Home (De)construction

We've Moved!

2009-05-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

Well, actually just the blog has moved. We won't be moving for a few more months.

So, if you're following this blog, please update your links to http://homedeconstruction.wordpress.com

Thanks to everyone who has been reading this!

Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing Pictures

2009-05-07T15:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some more detailed pictures of the MEP work, now finished at the house. Rough inspections (by the city building department) are tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Here's the main duct, covered now in insulation. Not shown and to the right, the duct starts at the furnace, in the garage. Ground floor registers are in the ceiling. Upstairs, the air will come out of the cabinet 'kick' or the floor. The duct will be enclosed in the same cabinet material.

Here's the electrical sub-panel, with all the circuit breakers. Power comes from outside PG&E lines overhead, to the main panel with the meter, and then to this sub-panel. From here, wires to to all the lights and power in ever room. Different color wires carry different amounts of power. Orange, for example is 30 amps, going to the electric clothes dryer & oven.

Let there be light! We tested the lights, to make sure everything works. This picture is of the recessed cans downstairs. They're halogen, uninteresting, and pretty much as cheap as you can get. At least they line up.

This plumbing picture is taken from the garage. All the waste lines come to a point before going into the ground and into the main at the street. All these pipes come from the kitchen and bathroom upstairs.

Plumbing waste lines not only go into the ground, but need to be 'vented' to the roof. Vents provide relief of sewer gases and prevent these gases from entering the building. With exceptions, every plumbing fixture must have a vent. In our second floor, only one wall extends to the roof. All the other walls are partial height and stop at 8' above the ground. So to hide all the pipes, they needed to come to this one full height wall, and vented to the roof. Also in this wall are bathroom exhaust fan vents (in silver) and a flue from the furnace (black plastic).

Lastly, here's the kitchen sink plumbing. Since it's on an island, there's no place for a regular vent, discussed above. So the piping has to be configured in what's called a 'loop vent'. It loops around and connects with another pipe, eventually going to the roof. In the picture, it's the larger copper pipe, forming an upside down 'V'. The 4 smaller copper pipes are the water supply, hot and cold, for both the dishwasher and kitchen sink. A required 'clean-out' is below and behind the blue hose.

Progress!

2009-05-03T22:41:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone,

Again, we haven't been so great with updating. This time, we have lots to update. Also, a side note, I accidentally deleted 3 comments recently. Sorry about that. Feel free to repost.

So now, not only do we have floors, but we have walls, pipes, ducts, lights, switches and wires! Rough plumbing, electrical, and mechanical inspections are scheduled this coming Tuesday. So enough with words, here are some pictures:

Upstairs framing. You can see the entrance to the two bedrooms in the middle. The 8' high wall is going to contain all the kitchen cabinets. The bathroom is behind and in he middle. Only one wall goes up to the high ceiling. It contains all plumbing vents and is also a structural wall.

Here's a close-up of the back of that tall wall. All the plumbing vents from the entire house come into this one wall, and up to the roof. The bathroom exhaust fans & furnace flue also comes through this wall.

Here's the roof. The lower pieces of wood spanning across the house will be removed. They'll be replaced with 4 steel rods. You can see the framing for the skylights to the left.

More of the upstairs. The dining room is behind. The lower wall has the kitchen sink plumbing. The island will go in front.

View from the back of the house. You can see the hole where the stairs are going to the right.

Close-up of the stair hole. It starts at the far point from the camera, and turns an 'L' as you descend.

This photo is from the entertainment room downstairs. It's looking toward the stair hole and the master bedroom beyond. To the right is the garage. The yellow thing in the ceiling is insulation, covering a duct. One main heating duct runs from the front of the house to the back, with registers that admit heat, to each of the upstairs and downstairs rooms. The rectangles with circles in them are the recessed lights.

Good times...they are a-coming!

2009-04-07T16:53:00.000-07:00

We had the best weekend last week! We got floors AND walls! It was so exciting. We hadn't anticipated so much getting done. But just to clarify, when I say walls, I mean the framing that holds up the sheetrock. There are still many many steps before we even get close to sheetrock. So this is what we're working with now...

This is the only wall in the house that will go completely from floor to ceiling (at least on the main level of the house). It is the wall between the upstairs bathroom and one of the bedrooms:

And this is Ryan, constructing the half wall that will act as a guard rail for the stairs and where the kitchen counters will be:

These rooms are the upstairs bathroom and bedroom. The smallish square room toward the right of the picture is where the bathroom will be (it is in the running for world's smallest bathroom). The room toward the back of the house is the bedroom. To the left of the bedroom is where the kitchen will be.

And here is more or less the completed walls. As you can see, with exception of one of the bathroom walls, none of them are full height (meaning they don't go up to the ceiling). Yes, that's right. All the rooms will be open on top. If you were a 12-foot giant, you could walk around and look down into each room (except the bathroom, which will have a lid on it to provide...ahem...acoustical privacy).

The room toward the right of the bathroom could be like another bedroom (it will have a closet and a window, which technically makes a bedroom). More likely, for us, it will serve as an office. It is not completely enclosed by walls because, in the very very far future, Ryan wants the center wall to made of GLASS.

So those are just about all the walls that will be in the house. The next steps include putting in blocking (horizontal pieces of wood that go in between the vertical pieces in the wall), which provide some kind of stability to the wall. And then we need to do plumbing and electrical work. And there are a bunch of odds and ends that need to be done...but this was a huge step since it was the first time that we really put in something new in the house. Go us!

Playing catch-up

2009-03-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

Ryan and I are very aware that we are not doing a good job updating this blog. Since our last post, a lot has happened at the house. I am going to attempt to catch y'all up with what's been going on:

The first major thing that happened was that we had a swimming pool installed. For those of you in the bay area, you might remember that for a few weeks in February we were getting a LOT of rain. During one of those weeks, Ryan sent me over to the house on a random errand and I found a swimming pool where we had intended to put our master bedroom. We were so freaked out by the incident that we didn't have the presence of mind to take pictures. Here's a picture of the draining swimming pool:

When I first found the pool, the entire room was covered in about an inch and a half of water. We think that ground water was leaking in through the edges of the room. Now that it has stopped raining, we are working on waterproofing the problem areas so that this doesn't happen every time it rains.

The next big thing that happened is that we tore up the subfloor on the main living floor in order to reinforce some of the old joists and level the floor. This has been quite an adventure. So this is what we've been dealing with:

You can see we've put sheets of plywood and other pieces of wood down on top of the joists so that we can walk around, but I've got to say, I've never really appreciated the benefits of having a floor. Luckily, we are now in the process of putting the new subfloor in. Can't wait to have floors again!

Finally, the last big thing that's happened is that Ryan constructed our first wall! It is the wall that separates the garage area from the living area on the ground floor. Unfortunately, I can't find the pictures of it, so that will have to wait for another post. But it is very exciting to me that we are finally BUILDING walls instead of tearing them down.

Floors and walls. Good times are ahead.

Design Images

2009-01-20T22:55:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd post some images of what the house is intended to be, when it's all said and done. I've been using Autocad to draft up plans, sections and elevations of the design. Autocad is practically the industry standard for architects and some engineers to draft drawings of various sorts in the computer. It's sort of like drafting things by hand except faster. The images below, however, were done in a 3D modeling program called Sketchup. It is a very simple program, also free from google. It's super-easy to use and a convenient way to visualize spaces and objects in three dimensions. Therefore, its a good tool to understand the spaces prior to building them to make sure everything works out. This particular program isn't the best tool for photo-realistic renderings, but it works for simple exercises like this.

Below are two images, one from a birds-eye view and another at eye level. The street and front entry are at the second floor to the left. The backyard is to the right. You enter the house from an exterior staircase leading to the second floor.

As you enter, you find yourself in the living room. To your right is the third bedroom which will most likely be used as an office. The staircase and kitchen are integrated, and are located behind the living room. The 'island' kitchen counter, shown in dark brown, will contain the sink and will serve as the guardrail so you don't fall to the floor below. To the top of the drawing is the bathroom flanked on each side by bedrooms.

A tall wall of cabinetry, shown in tan, separates bedroom 2 from the kitchen. Starting from the top right, this cabinetry forms the closet for bedroom 3, a coat closet facing the living room, tall kitchen items (refrigerator, pantry, oven, appliance garage), and a counter for the stove. In addition to being a room divider, this cabinetry will also hide ductwork at it's base, supplying the heat to all rooms of the house. It also contains the energy efficient up-lights at the top, which will shine onto the high ceiling above. The lights will be hidden from one's view. Since the fluorescent lights will reflect from the ceiling, the harshness typically associated with fluorescents will be reduced. Therefore the tan 'L' functions as a divider of space, storage for a variety of functions, and a conduit for electrical and heating utilities. It's called 'poche', 'diagram', or 'parti' in archi-speak.

As the cabinet wall will stop well short of the ceiling, the only wall in the middle of the house that extends from floor to ceiling is between 'bath 1' and 'bdrm 2'. This wall provides structural, lateral support and holds the plumbing utilities. Every other wall stops at an 8' high datum. This will provide greater natural light to all spaces and will allow you to perceive the high cathedral ceiling from all rooms in the house. Since the home is small and square footage is not very generous, a high ceiling and open plan will help to make the house feel larger and more comfortable.

The kitchen counter, shown in dark brown, stops and then starts again in the dining room. The dining room is located in the existing sunroom addition. This will be right next to the deck. I hope to eventually put a large sliding door between the deck and dining room, allowing the eating area to open to the outside on a warm day. The ceiling over the dining room is lower than the rest of the house. I'm thinking to paint this entire volume a fun, bright color, giving a counterpoint to the white walls and ceiling.

The staircase leads you down toward a bookshelf and then under the kitchen counter. Usually, there are cabinets under counters, but to allow headroom without sacrificing valuable space, we're going to omit the cabinets, allowing headroom as you descend the stairs. The stair landing is about 2'-6" above the ground floor level, the ideal desk height. This landing forms a 'plinth' and will extend to the right, beyond the stair, forming a desk at the office area.

To the right of the office will be the family room. Because of the exterior stair, this area has little natural light. The open stair and skylights at the roof above will help bring light to the dark ground floor level, but this area will be ideal for an entertainment center and tv.

To the left of the stairway, under the dining room, will be the master bedroom. Eventually, similar to upstairs, I'd like to add a large sliding door. On nice days, the master bedroom will have direct access to the backyard and garden. (as if we have any idea how to garden)

Not shown is the garage and master bathroom on the ground floor. The garage basically stays in the same place, and will house the water heater, a laundry area, furnace, and electrical panel as well as one car. Behind the garage, and next to the office, will be the master bathroom.

All in all, we'll have about 1500 habitable square feet, 3 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms. We're trying to make the most out of a small space. Hopefully, every square inch will be utilized efficiently and simply. In addition, the design will try to take advantage of an open floor-plan, high ceilings, and visual connection between the two floors. This should give a generous and open feeling to a space that could easily feel cramped. With a tight budget, locating plumbing and heating systems in a straightforward and simple manner will help to keep costs down.

Here are those images:

Those are my thoughts so far. Any feedback or suggestions would be appreciated, preferably before I start to build walls!

Raise the roof (sorta)

2009-01-12T21:02:00.000-08:00

Last week, I raised our house off the ground all by myself.

More accurately, I raised a portion of the house about 1/2", but nevertheless, part of the house is now higher than it once was. Here's how:

Soon after demolition was finished, we found the middle wall on the ground floor to be a bit wimpier than it should be. This wall supports half of the entire floor above, and is quite important. It sat on a very thin bit of concrete, instead of a proper footing with rebar. Instead of re-doing the entire wall and foundation, we decided to put in beefier posts at 6' intervals to hold up the floor above.

First, we had to jackhammer the existing deficient concrete, and dig a hole 2 feet square and 18 inches deep. There were 3 such holes. Here is a picture of one of them:

After putting in metal reinforcing bar into the hole, we mixed and poured concrete. The concrete was smoothed out to be flush with the rest of the floor, and a metal post base was partially embedded into the wet concrete.

Next, the hard part. I took my trusty laser level, and shot a perfectly horizontal line across the bottom of the beam these posts were to support. I found the beam to be quite wavy, with a significant dip of about 1/2" in the center. One end of the beam was also lower than the other. I realized that I couldn't raise either end of the beam, but I it did seem possible to raise the middle. Making possibilities reality is not so easy. With a sledgehammer, extra 2x4's, leverage, and the laws of physics, I raised our house.

I first measured the space between the ground and the beam. Then I cut some wood to be slightly taller than that space. I wedged the wood between the ground and beam at an angle, and sledgehammered it until it was vertical. You can see it buckling slightly under the weight of the floor above here:

This was done twice for every post. One temporary piece was wedged to the left and another to the right of the new post location. But cutting these temporary pieces taller than the space, I slowly raised the beam back to horizontal.

Next I repeated the process with the actual permanent 4x4 post. It sits at the bottom in the 'post base' that was previously cast into the concrete. A 'post cap' at the top connects it to the existing beam.

Many hours and much noisy sledgehammering later, the post is finally installed in it's correct location, and the beam is level:

I knocked out the two temporary pieces. Here are two posts installed. I still have one more in the middle to complete.

When finished, the new concrete footings and posts will have sufficient bearing capacity to hold the furniture, walls, roof, and people on the floor above. The beam should stay level and the concrete should not settle.

Stairs! Part II

2009-01-12T20:13:00.001-08:00

So as Denise wrote previously, we have been framing a new hole in the second floor. This hole will eventually contain a staircase, connecting the ground floor with the second. The problem with cutting a hole in your floor is that you end up with unsupported floor joists. There are pieces of wood within the floor, running in a linear fashion, that need to be cut through. Bigger pieces of wood need to support these pieces to be cut. Gravity loads (you're fat self walking around for example) need to be transfered to the ground through from yourslf through the subfloor, then floor joists, then beams, then walls or columns, and finally the foundation. Our stair hole is just about done; here are some more pictures of the progress.

Here is a simple image of the stair configuration we hope to achieve. You will walk down the stairs along the exterior wall and then turn right. You actually end up walking under the kitchen counter, allowing us to save some valuable square footage. The landing will extend under the rest of the stair, at the correct height for a desk or other work area.

Continuing the images that Denise posted the other day, here is the hole. The subfloor was cut out with a circular saw, none of those support pieces of wood have been put in yet.

This past Saturday, we put in the necessary beams and columns to frame out the hole, allowing the floor joists to be cut. There is one large beam at the top of the 'L', 6x10 PSL. 3 additional medium size pieces, 4x8s frame out

the rest of the hole. A wood column is in the corner. It's temporary, as I'd like to replace it with a more slender steel piece in the future. This is the almost finished hole.

Stairs!

2009-01-08T10:15:00.000-08:00

Lots has been happening over at our house over the last couple weeks. Unfortunately, Ryan has been downloading most of the pictures we've taken at work, which makes it difficult for me to post them on the blog. Briefly, here are some of the highlights of what's been going on:

- Our crew of construction guys has been working on putting in additional framing on our roof. This is necessary since we took out the old truss system that had previously been holding the roof up. We have lots of pictures of this, but, as I said, they are at Ryan's work.

- We've had new plumbing installed in the garage in what will eventually be the master bath. We passed inspection on that, so yay us!

And then finally, we cut the hole in the floor where we will be building an interior staircase (currently, the only way to get from upstairs to downstairs requires one to go outside).

So these are some pictures of what will hopefully soon be a staircase:

The red tape is outer boundary of our hole. It took us nearly 3.5 hours to measure out that hole. In the process of measuring, we discovered that our walls are not straight. Very fun.

Ryan, in action, ripping up the sub-floor.

It was a pretty cold, dark night that we did this

Our hole.

This picture was taken looking up from underneath the hole. You can see a little bit of the new lumber holding up the roof.

Long Over Due...

2008-12-24T09:13:00.000-08:00

So we are obviously not keeping up with our blog very well...we have been pretty good at taking pictures of the process, but there appears to be a black hole into which the pictures are disappearing.

Anyway, for those who are interested in reading about what's been going on without visual aids, here it is (as understood by Denise):

After figuring out the intricacies of his saws, Ryan used them to remove the walls from the house - that is he cut down the wood that had been used to hold up the sheetrock that makes walls. Until we started this process, I was under the impression that the sheetrock - the part that gets painted and where pictures are hung - were the actual walls. Apparently, "walls" are actually the wood framing. Who knew?

So there are now far fewer walls, and, strangely enough, the house looks smaller. We also spent a couple weeks cutting out all the old wires that were running everywhere and pulling nails out of the wood that is left holding the house up. There are an unbelievable number of nails stuck in the wood, and some of those nails are ginormous! I had no idea that they even made nails as long as the ones that have been coming out. Wish I could find those pictures...

Finally, the last big thing that has happened is that our contractor's crew started demolishing parts of the concrete slab on the ground floor in order to reinforce the wall that is essentially holding up the upper floor. It involves putting in new posts that are bolted into the concrete, or something like that. Understanding the details of these things is clearly not my strong point. It also turns out that we are not going to be able to drop the floors on the ground floor, so our downstairs will have 7' 6" ceilings. Very womb-like and cozy, no? But our ceilings upstairs are going to be a whopping 16 feet high! That makes a very nice average height for the ceilings in our house.

So I realize that this is a bit rambly and un-organized, but a lot has happened in the last few weeks and it's difficult for me to tell y'all about it concisely. I know that pictures would probably help, and they will be posted as soon as I find out where Ryan hid them.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Man's Helpmate

2008-11-27T17:33:00.000-08:00

And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Genesis 2:18

The other night Ryan was organizing his tools in preparation for our big Thanksgiving Demolition Weekend. More specifically, he was examining the two different saws that came with his drill. While he has gotten extensive use out of his drill over the last year, this was to be the maiden voyage for both of the saws.

So he's sitting on the floor, fiddling with the saws (and making me plenty nervous as he turned them on and off) and trying to figure out what all the doo-dads and buttons do. While he's doing this, he is also muttering himself, "What does this do? How the heck..." and beginning to show signs of early frustration.

At these signs, I reach down into the storage bag, remove two instruction manuals, and begin to read. Every so often I read bits aloud from the manuals and instruct Ryan to push or pull different parts of the saw. At one point, he looks up and says, "Ah...that's how you know so much," indicating the manual.

Clearly, God knew what he was doing when he created woman. It is not right for man to use power tools without reading the instruction manual.

Denise the Destroyer

2008-11-19T17:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Hauling Day! Yay! People came to take all the crud and scary stuff that fell out of the walls. At 7:45 am yesterday, a big truck pulled up in front of our house and three men came out with shovels, wheelbar

rows, and trash cans. This was the first great event of the day - they were scheduled to come at 8, but showed up 15 minutes early! How cool is that? Since people in construction have somewhat of a reputation for being flakey, I was prepared to be impressed if they showed up at all.

But show up they did and immediately set to work. These guys are fantastic - not only do they take away your stuff, they also load up all your crap into their truck. As our previous pictures have indicated, we had been throwing stuff anywhere we could, not bothering to be organized.

We wanted to post pictures of the actual truck they used, but the battery on our camera was dead. So here's a picture of a truck that was very like theone used to haul away the martian dust.

So the way this works is that these guys load up all the crap, haul it away, and charge you by the number of truckloads and number of trips to the dump. So obviously, in order to be as efficient as possible, you want the trucks to be crammed with as much stuff as possible before taking it to the dump. Since Ryan had to work, I was designated to hang out all day with the hauling guys, and watch them clean up my mess.

Well, actually not. I felt funny standing around just watching them, so while they filled their truck, I puttered around, tearing down other walls, brushing off insulation that got stuck in the corners, pulling out nails, etc. Toward the end of the day, a second crew of guys showed to help the first group finish up. One of them passed me as I was yanking nails out of some studs, and asked, "Did you do all this?", indicating the missing walls and heap of wooden planks piled on the floor.

"Yeah, some of it," I answered.

"Wow - so you're a destroyer."

I think I like that: Denise the Destroyer. Unfortunately, I am probably not a terribly formidable destroyer. I think the hauling guys were actually pretty amused watching the tiny little Asian girl pulling with all her might to get a plank of wood off the wall, something any of them probably could have done with their little finger. Ryan actually thought I could use this to our advantage and ask them to haul out the old bathtubs. Apparently, in order to remove a bathtub, you have to take a sledgehammer and smash it to pieces first. This sounded overly-daunting, even to the Destroyer, so as the guys were shoveling martian dust into their trash cans, I asked, in my best I'm-just-a-small-little-girl voice, if they could take the bathtubs. "Sure, no problem." Score! Bathtubs gone!

This is a picture of the kitchen after the debris was removed. The puddle of water is from a leaky valve where the kitchen sink used to be.

And finally, Denise the Destroyer!

We wanted to post more pictures of the house now that the debris is cleared, but apparently, Denise is a terrible photographer. More pictures to follow.

Demolition by Denise

2008-11-15T20:18:00.000-08:00

Hello to all of you who have been checking out our blog (Hi Mom! Hi Dad!). Today was our third day of demolition, and I believe it was very productive. First of all, we again hired three day laborers. I am so grateful to these men; there should be a special place in heaven for these guys. But Ryan and I stuck around all day and worked alongside them. I think the only other time I have been this physically exhausted was after a 20 mile run.

We have some pictures to illustrate our day's labor. First, some 'before' pictures:

Downstairs: These holes are from our friend practicing his jump-kicks last week.

These holes are from the aforementioned friend practicing his hammer throwing.

This is the upstairs bathroom prior to demolition.

And this is Ryan, surveying the debris from last weekend's demolition. Notice that he is ankle-deep in martian sand dust. Apparently, those in the building industry call it "insulation." When we took down the ceiling last week, all this fluffy, gray crud fell down; it sneaks into your shoes and your socks, and turns your toes gray. I can't say that I am a fan.

And this is the living room after last week's work. It is a mountain of martian sand.

This is what our bathroom looks like after today's work...if you look closely, you can still sort of see the bathtub.

And this is what our downstairs looks like now...

And one more picture:
This is one of our new friends. I found him in the bathroom right before we tore it down.

That's it for now. We are both exhausted and we need to go to bed. More later.

Demolition & Hired Help

2008-11-13T21:54:00.000-08:00

Remodeling a home is not a small task; certainly too large a task for a one man show(or one man and one woman including Denise who has been an awesome help). So last weekend, we decided to look into getting some help. I eventually found four options, each with their pros and cons:

1. My friend Edwin is a contractor. He offered his crew at cost to do the demolition since he'll probably be doing some of the framing as well as the utilities. His cost is about $200 / man / day or $25.00/ hr. Not too bad, considering I know many contractors that would charge several times that rate. Edwin is also bonded and insured and has overhead costs as a general contractor. Still, for demolition, I felt this was a bit much.

2. Edwin uses a guy named Paul for hauling (another subject in itself). Paul also does demo. I called him up and he charges $21.00 / hr, which is a bit better than Edwin but not too much. I heard he just picks up day laborers on Caesar Chavez for about $10.00 / hr. This means over 100% profit and overhead. I still thought I could find a better solution.

3. A light bulb went off in my head and I realized that I could hire day laborers for myself. This would obviously be cheaper ($10.00 / hr), but let some questions in my mind. First off was the practicality of finding them; Caesar Chavez is a long street. Second off is communication as my Spanish skills are non-existent. Third was the safety question of having strangers come into my home. Fourth was the legal question and not being very informed of labor and employment laws in this city. This seemed cheapest, but a bit risky.

4. The last option was found from a quick search online. San Francisco has a Day Laborer Program, sponsored by the City. Their website will fill you in on more information. It seemed like a good way to hook employers up with employees in a more safe and reliable environment for both parties. They ensure that the laborers get paid a decent wage ($15.00 / hr) and they are a convenient source for employers to find reliable help.

I decided to go with option #4. I called the program office, described the work I needed done, and gave them my address. The next day, Saturday, they sent three guys out, with one fluent in English, to my house. I was still a bit nervous, but explained the work that needed to get done and provided the necessary tools. They quickly got to work, scraping floor finishes, removing sheetrock, and removing lath & plaster from the walls. I paid them at the end of eight hours, after each day, and gave them a bit of extra money for lunch. In two days, Gary, Eduardo, & Miguel finished the entire upper level of our home.

Based on prior progress, by myself, this would have taken me well over a month. Needless to say, even with my very limited budget, it was very much worth it. During the time they were working, we worked on other parts of the house, and left them for periods of time to run errands. They were efficient and hard working, but needed periodic direction. Also, a watchful eye definitely increased productivity. I need to call them back to finish the lower level this coming weekend. I would highly recommend the program to anyone needing temporary manual labor.

Exterior Photos

2008-11-11T11:30:00.000-08:00

Here are some exterior shots of the house. The front faces Gates Street. The entrances is up an exterior brick staircase. To the right is the living room above the garage and to the left is a bedroom. We met the neighbors to the right, who seem very nice, and have been living there for over ten years. To the left is the side of a building that faces Cortland. First to get rid of: the bars over the windows and the overhang over the front door.

Here is the back of the house. The 'popped out' area is an addition from the 1950's. The deck is in poor condition, the stairs are deteriorating, and the addition leaks slightly. You get what you pay for. There is a decent sized back yard, the previous owners were probably better gardeners than we'll ever be. There are tomatoes, ginger, and other green things growing.

Quick Note

2008-11-10T20:25:00.001-08:00

Exterior photos that are more telling than the interior will be posted tomorrow. Also, as an update, demolition was well under wall as of last Saturday. So, the blot is a bit behind reality. Since it's easier to type than to hammer or saw, I think I'll be able to catch up quickly. There will be more posts in the near future on the joys of demolition, sheetrock, lath & plaster, asbestos (maybe) glue, hired labor, and hauling. Thanks for reading!

Existing Interior Photos

2008-11-10T13:31:00.000-08:00

About the interior... Below are some shots of the home pre-demolition. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos; i'm not sure if it's the poor quality of the space or the poor quality of photography. The main spaces inside are on the second story; an exterior staircase brings you into a hallway in the middle of the house. The living room is to the right, a bedroom is to the left. Walk down the hallway, and the bathroom is on the right, behind the bedroom. Behind that bathroom is the second bedroom. To the left is the kitchen and a sunroom is in back. There is no interior stair, as the ground story was an unwarranted in-law unit. Downstairs, there is a one bedroomish unit and one car garage. All in all, there are about 900 square feet upstairs and another 700 square feet downstairs, not including the garage. Currently the downstairs doesn't count in the area, since it is unwarranted. Hopefully a building permit should give us that extra space legally. More on the renovation plans later.

The hallway and bedroom door from the living room. Not shown, but to the left, is the front door. To the right is the hallway to the kitchen.

The existing kitchen looks cleaner from far away than up close. Everything is old, but it works. Notice the attractive wallpaper and linoleum floor.

Here is a shot from the ground floor. The ceilings are quite low (barely legal at 7'-6") and natural light is hard to find, even on a sunny day. The floors are vinyl composition tile on top of the concrete slab. On the other side of the wall behind the cabinets is the garage.

Welcome!

2008-11-07T21:40:00.000-08:00

Thank you for visiting our blog. This is a chronicle of firsts: our first blog and our first remodel in our first home. This is the start of a new adventure with no end in sight.

My wife and I got the keys to our first home October 24th, 2008. Most people buy a home and move into it. We don't know when we'll be able to move into our home. Others would tear down our leaky, sagging, cracked, dirty, old ninety-nine year old home. For us, that is not an option. After this endless remodel, I can only hope for two things: that the process doesn't bankrupt us and that the house doesn't fall down. So we'll see.

Being an aspiring architect, owning a home and having a chance to remodel is a sort of dream come true. A friend called it a 'do-it-yourself graduate degree'. A co-worker described it as 'your every weekend for the next thirty years'. I am hoping to call it 'home'. Still, unknown challenges lie ahead. Time is restricted to evenings and weekends, money is limited, experience is minimal, the mortgage must be paid, and my marriage must stay intact.

To bring you all up to speed, we bought a home in San Francisco's Bernal Heights. It is empty (except for the spiders), we have the keys, and paid our first mortgage check at the beginning of the month. We've begun exploratory demolition, measured and photographed existing conditions, and talked to various people about how much time and money this will take. Briefly, the next steps are as follows: demolition of finishes, hauling debris, design work and building permit, and new construction.

I will be doing much of the work myself, and will be hiring others strategically as necessary. We hope to do the interior systems (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) and interior framing over the next few months before moving in. We'll live in an incomplete house and install finishes as time and money come along. Hopefully, in a couple of years, we will be able to remodel the exterior.

Photos, elaborations on what was mentioned above, and updates will follow on a (hopefully) consistent basis. Also, look forward to guest posts from my wife and her encounters with insects and adventures at Home Depot. Any advice, feedback, or criticism is welcome. Please feel free to contribute, and thanks for reading!