at prolific oven in palo alto. this is THE BEST cake and kind of the whole reason for throwing a party… originally i was going to have them draw two little cat heads on the cake, but i chickened out when i placed the order.

even though i said “the kittens like paper bags, gifts are not necessary” people brought gifts! here is bella with a lovely bag from uncle larry.

bags!

more bags! and fun gifts!

while bella was loving all the gifts and attention, arwen was upstairs (passed out from too much catnip) completely oblivious that there was a party happening downstairs.

(left) christina and mathew. (right) larry and janeen.

what’s all this?

(left) another bag! (right) bella finally realized it was nap time and took a nap next to uncle larry.

(left) bella loves her uncle justin! (being silly…) (right) arwen and uncle larry!

is this for ME???

after everyone went home we took the girls outside.

i can’t believe how big they’ve gotten. arwen is now over 11 lbs. and bella is just under 10 lbs.

remember how small they used to be?

my birthday present to them: BUBBLES!

they loved the catnip bubbles.

thank you everyone for coming to visit and for bringing all the birthday loot!

the girls have been enjoying all their new toys.

a wedding road trip

mole here! it was a busy summer for us, socially, so there wasn’t a lot of work done on the house. last month we took a road trip to attend mathew’s sister eva’s wedding in los angeles.

(left) jacques the groom with a woman representing the church, followed by mathew and his sister leonora. (right) DaDaniel walking the lovely bride down the aisle.

(right) eva was very happily surprised by the rented, decorated, chauffeured wedding car.

after dinner at hugo’s, we went back to our rented house for cake.

eva’s friend val caught the bouquet.

leo made the cake!

(left) except for the meal at hugo’s, aja shopped for and prepared all of our meals at the house. she made it a delicious and relaxing retreat. (right) and misha surprised us with his first concert ever! he sang one song in italian (which made me cry!), one in german and an original eight two song in english. it was all very exciting and moving. i felt very privileged.

(left) mathew saying good bye to his brother. (right) the hollywood couple and their new car.

on the way home jim, reirin, mathew and i stopped at the beach for lunch.

and we stopped in san luis obispo for coffee. everything felt exactly as we’d left it many years ago. linnea’s was still there, downtown looked great, and the creek was still a nice place to stop and sit. we feel really lucky to have called this town home while we attended cal poly.

(left) my self portrait in front of the creek. (right) arwen sitting in mathew’s bag, happy to have us home. or maybe she’s saying, “next time i’m going with you.”

i promise to include more kittens in the blog… soon!

Plywood

Engineers in California love plywood. I’m no exception; this house really needs some seismic retrofitting, and I’ve expanded the stair replacement project to include a shear wall (plywood!). Once I got the first level of the deck stable, and the upper stairs shored up, I took the siding off the back of the house and added plywood.

On a rainy Monday, I went out to the back and tore out the old steps.

I’ve got most of the first level framed. The pile on the right is all that’s left of the old steps.

Above left is the view out the kitchen window downstairs. The deck is starting to form. Above right is the laundry room. The new back door will be where this window is, leading out onto the deck and stairs.

The old back door had been chopped down to be just over six feet tall. To make the door back into a standard height, I added wood at the bottom and top of the door. Then I stained it with the same wood stain we’ve been using on all the wood work here. Above right – look at our garden spiders! They are getting big. Can anyone identify it?

Oh, and in my ADD style, I also decided to tear out the ductwork for the heating furnace, and add backdraft dampers and fancy iris dampers. We’re planning to get the furnace replaced, so I wanted to get the ducts in a row. ahem. Well, the purpose of the backdraft dampers is to try to stop wind blowing through the house through the heating ducts.

So, after putting the second to last coat of polyurethane on the door, our neighbor’s cat got into the garage. And went walking on my fresh varnish. I think I can get these out with a light sanding, but maybe I should leave them??

Above right, you can see the siding taken off the back of the house, ready for plywood! On the lower left of the photo, you can see how well the blow-in insulation fills the cavities. I’m completely sold on that stuff – it completely fills the whole cavity, unlike batt insulation. I messed with it a bit when I was adding hold-downs to tie this shear wall into the level below.

I’m not a fan of waste. And when it’s 100-year-old redwood siding, I’d be foolish to throw it out. But getting it off the wall without breaking it is a challenge. The technique I came up with is to make a tiny core drill out of a piece of pipe. Using my Dremel tool I sharpen teeth into the end of the pipe. I’ve got a piece of tape on it for the thickness of the siding. Works OK, unless the nail is in at an angle. Then it instantly destroys my core drill, and I’m back to sharpening.

And here’s a before and after. Isn’t plywood nice? The strap just adds the perfect touch, I think.

A friend suggested I paint the hardware before installing it on the deck. His thinking is that the paint would help to stop the metal from rusting. Being a perfectionist myself, I think it’s a great idea. Being an engineer, belt-and-suspenders is always better. And after finding out the price of hardware in stainless steel (almost twenty times the cost), I’m going for the paint. It takes ages to paint all sides, though. I’m wondering if I should do two coats?

Janeen spotted a mushroom in the wood from the old stair (while she was outside pulling nails out of it).

The paint on the back of the house is in seriously bad shape. How can siding get this bad? It will be good to resurrect this wood. Above right, Janeen is priming the backs of the siding boards, after they’ve been sanded.

Well, I’m almost ready to start on the next level. If I don’t get distracted.

M.C.Escheresque

We started to do the framing for the deck this weekend. Instead of doing the whole thing in one go, I’ve decided to split it into two parts: First I shore up the upper stairs, and build the lower landing. Then, when there’s a safe platform to work from, I’ll start on the stairs.

I think there were a few raised eyebrows when I managed to get some 16ft long 4×6 beams onto the Honda Civic! It’s amazing what you can do with some cardboard (padding) and ratchet tie-downs. I’ve not been organized enough to arrange for a delivery, so I’ve been using the trusty old car to bring all the wood. It took three trips. By the third one, I realized how much time I’d have saved to just pay for the delivery. Next time. Above right, we’ve got the first post installed.

Janeen is holding one of the posts in copper green wood preservative. It smells nasty enough that I’m sure it works. We’re using preservative pressure treated wood, but any cut ends need to be treated. Above right, some ‘inspectors’ dropped by to look around.

I love this photo: It reminds us of Escher’s three dimensional drawings. The white posts are the posts supporting the stair up to the upper level. The brown are the new ones, all fished between the existing posts.

Above left, I’ve cut all the posts for the stairs above, and it is supported on the new framing. Above right, it’s amazing how easily rotten wood comes apart. I took off the hand rails so that I could get the new framing in.

A pile of old wood is developing.

Janeen is checking the level of the new framing. I’ve got a block of wood taped to the end of the level. When laid on the framing, it reads level when the framing is sloping 1/8″ per foot, so that the whole deck slopes slightly away from the house. Janeen’s removing nails from the old wood (above right). Considering how rotten the wood is, it can be a real pain to get the nails out.

Putting hangers on the framing, and adding framing between the beams. Above right you can see a sheet of plywood stacked on the framing above: I couldn’t figure out how to get it up there once the framing was in, so we pulled it up first. Good thing it wasn’t a windy day.

A while back I promised a photo of the front stairs and front door. Here it is, after the painting. Because I did not have time to repaint the whole house, I used the same colors, and just painted the areas that where really in need. I’ve also finally got rid of that awful gate.

Rotten Surprise

I rented a mixer – and my neighbor, Nick: We got all the rest of the footings poured in an afternoon. Many hands – and machinery – make light work.

Nick carried about a ton of concrete bags through the obstacle course that is the back stairs construction site. Another great thing about using the mixer is that you can get the water ratio just right. We measured it using a gallon paint can.

After we finished the footings, I spent an afternoon putting the list of wood we need for the deck together (above right).

For quite a while now, the structural engineer in me has been nagging at me that the back wall of our house has no shear wall. A shear wall is basically a solid piece of wall that is specially built to keep the house standing up in an earthquake. You really need this solid piece of wall to extend from the foundation up to the roof. Well, there’s a small piece of wall coming down from the roof to the bottom of the first floor. But at the garage, there’s a door under it.

So I resolved to wait no longer, and move the door over to where there’s now a window.

Above left is the door, and the window has been removed already. I’m going to move the door into the window’s location, and make a shear wall where the door is.

This was the first sign of trouble. The door frame came out with chunks of wood attached to it. When I looked into the wall, I discovered that the wall framing was completely rotten. In fact, it was so bad that I could pull it out with my hands

When I started removing the rotten wood, it just kept going. The wall on the left is supposed to be a bearing wall. It carries the weight of the two floors above. But six feet of it were so rotten that they couldn’t possibly be supporting anything. What’s surprising is that I’d noticed no sagging or sloping upstairs at all in this corner. I shored it up with a temporary wall in front of the rotten wall. All the studs I cut about 1/8″ too long, and jammed them in with a hammer to try to force load onto them (instead of the rotten wall).

Above left is some of the rotten wood. It was practically powdery in some places. Above right, I’ve got the corner of the house shored up on 2×4’s – don’t show this to an engineer ;).

The rot had traveled along the grain of the wall top plate. Above right, I’m making a new top plate (it’s a single 4×6). The old framing is all true 6″ dimension, so I need to either shim things to fit, or cut down larger pieces.

Above you can see the new top plate. I soaked it in wood preservative – just in case. With the top plate replaced, I needed to move on to the bottom of the wall. In the future, I plan to replace all the foundations (that are currently brick) with new concrete foundations. Far in the future. For now, I’ll just have to be happy with bolting the wall to the old brick foundation.

I started drilling, and only got about 1″ deep. I moved a foot over, tried again. Same. So I took a cold chisel to the concrete topping. Above right, I found a metal file, still in good condition (except I’d cracked it when I was drilling), buried in the concrete. And there were various other metal objects, including brass dead bolt and some other mysterious brass element that I’ve just left embedded.

Once I started chipping, the brick just crumbled. I took out two courses of brick, epoxied in some threaded rod, added some rebar… You can see the embedded brass device above left, sticking out of the concrete topping. Above right, ready for concrete.

Didn’t take any photos, but I poured the footing for the wall last week, and today managed to get all the new framing in. I used a jack to lift this corner of the house about 3/8″ to get the new post in at the corner. That was a bit scary, as I was using a piece of 2×6 that was about 4 foot long. When I looked up, the 2×6 was bending dramatically. I gently lowered the house, and used a heavier piece of wood. Note to self: Use 4×4 or bigger when jacking!

We’ve got a new solid shear wall almost finished, and no more rotten wood (I fit most of it in the city compost bin).

Now I need to get back to the project I was actually supposed to be doing: The back stairs.

Back Stair Footings

We started to ‘pour’ the footings for the back stairs last weekend. Well, it was more like I got lots of blisters on my soft engineer’s hands by shovel-mixing concrete.

Because the back stairs are the second exit from our upstairs unit, I don’t want them to be out of commission for a long time. I’m leaving the old stairs up until I’ve got all the footings done for the replacement stairs. I’ll also pre-cut as much of the framing for the replacement stairs as I can so that once we tear down the rotten old stairs, I’ll be able to replace them quickly. That’s the plan.

Digging out footings for new stairMole using electric jackhammer

Figuring that the concrete that’s all over the back yard would be thin and easy to break out, I first tried to chip the concrete out with a sledge and cold chisel. Two hours and two blisters later, with only one footing chipped out, I learned the error of my ways: The rented electric jackhammer did the remaining eight, and the concrete in a corner of the garden, in the same amount of time.

Rebar bent into tricky shapesTieing rebar cages

Being an engineer is a handicap when it comes to foundations. Once I started with putting reinforcing steel in the footings, well, I started figuring out how I could bend the bars so that they would hold their position. Hence the funky shapes!

Rebar placed into hole (no dobies yet)Formwork for footing

Test-fitting the reinforcing (left), and with the formwork made out of plywood. OK, they didn’t need to be sloping, but I like it.

Inspectors show upNot sure if the engineer likes this one

And then the inspection. Bella seems to see something wrong on the footing: I think she thinks I don’t have enough concrete cover between the soil and the rebar. Or maybe she likes the smell of the string. Difficult because she never wrote a field report.

Shovel mixing is hard on the back16 sacks = 3 footings

So after my fun experience with chipping out the concrete, I’d planned to rent a concrete mixer. But it doesn’t fit in the car. So I got more blisters, and an aching back, by shovel mixing 16 60lb sacks of concrete to pour three footings. I’m going to see if I can strap the mixer onto the car somehow…

Starting on the back stairs

I was going to use this post to show the completed front steps and porch. But I forgot to take photos. Next time.

When we first looked at the house, the major thing that worried us–and actually almost held up the sale–was the condition of the back steps. So it’s a bit ironic that we just passed our four year anniversary here, and I’m finally starting on the project of replacing them.

Here’s a nice view out of the downstairs kitchen window. When my Mum was visiting, she tried to improve things by getting plants to put out there. On the right is the view at the outside of this window. Pipes everywhere, and paint  in rather poor shape. It’s hard to imagine, but this actually looks better than when we got the house (I’ve removed two pipes already, and a cable tv wire).

But nothing compares to this! These stairs are held together with paint and caulk. And the paint is seriously peeling. On the right you can see the temporary shoring I put in four years ago (I was thinking it would be there for six months max).

Last weekend mole and I measured, and I drew up some plans for the new stairs. My goal is to change the alignment slightly so that it’s not in front of the kitchen window. I’d also like to make a small deck out in this rather dingy space.

With a level, string, a tape measure and spray paint, it took me most of the day to lay out the locations of the new posts, and where their footings will be. Using a concrete saw blade, I saw cut around the outlines of the new footings. In about two hours of hand chipping, I dug one of the footing holes. There’s about five inches of concrete, then soft, dark, beautiful soil. On the right above you can see the footing hole.

I’m gonna rent a jackhammer next week–there are nine more to do.

…and some kitten photos:

Left, Arwen on the about-to-collapse-deck. Right, kitten cooking assistants (they are watching Janeen cooking).

 

June Rain

The highly labor-intensive work continued on the front porch. The weather has been sunny and warm, but there’s a weather forecast of rain…

Mole primed all surfaces of the balusters before I put them in.

Ever since I changed the wiring for the porch light, the marks left by the previous electrical conduit were an eyesore on the ceiling of the landing. You can’t see it clearly from the photo, but it also looked as if someone had started stripping the paint, but never finished.

So I put plastic over the door and landing, put the ladder on the landing, and did some overhead paint stripping. Really tiring on the shoulders.

Sorry, not photos after the stripping, but here it is with primer on. I’ve started to sand and prep the beautiful decorative wood posts. At some point, a really thick coat of paint was put on that did not adhere. In lots of places, it’s come loose, so there are voids under the paint. Other areas, the paint is showing cracking, as if the paint underneath is shrinking. It’s got to get ugly before it gets pretty.

Well, even though I didn’t believe it on this beautiful sunny weekend, I’ve been caught before: With rain forecast, I had to get primer onto all the exposed wood. Here you can see the new railing and balusters installed.

The rain did come. The following week rained almost every day. On the weekend, Justin came to visit. The cats loooovvve him.

We bought this electric fireplace back in December because my mum thought the downstairs living room was dingy. Our plan was to install it into the bookshelf space to make the room a bit more cozy. I took out some of the bottom shelves, and installed a new receptacle inside the alcove. But we’ve liked the heater so much upstairs that we never got round to bringing it back down. A rainy summer weekend is the perfect time.

Above right: Arwen and Bella inspect the test fitting.

Above left: Bella asks which screwdriver to use. Above right: I think Arwen just really likes getting into bags. She’s really curious and doesn’t scare easily; she hung around even after I started sawing, and got sawdust in her fur.

I had to trim off some of the top of the fireplace to get it to fit. But now it’s built-in.

Lying Around on the Steps

Now that the front stairs are done, we’ve got to finish the painting. And of course, there are other projects.

On the left is the new landing, grouted and sealed. I finally took off the ugly metal gates from the front of the house. When they put them in, they tore out the rail and balusters that ran along side the landing.

Almost three years ago, my neighbor was tearing out and replacing his deck. He had these balusters left, and gave them to me. Quite fancy for a deck (I think he got them cheap used).

The reason so many wood Victorians were stripped, or torn down: Maintenance of exterior painted wood, even if it’s old growth redwood, is incredibly labor intensive. Sanding these balusters before we could use them took ages.

I don’t think these are redwood, but they are beautiful tight grained fir. I cut the balusters to fit in their new locations. Nothing is square in an old house, so every one is a different size, and the angles of the cuts vary. To keep the bugs from feasting on the wood, (right) mole is treating the end grain with nasty smelling wood preserver. We have to let it dry 48 hours before painting, so I couldn’t get them in this weekend.

Janeen and I spent the sunny Sunday afternoon lying around on the front steps (with paint brushes). Last post, I said we’d decided on a new color for the stairs. It’s not really a ‘new’ color; we’re just sticking with the color scheme of the overall house until we repaint the whole house. The photo above right, for me, is acceptance of how long it will be until we get around to repainting the outside of the house: Probably not until next year.