We are making the opening of the closet larger. The closet is long and very narrow. Enlarging the closet opening will make the closet more functional by providing easier access. We are also going to get really modern and install lighting in the closet. Ha!

The cement board, which goes underneath the tile, is mostly installed. All of the fixtures, lights and hardware have arrived with one major exception, our bathtub! It is 3 weeks late due to a bottleneck at the warehouse. Frustrating!

The Douglas fir wood floors are installed.

There is a light in the bathroom (but no toilet yet).

The bathroom sconce from Restoration Hardware.

The back porch light. The shade was an eBay find. Who wouldn’t want a parrot light on their back porch?

The light in the area for the washer and dryer is 6.5″ off center. How does stuff like that happen? No, we’re not going to leave it like that.

This is one of the most frustrating things about the back porch remodel. The plumber and I didn’t see eye to eye on where the washer and dryer hook-up should be placed. After arguing with him that it should be on the back wall under the window, the plumber installed the hook-up where he thought it should go anyway. I wanted the water lines moved but the plumber convinved me that where he had placed the lines would still work.

Even though I knew things weren’t the way I wanted, in that moment, I felt worn down and to my regret, I said ok.

What’s been happening at 1912 Bungalow? We are still on hiatus but have managed to accomplish a few things here and there.

Front Porch Swing
We finally painted and assembled the front porch swing I purchased
almost 2 years ago!

All it took was drilling a couple of holes…

screwing in the hardware…

attaching the chains and adding the seat cushion…

and we were swinging!

Getting All Martha Stewart on Your Ass
I must have been channeling Martha when I decided to take some garden stakes, bamboo and twine to create a “living” doghouse. We felt that Simon in particuliar would enjoy a doghouse but didn’t have any extra money to invest in one right now.

I planted vines at the four corners of the doghouse. The plan is for these vines to fill in and cover the doghouse.

Simon doesn’t seem to mind his lack of privacy.

The walls of the den are being plastered.

So much better than before!

This wall and the ceiling will be drywalled with a skim coat of plaster over it.

Juan worked a miracle on our walls. He replastered them and we’re very happy with how they turned out. It is such a relief from the way the plaster walls looked before.

These pictures were taken yesterday while the walls were drying. The areas that look a little yellow are areas that haven’t completely dried. They did a final skim coat of plaster on the walls today. They also started on the ceiling.

Progress is being made on our living room again. Juan and his team are back after taking 2 weeks off for the holidays. David and I had planned on doing some work in there, like removing wallpaper, while Juan was away.

Ok, actually I planned and was going to tell David about it later but never got motivated. I just avoided that room and even started using the back door so I wouldn’t have to walk through the living room and feel guilty. Bad, homeowner. Bad!

Look at all those cracks around the pocket doors!

It was probably for the best. Once the wallpaper came off we discovered the plaster walls are badly damaged. It would have made for a depressing New Year.

Detailed view of the damage to the plaster walls.

Plaster walls around the gentleman caller’s bench. That piece of wood is holding the plaster in place. The plaster has separated from the lath.

I’m not sure if you can see it in this photo, but there are several long cracks running through the plaster over the fireplace.

Please, excuse me while I cry…

Our douglas fir woodwork was been bleached with a wood and furniture bleaching agent to even out the wood grain. The bleach is brushed on, left over night and then washed off with water.

Woodwork after the bleaching

After the woodwork dries, stain is applied and then sealed with varnish. Read more about this process.

First coat of stain

We were trying to match the color of the woodwork in our dining room. The dining room, which is open to the living room, was worked on last spring. The stained living room woodwork matched the dining room almost exactly until the varnish was applied.

Layers of stain were applied to reach the desired color

After the varnish was added, the woodwork turned a different shade. The color is a deeper, richer red color, which I actually prefer. The woodwork in the dining room looks more yellow by comparison.

The color of the wood has turned redder after the varnish was applied

You only notice the difference in the color if you are a hypercritical homeowner and are standing in the dining room, looking into the living room. It’s not apparent from the living room looking into the dining room.

We are going to live with the difference since the only other option, stripping off the finish and starting over, really isn’t an option that I want to even imagine considering. The walls are primed and if we can decide on the exact color of yellow gold, they will be painted tomorrow.

When we purchased our house we also become the proud owners of
one yard plant.

Exhibit A) This is one of the earliest photos of our new-to-us house.
When I look at the asbestos siding, vinyl windows, less than stellar
paint job and collapsing front porch I have to wonder, “WHAT were
we thinking?! Why did we agree to pay the full asking price?”
Oh, that’s right, we live in Los Angeles…

The photo captures the lone plant that came with our house (outlined
in pink). I had brought over some pink azaleas and a hanging plant
from our apartment, not that they made a big improvement.

Exhibit B) This is our house today. Boy, what a difference some
paint, our life savings and a few plants can make! I am training a
passion vine to grow up over the open beams at the end of the
porch.

I have been completely surprised by these $3.99 climbing roses
from Home Depot. I was never a “rose person” and probably
wouldn’t have picked these up if they hadn’t been priced to sell
on triple mark down. I’m now a full fledged rose convert.

I wish I knew the name of this yellow rose. The blooms are huge!

This nameless pink rose is starting to intertwine with the purple
flowered passion vine. The result should be lovely.

My solution to our ugly, rusting chain-link fence until we can
afford to replace it. This vine was also on sale at Home Depot.

Living Doghouse Update
I think I might be building another one of these houses very soon!
They are fighting over who gets to sit inside.

Guess who won?

The star jasmine is starting to fill in on the back of the dog house.

Hmmmmmm, this may just be a fluke…
Or, maybe I’m getting into the “working on the house again” mood?
The other day I found myself standing on my office chair picking loose
wallpaper off the ceiling with a nail file while talking on the phone. The
chair is on castors so I would talk, pick the ceiling, pull down the loose
wallpaper and roll along to the next spot of loose wallpaper.

Talk, pick and roll…talk, pick and roll…

Not until I had rolled myself to the other side of the room and saw the
trail of destruction behind me did I pause to wonder what I was doing?
I slowly sat down in the chair and gently laid the nail file down.

Later in the day I complained to David about how our pocket doors
aren’t completely flush with the wall when they are open. They stick
out a few inches from the wall and that has always bothered me.

David and I took the doors out and cleaned all the loose debris
and 93 years worth of dirt blocking their tracks. The doors are
now completely hidden in the wall.

I found a harmonica inside the crevice that holds the pocket door.
It matches one I found in the wall of the other pocket door last year.

Twin boys, the grandsons of our home’s original owner, grew up
in this house. Was this some sort of mischief on their part or
are harmonicas in the wall some type of symbol for good luck,
like a horse shoe?

Our house has never had a shower and now we don’t have a tub. Oh, the dreaded phase of our project! I have not been looking forward to it. This is one way to get me to the gym…if not to work out, at least to shower.

The old tub is solid cast iron so we expected it to be heavy, just not 500 lbs heavy! Actually, we have no way of knowing how much the tub really weighs. But, it took 4 big, strong guys to move the tub. They claimed it felt like 500-600 lbs.

The closet doors are now installed.

All the woodwork has been primed {sorry!}. We received some encouragement to go the next step, leave the wood natural and stain it. I hate to disappoint anyone, but we learned our lesson about staining woodwork that was originally painted when we restored the hallway.

It took 4-5 guys to carry the tub down a very narrow stairway. It was slow going with lots of stops and false starts. I looked on and just hoped that the steps were strong enough to hold. They were. The tub made it down without incident.

The cat, who we call the project supervisor because he likes to oversee all the work, wanted no part of moving the tub and for once was nowhere to be found. Smart cat.

The tub, old sink and toilet were given to a friend of a friend who used them in their own bathroom remodel project.

And I thought our kitchen couldn’t get any worse! The ceiling had to be opened to update the bathroom plumbing. We are adding additional support and reinforcing the ceiling beams underneath the tub. Although, our new tub will weigh less than half of what the old tub weighed, better to be safe then sorry.

Update: The other site took down my article and photos this morning. Thank you to everyone who contacted them on our behalf!

Taking photos and content from my website without my consent or prior approval and posting them on your sham of a site, created for the sole purpose of generating Google ad dollars, is not appreciated. It is called stealing, but I’m sure you are already aware of that. You probably don’t care that it takes me a good amount of time to photograph and write the content on this blog.

My original article         Stolen article {they have taken it down}

Did you ever think that those ad dollars that you are earning off of my work would be better spent lining my pockets? Have you seen my house???? The next time you are on this site to pilfer content please click on an ad or two, we could really use the money. We promise to put it towards remodeling our kitchen.

Yes, we are using part of a wooden crate to cover up a big hole in our ceiling. Yes, I did use duct tape to tape over a huge hole in the wall.

We are frequently asked lots of questions about what we’re doing, how we are doing it, why we are doing it, and if we would do things differently. Here are the answers!

1. What did you use to strip your woodwork?
This is the question we are most frequently asked and here is the answer folks: Master Strip, Formula A Remover sold in 5 gallon drums from the McBride Company (Los Angeles, CA 818.507.8900) is our weapon of choice. Be sure to wear a respirator and to have good ventilation because this stuff is toxic.

Read more about the paint stripping process. There are lots of other approaches out there (and we’ve probably tried a lot of them) but this is what works best for us.

2. Can you recommend a contractor?
I’d be happy to! We have a long standing relationship with Juan Reyes, owner of J & C Home Repair. Juan is a true craftsman. He has done a lot of work on our house and we are extremely happy with the results. Juan does plastering, interior and exterior painting, drywall, carpentry, and wood conditioning and refinishing. ph: 626.793.7091

For full disclosure, we have heard back from one person who had a negative experience with Juan. I have given his number out to tons of people over the years and have only heard one complaint. Several people were so happy that they emailed me photos of the work Juan did at their houses. We have known Juan for years and never had a bad experience. I feel comfortable leaving him in my house when I am not home. I think that says a lot.

Feel free to mention our names. Please know we do not get any type of discount or kickback for recommending him. We would never do that.

Note: It is always a wise idea to interview and get bids from at least 3 contractors for any job.

3. How much have you spent on the restoration so far?
My own friends and family don’t even ask me that! Although my gut reaction is “none of your business” inquiring minds must want to know because we are asked this often. Giving the benefit of the doubt, I’ll assume people want to know for planning purposes when they tackle their own restoration. Short answer: It ain’t cheap!

Our motto: Projects cost 3 times more than you think they will and take 2 times longer to complete.
I wish our motto was more inspiring. I need to work on that!

• New roof: $5600
• Cedar shingles on the dormers: $1800
• Asbestos abatement: $1500
• Rebuilding front porch (including taking down the brick columns and having them rebuilt): $3000
• Refinishing wood floors: $1200
• Refinishing rooms: I estimate we spent between $5000 – $8000 per room (this includes materials, electrical work, replastering, labor, any unexpected problems we run into, etc.). This doesn’t factor in the cost of eating out or picking up take out because everything in the house is covered in plaster dust, but all that adds up.
• Bathroom: $14,000 this includes all new fixtures, tile, electric, plumbing, structural changes and labor
• Tools: estimate between $1500-$2000

In order for the house sale to go through the previous owner paid for a new foundation and to hook the sewer line up to the main city line.

• New foundation: $18,000, The work was done by White Castle Construction
• Connect to the city sewer line: $10,000

4. Do you regret buying an older house that needs so much work? Should we buy one?
Original Answer: No, not at all. I appreciate all the charm and quirks of our older home. If anything, I wish we didn’t have to live in the house while we are restoring it. On the plus side, we are pushed to get projects completed.

Heh, I was so optimistic when I wrote that! My opinion has changed through the years. Don’t get me wrong, I love our house. I just had no idea what a restoration as extensive as ours would require. I would never want to do this with kids. I know people do, I am just saying I couldn’t or wouldn’t want to.

My tips for buying a fixer.

5. Hey, where do I find that?
Our Favorite DIY Resources
Bungalow Bathroom Remodel
Living Room
Dining Room
Favorite Home Improvement Books

6. What did you use to remove the paint from your fireplace?
We used a chemical stripper called Master Strip (see question 1 for more info) to remove the paint. We used vinegar to remove that final film of paint/paint haze. If your bricks fade, here is a tip to darken your brick.

7. What has been the most difficult or challenging thing you have faced during the restoration?
Every project has had difficulties and challenges for a variety of reasons. I will say living in a house that is in a constant state of construction and half finished projects can be a big challenge. It eventually wears you down. I believe people are influenced by the environment they live in, and lets face it, this environment is depressing.

8. Aren’t you scared living in the hood?
For those of you who don’t know, West Adams is located in South Central LA (we call it South LA now). Yes, this is one of the areas where the 1992 Los Angeles riots happened.

Does this affect our everyday lives? No. Are we afraid? No. Our area is urban, but many young families and couples are moving into the area. Our neighbors have been nothing but wonderful and welcoming to us.

Update: The street prostitution that has invaded our neighborhood does not make me afraid, but it does make me angry. I would like to see more of a response from our elected officials.

David says you know you live in the hood when you hear your neighborhood get a “shout out” in a rap song! People in LA often brag about being Beverly Hills adjacent. I like to say our neighborhood is ghetto-adjacent. The other day someone called our area hood-storic (instead of historic) which I thought was clever.

If you don’t see your question here, please don’t hesitate to ask. Others are probably wondering the same thing. Contact me at: heather [at] 1912bungalow [dot] com.

Last fall I had the pleasure of visiting the Ruthmere House in Elkhart, IN. I couldn’t get past the gorgeous ceiling in the foyer. I snapped the photo you see with my cell phone, but in person the ceiling is absolutely stunning. The colors and design are historically accurate to 1910.

Detail of a painted ceiling design. The colors are gorgeous!

I would love to paint something like this on our dining room ceiling.

Detail of the ceiling stencil.

The Ruthmere website has an online reproduction of the 1910 Souvenir Booklet featuring photos of the house when first opened to the public upon completion. It is fascinating to see how the home was furnished.

See photos of stained glass windows, wall murals, floor tile and more.

Update
If you enjoy touring homes, Copshaholm is located in near-by South Bend, IN. Have lunch or dinner at Tippecanoe Place. There are also two Frank Lloyd Wright homes in South Bend, although I don’t think they are open to the public. Both South Bend and Elkhart have many older, beautiful homes.

“No, NOT braless. BARless. The security bars. I want to take them off. Off the house. The security bars.” I point to the windows.

The salesman is relieved to have a place to look other than the floor. David lightly pokes me in the back and gives me his best, “I can’t believe you just said that” expression.

In my quest to live without bars on the windows, I stumbled across alarm window screens. The window screens are interwoven with detection wires. The detection wires blend in and look like normal window screens. If someone cuts the screen it will trigger the alarm. There is also a connector between the edge of the screen and the window frame causing the alarm to trip if the screen is removed. This is wired into your alarm system and can be turned off at any time (to clean the windows, etc).

I like this because, unlike our existing alarm system, an alarm will sound before an intruder has a chance to even get inside our house. Not all alarm companies are supporting this technology yet but a large number of them do.

Some companies even make the window screens with wooden frames. We may end up purchasing the alarm screens directly from a manufacturer and paying for our security company to hardwire them into our alarm system depending on how the different quotes come out.

In the mean time, David has requested that I refrain from saying “I’m going barless.”

Update
The company that we have decided to go with is:
Alarm Screens Van Nuys
7661 Densmore Ave #7
Van Nuys, CA 91406
ph: 818.901.9033

They specialize in custom burglar alarm security screens, installation, service, repair, regular screens, and window cleaning.

We had our alarm company run the wires and wire them into our alarm system. The screens are being made and should be ready in a week.

Today, Kevin from Fresh Air Environmental Services Inc. came over to look at the asbestos insulation covering our original heating ducts and register returns. His advice? Leave the asbestos alone. He assured me that as long as asbestos is well sealed in the walls it will do no harm. He felt that our asbestos was in good shape. This surprised me because it appeared to be in bad shape to me, with little tears here and there. He said once the heat duct was sealed back up in the wall that it would be nothing to worry about.

We had covered the asbestos with duct tape and he said that was fine and it would encapsulate it, although state regulations would not allow them to use duct tape. I showed him the register returns which had most concerned me because the edges had asbestos that were exposed to the room. After discovering the register vents were wrapped in asbestos on the outside, I sprayed expandable foam around the edges where the vents meet the wall to seal in the asbestos. Kevin seemed to be impressed with my solution and said that they use a lot of expandable foam on their jobs and that was a fine way to prevent exposure to asbestos.

He checked how the new register vents were connecting into the old asbestos ones and said that seemed to be ok, too. Kevin said that he felt we had nothing to worry about. He said we could remove the register vents and heat ducts if we chose to, but his recommendation was to leave everything alone. This surprised me coming from a licensed abatement contractor. I thought he would have suggested removal, if for no other reason than to make some money.

Everything that I had been reading on the internet about asbestos had scared me but Kevin pointed out that asbestos isn’t radio active, it’s not going to jump off the walls and into my lungs. Abatement humor.

We also discussed removing the asbestos shingles from the outside of our house. We will probably have Kevin back in a few months to do that.

Update
We got the lab results back today. The insulation on the heat ducts and register vents is 50 – 60% asbestos. The exterior shingles contain only 10-15% asbestos by comparison. The results are unsettling to me. Will we ever be able to encapsulate the asbestos well enough in the walls so that it does no harm? Are we being stupid by not having it removed or is removing it an unnecessary expense that could potentially release more fibers into the air during removal (even by professionals)? It makes my lungs hurt just thinking about it.

The plaster ceiling in our den has been torn down. We now have open access to easily update the electrical work, plus add some wall sockets. I guess there is always a silver lining?

Later today the plumber is coming to remove an old gas line that is coming out of the baseboard. It is capped but still live. The gas line was leaking when we first moved into the house so I am relieved to see it go. We are having the open walls and ceiling cavity sprayed with borate to prevent future termite infestations.

I have begun planning, or trying to plan, the best way to restore our kitchen. It’s a little tricky for several reasons. We have 3 doors leading into the kitchen on 3 different walls, 2 large built-in cupboards, and really no easy or inexpensive way to expand the space due to bathrooms, a stairway, plumbing and heat runs to the second story behind every wall.

On the south facing sink wall, a tile backsplash, counter and under the counter cupboards were added some time in our home’s past. They block part of the original built-in cupboards on the east and west walls.

I want to rip out the tile and MDF cupboards and plan on restoring the original built-in cupboards and having new doors made for them. The current doors are cheap MDF replacements of the originals.

I would like to have smaller cupboards on either side of a new sink to house the two modern conveniences that I am not willing to live without; a dishwasher and the microwave.

The fridge is visible from both the den and back porch, not the most attractive view. I have considered insetting a 24″ deep fridge into a wall to keep it from sticking out into the kitchen so awkwardly. The problem is a stairway on the other side of the fridge wall prevents us from insetting the fridge in its current location. Moving and insetting the fridge next to a built-in cupboard is an option but would leave us with a displaced stove.

The stove is overlapping part of the doorframe.

I am most unhappy with a large drainpipe next to the stove that has an unattractive box built around it. The original plaster wall was cut when updates needed to be made to the pipe.

There is also an equally ugly box on the ceiling hiding two water pipes. The water pipes can easily be moved inside the ceiling, so that is not a big deal.

I’m feeling a little bit at a loss and locked into our existing layout. We could remove one of the original built-in cupboards to solve some of these space issues but that really isn’t an option I’m considering. I want to keep those cupboards and I love all the storage space they provide. Is that unreasonable?

All suggestions and ideas are welcome.

Update:
Here is a link to a diagram of the kitchen.

The house color debate continues…
Hopefully, whatever color combination we choose will look a little better than in my renderings but this should give you some idea of what we are considering.

Which color do you prefer? Vote by clicking on the text below: Sorry, voting has ended.

(vote only once)

Update
We have a winner! It seems that green is the overwhelming color preference. Maybe, just maybe, we will go with the green color after all? Now, if only I can convince David…

Thanks to everyone who voted!

This month we will celebrate our 4th year in the house. What a journey this has been.

Buying The House – Are We Really Doing This?
Gee, I can’t believe we are actually going to do this. What if we want to move to another country someday, you know, like next year? Are we sure we really want to do this? 235K is a LOT of money. Oh my God, I can’t sleep.

I can’t believe we have to go through all this paperwork just to buy a house.

What happened to our house? Why does the house look so different now that we own it? It looked so much better at the open house. Why didn’t we notice that the floors are all black and the house is so dirty? Wow, just look at this place. It’s kind-of dumpy. Make that totally dumpy. I can’t breathe. I need to open a window. Oh crap, all the windows are painted shut.

First 6 months – Euphoria and Unrealistic Expectations
I can’t believe we finally have a house to call our own. I’m so happy. Oh, what a beauty it will be someday when we get it all fixed up…like in 6 months from now. Hmmmm, it does need a lot of work. Well, maybe in 8 months then. This place just needs some tender loving care.

Man, we are so busy all the time now. It is hard to stay in touch with friends and family. All this unpacking, looking at paint chips, trolling eBay for antique light fixtures, reading everything I can find on bungalows and home decorating really takes a lot of time.

How romantic that our second wedding anniversary is spent together in our own little home. I’m so lucky to have a husband who is as excited as I am about starting our very first restoration project. I love my husband. I love our house.

The Rest of the First Year – All That Glitters is not Gold
I can’t believe that David is acting so mean! Why did we even buy this house if he is going to get angry at me every time we work on it? How could I know that stripping paint would be so damn difficult? It’s not my fault that I caught the wainscoting on fire. The heat gun got super hot.

We should be able to restore the dining room in a month, six weeks tops.

2nd Year – Reality Creeps In
I can’t believe we are STILL working on the dining room. How could we have spent six months working on one room? I can’t believe I actually thought we could restore a room a month! I was so naive. We might need to get on a five year plan.

I had no idea it would be so expensive to fix up the house. How did I think we were going to be able to restore the whole house with 15K? I mean, our house needs EVERYTHING. Why does everything cost so much?

All the cashiers at Home Depot greet me by my first name. We gotta get out more. I mean to someplace fun. I can’t even remember the last time we went out to dinner or to a movie.

Wow, our house has really appreciated in value and we have only been here a year. Interest rates keep on dropping. Lets refinance and take out a Home Equity Line of Credit so we can afford to get our roof fixed and to hire some plasters.

David started a web blog about the house for me. I’m not really sure why. I mean, what could I possibly have to say?

3rd Year – Restoration Full Steam Ahead
I can’t believe how awesome these plasters are! They can do everything. They can strip paint, plaster, do carpentry work and so much more. I think I’m in love! With the money we got from the Home Equity Line of Credit we should be able to swing lots of work on the house. Everything is going so much better now.

All my free time is spent on the house. I’m trying to schedule the carpenter, plumbers, electricians, oversee all the work being done and balance the budget. It really upsets me when these people don’t show up or even bother to call to say they can’t make it. What other industry does business like that?

David is refusing to talk with me any more about what colors to paint the house. Just because I change my mind once or twice a day, and maybe I am being obsessive, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it. I need to consider all the possibilities and all he wants to focus on is the end result.

Wow. The back porch needs to be completely ripped off and rebuilt. Our little back porch project has somehow spiraled into a full-on exterior restoration. This is crazy. I don’t think we can afford this.

Good thing interest rates are still low, but everyone says they are going to rise. Lets roll our Home Equity Line of Credit into a fixed second mortgage and take a little extra cash to finish up the work on the exterior.

It’s hard to remember how horrible our house used to be. I’m feeling really good about the house. It’s so exciting to see my vision for it coming to fruition.

4th Year – Maybe We Should Sell?
I can’t believe that we have spent all this time and money and are only half way done. I hate this house and all it’s problems. I am SO over working on the house and all things house related. I will never, ever take on a restoration project this extensive again. I must have been out of my mind!

Wow, the house across the street listed for over 600K and it needs lots of work – like our house needed lots of work when we bought it. Maybe we should sell? We could travel or move to Europe.

Hmmmm, I’m getting really bored. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to do some work on the house? It was really nice of David to clean out the back hallway so I can start restoration work upstairs.

5th yr – Who knows?

Update: 9th yr…oh, why didn’t we sell the house in year 4?

We purchased an antique die cut brass Art Nouveau chandelier on eBay for a very good price because the orginal plating was heavily scratched and worn away.

We sent the chandelier to Bungalow Metal and had it replated in antique satin brass finish.

Update
It seems that Bungalow Metal is no longer in business. From some of the comments I get the impression that Bungalow Metal functioned as a middle man and that Bliss Plating, Inc. located in Portland, OR, may have actually done the work. I will try them for our next project.

David’s experience:
On Thursday of last week, the crew for the new DIY network show, “Restoration Realities” rolled into our house at 9am bringing cases of cameras, lighting equipment, audio equipment and power tools.

Our garage was transformed into a mini workshop, the back porch became the equipment staging area and our kitchen became the craft-service/break area. People whirled about setting up lights and cameras while the hosts planned out the projects and constructed the pieces needed.

We never knew how much work went into producing a show like this. Not only did they have to get the shots for the show, but off camera, they also had to do construction work. It was non-stop action that lasted till 11pm the first day, where at that point Heather and I were left with “homework” to complete for the next day.

Our job was to stain our newly constructed screen door. We stayed up till 1am completing the job and fell into bed knowing that at 7am it would all start again.

The second day proved to be even more hectic with the pressure to finish both projects (weather stripping the windows, the door and installing the new screen door) plus get all the rest of the shots done for the show.

In the end, it all came together. Although we did not get the security door we wanted, we did end up with a beautiful screen door that fits the period of the house, plus weather stripping. Everyone on the crew was really nice and we had some good times. We can’t wait to see the show!

Our metal security door. The bolts had to be cut off with saws.

Heather’s experience:
When I was a child, I was once in a television commercial for the Carson Perrie Scott department store based out of Chicago. The tv spot was an ad for Father’s Day. The fact that the father in the commercial had red hair and that my Mom was the Art Director made me a shoe-in for the part.

I don’t remember much about the experience except for the fact that the ad ran right after the television show “Gunsmoke.” What 7 year old, growing up in a small town in Indiana, wouldn’t be thrilled to be ON TV right after “Gunsmoke”?

When I was a little older I was on the local public television station’s morning show along with my dad and uncle. We were there to talk about the practice of raising and farming ducks, something that my family knows a thing or two about since that’s what they do for a living. I’m sure that was one riveting episode!

Yet, this impressive background in television didn’t begin to prepare me for being on a home improvement show, albeit a restoration minded one. First of all there is a whole crew of people that descend on your home. There are people in charge of lighting, sound, the cameras, a director, several producers, a production assistant, a lighting assistant, a carpenter and the show’s host. Most of these people come with equipment, large boxes of it.

Then there are the lights. These large, hot lights that are on tripod frames and ceiling height. A lot of time is spent adjusting the lighting and getting the correct angles. But, oh, the first time I saw our house on the monitors used to show what is being filmed, I was taken in by how the lighting made all the colors come alive and appear more vibrant, richer. All the wood trim seemed to almost glow. I wish our house always looked that lovely.

Bungalows are comfortable houses but rarely spacious and they feel much smaller once filled with a film crew, their equipment and all the towering lights. For someone who tends to feel claustrophobic in small spaces and shy around groups of people that I don’t know well, it was a bit overwhelming.

Some of the crew setting up a shot on Day 1.

I discovered the best thing hands down was something called “craft services” which consisted of every type soda pop, Doritos, Pringle, M & M, Kit Kat bar, crackers, nuts, and coffee imaginable. Our kitchen was converted into the craft services area and we were greeted with fresh out of the oven cinnamon rolls for breakfast, warm chocolate chip cookies and milk for a snack, and our lunches and dinners were picked up from local fast food restaurants.

Restorations Realities shot three episodes in Los Angeles. Our house was the second location. We felt a little sad when all the treats and sodas were packed up and moved on to the third house. It was easy to get used to such a great spread and someone to take our food order at meal times.

Even though the show is for the Do It Yourself network our screen door was pre-built and shipped in pieces to Los Angeles due the tight two day shooting schedule. If all we had to do was build a door that would be have been entirely do-able within the two day shoot. But, that doesn’t take into account the whole process of filming, and it is a process.

There is an outline or rough script that they follow as far as what needs to be said and shown on camera. The first day someone would tell us where to stand, give us an idea of what they would like us to say and how they would like us to move. Things like you’ll start at Point A and walk to Point B, positioning your body in a certain way so that you aren’t turning your back to the camera.

Each “scene” would need to be filmed several times to make sure the correct shots were captured with one of two cameras used. The scene would need to be reshot if someone flubbed a line or the lighting wasn’t just right. Or maybe you didn’t have enough “energy” after you had done a scene a few times so they shot it again to get a better reaction.

A big problem we ran into was noise from the city. We experienced all types of disruptions from planes flying overhead, to obnoxious horns that toot to a tune, lawn mowers or people in the neighborhood stopping by to ask what we were filming. Each of these disruptions required that we stop filming a scene and then start the scene over again after the noise had cleared.

I was most surprised by how much time and work it took to set up the scenes. The cameras had to be set up for the shots and the scene correctly lit. It sometimes took up to an hour to set up a scene and do the run through of where we were to stand and what we were supposed to say.

David and I were split up into teams. I worked on weather stripping with Bill the show’s host, while David worked with Chris the carpenter on the show to put together the screen door. Everything went well except for when I accidentally sanded Bill’s thumb with a power sander. Fortunately, he wasn’t hurt and possibly even benefited from the high-powered manicure.

Weather stripping the front door on Day 2.

The first day I had a wonderful time. The crew was very nice and joked around a lot off camera. The mood of the day was light hearted and playful. The first time I saw our screen door I was thrilled to see that it was finely crafted out of thick fir wood and beautiful. The quality of the craftsmanship was very high.

But, the second day just didn’t seem to go as well. I was too keyed up to sleep much after our first day of filming so I was tired. There was also some tension between people on the show which kind-of made the second day less fun. Things felt rushed and there was a lot less time spent explaining to us what was going to happen or what was being done to our house.

The way a door is to be hung or a threshold installed probably didn’t seem like a big deal to people working on the show but to someone who has spent the last two years of her life painstakingly restoring her house, those seemingly minor details were HUGE details to me. It just didn’t seem like there was enough time to explain what was going to happen and that caused me to feel very anxious.

About half way through the second day I really had doubts about why we decided to do the show and truthfully, I wanted everyone and their equipment out of our house. It is difficult to really describe what it is like to have people that you don’t know very well in and out of your house, moving around in frantic activity to adjust huge lights and cameras while projects are being done to your house. Projects that you are a part of but more in a secondary role because the projects have been planned out and are mainly being carried out by someone else.

The homeowners agree to the overall project idea upfront but in our experience, they have little say so as to what shape that project takes or how it is carried out. It is a strange feeling to be relegated to the role of sidekick after being the driving force in the restoration of your home.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like the film crew because that couldn’t be further from the truth. They bent over backwards to be nice to us. They are wonderful people who I genuinely enjoyed meeting and getting to know.

Having all this activity in the house was such a drastic change from my quite days spent with the dogs working from home. I started feeling very overwhelmed by the experience and upset because I didn’t understand how the projects were going to progress and come together in the end. Most importantly, I didn’t know what we would be left with after the film crew packed up and moved on to the next house.

Halfway through Day 2. If you know me well you can tell by the look on my face I’m stressed out but trying to play it off. This is my “just smile” only half a day left to go look. David is having a great time and going with the flow!

It was at this tense, meltdown moment that I had to film my personal interview. This is where they film you individually and ask you questions about your house, your hobbies and other get to know you better type of questions. It didn’t go well. If you watch the show I will be the woman with no hobby.

You mean that people who have full time jobs and restore their houses full time also have time for hobbies? Huh, how does that work? Watching television and sleeping didn’t seem to qualify. David, on the other hand, apparently sky dives in his free time! They say the wife is always the last know.

This is from a man who won’t tackle any home improvement project unless he’s clad head to toe in a hazmat suit, yet he wants America to believe he is jumping out of airplanes on the weekends. The David that does home improvement projects on tv is a very adventurous guy. In addition to sky diving he also engages in rock climbing. He might think this is really funny until he gets sky diving lessons for his birthday. That’s right, my husband thought it was fun to make up his hobbies, recounted bitterly by the woman who has NO hobby.

After my meltdown moment which I tried to play off, it is never a good idea to completely freak out in front of people you barely just met who are there for the purpose of capturing your likeness, house and spouse on film, I pulled myself together. It was 9 p.m. or later by the time we wrapped up the final shots which made for a long day for everyone. The crew had arrived at 7 a.m.

Filming the final shots on Day 2.

After having a week to reflect on the experience of being on a home improvement television show, I feel overall doing the show was a lot of fun. There were some tense, not so fun moments or hours, but in the end we were left with a beautiful screen door that we both love and a front entrance that is weather proofed. The show left our house in a better state than it us in when they arrived, were super nice to us and our dogs, plus they fed us tasty treats. Really, what more could any homeowner ask for?

I’m not sure how the screen door is going to work out for us long term from a security standpoint? We have considered putting a double cylinder deadbolt on the screen door but couldn’t bring ourselves to put a hole in our new door. A deadbolt also kind-of takes away from the welcoming aspect of a screen door.

The television show is called “Restoration Realities” on the DIY network. This is a brand new show and the first episode airs around March 6th. We don’t know when the episode we are on will air, they said it might not be until 2006, but we’ll keep you posted!

Our front entrance with the new screen door.

See more pics of from filming the show.

Read about how we were selected to be on the show.

Simon and Lulu photographed through the new screen door. So far they have been pretty good about not scratching it. They spent most of the two days we filmed upstairs and out of the way. Although, they were not very happy to miss out on getting attention from complete strangers – one of their great thrills in life!