Karen's Tree

I've been cruising Craigslist lately. Not looking for love,or concert tickets, or a new car. I've been cruising the Free Stuff listings.

A lot of people are remodeling houses, and they don't want the materials they're tearing out to end up as landfill, so they often list it on Free Stuff. We've had some good luck here: we got a replacement sink, some windows, things like that. But last week, when I was looking at Free Stuff, I saw that someone was giving away a Satsuma Plum Tree.

Most people "giving away" trees have the caveat that you have to come and dig it up. I'm a nice guy, but I really have no interest in landscaping someone else's yard to get a tree, so I have never responded to those ads.

But this one was different. The owner had gotten the tree out of the ground, and the root ball was wrapped and ready to move. The tree was heavily pruned, but healthy, and her gardner said it should survive being transplanted. So I contacted her and asked about it, and Tom went over to see it.

Karen had lovingly named the tree "Samantha", and it had indeed been heavily pruned. Karen wanted to take the tree out of her yard in Rockridge, but she had grown it from a pup, and didn't want to cut it down. She wanted to find a new home for Samantha.

So on Saturday morning, we got a City Carshare pickup, and Tom met Karen's gardner and several other guys, who loaded the tree into the truck. Then he brought it to 62nd Street, and we got it out of the truck and into the yard. Then we paid our neighbor Jamal, and his friend Mario, to help us drag it from the front of the house around to the back. Jamal dug a beautiful deep hole for the tree, and we planted it today.

Karen's tree, transplanted to 62nd Street

The tree is on the south side of the Cheney Cottage, shielded from the wind but where it should get plenty of sun. When it leafs out again, it will block the view of the apartment building to the west, and it should produce wonderful tasty Satsuma plums. It is in line with the incredibly prolific Meyer lemon tree in the side yard. The tree is out of the path of construction, so it shouldn't be damaged when the work on the Delaney House resumes.

Speaking of the Delaney House, we hope to begin the lift of the Delaney House this week. It has been sitting on cribbing, about 6 feet off the ground, for the last year and a half, since we moved it to the back of the lot. Now we're poised to have Phil Joy and his crew back one more time to raise it up another 6 feet in the air. Then Eric and his crew will dig the new foundation, and build the walls of the new first floor, and Phil will gently lower the Delaney House down onto its new structure.

Meanwhile, at the Cheney Cottage, we've been stripping paint, scrapping the woodwork, and getting the wood ready to be refinished. A lot of the woodwork is in near-final form, ready to be re-shellacked.

We also picked up the restored mantle from Tom Pedemonte. Tom is a true artist: he replaced all the missing pieces and shellacked the mantle, and it looks beautiful. The mirrors need to be reinstalled, and then the mantle will be waxed. But for now it's waiting in the basement on Parker Street for the living room to be done, and then it'll be re-installed.

The restored mantle for the Cheney Cottage

We've also been working on the front porch. The original steps only had a railing on one side, but the railing has a distinctive pattern, so we wanted to replicate it on the other side. Now the stairs have a railing on both sides, railings that match and fit well with the porch railings.

The original stair railing

The new railing on the other side of the front stairs

Eric's crew has been working on the retaining wall out front as well. Hopefully we will get that installed in the next two weeks, and then the dirt from under the Delaney House can be moved up front and become the Cheney Cottage's front yard.

Things are happening on 62nd Street!

Fixtures

We get excited about bathroom fixtures. Go know.

This past weekend, we picked up the bathtub and the sink for the Cheney Cottage. The sink for the downstairs bathroom has been in the house for quite a while, but the bathtub and corner sink for the upstairs bathroom have just arrived.

The bathtub is particularly cool: because the bathroom is so narrow, the tub needed to be narrow as well. Most clawfoot bathtubs are 30" wide, but the tub for the Cheney Cottage is only 24" wide. It isn't really much thinner than a normal tub - it's just that the sides are vertical (most tubs have sides that slope outwards) and the rolled edge at the top is significantly thinner than on most tubs.

We picked up both fixtures and moved them in. The sink is heavy, but I could carry it myself, and carted it up the stairs with no problem. But the tub was more problematic: Tom and I moved the tub from the truck to the foot of the front stairs, then muscled it up the stairs and into the house. We managed to do this without exacerbating Tom's back problems nor giving ourselves hernias.

The sink in the upstairs bathroom of the Cheney Cottage (at dusk)

But the thought of carrying the tub up 16 stairs to the second floor was beyond us, so we put the tub in the living room. We figured we'd work around it for a while (and it could be a handy receptacle for all the stripped paint).

But then on Monday, two of our neighbors Ron and Dave, were outside their house, and they offered to help us carry it up the stairs. With a heavy cast iron tub, having more than two people made a huge difference: Tom didn't join in, due to his back issues, but the three of us carried the tub up the stairs pretty easily, and set it in the front bedroom (half way up the stairs, Ron asked, "It had to be cast iron? A fiberglass tub wouldn't work??"). Then I attached the feet, and the tub is ready to be moved into the bathroom, as soon as the plumbing is done. The sink is already hanging from its clips on the wall, so soon the bathroom will be looking finished.

The Cheney Cottage bathtub, sitting by the windows in the front bedroom

The stripping of paint is pretty much done: the dining room and living room have been stripped, the stairwell is done, and there are just a couple more pieces of trim to strip in the upstairs hallway. The scraping is underway, but it is labor intensive and tedious. Tom spent some time scraping the window ledge and window frames of the 5 windows in the living room. They look great, but there is so much more to scrape.

The wiring is done, and soon we'll put a box on the outside of the house and make all the electrical hook ups. Then we should be able to get the service moved to the house and get rid of the temporary power pole in the front yard.

We met with Bill Rayno, who installed the boiler system that heats the radiators (and provides domestic hot water) in our house on Parker Street. In both the Cheney Cottage and the Delaney House, we're going to use radiators in the bedrooms upstairs, but use underfloor radiant heat on the first floors. We sure could use it: the Cheney Cottage has been freezing cold, and with rain coming to town tomorrow, it's going to get even colder. So Bill may be starting work soon. Bill also is giving us the name of a plumber he works with, who will give us a bid on installing the DWV system as well as assisting in running the supply lines. The plumbing system is actually not that complicated: two bathrooms, the kitchen and the laundry.

We plan to use PEX for not only the hot water for the heating system, but also for the supply water for the kitchen and bathrooms. PEX is significantly easier to run through walls and snake into tight spaces than copper, and has the advantage that people don't want to steal it to sell it for scrap.

Eric and his crew are starting to work on the retaining wall at the front of the property, and Phil Joy will be returning soon to lift the Delaney House another 6 feet in the air. Then Eric's crew can put in the foundation and build the first floor walls, and the house will be lowered down onto its new first floor.

Another project that got finished was replacing the back window in the laundry room. At some point, the original window had been removed, and a greenhouse window installed. The greenhouse window was long since gone, replaced with a large piece of plywood. So this weekend, we found a fixed window that would fit, and reinstalled it in the opening. The trim had been removed, so I made new trim, which will soon be painted to match the rest of the house.

The restored back window of the Cheney Cottage

The project list seems endless, but we're making progress. We're going to finish these houses in 2012. Keep watching.

At the End of the Year

December has been a busy month, and I haven't had a lot of time to write in the blog. But the work has been moving forward, even with all the holiday mishegoss going on. It's actually been great having the house as a place to go and focus, and get away from everything else. So a lot has gotten done.

One of the things we did was we went to Ohmega Salvage, and we bought a mantel for the fireplace. Of course, it was not in finished shape - we needed another project, of course - so we bought a painted mantel, with a missing mirror. When we started to strip it, we realized that the four raised panels around the missing mirror were in fact also mirrors, and that the mantle itself is mahogany. We carefully scraped the paint off the four beveled glass mirrors, and we're ordering a new mirror for the center.

The mantle being stripped in the basement on Parker Street

Now that the paint is off, we can see that much of the mantle is missing. There were clearly two columns, and probably three separate shelves, that have all been removed. So back to Tom Pedemonte we go, to get him to make us the pieces we'll need to finish the mantle. It will end up being a beautiful piece.

All the wiring is now completed, with the exception of the light switches for the back bedrooms and the WC, and the outlet for the washer/dryer. We found a wall sconce to hang at the bottom of the stairs, and it is now wired in and working. We no longer have extension cords going up and down the stairs, because there are now working outlets on both floors.

The sconce at the bottom of the stairs

The ceiling in the living room is mostly stripped, and the scrapping has commenced. We'll still be using the heat gun for the baseboards, a little more on the ceiling, and some more in the upstairs hallway - but we can see a time when we won't be using it.

And the back porch has been built - no stairs yet, but the porch is there, and so the back door can be opened, and it gives us a place in the sun to sit and have lunch on work days. We've had a lot of sun lately (of course it won't rain, now that we have a roof!)

We've been having a lot of visitors - neighbors, friends, etc - and everyone has been complementary about how fast the house is coming along. It always surprises us when someone says that, because we feel like it's moving incredibly slowly.

So in 2012 we're hoping to really move this project along. If we get our financing, we plan to put the new foundation under the Delaney House, and get the new walls built, and then really push to finish the Cheney Cottage. A happy and successful 2012 to us all!

Adding wiring, removing paint

The dining room chandelier

The project continues. More wiring going in, more paint coming off.

The living room ceiling is 90% finished, so the scrapping will commence soon. The baseboards are still not done, but all the rest of the stripping is finished. We hope to have Tom Piedemonte in to give us some estimates on helping finish the project - that should happen next week. Tom is a real artist, and will be able to make sure the finished woodwork is as beautiful as it was in 1902.

The dining room

The living room ceiling, in process

In the course of doing the stripping, I realized that we needed a natural place to stop stripping, and it's hard to find - we stripped the paint all the way up the stairs, but then it looks odd at the top to suddenly have the baseboards stripped. So we've decided to also strip all the woodwork in the second floor hallway (basically, we're stripping all the woodwork except in the bedrooms, the bathrooms and the kitchen). So stripping is now happening upstairs and down.

All the outlets are in except for one in the front bedroom and one in the hall (I ran out of plugs). So the wiring is definitely moving toward completion.

Trim replaced in the back bedroom. The trim was labelled so we would know where to put it back

And the place is looking more and more finished. Next up: more paint stripping, electrical in the kitchen and bathrooms, and plumbing.

The trim at the top of the stairs, reinstalled and ready to be stripped.

The Wreckage Becomes a House Again

The Cheney Cottage is starting to feel like more than a project to us - it's starting to feel like a real house.

We have done a lot of work since the last post, and progress is being made. Almost all the trim, (including the baseboards) has been reinstalled upstairs. On the surfaces that don't have huge holes in them where the beams went through (there are a couple), the walls have a finished look to them.

There are a couple bedroom walls that are so badly damaged they have to be removed and re-plastered. Tom has been taking them down, and fortunately, they are all exterior walls - so he is taking the opportunity to insulate the walls.

The paint stripping is moving along well. The dining room is done, and we've been trying to finish all the scraping in there. Jimmy, one of our neighborhood handymen, has been working with us on this, doing a great job. The living room ceiling is probably 70% done, and most of the trim is done (except the baseboards)

The front porch is mostly done as well, with siding installed and the original handrail back in place. Since the stairs originally went down along the house, there was only one handrail, so we have to replicate it on the other side. But we have the existing one as a model, so it shouldn't be that difficult to do.

The porch and railing

One of the things that has made the house feel more together is that we spent a day cleaning. We picked up all the various piles of paster and dust, and vacuumed the floors throughout the house to remove the dust. It made a huge difference, especially when we're working.

Yesterday, Johno stopped by and we sat out on the porch steps and watched the neighborhood go by, drinking tea and eating pound cake. We've had beautiful weather, and it felt great to sit and be part of the street scene. All the neighbors stop by and ask how the project is going, when we think we'll be done, and to tell us how much they like the house. And with it back together, sitting on a foundation and with a new roof, we're liking it a lot more too!

So next weekend, the re-plastering begins.

Finishing the Porch

The porch is pretty much done. Except for the railings on the stairs, and the shingles on the roof, the porch is finished.

The mostly completed porch

We started by making the rafter tails that support the roof over the stairs. Then we made a dutchman in each to connect them to the existing rafters.

Next, we put 1x6 up to create the porch roof. We also installed the last two decorative supports (the ones under the rafter tails by the stairs). One of them was missing a piece, so we made a replacement piece and glued and nailed it on.

Then we put building paper on the roof to make it weatherproof - and the porch will now protect the stairs.

The view from the front door

We also spent some time this weekend working inside, finishing the trim in the downstairs bathroom, cleaning up, etc, Next weekend, the railings go on the porch, and the plumbing work begins in earnest. We'll also install shear walls below the porch, and start adding the last of the siding (along the crawl space).

The look of the porch, circa 1962

The porch today

With the roof done, the house is pretty much weatherproof, and we spent part of the rainy day on Saturday just listening to the rain on our new roof. Nothing like knowing the house is now safe from the weather!

We also had a visit from one of the firefighters, who told us about the fire in the apartment across the street. All three units are now empty, and the fire pretty much gutted the middle apartment. We don't know what plans the owners have for the building, but for now, it's boarded up.

62nd Street Happenings

We spent Sunday at the Cheney Cottage, working on the porch - to mixed results.

We installed the last pieces of decking, did some work on strengthening the railings, and figured out what pieces went where. Things were moving along and we were making pretty good progress. But then, late in the day, I was putting up the pieces that support the roof on either side. They are mostly decorative, but give the porch a distinctive look. I couldn't get them to fit right, and I finally realized why: we put the horizontal pieces in at the wrong spot.

So next weekend, we have to take them out and reinstall them, then redo the support pieces. It'll make the porch look like it did originally, and will be a much cleaner look - but it's a pain in the ass to have to re-do work. I'm kicking myself for this - it is pretty clear in one of the pictures from 1962 how the support pieces connect, and we somehow missed it.

Except for the porch roof and railings, the porch is mostly done. We hope to get it all finished on Saturday.

We also had a couple visitors - blog readers who hadn't heard that the BAHA House Tour was cancelled. That was my fault, as I never posted that we weren't having the tour. When the BAHA Board came to see the house, we all agreed that the site was too rough for many of the BAHA members, and that we'd wait until the house was in more finished form. So Andus came by to bring flowers for the tour, and then Claire came by to see the house. She got a personal tour, so I hope it was still worth the trip. (Claire: I need your last name so I can add you to the guest book!)

In other news, there was a fire across the street today. Pete Alvaraz, who lives in the two story house across from us, filmed the fire in the apartment building next to him. It looks like it was a pretty bad fire, damaging both the second and third floors. Pete uploaded a video of the fire to YouTube.

We're looking forward to being back on 62nd this weekend and getting some work done. Although having a break has been nice, we're anxious to get back to work. It's supposed to rain tomorrow (Thursday) and Sunday, but since we now have a roof on the house, we're not worried about the weather. We just need to keep working!