The Butterfly Emerges

This is our final posting in the Metamorphosis blog.  We thought we would show you some photos of the finished house plus several photos taken during an Open House that we hosted last Sunday to celebrate the completion of the project.  This photo shows the living room viewed from the kitchen doorway.



Another view of the living room, this one looking west



A third view of the living room, this one looking east.  The kitchen doorway is in the background.



A view of the south wall of the living room showing the fireplace and Eric Fulbright's lovely oak mantel.



A closer view of the mantel.  The flowers in the foreground were presented to us by Eric at the Open House.  The tea set on the mantel was hand painted in the 1880s by the BP's great grandmother.  The teapot, smashed in the Loma Prieta earthquake, was magically restored by our friend Darlene Syverson.



A view from the kitchen doorway looking south into the dining room.



A view of the kitchen looking from the dining room



Ditto



Looking south from the kitchen doorway



The dining room, looking south from the kitchen.  The main floor elevator door is on the left; the door to the rear porch is on the right.



Looking southeast from the kitchen



The pantry/playroom, looking west from the kitchen

The pantry/playroom, looking south.  The armoir in the corner holds our pantry goods.  The cabinet in the center of the photo was built by daughter Sue and her husband Chris for their old kitchen and now is used as a freestanding unit to hold our pots and pans.



The pantry/playroom looking north (the living room is on the other side of the doorway).  The table and chairs on the left are primarily for grandchldren art projects.  The cabinet on the right is the cabinet built by the BP from recycled redwood boards and molding from our 2119 Marin house in Berkeley.

The main floor bathroom.  The main changes here are the new oak floor and new paint.



A view of the staircase from the living room front door.  The area under the staircase has become a children's playhouse.  The access door is in the white paneling.



Granddaughter Zoe at work in the children's play area.



The lower staircase viewed from the living room.



The upper staircase viewed from the stair landing.  The chair at the top of the staircase and the 19th century print hanging above it are in the same position relative to this staircase as they were in Berkeley at the top of Berkeley's north staircase.



A view of the upper staircase looking down from the upper hall.  We've used the wall space along the staircase as a photo gallery of our Tahoe pictures.



A view of the BB's office, looking east.



BB's office, looking west.

The BP's office, looking north

The upper hallway looking south from the doorway to the BB's office.  The master bedroom is the blue room in the background.  The large cuckoo clock on the left wall belonged to one of the BP's great grandmothers.  It had not been working and had been hanging silently on the BP's office wall in Berkeley for over 20 years.  Our friend Darlene Syverson worked her magic on this clock, too, and now it is running beautifully, happily calling out the time every half hour.

A view of the upper bathroom showing Eric Fulbright's magnificent cabinetry.



Another view of the upper bathroom, showing the walk-in shower



The walk-in shower is another favorite play area for kids.  In this photo, two of our Open House guests explore the playhouse possibilities of the shower.



Our upstairs library, looking east.  The rocking horse in the foreground was built by the BB's father when she was two years old and has recently been refinished by Sue and Chris.  The bookcase on the left was built by Chris out of beautiful redwood boards that we salvaged from some construction work on our Berkeley house. It is heartwarming to know that part of the Berkeley redwood will be with us forever in this house.



Another view of the upper hall and library, with the new redwood bookcase in the right background.



The master bedroom looking east.



The master bedroom looking south.  The windows overlook our rear yard, and we never tire of the view from these windows.

No photo tour of the house would be complete without a couple of shots of the elevator.  This shows the elevator cab taken from one of the interior doorways.

This shows the elevator cab taken from the exterior access doorway.  We love the elevator, and we especially love the exterior access to the elevator.  We use it practically every day to bring groceries, luggage, and other items into the house from the rear entry.



Open House day!  The BP assists our caterer, Diane, and her granddaughter, Lindsay, of Kelly O'Deli Catering.  They brought a magnificent spread for us.

Diane and Lindsay preparing the Open House buffet

As you can see, there was plenty to eat!

Our granddaughter, Maya, proceeded immediately to the dessert trays.  No sense on wasting time with the other stuff.



More delectables



Two of our neighbors chatting at the Open House

Various Open House guests.  On the right, Maya engages one of our guests in a serious conversation.



The BP and guests



The BB and guests



Our son-in-law, Chris, explains a fine point of carpentry to his good friend and neighbor, Mike McMullen.



Guest and massage therapist par excellence, Beth Brown, reads to an engrossed audience.

Cabinet maker Eric Fulbright (kitchen cabinets, upper bath cabinets, and living room mantel) tours the upper hall during the Open House.  Small world department: Eric noticed the large cuckoo clock and was reminded that he has an identical clock lying in a box at his house.



Cheri and Cliff Christian at the Open House.  Cheri was responsible for the beautiful tile work in the kitchen and upper bathroom, and she also played a huge role in helping us select both interior and exterior paint colors for the remodeled house.  Cliff installed the beautiful carpeting on the stairway and throughout the upper floor.  As an added bonus, he also installed carpeting in the play area under the stairs.



Our son-in-law Chris produced a video of the entire 9-month remodeling project, using thousands of time-lapse photos taken from a wildlife time-lapse camera mounted on a pole at the rear of our backyard.  During the Open House, we played the video on our living room TV.  Chris explains some of the fine points to Bellingham Bay Builders owners Ross Grier (far left) and Dave Brogan (standing next to Ross), and our engineer for the project, Jason Bourne (standing to Chris's right).  Chris's friend Mike McMullen looks on.



The BB and the BP talking with more Open House guests



Two central players in our remodeling project failed to make the Open House photos.  In this photo, taken early in the construction process, our talented designer, Luther Allen, is on the left--Luther was a prominent participant in the Open House but somehow escaped being photographed.  On the right, another Bellingham Bay Builders owner, Dylan Hicks, who was also the onsite project manager for our remodel, could not attend the Open House because he was in another part of the state watching his daughter compete in a gymnastics competition.



So here we are.  As a reminder, this photo shows our house before the metamorphosis.



And this photo, taken on May 1, 2012, shows the BB, our daughter Susan, and grandkids Maya and Zoe with designer Luther Allen and BBB owner Dave Brogan (the overall project manager for our remodel) breaking ground.



And this photo shows the butterfly fully emerged from the cocoon.



Our refurbished rear yard looking south from the rear porch

Ditto, looking south from the exterior access door to the elevator



The rear of the house as it looks today.  The three upper windows are the windows of the master bedroom; the three lower windows are the windows of the dining room.  On the left, the lower single window leads to the pantry/playroom; the small upper single window leads to the walk-in closet upstairs.  The goose in the foreground holds down the cover to our exterior drainage sump.  It was a gift to us from the BB's brother and sister-in-law, Bill and Linda Pike, 30 years ago.  For many years, the goose guarded the fireplace in our Berkeley living room; now it seems even happier in its present outdoor location.



Another view of the rear of the house taken from the back fence.

And finally, a view showing what our neighbors on the other side of Broadway Park see when they look in our direction.  To everyone who has followed the blog during these past many months, we thank you for your interest in the details of our project and hope that we've managed to provide both some useful information and some entertainment.  Our best wishes to all.