NORMAN HOME TRANSFORMATION

Story of Norman Lane

2009-07-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

We are officially done; adventure complete.
I wrote a short summary of our adventure, which is a bit too long for a blog, so it is attached here. I've been told it's a fairly enjoyable read, but you'll have to see for yourself.
It's 4 pages total. To print it out, click on the upper left where it says "more", then I had to put the scale down to 70% for it to fit properly. Enjoy.

Norman Home Transformation

Looks done to me

2009-05-29T18:15:00.000-07:00

My child does not like having her picture taken.
Shame, really.

Keeping our feet off of the furniture

2009-05-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

Good News

2009-05-29T17:31:00.000-07:00

It seems some very nice people from the fine city of Chicago have decided that 85 Norman is the spot for them. And so, our fine house has entered the land called escrow. This is of course exciting and good. We are taking pictures and finishing up many little bits which had gotten away from us.
Meanwhile, Zaya has had a bit of a growth spurt. Don't give her any flack about her height, or the fact that she likes to wear her socks pulled up, as we just need to accept our loved ones for who they are...

now i've seen it all

2009-05-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

Looks like good news on the horizon! Tides have mysteriously turned

and multiple people seem to have fallen in love with our hard work

as well as our good intentions.

More news as things solidify. For now, a small piece of entertainment,

as I just found this on the web -

Ken Burns must have stopped by and made this for us...

without even letting me know!

what a good guy.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

2009-05-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

So our house is still for sale! Which means it's not too late for you to check it out! And tomorrow Sean, Hope (our very fine realtor) & I will all be at the house ready to meet and greet and answer any questions anyone may have. Or, I suppose, just to listen to most anything you'd like to tell us... come take advantage of this amazing opportunity! It should be fun! What better thing could you do on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon? White wine & cookies & apple juice! 2 - 4:30 - see you there!

Official web site is posted

2009-04-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

So much to say! So little time!

We have moved out. The house is officially on the market. People that we do not know walk though it and consider living there.

no worries, we will catch up and include some strange and awkward details, but until then, here is the official listing for the house with photos (and cheesy music)....www.85norman.com

Staged

2009-04-08T23:34:00.001-07:00

So the house has been staged. Which means that we somehow managed to get all of our stuff out of the house. And then we got all of the filth and grime that comes from building a house out of the house. And then other folks came over and put their furniture (fancier furniture) into the house. And then, Sean sat down and put this basket on his head.

Jugology live at our house!!!

2009-03-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

We had our almost finished party, and to my mind it was a great success. Many wonderful people came, they drank, they stayed and talked while children ran all around the house deflating fish and rolling over logs- what more can one ask for? Well it ends out that our friends are in this truly wonderful and heartfelt bluegrass band and they played for us till the wee hours and yes some folks were too busy talking to listen but for those of us who were listening they were so great and so perfectly charming- It was a beautiful and casual treat and one that I will always relish. So here is a lovely and mellow live recording, taken sometime around midnight, of my new favorite local band: Jugology - you should check them out on MySpace for more info, they are the best.

Party?

2009-03-27T00:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry, no photo. But confirmation. Yes. If you would like to come and see our house and have a bit of fun and listen to good music then come on over. Tonight!

The Stairs

2009-03-22T23:18:00.000-07:00

The magical floating stairs had been a feature of the house that we'd discussed from the get-go. And yes, they have given us trouble, for as it turns out having pieces of wood which emanate out from the wall and can support the weight of a couple people at once is not so easy. Ultimately, a fine metal railing system was incorporated to hold it all together. But first, the stairs must be wrapped in the pretty wood (brazilian cherry) and then clear-coated for long-lasting protection. A late night for our stalwart mini-crew... I fed them pizza.

Crew

2009-03-06T18:09:00.000-08:00

It's time for a genuine shout-out to our very fine and somehow also slightly motley crew.

We didn't know that we were going to have a crew, because we thought that we would be like super-woman & wonder-man, building a house with one hand tied behind our backs... but low and behold, turns out we are human after all.

Enter Memo, the smiley standing up one, who has been at our home most working days for many months now. A Columbian and a dancer, he will do most anything that needs doing, as long as you can explain in some version of spanish how to do it first. And Carlos, the one on the right, is really a framer, but now he is becoming a finish carpenter as we, well, get close to finishing. They are all good guys, and there is no way we could have made it through this without them.

Where it's at

2009-03-06T17:00:00.000-08:00

The master bathroom has been where a lot of the action is these days.

Where once there was du-rock there is tile, and a tub that is not quite hooked up yet, and now Sean finagled it so that there is a countertop that seamlessly emerges from the wall, which is pretty darned cool, and will soon have sinks (with water!) on it.

There are certainly some more finishing touches to go, but we are getting there.

Transformation almost complete

2009-02-26T10:59:00.000-08:00

We are getting there!

The last bit is the fun part but it also takes forever! Especially when one is a perfectionist...

Pretty amazing to see the change-

Anyone want to buy a house?

Row your boat

2009-01-05T14:52:00.000-08:00

Straighter! Faster! Better!

No wait, maybe I changed my mind.

Someday we'll be taking a bath in here, honest.

Railing?

2008-12-30T14:48:00.000-08:00

Seems a lot of my time is spent now running around to different stores and trying to figure out what to buy and how much, etc.

This is for the wood railing that goes all along the house.

Maybe.

Mosaic?

2008-12-10T14:29:00.000-08:00

We've been going to Heath Tile in Sausalito and buying their odds & ends- beautiful tile that is painfully expensive for the most part. Now all I've got to do is figure out what we are doing with it.

New swing

2008-12-04T14:26:00.000-08:00

We passed by a bunch of garbage and I had to pull over because sean pulled out this tire and soon we had a tire swing that bounces, thanks to the spring from our previous garage door...

Dining Room Table

2008-12-03T14:24:00.000-08:00

How Civilized we are...

Creating newer from older

2008-11-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

We have new front doors

and new side doors

new windows

a new roof.

But we had this big hole in the back of our house, where the big fancy opening of doors will someday go.

So sean set to work- harvesting the old windows and doors from the house and putting them to good use.

& then, he started talking on the phone.

Shower

2008-10-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

Moving back in and realizing that things like a sink and a toilet and a shower really are very nice things to have. Here is our shower (with the old shower head) that we'll be using for a while. Water is warm & the du-rock is up- I'm getting in.

Tie-me-up

2008-09-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

So now that the house has been engineered & with a new foundation and all- there are these tie-down things that are all around the house. Making sure that the bottom of the house does not separate from the top, basically.

I'm impressed.

Eyes bigger than the hallway

2008-09-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

So now that we've got this nice big round tub- all we have to do is get it up into the bathroom.

Scaffolding

2008-09-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

It turns out is kind of a cool thing to play on. Maybe we should all have scaffolding around our houses. & they could all connect, with little scaffolding-brides.

Time for a break

2008-09-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

This is all more work than I'd expected.
Sean too- whats a workaholic to do when the work just keeps coming?
the hole we're sitting in will someday house our new gas fireplace.

More Infrastructure

2008-08-30T21:34:00.000-07:00

So as I have mentioned, the infrastructure is more than I'd ever imagined. This is interesting in that there are pipes & wires that I've relied on all of my life and look- there they are. How they are put together all depends on what material they are made from- but none of them are easy. The cast iron pipe here (big black stuff) is for the waste and also for the venting... what is venting I can possibly discuss later. meanwhile the copper pipe is for the nice clean water coming in. The metal brackets on the wall are because we will have wall mounted faucets (someday). the blue boxes are for the electrical... this is a photo of where the new master bathroom will someday be.

Meanwhile The electrical all has to come together and then connect to the main so that electricity can pass throughout the house with ease. This is a sub-panel for the electrical upstairs. The yellow cable is called romex and I just keep buying more of it while Memo & Quincy keep drilling holes and then pushing the cable through those holes... as I said, more than I'd imagined.

Windows!

2008-08-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

Things are getting closed up and beginning to come together as the two shipments of windows are delivered and then installed. We chose these windows from Seirra Pacific- largely because we liked their unique look and how you can just pull them open or shut (no screw handle thing). And here they are! Double pane, low-e, the fir is sustainably forested, and not only that but they look good too....

Cleanliness is next to something

2008-08-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

We decided to get these cool bathtubs from China. I didn't quite realize some of the logistical troubles that would be involved in this decision...

Still, here are our 2 new bathtubs-

ready to drive away.

Infrastructure Begins

2008-07-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

Little did I know how much there is to do after the walls are up and the floors are in. Sean knew, contractors who came to visit knew, even perhaps Little Dog knew, but me- I was in a suspended foolish state of not knowing.
The wooden-frame thingy in the foreground is going to be our kitchen island. All we have to do is bring water and electrical to it. Oh, and a drain for the water, which needs a trap thingy so you can't smell the sewer system when you're washing dishes...

Damn Gravity...

2008-07-12T11:59:00.000-07:00

At this point I thought maybe I should add in some of the things we discussed doing with the house. It was a fairly long slow design process, as you might guess from what you see here.

Practicalities kept getting in the way.

Knowing an opportunity when one sees one

2008-07-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

All this is really just an elaborate backdrop for a very nice swing.

in the living room

that has no windows.

Magic Steps

2008-06-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

The stairs heading up are, we hope, going to be unique and quite beautiful- looking like the just come out of the wall like magic posts... this appearance of magic is much trickier to manifest than I'd anticipated. "make it so" does not necessarily do the trick. But still, they come along. Until then, we use the ladder.

A view

2008-06-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

A new space is created where before there was none. Empty spots in the sheer-wall become views from our windows. The best news is that the top level feels like a tree house of sorts, complete with a beautiful view of the cemetery to aid in our daily contemplation of living & dying.

That shouldn't be a problem

2008-06-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

Who could this be- this jolly looking man? Why that would be none other than Peter Sontag, our chief framer-man. Is Peter truly as kind and enjoyable as he looks? the answer as far as we can tell is a definite yes. Of the folks we've met through doing this project, Peter is one of the finest. I would probably have vomited most nights if it were not for his kind easygoing nature, exemplified by the phrase most often heard from his mouth as we pulled him aside to question a detail or to make another small change in the plans... "that shouldn't be a problem."

From the Road

2008-06-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

How quickly things move right now... the living room framing had to be replaced, which led to a few last-minute design changes- and now here all is coming to life, able to be seen and look- it looks quite a bit like those drawings we kept staring at...

Framing!

2008-06-16T10:17:00.000-07:00

Framing for the upstairs. Pretty exciting and wild as we watch the ideas that we'd come up with become a reality. The framing goes quickly and suddenly we have a floor, holes for windows, views, doorways, corners...

A top to this thing

2008-06-13T23:34:00.000-07:00

Not only do we have a second story to our home- or at least the beginning of one- we also have a framing crew that has been steadily lead by this happy looking man here- George. Except you have to say George with a hispanic accent so that it sounds more exciting and authentic. He now teaches Sean to say strange things in spanish. Not to mention consistently inviting us to eat the food that his cousin Roberto makes. Delicious.

Becoming a reality

2008-06-13T23:26:00.000-07:00

Hey- look at that. The house that we'd talked about building has suddenly emerged from the rubble of our home. Huh. It looks kinda big. And, well, it looks kinda cool too. Yeah. That could take a little getting used to.

Lunch time

2008-06-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

This is our framing crew, eating. The reason I must show them eating is because they are very generous about sharing their food with us. Not only this, but the food is impressively good authentic mexican food. They bring a small gas range and their own tortillas and then things that they've made that morning before work to go inside. It's pretty great. One day I called Sean to discover he was trying cactus without me. damn.

So far the only way I've figured to get them back is by supplying them with plenty of popsicles. Paletas, actually. It's a paletas for tacos exchange system. Good news.

Garage

2008-06-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

The framing for the garage is pretty much done. to your left is an image of the framing for the stairs- meaning that we now have interior access from the garage to the rest of the house- pretty fancy.

The lower photo shows the "sistering" of the beams for the ceiling of the garage- which is also the floor of our living room. for every one existing 2 x 4 (the darker colored wood) there have been two more added. Elephants could walk on our floor as far as I'm concerned. & when this whole thing is done, you're darned right I'm going to be inviting one over.

Closet

2008-06-09T15:48:00.000-07:00

Because of this framing replacement business, much less of the original house is sticking around than we had planned on. Still, we are determined to keep this one closet in place and as is.

Wish us luck.

Newer framing

2008-06-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

Again, here is the back of the house, but a week or so later. Amazing how time flies. The big surprise for us has been that the framing of the house, which we had designed the remodel around, was old style 2 x 3" fir. Unfortunately the insulation and doors and windows are all made for the contemporary 2x4" framing, so all of the exterior walls have been replaced with new walls in the exact same shape and place as the old ones... not exactly what we were hoping for, but well, I guess it's not so bad either.

From the back

2008-06-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

Here is the view from the back of the house once most of the demolition had been completed. Kind of shocking, kind of cool.

See right through

2008-06-09T12:01:00.000-07:00

I will try to catch us up to the present moment. Here are two more photos from the demolition. I really wish I'd had the time to take some 4 x 5 photos at this point, but things have been pretty crazy just keeping on top of the basics has been busy. Still I do find a special beauty in all this madness.

Dikeman Rocks

2008-06-02T22:44:00.000-07:00

We have not really included much of the design decision making into our blog. I'd kind of assumed that the process of talking and then thinking and then changing our minds wouldn't seem all that exciting to anyone but ourselves. Still, I thought I'd include this image here - hot off the presses.
As mentioned earlier, our wonderful home designer Jen has become our friend. And so when we want to discuss making changes and we need to make them asap she's been really very kind about putting up with us. It's a long story, but it seems that we are "re-visiting" (an official term that Jen taught us) the windows for the front of the house. And so late at night Jen sends us images of how it could look and then we manipulate them and send them back to her. Meanwhile we talk on the phone. Sometimes we make jokes and then laugh. This image here is kinda how it will look out of the windows that we now think that we are going to put in the house. Daring asymmetry. The funny part is Jen actually went and put a picture of the house across the street into her software so that we could imagine it better.

The bones

2008-06-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

We had two ceilings. the original ceiling was a higher one because the house was older and that was the thing then. But at some point in the 50's or so someone put a false ceiling in, at the (now) more traditional 8' height.

To make room for this (major) renovation, both of these ceilings are coming down. More and more has been coming down than we'd anticipated- can't wait to start putting some new things up.

Kitchen

2008-06-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

It turns out this stuff is not for the faint of heart. Sorry we've gotten behind. All is well, but it is a little hard to see these photos of the demo- which was really beautiful in it's own way. Things came out faster than I could shake a camera at, really.

House not a home

2008-05-05T22:31:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm

Funny, I keep feeling like something is missing

X marks the spot

2008-05-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

This would be our bathroom. The newest addition to our bathroom is this nice orange "x". These X marks seem to have sprung up all over the house, actually.

strange...

On the road

2008-05-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

So moving is not my favorite thing. Not even second or third in line really. Still, it appears to be the next step in the house-transformation process.

On top there would be our appropriately curious cat, Yuki.

garden wall

2008-04-09T20:44:00.001-07:00

So the people finally started the wall today. The stones been here for more than a week. Plus they kept going out and "started working on the wall." but all I ever saw was them digging and scraping at the ground. Not really a wall now . So here is Sean and a rock and me. That rock is barely bigger than me, I don't see what the big deal is though I guess sean did a number on his tailgate rolling it out.

slab

2008-04-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

So we have a slab now. We water it, and love it, and when there is work, we cover it with cardboard. People are so strange.

Fireplace?

2008-04-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

From the inside to the outside. Luckily our neighbors next door have been great about all this craziness- and it hasn't been too cold.

Back of the house

2008-04-05T20:22:00.001-07:00

There is still the back of the house- what was once the laundry room. The new foundation is poured and the utility sink has left a yellow mark on the wall. Sean & I were put to work. The main job was the hole that Sean made in the existing foundation so that if one wanted to crawl in our crawl space they could wiggle their way under this new section.
The second are bolts drilled into the existing foundation that will serve as connectors between the new house and the old. Sean drilled the holes but I got to clean them with a toothbrush and then mix the epoxy and put in the bolts. Of course I got the epoxy on my pants and hair as I worked. No surprise. But all is well, we think we're ready for the framers to frame.

Goodbye

2008-04-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

We have grown surprisingly attached to our foundation crew. This is to say that as all the work has gone well, they will be leaving us soon & off to the next job. Digging in the hole in the wall (which is soon to become the stairs up to the rest of our house) is Pedro. Above is the always happy looking Juan, whom everyone really calls Gordo. (Yup, one morning I looked up at Sean to say- are they really calling him Gordo?). And the hard working one who seems to hold them together when Armando's not around is the one crouching down- Victor. Sometimes we get to hear them singing as they work, other times I don't understand their jokes, but they laugh. Our dog watches and begs from them when they eat their lunch. Of the treats we've brought them, they seem to most appreciate banana bread & oranges.

As you can see from these photos, the re-bar has been set for the pouring of the slab. Once the slab is poured, these guys are pretty much out of here. They are sweet, sincere & diligent men. We wish them the best.

Leveling out

2008-04-03T18:53:00.000-07:00

So I'm not sure if I've made this clear or not, but we are still living here in our home. To make matters more severe, I mostly work from home, and our little home office corner is, well, directly over the garage. So I've gotten pretty used to the noise, but there is this new thing thats been happening now that the framers are here- they are jacking up the house to level our floor and as they do this there is this amazing noise, like thousands of spiders running along the walls. They leave only cracks. Sometimes I get up and stand outside for a few minutes, just in case a window pops.

framing garage

2008-04-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

So once again the people start something but can't seem to keep up with the rest of it, leaving the dog, obviously the cat won't do anything, to work on the blog. I've been nobly protecting my bed while new people are pounding away on the house. Above is a panoramic view of the garage with the framing started. Below are a couple of detail shots of the beams they put in, lord knows how, the things are as tall as me.

And on the right is a shot of where the chimney used to be but no more. And now Sean has gone and removed the concrete beam that was holding up the stone facing and the bottom foot of the facing, that's people feet you see. The framers were nice enough to brace the lintel bar, now if you would like to give me a guess as to what was holding the rest up while Sean took out the beam, let me know. Oh well, the garage is coming together.

pouring the walls

2008-03-20T18:09:00.001-07:00

Here goes the concrete and as you can see, we were quite helpful. I don't know about the guy standing behind the truck; he just stood there and pushed a button once in awhile. The pump was exciting. It would lurch and everyone holding on would get pulled along.

As the concrete filled the walls we all took turns looking inside to see them fill with concrete. The best part was when Sean realised he hadn't put in the gray water pipe for the basement plumbing and had to cut a piece of pipe and a hole in the form before the concrete made it to the end of the form.

forms are ready

2008-03-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

the forms are ready to pour, and you can see
inside and outside.

end of the laundry

2008-03-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

There was an inexplicable delay for the concrete so the crew began demolition of the laundry room as soon as my walking buddy finished moving the electrical. I hate those jack hammers. They're bloody loud.

2008-03-11T08:14:00.001-07:00

I had been wondering why Victor was the only one putting the tools away one night, so the next morning I went to look in the box after he brought the tools down.

Pour

2008-03-10T17:52:00.000-07:00

Today I got to watch as they poured and poured concrete footings into the new foundation for our garage. Pretty cool the concrete comes out of a big 4" flexible pipe which gets very heavy when the concrete is flowing out of it. And then there is this other metal rod which is officially called the concrete vibrator and it makes the concrete all level out and it also takes the bubbles out. Then they went and smoothed it all out. It looks good. Then I warmed up pizza for the crew but most of them had already gone home, so now Sean & I are eating the pizza. A good day all-in-all. Photo Credits: the guy pouring in front is Victor, with Pedro helping/ standing behind. The hands in the bottom photo are Armando's.

Passed

2008-03-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

So OK, this does not look like much. But the thing is that this is a photo of the final product - our new water service coming into the house. And in addition this is the first item that Sean & I have been responsible for that was inspected by the city. Good news is we passed with flying colors. Phew.

Sweating copper

2008-03-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

What the heck is going on here? Metal is smoking, I'm holding a blow-torch - can this possibly be good? Well truth is that Sean was good enough to teach me how to solder a joint for plumbing- also known as sweating copper. Sweating copper sounds pretty cool, I know & It's actually kinda fun too, except that one of the joints I soldered popped off

later when water pressure was applied - whoops. Lucky for me Sean kinda laughed and then fixed it right up.
We've decided that we will be our own plumbers on the house - which means you can probably look forward to more pictures of us with smoking pipes in the future.

Poop-hole

2008-03-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a long day. Most of it was good but there was much going on and not all of it can go well. In the case of this photo here you are lucky, dear viewer, that the smell does not travel with the image- if it did you would most certainly be leaving this page. This here would be a genuine poop-hole. I don't want to get too into the gory details, but basically our sewer line was at least in parts as old as our home- 100 this year. So it crumbled and was not draining correctly- which is surprisingly common and only became an imminent problem for us when the digging for the new garage began, because the run-off from our sewer was filtering into the the job site. Not so good. So these fine professional exterior plumbers came with a fairly amazing machine in which they burst the existing sewer pipe and then drag a new plastic sewer line behind it. This is called trench-less sewer, and for the most part it worked out well for us. Although they do not have to dig all along the line, they did have to dig this one big hole, right next to the main (city) sewer line, in the road. The sewer is about 10 feet down, so it was a nice deep hole, and when they managed to connect their hole to our sewer line, well, see that greenish liquid down at the bottom down there? Believe you me everyone around got to know more about our sewer line then they'd ever hoped to.
All's well that ends well- & our new line is guaranteed for 200 years...

Under the top soil

2008-03-06T23:22:00.000-08:00

It may seem like all the talk is about the garage right now but that would be because the garage is where all the action is. Shown here is the back corner of our garage to be- with amazing colors and shapes from different soils. Pretty wild. The retaining wall to hold the soil back will be around 6 feet high. They used an excavator to get most of the soil out, which is what left those lines in the wall.

Almuerzo

2008-03-06T13:44:00.001-08:00

Here is some of the fine crew taking their lunch break. Clearly the best seat in the house is on the excavator.

A light in the attic

2008-03-06T12:26:00.000-08:00

There has been far too much writing without a picture of Zaya. Here she would be, in her pajamas, with Sean, up in the little attic that came with the house.

How does one get up into this attic? Well as you can see from the picture below, you climb up the hole in the ceiling of Zaya's closet- or in this case you kinda wiggle your way down.

Alas, the attic will soon be no more. When the addition goes on, the attic is getting pulled off and the 2nd story is replacing it. Leaving us only memories...

A dream come true

2008-02-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

The most exciting story of the day... Here, you may notice, is Sean sitting behind the wheel of the Bobcat. This would be funny because ever since it has shown up here he has been wanting to drive it - & I've gotta say, it looks pretty fun. But the thing is, this is legit - the guy next to him is Armando, the owner of the Bobcat, and in one kind moment he is both instructing Sean on how to drive it and giving him permission to use it over the weekend (to move a bunch of bricks).

Pretty exciting stuff.

All that she sees

2008-02-27T23:19:00.000-08:00

Zaya took this picture of Little Dog. Little Dog is not quite so sure about all of this construction, and quite frankly I'm not so sure that the crew knows quite what to think of our dog. Still, here she is, surveying the progress.

Jack-hammering

2008-02-27T23:10:00.000-08:00

This would be a retaining wall which was in the middle of our garage, holding up the middle of our house. Just gives you a feel for the immense amount of work going on down there.

Yeah, sure guys, come on back

2008-02-27T23:00:00.000-08:00

So the Bobcat is pretty amazing and looks pretty fun. Basically Sean & I both kinda want one. But here, one might wonder if the large animal is going a bit too far. Until now the backyard has been the safe spot for sunshine and some relative calm, but we knew that was too good to last...

The biggest hole

2008-02-27T22:58:00.000-08:00

I mentioned earlier that the crew here has been digging these holes in the ground that will hold the cribbing. The cribbing is basically a nicely stacked bunch of big thick wood which then supports a metal I-beam, which then holds up our house while they undermine & replace the foundation.

I also mentioned before that one of these holes was not so easy to get to... which would bring us to this shot here. This hole is ~4 x 4' wide and maybe 9 feet deep, with headroom of only a foot & 1/2 or so above the top of the hole for squeezing your way into and out of. yeah. They jack-hammered it all out as our soil is rocky. Pretty amazing. Or as these guys would say to me - Si, mucho trabajo.

Our house designer became our friend

2008-02-24T21:29:00.001-08:00

How exactly this happened I can't quite say. In some ways it must have happened almost immediately because I think our first meeting lasted 5 hours or so. She setup camp and worked on her computer while I cooked dinner, and all this seemed normal somehow.
Jen is funny. Not just kinda sorta funny but downright quick. And she is fun. And despite her supposed weariness of artists she actually is one herself, but don't tell. Our goals when we began this project were that it should be fun, & that we could come up with a unique and good design, we just needed a knowledgeable partner so that our doors would be tall enough and the whole thing could pass inspection. Jen has been all this and more. She has made this project a pleasure (so far). The craigslist gods were smiling upon us. Good news.
Just in case you wanted to reach this fine woman directly, try this link here.

What's going on down there anyhow?

2008-02-23T19:05:00.000-08:00

My little home office area is set up directly over the garage, where all the excitement is right now. The first day I was sure a sawzall would soon come poking up through the floor somewhere close to my toes. Alas, my toes are all intact and the floor unscathed- all is well. Here though is a panorama to show the things that are going on down there. Basically after removing the concrete slabs from the garage, they've been mostly working to dig these 4 big square holes that will hold the cribbing, which will then hold our house up while they remove the existing foundation. (Let us all pray for no earthquakes). Then at some point they'll have to get rid of all that soil. Armando says we have good soil. What we have is rocky soil, but for foundation and stability this, it turns out, is good news.

What our house will stand on

2008-02-22T19:41:00.000-08:00

Here's a photo of one of the holes for the cribbing, there are 4 holes like this being dug out down there. 3 of them are relatively easy to get to, the 4th not so much. I will try to get a picture of the guys shoveling that one out on Monday, because it is pretty amazing. The holes are 4x4' square, and soon our home will be resting on them.
We learned that the area we live in is called Rockridge because it was once a rock quarry. The different layers of rock & the colors are amazing. They are actually using jack-hammers to cut the squares- it's that dense. Lucky for us it is coming out alright.

Porta-potty & furnace

2008-02-21T19:54:00.000-08:00

We haven't even begun to discuss the back yard, or the rest of the house for that matter. Well here it is- or at least part of it.
Which brings us to our next topic of conversation... might you wonder, if there is only one bathroom in your little house, where will the men go when they are feeling the need? ah! Enter the miraculous blue porta-potty! This makes our home a true job site and allows us all to go whenever we feel the need. How nice it will be to have two real live flushing toilets... wait, make that three.
Meanwhile, if you've ever been to our home, you'd say: what about that nice new furnace that was in the garage? what the heck did you do with that thing? Well, basically, Sean single-handidly disconnected it and then brought it up to the backyard, where it now appears as the funny looking plastic-wrapped thing on your right.
And how, you now ask, are we doing without any heat? Well actually, now that you asked, I am kinda cold...

Wasp's Nests

2008-02-20T16:33:00.001-08:00

So what are these things? Some of you may have already identified them as wasps nests. Luckily for us they seem to have been evacuated some time ago. They were discovered wedged in behind the (now extinct) chimney, and are even more beautiful in person.

Some Questions Answered

2008-02-20T15:58:00.001-08:00

So I can't explain Sean's boyish happiness exactly, except to say that boys do love demo, and this most certainly is that.
The other happy guy- the one on the left is Armando Sanchez, the contractor we chose to hire for the foundation and excavation in our garage. So far all is good- the machines are loud but they get the work done. The crew sings songs occasionally and brought their own microwave. Together they have already lowered the floor of our garage by at least a foot. Pretty exciting.

May the Transformation Begin

2008-02-20T14:22:00.001-08:00

We have taken on our biggest undertaking yet, perhaps, by giving this sweet and beautiful little home a 100th year birthday renovation. Only one full day of work by the foundation crew and already the transformation has clearly begun.
This photo is a testament to what a bobcat and some seriously hard working men can do in a day.
As for the other mysteries...you'll just have to stay tuned.

Goodbye Chimney

2008-02-19T15:20:00.000-08:00

There has been much discussion about pretty much every inch of our home. Our chimney alone has been the focal point for hours of discussion. The beautiful brick look of it vs. well, the room it will take up in the garage, and the room it takes up on the porch and the sun it may take away from the solar, the general lack of safety associated with chimneys and earthquakes, the fact

that we won't be able to burn wood anymore in it anyhow...
Believe it or not I was torn until just two weeks ago. I am a waffler. But as you can see here, Sean is not.
We have decided to re-use the brick for our driveway. Already now the bricks are cleaned and stacked and waiting their new phase in life. & the good news is, as you may be able to tell from the photos, Sean is damn good at the demolishing of things.

Before

2008-02-15T15:48:00.000-08:00

Thought we should start out with a picture of the house before we begin to meddle... for reference.