In this blog I will do my best to describe the process I went through in turning my 1957 Ranch-style house into a 2006 Craftsman house as inspired by the Gamble House in Pasadena. Please feel free to comment on anything I write and ask questions as it is the only way we learn.

Note: Since completion of the house I have also decided to allow guest bloggers to post articles related to remodeling. This continues the education process.


TIMELINE
Architect Selection - December 2002 through January 2003
Getting a Permit - January 2003 through November 2004
Construction - November 2004 through September 2006
Post Construction - October 2006 through ???



Water Flow Issues

Now that the house is about 7 years old, things are starting to break.
Both latches on the exterior doors need repairs, the nice wood deck built around the palm tree needs to be replaced due the trees expanding girth, all circuit boards have been replaced in every appliance right after the 5-year warranty expired, etc.

One of the most recent, and confusing, issues has to do with my water flow. If you remember in earlier blog posts, I wrote how the plumbing was designed so that I could turn on multiple showers, dishwasher, washing machine, etc., all at the same time and not notice any drop in water pressure. Well something has happened somewhere where only one shower can be on and the pressure is noticeably reduced. I have no idea if it is actually lower water pressure from the city due to the drought conditions in California or if my tankless water heater is clogged up. Does anyone have any ideas on how to go about checking this out? Please comment below if you do.

In hindsight, when the plumbing was put in, I should have installed a flow meter to help monitor water consumption. It would be a real easy test to check the flow if I had one installed right now.

UPDATE 1/22/15: Exactly one year later and I finally solved my water flow issues. It really didn't take that long but it got bad enough where I had to do something about it.
I unscrewed my 8" shower head and lo and behold it was clogged with about 1" of sediment at the filter. I rinsed it out and a few weeks later the problem came back. I went through this process a few times as I think the California drought is causing extra sediment to get into the water supply due to the low reservoirs. Also, the extra minerals are causing all kinds of hard water stains and clogging of the tiny orifices in the shower head. I took a Dremel and a wire brush attachment to polish off all the deposits. It worked great and now my pressure is back to normal.

Out of curiosity, I went to a faucet down in the laundry room where I can easily unscrew the filter. Guess what? An inch of sediment in there as well. I'm routinely going around the house and emptying sediment now about once every month or so.

So what do you do to fix this? I think I need to bite the bullet and put in a whole house soft water unit. UGH!
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Ceiling Tile Store is now OPEN!

Through our partnership with Decorative Ceiling Tiles, we are able to bring their entire collection of Faux Leather, Tin, Copper, Aluminum, and Foam Ceiling Tiles to the Craftsman Home Remodeling website.

Be sure to check out the Coupons/Rebates page to see if there are any deals to be had.
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Maintaining this House is Something Else!

I haven't written in a few months but that's not because I had nothing to write about. We have been in the house over 3 1/2 years now and there are certain things that need fixing. Some are regular maintenance items and others are just surprises. Let me give you a quick rundown of what's going on.

Exterior Paint - The South sides of the house start to fade due to the constant sunlight received throughout the year. On average, we have been needing to paint the South side of the house every 12-18 months at a minimum. For this we are using a clear coat of Varathane on the shingles and the bark-colored Cabot stain on the redwood trim. Just last year I had the garage door sanded down and refinished along with the house as it was fading bad with only a clear coat on the mahogany. I had it stained and recoated. Now it looks like a million bucks.

Tankless Water Heater - Once a year I have to flush the tankless water heater with vinegar. It's not difficult to do but just another thing to do.

Hot Tub Pump - I just had the hot tub pump replaced with about 3 months left on the warranty. Whew! Apparently, it's better to keep the water pH on the high side to prevent corrosion of the parts.

Craftsman hot tub stone door
Stone Facade on Hot Tub Door - I built a wall surrounding the hot tub but needed to leave one side open so it could be slid into place. I had a 3-sided wall and wanted to close off the fourth side. We devised an extremely heavy two part door on heavy duty hinges. When I had to open the doors and put them back for the recent hot tub servicing, I had a problem getting the doors to shut. Apparently they weigh so much (maybe 200 pounds each) that the hinges were bending. With some finessing and a lot of brute force I managed to shut the doors again, however, some of the stone facade attached to the face of the doors fell off and now I have to fix it. Not only that but two fingers were crunched in the doors when they finally shut. Not fun!!! Note to self....get others to help shut the door so you don't create more work by having to replace stone.



koi pond

Koi Pond - The koi in the pond are HUGE!!! I'm glad to see the pond thriving but that being said, I just got through my annual cleaning of the pond. It costs about $650 per year! They take out the fish, scrub all of the algae off the rocks, clean out the filters, check everything, and refill it. I'm sure there's more to it than that. It takes 3 guys about 4 hours. See the koi pond cleaning here. But wait, there's more. The lights in the pond are failing and I have been told that the new lights out now are the way to go and will last for 10 years or so. So there's another grand or so. Stay tuned.



Wood deck around palm tree
Wood Deck around Palm Tree - Do you remember the palm tree in the backyard that we basically built the house around? Well, you may also remember that I had a wood deck built around it in 4 pieces to maximize the patio usage. It was a very nice fit but as the tree continued to grow about 18 inches per year, the base kept getting larger and the surface roots started to lift the deck. Last year I lifted the 4 panels, trimmed the roots around the tree, and enlarged the hole. Well, it's time to do it again. This looks like an annual event.


Now after all of these things, people always say "you wouldn't do it again, would you?" I would do it all over in a second! I love this!!!

Bye for now......Mike

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Craftsman Curtain Rod Bracket Installation

As promised, here are some installation pictures of the curtain rods. A previous blog post shows the manufacturing of the curtain rod brackets.

Rich Wright, the contractor of my house, made the curtain rods and brackets out of left over mahogany from the construction. He had to build a jig to hold the base bracket in place and ensure that it was aligned straight.
Curtain Rod Bracket Jig Craftsman curtain rod bracket installation.jpg

This picture shows the mounting really well. There are two screws that mount the base piece into the wall. The cover piece has a hole in the center where a 3-inch screw goes through the rod (not shown) and into the back support bracket. That hole is then filled with an ebony plug.
Installed curtain rod bracket

We ran into an issue with how to do a bracket for a corner window where each window had it's own curtain. Here is the solution, a corner bracket that takes each rod in at a 45 degree angle.
Corner curtain rod bracket installation

Test fitting a curtain rod into the brackets to make sure everything fits.


Now it's time to make the curtain rods. Each mahogany rod was custom cut to the length required for each window and door. I numbered the ends of the rods when finishing so I could remember where they went later. After some light sanding to bevel all edges, I sprayed on 3 coats of Varathane to seal them. This is the same finish I used on the curtain rod brackets.
Curtain rods finished with Varathane Numbered Mahogany Curtain Rods Mahogany curtain rods of varying lengths

Meanwhile, this block of ebony was cut into tiny squares to plug the holes in the brackets after installation.
Curtain rod bracket ebony plugs

And now for the final product. Well, almost final. I still haven't put in the ebony plugs but you can't really tell in these pictures. The rods extend one inch past each end of the brackets. The curtains have tabs with buttons so the curtain can be removed if needed.
Craftsman curtain Craftsman curtain tabs
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Craftsman Curtain Rod Brackets

It has been awhile since I posted here so let me give you an update on the curtain rod brackets and show you what we did. My contractor wanted a web site and I needed curtain rod brackets so we bartered services. I had leftover wood and it was easy for him to manufacture so we had a win-win situation here.

The brackets are made from my leftover Honduran mahogany. Here are the long awaited pics of the unfinished brackets and the finishing process.

Here you can see a complete bracket and the two halves that make it up.

Craftsman curtain rod bracketCraftsman curtain rod bracket

The brackets are match drilled. We had to number them to keep the sets together.

Craftsman curtain rod bracket

All of my materials: curtain rod brackets and Varathane clear semi-gloss.
Craftsman curtain rod brackets and Varathane

Taking all of the brackets apart in preparation for finishing. Ebony plugs will fill the holes.

Craftsman curtain rod brackets are taken apart

The brackets are apart and ready for finishing with Varathane.

Craftsman curtain rod brackets are apart and ready for finishing with Varathane.

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Craftsman Curtain Rods and Curtains

After 2 years of living here, we are getting ready to put up curtains and rods. The problem we have been having to this point is what will look good and compliment all of the wood. Well, we found something we like but the problem is that it costs anywhere from $200-$400 per curtain rod. The rods are made of oak with small ebony inserts as you can see in the picture.

Craftsman curtain rod

Craftsman curtain rod bracket

If you remember, I have a lot of mahogany and ebony left over from the job so we will be using that and make it ourselves. On a related note, my contractor Rich Wright asked me if I could create a web site for him in exchange for some work I may need done. What great timing! Rich will be building the curtain rods in exchange for his site.

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This Old House Magazine

The magazine that had contacted me several months ago was This Old House. I had submitted a few before and after pictures and they really liked it. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough before pictures for them to run a story. If you remember, when this project started the plan was to add a room and try to save everything so there wasn't supposed to be any drastic changes. Also, the demolition guys worked so fast that I couldn't get any pictures after the first day.

I worked with one of the This Old House writers for about a month to get her all of the information she needed. After pitching it to the editor, it was decided they would not do anything with it due to the lack of before pictures.

If any other magazine people are reading this (American Bungalow, Sunset, etc.), you can feature this house if you like as it has not been in any magazine....yet.
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Kids Arts & Crafts Area

Now that the palm tree is gone, we have a big space (4.5' x 9') that can be used for something. After looking at the space for about 6 weeks, we have decided to turn it into a kids' Arts and Crafts area. I just bought the lumber yesterday and will be building it over the next few days. Stay tuned.

The palm tree that was just removed made for the future Arts and Crafts center.

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We Won the Pond Competition!

Back on May 13th, my post talks about how we were cleaning up the koi pond for the pond landscaping competition. Well, I just found out that we took first place for small ponds under $10,000. As soon as I get a picture of the award I'll post it here.

Landscape Award for Forte Craftsman House

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The Palm Tree Was Removed

Southern California Edison has been trimming my palm tree every few months for the last 8 years. During that time, I have been trying to get them to underground the power lines before my tree reached them. The last trimming was one too many as they topped off the palm tree resulting in its quick demise. Here are some photos I took of the removal.

The palm tree right before it was removed. The tree trimmer is getting readt o cut the top off the palm tree.
 
 
The remaining palm tree stump. The stump grinder was brought in to remove the stump at least 1 foot below the grade.
 
 

The palm tree has been removed and there is no trace of it.

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Another Magazine Called!

I can't believe it but another magazine called asking for pictures and saying that they may want to possibly use the house in a future issue. This is quite exciting for us. I don't want to mention the name unless something is official but it is a major magazine. Keep your fingers crossed!
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Flushing the Tankless Water Heater and Streamlining the Hot Water System

I want to streamline my hot water system setup to hopefully save electricity and money. Let me first explain my hot water setup.

I have a Takagi Mobius TM-1 tankless water heater that receives cold water and outputs hot water on demand. The initial problem I had with water being on demand was I would have to let the shower run for 3 minutes just to get hot water. To remedy this, I had a 10 gallon electric heater hooked up to the hot outlet of the tankless water heater to maintain a reservoir of hot water that I would recirculate through the house every 30 minutes through the use of a recirculating pump.

The problem I have with this setup is my electrical bills have been really high and I'm sure the electric heater is not helping matters so I'm trying to find ways to lower that expense. I'm not sure how much I'll save but I think it may be as high as $50 per month.

The following pictures show the tankless heater and recirculating pump right after the electric heater was removed. The plan is to bypass the electric heater and go straight from the tankless water heater to the recirculating pump.


Since the system is open, I decided to flush the tankless water heater. You are supposed to do this every year but it has been two years since I installed it and haven't done it yet. We are using two bottles of white vinegar.


A small pump is connected to the cold water line entering the tankless water heater and a return line from the hot side is fed back into the bucket.


Here you can see the whole setup in action.

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Biometric Fingerprint Garage Door Opener

Biometric Fingerprint Garage Door Opener
I still don't have any way to get into my garage and have been wondering about a fingerprint scanner mechanism so the kids won't have to remember a code. Well, I just found one that's made by Craftsman. According to info I have read, it can store up to four unique fingerprints and takes about a minute to program it. You can read more about it here.

What I like about it is that you can program a contractor's fingerprint into it for the one or two days he needs access without giving a numeric code. When he's done working, remove the fingerprint from the system and he's locked out!


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We Really Need Window Shades

I have a problem sleeping when it's light out. Now that summer is coming the sun is rising earlier and as a result I'm waking up now at around 5:30AM. Some of you may have noticed in looking at the pictures that there are no shades, blinds, or shutters anywhere to be seen. It's not that we don't want any but we need to get a specialist in here that works with Arts & Crafts style shades and figure out how to incorporate them into the house without covering up all of the great woodwork.

In the meantime, I wanted to share with all of you that I just purchased some eyeshades which are extremely comfortable, soft, and they block out 100% of light.
Click here for more information.

Exterior

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The Central Vacuum Won't Turn Off

Last week the central vacuum would not turn off. It is a Modern Day Silent Master S5. I couldn't figure out what was wrong so I unplugged the unit. I called the installer, All Makes Vacuum and Sewing Machine Co., who I also purchased it from, to see what they could do. The owner, Carl Tice, came out yesterday and in two minutes he removed the vacuum and put it in his truck. He thinks something went wrong with the circuit board. Today he returned with a new circuit board already installed in the vacuum and put it up in 30 seconds. No questions asked, it works great, and I got great service!!!
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Koi Pond Gets One Last Update Before Landscaping Contest

The koi pond has been entered into a pond landscaping contest for the LA area during June 6th to June 8th. Due to its size, the pond was entered in the small category of under $10,000.

In preparation, Cor van Diepen of Paradise Landscaping, came over with his assistant Cesar (see April 16 blog post) for one last touch up before the judges come over this weekend. They spent time on details like making sure no rubber trim was showing and that every rock was in its place. There were a few bubbles showing at the waterfall that he called 'foam' and said we would lose some points if that was there when they came by. I'm going to see if I can find something to get rid of it tonight.

Cor thinks we have a really good shot at first place! I'll let you know next week. Maybe I'll get to stick a sign in my front yard. :)
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A Magazine Called

A magazine I had emailed a few months ago just contacted me and said they would be interested in featuring the house. I'll let you know who it is when it's a done deal. Keep your fingers crossed. :)
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Koi Pond Cleaning

Today I had the koi pond cleaned out. There was a bunch of muck on the rocks and it just seemed like the time since it has been 2 years since it was installed. They started draining the water before taking the fish out. Once there was only a few inches of water left, they started to catch the fish and move them to their temporary house; a large trash can. After Cesar caught all fish he could, he drained the pond completely and even sopped up the remaining water with a sponge. The troubling part to me was that 4 fish were in the rocks flopping around. I could here them but there was no way to get to them. I was told not to worry.

With only a few inches of water, Cesar starts to catch the fish. The koi were placed in a trash can for temporary housing. Cesar is catching fish in the rocks. As Cesar catches the fish, he puts them in a bucket for transport to the trash can.

While Cesar scrubbed the rocks, Cor cleaned out the biotic filters. The picture below shows the lava rocks that sit in a bag at the top of the waterfall. There is bacteria living in those rocks so they get a superficial cleaning.

IMG_8162

You are probably wondering what happened to the four fish. Well, after about 30 minutes of no water, the pond was refilled and the fish swam out of their holes. Amazing!

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Landscaping is Blooming Well This Spring

The landscaping is filling out very nicely right now. I planted a Concord grape last summer and there are at least 50 bunches of grapes starting to form on it. The Haas avocado, Babcock peach, and Santa Rosa plum trees are full of flowers and small fruit. And last but not least, my little artichoke plant that was cut to the ground about 4 months ago is growing with a vengeance and about 5 feet tall now.

Concord grapes are starting to appear.

Bunches of Concord grapes are appearing everywhere.

The artichoke plant is growing FAST!

IMG_8076


One of my plans was to have wisteria grow up the columns around the house and frame out the different entry ways. I may be a few years off from that but they are growing quite nicely and the purple flowers are strikingly beautiful. I'm going to have to get a small trellis built between the columns as the wisteria will be tall enough to grab on soon.

The wisteria is in full bloom along the back fence. It compliments the Arts and Crafts style brick path. The wisteria is getting taller. Eventually it will go over on a trellis and down the other column.

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Neighborhood Church Annual Yule Parlor Parade Homes Tour

Today is the first of two days for the Yule Parlor Parade. Several months ago we were asked if we would consider our house for the homes tour. We agreed and now we have 1200+ people coming through with little blue booties. It's a lot of fun! You can see the pictures of the decked out house just before the people came in listed in the Photo Gallery under Finish Pictures.
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Dining Room Table Being Built

A month before Dave Barlow was finished with the interior woodwork, I asked him if he thought he could build a dining room table out of mahogany and ebony from plans that I saw in a woodworking magazine. After a few weeks of studying the drawings, Dave said " Do you want it exactly like the plans show?" I asked him why and he told me that he could make it better. So we started. Below are a few pictures of this table being built. It took 5 months to complete.
The table is modeled after a table in the Robinson House, another Greene and Greene design. With both leaves in, it can comfortably seat 14, without the leaves it can easily seat 8. It weighs in at about 150 lbs for the base and 150 lbs for the top. The extensions are wood sliding on wood, there are no metal sliders. Also notice that your knees won't hit anywhere around the table.


IMG_4536 IMG_4537 IMG_4538 IMG_4539 IMG_4540 IMG_4541 Craftsman mahogany and ebony table Craftsman mahogany and ebony table IMG_4546 IMG_4547 Craftsman mahogany and ebony table top Craftsman mahogany and ebony table edge is raised 1/16 Craftsman mahogany and ebony table. The edge is attached with many biscuits and adhesive. Craftsman mahogany and ebony table extension sliders Craftsman mahogany and ebony table clear coating Craftsman mahogany and ebony table stops Craftsman mahogany and ebony table top pins Craftsman mahogany and ebony table finished Craftsman mahogany and ebony table

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The Mailbox Post and Mailbox Get Installed

Dave Barlow made me a custom, mahogany mailbox post to hold the copper mailbox I bought. It is a furniture grade box and slides right over the installed 4x4. I made the numbers out of glass because I couldn't find any I liked that would contrast the dark background.

Craftsman mahogany mailbox post Craftsman mahogany mailbox post ready to install
Craftsman mahogany, copper, and glass mailbox

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Sanded and Stained Front Door and Garage

With the sun beating down on the garage door, the mahogany was getting bleached. I decided to have the garage door and front door sanded and stained. The garage door took three weeks to do. What a job!

Craftsman front door is sanded and ready for stain. Craftsman garage door is sanded and ready for stain.
Staining the mahogany Craftsman garage door The stained mahogany Craftsman garage door

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Adding a Barbecue Island

After living in the house a few months, we decided that our portable barbecue wasn't going to hack it. We also had a concern that the side of our deck dropped off and wasn't safe for people. The result is we built in an extension off the house at the edge of the patio to house a barbecue, ice chest, double burner, three drawers, power, and trash can.

The block was built just off the house. We tied it in using the stone veneer to make it look like one wall.

Barbecue island block wall gets built The stone veneer of the house will blend into the barbecue island


The structure was framed out with aluminum studs. The dark green posts are steel.

Barbecue island structure framed out in aluminum and steel Hardibacker board on barbecue island

The gas line was run in from under the house.

Natural gas to barbecue island comes from house

Golden Buckskin flagstone was used on the top to match the patio and the face is stone. It looks like the barbecue island was here all along.

Flagstone counter is set on barbecue island Appliances are installed in barbecue island
Ice chest and double burned are installed in barbecue island

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Garage Floor Upgraded with RaceDeck

Now that I am moved in, it's time to take care of some details. I want to be able to keep the the garage floor clean and dry but I wasn't crazy about the idea of putting epoxy paint on the floor. After a bit of research, I came across RaceDeck. This floor is used in showrooms and looks perfect for what I want it to do. I bought the Freeflow type as it allows water and dirt to fall through to the floor underneath. When I rarely need to clean it, I just vacuum the floor and everything below comes up.
The pieces snap together like a puzzle making it real fast and easy to complete. The hardest part was emptying and refilling my garage. The installation below took all of 2 hours.

RaceDeck installed in the garage

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Next Page

Be sure to browse the 2,000 picture Photo Gallery for more step-by-step construction details.