"Renovating is hard work"

... is the one thing that our Realtor told us when we came upon the house. It was intended as a warning, but to be honest, it was more like a challenge.

Now neither I nor my husband are novices at home repair, having swung our fair share of hammers at walls and worked on our parents respective homes. Neither of us are afraid of blood, sweat, or tears.

Actually, the prospect of working on a house has a romantic quality to it, as both our grand parents, and parents are the sort of hard-scrabble folk who had built their own homes... so we should be able to as well. One of the nice things about romance is that you can sometimes forget the bad and see only the good.

The house was...well...what we could see was reasonable, and the foundation and substructures were sound. There was work... no doubt, house and the land had been laying fallow for more than two years.

Now homes, unlike dirt, need constant attention. When not lived in, homes have the tendency to degrade, as there is no one in them keeping them lit, warm and clean. Little things like spiders, mice, birds and rats notice immediately when there is no human occupying a house, and are quick to take up residence. After the animals comes nature, doing its best to reclaim the land. Unfortunately the house wasn't sealed well, and the spiders have evolved and managed to stake their claim... along with the Rats. Thankfully there wasn't any O.K. corral showdown, but we have had our share of angry rebukes from the 'tenants.' The land... well it's been a couple of very dry years, so the one cactus plant has happily flourished whereas the Meyer lemon tree is shriveled and quite thirsty.

Standing back and looking at the house... we knew that there were some things that needed to be done, immediately.

The roof, needs to be replaced. It has 4 layers.

You may be asking yourself... why does 4 layers matter? The "standard" is one layer. Think about it mathematically, (my brother in-law explained it best), Consider that the standard slate shingle weighs approximately .5 lb per shingle. Now a 25 x 40 shaped house is approximately 1000 sq ft for the roof alone. Now .5 lb times 1000 means it probably 500 lbs to cover a house's roof. Multiply that by 4. Remem

ber that roof framing (with 2x4's being the 'standard') have a stress point of maybe around 600-700 lb's. So by this point we've far exceeded that weight.

Plus, once you stand back and look at the roof from a distance, the house actually looks a bit 'squashed' under the weight of the roof.

2. The "cripple" wall on the north east corner. Unfortunately the wall has some severe dry-rot and needs to be replaced.

...and that was it for the "original plan."

By the way, we've since moved on from plan A to B, to C...

The House

As I have mentioned before this house needs some love. On the surface the house looked as if all it needed some cosmetic work. Upon further inspection it needed a whole lot more.

Due to the state of the banking industry in the past year there has been a lot of turbulence in neighborhoods. I would say around mid-2008 the number of foreclosures increased dramatically. On top of the new foreclosures, Oakland does have pockets where homes were sitting empty because they were too pricey for people to buy due to the speculation of the past 5 years. As a result of all of the “flippers” and other speculators, during the "housing bubble" many of these homes were not remotely worth the asking price.

The situation on the streets had been brewing for months, properties in previously undesirable locations and homes selling for near a million dollars sat empty. What does this have to do with my house? Let me tell you.

When you have a whole legion of houses that have been laying empty for extended amounts of time you have some common side affects, vandalism and theft. I have seen this multiple times. If a house sits empty for any extended amount of time, people are going to make use of it whether they are supposed to or not. Things like squatting and looting become prevalent. The best way to say it is people went shopping.





Some one took the garbage disposal.
(I did not know they where sought after items)










Washing my face will be a challenge... no vanity or sink.






I am not sure of the actual culprits. I will not blame it on the neighborhood because that does not seem fair. Some of this could have been done by the previous occupants. I can tell you this though: someone did not behave very nicely.

Of particular of notice to me were the acts of minor of vandalism. As you can see in the above photo the garbage disposal was removed. Someone in their need for a hasty exit, left then the water on. It was not a shooting geyser but rather a gentle but STEADY spring of a bout a .10 of an ounce per minute. This may not seem like very much water but believe me is adds up over time. Imagine every hour you walked into your kitchen and poured a tall coffee (Starbucks size) onto the floor. If one were to do this 24 hours a day it would be about 7 gallons per week (mind you this is my best guess by eyeballing it.) Needless to say the sub floor and the cabinets where ruined. It had also leaked into the basement below and rotted some of the wood in the wall. The basement below had a fair amount of stagnant water in it including one of the light fixtures. At the time of discovery my brother and I turned off the water at the main so it can at least dry out. Needless to say the damage was done.

Also during the time of its listing it was real-estate agents and building inspectors left their mark as well (ripped up carpet and holes punched in drywall.) With all of this it did not seem so bad. Fix a couple of thing s and move right in right? Well yes and no…

About the blog

I write this to entertain, amuse, and inform. My goal is that someone can benefit from the discoveries and experiences that my wife Kira and I are enjoying. It is always nice to be able to avoid missteps, so I offer my mistakes to aid others. I think through collaborative participation we can all have deeper understanding of the world we live in.

I believe that that the true beauty in life in the aggregate of human experience. The more we participate the more there is for others to enjoy. Here is my contribution to that.

So My wife and I bought this house...

My wife and I bought a house. We had been searching for some time. For those of you who are familiar with the SF bay area, you’ll understand me when I say this... it was a long and arduous journey.

We had been searching since 2004 so we have looked at easily more than100 homes. When we began looking at houses it was at the high water mark of the housing madness. When we finally managed to find our house the search ended at bottom of the housing bubble… or at least that is where we believe where we are.

Incidentally, it is misnomer to say that there is no one buying out there, because somebody IS in fact buying houses. Since the “Great Bank Meltdown of 2008” prices have gotten much more reasonable, so homes that were previously unattainable have become reasonable. In addition there is a lot open inventory out there, depending on where you looking to live and what you want to pay?

During our Saga, I remember being outbid at least 8 times and two of those occurrences where in between 2008 and now. During the worst of the bidding wars, my wife would submit offers to homes, sight-unseen, just to make sure that we could get our foot in the door with the sellers.

Even through all of this turbulence with financing and layoffs there were still five and six bids on houses. We had bid on a home and we where outbid (again) and we where just about to give up and but really liked the area. So we did one more half hearted search and my wife found something interesting.

About 6 months ago she found this little place. I am not expert on architectural styles and classifications but my wife calls it a cottage. It was built in 1929, it was about the size we where looking for, and needed some work. After getting the opportunity to visit the house we quickly became very enamored with the place and the best part…. It was CHEAP. As with all things that are cheap there are things there are caveats. Aside from the shady listing agent, funky bank rules, and escrow drama, we did get the house.

This house has been though a lot since 1929 and it really needs some love. We are going to put some time and love into this place and this is our story.

Rat Dung in the rafters.

26-Sep -09
Today we climbed into the rafters to tear down the ceiling in the kitchen and the bedrooms. It was hot day in Oakland today about 80+ degrees. It was even hotter in the gable of the house. By my estimates it was at least 100 degrees if not more. The removal of the ceiling was not that difficult, technically or physically, but the conditions made the job difficult. The Batt style insulation was in relatively bad condition. A good portion of the insulation had been used as rat’s nests and lavatory. Once the air circulation hit the feces and dried urine a very putrid stench began to emanate from it.There was also no catwalk installed, so old planks were used to substitute until I can install one.

In conjunction with removing the ceiling we also started removing the walls in the blue and purple/pink room.

I had the help of Sterling, Leo and Jerrold and my wife Kira.
Approximate labor time 7 hours.

Tile in the old kitchen

24-Oct-09

We extracted the tile in the old kitchen. This operation proceeded much faster than expected. We were able to completely remove all of the tile and material beneath it in about 3 hours. The tile in the add-on section was removed as well. With the spare time where able to begin extracting the tile on the bathroom walls. That was particularly difficult to remove. The plywood that was placed below the tile was installed very well. So getting down to the studs was very labor intensive.

The tile in question.

Note:

Beneath the ceramic tile was a material called Hardiback it was fastened to the sub floor by screws (lots of them.) We used the spade to get the material Hardiback up but the screws remain. Damn.

I had the help of my wife Kira, Leo, cousin Sterling, and brother Jerrold

Estimated labor time 6 hours.

MVP Tool Spade

The front room

Sun 18-Oct-09

Went into the rafters and dismantled all of the electrical wiring on in the front area of the house. The plaster ceiling in the living room was also removed.


There were redwood planks inside of the wall. The redwood planks were used to even out the plaster on the top and the drywall on the bottom. These were also removed. The previous owner used drywall over the plaster in this room. I am not completely sure why. It does however lead to a possible problem concerning finishing.


That fact that there was plaster and drywall on top of each other it has left a 2 inch gap between the hardwood floor and the base plate. I am not sure if the drywall and the baseboard will cover the gap when I am refinishing the room.



In removing the plaster, drywall, and lumber at the front window it revealed the water damage below the center window. The wood is stained but does not look or feel rotted. I will examine more closely at another time. I do believe that the window will have to be removed and reset to insure proper sealing.


In the same area as the window, once we removed all of the finishing, it revealed some gaps in the framing of the structure. This would explain the draftiness of the home. This will also have to be corrected.

Workers

I had the help of my Father and Leo


Labor time 8Hours




MVP Tool: Framing hammer

Screws a plenty

Sat 17-Oct-09
We spent the day removing nails and screws from the wall studs and ceiling joists in the blue room and in the Purple/pink room. These rooms are now completely free of nails and screws. This was aided by the efforts of my dear aunt Elouise. (who is incidentally 70+) We also removed the last of the plaster in front room. The ceiling has not been removed, that will be saved for a later date.
Estimated labor time 6.5 Hours

The thing about removing drywall is the screws or nails are left. The builder before me whom we affectionately refer to as "him" used both. There where plenty to remove.

What frustrated me and pretty much everyone else was the alteration between nail and screw. There was little consistency between the two. The spacing was also inconsistent along the joists and spacers, sometimes being 6" apart, sometimes nails and screws as close as 1" to each other.




My wonderful aunt helping out. She was incredibly diligent in making sure that the walls were clear of any and all nails

MVP Tool of the Day The Dewalt

Invaluable for removing screws in tight spaces, or overhead on the joists. Especially because it weighs approximately 1+ lb, and has an adjustable head and quick release for the bit. Compare this tool to the other hand-held battery powered screwdriver which weighs approximately 5+ lbs (without battery, with batter 8+ lbs) and does not have an adjustable head or quick release for fast changes of the bit.

Storm Day

Tuesday 13-Oct-09

A very hard rain throughout the Bay Area this past couple of days. I went to the house with Leo to board up the broken window in the add-on section of the house. This was also the room that held the fiberglass insulation. We stored it there in the hopes that we might be able to reuse it. Unfortunately, the insulation had gotten wet and smelled really bad! I am leaning toward disposing of all of the insulation due to the horrid stink that it produces.

I inspected the roof and found some minor leakage. Thankfully a majority of the leaking is not under the main section of the house. There are some minor areas, the front left wall (facing the house) that showed signs of leaking. From what I can see the leaks are from the cracks in the siding of the house. I will need to examine this further. However the addition in the rear of the house did leak, and left a 1/4" puddle in the basement against the south-east corner of the floor.

What it does confirm is that the roof over the main section of the house isn't leaking, and that it is only the construction of the addition that was primarily faulty. There is a larger issue here that we will eventually need to deal with.

A window was mistakenly left open in the front room and the floor underneath it was wet. I wiped the water off of the hardwood floor and hoped that is would not be damaged.


Labor Time 1.5 hours

Demolition: Front Room

10-Oct-090

We continued removing the plaster in the front room. We made decent progress with the help of my cousin Sterling. 90% of the drywall and plaster has been removed from the walls. Lath slats were left in place to minimize the mess on the floor. The lathe is easy to remove and can be taken down when the dumpster arrives. The ceiling was left intact.

Labor time 7 hours.