Gutted

My friend Janice came over the other day and told me that I hadn't told her that we were going to gut the whole front part of our house. I guess that's because I had never thought of it that way. We moved some walls, took down cabinetry and dry wall to get to the electrical.... but she's right, our house is gutted. Down to the 2x4s. Doesn't get any more gutted than that. Kinda scary. Here's what remains of the kitchen, the cabinets and sink have been removed. We still have a working refrigerator and stove though.


All of the subfloor in the entry had to get torn out too. When the weight bearing wall came out, we discovered that the floor in the carport-turned- entry area was not level with the floor on the other side of the wall in the living room (which is on a slab). So the entry floor got pulled out and redone.


But things are starting to go back together. The pantry and laundry areas got framed yesterday, yeah!



And things keep getting added to the list. The plumber came the other day to check things out and he pointed out that our gas pipe runs through our slab. About 2 weeks ago, he had been called out about another house on our street - their gas pipe in their slab had rusted out and there was a gas leak in the house and the whole house had to have the gas shut off. He suggested that we shut off that line through the slab and run everything over the roof to the furnace and our new gas fireplace insert. We have seen this on other houses on our street so we are going to go ahead and convert to this to avoid problems down the line.

Tomorrow we drive to Phoenix to pick up 3000+ lbs. of kitchen cabinetry and wardrobes from Ikea. Wish us luck! ;-)

Austin Show

I'm back in Texas this week - went to a fab show at the Blanton Museum in Austin called Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury. If you're in the area, check it out. It's got furniture, paintings, great graphic Art and Architecture magazine covers, art pottery, album covers, photographs of those wonderful Case Study houses (including this famous photo by Julius Shulman of Case Study house #22, my dream house)..... even old cartoons of Gerald McBoing Boing. A lovely museum and a great show.

Saturday Fun

John gives us a little tour of the new empty space!

The Beam is In

Well, the beam is up! Here it is being held in place by a scissor-lift type thing - they used that to lift the 1200 lb., 32' beam into place.

One end of the beam was originally supposed to be supported by the masonry on the edge of the fireplace but we ended up having a problem. We always knew that the fireplace was made of a crappy pumice block - but it had holes in it that could be filled like concrete block and they had just planned on filling them with pillars of concrete which would provide the needed structural support. However, on closer inspection, it was discovered that when they built the house, it looked like junk had been thrown down into these holes that needed to be filled with concrete. For example, there was a chunk of concrete wedged about halfway down one of the columns that needed to be filled. So, we decided that this end of the masonry would just have to be removed completely and a post inserted for support. So they sawed out the masonry and then fitted the beam in.

Here's another shot where you can see the steel plate in the slab that was added to spread out the weight of the post/ beam over a broader area of the stem wall.


And here's how it looks with the post in place.



Another thing that had to be done before the beam went into place was that each and every rafter had to be fitted to sit correctly and snugly on the beam.

Now the beam is in and it looks terrific. All of the support posts for all of the rafters are now out and we have one big space. The support post in front of the kitchen is where the kitchen island will be.

So, to recap - the wall used to be right down the center of this space, under where the beam is now. Our plans call for a smaller entry (and door to be moved to the left). You can see the clothes dryer - that was in a weird hallway space outside of the laundry area. New laundry and pantry will be expanded towards entry area. However, pantry and laundry area won't even protrude as far into entry as currently shown because weird hallway dryer was in is gone. Entry closet that was behind dryer, facing door, is also gone (to be moved to wall on left).

Here's the current door situation. Where new windows will go is in blue tape!

The contractor is on vacation now for spring break with the family but he is basically done with this phase of the remodel. When he gets back, he will custom fabricate some metal brackets to anchor the rafters firmly to the beam. In the meantime, we're ready for the second contractor to come and start doing what he can. We still have details to iron out on the final plan but things are starting to finally come together. Don't know how long this project will take, we will have that discussion with the second contractor next visit. I am guessing it'll be a 2 to 3 month project based on other remodeling work we've had done. Hoping to have it finished so we can enjoy our new space this summer.

A few other random notes-

>Had a scary electrical situation uncovered in the kitchen wall last week. Sparks flying, short circuits, that sort of thing. Very happy to be redoing the electrical.

>We took out the carpet in the hallway and the guest bath (shag carpet in the bath is kinda creepy imho). Removed all flooring in the living room, kitchen, laundry, and pantry as well. Uncovered many old types of flooring including lots of old linoleum. The house has a strange echo-y quality now, especially the bathroom. Even though some of the old linoleum is kinda cool, most is not, and every room had a different color and pattern. Crazy.

>The coolest tool in the world is a laser level. John is now saying he has to have one. You can get a self leveling laser level at Sears for something like 89 bucks that projects a true horizontal beam as well as a true vertical beam - very handy in this remodel involving posts and beams.

>It's freaky seeing them dig a trench in my living room- they concrete-sawed through the slab in order to run a heating duct into our new entryway. Then they dug down a bit through the dirt underneath. Mind-blowing to see wheelbarrows of dirt being dug out of your former living space.

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down

So much has happened in the last week. We have been planning a major remodel and it finally got started. The main thing we wanted to accomplish was to remove a weight bearing wall that separates the living room from the oversized entryway to open up the living room. Of course, one thing leads to another and all kinds of other stuff got added to the project - moving the front door into the new, smaller, entry area; moving the walls of the laundry and pantry area to make them bigger; adding some windows; and re-doing the kitchen.

We have done some remodelling work ourselves but this project was too massive for us to tackle. We originally thought we'd do the kitchen part ourselves but in the end, we just decided to have a contractor do it. The first contractor was only able to do part of the work, so we have two contractors lined up to do the job. So far, it's all been great. People have been recommending other people for various jobs and it turns out that most of them are people we know through our business. They are all a great bunch and I have never ever felt so good about a remodel before.

Anyway, the first step was to get the weight bearing wall out. To do this, they have to prop up each and every rafter in the living room and entry and then take the wall out. Then a giant beam gets installed, which is supported by a post on one end and the masonry of the fireplace on the other. Here are the various stages. First, a shot down the hallway - the kitchen is behind the first doorway on the right, it overlooks the living room, which is at the back right, and the entry area is an oversized waste of space (which you can't see) to the left of the doorway-

Here's the view from the kitchen. Pony wall which was in back of stove is now even lower, we have mocked up hanging shelves to see how we like them (we do), and we have mocked up a bar in front of the stove. Weight bearing wall is straight ahead. Wall with fireplace is just offscreen to the right.

In this shot, which is from approximately the same point of view, the wall panels have been removed from the weight bearing wall but the structural support is still there. You can now see into the entryway and the laundry area.

And finally, this is how it looks now! The wall is gone and the posts are in place holding up the rafters and roof. The entryway and living area are now one big space. They'll eventually be separated again - probably not with a wall but with something more impermanent, like a big bookcase that functions as a room divider but can be moved if the need arises. A wall around the old laundry area, pantry, and hall closet are now gone. The door will get moved into the new entry space - it'll be moved over to about where those windows are behind that post. And trapezoidal windows will be installed on that wall as well.

Finally, here's a picture of the removal of the wall by the kitchen - that doorway into the kitchen from the hallway is gone. The stove and counter will go back where it was but it will be on an island (that crooked pipe was in what was the pony wall and the hallway wall. It is a vent pipe for a washer and dryer that apparently were in the kitchen at one time. We will remove all that, there is no need for it.) The stove has been moved to where the refrigerator was for the time being to get it out of the way.

The glue-lam beam will be installed in the next few days and then all the support posts can come out. Will keep you posted!

Tearing Down the Pony Wall

As has been previously discussed, we've been wanting to tear down the pony wall between the living room and the kitchen, making it more of a bar height. So, John hung up plastic yesterday so as to not get sawdust all over the place -

He also put a big fan in the wall here for ventilation - there was always a mysterious panel in the wall here, both on the inside and out - a friend told us that must be where they had their old air conditioning unit. Well, it was easy to remove and install a fan! We covered the light with plastic to keep out the dust.

Demolition was interesting. It looked like the wall was made out of a bunch of scrap materials.

In addition, it looks like the cabinets at the top of the pony wall were there before the rest of the wall - so maybe the pony wall is not original, maybe there were hanging cabinets there first (which is what we may do)?

Anyway, by the end of the day, the wall was cut down. It'll all get more officially remodelled later. This was done just to get an idea of how it would look. We love the way it opens up the space. A "before" shot"-

And "after"-

That's the vent for the stove still hanging down there. NOW, just imagine that wall in the above picture being gone - that's our final goal. It will make the living room much bigger.

We also learned a little more about the cabinets this week. It turns out that the knobs are not original - there were originally finger holes. Taking a knob off revealed a hole-

I had decided this week that we really had to try and save these cabinets, they are so period and I really do like them. But on closer inspection, the wood has cracked in many places and needs to be redone and the cabinets will have to be removed for the re-wiring that needs to be done. John is still insisting that we should just get new cabinets and I guess he's right. For all the work that would have to be done to restore these, we should just get new ones.

The Kitchen - A Discussion

Over the Christmas holidays, John is going to tackle lowering the pony wall that divides the living room from the kitchen. Even though pony walls were a commom feature of MCM houses, having one behind the stove seems very awkward to us. A defining feature of modernist homes of the 50s (as well as today) is their open, spacious floor plan. Back then, having your living room, dining area, and kitchen all open up to each other was pretty radical. But nowadays, we're used to it. And kitchens have become more of a social center than ever. So, we intend to open things up a little more and shorten our pony wall.

Eventually, we will also get rid of this wall at the end of the counter, which is also very confining.

We may add some hanging wall cabinets above our counter during our remodel, as this is totally in keeping with the design of the period. Here's an example from Design for Modern Living-

All of this leads me to another topic: remodeling vs. restoration and authenticity. A comment was left over at the Atomic Indy blog the other day, arguing for authenticity in a remodel (using all original materials, nothing reproduction, etc.), and saying that a lover of good design should not settle for anything less. Well, I will make it perfectly clear that that is not our intention here. Our intention is to remodel the house as best we can, trying to keep the house true to its modernist roots. We are not trying to restore it. To restore this house, we would have to rip out the entry and convert it back to a carport, for starters.

The kitchen presents a real remodel quandry. We have original cabinets in part of the kitchen and yet we are struggling over the decision of whether or not to replace them. Once the pony wall gets lowered, the kitchen cabinets will be in full view of the living space and we want something that looks nice and clean and contemporary. We could leave the existing cabinets as is, we could re-paint them, or we could maybe just replace the handles for a more contemporary look. But we have just about decided to pull them out and replace them with Ikea cabinetry. Why? Because the old style cabinets just don't function as well as new, better designed ones. The interior shelf space isn't tall enough (they didn't have Sam's Club-size bottles of olive oil back then I guess) so many of the interior shelves would need to be removed.

As for the bottom cabinets - they were fancy for their time, featuring pull out shelving that is a real bonus even in houses of today. But the pull out shelves really don't work any more, they stick, and I don't even bother trying to make them work.

So Ikea it is. Affordable and a terrific design. I think this is perfectly consistent with our remodeling goals. Prefab and affordable are big issues in modern design today (just see any issue of Dwell magazine).

I really want to keep the top cabinets in the house though, I think there is something very cool about their sliding doors. We are going to try and remove them and use them in other parts of the house (probably John's workshop or my studio).

I'm not attached to the base cabinets, and, in fact, the base cabinets by the stove are not original to this house. Neither is the Corian countertop. For the countertop, we are currently debating whether we want to stick to Formica (modern in its time) or go with a newer modern substance such as Silestone, which can have sort of a terrazzo look to it. I'd love a terrazzo counter or floor but finding terrazzo tile dealers these days seems to be very difficult, especially in Santa Fe. My current fave is a substance called Vetrazzo, which is a terrazzo type substance made of recycled glass bits. I'm just not sure if it's available locally.