Reasons to be Thankful

Good thing we weren't planning any big holiday celebration today.

We've had record breaking rain the last 24 hours around these parts which is fantastic for reducing wildfire dangers but sadly has turned the Casa Anglachel basement into a swimming pool. There's a leak in a wall and seepage in spots in the foundation. We knew we would have some long term issues when we bought the place. The house is more than 80 years old. We've been doing drainage work and it's better than last year.

I am thankful that the problems aren't worse, that we have a roof over our heads, food in the fridge and a furnace that works, and that we have some savings to get us through the rainy days.

Anglachel

One Year

We got the keys to the house exactly one year ago today.

Since then, just about everything in th place has been fixed, replaced, updated, cleaned, painted, polished and/or changed. And we still aren't done!

Anglachel

Paint, Camera, Action!

Since nothing new is going to happen until Tuesday, I've been ignoring politics the last few days in favor of doing stuff around the new house.

The sunroom is almost done, and there is now a place for the spousal unit's guitars. The room has great accoustics. A "shoe" has to be installed, which is the little strip of wood that covers the edge of the flooring and backs up to the baseboard. Because of the way this house was constructed, the baseboard you see in the picture is cement, not wood. Then we have some book cases to put in here.

The tile floor in the masterbath has been installed. We need a little more tile to finish the room, but the darn stuff is on backorder. We purposefully went with very colorful ceramic tile rather then the usual 12" squares of tumbled travertine marble as this is more in the period style. The toilet and shower enclosures have arched on the entries as was common in houses of this period.

To hold all our pots and pans, we went to IKEA and got one of their stupidly named but incredibly functional tables to serve as storage and work area in the pantry. The wooden butcher block cart has been with us for almost twenty years, since we hauled it home from a Lecter's in the back of of a New York City cab and assembled it in our tiny third floor walk-up in Little Italy. The stainless steel number is the IKEA find. Good grief but that puppy was heavy to haul home!

And here is my newly painted study! My camera is kind of crappy, so the colors are skewed. The walls are in between salmon and melon, and aren't nearly as orange as they look here. The ceiling is more a peach than pink color.

Here's the hallway. The linen closet is original, though newly painted, and we got period style reproduction amethyst colored glass knobs annd handles for it. We even got the same kind of latches for the doors as was in the original. They are still made.

The last picture I posted of the bathroom, the medicine cabinet wasn't installed and the lights were upsidedown. Also, the trim needed to be finished. We're making progress. The cabinet is original. The painter stripped 12 pounds of old paint off it.

Anglachel

Moving Fun

Because we cannot live by politics alone.

Here are a few before-after pictures of the renovations on our house. The first one is what the kitchen looked like the first time we saw it. A nearly original 1924 yellow tile kitchen. The floor is filthy, peeling vinyl, the walls have been painted in three different shades of yellow, and the room is split into the main kitchen and a small utility porch with no back door. The fridge sat back there because there was no where else to put it.

After renovations, the kitchen and utility room have been combined, the old yellow tile has been replaced with green tile and custom Arts & Crafts style gingko leaf decorative tiles, the floor is now true linoleum, inlaid in a classic rug pattern (the color and style taken from the original flooring unearthed in demolition), and the old yellow cabinets have been replaced with new yellow cabinets.

The original dining room and sunroom were swathed in layers of dirty curtains and Venetian blinds, with rotting, moldy carpet that had been put in sometime in the 70s. The center of the house was dim and smelly. You can just glimpse the glitter popcorn ceiling, loaded with asbestos.

Curtains removed, floor stripped, sanded, stained and revarnished, and all the woodwork is given a chance to shine. The ceiling asbestos was removed (with proper environmental protection and disposal), retextured, and painted a beautiful soft rose. The floors throughout the house now look like this.

This bathroom is simply hideous. The mismatched paint, the gag-inducing wallpaper, the formica topped vanity, the stained and ratty carpet. But underneath it all is gorgeus vintage tile.

The medicine cabinet is still out of the wall having 70 years of paint stipped off before it is sanded and refinished. We still need paint and the lights were put in upside down, though they are pointing up now. The beautiful floor is in the open for all to see, and the disintegrating vanity has been replaced with a wooden washstand with Art Deco carved legs and a sleek china sink top. The sink itself is just a deep curve in the middle of the china.

Here you can see the double glitter ceilings, the rotting carpet, the hideous light fixtures, and the dark rooms. Even in the middle of a sunny day, you had to turn on lights to see anything. In the background, you can glimpse the kitchen.

The floors are redone and the windows have been fixed. The light is a little funky because of plastic they put up to keep people from walking on the floors while the varnish dried. We're moving in over the next week.

Anglachel

Janus House

I have a key in hand. It opens up new possibilities.

We closed escrow on our house yesterday. Our new old house - new to us, almost older than the two of us put together. Finally, life has settled down to the point where it is time to put down deeper roots. To, as Voltaire would have it, cultivate our garden.


So, what about this house? It's old (1924) and large and in need of TLC after a time of neglect. We're the third family to live in it. It has a Mission Revival style exterior, very plain, and a beautiful classic Craftsman interior. This is odd, as the Spanish style exteriors usually go with a plainer interior, thought we're not complaining.

I've set up a website where we're going to write up our renovations efforts, publish pictures, keep a house blog and other things. I did password protect it because I'd really prefer not to give thieves and con men detailed information about the interior of the house and what we are doing. Friends are welcome to email me and ask for a password.

There are a few immediate needs. There is a ficus tree in the back yard that needs to be cut down before it takes over the neighborhood. The kitchen has not been changed or updated since 1924, so it is both quaint and nearly unusable. That will take some major work. The electrical system has been updated from the old knob and tube wiring, but it is woefully inadequate for today's gadget wonderland. And so on.

We expect renovations will take from now until Labor Day or thereabouts.

Anglachel

Fifth time's the charm

Well, two weeks ago we made our fifth offer for a house and this one was accepted. We are in escrow now, so it could all still blow up spectacularly, but it looks like it's going to work.

The house is a diamond in the rough, with great features and details from the 20s, but is going to need a lot of work. I'm ready for a change.

Anglachel