Ghoul' Night!

Happy Halloween!

The hallway and bedroom are complete, cozy, and comfy

Leg' at it!

Baby centipede!
Found it in the aluminum pile out back

Electrical Offenses

I removed the aluminum and asbestos cement shingles from the skirt below the circuit breaker today. Let's take a look at the visible issues, shall we?

We have exposed old wiring. Per the inspectors, it was deemed to be defunct, but definitely something I'll have an electrician remove

We have an extension cord threaded behind the electrical meter and, more seriously, PVC pipe used as electrical conduit that runs underground. This is a big no-no. PVC is conductive...

Time to call an electrician.

Erin and Tommy's beautiful DIY kitchen and bathroom remodel

Kitchen demolition!!!

After. Incredible!

Bathroom demolition!!!

Bathroom after

Exterior: Almost all exposed!

Only half a gable to go!!!

Here you can see the cypress shingles on the front gable

Flashback to 1912

This original brochure for Eastwood, published by the William A. Wilson Company, describes the neighborhood amenities and deed restrictions that made Eastwood such a desirable place to live.

Eastwood was Houston's third master-planned subdivision, built shortly after the Heights and Montrose. Terraced lots, sidewalks, streetlights, utility easements, and drainage were just a few of the features that made the neighborhood unique for its time. Here's a selection I wrote for the Wikipedia article on Eastwood, which gives a fairly good overview:

"The development was planned with shelled streets^[5]that were sixty to eighty feet in width,^[6]cement curbs and sidewalks, city water, gas, electricity, telephones and sanitary sewerage as well as terraced lots designed for natural drainage.^[2] One of the unique features of the neighborhood is the symmetrically planned placement of live oak trees and sycamore trees.^[3] Wilson envisioned Eastwood to be a more upscale counterpart to his Woodland Heights subdivision.^[1]The utilities were placed at the rear of the lots to avoid marring the landscape of the community.^[4]"

Previous editions focused on the development of the Woodland Heights subdivision, which is now regarded as one of the upper-tier neighborhoods in Houston.

This about sums it up

Yay!

Goal here is to deter those pesky, unwanted townhome developers

Feeling dirty

My new pressure washer is amazing.

I love the thing so much that I've pressure washed the driveway, sidewalk, and curb, 

the front walkway, 

the brick columns on the porch,

my parents house.

Hell, I even pressured washed the damn cat litter scoop.

Now that's dedication.

Before

After
Ryobi 3100 PSI 2.5 GPM Gas Pressure Washer with Idle Down (bought at Home Depot)

They sguiggle when you spray it

This was hiding in the soffit. We through a fogger 'football' in it and about 30 red paper wasps came flying out--one-by-one this time. (compared to all of them racing out toward Fernando like kamikazes)

There's 72 larvae in this thing

Baby Pomegranate!

There's 3 of them   : )

The Evening Glow

The halogen work light really shows off the eave on the house. #LandscapeLightingInspiration

Fernando relaxing with a beer after a hard nights work

Recycling Materials...the wrong way

Apparently a previous owner decided to use this beautiful old piece of vintage beadboard to make a support leg for the wooden fence I tore down from the driveway

Spectacular piece of wood!

Baby Dinosaur

Found this little guy sleeping on my iron gate! He was only about 2 inches long

Peak concerns

Ladder didn't reach there. Guess I'll tie something heavy to a rope and pull it down...

Update: DONE!

and yes, that's a toilet in my backyard. Seemed like a totally reasonable place to put it

Tearing down the mega fence

The previous owner of my home had installed a large boundary fence along the driveway that has been bugging me since I first moved in. 

1. It's hard to back down the driveway, 
2. I prefer my car unscratched,
3. Wood fences are unsightly and unwelcoming,
4. My neighbor and his wife have been bitter about the fence since the day it was built by the previous owner. Not only did it block all their windows, but my neighbor couldn't access the side of his property without climbing over the a/c unit.
5. It made the driveway feel too confined.

So we worked together and the fence went 'bye-bye' this weekend. What a difference! 

I'll talk to the neighbor to see if we can work together to remove the plywood over the windows, likely there since Hurricane Ike hit back in 2007.  At the time there was no point to removing it since all they'd have to look out to would have been a giant wood fence. (Update: He wants to take it down now that the fence is gone! Yay!)
Years back, my neighbor removed the asbestos-cement shingles from his house. Since the area was so confined by the fence, they'd left pieces of foil sheathing and tar-paper strips dangling on their house (again, there was no point in removing them since the fence blocked it from sight). We worked together to clean up the area by raking, pulling the weeds and disposing of the remaining, tiny pieces of cement board that littered the ground.

It feels so much more open and airy now!

Fernando had the unfortunate luck of discovering 2 giant wasps nests in the soffits, so progress on the exterior of the house has been stifled until we can deal with those. The wasps have been aggressive ever since their nest was uncovered.

With all the aluminum removed from the house, my backyard is currently doubling as a junkyard...

Surround shot of the backyard

Salvage finds

Stopped by the Historic Houston's Salvage Warehouse today to pick up some wood for the exterior repairs. They had cedar 105 clapbard siding, as indicated by the tapered/bevel cut just like the cypress  wood on my house. The only difference is that mine has a vertical cut grain to it and a rougher texture since it only has 1 layer of the original paint on it.

For the sake of ease I just purchased the 15' boards. I think the end result will come out better if large sections are replaced so that the walls are seamless.

My oh my! What you can fit in a Mitsubishi Eclipse!
15' boards. Only 4' of wood protuded from the back. The green board on top is a broken piece of siding from my house. Almost an exact match!

Good Neighbors, Good Fortune

My neighbor Whit gave me this original craftsman front door that came off a house in the Montrose area! What a beauty! Can't wait to install it!

and he also had one of the original roof brackets from a house down the street which he's letting me borrow to replicate, since mine were stripped from the house.

Check out the size of this thing—it must weigh over 40 pounds!

Don't Misbehave

Misbehavors must mow the lawn.

Look at my crack

Someone thought it was a bright idea to fill the driveway expansion joints with concrete:

So naturally I had to fix it:

Maybe they didn't know that the purpose of those joints was to allow the concrete to expand and contract, thereby preventing cracks from forming. And are there cracks. By golly there are indeed.

Keep your paws covered

When considering restoration, it is important to factor in the cost of gloves. Now $50 in to buying gloves, it's time to turn to that $1.99 sewing kit from Wal-Mart–

Creepy Crawlies

Snakes have been laying eggs by the AC condensation line:

DANGER.

Raining asbestos daggers. 

The Swimming Toad

Found this little guy swimming in the zebra plantar, unable to get out:

Of course, he's free now. And look, he's even got a garden mushroom to catch some shade under:

OUCH.

 

Crispy Corbin

Oops. Got sunburned while working on the house.

Collecting under the asbestos...

That's one giant pile of roach turds.

CrAsh! BaNg! Boom!

Taking apart a 15'x10'x8' pile of aluminum quietly at night is like playing a game of pickup sticks.
...all the outside ones are easy but once you get to the main pile there's eventually a big crash

Peeling off the Exterior

This all started because I had to remove a small piece of aluminum to caulk all the way around the back door. Well, that did it. Demolition bars are naughty things like that.

I pryed off some of the aluminum, then more, and then more. A few minutes later my neighbor Fernando stopped by for a surprise visit. Perfect timing. He grabbed a beer out of the fridge, then caught a glimpse of the demolition bar and before long, he was eagerly ripping down the whole wall. Clearly, he is also tempted by the mischievous claw bar.

The Back

The wall of aluminum Fernando removed. He too is a fan of vintage homes, so we share the same zest for demolition and restoration. 

Why stop there? We moved on to the side:

In one swift move, Fernando managed to get the entire gable uncovered with one tug. My jaw dropped when I saw what was underneath! 

The gable was trimmed with Arts & Crafts architectural details, including brackets, corbels, knee braces and widely spaced dentil blocks! (Arts & Crafts Homes featured a great article about these ornaments in the article Artful Cuts: Gable Trim)

Too bad that the architectural accents were shaved off when they installed the aluminum exoskeleton :_(

Fernando spraying down the exposed, original cypress clapboards. There is still a section of asbestos to remove between the windows and from the gable. Check out that detail that used to be on the side gable! 

I then began tackling the asbestos on the rear of the house. It took some trial runs to get the hang of removing the shingles without breaking them:

The rear gable was also uncovered and more asbestos has been removed:

The Front

Of course, we just couldn't resist moving on to the front of the house:

step 1

step 2

step 3

step 4

Can you hear the neighbors gasping??!

Removed the aluminum from the top gable! More asbestos has been removed from the front, side and back too!

8/26/2015

8/27/2015

On the front gable, I caught a glimpse of cypress shingles hiding under that awful asbestos siding! How cool is that!

The architectural details along the roofline of my neighbor Florencio's house really showcase the arts and crafts features that were once on my home. Apparently his place was in shambles when they first bought it--like in really, really, really bad shape. Year-by-year he has been restoring the interior and exterior and he has done a tremendous job.

Zoom zoom:

The gable is ornately decorated with gorgeous architectural details. I love those deep eaves and how the supports are accented along the fascia

So yea, some day. But for now, here's where we're at:

8/27/2015

The Side

Also removed a lot of asbestos from the side of the house. I had Fernando remove most of the aluminum from the side since there are a lot of solitary wasps that live underneath it. One of the bastards stung Fernando on the upper arm, but better him than me since I'm allergic to them.

The half open window explains the moisture issue in the living room built-ins:

and oops, we accidentally pulled the window out while removing the aluminum exterior. An easy fix though. But regardless, there is no flashing around the windows. They are just tacked on to the original window frames.

It's hurricane season. Are your windows secure?

Videos of Fernando removing the aluminum from the front and rear gables:

Got the first portion of the rafters exposed! Unfortunately some of the wood was replaced, huuurrumpphh.

annnnddd the porch is completely uncovered!

8/27/2015