He Floats Through the Air

Taking down the chimney was one thing.  We figured out ways of removing it so we didn't have to climb on the roof, balancing our aging bodies high above the ground.  Even though it was a big job, we found ways of doing it without feeling like we were risking our lives.  And now, the chimney is gone.

But the Walnut Street house also had two large vent stacks on the south side.  There was one for the heater in the dining room on each floor, and the stacks were HEAVY - terra cotta flue pipe wrapped in tin.

Initially, we thought about taking them down by using our 35 foot ladder.  But I really hate using that ladder: it is incredibly heavy and unwieldy, hard to set up and position.  We put it in place, but the ladder barely reached the top of the pipes.  Once we got up there, we realized how heavy they were.  The thought of lifting one up while balanced on top of the ladder, and possibly falling with it to the ground, made us re-think this plan.

We next considered using climbing gear, and strapping ourselves to the roof.  But this also seemed dangerous, not to mention somewhat kooky.  And it wouldn't have helped us get down the flue pipes on the side of the house - we would have had to drop them to the ground.

So finally, we decided to get the right equipment.  We rented a scissor lift, once that could raise up about 40 feet in the air.  It's an amazing piece of equipment, and has a platform on top that can be extended once the platform is lifted up.

The hardest part about using it was getting it level.  The ground around the house is uneven, and we had to scrape the ground with a flat shovel and fill in some holes, so the lift sat evenly.  The first time we went up, the tilt of the platform was pretty intense, so we quickly went back down and repositioned it.

Then Tom and I went up on it, 35 feet in the air, and pushed the end of the platform out over to the stack pipes.

Tom on the lift

Once we got there, getting the flues down was relatively easy.  They were heavy, but with two of us up there, we got pretty good at lifting the old terra cotta flues out, then cutting away the sheet metal.

The lift is great, but it can be somewhat unnerving.  As you walk around on it, it shakes back and forth, which can be very disconcerting.  But riding it up and down is like being on an outdoor elevator - it gave me the sense of what it would be like to be a drone, just rising up into the air effortlessly.  So while we were there, we inspected the side of the house, patched the holes where the flue pipes came through, making the house watertight - just in time for the rains.

Taking down the first sections of the flue

Now another big job is out of the way, making the house more moveable.  Once we get our permits, we'll be ready to put this house on wheels, and get it down to the Rockhead and Quarry site.

Riches Beyond Our Wildest Dreams

The chimney is gone, and now all the remaining bricks have been dropped to the basement.  The broken bricks have all been removed from the basement and loaded into a truck to be taken away.  The huge pile of bricks to go to MLK are still sitting in the basement - we'll get to that unlovely job soon enough.

Looking down the chimney shaft, with one last brick falling from attic to basement

But today we had a windfall.  Whenever you hear stories of home improvement, you invariably hear stories of people finding incredible valuables in old houses.  From these stories, one would gather that people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries didn't trust banks, so they stored all their riches in the walls and floorboard of their houses, and then either promptly forgot about them, or died before they could breathe a word about it to anyone.

Unlike the discovers of gold bricks inside the sewing room walls, or the guy who found an original copy of the Declaration of Independence stuck in an old picture frame, we have never been that lucky.  Despite the fact that the Walnut Street house is the 8th house we've restored, we haven't found riches or jewelry or boxes of expensive silver secreted within the wall studs.

Until today.

When cleaning out the dust around the chimney chase, I dislodged a small leather item that fell to the basement, where Tom picked it up.  It was an old leather change purse, and it had money inside it.

Okay, so the coins added up to only 21 cents.  But the coins were old: a buffalo nickel from 1916, another one from 1925, a 1916 Mercury dime, and a wheat straw penny from 1925.  All the coins were marked with an "S" indicating that they were minted in San Francisco.   Maybe these were rare and of untold value?

The change purse and the valuable coins it contained

In researching our find, I learned that 1916 nickels tend to be pretty valuable.  When some of them were struck, the date created a double image, so the "6" could be seen twice.  These are considered to be "very valuable in circulated condition."  Some of the estimates I saw online were upwards of $6000.  (In mint/uncirculated condition, they are worth over $100,000.)

Some 1916 Mercury dimes are also worth around $1500.

Closer examination, however, reveals that our coins don't quite make the grade.  The nickel does not have the double image.  The rare Mercury dimes are from the Denver ("D") Mint.

So the value was somewhat less than we had hoped:

1916-s Buffalo Nickel:  $16.00
1925-s Buffalo Nickel:  $10.50
1916-s Mercury Dime:  $6.50
1925-s Wheat straw Penny: $0.80

We haven't yet found any value for the change purse, but I'm guessing we aren't going to sell it and fund our 401-K with it.

Okay, so maybe "riches beyond our wildest dreams" is an overstatement.  But hey, four coins worth about thirty three dollars and eighty cents?  Maybe we're starting a lucky streak.  Time to buy a lotto ticket.  I might win back my dollar investment.....

Chimney? Gone!

We reached the bottom of the chimney today.  It was an incredible amount of work, dusty and dirty and physically taxing.  But we're happy - it's so good to get it done.

The chimney, dismantled

Now that the chimney is down, there are still chimney-related tasks to do.  We have to clean out the mortar dust that is now everywhere in the house.  We have to move all the broken bricks and haul them to the dump.  Fortunately, Bill Rayno brought over his dump trailer, so all we have to do is throw the broken bricks in the back of the trailer, and they can be hauled away.

The whole, unbroken bricks have to be hauled over to MLK  Once we get them there, they will be cleaned of mortar, and then used to make the paths that lead from the sidewalk up to the stairs of each apartment.  There are plenty of bricks, so maybe we'll make some brick planters with them as well.

Looking up from the first floor to the hole in the roof

With the chimney gone, the biggest barrier to moving the house is also gone.  We can put cribbing under the house, tear off the cripple walls, and put the house on wheels.

The only thing holding us back is (what else?) permits.  More to come on that topic.

More bricks

Friday and today, I spent my time working on the chimney.  Tomás came over today to help, and we got the chimney down to the level of the first floor ceiling.

As I mentioned, the chimney is much more solid inside the house, where it was not exposed to weather. So taking it apart is more work than I had hoped it would be, but it comes apart after some heavy banging with a hammer.  The bricks separate, and then can be dropped down one of the two flues.

The only problem with this plan was that the flues both got clogged with bricks and debris while we worked in the attic.  So today, we busted a hole in the side of the chimney at the first floor level where it was clogged, and worked to clear one of the flues.

Once we finished that, we worked out a system.  Tom put a board at the bottom of the chimney flue, to catch the bricks and prevent them from shattering on the bottom of the chimney.  He would yell "CLEAR!" up the chimney, and I would drop a brick.  I would then grab another brick, while he took the first brick out of the base of the chimney.  When I was ready with the next brick, I would yell "READY!" and he would again respond "CLEAR!"

Looking up from the second floor to the attic, with half the chimney still standing (now gone)

The goal here was to prevent me from dropping a brick when Tom's hand was in the flue.  I started first by dropping all the bricks we had put in the second floor kitchen.  Then once we finished those, I started knocking apart more of the chimney, dropping it brick by brick to the basement.

The bricks on the kitchen floor (also gone)

We have taken down ⅔ of the chimney now, and so far, we both have manage to avoid broken bones.  The work is grueling, hot and incredibly dusty (coating us in both powdered mortar and soot).  But it is also very rewarding.  Getting the chimney out takes us a step closer to putting the house on wheels and getting it moving.  The old chimney chase will become the pathway for new wiring, plumbing and gas lines.

Tuesday, I'll be back at the chimney.  I'm hoping it will be gone by Thanksgiving.  That will be something to be thankful for!

More Progress, Less Chimney

I spent the day on Sunday working on the chimney.  Once I got below the level of the roof, the going got tougher: since that part of the chimney was never exposed to the weather, the mortar is in much better shape.

But even so, 112 years have taken their toll, and the chimney is still relatively easy to dismantle.  Mostly, it takes a couple taps with a hammer to dislodge the brittle mortar, and the bricks become loose.  Then I lift off the bricks, one by one.

Since I'm now working inside the attic, there is no way to throw the bricks into the side yard.  So mostly I drop the bricks down the flue, and then retrieve them in the basement.  Some have gotten stuck along the way, and will have to be dislodged when I get down to where they are wedged in the chimney.

Interestingly enough, this chimney was never lined - there are no heavy ceramic flue liners inside the two flues, which makes removing it significantly simpler.  It is just a matter of taking it down, brick by brick.

More of the same next weekend.  I hope to reach the basement in a week.

Approaching the attic floor

Building and Demolition

It's been a while since I posted any news on the blog, but that doesn't mean nothing has been happening.

On Walnut Street, we finished installing the floor over the place where the weird Psycho stairs had been.   Then we spent some time cleaning out the house, getting rid of junk, and moving some things in that we will need (notably two stoves, refrigerator, kitchen cabinets).  All those things will ride along on the move.

Meanwhile, over at Rockhead and Quarry, things are happening as well.  The building originally was a 600 sf structure, but in 1927 someone added on a weird back room (our architect friend, Susi Stadler, dubbed it "the blumpf").  It is rotting and kind of a mess, so it would have needed to be rebuilt anyway - but in the plans, we want to maximize the amount of open space, so we decided the blumpf had to go.

In order for the blumpf to go, we had to rebuild the original back wall of the building.  Most of it was there, but some of the siding had been removed before wallboard was put up (when the exterior wall became part of the interior of the blumpf).  So we bought three lap siding and rebuilt the wall, getting it weatherproof for when the blumpf comes down.

The new back wall at Rockhead and Qurry (trim under window added later)

Meanwhile, on Walnut Street, we finally started removing the old chimney.  The beautiful brick chimney had to come down because it can't be moved.  So our question was: how do we do it?

Originally, we thought we'd put a ladder up to the roof, climb up and tear it down.  But Tom and I are reluctantly realizing that, at our advanced ages, we probably don't bounce as well as we used to.  The roof of the Walnut Street house is steep, and we were worried that a 35 foot fall might not be great for ether of us.  

We thought about renting scaffolding (expensive), renting a cherry picker (EXPENSIVE!) and kept toying with various ideas.  But finally, John Dalzell, a friend who is a roofer, made an interesting suggestion: "you're going to have to patch the hole anyway, right?  Why not just cut a bigger hole to climb through?"

Brilliant in its simplicity.  So today, we went into the attic with a sawmill, and cut a hole in the roof.  Then, while Tom watched for traffic and pedestrians (just in case something slid down the roof the wrong way), I went up on the ladder and, brick by brick, pulled apart the chimney and tossed the bricks into the side yard.

The chimney was unbelievably deteriorated - it was no longer a chimney, but had become just a stack of un-mortared bricks.  I quickly realized that the one thing I couldn't do was lean against it - it wouldn't support even part of my weight.  So I carefully took each brick in hand, and heaved it over the side of the roof.

Heaving a brick over the side of the roof

It only took about 40 minutes to take the chimney down completely below the level of the roof.  Then, covered with mortar and soot, I climbed down, and Tom took over.  He climbed up with a tarp, and secured it over the opening.

Next, we hope to go back up, and install plywood over the hole we created, and install a roof hatch (so in the future, the roof can be accessed from inside the house).  We'll then re-shingle the hole and the roof will be waterproof again.  We also plan to start working on demolishing the bloomph (a job that should be doable in a day - keeping it standing would be harder.)

We also need to go over to the Kenney Cottage and do something to waterproof the front porch.  The Kenney Cottage has a large hole in the front porch roof.  Mostly, it shouldn't be a problem (since there is no porch floor below it, any water that leaks through should fall harmlessly to the ground), but we need to make sure the roof damage isn't directing the rain up against the main structure.  Keeping the Kenney Cottage stabilized is an on-going project, but we are hoping to also move it in 2016.  More on that later.

The Kenney Cottage back in May - note light shining through hole in porch roof (graffiti has been removed)

Hopefully, the rains that are due tonight will not penetrate the Walnut Street tarp. At least we're getting rain!  I was thinking today that the last winter when California got a lot of rain was the winter we moved the Cheney Cottage.  Maybe the Water Districts should pool their funds and pay us to move houses - clearly, we bring El Niño home!

Stairway to Nowhere

The Walnut Street duplex is, for the most part, well designed, with large rooms, high ceilings, and large windows letting in lots of light.  But at least one feature had to go.

In the upstairs flat, at the very back behind the kitchen, is a small odd room.  Half of it had been turned into a moldy disgusting bathroom (now removed).  The other half had a section of flooring that was hinged, and could be lifted.

When the flooring was lifted up, it revealed a set of 5 stairs, going down to the back door.  The door opened out on an old, rotted fire-escape, which we removed in July (just after another deck in Berkeley collapsed, killing 6 people).  It was an attractive nuisance that was seriously dangerous, and we were happy to be rid of it (it had to go anyway, as it couldn't go along for the move).

This left a door that potentially opened into mid-air.  Fortunately, it was boarded up, though not securely. There was a gap at the top, and light, rain (if it ever rained) and, worst of all, pigeons, were free to enter the house.

The upstairs kitchen, with light shining in over the pigeon entrance

This odd design created problems.  The stairs make that back room unusable: how can you use a room where half the floor lifts up out of the way when someone wants to come in or go out?  But the other issue is, the stairs come down in the pantry of the first floor flat, making a cramped sloped ceiling above the kitchen counter.  If the stairs were removed, a window could be placed in that room, giving a westerly view and much needed light to the downstairs kitchen (the two existing windows face north). 

So this weekend we started the process of removing the stairs.  The first step was to close up the opening for the door - which ended up being a surprising amount of work.  We opened up the old door, so we could get access to the space, and then took apart the bottom steps, so there was room to put up new sheathing on the exterior wall.  (This project also involved hauling over our incredibly heavy 35 foot extension ladder.)

Dmitri at the back door (no gay jokes please)

Then we had to remove the old door frame, and pull back the shingles to reveal the house framing.  Finally, we got some ¾" plywood to filling the gap, and nailed it to the opening, and covered it in building paper.  (We didn't bother putting in framing yet, as we want to first figure out if we are cutting into this, upstairs or down, for windows.)

The walled-up back door

The result makes the house more weather- and bird-proof.  But for the moment, we have a kind of creepy set of "Stairs to Nowhere". (If Norman Bates's mother attacked Detective Arbogast on THESE stairs, all he would do is bump his head on the new wall.)

Next weekend, we'll finish tearing out the old stairs, and put in floor joists and a new section of floor.  The weird backroom will eventually become either part of the second bathroom, or the new breakfast room.  We're taking this back room from "Psycho" to "Rear Window."

More Windows

More of the plywood has been taken down off the house, and the place is looking more and more lived in.  Here is a recent picture:

The front of the house, September 2015

Working on a house when the windows are covered with plywood is really depressing, and now the house is filled with light and fresh air.  With our recent heat waves (it's predicted to be over 90 tomorrow), having the ability to open the windows has been critical.

Additionally, the downstairs door glass has been missing for years.  The opening was boarded up, and the original window in the door was smashed when we got the house.  The door needed a lot of work, including fixing the latch and knobs, adding a lock, and putting up a security gate to keep the place locked.  So all this time, the door hasn't had a window - just an open space with a curtain in it.

Last week, I ordered a beveled glass window from a business that makes glass.  The business has the somewhat unfortunate name of "ADM SneezeGuards" and they do incredible work.  I already had gotten a large beveled glass window to replace the plastic in the door of Rockhead and Quarry - so now I turned to them to do a beveled glass window for the Walnut Street house.  They didn't disappoint me - the new glass arrived yesterday, and I installed it today.  It looks incredible, and is heavy and appropriate for the door.

The front door to the downstairs unit, with the beveled glass window (hard to see in the photo)

There are still a couple windows covered up - the ones on the street on the north side are mostly covered, to keep people from climbing in.  A broken window in the dining room is still covered, and the window the the left of the front door, which needs to be replaced with a leaded glass window.  I plan to start working on the leaded glass window soon, and will put it in once I finish it.  

The most interesting thing about the house at the moment is how manageable it all seems to me.  After moving the Cheney Cottage in two pieces, and doing a huge restoration on it, plus building a new first floor for the Delaney House, the Walnut Street house seems simple.  We need to move it, obviously, and put in a new foundation and cripple walls.  We need to rewire it and replace the plumbing; do some work on the kitchens; add second bathrooms to each unit; and install heating systems.  The floors need to be refinished, and the walls will need repair and repainting.  The porch stairs will need to be rebuilt.  There is even some paint stripping to be done (on the doors, on some of the trim).  

But none of it seems that huge. This house is going to be a snap.  (Feel free to remind me that I said this when I complain about how much work it is.)

Meanwhile, the City of Berkeley process is chugging along.  Our contact at the Permit Center has been working with Tom to figure out all the variances, and we are getting everything aligned there.  We still hope to get this through the process during the first quarter or 2016.  Once we get our permits, the house move will happen - probably right in the middle of when El Niño hits.  We haven't moved a house yet during a drought, but we seem to specialize in house moving during incredibly wet winters.  

More to come, stay tuned.

Wallpaper and Windows

Last weekend was a busy weekend on Walnut Street.

On Saturday, we got Fidel to come over and assist us in clearing out all the trash that had accumulated in the dining room upstairs from tearing out the kitchen floor.  We also finished tearing out the bathroom floor - so now all the original floors are exposed and ready to be restored.

We also started stripping wallpaper in all the rooms.  For some reason, in the second floor flat, every room was wallpapered with multiple layers of wallpaper - and then every room was painted over.  In most of the rooms, even the ceilings were wallpapered, and that includes the hallway and stairwell.  It's going to be a big job stripping all that wallpaper, but it has to be done.  In many places, the wallpaper is peeling, and, like many nonprofessional installations, the wallpaper has several places where the seems were overlapped, the paper is bulging, etc.

Surprisingly, the walls underneath the wallpaper are in pretty good condition.  Although there are some holes in the plaster, and there were many many screws, tacks and nails driven into the walls, most of the walls are reparable.  So there's no need to remove the original paster walls - we'll just have to patch them all.

Underneath the wallpaper, we found copies of the Berkeley Gazette and the San Francisco Chronicle, all dated from September 1950.  There was older wallpaper beneath that, but the last layer - the latter that was subsequently painted - was installed in 1950.

We don't know what most of the wallpaper looked like, but in the south parlor, there had been a closet or bookshelf installed before the walls were painted.  Although that shelf has been removed, no one ever painted over the exposed paper, so we can see what the paper in that room looked like.

Wallpaper in south parlor

And in the stairwell, we can see the two papers that were installed, one over a now-removed picture rail, the other underneath.

I also started fixing the windows in the house.  There was only one window left that had no glass at all, the south window bottom sash in the south parlor.    The window is large, and the glass needed is 41" long by 31 ½ inches high.  Installing it was a little nerve wracking: handling ⅛" glass that large always feels like it is about to shatter from its sheer weight.  However, with some care, I got it installed, and secured in place with glazier's points and window glazing.

Every time I restore windows, I marvel at how wonderfully simple they are, and how much fun they are to repair.  I detailed how to do that in the 62nd Street blog, but in this house, it is complicated by the size of the windows.  One of the windows I dismantled and repaired today is the east wind in the south parlor.  The glass in that window is almost 5 feet wide, and the window weights are huge.  In fact, the weights are so large, I couldn't take them out of the weight pockets via the access doors - the weights are too long to fit through, and I had to remove the interior trim to get to them.  Even though two of the weights still had the ropes on them, I went ahead an replaced all four ropes, hoping that I won't have to do THAT particular job again any time soon.  Of course, the east window in the north parlor is the same size, so I'll have the same problem next weekend.

I also spent time scrubbing the bathroom sink, which was filthy and rusty.  There's still some rust to be removed, but it will come out, and the sink really is beautiful.  With the clawfoot tub, it will make the bathroom look as it did in 1903 when the house was new.

The bathroom sink, on the way to being clean

I also removed graffiti and stickers from the pebbled glass window in the bathroom door.  Now the door lets light flow from the bathroom in (and vice versa).  With the windows uncovered and the glass cleaned, the pebbled glass glows in the sunlight, for the first time in years.

 The bathroom door, looking into the hall (left) and in from the hall (right)

The worst part about working in the house is that it is just so dirty - everything is covered with years of dirt.  I spent time brushing off all the surfaces today, so at least all the dirt is on the floors.  I've been sweeping the floors like mad, but there's still dirt.  In the south parlor, I finally mopped the room, and the difference was dramatic.  Next weekend, I hope to sweep up as much dirt as I can, then wash not only the rest of the floors, but also the trim and window ledges.  As I take each window out to fix the weights and ropes, I am washing the windows themselves, and having clean windows is a big change.

Light and Airy

Yesterday, with the temperature at 91º, we uncovered the rest of the windows on the second floor of the Walnut Street house.

Taking down the plywood (actually sheets of OSB) isn't easy.  The sheets are heavy, and keeping them under control while lowering them down from the second floor is tricky.

So we came up with a system:  I would screw a handle onto the inside of the plywood, which gave me something to hold on to.  Once that was in place, Tom removed all the screws from the plywood, and then got out of the way.  Using the handle, I could maneuver the sheets until they were lying on the ladder - and then I'd let them slide down.

The results are amazing.  The flat is totally filthy, but we can actually see it now, and working in it will be much more pleasant.  I also opened all the windows and aired out years of mustiness.  Even on the hottest day of the year, there was a breeze blowing through the flat, which kept it cool.

The house is coming back to life.

Here are a few photos:

The bathroom 

Dining room looking to back bedroom (the toilet is being hauled away) 

The dining room (the pile of debris is mostly the old disgusting vinyl floor from the kitchen) 

The front and back parlors

The north bedroom

Next up: Repairing/restoring all the windows, and removing the kitchen chimney.

Repairing Pocket Door Locks

I spent the day yesterday working on the locks for the pocket doors at the house on Walnut Street.  It was a wonderful day.

I have always loved old pocket doors.  They are surprisingly complex and interesting in design, and wonderful in function.  They create a way of closing off a room without losing floor/wall space by having to accommodate the swing of doors.

The Walnut Street house has 5 pocket doors - one set of double doors and three individual (large!) pocket doors.  They've all been abused, and none of the locks worked.  So yesterday, I spent the day taking them apart, removing years of paint from the beautiful brass, and making sure everything worked.  Then I reinstalled them.

Ever wonder how a pocket door lock works?  Here's a description:

The mechanism for the pocket door handle and lock

The lock and handle set fits into the edge of the door, so you can pull the door out of its pocket, and so you can close off a room and actually lock it.  To pull the door out, you press the button at the bottom front edge of the lock (A).  The button moves the lever (B) that holds the handle (D) in place. When the lever moves out of the way, there is a spring (C - hard to see) that pops the handle out, so the door can be pulled open.  When finished moving the door, the handle is pushed back into the lockset, and the lever again holds it in place.

To lock the door once it is closed, a skeleton key is inserted into the keyhole (E).  The key moves the back bar (F) and forces it up, which disengages a wedge (G) from the main bar.  The main bar (H) then is pushed forward by the key and forces the lock lever (I) out and into the plate on the opposite door (or on the wall, if it is a single door).  This prevents the door from being moved back until a key is reinserted and turned back to move the lock back out of the way.

Pretty ingenious, and yet relatively simple.  The locks don't require any grease or oil, and once I cleaned the years of paint and gunk out of them, they work smoothly - ready for another 100+ years of service.  (Note that the picture was taken before I disassembled the mechanism, so all the paint etc was gone by the time I put the cover back on and reinstalled it in the door.)

Fixing old mechanical things: I highly recommend it.  It uses a part of my brain that I don't get to use much while at my paid gig, and can be deeply satisfying.

Next up: front door locks, and fixing weights/ropes/pulleys in windows.  Can't wait!

Let There Be Light

There's nothing like light to brighten up your day.

Working in a boarded-up house is always an unpleasant experience.  The Walnut Street house has no electricity, no running water, no heat.  Even on warm days, it has a feeling of coldness, and it feels dank.  Many of the details are hard to see.

The house is boarded up because squatters have been a problem.  Both apartments have, at various times, been occupied by uninvited guests.

The first floor apartment was being accessed through one of the living room windows.  Although most were covered with boards, one was left uncovered at the bottom half, and someone climbed up, broke the glass and went in.  The house had a lot of trash, including many needles, strewn about the place.

The upstairs was being accessed by the back stairway.  The stairs were made of wood, and in deteriorated condition.  Considering the access they potentially provided, and the fact that the City has so recently had a balcony tragedy, I decided to tear the back steps off the house.

15 minutes later, the stairs were gone.  I'd like to say that I have amazing physical prowess, but the reality is: those steps were rotted beyond belief.  As I struck them with a hammer from below, the steps disintegrated.  So taking down the back stairway was surprisingly easy.

Now that the stairway was gone, we felt that getting into the upstairs would be relatively difficult for anyone who wasn't supposed to be there. So we took some of the plywood off the upstairs windows, to allow us to see inside and really get a sense of the house.  We uncovered several windows, and threw them open to let fresh air blow through the flat.

The upstairs flat is beautiful.  It has 10 foot ceilings, lots of interesting detail, and has a charming feel to it.  We've been revising our thoughts on how we want to change it, and w probably are going to make minimal changes.  The flat is just too nice as it is, even in its current deteriorated condition.

The back bedroom

Looking toward the living room

The dining room

The kitchen

The north wall, with some windows uncovered

Meanwhile, the plans are done and the permits have been submitted to the City of Berkeley.  Now the fun begins: zoning adjustment board hearings, variances, and pushing to get the permits to move the house.  

This weekend, the security fence finally goes up out front, which will help us keep people from camping out and moving their bowels in the driveway (yuck!) and letting their dogs do the same.  Most of the trash has been removed, and we will soon need to remove the chimney.  

This house is going places!

Sweat Equity

It was hot today in Berkeley,   Well, maybe not that hot, but it was hot in the Walnut Street house.

I spent the day pulling staples and tackless strips (those wooden strips they use to hold carpet down that are, despite the name, FULL of tacks) out of the floors in the three bedroom, the living room and the hall.  Since there is no electricity, and the windows are all boarded up, much of this was done in semi-darkness or by the light of a single battery-operated lantern.

It's the kind of work that I find both exhausting and deeply satisfying.  I think what I love most about all the house restoration work that we do is that it is so gratifying - there are immediate results.  You spend several hours on your knees (wearing knee pads), pulling out nails and staples, and then you sweep up the mess, and the floor looks completely different.  Unlike most of the work I do at the office, this is work that has a pretty fast result.

Even though we don't have permits yet, there are many things that can get done.  We can start roughing in wiring; remove the old galvanized plumbing; removing the chimney.  We're figuring out how heating and sprinkler systems will be run.  We're planning how to rebuild the porches, which wood is still usable, what needs to be replaced.

The new project marches forward.

Back in Business

It's been a while since the last post, but once again, the project stalled.  But now, after much work, we have finally taken possession of the keys to the new house, and are filing for our permits this week.

The house is amazing.  Even though it's boarded up, and has no electricity and no running water, it's clear that it's going to be a wonderful place once we're done.  It has two flats, each of which may be as many as 4 bedrooms.  The rooms are pretty large and (once the boards come off the windows) they have large windows and lots of light.  The ceilings are high (10 feet).  The windows downstairs are 4 over 1. The upstairs windows are either 4,7 or 8 over 1, and all have the upper sash with an "X" pattern. It's a pretty great house.

We went in last weekend and cleaned - mostly the first floor unit, since squatters had gotten in and had been living there. We threw away numerous needles, lots of trash and debris, and secured the house so no one can get in.  We also cleaned out the driveway, put up a chain to keep people from parking there, and generally made sure people know that it is NOT an abandoned house.

Here are some photos from last week:

The front porch of the downstairs unit

The living room downstairs

Getting ready to remove the carpets

The mantle downstairs

Purple bedroom upstairs

Back bedroom upstairs

Upstairs living room

Upstairs pocket doors

Another bedroom upstairs

East bedroom

Today, we spent a wonderful day there - we're exhausted but happy.  Bill Rayno brought over his huge dump trailer and truck, we hired a couple guys to help, and we cleaned all the junk out of the basement (now completely empty), ripped up all the wall-to-wall carpeting and pads, and got a lot of work done.  We hauled away the disgusting stove and refrigerator, and (once again) did NOT find a bag of gold hidden away.  Oh well, maybe next house.

Bill's truck and trailer, headed for the dump and recycling center

Among other things, I counted how many outlets there are in the first floor unit: each bedroom has one, the living room has one, the hall has zero, the parlor has zero, the bathroom has zero, the kitchen has 4 and the laundry room has one.  1700 sf apartment, and there are 9 outlets.  The bathroom doesn't even have an overhead light, and the rooms that do have overhead lights generally only have one switch - even where there are multiple doors.

This is going to be a big project, but the house, like our other houses, is speaking to us - telling us its history, what i can be, what it needs.   We're making plans for running new wiring, for replacing the galvanized plumbing pipes, and for adding a heating system.  The floors will be refinished, pocket doors fixed, and lots and lots of painting.  All those beautiful windows will be removed, restored and put back in place.  We'll also be installing two new systems: hardwired smoke detectors, and a sprinkler system.  

Not sure why we love this so, but we do.  It's going to be a great project.