We’re doing lots of landscaping work this week… Actually, we’re not, but Jaime and his team are. While it’s a bit out of step schedule-wise, it’s something we wanted to get under way sooner than later. Big changes afoot.
This weekend found a major push in finishing off the siding replacement on the west-ish side of the house. We’re replacing windows at the same time, so it’s a multi-step process. We’ve discovered that — when possible, the siding is easier to remove by pounding on the reverse with a sledgehammer rather than prying from the front — who knew? Working from the bottom edges is working best for us.
When our siding was originally hung, they used 2in T-nails which are mainly used for flooring these days. the T-nail is nice as the head sits below the surface of the siding, but in our case, it seemed like they were getting paid by the nail… far too many in my opinion (about 2X too many).
As I mentioned, we’re also replacing the windows along the way which also gives a good opportunity to replace the sill and trim. We’re using redwood when/where possible, especially on the sills which is a pretty simple creation — 4 cuts on the table saw and a jigsaw cut at the edges. It actually takes less time and money to make new sills than to restore (sand/strip/fill) the old ones.
The previous owners cut a window in the garage as they converted it into to bedrooms (a very, very large family). We’ve converted it back into a garage/workshop, but we love the window. Since they cut it in while the house/siding were together, the structure wasn’t quite right for a proper window install (header, supports, etc.). Opening the wall gave us the opportunity to rebuild the structure and reinforce the sill-plate which was a bit loose on the foundation (hello, new hammer drill!).
Oddly enough, the beams in this area do not actually run the length of the house and in this area, there was no beam over the window area. Since all the other windows were installed beneath beams, we wanted to recreate the effect (and structural integrity). With two 2X6s sistered together for the structural part, we installed the reinforcement. When we lifted the beam in place, you could hear a bit of a creak, indicating that it was indeed taking a bit of load. On the face, however, we had to get a bit more creative with the "beam effect" to make it look like the others. We opted to face the area with some exterior/marine plywood the width of the original beams. These will eventually be painted the same color and I doubt you’d be able to tell the difference.
The project also allowed the insulation and drywalling of the garage. While a bit excessive, I’m spending quite a bit of time in there as of late and the insulation and clean walls will be nice later on.
Lighting was also an added element… a replacement fixture by the sliding door a new one by the garage window. While the switch for this new one will be adjacent to the inside garage window, it’ll be nice to simply have some light up there as it gets pretty dim — and with the wall open and lots of new electrical circuits in there (2 new 20amp circuits), the wiring was a snap. All fixtures from Progress lighting which we’ve installed around the house to replace the older, Early-American-style fixtures (and temporary $2 plastic ones).
Something that wasn’t as available 45 years ago was the variety of caulks, glues and insulation… The original windows were installed with almost no caulk or weatherproofing. We’re using a generous amount of the latest stuff and far too many cans of spray foam.
After seeing a post on Apartment Therapy (Casie is still giggling about that one), Michele wrote to ask some more specifics about the construction of the wall and how the paneling works with the shelf standards. Here goes:
When installing the wall, we created a flush surface by blocking out the wall (we ended up going all the way to the floor and ceiling in the end). We could have simply put a layer of plywood over the studs, but believe it or not, we couldn’t afford the extra 3/4in depth as we didn’t want the desk to hang out past the sliding door frame to it’s left. In most cases, 3/4in plywood could be mounted directly to the studs rather than inset — I’d be afraid 1/2in plywood would not be thick enough to prevent screw pull-out on the standards once weighted with shelves, books, etc.
Anyway, after creating a solid/sturdy mounting surface (which we needed as the shelf standards would not be mounted directly to studs because of spacing — and after 40 years the studs are not square anyway), we cut 21in strips of 3/8in sheetrock (avoiding the beveled side) and 1/4in paneling — the 21in measurement came from the length of the wall divided by the number of standards (we wanted even spacing along the wall).
The Rakks brackets have a 5/8in backspacing (for 5/8in drywall), so the doubled-up drywall and paneling was the perfect thickness (see image below). The brackets also have about 1/8in slop on either side, too… just in case. After some (very) careful measurements, we secured the drywall to the plywood blocking with screws as you normally would.
We inlaid the paneling on top of the drywall with only a few brad nails at the very top to allow for expansion then simply laid the shelf standards over the pre-measured gap and screwed them to the blocking that was revealed by the gap we allowed. The flanges of the standards holds the paneling to the drywall (you could also use a few dabs of construction adhesive to bond the paneling to the drywall — but for us, shifting is not a problem as the panels go floor to ceiling and wall to wall, so they’re tight).
All in all, a very easy project effort-wise, but a bit of a brain-twister to plan out. It was a bit tough to cut 10-foot stock (the height of the wall) — for which i had to make a cutting jig/template to floor-cut the straight cuts with my skillsaw (as I didn’t trust feeding such a long piece through the table-saw)… a true panel-saw would have been nice here. Hopefully these go-bys help folks. If you have more questions, please feel free to email.
This weekend, we ventured down to Mountain View to see the much-talked-about Dwell House. During the trip I discovered a few things.
First, it’s a nice house — a 2500sf (at $320/sf building cost… an overheard figure) modern home with many bells and whistles. Great neighborhood. Great schools. Walking distance to downtown. A dream home for sure and one that will make the owners (one of whom I used to work with) happy for years to come.
But what I really realized is that I really need to lower my expectations when stepping into these situations (even in fetching green booties). While the house was indeed a nice place, I wasn’t overwhelmed by anything other than it being a beautiful mod-box. I was sort of expecting next-generation homebuilding beyond the fact that the home was premanufactured, but for the most part, the bits featured here — a huge product showcase for the manufactures and advertisers in the magazine — was stuff that could be fairly easily procured at the local big box (and by the proliferation of the tags on the walls, fixtures and furniture, it did feel quite a bit like I was walking into one big ad and magazine promotion).
Perhaps I was expecting solar panels for off-the-grid living. Perhaps a laundry gray-water irrigation system to help with the nicely manicured lawn. Maybe some new and somewhat untried materials, technologies or techniques. But I didn’t notice anything like this. While it’s touted to be pre-manufactured, nothing seemed really new-new (again, save that it was simply a very nice house).
For instance, when we visited the Sunset Breezehouse a few years ago, we were introduced to SynLawn… an odd, but new-to-us product that has since taken off. Additionally, I found the indoor/outdoor architecture of the Breezehouse a bit more intriguing and one which utilized passive solar and natural breezes (thus the name). Granted, these are two different cases, but since I do find Dwell a more avant-garde magazine and the fact that a lot has happened in the building industry in the past 2 years, I was expecting more when walking in.
One of the things I found delighting was the placement of a bedroom suite and desk-set by my friends at Semigood and the efforts of Branch and Design Public. This was a great contrast to the otherwise big-box-style products in much of the house (Kohler, Electrolux, etc.) and I’m glad that Dwell is getting behind up-and-coming talent when they can.
Anyway, as I mentioned, it’s a beautiful home… some pix:
We’ve made a bit more progress on the wall in the office… still one more row of shelves to do, but it’s entirely functional as a desk arrangement now… Casie’s office was on-the-move and they passed off the old Aeron chairs to the employees… they upgraded to Leap chairs. All shelf hardware from Rakks. Lamp from Ikea. Speakers from AudioEngine via AudioVision in San Francisco (they sound fantastic, but the company just changed to a satin finish which is not as nice as the piano black). Awesome Josef Albers-designed LP from a thrift-store in Florida. All lumber from MacBeath. All work by us — cut and edge-veneered mahogany shelving and paneling — hand finished in Danish Oil, Rub-on poly, and wax. Anyway… images below. The light in the space is much better in the afternoons, but it’s time to go to work…
(edit: someone wrote to ask some specifics about installation… here goes. Also, the desk is 18.5 inches deep with a 1.5in gap in the rear for wiring pass-through. We couldn’t get much deeper because of the adjacent sliding glass door, but so far, it’s been plenty deep.)
We have a new favorite furniture store, Klassik by Lynne in Emeryville… just a few blocks from our old place. Not only is Lynne and crew super nice, but they have great stuff… and they have a unique policy of letting folks try it out before committing to buy.
When we were there last, we found a neat, angular danish chair in soaped oak. It’s become Marty’s new favorite chair. Unfortunately, while it looks like the oak version of a Wassily chair — nice and boxy, it’s a bit square in the space and we’ll likely opt for a more traditional, organic Danish Modern chair for the space… which is good because Lynne has a few.
But Marty’s going to be quite upset and will have to revert to his old haunts.
We’ve had the good fortune of getting help from friends now and again during the renovation. Mostly, we think our friends feel sorry for us that we still don’t have a proper kitchen after 9 months. Nonetheless, Brad and Kerensa (and Annie, the Chowbrador) stopped by this weekend to lend a hand to get the siding and kitchen window installed. Thanks guys.
Before and after… is it weird to give your wife a Nelson Bubble Lamp from Modernica for her birthday?
One of the areas we concentrated on was the master bedroom, master bath and closet areas so we could get some sense of "livability" to the renovation. The closets were finished some time ago, but we just polished off the master bath vanity area.
For counter-tops, we went with Silestone’s Blanco Maple which looks a bit like old-school terrazzo and has a nice, subtle, neutral presence. We also went with the thinner 2cm material as the 3cm was simply too thick. Trouble is, finding someone to do just a bath (and use the 2cm material) was a bit of a task. We finally found Tim at Affordable Silestone and his crew did a great job. It was a bit disconcerting that the sink hole was not cut on a CNC machine, giving it perfect symmetry, but the guys did an amazingly good job with simple hand tools while on site. You can tell it’s hand-cut in some spots, but the more I look around at other granite and stone jobs, the more I notice that most counter-tops are not machine-perfect… some are even downright sloppy, so we’re feeling lucky.
All of our faucets and sinks came from the Bath and Beyond in Potrero Hill (thanks, Frank) and we ordered Marc Newson designed faucets from Porcher which have a nice, simple look and feel and Duravit sinks and toilets. We liked the sink in our old place so much, we got a duplicate for the hall bath (the next project). Lighting is from Ron Rezek, courtsey of Artemide (as always… thanks, Michelle!)
The cabinet came from Ikea (a 30in high / 24in deep kitchen cabinet base) and uses their Nexus Yellow-Brown doors — the same doors we plan on using in the kitchen if we get to it before they’re discontinued. They’re made of oak veneer stained to a warm, dark, honey color that’s very kind on the eyes when next to the original (in this case completely recreated) luan-mahogany doors and door frames.
In the toilet/shower area, the swing door was simply in the way when… well, using the bathroom, so while we had the wall open, Dan and I installed a pocket door that’s working out quite well. Because of some plumbing reconfiguring I had to do, I needed to bump out the wall a few inches behind the vanity sink which gave us the perfect opportunity to add a shelf behind the basin which is quite handy (and uses the depth of the space to greater advantage than a more shallow vanity would.
Now we have no excuse not to brush our teeth before bedtime.
This room — affectionately known as "the office" — never had paneling
originally, but we got the idea to use the original-style paneling for the wall and
make shelves (and a desk at the 30-in height) to match. But, we’ve been putting off the cutting of the paneling for the shelf wall. Since the pieces are 10-feet long, I had to create a jig out of some longer pieces of straight lumber to ensure the cutting was exact as the tolerances here were slim. The shelf-supports are from Rakks and sit flush with the wall surface and in this design, the pieces of paneling slide just underneath the lips of the standards… and since the standards are floor to ceiling, the pieces of paneling are simple, straight pieces (with no complex cut-outs). We think it’ll make a pretty neat shelf/desk-wall. (photos: during, after, and after the first coat of danish oil)
