Gregory Ain Model Home Redo & Add On

Original Floor Plan Leading To Addition

2005-11-15T13:52:00.000-08:00

This is a drawing of the original floor plan of the house. This drawing came from Esther McCoy's book "The Second Generation," page 130. This is the exact layout of our house. To the left of the diagram, you see a door leading out to a side yard with a clothes line and you see the garage. With the addition, we moved the kitchen door to the side yard out and the new rooms run along the side out past the clothesline toward the back of the property. The door into the garage is the same, but now you enter the garage from inside the house.

Okay, let's start outside again - facing the front door with the 50's fountain to the left.

As one enters the house you can see to the back door of original house that leads out to the patio.

Still standing in the front doorway, ones sees to the left the kitchen.

You go through the kitchen to reach the new addition. The opening, next to the refrigerator was where the original side door was that led outside and to the outside door of the garage. You can also see the original upper window in this opening and a tiny bit of the new back door which is glass.

Walking through the kitchen we go into the new addition. This shot was taken from the back "side" door which you saw in the previous picture of the new cement pad. Pouring this cement pad was the last of the construction and tomorrow the inspector is coming and hopefully he will sign off on the completion of the construction.

A shot of the addition from the same place as previous picture, only turning a bit and looking at this room. You can see the back of fireplace and down the hall to the master bedroom. This room could be a dining room, a family room (hang a flat screen tv on the fireplace wall), an office, a kid's playroom. It could even be a bedroom if you drop another wall, but we could not call it a bedroom because under California code - a bedroom cannot lead into a garage. Glass door on the right leading to the main patio.

Two shots of master bedroom with closet (doors original from another Ain home in the tract).

In this next shot if you turn toward the large window, you have a view of the backyard.

Across from the closet is the pocket door that leads into the new master bathroom.

Back out in the addition hallway, outside the door of master bedroom is another glass door leading to main patio.

I'm hoping this is all clear as to how the old house and new fit together. Please email if you have questions. We've been having open houses and showing the home by appointment. I've found the open houses really fun. You get to meet a lot of nice people and it's fun to share what we know about the architect Gregory Ain and this tract of homes.

Also the other day, I received a call from a writer named, Erin Mahoney. She wanted to tell me about her new book, "Walking L.A." by Wilderness Press. They had used a picture of our house on the back cover and also inside the book in chapter 5. She also wrote about our house - "...at 3508 is the original model house created by Ain, identified by the pink diagonal stilts supporting the roof extension above the front walkway." So of course, when I heard about this newly released book, I ran right out and got it. Here are a few shots of the book and of course, our house

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Just a quick story here - last year, Steve repainted the house gray with darker gray trim. None of the neighbors noticed or commented. Then one weekend, my mother was visiting from Oregon and I asked her to help me paint the poles hot pink (when I first bought the house the poles were brown and peeling, I painted them pink, then lavendar and finally hot pink.) It took us less than an hour to paint the poles while it had taken Steve over a week to paint the house. Well, once the poles were done, everyone in the neighborhood would walk by and say how much they loved the pink poles or that they were such a fun color. Steve just shook his head at all the comments. We all had a good laugh, but it does show what a bright color can do and how it's all in the details. Stay tuned for the next blog which will be all about open houses, lookey-loos, realtors and the emotional highs and lows of selling a house you love!

Bath Tub Doors and Original House Layout

2005-11-05T10:28:00.000-08:00

I'm going to start with the bathroom in the original house. We had a problem - the glass shower doors. We'd had the doors custom made years ago and we liked them. At first, we'd been diligent about using the squeege on the glass after showers as we have hard water. Well, it wasn't long before the squeege went by the wayside. I mean who wants to stand in the shower and clean windows? I didn't want to show the house with the calcium caked glass doors. They were awful looking.

So we bought a product specifically to remove lime and calcium. Then we bought another product and another until we had ten bottles. We even got one from a glass company. Don't bother buying those products that promise "they get off calcium and lime." We did find that if you take a razor and carefully scrape at the glass you can get some of the scum off. Labor intensive! An hour to do a little patch. And if you scratch the glass you're screwed anyway. My advice, and this is what we did, go to your local glass company and have them remove the glass and put in new. Costs a bit over $300 in Los Angeles, but it was so worth it. I know, some of you are thinking "why not buy new?" We looked and most shower doors were cheesy looking and to totally replace with installation it would have been about $800. They look great. We also had the bathtub, which is the original tub, refinished and it looks good too.
(This fuller shot of shower doors shows tiles sort of yellow, but they are white, white, just due to camera the color.)

The tiles in the old bathroom are white interspersed with little atomic symboled tiles. Years ago, when we were doing this bathroom. I called around and found a potter who would make the atomic tiles for me. Pink and turquoise atomic symbols. At the time, I thought how much can it cost for a few tiles? Well, they cost more than all the rest of the manufactured tiles, but I love them. And to be honest, they weren't as costly as some tiles you find in the tile stores. So if you have an idea for a specific set of tiles find a good pottery person.

Now, I'm going to try to explain the layout of the original house. Please bear with me. First, is a shot of the entry hallway with the picture taken inside the house facing the front door.
See you can look out at the street. Behind me, not in the picture is the glass door out to the patio. On the wall there you can see the original furnace, gas heater. This heater is the bomb. It heats up the house to the point where Steve complains that it is too hot. Personally, on cold days, I love to walk into the house and feel a blast of heat envelope me.

In the foreground of the picture to the left side, you see a hallway which leads to the bedrooms and bath of old house and in the front of that hallway is a folding door that goes from floor to ceiling to close off this room you can't see - a room I use as a computer room. This folding door is a door Gregory Ain designed and installed in these houses so that the room could function as another bedroom when the wall is closed. Originally, he had wanted this to be a wall that slide over to where the furnace is now, but by code the city had said no as the wall would have covered the furnace and been a fire hazard.

Here are two shots of the writing room, where the folding walls can close it off to become a bedroom. When I bought the house the bookcase was not there nor were the original built-ins. I needed a bookcase, but the closet and built-ins could be copied from ones in back to restore this part. And you can see the door that opens for when the wall is shut. The door leads to the hall and back bedrooms. To the left of Steve in picture is the glass door and hall going out to patio.

If you are at the front door coming in and you turn to your left, you go into the kitchen.

The open doorway next to the fridge is where the old door and window combo was located. We moved the whole section of glass and door straight back when we did the addition. (This is where Steve planted the palms outside - see earlier blog chapter). And here is a picture of my old O'Keefe & Merritt Stove from the 1950's.

The cabinet to the right of the stove is original as are the cupboards above which you can see in the next shot.

The stove which works great, I found at The Boy's & Girl's Club in Venice. They have a man named Ali who used to work for Westinghouse who refurbishes stoves, washers, dryers, and fridges. I stopped at his workshop one day and he had two of these old stoves. He fixed it up for me and Steve went and got it. Very heavy and finely made, needs a bit of cosmetic work, but totally cool. Cost under $200.
Here is a picture, I hope this pops up in the right place when I publish the blog, of the built-in table in the kitchen. I was standing by the sink when I shot this picture. This table and the little bump up at the left of pic are original. Originally, they were covered in dark brown formica of the kind available in the late 40's. When I first bought this house in the late 80's, I did it all in
black and white, thus the look of this tile. Above the table are original shelves and that square thing is a light. Above the shelves are original cabinets with glass doors. There were wood doors, but when a neighbor was throwing out the old glass (not original) I got them and replaced the wooden sliders (easy to make if one wants the original ones.) This glass matches glass near kitchen entrance which was original. On the living room side at the top of shelf there is a thin opening where once venetian blinds could be dropped down and under the table is a hinged piece of wood that drops down so the kitchen could be closed off from the living room. Again, Ain's concept was to make rooms take on different configurations.
A shot of Dylan crouching under the table - like "What's going on?"

A picture looking from hallway by living room to addition - you can see through the livingroom and outside to the left is the new addition. The windows in the addition mirror the ones in the original house and have the same hardware.

Shots of livingroom from a different angles.

Now start at front door again, past the heater and take a right down the hall. First to the left is the old bathroom with bathtub in one room and toilet in small adjoining room. Then further down hall are the two bedrooms or one large bedroom depending on whether you move Ain's original sliding wall.

You can just see the edge of the sliding wall on the right side of picture.

Picture taken from small bedroom looking into bigger bedroom with the sliding wall open.
Note the top wood frame where the sliding wall pushes into place.
In the small bedroom, we have a dresser and no beds. There is an original closet and built-ins with the original knobs.

This smaller bedroom looks out onto the back yard and there is a little patio.

Again, looking from smaller room toward bigger bedroom (we leave the wall open and have an L shaped room). This room with the bed has windows facing the street. Note more built-ins and closets - all original - including original round wood knobs. (I saved the kitchen knobs and they could be put back on. - That's right never throw anything original away!)

I have left the wall partially opened so you can see how it works. Then from this room a door is revealed. And from this doorway you can see the hall and where the door is open into the writing room. The built-ins and sliding wall were part of Gregory Ain's design as he wanted to make the home flexible - you can create different spaces. The built-ins were also great because you could move in with very little furniture. Parents could have the big room and a nursery right next to their room with the door open or later closed when the child was bigger. The room, I call a writing room, with the folding wall closed could also be another bedroom, or with the wall open a den, family room, or whatever the person needed.

Next edition of the blog will show the new addition in relation to the original house.
(The server went down today when I was doing this blog and I had to start again - it was so frustrating! Just saying this so you will know this blog is really a labor of love for the Ain home.)

More Landscaping & Cleaning!

2005-10-29T20:05:00.000-07:00

In the last blog, I talked about redwood compost and landscaping. Here are two pictures where the redwood has been dusted around the plants. On the back of the new addition, Steve planted, added a couple of big rocks, and then did a pathway of gravel that goes around the backside of the house and down the north side. This gravel is great for a pathway and there are water hookups around this area too for watering the plants on the side of the house.

Shot of gravel on path. I think it makes the area look completed.

At the very end of this pathway, in this picture of the side of the house, you can see the gate. This gate is eight feet high and has a bolt lock. I insisted on the lock because a neighbor down the street used a padlock on their gate and someone popped the lock and their dog got out. I don't want anyone letting Dylan Thomas out especially since he has a fascination with cars! In this side yard picture you can also sort of see the Queen Palms planted as camuflage.

While we're on the subject of landscaping. Here are a couple of shots of the front entrance. We have a fountain and a tiny pool. The discs of the fountain actually are from the 50's. The metal discs came from Steve's Dad's nursery. Back in the 50's his father and his uncles did a lot of landscaping in Los Angeles. They did the original landscaping for the famous "Witch Stand," Tiny Naylor Restaurants, Capitol Records, Tarzana Tennis Club, to mention a few. His father, Min Shinmoto and his two brothers had a retail nursery in Culver City called Southern California Nursery. They started the nursery in 1948 and did landscaping jobs on the side.

Most of yesterday and today, we've been cleaning and putting the finishing touches on the house for the "Open House" tomorrow. The new master bath was finished except for the hardware for the transom windows which hasn't arrived yet (odd, it is only coming from Oregon).

Dylan Thomas likes to inspect everything. Or perhaps, he is looking at himself in the mirror? He is such a strange dog. At night after eating his dinner and soaking his ears in his water bowl, he likes to run into the living room and look at himself in the mirror on top the coffee table. And every night, he drips water onto the coffee table mirror and every night I have to wipe it up.

Here are a few shots of the living room. Steve did the old fireplace in marble. I really would like to change it. We'd lived with the old brick and I'd tried painting the brick, but it never looked good. It was a rough, cheap brick that had gotten stained over the years with smoke and calcium. If we had the time, I think I'd have the fireplace just done in cement or a new brick surface. The marble doesn't work, but hey, everyone makes a few design mistakes.

I put this second shot to show where the bar protrudes out. In a later blog, I'll show this area and the kitchen, but right now it is a big mess!!!

I also wanted to give a shot of the carpet which is placed at angle. The angle is exactly like the one created by Ain when he did the house. Of course, the VCT wasn't pink, it was chocolate brown. You can see original colors used by Gregory Ain by going to the community website where there is a color chart - http://marvistatract.org/ The long slim couch is a George Nelson as is the chair which you can't really see except for the back and arms. I got this great couch in Palm Springs where they have some incredible Mid-Century shops with prices comparable to Melrose. Not a great bargain, but sometimes, you just have to get it. Through the living room windows, you can see the addition's windows which mirror the original design.

Well, we still have to hang the picture over the fireplace and do a lot more work. It's almost 9 and I'm tired. So I'll sign off for now and do the rest of the house pictures next time.

Finishing Touches

2005-10-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

We needed bathroom fixtures. I wanted simple chrome fixtures. You'd think they would be easy to find. Nope. We looked at Home Depot and other hardware stores. Nothing simple with clean lines, so we had to bite the bullet and go to Synder Diamond where we found just what we wanted. Not a cheap store, I might add, but they have every bathroom fixture and style you can imagine. While we were there, I saw a bathroom mirror I loved. It was a rectangle with chrome frame. We didn't buy it. It cost $464. Synder Diamond is one of those stores that can make you wish you were rich. So now the problem was where to find a great looking mirror in our price range? Again, off we went to the usual stores. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Finally we found what we wanted at Schwartz Glass in Santa Monica. We told them the dimensions and they created a mirror to size with chrome clips. Simple and elegant.

And here is Dylan Thomas watching me take a picture of the mirror. He is very curious poodle.

Steve moved onto the garage. First, we used up the box of VCT in the color we'd ordered wrong - put it under the washer and dryer. Then he painted the garage floor with gray primer. Next came gray epoxy. Epoxy flooring is really nice for old garage floors because it is self levelling and will cover up flaws.

Sorry, I couldn't get a better picture of the completed floor color. It is gray with specks of blue, black, white (these speckled things come in the package and you sprinkle them on the epoxy.) Epoxy is very easy to use - just roll it on. Costs about $56 a box and you need two boxes for a two car garage. Waiting for the expoxy to dry, I marvelled at how big our garage is as I haven't seen it empty for years. Now it is so empty - well, a few boxes have crept back in. I think there is a law of physics that empty spaces attract stuff? After the garage was finished (earlier, we had put up sheetrock and installed new lights etc.), the original back patio needed to be replaced. It was cracked and it also didn't line up with the new addition. The old patio was blown out in a day and dumped in a roll-off dumpster. The next day, Steve poured cement. Voila, a new patio.

Today, we are, well Steve is updating the landscape in the back, side and front yard. We're adding some color to the flower beds and also redwood compost. Redwood compost really can make your garden come together and look like a million dollars. Great for the plants too. A good fix for your yard if you are having a party.

This shot of plants is the side or back of the addition. We had to leave, by code, 15 feet from house to fence line so it will now be filled with plants and be a greenspace that you can see when standing by the gazebo looking north. This area isn't finished yet - it will get some rocks and also some redwood compost. On the north side of the house there will be a gravel walkway.

Looking out the side door from the kitchen, I can see my neighbor's house with their facia that needs painting. So to avoid this view, we've decided to plant Queen palms and other plants. Steve is by trade a landscape contractor and with his contacts in the business, he can find wonderful plants by going into the growing yards and picking by size and height.
This area will also have a gravel pathway and a concrete pad to step out on.

This Sunday, October 30, we are having an open house from 1 to 4pm. If you're in the area, please stop by. We have a lot of little things to fix, a lot to clean (do you think people look in the closets?). I'm going to sign off for now and think about cleaning the closets. More pictures to come!

On the Home Stretch

2005-10-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

Everything has been coming together in the last few weeks. The big hurdles are over and the details pile up like a stack of pancakes. For example, the closet in the master bedroom finally got its doors and the last coat of paint.

And the carpet went in - from the family room to the master bedroom.

The kitchen door which was originally an outside door was taken out and reframed.

The bathroom sink was dropped into the new cabinet Steve made. The cabinet is still missing the doors, but that is just one of the things still on the "to do list."

Steve tiled and grouted the bathroom wall around the tub. I have to say here that the "white" tile which looked so very white when we bought it now looks a lighter shade of gray. It looks nice, but what a surprise when I thought we were getting a white on white look. I've come to learn that there are over twenty-five shades of white, if not more, that can be mixed into a glaze. Just as there are over a 137 shades of white paint at Dunn Edwards. Stark white, snow white, blush white, Arctic white, antique white, wedding dress white and so on. The color white is defined as having all the colors of the spectrum in it which probably explains why there are so many variations of the the color white. One could do a whole essay on the color white, but I shall stop and just show you the picture of the "white" glossy tile in the bathroom. It looks a tiny bit gray - I think I'll call it "Morning Dove" white. I took a bath in there the other night and it was very soothing.

Moving on from the tile, another "to do" that was completed was installing the gutters on the north side of the addition. Luckily, we got them up before the rains. Our next door neighbor was quite impressed with the gutters. He wondered if they came in the dark gray color we'd used. We informed him that we had painted the metal so that it blended in with the facia making them less intrusive. The down spouts we left in their natural shiny metal.

Throughout all this finishing up of details, Dylan has been supervising, a job he does well. He's been a very good dog and kept out of the way of all the building, but I did notice this morning that there are paw prints on the primer of the garage floor and gray paint on his paws. What we can't figure out is when he strolled through the garage? The garage floor is getting an epoxy finish as I write this blog today. Pictures to come next time.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the county's tax assessor has already dropped by to reassess the value of the house. Why is it that when you want the bureaucracy to do something for you it takes a long time, but when they want money they are quick to come calling?

Details - Big and Small

2005-10-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

All the windows in our addition are made of wood. In an ealier blog, I showed some windows that were already finished. Those got glass and then the windows that open needed to be made. Steve made the windows using a pattern from the original house windows. I actually helped with the sawing of the wood. I stood at one end of the table saw and held the wood as it came across the saw. Not terribly creative or rewarding work, but not easy either. If I lifted up on my end of the wood or moved it to one side when my attention wandered, the blade made a horrible, grinding, screeching sound. This sound in turn caused Steve to yell, "Don't move or lift up your end," or, well you get the picture. Guiding the wood, made me tense - very, very tense. A much easier task was cleaning up all the sawdust. The window that opens in the master bedroom was made twice. The first window was too small - which reminds me of the old axiom - measure twice and cut once. Steve thought I should just leave this part about the window out, but hey, remember when I got very tense. Actually, Steve hadn't taken into account the small rail inside the window which had to be routed out later. So it was back to the lumber yard for more redwood. Ouch! Have you priced top grade redwood lately? The wood for the frame cost about $68. Luckily for us, we were able to salvage the long hinges that go on the sides of the window to make it open. The hinges came from another Ain house original window. They had put in a stationary window and didn't want the hardware.

In the picture of the smaller transom windows, Steve is painting trim. These windows in the master bedroom and family room will get glass this week. The latches, we had to order. We wanted to stick with hardware that was the same or matched closely the hardware used in the original house. I found on-line a hardware company that makes transom latches that match ours. The company is called "House of Antique Hardware." Their prices were a lot cheaper than Restoration Hardware and some of the other companies. So if you need special hardware, look around for the best price as a lot of hardware is being reproduced for restoration projects.

We looked all over for a closet that we could just drop into the master bedroom. They were all awful - plastic, pressed board and so on. We decided to make the closet. And luckily, we found original doors from a neighbor down the street who'd remodeled. What is really nice about this neighborhood is that everyone is interested in preserving the Gregory Ain tract. So when someone is redoing the interior of their house and they don't want a cabinet or doors or windows, someone on our HPOZ board hauls the original pieces to their yard for storage for anyone who might want to use the orignal pieces. (Unfortunately, no one has ever given up the window latches - we checked.)

Here are some of the original closet doors that we will use in the closet. The closets in the old house have two sliding doors, but we are using three so the new closet will be bigger.

When Steve was building the closet, we had to find tracks for the closet doors. Checked all the usual places like Home Depot, lumber yards and hardware stores. Finally, we found this great place downtown L.A. called E. B. Bradley Co. which is a specialty hardware and surfacing products company. This is a great place for finding things you might need in redoing a mid-century modern house or any house for that matter. We found the closet tracks and went away with a huge catalogue and color laminate chips laced together on a chain. (If you're doing a kitchen - this place has so many pulls and cabinet surfaces etc., it's unbelievable.) Okay, I guess I've done a commerical for E. B. Bradley, but it is so exciting to find a new place that doesn't carry the same old boring stuff.

The bathroom is partially tiled in 2" glossy white tiles. At first, I wanted color, but decided on a clean white look. As you can see there are areas missing tile. After we build the vanity and the cover the top counter with the same tiles, Steve will rent a tile cutter to finish all the places that need cut tile. Then we will use white grout.

The fixtures will go in last. As you can see we used a sort of pink VCT on the bathroom floor which is the same color VCT used in the older house. We used the color scheme from the original house of pinks, plum and white so the house has a continuity. I realize there are some who won't like these colors, but I figure whoever buys this house can repaint, retile the floors and lay down different carpets. Everything on the inside of the house can be changed as the HPOZ (Historic Preservation Designation) doesn't control interior spaces only the outside. The carpet will go in this Thursday which will really pull everything together.

Another detail that was finished this week was the fitting for the gas meter - an earthquake shut off valve. Isn't that exciting? Well, we are doing everything up to code and passing our inspections with flying colors. More to come, so stay tuned.

The Big Dig

2005-09-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

The big dig is the sewer line hookup. In an earlier blog, I told how we did the plumbing for the new bathroom before the foundation was laid. The end of the pipe stopped just inside the garage door and now it was time to dig through the garage floor and out across the yard to the sewer. Of course, we waited to do this, after Steve had already painted the garage walls! Dirt everywhere! Josh, our plumber friend came over to help when the digging was all done which was the way Steve planned it. Josh was really a big help with the hook up.

Some out the garage door shots of the trench.
The pipe went under the walkway near the driveway as you can see in the car shot.

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In two of the pictures, the man looking on is Josh's Dad, John. He watches as Josh connects pipe down in the trench.

John grew up in the house next door. His parents were original owners here in the Gregory Ain tract. We couldn't put the sod back right away. Had to wait a day for the inspector to sign off on the hookup which he did.

With the drain hooked up, the hole gets filled and sod goes back on. In a few weeks this grass will look as good as new.

The inside of the garage is filled in with dirt and it will now get a layer of cement and eventually the whole floor will be redone.

All of this hard work of digging and hooking up and refilling the trench got us to the fun part - installing the bathtub.

Of course, Dylan Thomas wasn't really interested in all this work. His main concern as always is when is it time for a walk around the neighborhood. Here he is waiting patiently.

Stucco and Details

2005-09-18T10:04:00.000-07:00

It seems like the most dramatic part of building the addition is finished. Now we are into details, details, details. This week, the final coat of stucco was put on the addition. The crew of four were fast and very good. They even cleaned up after themselves which I think is a plus. In a few days when this stucco dries we will paint it like the rest of the house which is a paint color called chrome gray.

Window frames and sills went up and got a coat of primer.

And we put in the baseboards. We weren't going to do baseboards, but we learned that since we are having carpeting in the bedroom, hall and family room, the carpet people need baseboards so the carpet can be laid correctly. Actually, baseboards are consistent with the old house.
And here is a picture of the new door which will go in the back side near the garage. We've been buying a lot of our supplies at Stock Lumber so when Steve went to get the door, they gave us a break on the price. Always happy to save a little money without losing quality. Also in this door picture you can see all the available light in the hallway leading to the bedroom. Nice and bright in the morning.

This last picture is of the light fixture. We've decided it is a big mistake. They had these types of cone lights in the 50's but it is so glaring. We've decided to go back to our original idea and put in a light fixture like the ones in the original bedrooms. Sometimes, you just have to see an object mounted to tell if you're going to like it. So we are into the details now and we want to get them right as I believe it is in the details a house can really shine.

Painting, Painting and More Painting

2005-09-08T13:17:00.000-07:00

Steve finished the trim around the windows on the outside so the next coat of stucco could go on, but of course, we have been waiting for the stucco team to come back and put on that second coat. Not one to sit around and enjoy the day, Steve began priming all the rooms. I did help with the primer. Unfortunately, Steve didn't think I was doing a good job as I have a tendency to hold the roller to the ceiling then walk backwards pulling the thing along. He informed me that I had to use my arms to move the roller back and forth. So I decided it hurt my neck to roller and instead, grabbed a brush and did the cutting in around the floor. I also helped with part of the painting, but not the last coat. Anyway, all three rooms are now painted.

Looking from the bedroom down the hall to the family room. White and bright. All the rooms are white except for the one bedroom wall which is the orchid pink.

The pink wall is the back wall of the bedroom. (Lattice in back is one neighbor's side of the fence - I think we will plant a flowering vine on it.) We decided to paint the one wall pink to match two walls that are already pink - one in the living room and the front entrance hallway - as a way of pulling the new addition into the old. The carpeting will be plum color to match what we have in the original house and VCT like in original will also be used. This shade of pink is bold, almost an orchid, if the new owner doesn't like it, they can repaint - easy enough job if you don't pull the roller along by walking backwards.

This last picture shows the lovely fragile looking Chorisia Floss Silk tree that grows on the backside of the house. Luckily, we didn't have to cut it down when adding on the addition. The flowers (colors match the bedroom wall ) are really gorgeous like baby orchids. I leave you with a shot of the flowers from the Chorisia tree which is native of South America.

Mud and Stucco

2005-08-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

I haven't written on this blog for a few days because we've been busy applying mud to the screw holes and mudding in the tape. Mudding and sanding, mudding and sanding to get perfect walls.

The prep for painting the walls takes longer than painting! We learned that the smooth set comes in bags with different numbers on them and the numbers indicate how long the patch takes to dry - ie., - a number 10 would take ten minutes to dry so you'd have to work really fast. So we didn't use the smooth set/quick set. We used joint compound and topping compound which gives you longer to work with the mud. It's really like frosting a cake and like frosting a cake you don't want to go over one spot a lot of times as you lift up what you put down. I did help, but only on the screw holes. After the layers of mud are dry then it is time to hand sand. This last shot here is of the family room. We're still sanding and touching up.

The other day we called around to get estimates on the outside stucco work. Steve had already done the lathing so we needed an estimate on the three coats of stucco. One company, who will remain nameless, gave us a bid of almost $7,000. Geez, that is more than we spent on the foundation. Needless to say, I got on the phone and called some friends. One friend who is also remodeling his home with a contractor, put us in contact with the contractor who said we could use his guys as he didn't need them for a few days. Cost - well, let's just say it was very, very reasonable - very.

So this morning the stucco guys came and went right to work putting on the scratch coat. First, they covered all the windows and doors with tape and plastic, then they got busy slapping on the brown coat.

The first coat of stucco was on the addition in just a few hours. They cleaned up and said they'd see us tomorrow. In the meantime, Steve has to get all the window trim done before they return.

Will Steve get all the windows trimmed before tomorrow? Stay tuned.

Gas Meter, Lights and Soffits

2005-08-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

This is the old gas meter and as you can see it is now inside the new addition. Steve had repiped the house so the gas line now runs through the ceiling and not in the slab. We'd learned that the old cement slab had really corroded the gas pipe and to be on the safe side, we ran the new line. Later, we learned that in the late 40's early 50's, cement had a lot more lime in it than it does today. The lime just eats away at pipes in slabs. (If you have a Mid-Century house or older on a slab, you might want to check the condition of your pipes in the slab.) We started calling the gas company in June to come out and reroute the meter. We made lots of calls and even paid for the job. Finally, last Friday, August 19, they showed up at eight in the morning.

They moved the meter and laid all new pipe from the back of the addition to the street. I didn't take a picture of the hole in the street, but this gives you and idea of the work. Finally, we now have a new gas meter and it is on the outside of the new addition. You can also see a hose bib, Steve installed so it will be easy to hook up a hose for watering plants on the side of the house.

While the gas men were digging and laying pipe, Steve was busy installing the electrical plug outlets, light switches and light fixtures. One picture was taken during the afternoon of some of the lights and two pictures taken at night. It was really fun to flip the switches at night and see the rooms lit for the first time. There's something about lighting that gives everything a substantial feel - an idea made real.

I don't have a picture of the bedroom because we haven't picked out the light fixture yet. I'm hoping to find something simple in keeping with the 50's flavor. There will be an overhead fixture and Steve has wired the bedroom with plugs on either side of the bed so there can be lamps as well on night stands. The bathroom has overhead cans and a fan.

On Saturday, Steve decided to finish the soffit on the outside of the master bedroom. I wanted to get someone to help him as the plywood was heavy, but he figured out how to do it alone. I did help with the measuring tape and by handing him the nail gun while he balanced plywood sheets on his head.

And after the plywood soffits were in place, they got two coats of primer. Today, is Sunday, and we're taking the day off from building. Steve is watching sports on tv and I'm doing this blog. Dylan is sound asleep, having had a good long walk and a ride in the car. Next week, we'll put in for the inspector to come and sign off on the dry wall and then it will be time to tape and mud the walls. I've been informed that I'm going to help. I've never done taping and mudding and I'm thinking how hard can it be? I'll let you know.

Fish and Dry Wall

2005-08-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

The dry wall is coming along. But it takes time. Steve's fishing trip was a bust. No fish. It was a charter trip and only a couple of guys on the boat caught fish. According to the skipper the fish had moved on. Well, that is fishing - sometimes you catch them and sometimes the fish win.

As to what I did on the addition while Steve was gone? Nothing. You didn't really think I was going out there and hang sheetrock, did you?

Steve got back and started working again Monday morning. He's hanging dry wall in the bathroom area now. Pictures to come of the bath area. The bedroom and the hall and most of the family room is done.

Nothing exciting to report. Oh, Dylan caught a bear.

Japanese Girls and Dry Wall

2005-08-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

The Japanese architectural team of young women with their professor visited our building site on Tuesday. They took still pictures, video, and they used an electronic laser to measure everything. They were very thorough and asked a lot of questions. As always, they were very charming and so interested in what we were doing.

Dylan as usual was right in the middle of everything. Sitting in a ready-to-jump up position if anyone wanted to pet him.
After the girls left, Steve did some yard work. We ordered the sheet rock and waited for the inspector. The inspector arrived early the next morning and signed off on the insulation and stucco lath sheathing. He gave us the go ahead to start hanging the dry wall.

Steve rented a dry wall hoist and started screwing in the sheetrock. The screw pattern for the ceiling (we asked the inspector so we wouldn't have any problems like the furring nails) was a screw every 14", but he suggested we go tighter. The
pattern for the walls was a screw every 16". We used 1/2" sheet rock.

At the end of the hall is the family room. And you can see part of a wall with the special structural wood next to the door. This wall is the wall between the family room and the garage so it has to have sheetrock that is 5/8" type X which is fire resistant on both sides of the wall. The garage wall when finished can burn for an hour, supposedly, before fire attacks the family room. This is a safety code as most fires start in the garage.

These last two pictures are of Steve cleaning up. He likes to keep his work area clean as it is easier for him to work. Outside the house is also clean, as he takes all the trash, left over wood and stuff, to the dump. From the front of the house you wouldn't even know we are doing an addition.

Next a much needed vacation for Steve - a three day long range fishing trip. Stay tuned to see if he catches any fish and to find out what Dylan and I will do to the addition while he is gone.

From Japan To Mar Vista - Two Parties

2005-08-07T15:56:00.000-07:00

I don't want anyone to think we just work on the addition. We do go places and do things. This weekend was especially busy. Our new neighbors, John and Julia, gave a house warming party and invited everyone that lives in the Gregory Ain Mar Vista Tract. Here is a picture of the front of their house taken from my yard. I didn't take pictures of the party as I was too busy enjoying the great food, martinis and company. Julia even dressed the part by wearing a 1950's frock.

The party lasted until ten. Then this morning we got up and went to Meier Street, street behind ours, where Anni Michaelsen was hosting a brunch for the neighborhood to listen to the housing report created by a housing research team from the department of Architecture and Architectural Engineering from Nihon University in Tokyo, Japan. A year ago, these Japanese women with their professor Yoko Sone, visited the Gregory Ain Tract to do a study of our homes. They had received a grant from their government to study "Mar Vista 50 Years Later."

Anni is chairman of our HPOZ and she was quite involved with the team from Japan. Here's a picture of Anni in her yard decorated with tables for the party. More pictures of the party and Anni's Gregory Ain Home.

The food at the party was wonderful. A combination American, Danish, and Japanese. The Japanese women made several traditional dishes and brought summer desserts. Everyone had a good time. The woman carrying the chair is my friend Amanda and she lives down the street. She has been working hard to save the Lincoln Place Apartments and get them historical designation so they won't be torn down. Her husband Hans is on our HPOZ board. Unfortunately, he wasn't at the party as he is in Sweden on a visit. Hans also created and maintains our neighborhood website http://marvistatract.org/ And here's a picture of Steve in his baseball hat at the head of the table. He didn't go to the party with me as he wanted to stay home and work, but Anni called him and said, "Just come and eat."

There was quite a crowd at Anni's, but as small as these Gregory Ain homes are, they can hold a lot of people because the house and yard become one. After eating - eating too much, I might add,(good thing I'll be working on the dry wall), we all took chairs into the living room and watched a slide presentation of what the research team from Japan had learned on their visit a year ago to our tract of homes. What interested the team was that the Mar Vista homes have been maintained and cared for for over 50 years. In Japan, a lot of the houses are no older than 30 years as they are not maintained or torn down to make way for more modern homes. Hoping to use their research to slow the destruction of older homes in Japan, the team seemed delighted by the Mar Vista tract and how it retains the sense of history. Just imagine if every architecturally designed home was destroyed after 20 or 30 years. What a loss that would be.

When I got home from the brunch, Dylan Thomas was waiting for a walk. The last two pictures are of our house from Dylan's view point as we stand on the side walk ready to go for his walk.

Insulation and An Oops!

2005-08-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

With the stucco lath finally renailed, it was time to insulate the walls and ceiling.

Installing insulation is pretty easy. You cut to fit and staple it to the inside of the studs. While we were insulating the house, we decided to insulate the bathroom walls too. In most homes, they don't insulate the bathroom walls because the walls are on the inside of the house. But since the bathroom sits between the family room and the master bedroom, we decided that the added insulation would muffle sound and do away with those strange bathroom noises. And to do to the bathroom's outer walls cost less than twenty dollars so we did it. More privacy which is always a good thing, right?

The insulation of the whole addition took two and a half days. And then it was time to put up OSB board on the designated sheer walls.
Here is a picture of the a sheer wall with OSB board. The gas meter you see will be moved by the gas company to a place outside the house. Steve has already piped through the ceiling for the new gas line, but we are still WAITING for the gas company to come and do their part of the process. (Needless, to say we call them every day and leave messages and hopefully they will come before the floors are done!) Steve had almost finished nailing the sheer wall to the wall between the family room and the garage when his nail hit something. That something was a copper water line up near the ceiling. A big oops. I could hear terrible mutterings coming from the addition and I waited for the mood to cool down before I ventured out to see what had happened.

A couple of trips to the lumber yard and the pipe was repaired. The sheer wall removed and replaced. Always mark all pipes as best you can so you know where they are later! So far in the construction of the addition there have only been two big mistakes - 1. the placing of the furring nails and 2. this water pipe misshaps. Not bad for all the work that has gone into the construction so far. Now we have to call the inspector to sign off on the exterior lathing and the insulation, then it will be on to dry wall. I've been told that I will have to help with the dry walling - I can feel another oops coming. Did I mention that I'm accident prone when it comes to tools and equipment? I don't do well with crafts either. Anyway, stay tuned to see if the dry walling goes smoothly.

All's Well That Ends Well

2005-08-03T14:48:00.000-07:00

As I said in the last post, Steve used a regular hammer to put in all of the furring nails to hold the stucco lath to the house. When the inspector came out, he immediately saw a problem. Steve had hammered the furring nails at the correct intervals and to the studs, but he'd used the nails incorrectly.

The little pad on the nail has to go under the wire so it holds the wire away from the paper. In the pictures you can see the wrong way and the right way. Nothing to do but pull out all the furring nails and renail all the stucco lath again! If he'd left the nails they way they were then the first time an earthquake hit the house (a big trembler), all the stucco would have fallen off! Tedious work, but you learn as you go and luckily, in this case, the fix wasn't too hard. So all's well that ends well on.

The renailing took a day, then it was onto making the window casements. The casements are made of Douglas Fir (expensive, but the look is so much better than those plastic or metal window frames). And the window ledges are redwood.

After all the casements and ledges were made and installed, they got a coat of white primer.

I forgot to mention that when the inspector caught the wrong nailing procedure, he did sign off on the rough electrical and rough framing. He praised the work and we were pleased there were no more problems. The whole thing made Dylan Thomas tired, so he stretched out for a nap.

Hang Doors & Weep Screed & Wrap

2005-07-25T11:24:00.000-07:00

With the roof done, Steve decided to hang the doors - glass door leading to patio, bedroom door, and pocket door for the bathroom.

The glass door was the hardest as it is very heavy. We salvaged this door or I should say were given this door by Liseanne and Peter who live on Meier Street. They are almost finished with a totall remodel and addition to their house. Anyway, they couldn't use this great door, so we got it. A big thanks to Liseanne and Peter.
Anyway, the door was awkward and heavy, so instead of building a frame around the door and jockeying it into the space, Steve built the frame and with the help of shims and me (yeah, I helped), got the door to hang correctly.

On July 21, Steve nailed in the weep screed. The weep screed is a moisture barrier to help keep water away from the wood and walls of the house. The views of weep screed are from the back side of the house and also the bedroom window side.

Wrapping the house is tedious, but not hard. First, you staple on black paper with 1/2" staples. (Later stucco will cover the outside of the house.)Here are some shots of wrapping the house.

Shot of side wall of house where Steve is on the ladder faces east and the shot of wall of black paper faces north.

By the end of the day, the layer of the black paper was on the house. Then came the stucco lath (paper with chicken wire on it). Steve didn't want to buy another nail gun to use for the furring nails so he decided, he'd have to use a plain old hammer to hammer in all the furring nails which are placed in the studs only. Hammering slowed him down a bit, but saved money on not buying another type of nail gun. Besides, it is only on the tv show "This Old House," that a person can own every type of tool in the world, right?

So as the sun begins fall lower in the sky, we leave the completion of the stucco lath until tomorrow.

Fascia & Torch Down Roof

2005-07-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

First off, a few friends have said that I was visibly missing from the blog. Okay, so here's a picture of me and Dylan Thomas at the front door. As you can see I have on work clothes! Actually, Steve took another picture of me painting the fascia boards, but it was a staged picture as there was no way I was going to climb up a ladder with a paint can and a brush. I need both hands to climb a ladder.

Before putting on the new roof. The fascia boards had to go up and the metal flashing - this all matches the rest of the house. I did help with the milling of the fascia boards on the table saw. No picture because I needed two hands to hold the boards. Here are some pictures of the fascia boards going up.

Once the fascia and metal flashing were in place. Steve started the roof. We used what is called "a torch down," roof. This is a modified bitumen roof or torch down which is a newer type of roofing material. It goes down like a blanket and then is hit with an open flame to get it to adhere to the roof. I believe it is best used on new roofs or roofs where the all the old material has been removed. (You can read about this type of roof on BobVilla.com where they have a forum dealing with building materials.)

It took Steve a day and a half to do the roof. Luckily, by being near the coast the mornings were overcast, but the afternoon blazed and working with a torch on the roof was a hard, hot job. 540 square feet of roof including the soffits.

Well, I've almost caught this blog up to date with the work going on. Tomorrow. Hanging some doors.

Rough-in Plumbing, Electrical & The Inspector

2005-07-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

I forgot to put in some of the final pictures of the sheathing of the house from the last post so I've added them . The second shot is a view from inside the new bedroom window facing out to the back yard. I think it will be so peaceful to wake up and see all the lush greenery.

I didn't take any pictures when Josh was here helping Steve do the rough-in plumbing. Josh was a big help. When Josh was a little boy and visiting his aunt next door, he decided to do me a favor and cut all the lower limbs on my newly planted Jacaranda Tree (of course, this was a surprise for me.) I remember at the time, admiring his handiwork, then coming in the house and raging about how awful my tree now looked! So now, I find it charming that the little boy is all grown up and instead of trimming plants, he's learned a trade.

Steve had already run the copper piping for the bathrooms which you can see in the next two shots.

While Josh rigged the plumbing, Steve started on the electrical - running wire and setting up outlets. We have a second power box in the garage which is nice because I was able to work in the house on the computer without the electrical being shut off in the old house. When we put a new roof on the old house a year ago, we set up the second electrical box in the garage in case we got around to adding an addition. Thinking ahead! We are using indirect lights in the family room, the bathroom and in the master bedrooom there will be an overhead light like in the original bedroom with outlets on either side of the bed for lamps. Here are some shots of the wiring and walls.

In the shot of the glass door, you can see the kitchen door and side window. Eventually, this whole unit of glass and door will move over across the slab and become the door to the side of the house and kitchen will open into the family room.

When the inspector from Building and Safety arrived, he was very happy with all the work. He complimented us on the neatness of the job. He also complimented Steve by saying, "he wished more jobs were as precise and well done as ours." Steve was really happy as he'd been doing most all the work by himself and sometimes learning as he went along. (He is a licensed landscape contractor so he did already know electrical and building). Anyway, the inspector is a great guy and he had only a few things he wanted completed. 1. We needed to get Simpson A35 brackets and install them between the blocking and top plate of rafters. 2. Also, he wanted Steve to fill the plumbing pipes so that when he returned the next day, he could check for leaks.

The next day, the inspector returned and he checked the brackets and also the rough-in plumbing. Again, he was pleased and signed off on rough-in plumbing and rough electrical. Now we could proceed with the next stage - the roof and wrapping the house. Dylan approved too, but he needed to take a rest, too much excitement for one day.

Rafters and Sheathing

2005-07-17T08:58:00.000-07:00

By Wednesday, the 29th of June, we'd started hammering in the roof rafters. Again, the nail gun made the work go quickly. The door you see at the end of the picture leads into a garage.

The rafters took a day and on Thursday we started to sheath the house with 5/8" by 4' x8' structural Grade 1 plywood. Now the house was beginning to take shape.

During this time we were too cheap to buy saw horses (can you believe it?) so here is Steve working on his makeshift table which consisted of the arms of a large wheelbarrow! Since this time, I borrowed a set of saw horses, but he hasn't used them yet as they are new and he doesn't want to rough them up.

Below, another shot of Steve looking annoyed at me taking his picture. But like I said in an earlier post, that's my job. He may look like he's smiling, but that is a grimace meaning - "hurry up."

So that's about three days for roof rafters and sheathing. Then came the framing of the master bathroom. Anchor bolts and epoxy. This addition is so well bolted, anchored, nailed that I don't think even a hurricane could lift the wood from the slab. Well, maybe a hurricane 10, but even the inspector said it was solid and that it wasn't going anywhere. Overbuilt? Well, those are California codes and if there's an earthquake, I'm sure we'll all be glad we have those codes. The last picture is of Steve cleaning out the holes he has drilled for the anchor blots.

When Gregory Ain built this housing tract in Mar Vista, he set up a milling plant up near what is now Centinela Boulevard. They milled the doors, walls, moldings etc. - similar to how they make manufactured homes today. Originally, each house in the tract was identical with the same floor plan, size and shape. I think part of the genius of Gregory Ain was that he turned the identical houses on the lots so that some front doors face the street and some entrances are facing the house next door which gives the illusion that the houses are different. In doing our addition, we have chosen to keep the original architectual lines of Ain's design. The windows in the bedroom replicate the windows in the original bedroom, as do the windows in the bath and family room. We are also doing the soffit so the original flat roof keeps the same line. Next to come - rough-in plumbing, electrical and the INSPECTOR!

A few places of interest on the web you might want to visit regarding mid-century homes and Gregory Ain - http://www.modcom.org/index.shtml which is the Los Angeles Conservancy; http://www.laforum.org/index.php the Los Angeles Forum for Achitecture and Urban Design; http://www.archpedia.com/ Archpedia the Architectural Encyclopedia.

Framing - Hip Hip Hooray for The Nail Gun

2005-07-13T14:48:00.000-07:00

This is Dylan Thomas looking out the back patio door towards the new addition. I'm sure he's wondering what all the noise is about and he's not quite sure he likes the sound of the framing nail gun. I know he doesn't like like the sound of the compressor, because when it goes on he runs into the house and hides in a corner.

Wednesday, the cement was finished and Thursday, Steve started framing. Starting at the corner "strong wall", he framed in the bedroom windows and the door leading to the patio.

The next day, the side and back wall of the bedroom, bathroom and family room went up. The work went fast and Steve was glad he'd invested in a framing nail gun. Occasionally, I held a board or took a measurement. Nothing too strenuous for me!

By Sunday night, we had finished the framing. Steve usually starts working on the house around eight in the morning and quits at five in the afternoon, so we don't disturb the neighbors too much. Below are some more pictures of the rest of the framing. (This part, the framing, is actually exciting as you begin to see the house take shape.)

Naturally, Dylan Thomas wanted to take a stroll through the new construction.

And of course, Dylan Thomas has to tell the big dog Steve - great job!

Big Day - The Cement Foundation

2005-07-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

This picture is a bit out of place, but I just found it. Remember when I talked about the special Deputy Inspector coming out and watching Steve glue rebar into the old foundation to attach to the new slab. Well, this picture shows the rebar after it was glued in. This was at a cost of $200 for the Deputy inspector to watch. Picture taken looking out the kitchen door. Door on left leads into garage.

We had to hire another Deputy inspector, (we used the same company) to come out on the day we poured the foundation to watch the cement being poured around the anchor bolts on the strong wall which is part of the window wall of the master bedroom( at the end of this post is a picture of the strong wall). His brother came out this time and watched. Nice guy and again, I wrote a check for a couple hundred dollars. (I'm telling you this is a great job!)

The big day was here - pouring the foundation. My brother Marty, who lives in Oregon, has a building company that specializes in pouring foundations, retaining walls and most things cement. We decided to fly Marty down to help us with the cement pour. I'd bugged my husband for weeks to let me know ahead of time so I could make my brother's reservation early to take advantage of the cheaper seven days ahead fare. Did that happen? No, at the last minute, we flew Marty down on a full fare and it is more expensive to fly from Oregon to LA than from New York to LA. Geez. No saving money there.

Anyway, we hired a pumper and called for the cement. Twenty yards. I also hired two out of work men I know to help pull the hose. My job was to have food ready - snacks and coffee for breakfast and later lunch. I felt like one of those pioneer women at a barn raising. Steve pulled on his boots and everyone went out to the front of the house to wait for the cement.

Steve is pulling on his boots here and looking irritated that I'm taking a picture, but hey that's part of my job. The the picture below, that is my brother Marty in the black shirt talking to the pumper guy.

The cement started flowing at 8:30 and was done by about 10:30 which included calling for two more yards for our "clean up." Because of these two yards we were charged an extra $250 because we didn't reach the cement company's minium. Anyway, there was a big discussion with the company and we weren't happy so I won't mention the cement company by name. In addition, we'd wanted 3/4" rock in the cement and they gave us pea gravel in our mix which isn't the best for slabs.

After lunch, which I served like the good little pioneer woman, the two helpers went home and my brother and Steve continued steel troweling and smoothing the cement. They also hosed down the cement. By two o'clock, we could walk on the new slab foundation.

By late afternoon, Steve and Marty were installing the strong wall (a special wall required by our engineer and bolted in. The blots into the slab had been inspected by the Deputy Inspector earlier in the day).
Here is Marty checking the strong wall. The next day, they took off the forms and Marty flew home. Marty didn't charge us for his time and all of his help and hard work. So I want to put in here a big thanks to my little brother who did a great job and helped us a lot!

After dropping Marty at the airport, Steve went down to the lumber yard to get the first load of lumber so we could start framing. We were moving along now.

Gregory Ain Model Home Redo & Add On

2005-07-09T16:34:00.000-07:00

Gregory Ain Model Home Redo & Add On

Building Permits - The Big Day

2005-07-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

The big day finally came. On May 23, 2005, we got our building permits! It had taken five months from the start of the process. We were soooo happy. I was glad that now Steve could go at the remodel full tilt and he wouldn't be starting little projects and then having to redo them. We paid for the permits to allow a 510 square foot addition. At this meeting, we were told to call the inspector when we had the footings dug out. Okay, well, I thought this will be soon because Steve has already dug out the foundation!

A few days later, the inspector, Newton, arrived and looked at the dug outs. He also saw the old gas line on the outside of the house by the kitchen wall. "How are you going to run your new gas line?" he asked. We didn't know. "Well," he said, "you can't run it through the slab anymore like in the old days." Our gas line was corroded and it runs in the slab of the old house from the stove to the wall furnace in the front hallway. He suggested we cap off the old line and run a new one through the roof into the old house and through the roof of the addition. Fine, but that meant, we'd have to tear up the ceiling in the kitchen and across the hall and down the wall to the furnace. This was a big deal to me because the ceiling, kitchen and hallway wall in the old part of the house was newly painted. Grrr. I'd been thinking all the work would be on the addition not in the old section of house that was newly remodeled. Nope, now the celing and hall would have to redone. Here are some shots of that experience.

During the same visit, Newton, told us we would need to hire a Deputy Inspector from a list provided by the city. This Deputy Inspector would have to come out to the job site and watch Steve put epoxy into the the holes drilled into the hold downs which attach the old house foundation to the new. Okay, so we got the list and called some of the Deputy Inspectors on the list and asked about time frame and prices. We found that prices charged varied quite a bit so if you need to do this, my suggestion is to call around.

The company we used for a Deputy Inspector was Advanced Special Inspection, Inc. out of Redondo Beach. Great guys and great job they have. Marshall watched as Steve injected epoxy into core holes of the old foundation which will tie into the new slab foundation. This took 30 minutes and I wrote a check to Marshall for $200 for watching this process and in return, he gave us a piece of paper stating "observed placement of 32 - #4 epoxy dowels @ 6" embedment into existing stem wall on north side of home & 9 5/8 holdowns c 10" - etc. All holes were drilled to proper depth and diameter and brushed/blown clean. Proper material uses, per approved plans." This little piece of paper cost us $200. This guy has a great job, he watches you do the work, writes a few lines of notes, gives you the paper and gets money. He doesn't do any physical work, he doesn't get dirty and he goes off to more jobs like this all day long. What a great business - low overhead and easy work. I told Steve maybe he should think of having a company and working as a Special Deputy inspector. Oh, and Marshall had his cell phone, so he could talk to friends as he watched Steve work - I like that kind of job.

With the epoxy done, it was time to back fill the area with gravel which had to be tamped down, then 6 mil black plastic (This is called a moisture barrier and supposedly, this also keeps weeds from growing. But think about it? How are weeds going to push up through the rock layer, then the sand layer, then the cement layer? Seems like overkill having to put down plastic, but it is code so you have to do it. What the city wants, the city gets!) After the plastic came a sand layer and finally the rebars.

After the expoxy inspection, it was time to install the rough-in plumbing for the new bathroom. A friend of ours, Josh, came over to help Steve do this early plumbing set up.

Here you can see the black plastic moisture barrier and sand and pipes for bathroom.

This last picture is where the master bedroom will be placed. Once the rebar was in, we had to call our inspector, Newton, to come out and have a look. Calling the inspector out is actually an easy process - you just go on line to the Building and Safety website, put in your permit number and click on what plan check you need. Usually the next morning you get an automated phone message telling you when the inspector will be out.

The rebar was in and tied down, the gas pipe had been relocated and it was time to get another inspection, so we could pour the cement foundation. The building process was moving along at good pace. Hopefully, our inspector would give the go ahead.

More Waiting and Revisions

2005-07-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

This photo of a Gregory Ain house appeared today in the L.A. Times in the home section. This particular house is on Meir Street, the street behind our house which is on Moore Street. I include this latest clipping because it points up all the publicity these Gregory Ain homes garner by being architectually designed and midcentury modern. This tract of homes has been written about extensively and photographed continually which makes it fun to live in one of these special houses. Years ago, no one seemed to pay much attention to our little neighborhood, but that changed when another LA Times article was published about Ten of Los Angeles Best Kept Secret Places to Live - well, after that article, we had droves of people driving by which of course ruined the "best kept secret."

Back to the progress of the addition on our home. We'd thought we'd now get the building permits, but when we showed the plans to the engineer, Laura, at Plan Check at Bldg. & Safety, she wanted certain revisions from our hired engineer. Those revisions were 1. the room leading to the garage, or next to the garage could not be a bedroom (this is a code issue that a bedroom can't be attached to a garage). This was okay as we'd been thinking of this room as a family room; 2. The garage wall that faces the family room or is part of the family room had to be what is called "A One Hour Wall", which means you install 5/8" Type X sheetrock. Plus the door from the family room into the garage would have to be rated "A 20 Minute Door," meaning it would take a fire in the garage 20 minutes to burn into the family room, this too is code; 3. The hallway leading from the family room to the master bedroom and bath had to be at least 36" wide (this also necessitated redrawing the original plans - and yes more xeroxing, ); 4. Because of all the windows in the design Laura told us we would need more sheer wall. She also told us we needed a "Title 24" which is a energy efficiency report, which meant we would have to hire another engineer to calculate our addition's windows to determine whether we needed double or single pane windows. Fortunately, this new engineer, this energy efficiency engineer, was efficient. He got us his plan and specifications in two days. In the scheme of things so far, I thought we thought he was really fast!

It was back to the drawing board and back to xeroxing while we waited for our first engineer to finish his part of the new drawings. Two weeks for the engineer to get back to us and another week to wait for another appointment with Laura at Plan Check. This last appointment, we prayed would be the final plan check. Please God!

Again, Steve needed to keep going while we waited so he put form boards around the footings of the foundation.

In the last picture here, you can see Steve put the wood clear to the bottom which later he learned he couldn't do that. He would have to take off the bottom piece of wood which shows what can happen when you move ahead without all the facts. (In fairness, I must say my brother Marty, who pours cement foundations in Oregon told Steve to do it this way, but that is Oregon and this is California.)

Tune in again tomorrow to see if we get the building permits on May 23, 2005!

Waiting On The Engineer

2005-07-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

On March 30, 2005, we finally got our COA from the city. Everyone was in agreement that we could start with our addition. But we still couldn't go to Building and Safety for our permits because now we had to wait on the engineer. And wait we did - for five weeks.

Steve couldn't stand all the waiting so he decided to start digging, excavating the area by hand.Yep, he dug the whole thing by hand.(I have to say here, he has a lot of energy - I watched.)

The first picture shows the length of the addition which attaches to the garage, the second picture shows some of the depth need. Later we learned from the engineer the exterior footings needed to be 24" below grade and 12" wide (which only necessitated a bit more digging). The third picture shows the site of the master bedroom. We had to put up yellow tape to keep our standard poodle, Dylan Thomas, from racing across there and falling in the hole. Being a rather smart dog, he got the idea quickly and stopped short of the yellow tape, even when he saw squirrels on the other side which was amazing as he lives to chase squirrels.

After a lot of digging and hauling away dirt, Steve was done with the preliminary excavating so he turned his attention to the back wall of the original house where the fireplace chimney is positioned. He knew he would have to take the stucco off the exterior walls so he got busy. Once the wall was cleaned of stucco, we found that the wood was totally gone. Termites had eaten every bit of eatable wood! I don't know what was holding up the living room wall, maybe dead termite bodies. So now we had to replace all the studs and wood on that wall which meant that the living room fireplace wall which had looked so good (freshly painted and all) had to be ripped apart. And you can guess what happens when you cut through wall board on the interior. Right, dust everywhere - everywhere. I need to explain here that we had to open the interior wall to get the wooden supports replaced behind the fireplace which could only be reached by cutting through the interior wall.

Look at the smile on this man's face. Does he like demolition or what? We also found next to the chimney a skull of a tiny rat. Ugh. I was hoping for gold coins, but the house is only Mid-Century so not old enough I guess. Now I didn't help with this demolition or rebuilding, but I did do a lot of vaccuming. (Note - use a shop vaccum as the dust from wall board and paint will ruin a regular vaccum in a minute. I learned that lesson a year ago while updating the interior.

By the end of the first week in May, the stuctural drawings were done and also the calculations. Now we could go to Building and Safety for the permits. But would we finally get the permits? Would the building gods smile down on us and give us the go ahead?

The Process - City Planning and HPOZ Board

2005-07-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

We took our plans and the material list to our first HPOZ board meeting which was at the home of a neighbor one street over. The architect on the boards wasn't there and one other board member didn't show up either. We passed out the plans and everyone liked them. They all felt that the addition with its flat roof (no one is allowed in our HPOZ to build a second story), and our windows which would mirror the original windows in the house was fine. The Cultural Heritage Board member said we needed to show a Screed mark where the new addition joins the garage so that in the future should people want to tell where the old becomes new it would be easily recognizable . Okay, we could do that. Then we were told by city planning that the back of the property needed to have a fifteen foot set back not five which is usually the case. Okay, we could do that too, but now we were losing footage from the addition. We gave everyone a copy of the plans and left two for the members not at the meeting. We went home knowing that some of the plans would have to be redrawn and we'd have to find a way to add back our lost footage. And of course, we'd be going back to the copy shop!

We gained back our lost footage by moving the wall of windows of the new bedroom out further into the backyard. We made new drawings. We recopied everything and two weeks later we again met with the board. This time the architect who had studied our plans suggested that instead of angling the bedroom across the backyard, we square it up and put in another window facing the old house. We liked the suggestion so we agreed. Again we went home and my husband, Steve redid all the drawings. We recopied all ten sets of plans. Yes, we were becoming quite familiar with the xerox machines especially those that copy large pages.

Armed with our new plans, we had to make an appointment with our city planner, Sandi. On our appointed day, we went downtown to city hall again and met with Sandi. She looked everything over and then sent us over to Building and Safety to the Public Counter. Now I don't know if you have ever been to see the Public Counter person at Building and Safety. It's not a pleasant experience. Plan to be treated rudely and made to wait and wait and wait. First, you take a number and wait for it to be called. Finally, a large man just back from lunch, personally, I think he could skip a few meals, told us to put the 10 sets of plans into a specific order. Then he barked at us to staple them a certain way and finally, he shoved across an ink pad and stamp and we had to stamp each set. When he were done, he pointed towards the end of the room and said, "Pay, then come back." We did as told and soon learned we needed to see another counter who told us we needed to hire an engineer to do structural drawings and calculations. Okay, we could do that. We went back to the first counter and showed him our receipt, he packed all the plans into separate envelopes to be mailed to the board members and the city planners et al. (Just a note here - we had to supply all the envelopes with address labels and postage - everything in ten sets of course.)

Five and a half hours later, we were done. I mean really done. And done in too. I thought to myself that I'd never want to be an architect if I had to deal with the people in Bldg & Safety on a regular basis. (I later learned that architects have gofers for such odious jobs). Anyway, we headed over to Olvera Street for a few margaritas. Might as well, we'd paid for all day parking and it isn't cheap downtown L.A. In my next life, I want to own parking lots.

Could we now get our building permits? No. Now we had to wait 3 1/2 weeks for Sandi, our city HPOZ planner, to give us our COA which is a Certificate of Appropriateness. This COA is needed if you are in an HPOZ as it basically states you have met all the conditions for historical appropriateness in your plans. And we also had to post on our garage, in plain view, a notice of intent to build (you'd think we were applying for a liquor liscense.) This notice is to give the neighbors a chance to complain or object. They had 15 days to object. We'd shown our neighbors the plans earlier. They all had said they were okay with the addition. But you never know if people are going to change their minds when you're not face to face. Would they object in writing? I wondered if I should bake brownies? Would that be considered a bribe?

We'd come so far. We'd started this process in January of 2005 and now it was March. By March 30th, we'd find out if we got our COA. Fiften more days of waiting. What if someone objected? Would the process start again? Would our future be endless days of xeroxing?

In The Beginning

2005-07-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, here goes. I'm starting this blog to talk about our Mar Vista Home that we are in the process of fixing up and adding a wing which will include - a family room, master bath, and master bedroom. We finalized our plans at the beginning of January, but it we couldn't go straight to Building and Safety for permits because our home is one of 52 Gregory Ain homes in the Mar Vista Tract that is under the protection and preservation of the city's HPOZ guidelines (historic preservation overlay zone - from now on called HPOZ). If you'd like to know the history of Gregory Ain's Homes please go to http://marvistatract.org/ where you will find pictures, blueprints, original colors and much more.

Anyway, our HPOZ (which is a good thing as it preserves these fragile structures from becoming mansionized) is newly formed with a board, but the guidelines haven't all been created, so we didn't know what to expect at our first meeting with the neighborhood preservation board. Actually, we didn't meet with the board first, we had to go downtown to city hall and meet with the person in city planning assigned to our HPOZ - a woman named Sandi (she's sooooo nice) who consulted with us to make sure we were ready to present our idea/plans to the board. At the time of our meeting with Sandi, we were required to bring a material list which included paint colors(chips of exterior paint as interior of house is not governed by HPOZ rules), stucco finish, fascia paint, window and door color, roofing materials. My husband made up a board with all of the previous things on it including a small rubber piece of roofing material. We also had to take a floor plan, plot plan, elevation plan, window detail plan - all drawn to scale. We did the drawings and luckily there was one only one snag - we hadn't used the right line, dash symbols for the property line. We found the correct symbols for property lines by looking at a friend's remodeling plans, but there are places on the internet that will detail the lines and symbols needed for plot plans etc. Our city planner, Sandi, told us to make the corrections, then schedule a meeting with the HPOZ board. She said we would need 10 copies of everything to present at the meeting. Ten copies! Two copies for the city, one copy for Cultural Affairs, one copy for our city Council woman and five copies would go to each of the five board members and of course, one for us. We redrew the plot plan and off we went to the xerox shop. Over the next couple of months, we would become experts at using the various machines at the copy shop! (We hadn't even started our addition and we were racking up hundreds of dollars in xeroxing - and where, I wonder, have all those copies now gone? Into a dumpster? Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.)

Armed with our sets of plans and materials lists, the package, we made an appointment to see the HPOZ board (most of whom are neighbors that we've known a long time.) In my next post, I'll tell you about that first HPOZ meeting.