This morning I noticed something strange on the upstairs bedroom ceiling. Since we are moving our office into that room while work is being done on our den, I have been spending more time in the extra bedroom upstairs. Upon closer investigation I realized it was mold!

Still in my pajamas, I began pulling down the paper that covered the plaster ceiling and found more mold…which led to pulling the paper off the wall and discovering even more mold. In an old house one bad thing always leads to another…

We had a substantial water leak while our roof was being replaced over Halloween. At first I thought we had lost the ceilings in the rooms where the water rained in but later realized it was paper covering the ceilings that was coming down and that the plaster may still be salvageable.

I decided I had better check the kitchen and discovered mold growing between the paper and the plaster ceiling and on part of the wall. Both the downstairs half bath and upstairs bathroom, which had also gotten wet, appeared to be fine.

The paper covering the upstairs bathroom was backed with burlap and I guess that allowed the plaster to breathe and dry out. The paper in the kitchen and upstairs bedroom are backed with a substance that closely resembles parchment paper. The parchment paper backing didn’t allow the wall to breathe so moisture was trapped between the parchment backing and the plaster allowing mold to grow. This is one of the best arguments I can think of for not covering plaster walls with wallpaper!

Armed with a facemask and my pink sunglasses to protect my eyes, I climbed on a ladder and began scrubbing the mold with hot water mixed with Clorox and a little dish soap. After I got the visible mold off with a wet rag, I scrubbed the area again with a brush and the bleach solution.

When the paper was pulled down lots of dust and little chips of paint – most likely lead paint – fell down, too. This had to be cleaned up with a shop vac with it’s Hepa filter. All the surfaces had to be wiped down with a wet rag and the floors had to be mopped.

What a way to start the day.

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!

A project looming way in the future, but a project none the less, is our garage. The original owner of our house, John L. Welsh, built a private garage with a dirt floor and a paper roof in 1919. That building is no longer standing.

Aren’t the doors on this garage beautiful?

A newer, larger garage was built a few years ago. The garage takes up most of the backyard. The cement lawn probably makes our garage appear even larger and uglier. Yards in Los Angeles tend to be small and filling in the backyard with cement is actually a fairly popular thing to do.

Designs for one, two and three car garages.

People often use the space for an outdoor patio. The previous owners of this house used the cement lawn to park their cars on. Growing up in the Midwest where green lawns covered acres and mowing took half a day, I find the cement lawns appallingly ugly.

I’ll post some pictures of our ugly garage and cement lawn soon. In the mean time, enjoy these vintage garage photos and illustrations that we are using for inspiration.

This charming illustration is from an Aladdin catalog.

You can see the Tudor influences on this garage.

Many homes in our neighborhood were built with a pergola framing, or if vine covered, obscuring the view of the garage.

This image is from “The Second Book of Houses” and the caption states: Simple and yet architecturally pleasing is the garage on the place of G. C. Price, at Charleston, West Va., of which Dennison & Hirons were the architects.

Image is also from “The Second Book of Houses”

Vintage garage that has survived to the present day.

Again.
I start having flash backs of junior high school. Is my house not cute enough? Is it not part of the cool house crowd? Did some high class-big cash house come my contractor’s way?

I woke up early and set out all their tools in the hopes that they would come, that today would be the day the BIG Backporch Rebuilding Project would commence.

My contractor and his team said they were coming but they have said that before. Many times. A few days later I’ll get the phone call, “Heather, I’m so sorry. Yes, this job we’re working on is taking longer than we thought but we’ll be there Thursday or maybe Friday. Ok, see you then. Monday for sure…”

The phone call is an advancement in our relationship. In the past they would just not show up or call for days, or even weeks. So, when I do get that call I bite my tongue and try not to sound annoyed. If I stay calm at least they stay in touch. I’m not exactly sure how we advanced to the phone call stage of our relationship but I don’t want to somehow blow it and regress back to the earlier no show/no call.

I’m hoping that soon we can advance to the calling the night before they don’t show stage. They have to know they aren’t coming and it is just as easy to call the night before as it is two days after they were scheduled to be here, right?

I wouldn’t put up with this type of behavior in any other area of my life, not even in the desperately insecure period of junior high school. But, if this is what it takes to hang onto a good and affordable contractor in Los Angeles, I’m game. Nevermind that I’ve cancelled lunch plans because they were supposed to be here and I’ll have to reschedule the plumber one more time.

I bring the tools back inside and stack them in the corner of my living room where they sit and wait for another day.

We just celebrated our 5th year of home ownership last week. We are a little over halfway done with the house. What a journey this restoration project has been! We often receive questions about buying and restoring an old house. So, on the occasion of our anniversary with homeownership, here goes…

Would we do it again? Hmmmm. Halfway through our restoration I started to have fantasies about building a completely Modern house, something that you would see on the pages of “Dwell” magazine, where everything would be brand spanking new and streamlined. A few months ago I would have said NEVER. EVER. AGAIN. But, you know what they say about never saying never. 

What have we learned from our experiences? If you are going to restore a house with someone, have a conversation or two about how you actually plan to accomplish this before buying the house. When we talked about fixing up the house, I imagined us lovingly working on it together. I had no idea the images floating around David’s head were of us interviewing general contractors…lovingly together. What can I say? We were young, in love and not so focused on the details. It never occurred to me that David wouldn’t “like” working on the house. 

Things will cost so much more than you expect and take much, much longer than you imagine.

Know your limitations. Sometimes it is much cheaper and safer to hire someone than to attempt to do a project for which you have no skill or aptitude. Hire a licensed electrician, plumber, roofer, or foundation contractor.

It is just a house, just a paint color, just a piece of furniture, just a light fixture, or just a kitchen design. Try to keep things in perspective. If only I could have back all those hours spent pouring through magazines, books, and on eBay. I spent way too much time, and probably too much money, on things that seemed important at the time, but really didn’t matter all that much in the bigger picture.

If I could do it all over again.
1. I would spend more money upfront and purchase a house in the best condition that I could afford. We thought we would save ourselves money by purchasing a fixer and we were worried about house payments. We ended up spending MORE money fixing our house up than if we had bought the nicer, more expensive house.

2. You will save yourself so much money and frustration if you find a house with unpainted woodwork, if that is important to you. Stripping paint is a horrible, horrible process. It is not fun, it is not exciting…it is hard and expensive work.

3. Get to know your potential neighbors. We were lucky that we ended up with great neighbors. If I had been smart, I would have knocked on some doors and met my future neighbors before we bought our house. In my neighborhood, there is not much that happens that my neighbors don’t know about. Your potential neighbors can probably give you the lowdown on the owner of the house, the other neighbors, who or what you should watch out for, and probably some history about your future house.

4. I will not live next door to an apartment complex. We saw some really great houses but didn’t make an offer because they were next to 2-3 story apartments. I like to live next to people who own their houses and have more invested in their upkeep. Plus, I don’t want people to be able to look out their windows and have a bird’s eye view of my backyard.

5. Look for homes that still have intact original features such as moldings, beamed ceilings, hardware, original wood doors, light fixtures, wood framed windows with wavy glass, etc. The more original features the better. Yes, all these things can be added back if they are missing but it is costly – especially to put back wood framed windows.

6. Make sure you get a thorough home inspection, but be prepared for surprises. The home inspection won’t turn up all the problems in your house. Until you take a room apart and put it back together again, there are things you just won’t find.

7. Spend time in the area. Drive around and get out and walk. Is this somewhere where you want to live? Do you feel safe? Make sure you like the block before you buy a house on it.

8. Be patient. It takes a long time to fix up an old house and a good amount of money. Try to be realistic, although, if you have never fixed up a house before it is hard to even know what is realistic. Here is a hint, most of what you have seen on tv about fixing up a house is not reality. It occured to me the other day that it took our house almost 100 years to get so run down, so why did I think it would be completely restored in a few months or even a few years?

9. After you buy the house, invest in an alarm system and take the burglar bars off the windows. Alarm window screens are completely worth the money.

10. Nothing will change the look of your house like a good paint job!

My husband, David, really knows how to woo a girl, at least a girl like me. Last Saturday he romanced me at the local stone yard. We went just to look…at rocks. Be still my beating heart!

I have been dreaming of putting in a flagstone patio for the two and a half years after we ripped out the cement lawn. All that gorgeous stone was way too tempting. We ordered 600 lbs. of stone to be delivered this Saturday, ready or not.

I picked out the large stone on top (in the photo above). It is shaped like a big teardrop. My plan is to place the large stone in the middle of the patio with smaller stones surrounding it. Once we got home we realized that we didn’t order enough stone.

I have decided that we should lay a couple of inches of sand underneath the stone to help level it. That seems easier than tilling the patch of compacted dirt that is our backyard.

After we moved in we realized that we were the only white people living in the apartment complex other than the property manager. The realization wasn’t a negative one, simply an observation. Early one evening we heard the woman who lived above us screaming a stream of obscenities out the window at her boyfriend who was standing in the parking lot adjacent to our dining room windows. The crescendo of her words accelerated to the point where they became jumbled together and unintelligible. Her words kept coming louder and faster, without pause. At regular intervals her boyfriend bellowed back, “Ghetto bitch! Ghetto bitch! Go get your hair done. You’re a ghetto bitch. You live in the G-H-E-T-T-O, bitch.”

That was our first realization that we lived in such a bad part of town. The whole fight culminated with our neighbor’s boyfriend storming off into the open field behind our apartment and firing a round of bullets straight up into the air. At that point Amy Jo and I dove to the floor of our apartment. We were shocked by the brutal, raw emotion of the exchange. That fight was completely outside our frame of reference for the world.

I looked at Amy Jo and said, “I guess this means we live in the ghetto.”

She quipped, “Yeah. We should get some tee shirts printed up. GHETTO BITCHES.”

That experience was good training for living in our current neighborhood.

The Pimp – Ho Fight
On a warm summer afternoon David and I were doing the typically mundane task of unloading groceries from our car. A little black hatchback car erratically pulled up to the stop sign at the intersection catty corner to our house. I didn’t really pay much attention at first but soon heard a commotion coming from inside the vehicle. Suddenly, a fairly average looking man jumped out of the car and roughly pulled a woman out behind him. This instantly caught my attention. I was halted dead in my tracks by the words the man was yelling.

“I’m the pimp! You’re the ho! Give me my money bitch or I’m going to hurt you.”

The fight continued along these lines for several more minutes. Then there was something that I didn’t quite understand about being from East Los Angeles verses West Los Angeles. This man, the pimp, was apparently from West Los Angeles and because of this fact the woman was lucky. If he had been from East LA she would be dead, but, because he is from West LA, he is more compassionate. The woman did not appear to be intimidated by this information. On the contrary, she seemed angry and defiant. She mentioned seeking employment opportunities with a pimp who “hadn’t lost his mother (insert the mother of all expletives here)-ing mind.”

A neighbor’s sprinkler was watering his lawn, I could hear the sound of children’s voices playing in a yard up the street and in the distance I faintly heard an ice cream truck rattling it’s bell and playing “Pop Goes The Weasel.” In the middle of our tranquil summer setting was this absurd exchange straight out of a really bad made-for-tv movie. I stood in the yard, transfixed, mouth agape.

The pimp saw me standing in the middle of my yard staring at them. He pushed the woman back into the car, drove around the corner, parked and pulled the woman back out of the car to yell at her again. By this time David walked up to me and asked what was going on. After I told him he ran inside and dialed 911.

David waited on hold for 10 minutes before he reached an operator. The 911 operator said they couldn’t do anything since we didn’t have the car’s license plate number. She instructed us to get a license plate number the next time this occurred. David requested that a squad car be sent to our location anyway. By the time David hung up the phone with the police the pimp and ho had resolved their dispute and driven away. They were long gone by the time the police drove through our area 45 minutes later.

The discussion in the Comments refers to the continuation of this article: More Tales From the Hood

One of my favorite spots in all of Hong Kong is Nan Lian Garden. David and I spent 2 weeks in Hong Kong last December. Visiting Nan Lian Garden was my favorite part of our trip. Nestled inside bustling Kowloon is this beautiful, tranquil garden paradise.

Nan Lian Garden was completed in 2006. It was built to offer a quiet place for reflection and to experience the ancient culture of China. The entire garden is surrounded with 260 sound proof panels to maintain a peaceful environment.

There are a variety of garden structures and architectural elements of classical Chinese design. The garden is built in the style of the Tang Dynasty (618 AD to 907 AD).

Rocks from all over China were incorporated with rocks from the local site. They were arranged in groups to enhance the landscape and to form visual focal points.

The guiding philosophy of the garden’s design is based on the ancient Chinese principle of “man in harmony with nature.”

A traditional technique of Chinese garden design is “borrowing.” The garden deliberately incorporates a view from outside the garden to broaden the garden’s context.

Chinese garden design plays with concealing and revealing objects in the foreground and background with trees and landscaping to frame vistas.

One of the qualities of Chinese gardens is reserve. Each mound, each rock is intentionally placed to evoke a mood or a feeling.

Look who decided to walk across the still wet cement floor, leaving tiny paw prints in his wake. The Project Supervisor, otherwise known as Jack and more recently other names that I won’t post here, decided that he needed to look out the bathroom window now, right now.

The bathroom door is being stripped in the backyard, so I put up a barricade to keep Jack out. It is going to take more than my feeble attempts to stop him. Now that he is successfully inside the bathroom he refuses to budge. I am reduced to opening cans of cat food outside the bathroom door, but he is having none of that.

He is lying underneath the window on the still wet cement, safely out of reach, and I swear he is laughing at me.

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.

We needed an odd sized rug to fit underneath our desk, something durable that could stand up to lots of wear. FLOR carpet tiles fit all of our criteria, plus they come in multiple shades, textures and fun patterns.

FLOR samples

I ordered samples to see which worked best in our office.

It’s a plaid, plaid world

We chose a grey plaid called Pop Tartan.

Jack, project supervisor

Our cat Jack overseeing the carpet installation.

Attaching FLOR dot

The tiles are held together by adhesive stickers called Flor dots. It is as easy as peeling the backing off the Flor dot and attaching it to the back of the tile.

The tile is lined up and dropped into place. Easy!

Tah-dah!

It took us 15-20 minutes to install the carpet. Now all we have to do is finish moving into the office.

Mrs. O. sent us some wonderful old photos of our house. She didn’t include a date but I am guessing they were taken in the mid to late 1940s. The front porch was enclosed with glass window panes. Several houses in our area still have their front porches enclosed in this fashion. I have to confess that I like the way it looks. It reminds me of a greenhouse.

After I first met Mrs. O. a year ago last spring, we shared a phone conversation in which she asked if the “little picket fence” was still outside the upstairs bedroom window? That had been Mrs. O’s bedroom when she lived in the house. I got excited because there is no “little fence” now but I had seen a few on houses in our area. I couldn’t exactly picture how it would have looked and wondered if it was an original feature of the house or something added later? After seeing these pictures I am convinced it was original to the house because it matches the porch railing in style and proportion.

Mrs. O. on her wedding day coming down the front steps of our house

This photo clearly shows the “little picket fence” outside the upstairs bedroom window. The house had been painted white but did not yet have asbestos shingle siding. It also shows more detail of how the front porch was enclosed. That is Mrs. O. coming down the front steps on her wedding day!

Mr. and Mrs. O.

This is a photo of Mr. and Mrs. O taken on their wedding day in our front yard. She wrote on the back of the photo that the little flower girl lived in the apartments across the street. You can also catch a glimpse of Mrs. O’s dog in the lower right hand corner.

The little bungalow and palm trees in the background are no longer there. The little bungalow has either been torn down and replaced or altered beyond all recognition by an unattractive peach and cream stucco style track house.

Sometimes people ask, “How do you do it? How do you stay married while living in the house during the restoration?”

Well, sometimes we do it better than others. I’ve read interviews featuring other couples who have traveled down this road and when they say how they had no problems and this experience has brought them closer together in their marriage, I think who are they kidding?

Living without a fully functional kitchen for over a year like we have tends to make meal times difficult and we end up eating out more than we should.

The worst thing we face is what we term the “bathroom situation”. We have no shower. The upstairs main bath has been stripped down except for a bath tub. I feel sorry for David when I see him rinsing his hair by pouring water over his head from a cup. We have a working toilet and sink in a closet-sized half bath downstairs on the back porch, not very convenient in the middle of the night.

Plus, just the problems of an older house – bad electric, bad roof, furnace problems, mix in two busy careers equals one frazzled couple.

I will admit living with the state of our kitchen and bath has gotten easier as time goes on, a year and 3 months to be exact. It was a huge adjustment at first but now it seems almost normal. We don’t even notice it any more except on the rare occasions we get away and realize how much quicker and easier it is to take a shower, brush your teeth and style your hair all in the same room. You don’t realize how complicated a simple act like getting ready to go out for an evening really is when your bathroom is torn apart because it begins to seem normal.

We have no experience with restoration and are figuring things out as time and money allow. This leads to conflicts because, in truth, neither of us really knows what we are doing. Our approaches to projects are usually polar opposites and as different as our upbringings.

David’s father, who researched and developed different medical drugs in a lab, has more than a healthy respect for germs, almost verging on a germ phobia. I grew up on a farm, a germ’s paradise. We didn’t bother with shoes in the summer, spent lots of time climbing through years of dirt (or worse) in old barn rafters and hay lofts, playing with lots of different animals, hopefully taking a dip in the swimming pool to clean up, and if I was lucky remembering to wash my hands before eating. When you grow up on a farm you are going to get dirty. I don’t remember safety or germs being a big focus or even a focus in my house.

For Christmas David received a first aid kit from his father. My dad gave me a pry bar, a built-in saw wrench and bottle opener (I guess that comes in handy when the state of your house drives you to drink) and a rechargeable saw, drill and flashlight kit. We’ve used both the first aid kit and the tools, not necessarily in that order.

David: Wait, what are you doing with that sledgehammer?

Heather: I’m going to whack out the cement covering the front porch.

D: Wait. You don’t know what’s under there.

H: Yes, I do. I crawled under the front porch and I think the original wood floor is still intact.

D: You crawled under the front porch?

H: Yeah. I just took off some of those asbestos shingles and crawled under there.

D: Asbestos! Did you wear your respirator?

H: It’s fine.

D: It’s not fine. Wait, I think we need to make a plan.

H: I have a plan. I’m going to whack the cement floor with a sledgehammer, spray water from the garden hose on high power in the cracks to loosen up the cement and then pry up the cement with a crowbar.

D: A garden hose! What?

H: (Frustrated sigh…and a rolling of the eyes for good measure) It’s fine.

D: Put on some safety glasses! Wait, YOU ARE NOT EVEN WEARING SHOES!

These are the days of our lives…The only real piece of advice I can offer is this (the secret of our so-called success):

1) Put one person in charge of a project and let them do it in their own way without offering “help” or suggestions.

2) When you need the other person’s help with a project, let them approach it in their own way.

An example of this, again, has to do with our front porch floor. After days of backbreaking work removing cement that was 4 inches thick, rusty old chicken wire, nails, staples, and each of us getting tentus shots, we discovered linoleum glued to the top of the original wood floor. I can’t explain how upsetting this discovery was after all the work we’d done to get down to the original porch floor.

David was in charge of removing the linoleum. He tried pry bars, scrapers, heating the linoleum with the Silent Paint Remover and none of these options worked very well. After the 3rd night of working on this until 2 in the morning, I suggested that maybe we should just replace the wood floor or put down a sea grass rug but was met with, “Are you kidding! After all this I’m getting that damn linoleum up.” Man verses the linoleum. Man losing. Man finally allows his wife to help him.

D: What are you doing with that steak knife?

H: The blade is thin enough that I can get it underneath the linoleum to pry it up.

D: How did you even think of that? What leads you to think, “Gee, I think a steak knife will do the trick?”

H: It’s working!

D: We use that to eat with. I don’t want you to use it on the floor!

H: We’re not eating with it now…I just broke the blade. I’m going to go get another knife. I never really liked these knives anyway.

D: Okay, you’ve just broken the blades of 3 steak knives. How are we supposed to eat?

H: It’s fine! My technique is working. Do you want this linoleum up or not?

D: Some technique…grumble, grumble

H: What did you just say? You’re just upset that my way is working.

Finally…
3) Praise all the work your partner does even if you are less than thrilled with the outcome.

All of her childhood memories are wrapped up in this house. She lived in the house until she was married. That fact was interesting to learn because I had been told by neighbors that the Santos had rented out the house and never lived here. She shared a few amusing stories about her childhood, her family and the neighborhood.

She thought her family had purchased the house in the 1940′s. She recalled that this area was considered one of the elite neighborhoods in Los Angeles during that era. She seemed saddened by the current state of this area and not entirely convinced when I told her that things were getting better and that people were buying these old homes to restore them.

She told me that when she was young the house was painted white and that later her father put on the asbestos siding. I just smiled. Her family had enclosed the front porch with glass.

I couldn’t wait to take her inside. She seemed very surprised. I imagine all the woodwork was painted white when she lived here. I showed her the kitchen and asked her where her family had placed the stove? The kitchen looked very different to her than the way she remembered it. She didn’t recall the built-in cupboards being there. She thought that the stove was placed along the wall between kitchen and back porch where one of the built-in cupboards is now. Hmmm, another mystery to be figured out. She said that there was a table in the middle of the kitchen and her family used to eat there.

What we have been referring to as the den was a library. The family also used it as another bedroom at times. Her bedroom growing up is the room we are using as our master bedroom.

She asked me if I had found Ray and Roy’s names in the cement outside? I haven’t and I suspect that the cement has been removed or covered over by the slab of concrete that is currently our backyard. Ray and Roy were the grandsons of John Welsh who built this house.

She was excited to see Lulu because her son had given her a female corgi two years ago that she named Baby Girl. Her son thought it was an interesting coincidence that we both owned corgis.

She spoke of photographs taken on the front lawn after her wedding. I want to stay in touch. I would love to see some old photographs of the house. She and her family were so nice. It was a pleasure to meet them. I don’t think they realize how exciting this was for me.

It just occured to me that we are the 4th family to own this house.

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.

Although we’ve made progress on the house, I still see all the things that we need to fix or all the things I’d like to change. So, I think now is a good time to take a look back and focus on just how far we’ve come in the past year and three months.

We began landscaping.

We have started the restoration of our front porch. We hired someone to rebuild the brick piers that support the wood columns holding up the roof. We removed a roof covering the pergola on the north end of the porch. We plan to grow vines over this. The failing cement steps were replaced with steps made from redwood. The 4″ thick layer of cement covering the porch floor was removed. Low walls built around the porch were removed and the original porch railing was restored.

The dining room was completely restored. See pictures.

We had a new roof put on. The dormers were stripped of their asbestos shingles. The original wood shingles couldn’t be saved so we had the dormers re-shingled.

The restoration of our living room has begun.

We are still trying to select a paint color for the exterior. Any suggestions?

Installed central heat.

Added some more electrical outlets to the upstairs bedroom which we plan on using as an office.

Had a carpenter replace the old plywood stairs leading to the top floor with nice steps made from cherry wood that was generously donated by my dad.

Before we moved into the house:

Replaced the foundation. Bolted for earthquake safety.

Connected to the city sewer line. Our sewer line was illegally tapping into our neighbor’s sewer line.

Had the wood floors refinished.

Kitchen floor: Pulled up press on vinyl tiles that covered plywood which was nailed and screwed into the floor. The floor is uneven so the previous owner had poured plaster into the lower areas to level the floor. All the plaster had to be carefully hammered out.

Upstairs bathroom floor: Pulled up layers of old linoleum. This was a horrible job. Removed the black tar-like backing that was stuck to the floor after the linoleum was taken out.

 Removed various cabinets from the upstairs bath and kitchen.

 Painted the two upstairs bedrooms.

I guess we have accomplished a lot but we still have such a long way to go…sigh.

Right now the porch functions as a utility area but it was originally open to the backyard and probably served as a covered outdoor sitting area. I’d like to use the space as a small sitting area off the kitchen, a quiet place to drink a cup of hot tea.

Something as grand as stained glass would not have been used on a back porch but they are from the period, will block an ugly view of our humongous garage, were cheaper than buying new wood windows or having them made and hey, they are pretty and I really like them.

That would be us!

You know, the people with their appliances sitting out in the yard?
That would be us!

We currently have a bathroom sink and console, washer, dryer and several doors sitting in the back yard and driveway.

Even Lulu has decided to get into the act of our backward slide into “those trashy people” by throwing her food all over the floor with gleeful abandon.

Yes, I realize that the smart thing to have done would have been to rent a dumpster. But, in our defense, Los Angeles has many people who make their living hauling trash and debris for people who don’t have a truck or the means to take the trash to the dump themselves. During past projects we have hired someone from the Home Depot parking lot or often people will see our trash and stop to ask if they can haul it for us.

I didn’t realize that we would end up with so much debris from this project – the trash pile kept growing…and growing…and growing. The trash pile has taken over the “good wood that I want to keep” pile. Everything is now mixed together in one colossal pile that will have to be sorted before it can be hauled away.

The downstairs bathroom is now gutted.

The bathroom floor will need to be built up so that it is level the rest of the floor. The bathroom floor was replaced before we bought the house due to water damage and a termite infestation. This floor is 6″ lower than the rest of the floor.

At that time we couldn’t afford the 10K + quotes we were given to purchase and install a new furnace so my Dad purchased the equipment at a fraction of the cost in Indiana and we (mostly he) installed it ourselves. We have had a few minor set backs due to the DIY installation, not that I am complaining.

Not the most flattering or even informative photo of me with the new heater.

When we were selecting the wall color for the dining room last spring, we went through 6 different colors starting with burnt red and ending with a golden yellow. This time we were able to choose a wall color in two tries. We are certainly improving. Actually, there is not much of a “we”, David usually goes along with whatever color I select. Then he loves the color even when it’s blatantly wrong.

Opps! Looks like we missed a spot or two.

My first choice was a soft gold color by Sherwin Williams that looked too green next to our dining room walls. We ended up going with Wilmington Tan from Benjamin Moore’s historical collection. It is a shade darker than the Shelburne Buff from the same collection that we used on the dining room walls. The ceiling is painted Compatible Cream from Sherwin Williams.

The new vent cover from Rejuvenation is installed.

We are almost done with the living room. There is some touch up work that needs to be done with paint and stain. Our brick fireplace got a little faded from the paint stripper so we are looking into staining it. There is some hardware to install in the room and we need to hang the antique light fixture once it arrives. I’ll post more photos once we get all the final pieces installed in the room.

A backward glance, our living room before restoration and the worst days during the restoration.

Now we are starting work on the den!