Interval House
We needed to do a few things just to get the house livable for our needs. The photos don’t show the termite damage on the garage doors or the cracks in the chimney. Our first priorities were the bathroom and kitchen… oh, yeah, and the water heater.
The original water heater was sitting on the floor in an insulating jacket. When our plumber, Pat Tuell, went to move it onto a platform (to meet code, and allow us 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 then opened 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 placed properly.
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 its plumbing) is cursed. We had to replace the door as well, as it had essentially been broken into unrepairable pieces.
As computer geeks, reliable phone and network access was key. The original phone line went to a little alcove on the hallway. Three other jacks had been added, one on a separate line. Two were at opposite ends of the living room, the third in the left bedroom which had been used as an office. Once we were settled, we called PacBell for DSL service … they actually had to install a new service box outside, and then did the DSL a couple of days later. In the meantime, we replaced the original wires with Cat5, bringing them all in to a basic telephone interface.
And then we had to decorate. Two bedrooms were a dirty off-white. The middle bedroom was an intriguing orange-yellow. All of the trim was chipped and dirty. The living room was a dark mauve tone, which was very dark and depressing. So I started painting with a vengeance. I started in the guest bedroom, with a nice light green and white trim that allowed me to keep the existing drapes and blinds. We left the middle bedroom alone — the color was rather cheery. It was interesting to see how differently it photographed, depending on the ambient light. Even after repainting the living room, it was still dark enough that you needed a light turned on at almost any time of the day. The long wall with the fireplace was nice but the stone made things heavy, and there were only the two windows on the front wall.
