Week 27: More Finishing Touches



In this photo the crew is nearing the completion of the siding and shingling of the house.  An important final touch is the placement of the oval false vent.  In this photo, Tim holds up the vent while a group of us stand in the street below determining the exact placement.



Despite the clear change in weather patterns--we now see at least a little rain virtually every day--the painters take advantage of dry spells and, remarkably, are nearing completion of the exterior painting.  We would not have guessed that this would be possible.  This photo also shows the new exterior floodlight installed on the middle bellyband of the addition.  There was a debate as to whether this light should be on a motion sensor.  We decided against such a sensor, as a number of people have had the experience of rear floodlights going off and on all night long as neighborhood cats and other critters roam the neighborhood.



This photo shows the two exterior lights that have been added to the west wall of the dining room.  The back porch leading to the dining room door will be illuminated by these lights.

Ron's nephew arrived on Thursday to begin the final excavation phase, consisting of the installation of drainage around the garage plus rough grading of the backyard.



This shows the drainage trench dug along the south face of the garage.  We had been getting some water on the garage floor during heavy rains, and we are hoping that this drainage trench will put an end to that problem.



This photo shows the continuation of the trench around the southeast corner of the garage and then north to the exterior sump.



Ron's nephew begins to install the drainage pipe; a 4" PVC tightline runs the entire length of the trench, picking up water from the two garage downspouts and also picking up water from the perforated flexible pipe shown in the photo.  The tightline then runs to the sump, where water is pumped from the sump through the house drainage system to the storm drain on South Park Drive.  The black flexible pipe shown in this photo is perforated and runs along the south face and east wall of the garage and then deposits any collected water into the PVC tightline.



For some time now, we and our neighbors have been aware that the existing fence between our properties has been approximately 18" too far west.  The fence also is quite old and in need of replacement.  So we are replacing the fence and putting the new fence closer to the property line.  Since the excavation equipment was on site, we took this opportunity to have the excavator remove the existing fence posts--an operation that would have taken laborers a couple of hours ended up taking the excavator about 10 minutes.  In this photo, Dylan (in the background next to our neighbors' garage) is removing the fence sections to expose the fence posts for removal by the excavator.

Ron's nephew plucks the first fence post out of the ground.  It's amazing how easy this is when you have the right equipment!



Ditto



We also determined that a section of our existing rear fence was leaning badly and could not really be righted in any manner that would be permanent.  We concluded that the solution was to remove the section and reinstall it with fresh concrete.  Again, this was an opportunity to take advantage of the excavator to make quick work of something that otherwise would have been a major chore.



When the first post of this section was removed, we discovered that approximately three bags (roughly 200 lbs.) of concrete had been used to set the original post.  Notwithstanding, ground settlement--probably resulting from our replacement of the sewer line in 2006--had still caused the post to list.  We are planning a concrete pad for this section of fence to provide a more stable base.



A great deal of interior trim work was accomplished this week, and the results are thrilling.  Throughout the house, we are replicating the trim details of the original 1925 house, and the effect is very pleasing.  In this photo, Chris is putting the finishing touches on the trim for the kitchen window.  A key feature of the window and door trim is a specially milled band molding (a close-up of this molding is shown in a later photo).  We got very lucky that a local milling company still had the knives that had been used to create this molding in the 1920s, so we were able to use this molding throughout the house at a very reasonable cost.



This photo shows the completed trim around the kitchen window. Another remarkable thing is how exactly the window trim fits within the dimensions of the cabinets. The cabinets were made offsite by Eric Fulbright, and he got the dimensions exactly right, so that when Chris installed the trim, it fit exactly.



The baseboards installed in the house in 1925 had "shoe molding" installed where the baseboards meet the floor.  We got lucky on these shoes, too; the local milling company also had the 1920s knives for the shoe molding, and we therefore are installing this molding throughout the house, except in carpeted areas, where the shoes would get in the way of the carpet.  This photo shows the shoe molding in the upstairs bathroom, where the floor is tile.



This photo shows a close-up of the 1925 shoe molding.



this photo shows a close-up of the 1925 band molding that runs around the outer edges of the window and door trim.



Marty McKinney gave us our first ride in the elevator.  The automatic controls are still being fine tuned.  He gave us the ride with the manual control that he's holding in his hand in this photo.  The ride was quiet and smooth.  Very exciting!

This photo shows the wainscoting that has been installed in the bedroom.  The wainscoting will serve as a headboard for the bed.  The photo also shows more windows missing.  In last week's blog we misunderstood what was happening.  This week we learned that the windows are modular and can easily be removed.  The painters requested that the windows be removed so that painting the interior frames of the windows could be done more efficiently.  So this is being done throughout the house wherever we've installed new windows.

This photo shows some of the removed windows waiting to be painted.



Every once in a while, the view from one of the upstairs windows includes an unexpected body part of someone doing something high up off the ground.  In this case, one of the painters was painting the top of the gable as we looked out of the bedroom window.

On one of the afternoons without rain, Susan, Maya, and Zoe walked over from their house to check out the remodeling work going on at our house.  Maya now rides one of those amazing balance bicycles without pedals.  These marvelous vehicles did not exist when our daughters were Maya's age, although we suppose that the flexees and scooters of our day may have served a similar purpose.  Maya scoots on this bicycle like a pro, and it clearly is helping her prepare for early success on a real bike. 



Ditto.



Late in the week we got rain gutters and downspouts!  Now rainwater that had been dripping along the roof dripline is going through our drainage system to the storm drain in the street.  It is too early to be absolutely sure about this, but so far the basement has been dry, notwithstanding some fairly heavy rain that we know would have produced water in the basement prior to the installation of the drainage system.  What a relief!

This photo shows the gutter and downspout on the west side of the porch roof.  Also visible in this photo are our new house numbers and the exterior of our new front door.



In 1977, when we remodeled our Berkeley house, two of the original 1910 wall sconces were removed to make way for a new wall that was part of the remodeling work done at that time.  We put these wall sconces in the attic and discovered them anew as we were considering what lights to put above the fireplace at 2644 South Park.  We had the lights rewired, and they are now in place.  It is fun to know that we are bringing bits of Berkeley with us.



a close-up of one of the 1910 Berkeley wall sconces



This photo shows two other antique lighting fixtures that we decided to install in the newly remodeled living room.  In the foreground is the 1910 lighting fixture that originally hung in our Berkeley dining room when the BP's grandparents owned the house.  In our 1977 remodel, we moved the light to the master bedroom.  It now hangs as one of two lighting fixtures in our Bellingham living room.  In the background is the 1925 light fixture that was part of the original Bellingham living room.  We had both of these antique fixtures rewired.  We love the fact that, while they are not identical, their similar design makes them first cousins.



a close-up of the 1910 Berkeley fixture.



a close-up of the 1925 Bellingham lighting fixture



We were very excited to see Mike back at work.  You last saw Mike early in the project removing the roof of the old house and installing our pre-fabricated walls.  Shortly after the walls were installed, Mike had a serious mountain bike accident and was laid up for several months while his shoulder healed.  He tells us he's now 100%, and in this photo, he's installing our new front door.

This is how the house looked from the rear at the end of the week.  The siding is complete, much of the painting has been done, although a little painting remains, including the foundation, and windows need to be reinserted after they've been painted inside.

end of the week photo of the north and east elevations of the house



end of the week photo of the north and west elelvations of the house