Day Twenty-Three - WTF Were We Thinking???

Where Once Stood A Home....

Day 17 and the 4th week of construction. What an extravaganza! At this point in the project we're seriously considering our sanity, physical health and marriage. What the F were we thinking? Seriously. Not in terms of doing the project. The more the project goes along - the more I feel that the necessity was there, both in terms of the space that we needed, modernizing our home, and in all of the things that were broken/overlooked through the years that we're now being forced to confront - head on. Like termites. I won't even get into termites. Let's just say they're nasty mo-foes for sure. Through the years we would on occasion see a little swarm of them in say, our bedroom and we'd just kind of look at each other and shrug our shoulders. Where others might have panicked and called in the professionals our "musician lifestyle" called for simple shoulder shrugging and then on to the next topic. Basically our home repair policy has always been "ignore". 

We're at the point where the dust, dirt, flying insulation, rat poop (don't even go there), holes in the floors, no walls, no a/c, 8 hours daily of banging, pounding, crashing, swearing, Mexican pop music, dogs escaping, not to mention all of us crammed basically into our master bedroom --- is beginning to wear on us. We're considering our alternatives. We can't stay here any longer. Either we move to my sisters in Santa Monica, or we stay out - every day, all day. So if you're reading this and we're still doing construction and let's say you're planning on going away for a few weeks this summer and need a house sitting family -- think of us!

Don't get me wrong. I think that this is a gift. Being able to do what others only dream about is truly awesome. Despite the fact that this is extremely difficult to live through, the contractor is doing a great job - his crew is awesome and everything is moving along at lightening speed! 

Day Seventeen - Out With The Old....

Day 15 and I couldn't figure out whether to title this post "Out With The Old and In With The New" or "Things I'm Really Gonna Miss". I guess remodeling is bittersweet. As I watch them hammer away at the little things that I have always loved I feel a bit choked up - sometimes even a little angry. I practice deep breathing and home improvement mantras and remember that you have to break some eggs to make an omelet -- no wait, that's not the right saying. Whatever - you have to make a mess - you have to say goodbye - you have to keep looking ahead, or you can really begin to get, well - stuck. I've seen it happen firsthand. When you get too precious with your (air quotes) stuff, and when you have trouble parting with "things" , then change becomes nearly impossible! 


That said, these are things that I really am gonna miss:

The modern tree mural that my husband and I created in my little girl's room. I can still recall the combined looks of wonder, fear and happiness on July 2, 2008, when she came home from Russia and walked into that room for the very first time...

...along with the little birds that unexpectedly popped up around the room.....

...my sweet vintage stainless range hood - in all it's scalloped, cottage-y glory. We breathed new life into this hood when we remodeled our kitchen after the Northridge earthquake. By tiling the once drywall-only box above it and giving it a good spit shine, it became a show piece in our kitchen...

...and even my little handmade mosaic counter top with inlaid souvenir plates. I try to remember these early DIY days and the satisfaction that comes with creating something fun and fantastical just because you can't afford to do it any other way.

Still....change isn't possible unless you do bid adieu to some of the things that you hold dear. 

Day Sixteen - Rebarrific!

Rebar.....and then......concrete!

Day 13 - Rebar is now in place - all over the place. Things are starting to take shape. 6:00 a.m. and 4 humongous (and very cool) concrete mixers pull up to our house. Don't they know that 6:00 a.m. is practically the middle of the night!

Concrete is pouring into holes, crevices and forms as we speak!

Day Eleven - Dirt.

Yes, Dirt.

Did you ever wonder what your family room would look like with a big ole pile of dirt in the middle of it? No? Me neither. 

There is something so strange about walking through your house and seeing men's heads sticking out of holes in more than one room. They kind of look like little prairie dogs - you know? In any case, it's just really weird. 

We're looking forward to seeing the fun stuff -- when rooms start to look like rooms, and patios start to look like patios. Right now it's pretty much just the top of men's heads, holes and piles of dirt. 

Still....going into the weekend, and the end of week 2 feeling like so much has happened to our house in such a short time. So far our contractor (so far - operative words!), has an amazing crew working for him. They work so hard all day long.

Day Ten - Hole-y Moley!

Day 9 and we're entering all new territory here now. After moving our little one into a makeshift bedroom (inside our living room), creating a temporary office inside our master bedroom, and shipping our tattered family room love seat to the reupholsterer for a facelift, we managed to clear out 2 complete rooms. Which btw - has all but used up every bit of available space in our garage. We'll either be moving to plan b - renting a POD, or we'll start to fill up my sisters warehouse (thanks A!). In any case, the point being, the object of all of this empty space is ---- HOLES. And lots of 'em.

They've now opened up 2 ft. square holes all around our house, and a larger hole inside Milana's previous room. The purpose of these holes is to add additional piers to the foundation of our home. The purpose of adding additional piers to the foundation of our home is so that our home doesn't collapse in an earthquake. Thank you City of L.A. for your care and concern.

In other news, we woke up to a major clog in our kitchen sink. Because just doing a crazy amount of construction, 3 dogs running free around the neighborhood due to downed fences, slamming, banging and drilling - just wasn't the enough commotion for one day.

Day Eight - Perceptions, Misconceptions and Stupid Pipes

Day Seven and the work moves along - despite a minor freakout.....

A

....and a stupid old clay water main pipe!

Here's how I operate: dream, plan, research, decide, take action, freak out, calm down, carry on. That's me in a nutshell basically. So I expected at that some point - make that many points - in the process there would be a fair amount of second-guessing going on. I've learned to absolutely NEVER ignore my instincts. That's not to say that my instincts are always 100% spot on mind you - they are on occasion wrong. I believe that to be the case here. 

As the work progressed last week I ended up with 2 big ole piles of dirt basically -- one in the front of the house (where the addition is going), and one in the back of the house (where the existing patio is being redesigned and we are adding a patio to our master bedroom). Dirt and then trenches where the outlines of the rooms/patios would be. I started looking at the mounds of dirt and the trenches and suddenly thought that everything was starting to seem really small - almost Lilliputian! Thus freak out numero uno. Despite the calm reasoning from my husband to "just read the blueprints and look at the final dimensions", my freakout escalating into a mini-meltdown - complete with hand wringing and pacing. Eventually I took his suggestion, stopped starring at the dirt mounds and moved into the house with the ruler. By measuring existing rooms against the proposed dimensions of the new room, it was obvious that while the room is by no means large - it's fine for my kids bedroom. After speaking with the architect, builder and foreman, who assured me that the square footage of this room was adequate --- AND that dirt mound freak-outs are common place in their industry, I began to breathe again. We were once again reminded of the physical constraints of our house and this project. We took everything out as far as it should or could go - therefore making any dreams of a huge new bedroom fruitless and ridiculous. I have to remind myself that our current "go big or go home" philosophy in this country does NOT apply to homes. Bigger is not always better. I can vouch for this based on the many Calabasas mini mansions that I've been in - bigger can sometimes just be bigger. Carry on.

In other news the foreman and the builder broke the first piece of bad news to us (who knows - maybe the last piece of bad news!). Our 1941 house has a 1941 clay water main pipe running directly through the addition that will need to be changed to plastic. $$$$$.

My new doors shipped from China today. They are now officially on the boat! 

Day Three - how long did you say this would take?

The front of our house - lava rock removal, front porch torn apart and trenches are just beginning!

Day three. Banging is beginning to get to me. I walked around like a Crabby McCrabberson today until I figured out that the chaos of the interior of my home, combined with the constant din of banging was affecting my last nerve. I'm going to try and control the controllable - the interior chaos, since the exterior chaos is unavoidable. We thought that it would be just fine to shift a bunch of furniture around and pile stuff up here and there, but I've come to my senses. Man cannot live amongst piles of crap for 4 to 6 months, therefore we have to come up with a plan B. (Which will either be rearranging our garage for storage, storing stuff in my sisters warehouse, or - last resort - spending $$ on a POD type thing.) 

My sanity is worth every penny. 

No turning back now!

Day Two. First day of demo went swimmingly. Sure there was some blood, sweat and tears - and lots of banging, banging, banging, but for the most part everything went beautifully and accordingly to plan. Guys are back now this morning - we're talkin 7:30 AM! Let the banging and the destruction continue! 

And Away We Go....Day One

Our Good 'Ole Patio. We'll miss ya!

Detail of the original patio steps. Make way for something completely different!

Let the demolition derby begin! Goodbye to you old patio - you've served us well. Breakfast and cocktails - outdoor movie watching - sitting under the fan reading a book, and parties, parties, parties. You've seen a beautiful intimate wedding, a faux Playboy party, a 10 year anniversary tiki party, more barbeques than I could possibly count, endless swim parties and of course many, many happy, amazing and memorable kids birthday fiestas.  Yes, patio - you have most certainly earned your keep. But you've grown old and tired and I'm sorry to say - need to go to that great patio in the sky. Please don't be angry with us.

So....on to phase 2 of our family home! On to bigger, better, brighter things. Let the jack hammering begin!