Window Pains

When we started remodeling this house way back in the summer of 1997, we knew we wanted traditional building materials to reflect the style of a true English Cottage. So those first four rooms got new double paned, all wood, true divided light casement windows and we loved them. Compared to the old circa 1950 windows that were in the house they were a dream; they cranked in and out effortlessly, they were warm and quiet and they looked beautiful.

In 2001 when we did the "Big Remodel" we simply ordered more of the same type of windows from the same manufacturer and again, we loved their beauty and energy efficiency. And when we did the kitchen remodel we again ordered two more of the same windows to put beside the range.

So now we have seventeen fenestrations plus this interior door filled with these beauties. They have a lot of panes. Lots and lots of panes. Two hundred and thirteen to be exact. Which I am now in the process of washing. Inside and out, so that means four hundred and twenty six panes.

So far I have done about half and I intend to get them finished this afternoon. I like to have clean windows for the holidays, don't you? And with the sun lower in the sky this time of year, I like the way they sparkle. Wishing you sparkly windows too from here Amongst The Oaks.

Three of More Tuesday - Chimneys

Tam at The Gypsy's Corner is hosting Three or More Tuesday again and I'm sharing chimneys. Be sure to check out the other participants.

This is the faux chimney that contains our exhaust fan for the kitchen range. The chimney is really big because the fan is about 24" across. It's like the kind restaurants have because I hate cooking smells drifting through the house. The pot on top is faux too. The Lord of the Manor built it out of aluminum and we faux painted it to look like terra cotta. We are all about faux here, aren't we?

Here is the main chimney and the only real chimney. It connects to the woodburning fireplace in the living room.

And lastly, here is the third chimney on our house. It is faux too because the fireplace underneath it is a gas insert and vents out the wall. But, darn, it is cute, isn't it?

Corner of My Kitchen Upgrade

I showed you this corner of my kitchen back in December of 2007. We did an upgrade yesterday and I'm so excited about it. Can you see what has changed?

No, it's not the new crock or the new lamp although they are pretty cool. Try again.

There it is. Right there. See it? It's the new SWITCH that operates the disposal! Isn't this exciting? Let me tell you how we did it.

INSTALLING A DISPOSAL

First we went to Home Depot. I used to hate going there, but since the change in the economy, things are different there. Now I feel like I've walked into the Twilight Zone; the store is clean and organized, soft music is playing, and the employees are helpful. Anyway, we bought a disposal and cord, a new electrical box, a combination plug/switch thing, and some plumbers putty. Then I came home and crawled in the cabinet. When the Lord of the Manor built this corner cabinet he left an access hole for the plumbing, so reaching the work area was easy. We just took everything out of the cabinet and removed the drawer above for more headroom.

First I cut a hole for the new electrical box. As you can see I missed the stud a bit. Then LOM removed the plug right above the sink and poked a bit of wire down towards the hole. Luckily there was no blocking and the wire slid right towards me, so I made the connections and put the new plug into the box.

Then I put the box in the hole, tightened it up, and patched my boo-boo with some tape and drywall compound. Whilst I was doing that LOM was making the connections above. Now the switch controls this plug below the sink, so after we plug the new disposal into it, turning the switch will turn the disposal on.

Next we removed the old basket strainer assembly, cleaned off all the old plumber's putty, and fit the new attachement ring onto the sink. This attachement ring comes with the disposal and makes fitting the disposal a snap.

The last step is to connect the drain pipe. The old drain didn't fit, so LOM made another trip to Home Depot and got that new white adaptor. Teen2 said it's like a bendy straw and she's right. It will fit almost any situation.

So only about three hours after we started (and that included two trips to Home Depot and lunch at In-N-Out) we had this baby installed. And we love it! So now we are wondering why we didn't do it sooner. Have you ever done something like this and wondered what took you so long?

Cottage Progress

The Lord of the Manor made good progress on the cottage yesterday whilst I merely held the tape measure, swept the dust. polished the sign, installed two light fixtures, and cleaned the windows.

We also went to the High School to watch Teen1's band perform. It's the beginning of their season so all the parents showed up to support, volunteer, and check out the new show. I generally ride on the bus to the out-of-town performances to help with costumes, hair, makeup and chaperoning. It takes a lot of help to make it all happen, but I really enjoy it.

So back to the cottage; here is the kitchen area, all finished and waiting for paint. The sink will be where the black pipe is. The refrigerator will be to the far left with a counter or dresser between the two. Today we hope to put up the wallboard in the bathroom area. We'll soon be covered with dust again here Amongst The Oaks.

Acorn Cottage

The Lord of the Manor has decided that his shoulder is healed well enough to begin working on Acorn Cottage. Maybe I should explain Acorn Cottage a bit...


When we moved to this house 12 years ago, there was a decrepit old shed on the property. It had a cracked concrete floor, lots of rotten boards, and spiders everywhere. All the windows were painted shut, one door was falling apart, and the roof leaked. We used it to house the gardening tools, camping gear, bicycles, and other assorted clobber. Eventually we remodeled the house and the shed looked really tatty. Suddenly it was way worse than before, so early in 2007, we decided to renovate it into a studio/guest house.

First we cut the shed roof off and suspended a wood floor over the cracked concrete. Then we cut new openings for windows and a door, built a new roof, and made two bump-outs to gain extra space without increasing the footprint. The photo above shows the kitchen bump-out. We put in all new vinyl windows, painted the outside, roofed it ourselves, and tiled the floor. Then the Lord of the Manor's shoulder started giving him trouble. Hmmm, I wonder why?


So over the three day weekend, we started working on the interior finish work. We got a fair amount of wallboard up in the kitchen area. And the Lord of the Manor made these window casings. Most finish carpenters take the little pieces and cut them to fit the window, but my finish carpenter just makes the whole unit and slips it into place.

And here it is in place. Isn't he brilliant? And now I've got to get busy with the paint. I'll keep you posted on the progress here Amongst The Oaks.

Big Remodel Phase II

Another page in our home's transformation into an English Cottage....


After the Holidays the contractor started the exterior plastering, but first Hubby built and applied the faux door surround to the front porch and the tall attic vents for the gable ends. Then the chimney pots arrived and the masons applied them and the stone to the chimneys. I still love the look of those three characters up there. No, not the masons, the chimney pots! Then Hubby started installing all the rain gutters. We had these custom manufactured at a local sheet metal shop and hubby fit them and soldered all the joints. He is so smart.Then the exciting/messy plastering began. The crew did a good job, but what a digusting mess they left everywhere! Bits of sharp wire, soupy washout, sand, and even their lunch wrappers were piled everywhere. And guess who was the official job site janitor? Me of course. Every afternoon I'd come home from work and start raking up and dumping the mess. But the house was actually starting to look finished on the outside. And while skilled workers were building my home, I was faux painting it. Here I am working on some of it.

Meanwhile the drywall was finished inside, the bathroom was tiled, doors were hung, and carpet was installed. We laid the over 800 sq. ft. of floor tiles, but it went pretty quickly because they are 16" square.

Finally sometime in August, the house was completed enough to get our permit signed off. We were finally "approved for occupancy". Pretty funny considering we'd been living in the house the whole time. But we finally had the inspectors and contractors out of our home. Now we could begin the custom work on the inside; the mouldings, cabinets and architectural details that would make our house into our dream cottage here Amongst The Oaks.

Big Remodel Phase I

...or another page in how we turned this house into a proper English Cottage.


I spents weeks going over and over the plans making adjustments, refinements, and corrections. We first submitted them to the City on July 6th and after a month they were returned for corrections. We re-submitted them and FINALLY on September 5th they were approved. While the City had the plans we had been busy arranging financing and hiring a general contractor who would allow us to do some of the work on the house ourselves. We also packed most of our furniture into a storage shed, rented a giant dumpster, and moved plants away from the construction zone. We were finally ready. It was time for the Big Remodel.


So early one Saturday morning we literally took a Sawzall (bless the inventor of that miracle!) and started cutting the little red house into manageable chunks and stacking them into the dumpster. I'm sure the neighbors thought we'd gone mad and at times I did too, but we persevered and in a fortnight only one third of the house was left standing. You could see all the way to the back fence where the living room and dining room used to be. We left two bedrooms, a bathroom, the laundry room and the kitchen untouched. We continued to live in those rooms for several months but the absurdity of walking out of the bedroom hall and into a construction site was sometimes startling. Since there was no connection between the bedroom area and kitchen area we really had no choice.



By October the general contractor was pouring new sections of foundation and framing up new walls. The new walls were made taller so they would come out even with the old walls plus the old flat roof. We set the roof trusses on these taller walls in some areas and on the old roof in other areas. It was an exciting day when the trusses arrived and the roof began to take shape. Then the windows were installed and the exterior walls sheathed in plywood.




By December the house was all sheathed and roofed and we had a new walkway to the front porch. We had no wallboard, tile or carpet in the new area, but we set up a tree in the new front window and celebrated our newly found privacy along with Christmas.

Building Materials

Ok, I've gotten a little off topic, so I'm going to get back to how we created this cottage.
I spent months researching the details for our house. We finally decided we wanted stucco walls, a steep roof, "stone" floors, a limestone surround for the front door, black iron hardware, chimney pots, some exposed stone, true divided-light casement windows, and a hidden door somewhere. We wanted the cottage to look like it had evolved over the centuries just like a real English cottage.
Every great idea had to be translated into readily available American materials. And none of it was easy. It seemed like most suppliers had only what everyone else was using and that usually meant Mediterranean. The stucco was easy, but we had to have a custom color mixed. We chose a 10/12 pitch for the roof and selected an asphalt shingle that mimicked a red pantile roof. We knew we'd never be able to afford real limestone floor stones, so we selected a 16" tile with the color and variations of limestone. After living with this tile for many years I can honestly say I love it. It looks pretty close to limestone and it hides dirt like crazy. We found black iron door hardware advertised in English Home magazine and had it shipped from Architectural Ironmongery in England. We were surprised to find chimney pots right here in California and easily selected three different styles to look like they'd been installed at different times. Luckily faux stone is popular in California now and we had lots to chose from there. The windows also were easy to find even though we had to give an arm and a leg for them. We also decided to add lintels over the windows on the gable ends and a "stone" door surround. The lintels are pieces of Canamould mitered and faux painted. The door surround and date stone are truly one of a kind because hubby made the whole thing from urethane foam. It has the density of wood, but is impervious to water and rot. After it was installed I faux painted it to look old and lichen-covered. In England a date stone was commonly placed over the front door. It usually included the couple's initials. Our does indeed include our initials and instead of the date our house was built, ours has our address. I just love the authentic look it all adds to the front of the house.
And the hidden door that we wanted? We framed it in, but later sheet rocked right over it, so it REALLY is well hidden. Much later we did sort of end up with another hidden door which I'll show you sometime. In the end we were very satisfied with our selections and feel they do convey the true sense of an English Cottage. What do you think?

the Master Plan

Where to begin with on the little red house and all its problems? Not only was it ugly, but it had some serious "deferred maintenance" issues. The back yard was overgrown with shrubs and trees gone wild. There were literally termite holes in the floor of the dining room and office. It had a terribly awkward floor plan with no easy access to the kitchen from outside. It had holes in the living room carpet, water standing on the roof, and the main bathroom was so small you could use the toilet and brush your teeth at the same time!

Our first step was to clean up the yards, take measurements, and start planning. My English Home magazines became my best friends. I spent hours studying them, looking for the little details that truly make a home look English. Meanwhile we realized that the floor plan wasn't really so bad, but the doors seemed to be in the wrong places for efficient traffic flow. Several ideas were tossed around; add a second story, add a garage to the front of the house, expand the house towards the back, expand the house towards the side. But before we could do the "Big Remodel" we needed to address the worst problems to make the house livable. Since we were doing the remodeling in phases and it could take years, we had to have a master plan before we started anything. We had to make sure our early decisions would mesh with the final plan. It was a little scary, but we took our time and made drawing after drawing of possible floor plans. In the end we settled on a plan that kept most rooms where they were, expanded to one side, put a long driveway down the other side for access to the kitchen, and added less than 500 square feet. Now we could actually begin work. Below is the model I made of our final plan.

Our first project was remodeling that tiny bathroom. We borrowed space from a closet for a new bathtub and repositioned the other fixtures. We even had room for a separate stall shower and linen closet. At the same time we installed a new gas water heater and renovated the laundry room. Then we installed four new double paned windows and finished up the two bedrooms on that side of the house. Wow, four like-new rooms! We felt happy and proud and our daughters loved their pretty new pink bedroom. (By the way, they now detest it, sigh.)

Next came the really BIG remodel, you know , the one where lending institutions, outside contractors, and building inspectors are involved. I twitch just thinking about it, so I'll save that story for next week.

A Proper English Cottage

I've always wanted a cozy rose-covered cottage like the ones in England...so WHY did we ever buy this place? Well the neighborhood was great, the property was large and had mature oak trees, the house had never been "renovated", and best of all, it was cheap! It didn't look like much then, but oh, did we have great ideas. And it is getting closer and closer to that cozy English cottage I always dreamed of. Please come along with me while I show how it all happened.