Touchdown!!



During the first week of January we visited the house to make sure that everything was ready for our final move.  We found everything in apple pie order.  This photo shows the kitchen tile and mural, which was one of the last finishing touches.



We found Tom in the bedroom installing our new window blinds.



The New Year started out with a lot of rain and bitter cold, and we really didn't anticipate that the landscaping company that we hired to restore our yard would be able to commence work.  In fact, we had put in place arrangements for our contractor to lay out sheets of plywood in the backyard mud so the movers would have some stable footing as they delivered our household goods.  To our amazement, the landscaping crew began work on Monday, and within hours of arrival had begun a major transformation of the backyard.



By Wednesday the landscapers had put down enough gravel so that we could discard the plywood sheets, and our movers could walk on clean compacted gravel to get to the house.  In this photo, the landscaping foreman, Josh, is compacting the gravel underlayment for the patio pavers.

By Wednesday night the gravel path from the rear gate was complete, and pavers for the new patio and walkways had been delivered.  That's a deep frost that you see on the garage, which hung around all day long.



Thursday morning--moving day at the apartment!

Ironman Movers sent a two-man crew.  It took them about four hours to load the truck.



Thursday had dawned wet, cold, and with flurries of snow.  This photo was taken upon arrival at the house, around 2:30.  It was still very cold, but the sun was out and the skies were clear.  What a wonderful day to move!



This is Joe, the Ironman foreman, with part of the futon in the elevator.  We were absolutely amazed that all of our furnishings, no matter how large, somehow fit one way or another into the elevator.

A couple of days after moving in.  This is the library, which for the moment, houses the futon, a small desk, and all of our accumulated artwork.  First we're unpacking all of it; then we'll decide later where all of it will go.



This is the BP's junkyard.  After considerable unpacking and organizing, it will become his office.



This is the BB's office.  Still a lot to unpack, but two critical items are in place--her computer work station, and in the far corner of the room, the small cherry writing desk made by The BP's great grandfather, which for over 50 years, resided at the Tahoe cabin.



Nothing says welcome home like a closet full of clothes.  Never in all our married life have we had a closet this large.  What a luxury!

This is the pantry/playroom in a state of transition.  The cabinet in front of the window was one of the base cabinets handmade by Susan and Chris in their kitchen before their 2006 remodel.  They were using it temporarily at our house when they lived here during their remodeling period.  We decided to keep it and will eventually put a butcher block top on it and find a final place for it in the pantry.  It comfortably holds all of the BB's oversized pots and pans.  In the far corner of this picture is a cabinet that we found quite by accident at the local hardware store.  It turns out to be the perfect size and configuration to store pantry goods.



This is the living room with something new--a comfortable sofa--and something really old--the cherry secretary and display case made by the BP's great grandfather in the 1880s.



Another shot of our new expanded living room.  The carpet dates back to at least the 1920s and was used as the living room rug in the Berkeley house by the BP's grandparents.  In the far left corner our grandfather clock survived the journey, and after just a few minor repairs to restore a weight cable that had come loose and the pendulum mechanism, the clock now happily ticks away, keeping perfect time.



Another view of the living room adjunct that also shows the carpeted staircase.  The antique copper pot on the right, given to the BP by a client years ago, makes the perfect container for catching the mail that comes through the slot in the wall.



Our Berkeley dining room table that dates back at least to the early 1900s fits beautifully in our new dining room.  It sits on a new Craftsman rug that we fell in love with and purchased especially for this dining room.  On the right is a small buffet table inherited by the BB from her maternal grandparents.  The BB remembers seeing this table sitting in the dining room of her grandparents' San Diego house.



Just a few days after moving in, we prepared our inaugural dinner for the new dining room.  The occasion was the celebration of our son-in-law Chris's birthday.  In this photo, the BB is putting the finishing touches on a new noodle pudding, which served as one of two entrees for the dinner--this being a meatless offering that our vegetarian daughter could enjoy. 



The BP carves the other entree, a pork roast.  In the picture are Susan and Chris and their daughters, two-year-old Zoe on the left and four-year-old Maya on the right.  As the photo proves, if you want to be a big hit with your grandchildren, serve corn on the cob.



Zoe helps the BB put candles on the birthday cake while Maya takes a photo.

Susan delivers the birthday cake to Chris.  In the background is the china cabinet that we purchased from Mrs. Beuttel, the lady who sold us our first house in North Oakland in 1969.  The placemats on the table were purchased online from the Tucson store, "A Perfect Pantry", owned and operated by the BB's sister-in-law, Amy Pike.

Aging fathers of small children need a lot of help to blow out birthday candles.

In all of the many moves we've made during our married years, we've found there are certain things which, when put in place in the new house, make that house--wherever is is-- feel like home.  This photo shows two of those things, a small chair passed down through the BB's family.  She remembers seeing it in her grandparents' San Diego house.  It may well have originated in earlier generations of her family.  On the wall above the chair hangs one of the BPs grandmother's favorite artworks--a pen and ink drawing done in 1884.  This drawing hung above this chair at the top of the stairs in our Berkeley home; they are now paired together at the top of the stairs in our Bellingham home.

No matter where we are, as soon as the cuckoo clock is hung, we're home.  This is not the Berkeley cuckoo clock.  We have that now hanging in our Davis condo.  This is the clock that for almost 60 years helped us keep time at the Tahoe cabin.  Thanks to a friend that we've made in Bellingham, Darlene Syverson, who is a magician when it comes to repairing cuckoo clocks, this clock is healthy, happy, and keeping wonderful time.  Also in the photo is a corner table that the BP inherited from his grandparents.



This photo shows many treasures that make us now feel that we are home.  The wall sconces are two original 1910 wall sconces from the Berkeley house.  The candlesticks date back at least to 1890, where they appear in a photograph of the BP's grandmother in the parlor of her then home in Connecticut.  The elephant is a Siamese teapot that the BP's grandmother used to serve tea at afternoon card parties.  The exquisite tea set in the center was hand painted by the BP's great grandmother in the 1880s.  We doubly treasure this set not only because it's the most beautiful example of her work that we own, but also because the teapot fell off its shelf in Berkeley in the Loma Prieta earthquate, and just last year, was restored to its original glory by the very same Darlene Syverson, who works such magic with cuckoo clocks.  A woman of amazing talent, she occupies roughly the same status in our family as the family doctor.



A close-up of the tea set and the candlesticks.  The candlesticks, by the way, were kept on the mantel of our Berkeley house and appear in a photo taken at the time of the BP's parents' marriage in the Berkeley house in 1937.  Both the tea set and the candlesticks look wonderful on the mantel designed by Eric Fulbright.

At the end of the week, the landscapers had completed the paver walkway along the east side of the house.  When weather permits, the dirt strip to the left of the walkway will become sod.



By the end of the week, much of the rear patio had also been completed.  We are very impressed by the careful work being done on the landscaping by Private Gardens Design.



This is how the house looked from the rear at the end of the week.



And this is the front of the house at the end of the week.



This speaks for itself.  We're now taking a couple of months off.  There will be one more installment of the blog, probably in March, when we can show the final landscaping, and when, with luck, we will have unpacked most of our boxes and hung most of the artwork.  It has been an amazing journey, and we thank you for coming along for the ride.

Week 32: 4th Down on the One-Yard LIne



This photo shows the cured concrete apron and drain grate installed in front of the garage.  We anticipate this making a huge difference in keeping water out of the garage during the occasional rains we have here in Bellingham.



This photo of the new laundry room shows the elevator door on the left, newly installed cabinets on the walls, and the washer and dryer in place, although not yet fully installed.  We have taken pleasure in recycling wherever we can.  The base and upper cabinets on the right wall and the upper cabinet on the far wall were all in the mud room of the pre-remodel house.  We are using them again here in the laundry room.  The base cabinet on the far wall is one of the base cabinets that used to be in the kitchen of the pre-remodel house.  The freestanding cabinet in the front of the photo is a base cabinet that Susan and Chris built and gave to us when they remodeled their house.  At the end of the project, this cabinet will move upstairs to the pantry, where we will use it  to store pots and pans.



This is the basement room adjacent to the laundry.  This photo shows some of the Berkeley possessions we're storing here pending our ability to occupy the entire house.



This photo shows the rehabilitated crawl space in the old furnace room.  Bellingham Bay Builders installed several new footings in this space to help support the second stories of the house.  When they were done, they raked and graded the earth and covered it with thick vinyl.  It's nicer space than it's ever been before and will make it much easier for the BP when he makes his biannual crawl through this space to open or close the foundation vents.



This photo shows the fully wired media panel.  The panel contains coaxial cables and ethernet cables for television and internet service to a total of ten locations in eight different rooms.  At any particular time, we will only be using two or three locations, but if and when the need arises to change any locations, we have plenty of choices.  The panel also contains cabling for landline telephone service to the elevator and four other locations in the house.



It's hard to believe, but we really are very close to being finished, and we find ourselves shifting gears from big picture issues to checking minute details to make sure everything is complete and working correctly.  In this photo, the BP is checking off items on our nine-page punchlist.



Every time we think most of the debris is gone from the yard, Dylan brings in another trailer and manages to fill it.  This is the beginning of the eighth month of construction, and during that time, a whole lot of debris accumulates!



Shelves and clothes-hanging poles have been installed in the closets.  This photo shows the poles on three walls in the master closet.  This is the largest closet that the BP and the BB have ever enjoyed in their entire married life.



This not very good photograph shows other details going on--in this case, a 48" grab bar has been installed inside the shower; on the left outside wall, a double towel rack has been installed; and in the upper right of the photo, you can see a robe hook that's been installed.



This photo shows one of two 36" grab bars that are being installed in the toilet area, and also the tissue holder that's been installed.  The BB and the BP purchased all of the bathroom accessories online; the good news was, they found exactly what they wanted; the surprising news has been that it's taken eight weeks for most of them to arrive, and there are two towel racks that haven't turned up yet.



The work table in the BB's office has now been fully completed.  Our granddaughter, Maya, has advised us that the cubbyhole is not a good place to store things; it's a much better place to rest your head when you're tired and even crawl into if you feel like hiding.



Sue and her family are visiting the BB's office.  The BB, Sue, and Chris pose for a photo taken by Maya with her very own camera.  Zoe elected not to be in the photo and preferred to study the recessed light in the ceiling.



Late last week, the state elevator inspector gave his final approval for the elevator, and all elevator finishes were completed except the oak floor, which was the task of Matthew, who has handled the new and refinished oak floors throughout the house.  This week Matthew installed the oak floor in the elevator cab, and this photo shows the now fully finished cab.



Sue and her family were the first official guests to ride in the elevator.  In this photo, Zoe pushed the elevator call button.



Here, Sue and her family enter the elevator for their first ride.  Zoe's inclination was to push all of the buttons, but fortunately she was only tall enough to ring the alarm and push "1", which took all of us to the basement. 
After viewing the basement, Maya pushed the higher buttons to take us to the second floor.



One of the delightful surprises when we engaged Eric Fulbright to build our kitchen cabinets was his idea of adding wainscoting on the north kitchen wall where fireplace brick used to be.  The wainscoting was Eric's design and included Craftsman touches that you can see in this photo at the top of the wainscoting.  We had planned from the beginning of the project to remodel the mantel in the living room but had initially planned a simple painted mantel.  Eric suggested that he could make us a nicer mantel out of the same quarter sawn oak he'd used for the kitchen cabinets, and he could build into it similar Craftsman touches borrowed from the wainscoting design.  The next photo will show you the result.



This is the new living room mantel designed and built by Eric Fulbright.



It is a big thrill to see a staircase that the BP and the BB designed from the LJ Smith catalog actually take shape in the house.  In this photo you see Tom, who, with his partner, Derek, are stair building experts and have been brought in by Bellingham Bay Builders to construct our staircase. 



This is another view of the staircase.  The upper part of the photo also provides glimpses of the ceiling grids and the new wall sconce at the stairway landing.  This blog will be taking a holiday hiatus while we return to California for Christmas.  We anticipate one or two more blog installments in early January.  Stay tuned.  In the meantime, we hope you enjoy wonderful holidays.