Needless to say, the house needed some work. What you can't see in the photos is the termite damage on the garage doors, or the cracks in the chimney. The chimney will need to be rebuilt before it can be used.

Our first priorities were the bathroom and kitchen... oh, yeah, and the water heater.

If you recall, the original water heater had an insulating jacket, and was sitting on the floor. When our plumber, Pat Tuell, went to move it onto a platform (to meet code, and be able to park a car in the garage!), we found that it had so much calcium on the bottom it wasn't worth moving. So, in the midst of everything else, we had to replace the water heater. But we got the vent fixed as well as strapping it in for earthquake safety.

Stephen took down all of the cabinet doors, and stripped off the varnish and painted them (and the walls) white.

The bathroom was done in a series of steps. Stephen stripped the paint off the windows, and then repainted them. They now open properly. We took out the old mirror/cabinet (it basically fell out), enlarged the space and put in a "modern" medicine cabinet. We also replaced the small light with a new fixture. It was really designed to hang down, but if we did that, we couldn't open the mirror door. After some searching, we found a new pedestal sink and faucet. Unfortunately, we had to break out some of the tiles to get the drain properly placed.

The old double utility/mop sink was a real problem. It had a very small drain on each side, with a trap you couldn't clean. Worse, when the washing machine had been added, the sink was moved so far to the left that the garage door wouldn't close. We replaced it with a fiberglass utility sink. We had to have the faucet reset, and the water source for the washer redone, as the prior owner had mixed copper with galvanized steel pipes. The clean-out was stuck, and our plumber had to saw it off in order to place a separate drain for the washer. He thinks the house (or at least it's plumbing) is cursed.

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