Live Oak Cottage

Front walk is finally in!

2009-11-04T21:10:00.006-06:00

After literally a year of agonizing, I finally bit the bullet and hired the Kiwis to put a "bridge" in between the concrete walk and the deck.

It doesn't look so great in the photos, but I think that's temporary--I need get my butt in gear now and plant around it to soften the edges.I think it will look so charming! I need to paint the supports the same color as the house so the ugly treated wood isn't visible; the Kiwis say I should wait a couple of months for the treated wood to dry out (yay--an excuse for procrastination). Now the mailman can get to the porch, and I can have trick or treaters next year...

The supports do not touch the oak tree's roots or the ground, which is pretty cool. They are attached to the big beam under the porch and on the other end, treated wood is resting on (and screwed into) the concrete walkway.

I think it looks awesome from this direction! Pictures were taken at night after I got home from work.

It needs some serious landscaping. Help!

Beautiful new window screens

2009-10-25T10:09:00.003-05:00

One step at a time. It took about a year, but I finally got around to ordering screens for the windows. I felt strongly about following the vernacular of the neighborhood with these. They cost a lot more than aluminum screens, but the effect is stunning. And now I can open the windows and enjoy the fall breezes...

The Plan.

2009-10-11T11:57:00.002-05:00

Many folks have made great suggestions after looking at my kitchen. They suggest modifying what is there--just get a new sink and put in a dishwasher where the drawers are, or, get new doors so you can keep the cabinet boxes. But it's just not worth spending money to try and fix something that is broken. I have to wash mixing bowls before I use them because they're full of sawdust from the drawers above. That's really the kicker, I think. I've decided that life is too short to put this off any more, and I need to be able to enjoy cooking in order to stay as healthy as I can. I need to be able to have people over if I want a happy social life, too.

So here's the plan (not necessarily in the correct order, and certainly missing several steps) but laid out here to give you the best sense of what I want to do). I have come up with an initial design, which I will finalize myself, but I will hire a contractor to do most of the work, since I simply don't have the skills or time to do the labor:

1. Contact a structural engineer to find out if I have issues with loadbearing walls. Depending on what they say, the plan will be adjusted as necessary.
2. Rip out the entire kitchen. Rip out the wall between the kitchen and living room, leaving the water heater cabinet intact, as well as the wall that is between it and the living room, but take away the door frame. Put a new bar height wall between the kitchen and the living room area (but no bar), with a wider walking area where current doorway and telephone table are located.
3. Rip out the wall between the living room and the front guest bedroom.
4. Have floors patched as necessary and refinished.
5. Patch sheetrock, do electricity and water, etc., etc.
6. Install subtle can ceiling lights through most of the kitchen and a neat accent light over the little window.
6. Install new kitchen, keeping the sink and stovetop exactly where they are, locating oven underneath the stovetop and adding a peninsula jutting out from the old oven location, creating a "u" shaped work area. On the far side of the peninsula will be three countertop chairs for in-kitchen eating and newspaper reading (I created this effect by placing the kitchen table where the peninsula would be, and adored it! I didn't want to put it back).
7. Get rid of kitchen table and chairs, and install upper and lower cabinets and countertops along that long wall to give the feel of a "hutch," and tons of additional storage
8. Transform living room/guest room space into an open plan living/dining space. This may require some carpentry--I haven't planned this as much as the kitchen at this point.

I have already selected most of my materials:
IKEA cabinets: Nexus in yellow-brown wood
Silestone countertop for most of the kitchen: some kind of white color, tbd
Butcherblock countertop for work area to the left of the cooktop
Separate cooktop and oven units. This is more expensive than a range, and is what I need to do if I want a downdraft vent hood instead of a big stainless steel one coming down from the ceiling. In a house as small as mine, this makes a big difference. I finally confirmed this big decision yesterday (after talking to nice appliance guy at independent shop on Burnet, and after discussing with my brother the chef, who recently lived in a house with a downdraft vent and said it worked fine--this is a man who cooks bacon regularly, unlike me. I'm a very low-impact cook). Not having a vent hood jutting down from the ceiling will make the space look so much better. I can do something fun with the lighting over the dining room table and make that the visual focal point when you enter the house.
Stainless dishwasher
New stainless single basin sink
Tile backsplash (fun!)
And five gazillion other little and big expenses of course.

The biggest change from the earlier version of this plan is that I think I'm leaving the water heater intact. Because it is such a problem in the current kitchen layout, I had planned to remove it and install a tankless one. But the more research I have done, the more clear it becomes that this would be an extremely expensive change, and to little benefit. The city of Austin has a calculator for energy savings, and for a household of my size and my low hot-water use, it would take a very, very long time to recoup the costs, and I would not really be making much of a difference environmentally. Consumer Reports, too, does not highly recommend going tankless. So rather than move the water heater, I'll build around it. I think that the cabinet will actually look charming once the layout is changed. We'll see!

The Kitchen: Before Pics!

2009-10-11T11:16:00.005-05:00

I've been living in my house for 3.5 years now, and I'm really tired of dealing with my old kitchen. I want to cook more and entertain more, but both are difficult, especially entertaining. I have no dishwasher and a cantankerous old oven. My kitchen is very closed off from the rest of the house and I have nowhere to put my gorgeous dining room table, inherited from my grandparents and currently serving as a console behind the couch in the livingroom. It's badly in need of restoration and will be gorgeous once that's done.

The kitchen looks really charming at a glance, due to the wood floors, gorgeous refrigerator that I bought when I moved in, the awesome paint color on the walls (Mexican Chile from Home Depot), and the french doors installed during the exterior remodel. But despite these things, it really, really sucks. Here is a kitchen tour, counterclockwise.

View from the door into the living room. That's the laundry room/storage to the left. The doors under the sink and the upper doors to the right of the fridge don't close:

The back wall next to the french doors, where I come and go most often. The french doors (just out of the frame to the left) go to the deck and out to the carport. Check out the clutter. My fault, not really the kitchen's fault. But I want more storage. I plan to leave this little cabinet where it is when I renovate. I adore it. My grandmother bought it antiquing in Vermont some decades ago:

Continuing on to the eating area. It looks charming but it's actually the worst part of the kitchen. There isn't quite enough room for the table and chairs. It's awkward and uncomfortable and seats only 4 for a basic meal (there's nowhere to put the food!). I've tried to give it some character with a cute light fixture but there's a limit when the space is so small. You can see the open door to the water heater to the left. It is the reason the kitchen feels so cramped:

The view into the living room from the French doors. That's the water heater cabinet behind the door. The entry is narrow and cuts off the kitchen from the rest of the living space. Note, however, that the hardwood floors are continuous through the doorway. Lovely:

Continuing on around, this is the telephone table just to the left of the doorway into the living room (hi Pirate!). Absolutely wasted space, and a sh*t collector. The ovens are old and funky. I've never used the lower oven, and the upper has temperature control problems. Note the ugly ventilation space just above the oven-it's just a hole in the cabinets:

The cooktop, where I spend a lot of time. I do a lot more cooking on the stove than in the oven. I actually love my little cooktop despite the fact I need to turn it on with a match and the fact that it's almost impossible to clean. I hate the crowded space, though, and the laminate that runs up the wall behind it:

Disorganized storage. I want cabinets with fittings that will help me stay more organized, and I want pullout cabinets holding the pots and pans so I can reach them more easily:

Just to the left of the cooktop is pretty much the only working counterspace except a small area to the left of the sink. It's really difficult to cook more than one dish at a time in this kitchen. I love giving dinner parties but I hardly ever do because I simply don't have the space in the kitchen or elsewhere for prep, serving, and eating. Note the partly open cabinets. They don't close. I can't even get into one of the upper cabinets--it's wedged shut! The laminate countertops are so old that they are permanently stained. No matter how much I clean they have yellowish blots all over them, and they get dirty very fast. You can't just wipe them down:

Next, the adorable window over the sink. it's staying just like it is. But as you can see, there are some, um, unpainted spots where a flourescent fixture, complete with cord, was hanging when I moved in. More greyish-pinkish laminate backsplash:

Ah, the sink. What can I say? I scrubbed it with Comet before taking this picture. This is as clean as it gets, folks:

Next, the drawers where the dishwasher will go. I've never had a dishwasher. I find it really depressing to have a great dinner party, and then spend two hours doing dishes after everyone goes home--I look forward to changing that! Note the spaces between the drawers and frames. Also note that the third drawer does not close any more than that. Grrrr.:

OK, now you've seen it. Next post: the plan.

Getting restless...

2009-06-25T07:31:00.002-05:00

So, I think I'm going to take the leap and move on to the next stage of making Live Oak Cottage my dream cottage inside as well. I've 90% decided that I am ready to rip out the kitchen and replace it with one that opens out to the current living room. But the bigger deal is that I think I will knock down the wall between the living room and the guest room and add a half-bath, to make this house a 2/1.5 rathe than a 3/1. Checking out real estate values in the neighborhood, I think this would be a very good decision! I'm getting pretty excited about undertaking this massive project. Details forthcoming.

Small steps in a new year

2009-01-03T08:58:00.006-06:00

A new year! I accomplished my goal of redoing my house in advance of my 40th birthday last week, and it felt great. I celebrated by having a huge open house on New Year's Day. I'm not sure how many people came--maybe 35. They spilled out onto the deck, and the French door was wide open! It was a great success. We barely fit in the house, and the event made me wish for that new, open kitchen I'll have some day, as did the singed coffeecake. But for now, the remodeling I've done has really improved my life.

There are two guys out back ripping down my eyesore shed add-on as I write this. Here's what it looked like ten minutes ago.

Voila! My neighbors are going to love me:

Now the house and yard feel even more exposed from the back, and I am no closer to an acceptable decision on how to design my fence. Alas. Here I am sitting on the deck looking down upon the problem area. How to close it off properly?

Big work projects trump house projects

2008-10-25T19:41:00.004-05:00

Hi every and anyone who is still checking my blog, and apparently there are a few of you out there. Thanks!

Only two projects remain: a fence and a new front walk. Both have stalled out due to a combination of procrastination, way too much to do at work, and, well, avoidance of spending any more money! Both must happen, though, and when they do, you'll see it here. Till then, push and prod me and maybe I'll get around to both.

Before pictures

2008-09-08T22:31:00.003-05:00

On demand, here are some more pictures of the house when I bought it and just before the renovation (not much difference except some cleanup over the two years I was procrastinating...).

1. Curb appeal! February 2006:

2. The front entry. The front walk actually looks better here than it does now; it's basically a big trench full of tree roots. Early 2008:

3. Love the indoor/outdoor access to the backyard. Not. Spring 2008:

Signing off (almost).

2008-09-07T12:54:00.003-05:00

I'm almost all done. Tuesday the Kiwis will come by to go over the site, make a list of anything left to do, etc.

I've been painting a lot--not done yet! It's amazing how long it takes. I've been listening to Reading Lolita in Tehran while I paint; so I'm always going to associate my French doors with stories of bombings and Henry James novels in Tehran in the 1980s. My washer/dryer arrive tomorrow & I finally have the name of a reliable fence person.

This morning, I sat on the deck, drank my coffee, and read the paper and couldn't believe how perfect it was. Finally, I have a house that interacts with the outdoors and will allow me to live the way I want. Yay!

Eventually I'll probably mount one final post with photos of the final elements--pantry, front walk, fence, but for now I'm signing off until future notice. Till then, thanks for reading.

--Molly

Pantry in progress...

2008-09-02T22:27:00.006-05:00

This weekend I did a ton of work. I painted the pantry, put in its new floor, and did paint touch-up all throughout the interior of the house, repainting most of the kitchen in the process. I bought the washer-dryer and even scouted pantry storage at Ikea. Whew! Here's what the pantry floor looks like, in progress and after. It's fake wood, which I am against in principle, but it was the best option and it will look really great once the trim is painted.

Here's the old floor with the first few strips of new floor. It is waterproof and sticks to itself, rather than to the floor beneath, which seemed to be the best option considering the grossness of my old vinyl. The blue on the vinyl is a leveling compound to keep the embossing from showing through on he new floor. But it was really hard to apply on a 95-degree day with the doors open (I'd rather ventilate than get cancer). It was drying really fast, which created bumps and streaks, so I don't know if it was even worth trying. The back door used to be straight ahead:

It was pretty fun to install actually. I got to use my quilter's cutting pad and be really anal about trimming the pieces to fit. The Kiwis installed baseboard this morning while they were here doing a few final tidbits of work:

Ta da! To give you a sense of the pantry, it's 7 feet across and almost six feet deep. I think I'm going to get a Costco membership, finally.

The end is nigh...

2008-08-29T22:08:00.007-05:00

Things are winding up; from now on it's me painting the interior, buying a washer/dryer, installing shelving in the pantry, and hiring a fence company. Oh, and paying the Kiwis one more big huge check. The electricians put in the various fixtures today & the Kiwis put up various other bits of hardware. Here's the porch. Now all it needs is a big potted plant and a bench. Home sweet home!:

OK, wait a minute. I believe it is officially time for a before/after comparison. See the realtor's lock box on the door in the picture below? That's February 2006. Note, too, that directly behind me was a walled-in screen door to the outside:

Paint, porch, deck railings, oh my!

2008-08-27T07:46:00.004-05:00

I absolutely adore the paint colors! I've been walking around giggling this morning because I still can't believe this is my house:

The colors are Sherwin Williams: Shagreen on the walls with Restoration Ivory trim and River Rock sashes. I haven't seen a single house in Austin with a similar paint combination in my months of obsessive paint-color stalking. It is actually a bit washed out in the photographs--the green is really bright. I was worried that the cream would be too acid, but it looks absolutely perfect! Check out the beautiful "columns" around the front porch, which perfectly mimic the picture I drew for the Kiwis before I left. Also, the brand new Ipe wood porch (sustainable and termite- and water-resistant, and it turns out, also used on my sister's front porch in Seattle!):

The deck railing also went in. I think it looks really gorgeous. Putting the rails in pairs gives it a bit of character:

The deck underpinning is almost installed. It's made of hogwire, a really great material used a lot around Austin. It looks a bit busy right now with the railing and the underpinning, but my hope is that I will be able to train vines on the underpinning so that the entire underside of the deck is made of greenery:

Is the suspense killing you yet?

2008-08-26T22:56:00.004-05:00

OK, so you're all waiting very patiently. Hilary and Sidney, you two get gold stars for extra enthusiasm!

All the blame rests on the shoulders of the SuperShuttle driver, who decided to bypass my house and drop off some other guy first even though my house was closer, which means I didn't get home until after dark, so no pictures. But as far as I can tell the paint looks gorgeous, the front porch is lovely, and the railings on the back deck are fabulous!

Final touches before the paint...

2008-08-20T21:06:00.004-05:00

I had to finalize my paint colors today. TRAUMA! I am the worst decider ever, but whether I like it or not, I am, in fact, the decider. Sigh. OK, but no matter what, it's going to look beautiful in this dappled light:

Notice that those windows have trim! The house is almost entirely trimmed out in preparation for the painters. Today they came and scraped the windows in preparation of reglazing most of them (big job). They also powerwashed the soffits and fascia. That was, um, exciting. Note the nice new soffit and fascia on the laundry room, not to mention the wide-open doors from the other day when the temperature dropped down to the 80s after a rainstorm. I can't believe my house ever didn't have a deck here:

The windows all have trim. The faux columns on the edges of the front porch and the Ipe porch floor will be done in the next three or four days!! Updates will begin again next Wednesday. Thanks for reading!:

Not much to report...

2008-08-19T21:35:00.002-05:00

Hi there! Things are slow in the photograph department; not many changes while we were waiting for the stucco to dry and then waiting for the rain to stop. And I've been swamped at work. But progress is being made! More pictures soon.

And so on...

2008-08-14T20:24:00.000-05:00

It just keeps getting better. Is this really my house??:

Fabulous progress: foundation skirting

2008-08-13T18:58:00.005-05:00

The skirting guys finally showed up and got started around 9:30. When I got home from work, they were still working and will continue for a while to get the first layer of stucco installed. Take a look:

They begin with Tyvek, which they then cover with a metal mesh:

They mix up the concrete and slather it on:

Tomorrow they will come back and cut out the vents and put a finish layer on top.

The deck now has stairs, and I felt like the queen of the castle standing up on it for the first time, surveying my (trashed) domain:

Deck continued...

2008-08-13T08:51:00.006-05:00

Things are moving along! The deck is almost done, except for the railings. As you may be able to see, there is mulch spread underneath for the benefit of the live oak. I hope that by tonight there will be stairs and hardware on the door so I can sit outside and read my book. I love the way the tree bows down over the deck:

I am very glad to see the stone walls on either side of the walkway begin to disappear. They may seem charming, but they chop up the yard and make it hard to walk around--and really hard to move the lawnmower!:

Here's the corner where I hope to put a rainwater collection barrel! I hope it works out; it could provide a good deal of the irrigation for all the plantings that will eventually soften the deck:

Today the foundation skirting guys start work. At least, I think they are coming because they delivered all their equipment to my carport last night. It's 9:00 and nobody is here yet....An unusually leisurely Wednesday morning for me so far!

Deck framed; tree saga part II

2008-08-09T14:29:00.006-05:00

The deck is now framed! The posts are cedar, and the parts of frame that won't be seen are pressure-treated pine. The decking and railings will be cedar. The posts are a lot taller than they will be when the deck is done. That's primer on the French doors:

The Kiwis used the old 4-inch thick pavers from the front walk as the "pads" on which the deck is floated. They're really good about reusing materials. You can see the board just under the frame that delineates the 12' long staircase here:

Speaking of the front walk, the tree folks came on Friday to excavate around the tree so the foundation guys can get in legally to remove and replace the skirting on Monday. They used a powerful air "shovel" that does not cut the roots, and excavated around the tree the necessary distance for the foundation guys, but also went all the way around the tree to excavate its root crown for the tree's benefit.

First of all, here's a picture of what was up against the foundation skirting underground--a big mass of roots (the black paint is wound paint for all the cut roots). The tree guys' supervisor had to come by to give them permission to remove it. Double click on the picture to see it larger. Sorry about the glare:

After they removed that big mass of roots, the last piece of remaining asbestos was revealed! Hooray! As you can see, the tree has a beautiful base, which had been covered over decades with layer after layer of decomposing leaf matter that became soil. The root crown should be exposed like this for the long-term health of the tree:

You can really see the soil line in this next picture. I don't know if you can tell, but the root crown was buried about 12 inches underground!

The most important result of this all is that I'm going to have to put in a new front walk. The old one heads directly for what will now be exposed tree roots. I will also regrade the soil around the tree so it slopes gently to the new soil level at the base of the tree. This is the only unplanned expense so far in this project--the house has been blessedly on budget. This will be a very expensive project but worth it. The tree is a huge part of the house's value (more so even now that it has an elegant base!). I must graciously bow to the old tree and serve it well, for it's been around a lot longer than I have, and if I treat it well, hopefully it will outlive me too.

Doors, new window frame, more siding!

2008-08-05T19:34:00.005-05:00

Check it out! No more back old back door. Or washer/dryer (Janine, I'll be coming over to borrow yours. Thought you might like to know!):

Without the door and the railing, it almost looks like there's never been a door there (well, if you ignore the big staircase). Ta-da!:

I came home today to the most beautiful sight I could ask for. The old rotted window has been replaced:

Having trouble remembering it?:

The Kiwis also sided the rest of the front of the house:

And they started putting caps on corners. It's starting to look like a real house!:

Now you can leave a comment easily!

2008-08-03T09:51:00.003-05:00

Dear friends, I had no idea until this morning that you needed to register to leave a comment on my blog. Oops! I've reset it so that anyone can post without needing to do anything (except verify that you are an actual human, and not a spam machine, by typing a word that appears on the screen before you post).

Sorry about that! Please do post a comment if you are so inclined. You know I love feedback.

Front door; paint colors

2008-08-01T22:18:00.008-05:00

The front door is in & the porch is mostly sided now. I'm going to stain the front door--how on earth can I cover that with paint?:

Now I'm contemplating paint colors. Here are four possible schemes, painted on the shed. I've laid them out one by one below after this introductory picture, in the order going from left to right. Please pick your favorite. The colors don't really come across accurately on the computer screen, of course...

Each option is in the following order from left to right: window sashes, window trim, walls. The sashes are very dark in the manner of lots of traditional cottages I've looked at; the dark color will contrast with the white shades inside the house so you can really see the six over six window detail, which you really can't right now; the white sashes disappear on the house right now.

#1: Green walls, light green trim (looks more like cream here) and teal sashing

#2 Same walls and trim but with a bluer version of the teal sashing. It's my current favorite:

#3 A subdued "agave" blue with cream trim and off-black sashing:

#4 A lighter blue wall with the same trim & sashing (see group picture for a sense of how different these blues really are):

French doors are in and fabulous

2008-07-31T21:16:00.004-05:00

Doors! Porches! Skirting! Oh my!

2008-07-30T15:34:00.008-05:00

Today I left chocolate chip cookies for the Kiwis. I figure they'll be more amenable to my endless questions and opinions if they are drugged.

We talked about the edge of the deck...extensively. "Why oh why," I imagine them wondering, "does this woman care so much about every detail?? What kind of freak architecture nazi did we decide to work with??" But they listen and then beautifully execute what we've discussed. Bravo!

We also discussed the foundation skirting (also known as an "underpinning," it hides the underside of the house, which is mounted on what's called a pier and beam foundation, very common in this region), which had been a bit of a point of contention last week, when they were trying to convince me to make it out of Hardie, which I just wasn't thrilled with. I wanted the more standard Texas skirting, which is a wire mesh covered with stucco. The Kiwis were convinced that would be way too expensive, but I pushed them and they agreed to talk to a skirting specialist. Good news! I can get the stucco skirting for about the same price. I'm learning that it's worth it to be pushy when something feels wrong (and then make cookies).

Take a look at the beautiful work they did yesterday. Here, the new fascia and soffits around the old bathroom popout were installed:

Siding was added to part of the front of the house, and on the side of the house some of the water table was installed. That's the white lip under the siding, which creates a barrier that prevents rain from getting in between the siding and the skirting. It also adds beauty to the house:

The Kiwis had to do some rigging with the siding in the front. Over the decades the house has been very sloooooowly lifted by the tree roots, and if you stand directly in front of the window at the right in the photo and look carefully, you see that the roofline and the window bow. Because the oak grows so slowly, there is no danger to the house's structural integrity (a statement made before I bought the house by the house inspector, and confirmed by the Kiwis this morning). They carefully installed the siding to create an optical illusion that hides the bowing. The quilter in me loves that!

Today they made further progress. First of all, the doors arrived this morning!:

The remainder of the old front porch is gone and new framing went in. And the porch was mostly sided. Wow, it looks really different; much calmer and more elegant:

Oy. That picture's making me seasick. Here's a calmer one.

That's it! See you next time.

Soffit vents, eaves, and the porch

2008-07-28T19:42:00.007-05:00

Have I mentioned the extreme heat this summer? It is 7:45 pm right now as I write and it's still 97! I just sat outside for a half hour reading and almost fell asleep; the heat was wrapped around me like a blanket, accompanied by a soft breeze. Goodness knows how the Kiwis work through the day. Speaking of heat, today vents were cut into the soffits--very important for cooling the attic in the summer! My roof is a hip roof, without gables, which is where many roofs are vented. These new vents should help my energy efficiency:

Also, the old gappy front porch floor started to disappear, and the windows were framed in:

Finally, the overhang over the old back door was removed, and the rotten fascia also removed, to be replaced:

That's it! Come back tomorrow for more.

Dad is a superstar!

2008-07-27T20:28:00.003-05:00

Dad took this picture and sent it to me after seeing my last post. It's exactly what I was thinking about, vines and all. How did he do that?:

Whole hog deckishness

2008-07-27T15:49:00.004-05:00

Hilary and her mom Lee convinced me that I'm crazy not to go with deck design #2, so I can have wonderful outdoor get-togethers on a nice big deck right outside the kitchen. Okay, okay, they're totally right.

So if I'm going for this whole deck thing, then I want a really cool railing. I like baluster style railings that are made of slats. I can't find a picture of what I want exactly, but here are some things that look a bit like what I'm looking for. Imagine these kinds of slatted railings, but with alternating thicker and thinner slats with a good deal of space between them:

Picture something a bit like this but not quite as skinny, and without the costly carvings of course:

The back of this porch swing also has the feel of slats that I like:

And if I was a millionaire, how cool would this be?

All feedback is appreciated!

Deck designs

2008-07-27T13:59:00.007-05:00

I need some feedback on the deck. My key limitation is that the deck must cover the original staircase and landing. But I want to make sure that you can't tell that there used to be a back door in the laundry room, and I also don't want my backyard to be dominated by the deck. I don't want to put a pergola over the deck because it will block the view of the oak tree.

I think the real problem is that, well, I don't like decks. I like porches and patios, but I don't like decks. They are too...modern? Not too modernist, too modern. They haven't been around for very long in architectural history as far as I know, and that makes me suspicious somehow, I guess. But I need some kind of structure to be a link between the house and the yard, and I certainly can't afford a raised stone patio, so I need a deck.

Here are two potential designs. The first is plain and open and is composed mostly of stairs. The deck becomes a landing only, with enough room for two small seats and lots of planters if I want. It is very minimalist in design and does not disrupt the view, but I worry that it's going to look like a massive staircase and overwhelm everything else with its proportions:

The second option is much more traditional, and is much larger to include space for a table for four to the right of the door. It disrupts the view, but makes the deck a living space. But I don't know if I want the deck to be a living space, or just a place to perch on the way out to the yard:

Here are two photos that show what the space currently looks like. The hose marks the edge of the staircase in the first design. I crammed up the deck space with stuff to get a feel for it:

The stone walls along the path, and in front of the oak, will be gone. The space at the left of this photo, just left of the railing (where there will still be a railing), is where I hope my rainwater collection barrel will go.

Building codes are a buzzkill: deck railings

2008-07-27T00:09:00.006-05:00

This weekend I have to design my deck. It turns out my deck has to have railings. I hate railings; they clutter things up and ruin the view, and most standard designs are really ugly, imho. I had assumed I would be able to have benches on the edge of my deck, in place of railings. Alas, no. Apparently anything that a child could possibly climb in any imaginable situation is not up to code, including the sparest of railings, the metal cable railings like the one below, which are frankly the only kind of railing I would have even deigned to consider before yesterday:

So my deck is going to have a much more enclosed feeling than I want it to.I'm rethinking the whole concept. Drat!

I cheerily went about all sorts of fun house-related errands today: I made some headway with paint colors and finally bought a set of cheap but pretty house numbers, a mailbox, and the cutest little light fixtures for the back entry at Lowe's. I love it when the item I like best is also cheap!

More siding...

2008-07-25T21:31:00.006-05:00

It's Friday! That means I'll probably actually get some sleep in the next two days. Actually, the reason I'll sleep is that Mary Alice came by after work today to admire the house with me and as usual we had a great long conversation which involved me drinking a lot of red wine (two whole glasses, which means I'm just a little loopy right now). So here's what we were admiring:

Check it out! A whole side of siding! There's also a new sill on that rotted window I told you about the other day:

And the two weird closed-up windows on the front porch have been partially framed in:

This weekend I need to figure out what my deck is going to look like (ack!). And I need to make some salad and a iced tea to take to a picnic with friends at a local production of Beauty and the Beats in Zilker park. Perfect Austin summer event!

Zen and the Art of Home Remodeling

2008-07-24T19:55:00.003-05:00

It rained a lot today, but when I came home from work there was more new siding. I'm really starting to feel the change. The house is starting to feel like my house, like a house I will actually feel at home in:

The window in the laundry room is no more! It is now a solid wall in what will soon be my laundry room/pantry. Some day it will be covered with narrow shelves holding canned goods. Note the line where the siding stops under the kitchen window. That will be the edge of the french doors:

I have been trying to not think about the remodeling project incessantly. Good idea, huh? Because when I think too much I worry about every possible thing that could go wrong. When I don't think too much, I do things like find myself sitting at the kitchen table looking out the window with my chin on the sill, admiring my new laundry room wall. Then pretty soon I'm all zoned out staring at the oak and listening to the birds and not thinking at all. Which is what I found myself doing about an hour ago.

This is a big deal because I have a very hard time not thinking these days. Ever since I moved to Texas my life has been all about figuring out how to live in Texas, how to be a librarian (sort of), how to live 2,000 miles away from my family, and how to own a house. Now I know how to live in Texas (walk slower in the heat, eat lots of tacos, go swimming in Barton Springs, and take road trips to weird, cool little towns), and sort of know how to be a librarian (I know what words like metadata, MARC, collation, accession, and authority mean, and use them with gusto), and, well, I'll never learn how to live far away from my family, but that's OK. As for the house, I've spent the most time worrying about that, because I've thought every day about how it's being suffocated by its siding, and what other horrible things could be going on under there, and how I'm being suffocated by the dark screens, peeling windows, ugly colors, and lack of doorways that guide one smoothly into the natural world, and how vulnerable I feel without a private back yard that is free of imaginary prowler and offers me a quiet place to read, commune with the butterflies, and watch plants grow.

When I regained consciousness after gazing at my oak for a long while I realized that pretty soon I'll be looking out a big glass door at the tree, or better yet, sitting on the deck underneath it looking up at the sky. I felt very relaxed and lucky.

The irony is that of course the last 2 weeks have been incredibly stressful! Several days I have woken up at 4 am and been unable to get back to sleep. When I get really anxious my throat closes up tight gets scratchy like I'm having an allergic reaction. It has been like that almost constantly since the project started, until finally yesterday I realized that I can't worry about what is happening with the house. The Kiwis know what they are doing, and I have to just let them do it! In the first three days or so I pretty much asked them about every little mini-project I needed to make sure they would do. And I gave them each a copy of a really neurotic list of everything I can possibly imagine they need to remember. So really, at this point, I'm useless except when it comes to moving things out of the way and, well, staying out of the way.

So when, today, I watched the skies open up outside my office window, and started picturing the rain pouring down on my exposed (but Tyvek-covered) walls, and my throat started to close up, I stopped myself and thought, is it really going to do me any good to worry about what the rain will do to the house? No. Everything will be fine. People have sided houses for a long time, and rain has fallen for a long time, and these two things have happened at the same time, many times. And pretty soon, rain or shine, my house will be my home!

Hello Dolly! Now go away.

2008-07-23T20:36:00.002-05:00

Things are moving along--not much new to report, though, because we had some rain today, probably thanks to Hurricane Dolly. So the Kiwis stopped early. See you tomorrow!

Renovation Prescription Drugs

2008-07-21T20:32:00.004-05:00

Malt balls.

Extra Rich Light Mint Chip.

Good news: windows and siding.

2008-07-21T19:23:00.008-05:00

I met with the Kiwis this morning to go over our lists, to meet with their favorite window seller, and to write a big fat check. I survived all three events!

First the window guy. He (the window SALESMAN, remember), explained with great detail to the Kiwis how he would go about saving my windows if he was them. Here's the bay in question:

He completely understood my passion for this character-filled bay and my complete, um, lack of passion for this particular energy efficiency problem. In ten years, I'll replace all the windows in the house. For now, I really want to enjoy them. He and the Kiwis discussed how to replace the termite damaged wood (squeamish visitors don't look at this photo):

I kinda want to bake the guy a batch of cookies and deliver them to his office; he wouldn't take a consulting payment even though he spent about 30 minutes of his morning at the house. And saved me money!

Next up, the siding arrived in a big red truck. Even cooler was the little trucklet hooked on the back of the big red truck, which delivered the Hardie right to the front walkway. My nephew Quinn would have liked watching this even more than I did. That's the Kiwis looking on:

I left the Kiwis to start siding and headed off to work. After work, I stopped off to pick up all the fancy new door hardware I ordered. When I got home, I could see what a good choice the smooth, 4" exposure Hardie was! I am so excited. It looks gorgeous.

House Number Heaven

2008-07-19T10:24:00.002-05:00

Take your pick at housenumberconnection.com, the coolest house number resource I've found yet. Leave your choice in the comment box! (Disclosure: I'll probably *really* end up getting the cheap ones at Lowes...)

The arborist, or, how I'm officially a goody-goody.

2008-07-18T22:33:00.006-05:00

I now understand that my main job (besides writing checks so large I want to faint) is to make lists. I'm becoming relatively organized relatively quickly. The job started so quickly, I haven't had time to catch my breath!

This morning was all about wood. First, we looked at all the termite damage, and there's only one window that *may* not be salvageable. That's pretty great news! Then it was time for the arborist. I wanted to be sure I didn't harm my two live oaks.

The first thing the arborist told me was that my project is in violation of city code. Yipes! I'm such a goody goody; you know, the straight-A junior high girl I've never stopped being. I was so horrified! I thought I was being such a responsible tree owner calling the arborist, but it turns out that this opened up a whole can of worms and ridiculously expensive remediations. I don't think anyone else actually follows the city code, but I'm going to.

The violation was this: I wasn't supposed to dig more than 4 inches below the grade anywhere around a tree that is more than 19 inches in diameter without going through a review process with the city of Austin Watershed Protection folks. Below 4 inches and I might expose my tree to Oak Wilt (terrible, horrible, no good, very bad killer). Oak Wilt was the reason I had called the tree guy in the first place, but before he got here the contractors had dug a trench along the base of the foundation about 8 inches deep in order to reveal all the wood skirting that needs to be removed. Oops.

I need to spend $25 to have the city approve my renovation, and they likely won't give me a citation for my error, since it's a completely necessary renovation. But from now on I need arborist dirt diggers to HAND DIG anywhere near the tree. It'll take 2 of these artistan diggers 3 hours to do all the digging they need to do to and don't even THINK of asking how much they charge. They'll also use an air tool (rather than a shovel, which can cut big gashes in things) to remove large quantities of soil around the building area and all around the base of the tree, which has, over the years, had too much of its base covered in soil. After that, I'll have a landscaper help me figure out how to maintain this new grading.

By the end of the hour the arborist and I had totally bonded over my live oaks and our respective California transplant stories, and he was giving me great advice about all sorts of things. My favorite piece of advice was that when I put my deck in, I should lay 3 inches of wood chip mulch under it, which over the years will deteriorate and provide essential nitrogen to the live oak's roots, which otherwise would be nitrogen deprived due to the deck. I had been wondering about that.

This weekend, I'm hoping to test my paint colors and shop for some light fixtures and a mailbox. Next time: myths about insulation.

--Molly

Mmmm...wood is yummy!

2008-07-17T22:35:00.008-05:00

Today the Kiwis removed the rest of the siding. Who are the Kiwis, you ask? My great pair of contractors with the fab New Zealand accents. I like them a lot. They seem to handle my oddities well, which says a lot.

So here's the update. Most of the house look great (that is, what I can see around the edges of the Tyvek). Here's the side that faces the street:

Here's the front porch stripped. See how lovely the wood looks! Great condition, perfect for siding:

The back of the house likewise looks great. The concrete foundation skirting you are seeing is only on the laundry room. Hilary and I had fun testing a bunch of paint colors on the house last week; all our test samples except the fuschia & red are gone with the siding. The door will turn into a wall and the stairs will be covered with a deck. Bye, bye! The smallish window just to the right will be replaced with french doors:

For the most part, the house seems to be in good shape. Windows, as expected, are the biggest issue. The bay of three windows at the front of the house is very badly damaged by termites. No shock there; I knew about that damage from the beginning. The bathroom window, likewise, has quite a bit of rot around it, which isn't a suprise. The wood foundation skirting that is sunk more than six inches under the ground is, of course, in awful shape and is one of the most important reasons to undertake this residing project. Texas weather means that wood should never touch the ground. The workers dug out this lovely view, under the termite-eaten window:

Blech. Finally, there was one really nasty surprise--so nasty I couldn't help but just laugh at it! Who knew that there was a major party going on some time in the past underneath one of the living room windows? The Kiwis left it open for me to see:

Yipes! Actually, this isn't so bad (at least that's what the optimist in me says). The sheathing can be replaced, and I'm removing a window of this exact size in very good condition from the laundry room. I'll suggest to the Kiwis that we swap them out. I'll let you know what they say. It's such a relief to have everything exposed so I can fix it. Happy house!

That's all for today.

--Molly

Getting Started!

2008-07-16T19:18:00.006-05:00

Just two days in, my exterior seems utterly transformed. It's exciting and scary. I expect the project to be completed in about a month (ok, you can laugh now). Comments, encouragement and opinions are welcome!!

The renovation will include the following projects:
1. remove vinyl and asbestos siding, soffits, etc.
2. frame in laundry room window and door
3, create a new back exit from kitchen with french doors
4. reside the house
5. trim out a newly stylish front porch
6. add a deck off the back
7. surround the back yard with a privacy fence
8. replace the shed (maybe) and shape up the carport
9. Gut and replace the kitchen (NOT part of the current plan, but hopefully up soon!)
Here's the front of the house BEFORE:

Two days ago the contractors came by to take a peek under the siding:

As you can see, the vinyl covers asbestos shingles. Underneath are gorgeous wood windows and good, solid wood planks that hold the asbestos. The following detail shot shows you the planks, which will hold the Hardie Plank siding well. They are smooth and flat, which is important because Hardie is so straight that it shows flaws underneath. Don't miss the cute ripply edge of the old asbestos siding! Why oh why do people install vinyl?

Today when I got home from work, half of the house had had its siding removed! The Tyvek is just temporary, protecting the house in case it rains (yeah, right; we would do anything for rain right now!). Check out the windows, released from their ugly screens, and the big porch. The gutters are gone, and underneath the aluminum soffits, the wood soffits coverinf the underside of the eaves seems to be in really good condition:

OK, that's all for today. There is some rot here and there (as expected) but I'm so pleased that this project is actually underway. There's no going back! Please send good renovation karma.

--Molly