Our home. (my new project).   ~mike gradziel. to the index page another project: kingdom plantae. This page is divided up by project:
		Cleaning the attic and crawlspace December 2009 - August 2010
		Air duct removal and replacement December 2009 - December 2010
		Wiring upgrade December 2010 -
		Main bath remodel January 2011 -
Purchased December 2009; built 70 years earlier in 1939 from quality old redwood, lath, plaster, and plank - not a bit of plywood in the original structure. Wired with knob-and-tube, plumbed with galvanized steel and cast iron drain pipe, and roofed originally with cedar shingles. The back yard even has terra cotta drain pipe around the perimeter, though now it is lost underground. Great location fairly high above the flood-prone lowlands and just blocks away from excellent schools, the train station and grocery and retail within walking distance, and freeways conveniently close but comfortably far enough away. Quality all around, except for those outdated wires and pipes. Today it sits plumb and level with only a few fine cracks in the plaster, and underneath in the crawl space the concrete floor is dusty and dry even after a couple feet of rainfall. No leaks or water stains, and not a single sign of termites or rodent damage.
No insulation except some rock wool in the attic, which was covered over with cellulose fill in 1998. About 1992 contractors installed a new gas furnace in the garage and did some work on an earlier heat duct installation, stripping off chunks of corrugated asbestos paper insulation and leaving them strewn about the place between the layers of rock wool and cellulose fill. At the duct joints, big gaps let wasted hot air pour into the attic. Then roofers came in 2005 or thereabouts and stripped off the old roof down to the purlins. Down rained asphalt, grit, cedar shingle splinters, coffee cups, lost tools, and nails. The new roof is clean and watertight, but what a mess they left! About 2006, the kitchen was remodeled. Maybe then too the hot water lines were upgraded to copper, and the kitchen wiring was replaced along with the electrical panel and meter, now equipped for 125-amp service. The new kitchen circuits occupy nine of eleven slots in the 12-slot box. Upgrading the box will be another project. Out in the yard, someone has cared for the front lawn allowing a healthy population of earthworms to flourish. An extensive collection of rose bushes lives out back, but the rest of the back yard was paved over with three inches of pea gravel over bare clay soil. It's been that way for years but not forever; a big tree (oak or similar) once stood near the larger shed. The stump is buried underground. Another stump is buried in the front yard under the young maple tree which our neighbor says is ten years old and dwarfed by lack of good soil underneath.
Other projects: Feb 2010: I like to hang certain pots in the kitchen - the cast iron pans and steel woks as well as colanders and other things. In previous apartments I installed beams on the ceiling for this purpose, but here the architecture favored something less heavy-looking that didn't block light. The wood pegs are original from my first pot rack in Pasadena; the rest of the structure is new wood. And yeah, that's me putting a new air duct into the dining room.
Dec / Jan 2010: Three of our closets had odd recessed metal rectangular trays in the walls, each fitted with six or eight horizontal brass rods. Must have been a rack for shoes or something like that. I took them out, added insulation, and walled over the openings. If anyone tears out these walls in the future and finds this mystery patch, they are going to be even more puzzled than I am about why it's here. Update: upon cleaning debris from one of these cavities, I found the words "shoe rack" written clearly in pencil on the framing. So they were indeed shoe racks!
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