The Bonnie Brae Project

What else did you do this summer?

2009-10-15T00:03:00.000-07:00

Aside from working on the west side of the house (front bedroom, hallway and retreat), we did some landscaping work.

In June we removed the old (and rotted) deck from the back and side yard. That was a fun task done with pry bars and a circular saw. Fortunately, we had good weather while bending over with the pry bar in hand, trying desperately to pull up nails that seemed to be eight inches long.

Here is a photo that shows most of the former deck:

After removing the deck we thought we'd turn the back deck area into a patio and the side deck area into a kitchen garden. That plan worked well with the side deck area. There was nothing but dirt underneath the side deck.

What did we find under the back deck? A swimming pool. An old vinyl sided swimming pool along with all its old pool equipment. It is about 13x13 and four feet deep. Instead of removing the pool and filling in the hole, the former residents simply built a deck on top of it. When did that happen? We are not sure. However, we did find a date and some initials etched into the underside of one of the deck boards. What was the year? 1991.

We've started referring to the old swimming pool as "The Pit". Along with the old pool equipment, it has a shoe, a glove, a few dog toys, leaves and other debris in it.

We are not quite sure what to do with "The Pit" yet. We considered turning it into a pond complete with koi and water lilies. We briefly entertained the idea of installing a small plunge pool in it. One of our coworkers also suggested turning it into an "inverted greenhouse". I preferred the pond option, especially being able to stock it with creatures that go by names such as "Tancho" and "Bekko".

What have we done with "The Pit"? Nothing yet. There are weeds currently growing in it. Our cat, Bear, likes to investigate its mysterious and aged contents. The squirrels are using it for "nut storage".

After researching the pond option, including taking a class on how to build and maintain your own pond and water features at Hughes Water Gardens, we found out that ponds can sometimes become rather green and murky in Oregon, especially during the spring before the plants used to filter the water become established. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of the "swamp thing habitat" look. There was also the cost of all the pond equipment to consider (liner or clay, pump, filters, plants, rocks and, of course, prizewinning fish.) So, the pond option has been scrapped. We also don't have a pool budget. So, that might just mean that the future of The Pit involves fill dirt and lots of manual labor.

What else did we do this summer? We replaced the side deck area with two more 4x4 planter boxes, three in ground beds and a gravel walkway. The boxes and beds are now populated with herbs, blueberries, strawberries, seasonal vegetables and one dwarf fig tree.

In mid July, I also planted groupings of peacock orchid bulbs around the new gravel walkway. By September, they were starting to bloom. Their foliage looks more like iris foliage. This gives the area more of a stream bed type of appearance. So, I guess we have the appearance of a stream if not a real pond in our back yard.

Here is a photo of one of the peacock orchids:

Carpet for the bedroom?

2009-10-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

In a few more weeks we will have the west side of the house finished. This means that we will once again be able to use the front bedroom and the retreat (home office).

We had planned to complete everything by mid September. However, there were some delays in that our painter was fully booked for the summer when we contacted him. He does a great job so it was worth waiting for him to wrap up his other jobs. We also had to buy and prime the new trim for the bottoms of the walls and around the doors.

And... there was this other problem that popped up when we were ready to install the trim. We had been talking about putting carpet in the front bedroom. We wanted something softer to walk on in that room. Plus, we plan to turn it into a home theater and carpet is better than concrete at sound deadening. We were all set to install the trim when we found out that it would be best to install the carpet before putting the trim on the bottom of the walls. That was a major finding. That meant that we had to do what we don't do that well. Make a design decision! We can window shop all day and find hundreds of things that we like. But pick one of them? Really? Only one?

In the quest for finding "the one" we looked at a lot of carpet. We have always liked the FLOR carpets since they are so low profile and easy to install and maintain. We managed to bring home about twenty FLOR carpet samples. Once we had the samples in the front room, it was pretty easy to see which ones were too light, too dark, too busy, too stripy, etc. We finally arrived at a decision.

Here's what we've decided on for the front bedroom:

This is the FLOR "Walk the Line" pattern. The color is "Earthen". In this photo, it looks somewhat purple. The sample we got from the local distributor is more of a dark brown color.

We also liked "Passageway". But, we would want it in a darker brown. Here is what it looks like:

Almost July!

2009-06-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it? The summer is already upon us.

Next week we'll be doing the drywall on the west side of the house. Then we'll paint.

After that is done, we'll install Flor carpet tiles in the front room, clean and seal the aggregate walkway around part of the atrium and start thinking about what to do with the two bathrooms. There are so many bathroom options.

We'll keep you posted. Sort of.

The East Side and the West Side

2009-04-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

We are almost done with we've started to refer to as the "East Side" of the house. This includes the living/dining room and the kitchen/family room.

The kitchen has been installed. It looks great. (I think it looks better than it did in the IKEA kitchen planner.) This past weekend, I lined most of the drawers and shelves with cork. And, I put some dishes in the drawers. (This seems like a minor event. But... after not having a kitchen with cabinets for many a month, it seems like quite the miracle.)

The new faucet, sink and dishwasher have been put to the test.

The counters are impressive. Being the most expensive part of the new kitchen, they should be!

There are some things to finish up:

Now that the new cabinets are in, we can really see that the LG fridge doors need to be aligned. That will take some time, I'm sure. The manual seems rather cryptic.
We left the protective film on the door front of of the new stainless steel Bosch dishwasher (that we had purchased during an appliance sale over a year ago). We thought the more protection the better! Well, after pulling off the protective film we now have a nice layer of glue that is virtually impossible to remove from the door. After doing some research, it seems like ammonia is the best chemical for removing the glue. It works. But, it does take some time. And, it requires extra ventilation. I wonder how many brain cells one can kill with ammonia.
We need to put the socket and switch cover plates on. The initial plan was to use cover plates that match the walls (white on white, taupe on taupe, etc.) so that the outlets would "disappear". Now we are thinking about stainless steel cover plates. We'll probably change our minds a few more times before we actually have cover plates.
The kitchen fan is completely gunked up. It seems like some of the past residents liked to deep fat fry most of their meals? Anyway, I'm not quite sure what product I can use to clean off 40 years of grease and dirt. I'm sure there is something...
We need to hang the glass ball lights again. (They resided in storage during the remodel. There's no need to crack the original kitchen light fixtures!)
The under cabinet light cords need to be concealed. Nick bought some fancy white tubing that can be used to hide the cords.

As for other news, we've started clearing out the "West Side" of the house. The rooms on this side will be dry walled and painted next.

We've also been looking at different kitchen backsplash options. Current contenders include Royal Mosa Kho Liang Le tile, Walker Zanger Skyline tile, Walker Zanger Roku tile, several different Heath Ceramic tiles or mirror.

And, last but not least, there are four new trees in our yard. A Hollywood plum, a Lapins cherry, a Charlotte peach and a Nakita's Gift persimmon. They are all dwarf trees. So, hopefully that means that our yard won't look overgrown in ten years. We'll also be adding an Autumn Blaze maple to the front yard. We hope that this tree will grow quickly and be able to shade the south side of the house during future, hot summers. It's good to plan ahead?

Now that the drywall and painting are done...

2009-03-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

what's next?

The kitchen cabinet installation, of course.

We plan to have all the cabinets in by Thursday. That is when they'll come to do the counter top template.

Wish us luck!

New door levers

2009-02-09T00:20:00.000-08:00

We spent quite a bit of time looking for door levers for our new interior doors.

Fortunately for us, Chown Hardware in downtown Portland has a well stocked showroom. We were able to see and touch many of the currently available modern or contemporary styled door knobs and levers.

Surprisingly, we both gravitated to the Karcher Starlight lever. It fits nicely in the hand. It is also rather well made. The design might be a little more "art deco" than modern. But, we like it.

Here were some of our other favorites:

Karcher Design
Stainless Steel Lever Handle “Las Vegas - R 24”
http://www.karcher-design.com/products/stainless_steel/lever_handles_on_rose/las_vegas_r_24.html

Omnia Industries
US32D Stainless Steel Door Lever
http://www.omniaindustries.com/ProductDetail.asp?Id=00019

Omnia Industries
36S - Square Rose Lever Latchset
http://www.omniaindustries.com/ProductDetail.asp?Id=00036S

Valli&Valli
H 5014 Serie Bernina
http://www.vallivalli-us.com/scheda_prodotto_inox.php?id_art=271

Doorbells and Door Chimes

2009-02-08T21:41:00.001-08:00

We had to take down our doorbell when we installed the drywall. Since it is just a plastic box, we decided to shop for a new one.

It seems that there are plenty of replacement plastic box doorbells on the market today. Some are wireless. Some can be programmed. There is even the iChime Doorbell that "includes dozens of built-in songs and sounds" and is "fully recordable to play anything you want". It "records live, or from your CD or MP3 player".

Now, that sounds pretty cool, especially if we could program it to shriek madly at our guests during Halloween. But, I'd rather have either something a lot more geeky and diy or something extremely basic yet entirely functional like a gong.

So, after spending a couple of hours searching google and Lotta Living for "modern", "mid century modern", "vintage" and "retro" door bells, I found the following:

KNOCK Doorbells
http://www.knockdoorbells.com/index.htm
New KNOCK Doorbells are made to fill a need that the major doorbell manufactures have left behind- stylish chimes with presence and quality. Aside from design quality, the thing that distinguishes KNOCK Doorbells from many other chimes is a philosophy that there is only one way to make a doorbell work- the honest way... to have little hammers strike metal bells. No synthetic chirps, no canned “music” and definitely no boring white boxes.

ElectraChime
http://electrachime.com/index.html
ElectraChime doorbells are designed to be seen and heard. The musical quality metal bells sound a melodious tone that announce your callers with dignity. Since the sound of your doorbell is the first impression visitors have of your home, certainly your house deserves the very best. An ElectraChime makes your home sound welcome.

Rejuvenation
http://www.rejuvenation.com/fixshow3708/templates/selection.phtml
Streamline Door / Doorbell Chime
Sleek and modern in appearance, our two-note, brass Streamline Door Chime has the appealing aerodynamic qualities of lighting, hardware, and furniture found in homes both before and after World War II.

modern doorbells
http://www.moderndoorbells.com/

When it comes to doorbell design, it seems the button gets all the attention. Well, what about the part that actually goes inside your house?

Our solution is simple. A modern designed door chime that installs easily to your home’s new or existing wiring. Our chimes will fit right in with your modern interior while still maintaining the sound quality and character of a mechanical bell.

Here's my current favorite from KNOCK Doorbells:

Too bad it is $700. But, it is a gong and a door chime. How about that?

Still hoping for a kitchen by March

2009-02-08T21:32:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting at my desk in the home office right now. When I turn around I can see through the open air courtyard, aka the "atrium", to the kitchen and family room area on the other side of the house. What amazing thing do I see over on that side of the house? New walls.

The drywall on that side of the house is almost done. The walls have a smooth, flat finish. We asked the drywall contractor to use metal edging across the tops of the walls so that we won't have to use molding where the walls meet the ceiling. He also did what is referred to as a "drywall wrap" around the sliding glass doors and the window in the family room.

The walls should be finished on Monday. Then, after some cleanup, we will paint the walls. When the painting is done we can install the kitchen. The goal still is to have the kitchen done by March. It looks like that just might happen!

The next wave

2009-01-10T16:04:00.000-08:00

Now that it is January 2009, it is time for the next wave of construction to begin.

Here's what we've done in the last couple of months:

decided on a new kitchen design - this was a major accomplishment!
purchased the kitchen cabinets, counter top, sink and faucet and inspected all the parts as they were delivered
ordered new interior doors
installed the new doors
ordered the new door hardware
ordered (finally) the new house numbers
removed the old drywall and paneling from the kitchen "L" wall
replaced remaining electrical outlets

We'll be having drywall installed later this month. After that, we'll do the painting and the kitchen installation.

Our goal is to have the drywall and painting done for all the rooms except the bathrooms and the master bedroom by the end of March. We might , if we're lucky, have a new kitchen by then too. It will be great to have a kitchen sink again!

Dreaming of a white...

2008-12-26T00:15:00.000-08:00

and Happy New Year to all!

The "near future" kitchen

2008-11-30T17:12:00.000-08:00

Our future kitchen, the one we've been talking about for a few years now, has become the "near future" kitchen.

Since we have a rather small, galley type kitchen, we ended up hiring a professional kitchen designer to help us figure out how to squeeze maximum storage into the small space while still having it seem open and functional. We knew that we wanted to go with an IKEA kitchen. So, we hired a designer who could help us plan the IKEA kitchen, get our order together and do all of this by the time the IKEA kitchen sale ended.

To start the design process, the kitchen designer came to our house to talk with us about our likes/dislikes regarding the last kitchen (a cheap, late 90s "upgrade" to the original kitchen done by previous owners), our needs and our vision for the new kitchen. She also measured and photographed the kitchen space. After a week, she presented about eight designs to us along with an explanation of her ideas about each one. The designs unified the kitchen's original white glass orb lights (which hang from the ceiling), the gray polished concrete floor, the one year old stainless steel appliances and the house colors (dark chocolate brown, a grayish- brownish taupe and white). During the couple of weeks that she worked with us, the kitchen designer created about 20 designs using the IKEA kitchen planner. Since you can upload your plans to the online planner, we were able to see the plans in real time and communicate about them via email and phone.

We had never worked with a designer before. We are very glad we did. Thank you, kitchen desinger!

So, what will our future kitchen be comprised of?

IKEA Akurum cabinets
IKEA Nexus brown cabinet doors
IKEA Rubrik white cabinet doors (for two horizontal cabinets that will be above the sink)
CeaserStone quartz countertop in Nougat
Blanco Performa stainless steel undermount sink with accessories
inSinkErator Evolution Essential (the garbage disposal that Nick swears he can't live without)
KWC Ono faucet (single-hole, single lever kitchen mixer with swivel spout and pull-out spray)

We will post photos when the kitchen has been installed. For now, here are some photos of the things that will be part of our new kitchen (like the CeaserStone quartz countertop):

As for budgeting our new kitchen, our recent tax returns paid for almost all of it. It helps that we were able to get the sink and faucet for almost 50% off from a local hardware store and an authorized online reseller.

Windows are in. Wow! It is warm in here!

2008-11-18T21:32:00.000-08:00

Our new fiberglass windows were installed about a month ago. Since then we have noticed a distinct absence of draft.

Do we miss our 40 year old, highly conductive and poorly insulated windows?

Not really.

Do we like our new windows?

Yes. They are clean and shiny. They are solid. They don't emit frigid air.

New Windows?

2008-09-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

This spring we asked several drywall contractors to give us estimates for replacing the drywall throughout most of our house.

All of the contractors recommended that we replace the original aluminum windows before we installed the new drywall. Why did they recommend this? Because our 40 year old windows have a condensation problem. Condensation + new drywall wrap around the windows = big mess in a few years.

So... We looked at all the replacement window options on the market. We considered both vinyl and fiberglass windows. We gathered estimates for window cost (including installation). We looked at windows from Milgard, Marvin and Pella.

What did we decide on? Pella Impervia Duracast Fiberglass Composite windows.

Why did we chose this window? Here are some of the reasons:

Of all the fiberglass sliding windows, it had a profile that was almost as minimal as the original aluminum framed sliders.
They came in three different frame colors: white, tan and brown. We chose the brown since it is similar to the trim color on our house.
Fiberglass windows (meaning the frames, not the glass) can be painted. Vinyl windows cannot be painted. At least not successfully. This probably means that the paint will probably peel off in no time. (Be aware that painting the window might violate any warranties.)

We were able to order our new windows a few weeks ago. Pella has been selling a lot of these windows, so there was about an 8-10 week wait for the installation. Maybe we'll have new windows by the end of October...

Here are some articles that provide a description of the different window types available on the market today:

Efficient Windows Collaboration
Efficient Windows Collaboration - Benefits: Energy & Cost Savings
Carol's Green Feature: Window Shopping

Here are what the original windows look like:

New fence for the east side

2008-09-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

This past May, with the help our neighbors, we rebuilt the fence that runs along the east side of our property.

We built the part of the fence that separates our yard from our neighbor's yard in the traditional "good neighbor" style. With this style of fence, both sides look the same.

For the part of the fence that separates our back yard from our front yard, we build what is sometime referred to as a solid good neighbor fence or simply a "privacy" fence

We stained our side using a taupe colored semi-transparent stain from Benjamin Moore. The stain color we used closely matches the body color of the house.

We also added a new gate.

Where have you been?

2008-09-21T12:58:00.001-07:00

That is a question that we have been hearing a lot lately...

But, we have been here.

We have also been working. A lot. That puts house projects on hold.

We've also done some traveling. I guess you can't work on your house if you are not around?

Here are the "house project" tasks that we accomplished this summer:

Built a new cedar fence along the east side of the property.
Ordered new fiberglass windows from Pella - they should be installed sometime in October.
Replaced most of the electrical outlets in the living room, dining room, kitchen and family room.
Added new plantings to the atrium (or courtyard) garden.

There is still more to do, of course.

What is that bright orb in the sky?

2008-04-06T17:05:00.000-07:00

Given our lack of blog activity, you might suspect that we hibernate during the winter. Maybe that is somewhat true?

What have we done this winter? We have worked our day jobs, volunteered with various organizations and traveled to Peru.

We also managed to remove the severely damaged paneling in the living/dining room, kitchen/family room, hallway, front room and retreat (home office). We insulated the exterior walls with cotton fiber insulation. More on that later...

Today Nick fixed some dry rot in the hallway. I cleaned up the atrium beds, getting them ready for spring planting.

It is good to see the sun again!

House plans?

2007-10-31T16:04:00.000-07:00

Our house did not come with a house plan. After measuring the entire house, with a measuring tape, Nick was able to create a basic floor plan for us.

I found some Eichler floor plans on the Eichler Homes of Southern California site. I also found a posting on the Eichler Network's Chatterbox Lounge about how to possibly get blueprints for some of the homes.

Does anyone know if we can get copies of the Rummer house plans?

Drywall estimates are coming in...

2007-10-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

The estimates from the drywall companies are starting to come in. The bids range from 4k to 8k to drywall and mud the entire house. I guess it helps that most of our walls are glass and, if they are not glass, they are only eight feet tall. We don't have to drywall the ceiling either.

The wall the separates the family room from the garage is higher on one end by about three feet. Interestingly enough, everyone assumes that this high point is at least fifteen feet tall. Even the drywall contractors were sure that the wall was over fifteen feet. I had to get the measuring tape out and prove that the wall was really only 11 feet tall. Maybe the wall height is some sort of optical illusion? The house most definitely looks bigger in the inside that it looks from the outside.

As for the wall finish, the smoother the better. We want to keep it simple. If we can get away without having to use moldings along the ceilings, even better.

Concrete Floors Have Been Polished

2007-09-26T11:53:00.001-07:00

The concrete floors in the living/dining, kitchen/family and retreat (home office) have been polished.

The floors have more of a satin finish. Since we have so many windows in the house we decided to stop polishing the floor at the 800-1500 grit level instead of trying for that high gloss shine you can get if you go up to a 3500 grit level. Since we have so much light entering the house, we didn't want to have mirrors for floors.

The floors also have a "salt and pepper" type look. This is achieved when enough of the concrete is ground away to start seeing some of the smaller aggregate (rocks) in the concrete slab. The contractors had to grind away a lot of the concrete in some areas to get the floors level. Thus, more of the aggregate is showing in some areas. That is ok with us - we like the diversity. Plus, we have the old cracks in the slabs. That adds character?

In some parts of the kitchen and family room floor, the tile pattern from the old Armstrong vinyl tiles is still visible.

The floors not being level, meaning that some areas were shallower than others, caused some problems for the contractors. After they polished the floors the first time and cleaned up all the dust, they realized that the lower, or shallower spots, had not been polished as well as the high spots. This meant that they had to re polish the floors, starting with an even more aggressive grit level. I think that they eventually used a 25 grit level on the floors to try to level them out.

A nine inch wide "off black" micro top border was added to the perimeter of the living/dining room area. This covers the repair work that was done around this room. The concrete had severely crumbled around the perimeter of the house - it was really bad along the north wall, the longest wall in this area. We removed as much of the crumbled concrete as we could. Then, the contractors used a Bomanite repair mortar to fill in the gaps. When finished, it looked really good. The repair mortar was level and consistent. However, it had a slightly different color than the existing concrete and could not be polished. Thus, the micro top border. The border seems to give the living/dining area more of a formal look. It is understated enough, being "off black" or "lamp black", to be suitable for our more minimalist styled house. However, we are now very thankful that we did not dye or paint the concrete floors black - blacks shows EVERYTHING! Our stylish black border shows dust, the tracks from the Roomba wheels, paw prints, bits of dirt, etc. Polished concrete floors hardly show anything. I guess this could be good, in that you don't see the dirt, and bad, in that you might not ever realize that you have to clean your floors.

A Bomanite stain guard product was applied on all the floors. This should keep any substances like oil, vinegar or coffee from sinking into the concrete.

In summary, we are happy with the polished concrete. The floors are smooth as glass and comfortable to walk on, especially since the floors are heated.

Almost October - Getting Ready to Remove Panelling

2007-09-26T11:31:00.000-07:00

Well... It is almost October. Why not remove some old wood panelling and the insulation that has been hiding away behind it, slowly disintegrating over the years? Is there a better task to do during these crisp fall days?

Our plans for this week are to:

1. Get drywall estimates
2. Decide on a new insulation material, whether foam board, fiberglass or some other material that is relatively affordable and has good insulation abilities

After we get our drywall estimates and know what insulation material we are using we can do the following:

1. Remove the face plates from the switches and outlets in the walls
2. Remove the moldings
3. Put down sheets or other protective fabric over our shiny newly polished concrete floors
4. Start to carefully remove the wood panelling
5. Remove and bag the old fiberglass insulation
6. Shop Vac up all the debris so that we won't have insulation floating or drifting all over the house. We need to remember to buy a new filter for the Shop Vac before we do this.

We fear that we are going to have to dump all the old wood panelling and insulation. I don't think the Rebuilding Center is going to take any of it. But, we can ask them if they will.

Kitchen Planning

2007-08-21T11:45:00.001-07:00

Before we could polish the concrete floors, we had to remove most of the cabinets and all the appliances. Here's a photo showing the remaining wall cabinets and the concrete floor being polished:

If you noticed that the wall cabinets are not anything like the original Eichler style cabinets, then that is because they are not the original cabinets. We found out, from a neighbor, that one of the previous owners had been advised by their real estate agent to replace the original wood cabinets with newer cabinets so that the kitchen would have an "updated" look. What sort of cabinets did they install? Prefab particle board in white with pickled rose trim. And, what about the counter tops? They were made of some sort of Formica like material that had a beige "natural stone" look. Now, 10 or so years later, the replacement cabinet doors have started to delaminate. The counter tops have also started to crack and peel in places. We are definitely in need of a kitchen remodel!

Here's what the original kitchen might have looked like (thanks to portlandmodern for the photos):

What do we want in a kitchen? We are still deciding. The clock is ticking, we know. My family will be visiting from "back East" in a couple of weeks. I told them that maybe we'd just set up a work table and put a hot plate, microwave, toaster oven and coffee pot on it for them. We can continue to do the dishes in the bathroom sink. The old Montgomery Ward fridge in the garage. Let's hope that it doesn't decide to decommission itself while we have company!

Here are some things we are considering:

IKEA Nexus cabinets in black/brown. There is an IKEA in Portland, Oregon now.

IKEA hacker has an interesting article on updating an Eichler kitchen.

Kerf cabinets for the kitchen. Kerf is located in Seattle, Washington. Supposedly, they have some affordable diy cabinet kits.

Custom Built cabinets. We've been able to get recommendations for a couple of carpenters. We still need to get estimates for our design.

CeaserStone counter tops in Blizzard White. Thanks, Steve, for your recommendation!

Under mounted sink. The material is TBD. Maybe stainless steel? (See the sink in the above photo.)

Back splash in tile. Maybe browns and light blues in a sort of a Mondrian inspired pattern? Or, maybe keep it simple and use one color and shape of tile?

LG Refrigerator

LG Dishwasher

Bosch Dishwasher

Wall Oven - brand is TBD

Electric cook top - brand is TBD

Slide in Range - brand is TBD

Busy Weekend

2007-08-07T16:56:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was probably the busiest weekend we have experienced.

Here's what we did this past weekend:

Moved about 2 yards of gravel and 3 yards of hemlock mulch from the driveway. We had to do this since, on Friday evening, our concrete contractor told us that they would need to use the driveway for their trucks. I had ordered the gravel and mulch last week since I thought that we could work on the yard projects (spreading gravel, mulching) while the floors were being done. Too bad that wasn't the most well thought out plan.
Spread the gravel and mulch around in the yard - we couldn't just dump it on the deck, could we?
Cleared out space in the garage (it has become our primary storage area and workshop).
Moved the kitchen appliances (fridge, stove, dish washer) to the garage.
Dismantled the kitchen cabinets, disconnected the sink and garbage disposal.
Moved the kitchen cabinets (including sink) to the garage.
Rearranged the master bedroom to make room for the office and some of the living room furniture.
Dismantled all the office equipment - this includes two computers, three printers, two monitors and more wires and cables than should be allowed in one room at a time.
Moved the office to the master bedroom - reconnected all the computing devices.
Moved the couch to the master bedroom.
Disassembled the mid century modern dining room table (from Nick's parents) and moved it to the garage.
Moved other smaller furniture pieces to the garage or master bedroom. By now, you should be wondering how much stuff one can store in the "master bedroom".
Did all the laundry. Also decided that we might as well wash all our bedding and blankets - why not do 12 or more loads in a weekend?

Is that enough?

On Monday night we removed about 14 square feet of old Armstrong tile (it was under the cabinet with the sink in it) and then removed the black mastic with bean-e-doo. We cleaned up the bean-e-doo with emerge.

Tonight we'll pack up the pantry. It is a large closet next to the kitchen. I dread it! I am sure that we won't find a place to put all the extra gizmos we've accumulated over the years. Maybe it is time to post some stuff on craigslist?

We'd like to thank Gig, our neighbor, for his expert advice when disconnecting the sink and garbage disposal and for helping us move that awefully cumbersome and heavy kitchen cabinet. And, special thanks to guys with wheelbarrows who are willing to shoulder a load until the sun goes down.

Concrete Floor Polishing

2007-08-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

The living/dining, family/kitchen and retreat floors are all being polished this week. (See the floor plan on the right side of this page.)

The concrete polishing contractors started with a 50 grit level. So far, we are seeing some of the smaller rocks in the concrete - it looks salt and pepper in places and almost like it has a fine gravel, 1/4 inch or smaller rock, in others.

They will probably use 5-7 grit levels, finishing with an 800.

The great news is that they were able to grind off all the glue and paint on the living/dining room floor as well as the green stain and water based sealer in the retreat.

We'll post some photos soon!

House Numbers

2007-07-30T18:47:00.000-07:00

After much consideration, and a recent recommendation from a reader, we think we have decided on our new house numbers. We haven't ordered them yet. But, we are coming close!

We are gravitating towards the Eichler House Numbers. Five numbers are only $90 - that breaks down to $18 a number. The Eichler Network also has an article on the new Eichler House Numbers. The main reason that we are considering these house numbers is that they seem rather easy to install. We would only have to deal with two screws instead of perhaps ten screws (if there are two for each number).

We also like the Neutra House Numbers from Design Within Reach. But, at a whopping $75 for each number, is that more of a "want" than a "need"?

Here are some other house numbers we've considered:

5" Ribbon Deep/Natural Satin Aluminum from WestOnLetters. Cost per number is around $20.

Avant Garde Book in Satin Stainless Steel house numbers from Custom House Numbers. Each number costs around $40.

Signo House Numbers from chiasso. Each number is $18. The font is simple and easy to read. However, I like the Avant Garde Book font (see above) a little more.
Solar LED House Numbers from ThinkGeek. Each number is only $19.99! I like the concept. But, we have a light above the place where we will most likely install the house numbers. Too bad.

Any modern looking custom house numbers from Accurate Image, Inc.

Our First Robot Appliance

2007-07-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

We have concrete floors throughout our house. These should be rather easy to maintain. We should just have to damp mop every week or so.

However... we share the house with one rather furry cat and one messy parrot. The damp mop doesn't do well with fur or Bird Debris (seed shells, bits of shredded bird toys, feathers...) Therefore, we decided to purchase our first Robot Appliance.

Our first Robot Appliance is the iRobot Roomba for Pets. It does a great job with sweeping up any dirt, cat hair and feathers. We only have to turn it on, press the Clean button and listen for any distress calls it might emit (it will call for help if it gets stuck, like on the rug in the bathroom). When it is done with its cleaning cycle, it returns to its home base to recharge.

Roomba maintenance includes emptying out the debris bin and occasionally cleaning the brushes. So simple. Much better than dragging the noisy and dust making shop vac about the house for an hour or two.

For all of you considering the purchase of a Roomba, Robot Stock News has a discount coupon you can use.

Door Knob

2007-07-24T16:51:00.000-07:00

Last summer we replaced the front and side door as well as the door hardware.

After much research, we decided to go with the Schlage Plymouth door knob in the satin nickel finish.

We also considered the Schlage Orbit door knob. But, it seemed a little to big for our door.

Exterior Lighting

2007-07-24T16:28:00.001-07:00

Even though we really liked the original lighting fixtures on the side and back of the house, they had started to rust. So, we decided to buy some new lights for the house exterior.

For the front light, we bought a light from the Rebuilding Center in downtown Portland (for $5). That was one of Nick's finds from last year.

We also bought the Downlight and a Double Swedish Cone from Remcraft. (We had to order them through Dynamic Lighting. Globe Lighting no longer sells Remcraft products.) We installed two Downlights in the atrium and two Double Swedish Cones on the side and back of the house.

Here are what the original light fixtures looked like:

Halloween is almost here!

2007-07-20T19:15:00.000-07:00

Well, not actually. But... Halloween will be starting soon for our friends who are expert at "making scary". Check out the Davis Graveyard.

Maybe we'll be helping them make more tombstones, ghouls or other freakish delights this summer.

What we'd like to do by the end of the summer

2007-07-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

Now that it is almost August, here's a list of things we'd like to do before the winter rains start:

Polish the concrete floors in the living room, dining room,family room, kitchen and retreat.
Buy new house numbers. Install them.
Upgrade the Mailbox. We sanded and painted the mailbox that was here when we bought the house. We think it might be the original mailbox and mailbox post. But, it still doesn't work for us. Could anyone recommend a modern style mailbox that can be post mounted? Maybe one that locks?
Buy a light for the master bathroom vanity. Install it. For some reason, we have not been able to find a light we like.
Remove the wood paneling in every room of the house. The previous owners had it textured and painted to look like drywall. Now whatever was used to texture the walls is cracking and falling off.
Re-insulate the walls. We like a house with good ventilation. But... Even with our high efficiency gas boiler, given the rising gas prices, we have accepted the fact that is better to keep the heat in.
Drywall the house, one room at a time. We need recommendations for good drywall contractors. Thanks! (We subscribe to Angie's List. But, we are open to referrals.) We'll start with the kitchen walls.
Install new kitchen cabinets. Maybe we'll get them from Ikea? Ikea will be opening in Portland next week (July 25th).
Buy new kitchen appliances. The 30+ year old fridge is probably dying again as I write this - it died on us earlier this year and then it came back to life, three days later, long after all the food in the freezer had thawed out.

Modern Landscape

2007-07-20T16:26:00.001-07:00

Because we live in a house built in 1967 and we are attempting to "restore" it to its former modern glory, some assume that we are going to revert to a "modern landscape". When we ask them what they mean by "modern landscape" they inevitably say that the modern landscape is a lawn, neatly trimmed shrubs and concrete. What they seem to be referring to is a very minimalist approach to landscape design and perhaps a crude one at that. There is a difference between a well designed minimalist garden and a lot that has been cleared, leveled and hastily decorated with grass and some shrubbery.

Over the years I have searched for the true Modern Garden. After all my searching, all I have found are a set of loosely defined landscape concepts which seem to center on the unification of the interior and exterior living spaces in an intentional, functional and simple style.

Here are a couple of my favorite "modern landscaping" books:

Private Landscapes: Modernist Gardens in Southern California
by Pamela Burton (Author), Marie Botnick (Author), K. Smith (Introduction)

The Modern Japanese Garden
by Michiko Rico Nose

I haven't checked out this book yet (it looks promising):

Making the Modern Garden
by Christopher Bradley

New Resident

2007-07-15T17:14:00.001-07:00

We adopted a cat from the Oregon Humane Society this past spring. He is a three year old Birman mix male. His name is "Mew Bear".

"Bear" has a been a great guy. We're glad to have him with us. He can climb trees too.

The Bonnie Brae Project has a Garden

2007-07-15T17:04:00.001-07:00

We created a gardening blog for The Bonnie Brae Project.

Our new gardening blog is The Bonnie Brae Garden.

Summer in the Garden

2007-07-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

Even though we got a late start with the backyard garden this spring, we have already begun to enjoy things like fresh basil, dill, cilantro, lettuces and greens. Maybe next week the tomatoes will be ready?

Backyard Path

2007-07-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

We reclaimed part of our mostly weedy back yard lawn this spring. Now we are growing vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers to attract pollinators (think bees) instead of just dandelions.

We also have a nice river rock and concrete path that runs along the garden space. This path separates the remaining lawn from the garden area.

Nick did most of the grunt work on these projects. He also constructed the path (his idea) pretty much by himself.

Nick did the following to construct the path:

used a garden hose to mark where the path should be - the path was also the new border to our side lawn
cleared the grass from where the raised garden beds and path would be
installed Trex landscaping border strips along both sides of the path - the Trex strips were attached to wood stakes that were hammered into the ground - this should prevent the strips, and thus the path, from moving
put down a layer of tough landscaping fabric that will still allow water to drain through it - this should keep any rock from sinking into the dirt
put down about 1 inch of smaller crushed rock
put down about 1 inch of smaller river rock (it was slightly bigger than pea gravel)
put down a layer of sand
put down concrete treads
put down river rock (about 1-2" round)

Nick stamped down each layer of rock and sand so that the path would be even.

Polished concrete?

2007-05-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

We have been interviewing contractors who could polish our concrete floors in the living, dining, kitchen and family rooms.

So far, the estimates have ranged anwhere from $5 to $12 per square foot.

This is what the polishing plus some staining might look like:

A close up showing the look achieved by starting with a lower grit level:

Here is a description of how polishing is done from the Concrete Network:

Simply put, polishing concrete is similar to sanding wood. Heavy-duty polishing machines equipped with progressively finer grits of diamond-impregnated segments or disks (akin to sandpaper) are used to gradually grind down surfaces to the desired degree of shine and smoothness.

The process begins with the use of coarse diamond segments bonded in a metallic matrix. These segments are coarse enough to remove minor pits, blemishes, stains, or light coatings from the floor in preparation for final smoothing. Depending on the condition of the concrete, this initial rough grinding is generally a three- to four-step process.

The next steps involve fine grinding of the concrete surface using diamond abrasives embedded in a plastic or resin matrix. Crews use ever-finer grits of polishing disks (a process called lapping) until the floor has the desired sheen. For an extremely high-gloss finish, a final grit of 1500 or finer may be used. Experienced polishing crews know when to switch to the next-finer grit by observing the floor surface and the amount of material being removed.

During the final polishing step, some contractors spread a commercial polishing compound onto the surface to give the floor a bit more sheen. These compounds also help clean any residue remaining on the surface from the polishing process and leave a dirt-resistant finish.

Almost June - Still playing in the yard

2007-05-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

May is almost over. What have we been doing? Working.

What else have we been doing? Garden construction. We are "setting aside" some space to grow our own food this summer. We had some moderate success growing vegetables in the back yard last summer. So, we thought we would expand. This year we are building raised garden beds.

Spring in the Atrium

2007-03-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

Last November I planted a some groupings of crocus and daffodils in the atrium beds.

Now that it is March, they are in full bloom. It is so good to see some bright color in the middle of our house. This past winter has been rainy and dark. So typical of Oregon!

Way back in April 2005

2007-01-11T21:06:00.000-08:00

This is what the house looked like:

happy new year!

2007-01-11T17:11:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it is already 2007?

We had some snow today. When it snows here, we can watch the flakes drift into the atrium. It doesn't stay long - the atrium seems to stay much warmer than the yard.

We are enjoying our new house exterior. However, I sometimes wonder if we chose a more "technicolor" version of modern colors. The body of the house is "rustic taupe", the doors are "true blue" and the beams are dark brown.

For some reason, the blue door really seems to stand out.

the heat is on

2006-09-01T03:58:00.000-07:00

When we bought our house last summer, we had to resurrect the in floor radiant heat system. This primarily involved testing to make sure there were not any leaks. We also had to buy a new boiler.

We had American Leak Detection check for leaks (it cost about $250). Fortunately, there were not any detectable leaks. Since that major test was passed, we decided to buy a new Munchkin gas boiler. Anctil Plumbing installed the new boiler and got the system up and running again (total cost was about $7,000).

Over the winter, we set the thermostat to about 65F and “forgot it”. The temperatures in the house remained rather warm for my liking. However, on some rather cold nights, when the temperatures dipped to the 30s or below, we noticed that the boiler ran and ran. We will probably re-insulate the outer walls of the house over the next few years to reduce the amount of warm air that might be escaping.

Here is the contact info for the leak detection and plumbing companies we used:

Anctil Plumbing Inc
16900 SW Merlo Rd
Beaverton, OR 97006 - 5042
503-642-7323

American Leak Detection
www.americanleakdetection.com
Residential Service
Portland / Vancouver
Serving all of Oregon
Talent, OR 97540
503-777-0253 Portland
503-363-5325 Salem
888-777-5325 Toll Free

We hope this information helps!

Roof Info

2006-09-01T02:36:00.000-07:00

We had a couple of people ask us which roofing contractor we used. We decided to go with Columbia Roofing and Sheet Metal. Here is their contact info:

Columbia Roofing and Sheet Metal
www.reroofnow.com
28395 SW Boberg Road
Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-6769
Phone: 503-684-9123

Two other roofing contractors we considered were:

A1 All Weather Roofing Inc.
Hillsboro, OR, USA 97123
Phone: 503-693-1619,Fax: 503-693-1993

Pioneer Roofing
503-281-0305

We decided to go with a TPO membrane roof. Here are some of the reasons:

We have a partially flat roof. We wanted to have the new roof engineered so that drainage would not be a problem. A membrane roof seemed to be the best option. We were able to use a layer of tapered foam board (poly-iso cyanurate) insulation underneath the TPO membrane. The tapered insulation directs rainwater towards the drains.

Since we were considering a green roof, we called a couple of local green roof installers. They recommended using TPO (Thermoplastic Olefin) if we wanted to eventually install a green roof or collect rainwater off our roof. They told us to avoid PVC.

During our research, we came across information about PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and dioxins that are released during manufacturing process. There are also questions about PVC releasing toxins over time. Overall, TPO seems to be more "environmentally friendly".

According to some of the roofing companies, the PVC membrane roofs tend to wrinkle over time whereas the TPO roofs continue to look flat.

We wanted a white roof for the enhanced reflectivity, especially during the summer months. The darker the roof the hotter the roof.

Also note that the roofing contractors we interviewed seemed to prefer either TPO or PVC. They had their reasons for their preferences. It didn't seem that the local industry preferred one more than the other.

Here is some additional reading:

Cool Roofs for Hot Climates
http://hes.lbl.gov/hes/makingithappen/no_regrets/coolroofs.html

If you have hot summers, now is also the time to think about changing the color and reflectivity of your roof. A dark roof can get up to 180°F on a sunny, windless day. A white roof or roof coating will reflect more of the sun's heat so that your attic and your house stay cooler. Flat roofs are especially good candidates, because you can't see them from ground level.

TPO: Thermoplastic Olefin or Polyolefin
http://www.roofhelp.com/choices/tpo/

TPO membranes are single-ply roof membranes constructed from ethylene propylene rubber. They are designed to combine the durability of rubber with the proven performance of hot-air weldable seams. They have been tested as having excellent resistance to ozone, are algae-resistant, environmentally friendly and safe to install. The material's manufacturers are so confident in properly welded seams that the material is sometimes advertised as a monolithic (seamless) roof. Seam strengths are reportedly 3 to 4 times those of EPDM's adhesive and tape seams. TPO is highly resistant to tears, impacts, and punctures with good flexibility to allow for building movement. TPO's are available in white, light gray, and black with thicknesses of either 45 mils (.045") or 60 mils (.060"). The width of the membrane depends on the manufacturer but they usually come in widths of six to six-and-a-half feet and are one-hundred feet in length.

TPO membranes are installed fully-adhered, mechanically-attached or ballasted. Fully-adhered means that the roof is "glued" to the substrate using a special adhesive. What actually happens is the glue creates a chemical bond with the membrane. Ballasted simply means the membrane is loose laid over the top of the roof, sealed at all penetrations and around the perimeter, and then a ballast is put on it to hold it in place. Ballast usually consists of smooth, round, river rock 2" - 3" in diameter and is applied at a rate of 1,000 to 1,200 pounds per roof square (100 sq. ft.). Sometimes concrete pavers are used in their place. These average 20 pounds per square foot. Mechanically-attached membranes are those that use some type of special screw-type fastener to secure it. The type of fastener will depend on the type of substrate but all fasteners are generally screw-type fasteners.

Now that it is September

2006-09-01T01:43:00.000-07:00

I know. Long time. No write. No pictures either.

We are making some progress on our house. Here is what we have done this summer:

Acquired garage door estimates from seven garage door companies. The estimated cost for replacing our two 8’X6’9” rollup garage doors with flush paneled steel insulated doors ran from $1,650 to $2,200.00. This includes garage door openers. We did consider building our own garage doors. Then, we came to our senses and decided to go with something a little more contemporary and working. I do so wish we were crafty enough to build garage doors that would blend seamlessly with the house, with matching siding and all. Maybe next year. Or the year after. Good job to all of you who can accomplish such feats.

Bought siding primer (we purchased Z-Prime Plus because it kills tannin stains on cedar and redwood) and other supplies (paint tray liners, small, cheap and disposable roller brushes, etc.)

Bought new siding for the front of the house. Nick was able to locate a batch of 4x1 tongue in groove cedar. After discovering that our house was originally sided with redwood, Nick tried to get some from CA. It was ridiculously expensive. We decided to stick with cedar.

Bought front and side door. We purchased birch solid core doors. Nick took the existing doors to a local door company and had them copy them, drill all the holes in the same places, etc. Now there is no need to make new frames, etc.

Bought door hardware (Schlage Plymouth knob and coordinating deadbolt in a silvery satin finish) for the new doors.

Removed the old siding from the front of the house.

Cut and primed the siding before installation. We primed the front, back, top and bottom of the siding - it seems that if the bottom or back of cedar is "unprotected" then it can absorb water, swell and pop out of place - it warps too. How nice.

Replaced trim for garage doors.

Primed new siding after it is installed (never hurts to prime and prime again, especially in Oregon).

Removed part of a garage cabinet. The original owners installed cabinets within inches of the garage door rails. Thus, one cabinet had to sacrifice its right side to make room for replacement garage door hardware. We intend to replace the cabinets anyway. (They are rather worn.)

Cleaned up garage. Shouldn't we do this every month? The garage seems to be our storage facility. Is it yours? Part of cleaning the garage is moving boxes back and forth.

Trimmed bushes before painting. Some of the Heavenly Bamboo were touching the house.

Picked out house colors. The Behr Oxford Brown looks like the original color for the beams. We tried to match the original color of the house body. It is alternatively a tan-brown-gray or gray-purple-brown. We discovered that one could waste a lot of money on paint samples (at $8 - $12 a quart). Thankfully, we can take the unwanted paint to the free paint-recycling place in Portland. At least we hope it is free. (See http://www.metro-region.org/article.cfm?articleid=571 ) We don’t know if we want to paint the doors light teal-blue or if we want to stick with that original orange.

Rented a Clark floor machine from Home Depot (for about $65 a day). Bought a few black pads. Removed all the water based sealer on the retreat floor and cleaned off half the living room floor.

Did we have any weekends free? We did manage to make it to the beach. We also took a vacation, traveled around Vancouver Island and parts of British Columbia.

Special thanks to Jeff Davis and Gig Lewis for all their help with siding and garage door trim replacement.

exterior light fixtures

2006-06-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

Here's what the original exterior light fixtures look like:

We plan to bring them back to their former glory.

These lights have been added to the atrium and to the front of the house:

The ones in the atrium are black. We presume that previous owners painted the lights on the front of the house red.

ready to paint the house?

2006-06-24T13:07:00.000-07:00

Well, the painter came out today and gave us some estimates on painting the exterior of the house. It was good to see him!

We are planning to start around August 15th.

So, to get ready for the house painting, this is what we have to do:

1. Decide what colors to use. We are curretly thinking of dark brown for the beams, taupe or tan for the body and orange for the door.

2. Fix the problem with the cedar siding on the front of the house.

3. Buy new solid core front and back doors. Buy new hardware for doors.

4. Repair the trim around the garage doors. It is dry rotting in places.

5. Replace the garage doors. (Need to line up a contractor for this.)

6. Remove the air conditioning unit from the back right corner of the house. Replace siding.

7. Remove the green and beige paint drips, dabs and spots from the concrete slab, the fire place, from around the sliding glass doors. The previous painters didn't seem to mind if they Painted Outside the Lines. We could pay someone to do this. But, it was decided that we would just do this minor touch up before the painting started - it will be a pain to do it after the new paint is applied - we may accidentally take off the new paint.

8. Cut off the bottoms of the screws/nails the roofing company put through parts of the decking.

9. Take down the exterior light fixtures. We are going to sand them down and repaint them.

kitchen and family room floor

2006-06-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

The kitchen and family room floor looks like very much like the bathroom floor (see previous post).

Retreat Floor

2006-06-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

We cleaned the retreat floor several times, applied a greenish stain and then applied a sealer with a gray pigment in it. The pigment was supposed to make the green look more like a gray-green. It looks more like a "speckled green".

Can you see the grid where the Armstrong tile was?

We are going to have to remove the water-based sealer on this floor and then either reapply stain and seal with a solvent based sealer or cover it with a flooring material (like cork, slate or tile).

Bathroom Floor

2006-06-24T12:43:00.000-07:00

We removed the Armstrong tiles from the bathroom floor (see previous posts about how we did that).

We then cleaned the floor about five times.

Even after all the cleaning, the floor is still dark gray with a visible grid lines. I guess you can't get rid of the tile after all!

Thank you!

2006-06-24T02:09:00.000-07:00

We'd like to thank all the readers of our blog.

We appreciate the comments, suggestions, and humor too!

Have you guys finished the concrete floors yet?

2006-06-24T01:46:00.000-07:00

Oh, no! Not the floor question again!

We are STILL deciding what to do with the floors. However, we did find a great article on the Eichler Network on flooring options. It is:

Top Floors: What's the Best Flooring for You...and Your Mid-Century Modern Home?
http://www.eichlernetwork.com/spot_flooring.html

We probably will go with a cermamic tile in the 2nd bathroom, the one with the washer and dryer in it. Right now we just have concrete. (Getting tired of that old concrete look...)

Staining the concrete might not be a viable option.

So far, the two bedrooms and the retreat have been stained.

In our master bedroom, the glue marks (the carpets were glued to the floor) are clearly visible.

In the retreat and second bedroom the discoloration from the old Armstrong tile is clearly visible - there is a shadow of a grid on the floor. We know that we will have to refinish the floor in these rooms anyway. But, I wonder if even a darker stain (like black) will hide the grid marks.

Maybe dark gray slate is in our future?

I was also thinking of cork. (We'd have to deal with the likely "cork fading due to sunlight" issue though...) .

Here's an article on cork flooring (thank you, Eichler Network):

Eichler's Original Flooring Choice Has Luxury, Warmth, Impeccable Heritage
http://www.eichlernetwork.com/HDint_remod1.html

Cork samples:

Painting the Outside

2006-06-24T01:24:00.000-07:00

Now that it is finally summer, we are going to start working on some projects around the house.

We did much of nothing around the house last winter. But, here in Oregon, the days are short and it is usually raining. Not the best weather for projects like painting, installing new floors, etc.

Our painter is coming out tomorrow to give us another estimate for painting the exterior.

As for paint colors, we are probably going to go with dark brown beams, a taupe or tan body and an orange door.

For some reason, we can't find out what the original body color was. Maybe I'll check under a light fixture or a face plate to find it (I just read a posting that recommended that). We know the door was orange and that the beams were brown.

Oh, and this is Marci. Nick is climbing Mt. Rainier this weekend. I think he is doing Mt. Adams in a few weeks too. Let's wish him luck.

Save a bird's life. Repurpose that xmas tree ;-)

2006-03-04T18:45:00.000-08:00

Here's an update

Back near the end of December a flock (15-20 birds) of Robins started hanging out in the juniper tree at the back of the house and eating the berries. Then at least one a day would fly at full speed into our big picture window and die. This was very sad and potentially very expensive if they broke the window. We felt so bad that we even went to the Wildlife Rehab Center (http://www.audubonportland.org/wildlifecarecenter) and made a donation. It was also the end of the tax year too... one last chance to do some good for the year ;-)

Anyway..., Marci did and excellent job of research and supposedly stickers on the window should have resolved the problem, but it didn't!

So, here is where I came up with a brilliant idea: It's after xmas and I've got this old xmas tree...why not throw it out in front of the window and see if it'll ward them off. Well... it worked...It's March and not a dead bird in site :-)

But.... the xmas tree is looking pretty ugly. So..., I took it out today. Things should be OK, as the juniper tree doesn't have berries now.

Now here's where the fun begins:

Why stuff that old xmas tree in your car and make a mess?

Instead get out your sawzall (every home owner should have a sawsall a.k.a. recipicating saw), peel it like corn-on-the-cob, and throw it in the yard debris bin.

It fits just fine in the bin
It takes less than 10 minutes
It saves gas and is therefore "greener"
And.... It's FUN ;-)

Anyway... we'll see if it happens again come December.

I'm back America!

2006-03-04T18:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry all,

I've been hibernating this winter. I spent a lot of time watching "Bernie Mac" and snowshoeing.

I'd like to thank Marci for updating the blog during my slumber :-*

People been asking "Where are the updates", "Why aren't there any updates", and then I'd pass it on to Marci. She'd then ping me back, along with a fair amount self guilt :-

So....., the sun is shining (at least for today) and it's time to update things.

Don't expect me to go "blog crazy", as a freind (Kevin) has talked me into climbing Mt. Rainier this summer. So a lot of my spare time will be spent training for that, but that doesn't mean nothing isn't going to get done around here :-)

We did something! We installed a new shower filter!

2006-03-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

Now that it is March, we decided to once again venture into the domain of Home Improvement.

We installed a new Aquasana shower filter in the 2nd bath. We hope that this will remove some of the chlorine in the water. For some reason, our hair and skin has been drying out.

Here is the marketing material from Aquasana:

Voted "Product of the Year" by Cosmetology Today Magazine! This unique 2-Stage shower water filter is US Patented, has a high filtering capacity and is easy to install. No tools necessary, although pliers may be helpful. The granular copper/zinc and coconut shell carbon replaceable water filter effectively removes Chlorine, reduces VOC's, heavy metals and other chemicals, as well as enhancing pH. Stage 1 removes chlorine and enhances pH balance with a natural copper/ zinc mineral media called KDF-55D. The second water filtration stage uses a carbonized coconut shell media for the removal of synthetic chemicals and VOCs that vaporize and can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin potentially causing adverse health and cosmetic effects.

leaks fixed

2006-03-01T22:27:00.000-08:00

Columbia Roofing sent a technician out about 2 weeks ago to fix the leaks. He spent a good part of the day checking all the seems. We've had some pretty heavy rain (and wind) since then. So far, no more leaks!

pop up siding

2006-03-01T22:20:00.000-08:00

In this latest installment of "What's Wrong With My House?!", we'll discuss cedar siding problems.

The siding on the left front of the house has popped up. By that I mean that the vertical cedar tongue in groove siding on the front of the house has popped out in one place. It started at the botton about a month ago. Now it is almost all the way out. I guess we should call the carpenter. (We tried to pop it back in place but it seems impossible to move.)

We fear that the best solution would be to reinstall the siding on that part of the wall. The siding seems to have been installed too closely together. Thus, with all the rain, the wood swelled and popped out of place. Our neighbor, who has been doing construction for years, said that they usually install it with a slight gap so that the vertical strips have room to swell during the rainy months.

Not that misery loves company, but we also noticed some other Rummers with similar siding problems. Maybe it is a common problem?

Oh, well. We'll just add that to the never ending list of things to do. For some reason, it seems that we have been breaking more things than fixing them lately? (But, we really haven't been fixing much of anything lately - we are still in our winter slump!)

leaks!

2006-01-30T20:50:00.000-08:00

I knew that I shouldn't have written that posting about having NO LEAKS.

This morning, Columbia Roofing was at our house, looking for the source of two leaks. We had some pretty serious storms this past weekend. So, maybe all the wind helped the rain find its way through any openings in the seams? Who knows. We also discovered a leak in the master bathroom skylight.

It was still raining this morning, while the guys were working on the roof. They are going to come back out and check all the seams again after things dry out.

no leaks!

2006-01-27T21:24:00.000-08:00

The new roof is holding up well. We have had what seems to be record rainfall this winter. And, we live in the Pacific Northwest. The roof is a 60 mil TPO (Thermoplastic Olefin) roof. Avoid PVC. See www.roofhelp.com/choices/tpo/

The new Munchkin boiler is working as expected. We set the thermostat and then forget it. We haven't experienced any leaks in the in-floor radiant heat system. See www.radiantmax.com/r-munchkin-boilers.html. It is so nice to have warm floors!

what to do next?

2006-01-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

Well... we survived the holidays and some pretty hectic work schedules.

Now that January is almost over, here is a list of things we have to do:

1. Finish the concrete floors. A friend of ours, who also is renovating a Rummer, cleaned the mastic off his concrete floors with the same soy based product that we used. (We used BEAN-e-doo.) He recently stained and sealed them. They turned out quite well. He used a combination of green and black stains on the concrete. He did use a solvent-based sealer though. We had hoped to use a water-based sealer. But, that doesn’t seem to work too well if you still have even the slightest bit of BEAN-e-doo in the concrete - the water-based sealer will become slightly tacky.

2. Rip out the old wood paneling in the front room and replace with drywall. The previous owners painted the wood paneling in this room blue. In most of the other rooms, they applied some sort of texture to the paneling to make it look more like drywall.

3. Paint the exterior of the house (after the rains stop). Color scheme is still TBD. However, we do think we will paint the beams the original dark chocolate brown color, aka Oxford Brown.

4. Replace front door and garage door. Paint them orange? That was the original color of our current doors. They were painted orange, red, and then brown. (Scraping off the paint reveals the “color history”.) Oh, and by the way, never try to “kick open” a hollow core door, especially if you think the door is just jammed due to its swelling because of the humidity, especially if the deadbolt is really still locked. Now we have a hole in the bottom of our front door, which I have actually “re-kicked” 2-3 times, trying to open the door the reliable, old way. Needless to say, I had to find another way to open the door when it is stuck. Now I just use my shoulder. Ouch! This is the reason we need new doors and new locks.

5. Remodel the kitchen. Kitchen ideas, anyone? A friend suggested “concrete countertops” today. He really likes our house. If he could quit his day job, I’m sure he would show up here every morning, ready to work.

6. Paint the interior of the house. Currently, the master bedroom walls are rose colored. The office/retreat/middle room walls are yellow. The front room is the “blue room”. Most of the rest of the walls in the house are light beige (I guess to match the old beige carpets that were in these rooms). We were going to paint the interior of the house this winter. But, since the floor job stretched out longer than anticipated, we had to put this off. I guess there is always the summer, when the days are longer.

7. Restore the master bath. At some time in the last 10 or so years, previous owners covered up the step down shower with a tub/shower set. They then tiled over everything with a light terra-cotta colored tile. Oh, as the floor to ceiling window in the bathroom, they walled over it. This room is now the only room in the house without a window.

8. Do something with the yard other than mow the grass and pull the weeds out of the flowerbeds. Resist the temptation to pull up all the grass…Several friends have suggested planting bamboo in the yard. We could use a fast growing, taller bamboo to screen off the view of the church behind us. Maybe phyllostachys aurea? There is a bamboo farm near Portland. Check out http://www.bamboogarden.com/. The only bad thing about bamboo is that it quickly claims new territory.

9. Organize the garage. We have been working on this. All of our storage is now in our garage. We have been sorting through it, one box at a time. Living in a smaller home with no attic and not much interior storage space forces one to “deal with” excess baggage. Keep what you need? “Necessary stuff” is now being put in these clear plastic flip top bins that we can buy at Costco. All the bins are labeled. The bins slide into plastic shelves, two to a shelf.

10. Keep the blog updated! Post more pictures!

an update on the floors

2005-11-23T13:29:00.000-08:00

The master bedroom floor looks good. (I would post a photo but the camera is still out of commision - maybe I should just buy a new one?)

The retreat floor is not so good. Most of the water based sealer is now tacky. I think we are just going to have to cover it with something else, maybe slate, tile or marble. Nick suggested granite the other day.

What to do about the floors now?

2005-11-18T20:23:00.000-08:00

Well... It seems that the hard working bean-e-doo that we used to get the mastic off the concrete floors is still hard at work. It is a soy based, oily product that works great at dissolving mastic. But, if it sinks into the concrete, it may not come out. At least not completely.

In the two bedrooms and master bath, the bean-e-doo keeps coming up to the surface of the concrete. The concrete floors have been cleaned at least 10 times already.

The water based sealer we used on the floors is now becomming tacky in places (thanks to that all so effective bean-e-doo that is resurfacing). Looks like we have to go with Option B for these rooms.

At least the master bedroom turned out looking good!

why stain concrete?

2005-11-05T14:19:00.000-08:00

So... a lot of people have been asking us why we don't cover the floors with something like hardwood, marble, slate, ceramic tile or even that new fangled Armstrong tile that so closely resembles the oringal tile.

The reason is that we don't have to.

But, if we need to supply reasons, here they are:

concrete looks natural

The concrete, stained or not, has a more natural look that compliments the rest of the house.

radiant heat in the floor

With radiant heating in the floor, there is nothing between the concrete (heated) and our feet.

If we had installed a hardwood floor, the heat could have been trapped between the hardwood floor and the concrete.

We also wanted to make sure that the floors were not insulated by any floor covering, preventing the heat from radiating out of them into the rooms.

If there is ever a leak (not really planning for one), there is less stuff to be ruined (like hardwood flooring or Armstrong tiles) by the resulting puddles of water on the floor.

more on... Radiant Floor Heating in a Concrete Slab

Many radiant floor heating projects are in slab-on-grade concrete. Tubing is installed in the slab. Temperature-controlled water then circulates though the tubing in the slabs: this process turns the slab into a radiant panel.

Example of Radiant Floor Heating tubing in a concrete slab:

Concrete presents the greatest thermal mass of any of the radiant floor heating methods, which can be a tremendous benefit in rooms

See www.concretenetwork.com/concrete/radiantfloorheating/

radiantheatingconcreteslab.htm

low maintenance

Concrete floors are lower maintenance than most floors. Just use a damp mop. Sealer should be applied every year or so, depending on the traffic levels.

keeping the floors level

There is a concrete aggregate walkway around the atrium. We want to keep this as is (but cleaned and sealed, of course).

If we installed another type of flooring on top of the concrete floor, that would mean that the floor would be raised an inch or more - we would have to figure out some way of transitioning from the aggregate walkway to the raised floor. This probably would work ok for most daily traffic. But, I can see it becomming a tripping hazard.

(The photos are from this past summer, when we were restoring the original roofline. Sorry we don't have any updates!)

but... things don't always work out?

If the concrete floor turns out "iffy" and we decide to cover it up, we can do so. I doubt that will happen though.

restoration versus rennovation

We have come across a lot of postings (on the Eichler Network and Lotta Living) about what to do with the floors in Eichlers, Rummers (the Eichler clones) and other modern houses.

There is a strong movement to restore these houses. This means re-furbishing the orginal flooring or installing new flooring that is similar to what was used in these houses. In our case, being the owners of a Rummer, that would mean installing the Armstrong tile in most of the rooms (kitchen, family room, retreat, 2nd bedroom, and both bathrooms). As for the master bedroom and living/dining room, it seems that they installed carpet. (But, this was 1967 and maybe carpet was becomming more popular?)

For more on the Armstrong tiles:

www.armstrong.com/commflooringna/product_details.jsp?category=vct&item_id=381

Here is a photo of an Armstrong Vinyl Composition Tile that looks like the orginal Armstrong tile that was in our house:

to check out...

Our major source of inspiration is a book:

Concrete at Home : Innovative Forms and Finishes: Countertops, Floors, Walls, and Fireplaces
by Fu-Tung Cheng, Eric Olsen

concrete floor staining - 3 rooms done - almost!

2005-11-05T13:45:00.000-08:00

Now that we have recovered from Halloween (see previous post about stolen skull), here is an update on our concrete floor staining.

The retreat has been stained with Copper Patina.

The front bedroom and master bedroom have been stained with Antique Amber. The amber color seems to nicely compliment the whitewashed decking in the ceiling.

The front bedroom and retreat both had the Armstrong tiles on them. They were 9x9 tiles. Since the concrete floors had been covered with the tiles, there was a faint grid pattern on the them. This has shown through in some places, after the staining, showing a "shadow" of a grid. We were worried that this would look a little odd before the staining, but after seeing the "suggestion" of a tile pattern, we find that we like it - it makes the floors more visually interesting.

The master bedroom, never been tiled, has more of a cloudy pattern on it - the stain does not apply uniformly, instead it leaves the concrete floor looking more like natural stone, maybe a marble?

We are now waiting for the concrete floors to dry out. For some reason, it takes 2-3 times as long for the front bedroom floor to dry out. After the floors have dried out, we will decide if we want to apply a secondary color to provide more highlight and shadow, to create the illusion of more depth in the floors.

We are using Scofield stains.

More on the stains:

LITHOCHROME® Chemstain™ Classic produces variegated, translucent concrete color effects unique to each surface. The beautiful patina is ideal to simulate the shadings of natural stone or create artistic faux finishes. Due to their chemical reaction with concrete, Chemstain colors become part of the surface. They will not fade, chip, crack, or peel. Initial application of a compatible sealer or coating and periodic maintenance are required.

It's halloween night and some guy stole my skull

2005-10-31T19:25:00.000-08:00

It's halloween night. Not even 7pm and we're having the best turnout yet, at least 30 kids!

And then...

Marci walks out the door to check who's coming, and here's some lame @#! hole ripping the skull off my "glow in the dark buried skeleton". You know the one that's just hands, feet, and the skull. Anyway, he's rips it off and runs down the street. Marci says it was an adult male wearing a football jacket. Figures! By the time she comes in a tells me...he's gone. What a lame-O! I mean the thing cost a whopping $7 at Wallgreens, and I just put it in the yard at 5:45pm!

What a bummer. We're having a great time. Kids are roaming the streets in costume and this guy rains on it. Kinda scary too that this wacko is running around this early at night.

What a jerk. Rant...rave... blah...blah...blah......bummer :-(

Oh no!!!....it's 7:30pm and we're out of candy :-
Quick!... turnout the lights
Well... there's always next year ;-)

Why paint cedar siding?

2005-10-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

As for painting our cedar siding, it seems there was a lot of contradictory information we had to sort through.

Most of the paint store workers said that we could leave it as is through the winter and prime and paint it next summer.

Our general contractor and the painter (recommended by a coworker) said that we should at least cover it with some primer. If the wood swells too much from being wet it can warp and even pop out of place.

Primer is On

2005-10-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

Well... We managed to get the cedar siding covered with primer.

During the process we discovered that using a roller is much easier and much faster. (We painted one whole wall with brushes and then went to the store to get a roller to finish up the rest in about 1/8th the time it took to hand brush.)

We used about 2 gallons of primer to cover almost 400 square feet. (I accidentally dumped over the paint tray once so some of the primer ended up on the yard.) We also rolled a second coat of primer onto the hand brushed wall. It looks much better. Both the roller and brush (both Purdy) were able to work the primer into the siding rather well.

The primer we used, Z Prime Plus, spread evenly. It dried rather fast too. Now, the siding is protected. Our paint store consultants and Ron (our contractor) believe that it should be ready for the winter rains.

What else do we need to do? Well, it seems that we also need to paint all the new decking on the overhangs around the building, the trim board around the roofline (that already has a coat of gray primer on it) and the beam that was repaired. Ron recommended a sealer to put on the beam ends.

Our plan? Maybe have a painting contractor finish up the details for us - leaving work in the middle of the day to paint the house (like we did last week) makes for very long workdays.

Oh. I almost forgot! It is raining.

Waiting for the wood to dry

2005-10-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

After doing some paint shopping today, it seems that we will need to let the new cedar siding thoroughly dry before painting it with primer. If there is any moisture in the wood, then the primer may bubble or just not adhere properly.

We found a primer that should work great on cedar, especially cedar that has been soaked in water. It is Z-Prime Plus. As for runners up, we have looked at Benjamin Moore exterior wood primers. It seems that their Oil/Alkyd primers would work well. Benjamin Moore paint has been highly recommended by several people we know. So, maybe we'll try it.

Other brands that people recommend are: Miller, Rodda and Sherwin Williams. Both Miller and Rodda are Northwest companies.

Supposedly, the beams in the Rummer houses were originally painted with Rodda's Oxford Brown. (The number is CP 103.)

As for the brushes to use, we have some Purdy brushes that can be used with both oil based and latex paints. We will just have to make sure to clean the brushes out with mineral spirits and wash them before using them with latex paint. We also have a brush comb to keep them in good shape.

Right now it looks like we'll have to put a tent over the house to keep the rain off of it. We could make a tent of blue tarps? (The neighbors love us, we are sure!)

Links:

www.zehrungbrands.com/zprime_plus.html
http://www.benjaminmoore.com/

Yes. We are still working on the house.

2005-10-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

It is October. It is raining.

We have new cedar siding on the front of the house and we have been waiting for it to stop raining and dry up enough to paint with primer and then the topcoat of our choice. Given our Northwest weather, which means plenty of rain and humidity until next June, we will probably have to paint the new siding to match the rest of the house. It will have to be some sort of cream/yellow/off white. (We really don't know what the true color of the house is - it seems to change depending on how you look at it.)

The concrete floor company has also started cleaning and preparing the concrete floors on half of the house for acid staining. We think we have settled on some colors for the front room, retreat and master bedroom.

More on acid staining:

Chemical stains can be applied to new or old, plain or colored concrete surfaces. Although they are often called acid stains, acid isn’t the ingredient that colors the concrete. Metallic salts in an acidic, water-based solution react with hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide) in hardened concrete to yield insoluble, colored compounds that become a permanent part of the concrete. Several companies manufacture chemical stains that are variations of three basic color groups: black, brown, and blue-green. (from www.concretenetwork.com/concrete/acid_etch_staining/
how_stains_work.htm)

See www.ultraquietfloors.com/acid_stain.asp too.

Now... back to the TV!

Oh Joy....We have internet, and DTV too :-)

2005-09-10T21:56:00.000-07:00

Alex from Comcast came by this morning and strung us a new line from the pole, set us up with a free digital TV upgrade (for 1yr), and connected my cable modem. I've run the RG6 for TV, and I need to get the CAT5e run for "wired" devices, so we'll just have to use the "wireless" option for another week or so.

No hot water!

2005-09-06T23:43:00.000-07:00

Went to take my morning shower and found no hot water! Now my morning shower is the equivalent of a "cup of coffee to start the day" for me. So, I took a cold shower. This put me in a funky mood for the day. Then I checked the water heater. Hmm.... pilot light won't light... No gas? Did I pay the gas bill? Ahh...but the gas boiler for the radiant floor is working. So gas must be getting to the water heater. Time to call the name on the heater tank George Morlan Plumbing(8am). They cameout at 3pm, replaced the Thermocouple and a $108 later we have hot water. Just in time for Marci :-) I guess this is just normal home ownership stuff.

IT POURED TODAY!!!!

2005-08-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

It poured down today.
It showered in the morning and it poured just after noon.
We had thunder and lightning too.
We even had hail the size of dimes. AND......The new roof held up :-)

What a stress test ;-) We just need to add some downspouts and I think we'll be ready for fall.

Thanks to the crew at Columbia Roofing. Especially to Ken and Dell for coming out this Saturday, otherwise it would have been a mess today.

Sunday and no rain. Meet the neighbors

2005-08-28T20:18:00.000-07:00

Sunday and no rain. Although, as evening approaches, the clouds are rolling in :-

I met some of the neighbors (see pics) today ;-)

Guess who spent their Saturday on the ROOF

2005-08-27T22:09:00.000-07:00

Ken and Dell from Columbia Roofing came by to finish the downspouts and flashing on a Saturday! These guys are great. With rain predicted for tomorrow we were getting real nervous. We've managed to avoid the rain for the last 3-weeks. Quite a miracle in Oregon, even in the summertime. Anyway Ken and Dell are the best.

Here's Ken, last man on the roof ;-) Note the sunglasses, I forgot mine and almost stumbled off the roof several times from being blinded by the white roof.

We have heat!!!! But, it's only 90F out ;-)

2005-08-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

It may be only 85-90F outside, but Andy and Serg from Anctil showed up and installed our new Munchkin boiler, controls, pipes, and vents. They were moving too fast to get a picture of them. Pipes were flying. They really knew what they were doing. I can't believe they got it all done in one day.

Like magic. First, there was an empty space, and then it was there!

Meanwhile, they guys from Columbia Roofing were hauling to get the roof sealed up as rain is predicted for Sunday.

1/2 the roof is covered :-)

2005-08-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

1/2 the roof is covered! Here's what it looks like as of 7am this morning :-) :-) :-)

The day they were SUPPOSED to start on the roof

2005-08-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

Well... What can I say. I guess when the roofing supply folks showed up 1st thing in the morning last week and we sent them back to the yard, we must have really cheesed them off. Because, the roofing crew showed up this morning but the roofing supply folks didn't show up til late afternoon. So there was just enough time to offload into our yard and not on the roof like they normally do (and like they were going to do last week).

Oh, the blue trap is suppose to cover the roof and not the front of the house. So, guess what I'm doing by the light of the moon again :-

Blurb about us on portlandmodern.com

2005-08-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

Bob's posted a blurb about us on his site along with this animated gif from his pictures :-)

The roof is clear and ready for material

2005-08-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

Roof's clear and ready for material

Here's what the roof looks like after it's all cleared off and the edges are built up in preperation for the new roof.

More about the edge detail, as it will be thicker than your std. Rummer.
Our original roof had 1-1/2" of fiberglass, tar and gravel which then had 1-3" of sprayed foam covered with an old PVC membrane.

We're replacing the original with two stagard layers of 1 1/2" iso foam and another 3" of "shaped" foam for crickets and then putting a .65mil TPO membrane on top. This is the thickest of the TPO's quoted to us. We had the option of adding a layer of qypsum board to take us up to a Class A fire rating, but after calling our insurance company we found it wouldn't be cost effective. Here's our detail drawing (on a chunk of sheet rock) for the new edge, drains and crickets. There are four 2x4s on top of the decking and then the 3" of shaped cricket foam with the 3" of insulation foam on top of that with the TPO membrane welded to a TPO edge/drip rail, and then there is a 1x8" facia attached that'll create another drip rail for the decking and siding joint.

Ready or Not... we're all moved in...and then!!!

2005-08-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

Whew!

Two U-Haul 17 footers and seven vanagon loads later. We're all moved in at 3am this morning and the house, garage, driveway, and 1/2 the yard is full.

Then...At 8am!!! The roofing supply company showed up with a semi trailer full of our roof.
The roof is currently down to the bare deck waiting for the electricians to run conduit and me to fix vents. The edges for the roof are built-up and ready. The skylights are roughed in. There was no place to put the roofing stuff as the roof has to remain bare for the remaining work, so I had to send them back to the yard until next monday. Well... I almost had a roof :-(

Still praying for "No Rain", and the forcast looks good fore this week again. That's three weeks without rain in Oregon. Talk about pushing our luck.

Note:I've been way too busy so the blog is lagging behind. I'll back fill as I can.

Rummer electrical historical note and roof status

2005-08-10T21:44:00.000-07:00

Electrical Note: Talked to Dan from Mike's Electric today. He said the very old air conditioners on our Rummer were an addon and that stock Rummer's didn't come with them (when he wired them). The conduit running half way around the bottom of our house was added to power the air conditioners in the dining room and master bedroom only.

Roofing guys cleared 95% of the roof for the electricians and Ron. Filled my 3rd 30yd'r today and ordered a 20yd'r for tomorrow, plus the roofer brought and filled their own 20yd'r with the old roof and need another 5-10yds.

Dry rot and other reasons to replace ceiling T&G boards

2005-08-09T21:21:00.000-07:00

Roof repair time: Ron finding more dry rot in the ceiling T&G "car decking". Had Doug w/Mike's Electrical come out and scope the job. Found out from him & Ron that keeping the recessed lights in the living room would cost close to $2000! Talked with Marci and found out she's not attched to them. Called Ron and told him to order more car decking :-) and told Doug to cross them off his bin list. Venting the bathroom fans is becoming an issue. The roofers don't want to do it and say the electrians do it, and the electrians say the roofers do it. Both say to go to Sylvan Electronics and talk to Bill (more on this later).

Hitorical notes about our neighborhood

2005-08-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

The streets were named after Bonnie who lived in a red house on the lot a couple houses down from us. She owned a filbert farm.

There used to be a barn in the lot behind us (where the church is now). The barn burned down in the sixties. Because some kids were smoking in it and accidentally set it on fire?

There are only three filbert trees remaining from the farm, and they are accross the street. There's been a filbert blight for many years here, and it looks like one of the three trees has it :-(

There used to be a small pond at the end of our street - the streams ran down the hills (where the roads are now) to the pond. It was the local swimming hole. There are houses there now.

It's Gone!!!

2005-08-04T20:22:00.000-07:00

Ron and Brad polished off the second half of the roof in record time. The only slow up was WM not swapping out the 30 yd. drop boxes until noon. Then we spent the rest of the day getting the piles of debris off the roof and tightly packed into the new 30 yarder. There's still some debris and the insolation that needs to be cleaned up (a weekend project) before the roofers can come do their final pass at scoping the project. Then they(the roofers) remove the old foam roof and then it's the electrician's turn, before they return to put the new roof on.

BTW, more dry rot was found on the other side of the house where dry rot repair was doen. It was more extensive than previous repair and they covered it up. Glad we found it now. It'll be easier to deal with now...

Sorry, no pictures yet. Too tired and sunburnt to take any. Will add them later.

Lift off!!!! 1/2 half way there by the end of the day

2005-08-03T18:30:00.000-07:00

We quietly started at 6am removing the shingles on the whole roof and finished that by 8am. Then we moved on to demo'ing the right side of the roof. We finish the right half by 2pm. We totally filled a 30 yd. drop box (and that's the short side of the roof). So two drop boxes are not enough, and I requested and early pickup for tomorrow and I'll order another tomorrow as well. The temperature was cool in the morning and a breeze allowed us to work into the afternoon. Hoping for more of the same tomorrow and Friday. Bob Z. came by to take pictures and cheer us on, as well as many neighbors doing slow drive-byes (wonder what the heck is going on ;-).

Team:
Ron (aka Super Sawzall)

Brad

and Me (not pictured ;-).

T-1day and counting...

2005-08-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

T minus 1 day and counting...

The 30yd. drop box arrived. It almost got placed in a neighbor's driveway the next street over!
I spied the driver just in time, while I was waiting (for the second day in a row) for Comcast to come and disconnect the cable from the house. Looks like Comcast blew me off again!!!

Two days to go before the decapitation

2005-08-01T07:03:00.000-07:00

Two days to go before the decapitation and there is "chance of rain" in the forecast for today and tomorrow, but in the 90's for Wednesday through Friday. Glad I bought tarps and I hope they're big enough. Friday, I finished tearing off the ends. So, as long as there is no driving rain we should be OK. We spent Saturday and Sunday Beanie Doo'ing the floors, leaving 1/3 of the family room left to do. I should be able to finish that tonight. Although the floors will be unfinished concrete we should be able to move in.

Things to do before decapitation:

Disconnect the Gas
Disconnect/remove the HVAC vents
Blow the insulation into piles and bag it if possible
Remove cross bracing
Disconnect Electric

Off with the facade, no turning back now

2005-07-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

Well....now the neighbors know somethings going on ;-)

This is lastnight's progress ===>
Almost all the facade is off. A nest of muddobbers slowed progress until I sprayed, and scared them off. A little work tonight and all the corners should be cleaned off, and ready for inspection by Ron on Saturday.

Details:

Got the demo permit yesterday. So, I am no longer "repairing" the roof... I'm demo'ing it ;-)
Ordered two 30 yd. drop boxes for taking the roof and substructure off next week (8/3 thru 8/5).
Commited to having Columbia Roofing do the roofing job.
Setup Planning meeting between us, our contractor, and the roof company. The meeting is after the demo, and it is to go over the details inorder minimize surprises.
Purchased two 30x50 blue tarps to cover the roof from Harbor Freight @ $60 ea. They were sold out of the biggest one (30x60). Hope this will work, as other solutions are a lot more expensive. Maybe I should google for an "anti-rain" dance.

Side Note: The demo work I've been doing lately came in handy today when the vending machine at work did not eject my purchase. I banged and slammed the machine silly until it spit out my chips! Everyone in the lunch room was impressed / affraid ;-)

Drop box details:
Waste Management Inc. 503-992-1212 Costs: Deposit: $300
Waste cost: $60.85/ton 1500 Sq. Ft ~ 2 tons

-- Plus --

20 yd box (4'x8'x20') Haul fee: $93.94 Rent/day: $4.50
30 yd box (7'x6'x20') Haul fee: $130.12 Rent/day: $6.05

Tips:
1. The first three days of box rental are free.
2. Weekends and holidays are free box rental.
3. July 4th week-weekend is the best deal in that you end up renting for 1day!!!
4. You can schdule right now, but they only need two days adv. Warning.
5. Everything is paid for out of the deposit.

Also, Waste wood construction recycling costs: Landscape… costs $7.00 per cu. yd. Grimes Fuel costs $6.00 per cu. yd.

Corner 2 down and two to go ;-)

2005-07-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

Took corner two down last night. Both corners so far are in the backyard. Tonight or tommorow night the neighbors are going to see something out front ;-)

You can tell by the shadows that when the overburden is removed this is going to be a totally different space with a lot more light. Pretty exciting!... huh?

Cell phone pictures, not so nice but gets the message accross.

One corner down...3 to go

2005-07-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

Removed the 1st of four corners of the roof last night. Three to go by Saturday!

Ron & son came over and inspected my handy work ;-) More information/removal is needed to put together an acurate est. of cost and place orders for materials. Demo is now planned for 8/3 thru 8/5.

Also, met with Anctil today so that they can properly scope a bid for resurecting the radiant heating. It went well and we're looking forward to the bid. Timeline is getting critical :-

old roof size and way cool app: google earh :-)

2005-07-22T07:05:00.000-07:00

I got up on the old roof last night and measured the actual area of the roof to find the square footage of roofing material to be removed. We recieved an estimate and the sq.ft. 'age seemed high, but it was accurate (see below).

BTW, I'm having fun with Google Earth (earth.google.com) to create these images :-)
Here's a psuedo 3D view

Historical tidbit from a neighbor

2005-07-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

I talked a neighbor last night. He's been here since 1996, and he remembers the 2nd roof going on. He said there was an owner before the last owners that was in a wheel chair. That most likely explains the master bath re-muddle: loss of the roman bath and widening of the walls in the master bath closet.

Rendering of restored roofline

2005-07-19T01:19:00.000-07:00

Too hot to sleep, so I did a rendering of what the roofline/facaude should look like when we're done. Before (current) view

Another weekend of floor work and a dump run

2005-07-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

Another weekend of floor work and a couple of dump runs on Sunday. What a difference to get that junk out of the garage.

The floors
Saturday was spent doing errands until 3pm Then I hit the house and layed down Beanie Do on an intracated 1/3 of the bath room.

This was also when I got the bright idea to label an old pair of black converse "Beanie Do Shoe", while I was wearing another pair of the same shoes but in slightly better condition. Well... mid way through the process I got distracted and ended up labling half the shoes correctly. Ahrrgg $%!!!. Scrach it out, change your other shoe, lable it correctly, There!!! Beanie Do Shoes :-)

Ooops, note to self, the reason for the shoes is not to get confused and spread the mess to the car, house, and other places you frequent. Therefore, do not wear them home like I did that night!

Sunday, Marci layed down a second coat of Beanie Do on the Retreat's floor and I did another 1/3 of the bathroom. 1/3 left to go :-)

The dump run:

Saturday, The carpet is all rolled up in the garage and taking up space. So, I get out my nice new shiny unused DeWalt Recipicating Saw (RS from here out) and tear into it to chop it into rolls 7' or less to fit into my best freind Jeff's pickup on Sunday. Turns out there's a technique involved here: 1) Roll the carpet up 2) Fold/bend the roll in half (or the desired width) 3) cut at the bend 4) rotate and cut at the bend. This works pretty good and quick, but it's never as fast as you think it should go. I also started taking apart the cupboards along the side on the garage. These cupboards were original and pretty neat, but they were rough looking with age, and not effiencent for that amount of storage we need. I'll be replacing them with the plastic racks and flip-top storage bins I already have. These are nice in that they slide in and out easy, are modular, and can go all the way to the ceiling (if need be).

Sunday
We had a good breakfast at Corner Table (17th & Boradway) with our freind and Irvinton neighbor Diane. We talked remodeling , restoration, and remuddling, as well as life stuff too. Saw Tony (the owner, friend, and key moral booster). Then we went over to Jeff & Cris's and borrowed the truck. Drove the truck over to the house, finished the demo of the cuppboards, and loaded the truck, but there was too much stuff!. Made two dump runs at 500 and 600lbs, for a total of 1100lbs!!. Washed and gassed Jeff's truck and returned it.

Oh yah, Gave Jeff a brand new set of tie downs too:-) Early Xmas present in july. *<:-{)

What's this blog all about?

2005-07-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

This blog is an attempt to document the restoration & updating of our "modern" house. We purchased the house almost two months ago and we've already started some of the work. Since we are starting this blog a little late, some of the activites will be documented here retroactively.

Another purpose for this blog is to communicate to each other what we've found, scheduled, and/or need to update each other on. Since we both have very busy schedules we are finding hard to keep in sync, and our hope is that this blog will help :-)

Since we are not alone in this endevor, it is our hope that this blog will allow our friends and family to join us as we work to restore our beautiful house, and give hope, encouragement, and good solid information to others who might want to restore their house.

Nick & Marci

2005-07-10T21:08:00.000-07:00

Radiant Heat Systems

Anctil Plumbing (Bob, Mark, Dan)
503-642-7323

Our presures over time
30.0 PSI @10am 6/22
25.0 PSI @7pm 6/22
22.0 PSI @12pm 6/23
21.8 PSI @7pm 6/23
20.1 PSI @10am 6/24
16.8 PSI @3pm 6/26
15.8 PSI @2pm 6/27
14.3 PSI @12pm 6/28
12.3 PSI @7pm 6/30
8 PSI @4pm 7/10

Steve - American Leak Detection
503-777-0253
$225/2hr

Asbestos Resources

2005-07-10T18:05:00.000-07:00

Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality
www.deq.state.or.us
503-229-5982
Tips for home owners and disposal requirements and locations.

Sanderson Safety Supply
1101 SE 3rd Ave, Portland, OR, 97214
www.sandersonsafety.com
503-238-5700
Personal protective equipment, abatement and disposal supplies.

Asbestos Underfoot - Flooring and Mastics
http://homerepair.about.com/od/healthyhouse/a/asbestos_floor.htm

Bean-e-doo, Armstrong Vinyl Tile, Mastic - 4th of July!

2005-07-04T21:37:00.000-07:00

We pulled up the 10-20 year old carpets that were throughout the house. The house already smells better!

Then we decided to tackle the removal of the almost 30-year-old Armstrong floor tiles (VAT) that were under the carpet in almost every room in the house. The master bedroom and living/dining room were the only rooms missing tiles. The tiles had been glued to the floor with an adhesive called mastic.

We made sure to take some samples of the tile and mastic down to a local lab to have it tested for asbestos. (See our asbestos resource list.) Also, if you are going to pull up any sheet vinyl (like the old linoleum in some houses) you should definitely get that tested. Sometimes it has a paper backing that contains asbestos.

Removing the tiles was rather easy. First, we dampened the tiles with warm, soapy water. Then, using a pry bar, we lifted up one corner gently and worked the bar under the tile until it popped up. We did not use enough force to break or crack the tiles. We also found that if we removed the moldings that it was easier to get the tiles up. Most of the tiles popped up rather easily. Some of the tiles around the perimeter of the rooms broke in 2-3 pieces.

After the tiles were removed, we needed to get the mastic up. Some local concrete floor contractors had recommended that we use BEAN-e-doo, a soy-based product to remove it so we bought some from a local supplier, Wahkeena Northwest. It worked pretty well. The secret (at least for us) was to spread a thin coat over the mastic and let it sit until you can see the mastic starting to dissolve. Then we used paper towels to remove the bean-e-doo. It is rather oily so it is very important to remove it before it sinks into the concrete. We repeatedly washed the floors after absorbing the bean-e-doo with paper towels. We used a product called Emerge (it is also made by Franmar, the company that makes bean-e-doo). But, we have found out that you can also use blue Dawn dishwashing liquid - it is a strong degreaser. Supposedly, they use it to clean up birds that have been involved in oil spills. Safe and effective? Note that some of the mastic required a couple of applications of bean-e-doo.

More on bean-e-doo:

http://www.franmar.com/
www.wahkeena.com

Is there a better thing to do on the July 4th weekend?

Nick buys a Dry Wall Book :-o

2005-06-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

I'm getting neverous and I knew I'd need something in the way of education. So....it was there and I was there so I bought it. I know everyone will be telling me there little tricks, but I don't want to fool around. So I bought. I BOUGHT A BOOK ON DRYWALLing! There, it's out.

BTW: it's called "DRYWALL - Professional Techniques for Great Results" and it's the update & revised edition. I'll let you know how it works out.

Roofing Contractors Notes

2005-06-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

Roofing Contractors Notes

Columbia Construction Services
503-866-8190
* They were recommended by Woodfeathers
* They do TPO
* Jim Davis and Keith W. came out to the house on Friday, June 10th
* They have done about 8 Rummer style homes
* Keith can send us a list of homes to look at
* They will NOT do the demo
* They recommended a 60 mil TPO with 3" R19 insulation that was tapered (on the flat portions) to encourage better drainage - we could also stagger two layers of thinner insulation to get better coverage
* We need to remove the old roof (tar/paper/gravel/spray on insulation...) and then put on all new stuff
* It will cost 1700 for them to remove the existing roof (need to check to see if that is the shingles on the new roof or the foam/gravel/tar/paper on the old roof)
* They estimated 8-10 k for putting on new roof - it was ~5.25 per square foot - Jim Davis said this was a conservative estimate - hopefully this means that it was higher than it probably will be
* They need to see the roof after the demo to give us a better estimate

Griffith
503-643-1619
* Recommended by Ron, Bob Z., and our house inspector
* They probably did the original roof on our house
* They recommended NOT using a single ply membrane - they prefer traditional roofs. (I spoke with them back in April.)

Woodfeathers
6789 SW 111th Avenue, Beaverton
503-641-7663
* They can supply drop boxes - could be cheaper than Waste Management
* Call them for referrals too

This list is just notes on our experiences and does not reflect as an endorsement of anyone or anything!

Item #5 Restore the "Retreat" - What a difference

2005-05-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

Item #5 on the to do list was restore the "Retreat".
What is the "Retreat"? When we bought the house it had a 3rd Bedroom in between the master bath and the bath/laundry. This 3rd bedroom had; light switches in the wrong places, a sheet rock wall on the atrium side with a mismatching door & HW, and the carpet was folded over on the edge with the wall built on top of it! Clearly, the wall was an addition and should be removed.

A little "Rummer/Eichler" research and a look at the radiant floor heat manifold revealed the "Retreat". Some of the houses have a room without a wall on the atrium, side so it is wide open to the atrium. It looks to be a study. We've seen two houses with it. Another clue was that the manifold has all the original labling, and the room was labled as the "Retreat". Our's is a room without a wall opposite the atrium.

So...I demo'd the wall and what a difference! The "Retreat" is on the west side of the house with 6' wide aluminum slide windows. With the wall gone, now sunlight strikes the west side of the house and passes through the retreat, and into part of the atrium. It brightens up the whole interior of the house and increases ventilation. Other advantages: More light, Increased the "open feeling" of the house, and a tax advantage of going from three to two bedrooms (by devalueing ;-)

The new/restored floor plan:

Next Steps...

2005-05-14T23:10:00.000-07:00

Now that we've got the house, what are our next steps?

#1 Marci said it first "That roof has got to go!!!". Ok, lets start looking at roofers.

#2 Before we take out the roof and loose the forced air furnace, we've got to resurect the radiant floor heating. Hey..., there's a hole where my boiler should be? Everyone says call Anctil!

#3 We need a good General Contractor for the two dry rotted beams and putting the roof right and....

#4 The floors... The carpet looks nice in the photos, but they've been through a 1-6yr. old boy and no telling what before that! Hmmm... is that 3rd bedroom wall built on top of the carpet?

AND What's the story with the white tile we keep finding under the carpets???

#5 Restore the "Retreat"?
a.k.a. "loose the 3rd bedroom"
a.k.a. "open the plan up"
a.k.a. "How to lower your tax assessed value by loosing a bedroom"

#6 Everything else: Decks, yard, a kitchen by Home Depot, paint(exterior), misc fixtures, replace ruined panneling with dry wall, update wiring, add wiring for internet, and a mailbox too.