vintage '75

Strange isn't it!!
The panels on the front were transparent and opened into the greenhouse. Windows in the bedrooms, down bath and utility delivered light inside the house.
The OSB on the side is to be replaced this spring with stucco and the entire front will be replaced, though plans are to keep it looking pretty much like it is now.
Even when you know all about it, it is still strange isn't it!!

our nutty house

I live in a pretty dingy house.

No question about that one. But, believe it or not, there were reasons! And, of course, I designed and built it so it is no one’s fault but mine.

There were several criteria when I designed the house:

Privacy. We once lived in a “conventional” house with a big window in the front facing living room. I would stand in front of the window looking out and discover my neighbor standing in his window looking back. Embarrassing for both of us.

All of our windows face the back, which is our property. From these windows very few other houses are visible.

It was during the 70’s that some began thinking that there would be an end to cheap energy. My house sits down inside the ground and is very well insulated. Result: no air conditioning, even when the temps are high, and minimal heating.

I like and liked small houses. For one they are affordable! Given the zero state of the budget small was mandatory.

We had 4 daughters, three were still at home. Few houses the size of this one had more than one bathroom. I decided it would have two, even if I had to cut back on other things. Even with just the two of us, two baths is about right!

The idea of solar heating was new and very exciting. My brother built a very workable solar house in Utah about that time. I read all I could find and built according to the best information I could find.

Alas, it was not always right and we have abandoned the solar part. Those big flat panels in the front might hold photovoltaics some day, but the original design was for a greenhouse to collect heat and transfer it to the house.

That worked out really well in July, but not so good in January, when we tend to have a lot of cloud cover. Oh well.

So a few years ago I converted the “greenhouse” into closets on two floors!

Crazy it is. Easy to live in it is, but traditional it is not.

In the last few years I have been going through the house, a section at a time, redoing all the trim and paint, replacing windows with new vinyl windows and making it more livable.

I see the time coming when the up stairs bedrooms will not be a good idea, so one of the next projects is to include part of the greenhouse into a closet for the down bedroom and then putting in a murphy bed.

That room has a triple door (six feet wide total) between the bedroom and the living room. The idea was that it could be opened up when extra space is needed and yet closed for privacy. Light came through the greenhouse, and a closet took one entire wall. The bed was on wheels and rolled into the closet making a “day bed”.

Now, the closet is gone and a window is on that wall. I’ll take out the window that let light from the greenhouse and replace it with a door. There is room for a very nice little bedroom and the down bath is right next to that space.

But that is a future project.

ahh

Ahh, the paint is all on and on budget, sorta, mostly, i guess!

I cleaned out the roller socks and the brushes, put the paint back in the buckets and that is all for tonight.

Now to take the paint OFF of the ceramic tile floor and clean up. Back near normal for weekend.

Plenty of details to go yet, but the messy part is done.

Hooray.

entry, loft is above

Early picture, before mirrors in the doors.

feeling

Yesterday I felt my age.

Most of the time I get by thinking I am younger than I am. My back is strong, my knees function. I feel pretty good. OK, I am a bit slower, not quite so strong, and don’t have any where near the endurance I once had, but oh well.

Our house (I told you it was weird) does not have a “front door”, but you enter on the side. The entry has a low ceiling, with mirrored cabinets on the right side (our pantry) and the door into the utility on the left. It works better than it sounds, mostly

Above that low ceiling is the loft -- this is a 70’s house, after all. The loft goes over the hall, the pantry and the cabinets in the kitchen, about 7 feet and is about 9’ long. But since this is a cathedral ceiling, that ceiling is about a foot and a half over one edge of the loft and maybe 3 ½ feet on the other side.

Any way, I was painting that ceiling yesterday.

Lying on my back, Michelangelo style, painting away. It was a bit strenuous, pushing that roller up and into the texture of the ceiling. I began to feel a bit claustrophobic, a bit dizzy and even nauseated.

There was no choice but to keep working on it, so I did. And I felt all of my 71 years. When I had it done (ok, today I go back to touch up my work) I took a shower and then collapsed into my chair.

I’ll be glad when this is project is complete. We are at the stage where it seems like it has been going on always, and it will never be truly finished. I have learned that it is discipline that gets the job done. It sure is not fun any more (if it ever was), and right now it the whole project seems like a bad idea. If there is a good feeling of having it done, that is some where in the foggy future, if it ever gets done.

Today I feel good again. But I look at that ceiling that has not been painted in decades, and see places that need more paint and more work.

I used to tell my college students that degrees do not go to the bright but to those who persevere. That is my task now, keeping at it

It will be finished, it wlil, maybe even by this weekend!!

close

This paint project is nearing completion.

The first color coat went on the new woodwork yesterday and it looks good. No complaints at all.

The day before she dressed and came downstairs I could tell she was very angry. When I asked, she would not tell me the subject of her anger: “If I told you, you would get mad at me.”

I figured that was a good place to leave it, so I did.

But as time, and the project, goes on, she is gets less aggravated about it all. I am glad. Yesterday she asked me again if we were going to move, and when I assured her that we would stay living here a very long time, she was visibly relieved.

This is not a fun disease for sure, and I think it has as many horrors for her as for the rest of us. I hear her frustration.


She does not want any change right now. This is a big disruption, messing with our main living space. Other projects will not be so invasive.

We will be fine. It will be done.

Today I paint the ceiling. That is never a fun job, but this one is cathedral style. That means it is seven and a half feet on one side and over eleven feet on the other. That difference is enough to make it a challenge.

And, this is the last room with “popcorn” ceiling. I have scraped off the rest of it in the house, but this room is going to stay like it is, popcorn ceiling and all.

There are changes that even I do not want to deal with!

may I change my mind?

Skip the building trades?

Having said what I did about not working the trades, a post or two ago, Lori reminds me that it is pretty handy to know how to do things.

I learned one trade (floor installation) and watched others. I never hired on as a carpenter, but I can hold my own, mostly.

So, when I need to do a project, I mostly know what to do. There are times when my knowledge is that I do not have enough knowledge. Then I look for friends who do.

I want to do some stucco outside on my house, not a lot, but some. Stucco is a labor intensive product, with fairly inexpensive raw materials. So it is a natural for those who are time rich and cash poor.
But I do not know enough about stucco, I am sure. My friend Art, was an accomplished stucco man, but we lost him a while back. Fortunately his brother Dewey is alive and well. I asked him the other day and he said he could help me. I told him I did not need help just some instructions and guidance. He grinned.

Dewey is 83, and he would have helped I know, but his advice will be invaluable.

And that is how it works.

I am not a plumber, but when I built our house, I could not find a plumber to barter with, so I plumbed it myself. The state plumbing inspector was a prince of a guy who guided me when I got in trouble (he gave me his home phone number, in case).

At one point I had used an illegal fitting (the plumbing rules are a bit complex). He said that he knew it would never cause a problem, but it was not legal. He told me how to make it legal, but said he would sign me off, and would not come back to check if I had made the change.

With an attitude like that I hurried out, bought the right fittings and made it “legal.”

Now it is my turn, and often I guide friends in their projects.

David needed a new shower, the old one was really nasty, and it leaked besides. He didn’t want to pay me $2000 for a new one (and I really did not want to do it), so I loaned him tools, taught him a bit, and he built a very nice looking shower.

We are both proud of it!