Renovation // Transformation

One of the things we love about our house is the hole in the middle of it.

Seriously, the atrium is one of those essential Eichler characteristics and we're quite happy we've been able to revert ours to the original intent/design (after being covered for years). We're still working on some sun-control in the office, but otherwise, the open space — even in the rain — is wonderful.

The work out there is drawing to a close, too… final plantings (although lots of grow-in needed), irrigation, painting, trim work and even the purchase of a table help to make it a finished space. (plantings: "Heavy Metal" Switchgrass, Japanese Aralia and Oshio Beni maple)

Oddly enough, our search for a nice modern outdoor table landed us at Ikea. While there's lots of great modern designs, budget and availability were key. We found a dining room table made of aluminum and glass that we love. Granted, it'd be better if it were white powdercoated (rather than black) and had a wood or plastic top (rather than tempered glass), but those can be future 'hacks'. Presently, it's a great rust-free (although not dust free) and super affordable way to enjoy the space.

We've a lot of trashed trim around the house (the previous owners were wheelchair/walker-bound — so there's lots of road-rash)… and I've discovered that Bondo is the best way to fix it (in this case a mangled window sill).

The last of the landscaping is finished with the completion of the side yard.

Jaime once again stepped in to help and he and his crew did a much better job than I could have alone — a very wise delegation of tasks. They took the time to level and grade the area when I would have gotten hot and frustrated and given up. It's amazing what a transformation the entire yard has seen over the past two years.

We have some of the 1X1 blocks left (about 100), so let us know if you're interested in picking them up.

We have four sheets of 4X8 Breckenridge 5/8-in Eichler siding for sale plus a smaller sheet 40X80 (a bit cut from the side and top).

$75 each for the full sizes and $50 for the smaller one.

We're in Concord and i have a truck and can help with transport (cost of gas?)… These have been stored flat and are in perfect shape. Let me know via email (link in top corner)

One of the last items on the exterior is the rehabbing of the garage doors. Previously, we'd considered rebuilding the doors with the siding we'd purchased from Eichler Siding. While this might still be an option, it's a mighty undertaking: (1) they're crazy heavy, (2) they work well and (3) they've been in place for 40 years… and it might be one of those "if it ain't broke" situations… so for now, we're trying to save the existing doors even though the siding isn't a perfect match smoothness-wise. But that's what we're now trying to remedy.

Thanks to Jacob and TJ for scraping a good bit of the paint off of the doors — a much needed first step. Then, re-grooving the lost grooves was in order. The old grooves were more shallow and had already lost a good bit of depth from layers of paint. I tried several methods: scraping, solvent, Dremel…

The Dremel tool wandered too much and caused more damage than otherwise. Had I set up a track to guide it, it'd be ideal (straight, uniform depth, even width), but there are a lot of grooves to be setting up a track for each groove would be too time consuming (might as well rebuild the doors with clean siding).

Nothing has worked quite as well as the Rockwell SoniCrafter which
was a gift from Casie's dad. Similar to a Fein MultiMaster, it vibrates
at a high velocity for cutting, sawing, grinding, etc. and using the
grout removal attachment, I'm able to get into the grooves and clear
them out. It's a slow process, but it seems to be working.

Hopefully by day's end, we'll have matching garage doors.

Oh, and the handle-hardware: who know it was wrought-iron looking? An odd craftsman touch, methinks.

As you can tell from the past couple of posts, I'm a fan of the Phifer Solar Shades from Blinds.com… a few hiccups with the last order, but the staff was wonderful in sorting them out.

So… I just got this and thought I'd share…

Save 20% on Phifer solar shades during the month of July! Solar shades have the ability to cut glare which makes them ideal for media rooms, studies, or any sun-facing room where sun control is desired.

Use code: solar20 at checkout.

I also got a paper-coupon in the mail valid for a bit longer…

20% off of Phifer Solar Shades / code#: PHIF-TRYEG (good thru Aug 10th)

Now that the summer's heating up, it's a good time to get shades on you windows. It helped ours tremendously.

We've one last landscape project to tackle: the laying of pavers in the side yard… and it's a big job that we'll need to hire out to someone with a stronger back… and a bobcat.

We'll need to regrade a bit (and remove some material… so a bobcat and a dumptruck), lay some decomposed granite, tamp and place the pavers, which we already have. It's about 600sqf of paving area. If you know of anyone, let us know.

Mulch, some more rocks and some final plantings on the driveway side… we'll see how the mulch path holds up.

The yard between ourselves and our neighbor, Steve, had been a bit of a twister. We didn't want grass and we needed to maintain some sort of pathway for things in/out the gate. Fortunately, Steve is very easy-going and was on-board with the plan to envision the space as one large one rather than two small ones… especially if we did the work and it was low-maintenance. I proposed a sort of "dry creek bed" arrangement and it was a go.

Ryan and Jaime showed up at 10am after Casie and I spent Friday night and Saturday morning gathering plants and some more rocks (free from the Ewing parking lot — someone dumped a small load of baseball-sized cobblestones and I asked if I could have them). So, on Friday, I got an idea/motivation, to tackle the rest of the
front landscaping and by Saturday afternoon, we had something in place.
Not a bad showing.

We tried to buy smaller sized pots so that (1) they'd be cheaper and (2)
grow-in a bit more naturally… and ended up with a lot of native or low-water plants like Ceanothus, Wax Myrtle, Tea-tree (definitely not native, but low-water), Flax, Sedum, Fescue/Grasses, Cotoneaster, Juniper… and a Corylus — which looks cool (but will take the most water). The most expensive plant (not counting the Burgundy Lace maple) was a sculptural, knobby (San Jose) Juniper for $40, which will serve as a specimen/focal plant next to the Corylus (Filbert/Hazelnut tree). All have a 1/2 gallon/hour drip head… hopefully just the right amount of water in the right place… and should be pretty low-maintenance.

We were also able to use up the big pile of rocks that we had in the back yard — gathered from various places in the yard when we stripped many of the overgrown trees.

Presently, there's not yet enough scale differentiation… there's still a lot of growing-in to do (some of the plants will triple in size), but…

The back yard is shaping up with the installation of a dwarf-fescue blend of sod. Thanks to Nathan from Labor Ready for the help with the installation. Sod from The Sod Shop in Martinez — Mello Jade. Thanks to Jacob for the installation of the redwood separators… one more to go and then were on to paving the side yard.