Afraid of Bugs – Tales from the Homestead of Casa Chihuahua

Part One -

Here are shots from the weekend – drywall went up and the rest of the windows got put in place.

keeping it covered

pink stuff in (check) and drywall going up (check)

the den starts to come together – again Inca trying to “help”

the open space around the old window and the large crack in the external wall (in the upper right hand corner)

the guys, hard at work on finishing the ceiling

Friday was pretty much dedicated to removing the old windows and hammering out the stucco around the old window casings.  It was dusty and loud – but pretty neat to see what was involved in getting the openings prepped.  We also had the floor re-finisher pop by and he stuck in a strip of wood along side the wall to fill a gap left when they pulled down the lath, plaster and molding of the old wall.

you can see a unfinished strip of wood all the way to the right -that’s the new piece.

on thursday they dropped off the insulation and drywall – which started to go up on the ceiling friday and saturday – the walls will be done today.

the courtyard window after they busted out the stucco.

One of the guys working on the landing window -

a nice view from under the window

close up of the old window opening

Inca insisted on helping out.

stress cracks in the plaster that ended up running down to the floor- a big job just got a teeny bit bigger.

the old windows

the guest room getting prepped

But almost there.

Over the past year I’ve had a variety of problems with my old computer.  It was an old G4 tower that was my work computer at my old job.  When they closed down the SF office – we were allowed to take our computers as a parting gift – “thanks for playing”.

It served me well for a almost 6 years before it stated going haywire….loud ticking sounds, a fan that sounded like it was a helicopter and then the constant unannounced power failures…shutting down after 5-10 minutes.  Last October it really went down and I thought i had lost everything – but after some major surgery – Jesse was able to resurrect the computer by installing a new drive.  I lost alot of my addresses, my music and my bookmarks – but he managed to save a lot of the important stuff – which was amazing.  It kept me online through our the excitement of buying the house but by February it was back to it’s old tricks -and would shut down after a few minutes of being on.

For the past, i’d say, 3 months i would turn my computer on for a second to pay a bill and would immediately shut it down – trying not to further damage the remaining files….it became a real pain in the butt.

But YAH!!! that’s all changed!!

For my birthday J got me a new computer!!! A lovely new MacBook Pro and it is the best tool/toy a girl could ask for! I love it (and him) very much!

still fresh in the box!

waking up for the first time!

The computer makes everything so much easier and its amazing how much i use it for – not having a reliable home computer, while i managed, certainly cramped my style.  I still need to set up my email accounts but am otherwise up and running (and why there has been a steady stream of blog posts).

Meanwhile, last Sunday, Sam finished up the electrical in the den- i’ve dropped just 2 more photos of that.

thankfully, Sam put a ton of foam around the old terracotta vent in the den – to keep out future spider invaders.

the new electric boxes for one of the closet lights and the pug outlet for the projector screen

room already for phase 3 – insulation, windows and sheetrock

and a photo of tender little jack -sleeping on his sheepskin

Behind the scenes

Last saturday and sunday all the wiring went in.  Sam came and placed all new electrical, HDMI and speaker cable into the walls – and gave us tons of outlets.  We had to figure out the sconce placement so he could put in the boxes and also the bookcase height and placement for all the component jacks and plugs.  Originally we were going to put the bookcase along the side wall but once i put the “tape couch” on the floor friday night i quickly realized we would either have to put the couch off-center in the room or move the bookcase idea elsewhere.  The built-in bookcase will now be behind the couch with all the components and CD drawers – its a better solution than the original idea and will allow for better movie viewing (at least that’s the plan).

We ran down to a lighting store on La Brea and ordered these sconces on saturday afternoon – we should have them by this coming wednesday – in time for the walls to go up.  We wanted something that would suit the house, be kinda theater like and had a slim profile – it was hard to find just the right thing, but this is pretty close.

While on La Brea we discovered this store- OMG was it amazing!!!  Liz’s has a wall dedicated to antique key hole plates and they re-enamal and re-plate original items as well.  I’m definitely going back when we get to the “details” stage of things.

This is where the bookcase/AV stuff will go – as well as the projector.  You can see the new electrical (yellow wire) going in.

Electrical and boxes for the wall sconces – as well as speaker cable.

And here’s a a look at the external crack in the wall that was hiding behind the tar paper.  It looks like it was much bigger and they attempted to fill it at one point.

And a look at it with no flash – so you can see how much it was open to the outsie.

And lastly – the crack all the way up to the roof line – that little white dot in the upper center is sunlight (or rain) coming down into the house for who knows how long.  It’s amazing there wasn’t more damage in the walls.

Hey, watch it, i’m talking about the walls!

Last Friday the old lath and plaster came down.  I couldn’t stay home to see the process but certainly enjoyed coming home to see the progress.  One interesting discovery was a crack in the external stucco that basically was open to the wood and also created a small but noticeable hole in the roof line.  Luckily we don’t get alot of rain here – but just because the crack has probably existed for a while, there are signs of a fair amount of water damage.  I guess that’s a benefit of having the walls all open, so you can discover these types of things and fix them.

studs exposed – sadly no money hidden in the walls

a super gross giant spider web that was strong enough to hold chunks of plaster

the street side window between the closets

surprisingly enough the tar paper was still in really good condition!

my attempt at art – “light of lath” – uh, right….never mind

jack demanding that the new TV room have a very large, very low couch for just him

J standing in his dream room with 2 of the pups

Saturday morning – just before the rewiring began.  Btw – the black tape on the floor to the left side of the photo represents the couch to be – can’t you just see it?  Only problem will be if we can get a 89″ couch through the door.

courtyard side of the room

6 new windows ready to be installed!

stage 2 of the transformation- so far so good!

Our first major remodel project (otherwise known as the painful lesson in what to remember to ask about first, what to expect and what can go wrong)

So this was last thursday night.  We knew demo was starting on friday morning – but we still had alot of stuff piled up in the room that needed removing.  Jesse spent most of the afternoon transferring stuff to the extra bedroom and our bedroom but by 8pm there was still much to do.

Here you can see the assorted books, cds and dvd that remained.  We hadn’t done anything to this room when we moved in because we knew this would be our first major project – and over the past 6 months the room became a storage area of sorts…

Here the room almost empty and the first failed attempt at picking a wall color (see small paint swatches taped to the wall)  I think i was trying to match the decrepit dirty old wall color or something.  I’ve since come to my senses.

The roof and fan – which will soon be transformed.  I loved the look of the wood planks and beams but this is basically the support directly below the tar paper and tiles – which made for a VERY poorly insulated room.  Kinda defeats the purpose of having spendy Low-E windows if you have a crap ceiling.

This is where the room (over decades of settling) had separated from the main house a bit.  Theres a nice big crack all the way up to the ceiling.

Mind the gap – soon to be gone.

A ridiculous attempt by me to trompe l’oeil the bookcase and sconces in the room – to see how much space we’d need….i’m actually glad i did this because by the time i woke up on saturday i had changed the plan and it was a much better solution.  Note to self – do not do any major permanent or expensive planning at 11pm

The morning of demo – right before it all came down.

Say good-bye to the plaster and broken windows.

the closet doors – which are staying – just getting a good scrub and a clean coat of paint.

one last shot of the room…

What do you do on your day off?

Well, i’m home, leisurely drinking coffee and chomping on a baguette with butter…but that’s just in preparation for what i plan to do today!  I foresee laundry, ironing, sweeping, mopping and scrubbing – and i know this is probably sick – but i’m actually REALLY excited to do it!  We have our handyman here today with some help and they’ll begin busting up the stucco outside the den windows and will proabably begin putting up the sheetrock in the den as well.  The floor guy will also be by, to do some small repairs to the floor before the walls go up – so it will certainly be a day of transformations!

just a little list check-in…

• layout the wiring schematic for the room and order necc. cable (done)
  
• plan out storage and cabinet footprint and placement (done)
• pick out and order 4 sconces
• start researching black out shade options still working on this one….
  
• pick out a stain color for wood trim still working on this one….
• pick out a paint color for the walls and for the ceiling & beams done, going with a coppery shade with some saffron accents
  
• book the floor refinisher getting the guest room AND den done the week of the 17th
  
• order CD storage cabinets
• find a cabinet maker still need to find someone good…
  
• order the switch plates  ordering today
  
• order the projector screen

Electric Bugaloo. (i know, i use that alot)

In preparation for our 4th of July gathering, we decided to finally buy a grill.  J did some great research on Consumer Reports and then went into some BBQ groups on-line and got some good additional info there. We wanted a mid-range grill – with easy clean-up – and good even heat…and this is what we ended up with! It’s a Char-Broil Red from Home Depot.

Here’s Bob supervising the assembly of the grill.  We had to take the screen out of the dining room window and lift it out the window as it is too wide for the deck door.

J getting ready to attach the next part.

“okay, just so we’re clear here…..the only reason why i’m helping is because you’re going to cook meats on this thing, right!?”

Inca showing more interest in the succulents than the BBQ

J attaching the gas line to the side burner.

tada!

and because I know you didn’t get enough photos of the deck furniture before – here’s another one.

okay, one last photo – here’s my new toy.  our friend who owns Monkey House was selling them in her gallery/store and i had to have one.  it took me a couple of days to get the hang of it again – but its been all hulahooping fun from here on out (and its good cardio!)

Can I have it?

We’ve moved more boxes into the living room from our storage unit – and in the process of moving stuff around -  we opened up the futon/couch.

The dogs very quickly discovered it was really just a giant dog bed.