Renovation // Transformation

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’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)

Before and after… slowly ridding ourselves of Early-American-Modernism.

After an evening of watching Holmes on Homes (my new favorite show), I decided to tackle a project while my wife was off visiting her sister on the east coast.

We knew we had to replace the drywall in the hall from a previous roof leak (fixed long ago), and I figured it’d be good timing as I was planning a trip to the dump (and could haul away the debris). However, when I cracked the drywall, I had no idea the area was as badly damaged as it was: old mold (now dried-up, but still nasty), and a bit of dry-rot. Fortunately, the sill-plates and headers were still amazingly very much intact — but the base of the studs were toast (they likely wicked up the moisture from the bottom).

So, in true Mike Holmes fashion ("If in doubt, tear it out."), I took the initiative to fix the area while I already had it torn apart. Since the siding was still adhered to the old studs, ripping them out was impractical (and unnecessary), so I sistered new studs (only 2 were effected — the others looked good as new) alongside the old ones and again in Holmes fashion ("if you’re gonna do it, glue it and screw it"), I glued and screwed the new studs to the old ones, which — considering the top and middle of the old studs were still quite solid — should make for a long-lasting repair.

With new insulation in place, it’s lots quieter and a lot neater (and smells a bit better). We’re using Johns-Manville Comfort-therm insulation on the outside perimeter… it’s completely encased in a plastic sleeve, so it should serve as a more effective vapor-barrier than standard friction-fit "pink" which we’re using on the interior walls — plus, with no paper involved, it should stay mold-free. Now if I could only find Mike’s favorite Tuck-tape to seal the seams…

Sanding drywall is messy. Super messy… and the dust is not only really damaging, but apt to clog a shop-vac filter in no time. There’s a neat product on the market called Sand-n-Kleen which traps dust before it gets to the vac’s filter, but it’s not available locally (and I needed it that day)…

So, not able to find one at any hardware store, I decided to make my own using a Homer-bucket and top ($7), 2 vac-fittings ($8), 2 couplings which secured the vac-fittings to the top ($3) and PVC pipe ($1)… and it works really well capturing nearly 100% of the dust sucked into the water-filter.

The first variant found me with the intake pipe below the water line for a true water-bong effect, but in reviewing the original, it seems the pipe could sit slightly above the water line shooting the dust into the water and thus capturing it. I haven’t tried this variant yet since the previous worked well. With the true "bong" the process is a bit more tumultuous — what with the bubbling water and all — and some water (about a cup or so per hour of sanding) does make it to the shop-vac… which is not really a big deal since it is wet-dry anyway.

Better yet — and even better than the original Sand-n-Kleen design, I was able to hook the vac line to the dust port of my Ryobi 5in orbital sander which made sanding a snap.

*Note, in the prototype, I fitted a drain at the top thinking I might have to glue the top to the bucket for an air-seal… but the Homer bucket and top are airtight under load, so it isn’t/wasn’t necessary. Also note, the original isn’t that expensive ($40) and does come with an extended vac-line, so if you have the time to order it it might not be a bad idea, but if you’re desperate for time or desperate to save $20, the home-made variety is an option. Worked for us.

It’s taken a while, but we’ve finally drywalled both sides of the garage partition wall. On the garage side, we installed fire-core 5/8in board with a layer of Quiet-Glue sound-absorbing glue/membrane between the drywall and the plywood sheerwall — with the unsealed garage doors, quite a bit of sound comes through and having had great success with Quiet Solutions products, we opted for the increased peace it might bring. We also installed 1/2in Quiet Rock on the living room side for the same reasons (which is essentially two 1/4in sheets with a layer of Quiet Glue in between). We caulked and sealed and mudded and primed… hopefully the area is not only more quiet, but safe from garage-fumes and more fire-proof. Still need to secure the electric cable that will feed the kitchen island, but that will be next weekend’s project…

We’ve seen a few of these around the house. This guy got trapped in the bathtub… any ideas?