Urban Queen Anne

The rat-a-tat-tat of the woodpecker

2007-05-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

I was determined to be ready for him this time! The night before, I removed the screen from the upper window, filled up the power squirt gun and pumped its pressure up. He would not escape a good soaking!

When six am came around this morning, I was again awoken by a rat-a-tat-tat pounding upon the house. I stealthily moved to the window, took up the squirt fun, threw up the window sash and fired point blank at the red head. Being disoriented, and unsure where the stream of water was coming from, he started to fall. But he quickly recovered and flew up to the building next door.

I yelled, "This is my territory - you are not welcome!", as he was shaking his feathers free of water and looking very dejected. He sat there for a few minutes, wondering if he could get another shot at my siding. "Go all ready", I said, followed by a stream of water. He flew off to the Southwest and didn't look back. I later looked him up on the 'net and found that he was a Red-breasted Sapsucker woodpecker, native to the Pacific Northwest. Very territorial and enjoys excavating cavities in fir (which my siding is made up).

But he just reinforced what this summer's working will consist of - my 118 year old fir siding. I should be ready next weekend to start tearing down the architectural details and siding, milling and installing the replacements. I'll be doing just one section of the house at a time.

Anyone else have woodpecker versus house stories to tell?

No news is good news?

2007-03-06T12:54:00.000-08:00

It has been a few weeks now since I've heard from the community college (after repeated messages), concerning incorporating my house’s restoration into their spring quarter curriculum. Their spring quarter starts around the first week in April, so there is time to iron out the details.

I wrote up and submitted a small list on what I'll be working on, anything from siding replacement, redesigning the porches, interior work such as trim, casements and moldings and flooring, to replacement of a large bathroom. More for my own benefit than theirs.

But we’ll see in the next few weeks where it goes. Maybe the offer was too good to be true…

An offer I can't refuse?

2007-02-20T15:31:00.000-08:00

A local community college has approached me in considering my house for one of their student projects for this Spring quarter.

Last week I found a business card attached to the mail box from the director of the Wood Construction Center, a unit of the local community college. A brief phone call today delivered some details:

My house is conveniently close to the center, making it opportune to run the class. (Last year they build an on-site house, eating up the rest of their space, which has yet to be moved.)
I would be responsible for all materials, as well as possibly setting up credit at one of the home stores, for materials.
A team of 6 students and 1 instructor would be on site, performing the work to desired specs.
In the end, they would have another feather in their cap to show off, which will help bring in more students, funding and other such positives.
And I would have a huge jump start on the house restoration.

But there are still a few unanswered question, such as liability (from accidents and such), the quality of work (since I plan on following the National Historic Preservation specs), to just name a few. They've asked me to submit a list of items I'd like for them to work on (basically an informal work order) and we'd meet at the house site to go over details with the director and involved instructors.

Any feed back from the House Restoration blogosphere would be greatly welcomed: any knowledge of similar projects and their eventual out come, to any other neglected concerns that should be highlighted?

The case of the missing screw jacks

2006-08-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

I began setting up the scaffolding this weekend, assembling the first course of a three unit high sctructure, with two sections on each side of the house, and two in front on either side of the front stoop. I was originally just going to put up the two sides, but with all the excess frames I had, I thought I might as well encase the front of the house in a big C shape, adding to the stability of the overall structure.

The cross brases went in very easily, but I only had three base screw jacks. The last owner mentioned he only used three, but I suspect he wasn't using all the sets at the same time. And after looking at the first course, that was tilted this way and that, there is no way this will be stable at 20' with three courses. I'd need thirteen more jacks (as well as the need to cut some 12"x12" plywood base platforms) to complete the structure!

This morning I ordered thirteen for $12.50 a piece, from a company out of Grand Rapids , MI. They'll be here Thursday; a small delay but a large savings. (The local scaffolding place, Berg, wanted $30 each - Pirates!)

"May you live in interesting times." - Chinese Proverb

2006-08-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

It’s been awhile since posting, due to some life changes: a loss of two jobs, a girlfriend and the first half of the summer spent. I was laid off from Universal Avionics, joined Microsoft for a month but quit after getting an offer at Honeywell.

I was determined to get a jump start on the out side projects, notably the exterior siding. So on Wednesday I went down to Berg Scaffolding on Alki Beach to get a quote. I needed 6 sets of 3' x 6' frames and a 20' aluminum plank, previously used, to which they wanted $2100. I was apprehensive about putting down so much for scaffolding.

But Craig's List came through once again. I was looking for scaffolding on the list for a few months, with little success until last night. Someone was selling 13, 3 ' x 6.5' frames, 17, 5 ' x 6.5' frames, 24 planks, braces and a handful of jacks for $750 (delivered); Much more than I really needed, but it was the whole lot or nothing. After talking with him, he said would drop to $400 if I can get it out of his yard that very night, with no delivery. I rented a truck and drove down to Dash Point. His place was on top of the hill just on the point, over looking the Sound and Vashon Island; a very expensive view.

He helped me load, spending an hour and a half loading, and another two hours unloading. These things are heavy and its best to pick them up on a balancing point.

I’m missing the 20’ plank, but I can get do without until I get to that section of the house, hoping for another Craig's breakthrough. I'll start assembly this weekend. Photos of the scaffolding below:

Starting the upstairs plumbing remodel

2006-06-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

It is time to start on the upstairs bath remodeling. The first step will be the rough in plumbing.

All the fixtures have been removed, along with the entire flooring and subflooring. I would have liked to salvaged some of the old Fir hardwood flooring but it was in such a decayed state, that it wasn't worth the trouble. The previous owners, when they put down tile, failed to put down an adequate underlayment, that water soon leaked through to the old floor and damaged them.

I put together a rough drawing (below) on existing and future modifications, to help aid the plumbers on what would be required of them. But after receiving three quotes in the $4000 range, I desided to pick up a $20 plumbing book, a collection of plumber tools and emailed a friend in Minnesota who's a plumber. Are all plumbers this expensive, and for only 6 hours of work?

I figure I'll do most of the work myself, and if I get into trouble, I'll hire a plumber by the hour. The only tricky part will be the center drain, which won't have traditional venting...

Retaining Walls and Excavation

2006-05-20T16:12:00.000-07:00

Demolition and excavation on the back retaining wall began this morning. It was leaning into the alley way about 15°, due to the heavy rains we had over the winter. It's a wall that I share with my neighbor, who is picked up the cost of her side of the wall and all the demolition on both sides. I'm unsure what I'll do with my side as of yet. I'd like to have the 5' retaining walls in my backyard repoured as well as a new two car slab, to replace the 1.5 car slab. (The old walls where once part of a garage, which was there some 30 odd years ago). But the cost is close to $9,000, for about 55' x 5' walls of concrete (from Emerald Concrete).

The guys who are doing the work today, gave me a bid of $3,000 (for only 3' section) on my side of the property. I seems a bit much, from the perspectice of the Emerald bid, so I'll pass.

Here are some action shots of today:

Fireplace Demo

2006-05-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

The majority of yesterday's time was spend tearing down the 'entertainment' center above the fire place. With its modern look of a lightly colored hardwood facade, sliding glass display case and the bulbous shiny brass hardware, would stick out as an eye sore in a restored Victorian.

I have a few more hours to go before the entire structure is disassembled, but so far I've recovered over 200 brass screws and depleated one of my 16.8V batteries on my cordless drill, where it no longer holds a charge. I've been as careful as I can, trying not to damage too much of the drywall.

But one thing is puzzling: the past owner who built this center, used a thin, high gloss backerboard, glued directly only onto the bump out sections of the drywall where the CO2 stack is positioned, and no where else. But this will be the only section of drywall that will require replacement. But I would really like to just remove this CO2 stack all together, and vent it out though the side of the house (like some fireplaces do). Has anyone tried this?

Before

After

Another Damaged Shipment!

2006-05-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it. The shipment containing my pole jack scaffolding (consisting of three items) was missing and damaged. One box was damaged with the top section of the box off, while another was completely missing, though the two long 24' poles made it here. I just rejected the whole shipment again. I'm two for two on shipping now. I wonder how businesses survive with this poor shipping records.

I'll be reordering the shipment from Amazon again and the siding will have to wait another month.

I'll begin the teardown of the fireplace this weekend then, saving as much of the unfinished oak material as I can for other projects. This will eventually be tiled in with a celtic mosaic pattern...

Happy Mayday!

2006-05-08T17:48:00.000-07:00

This weekend and half of last week, when mostly towards celebrating Spring and visiting family and friends back in Minnesota. The Spring celebration comes in the form of the anual May Day Celebration, sponsored by the Heart of the Beast Theatre in South Minneapolis. I've been attending for the past 15 years, of its 34 year history.

The MayDay Ceremony in Powderhorn Park has become a joyous annual ritual for nearly 50,000 people in the Twin Cities. Each year, a 200-person pageant re-tells the story of that year's parade, with children and adult dancers, puppeteers, a live orchestra and four giant serene puppets who represent the Prairie, Sky, River, and Woods.

It culminates in the Tree of Life Ceremony: to the steady beating of drums, a resplendent red Sun Flotilla paddles the Sun from across the lake to the shore where the Tree of Life sleeps, waiting to be reawakened.

The weekend didn't go without some home renovation: I got my brother started on his own kitchen demo by helping to take down a few lath and plaster walls.

Scaffolding 101

2006-04-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

Do you ever get that feeling that nothing appears to be happening, but checks are still being written, trips to the hardware become a regular pastime and frequent delivering are arriving in large boxes at odd times during the day? I believe I’m experiencing a small money pit phenomena, something on the scale of a micro black hole. Time, energy and money go in, but with no progress to show for it. But I suspect this will change when everything is in place and set up.

A common problem with house restoration is getting your hands to where the work is. Since I’m starting on the exterior siding this year, it will require a minimum elevation gain of about 25’, performing detailed wood working. The front porch protrudes from the house by 5’ and extends 20’ along the front axis, which would require a system to support a 20’ span. After researching numerous scaffolding systems, I found that very few of them do. They are (listed in order of price):

Do it yourself (wood, wires, etc.) - This might work, but would require numerous brancings along the span
Two ladders with plank holder - Wouldn't support the span, unless a mid-join ladder was used.
Traditional Frame (3' x 6' x 4') - Depending upon the source, it might span, but would require heavy anchoring
Pump Jack - Would support the span, providing one uses four braces
Commercial Grade trusses and poles - Would support the spam, but at an exorbitant cost.

With traditional frame (used) was as expensive as the pump jack system, I decided on the later. There are quite a few makers to choose from, ranging from Alum-a-pole, Werner, Qual-Craft, Falcon, (the majority being interchangeable with each other) but I chose Qual-Craft. Not because it was better than the others, but because it was 47% off on Amazon (of all places to buy) with free shipping. I was notified this morning it just shipped. (The local Seattle merchants would only sell at MRP.)

My hope is after getting this scaffolding setup, order knives for the exterior crown molding and running over to Bainbridge for the 1" x 6" cedar stock, it will finally appear something is happening.

Footnote: The only reason I bought was due to the $180 a week rental fee, and with a price tag of $879.99, it was a no bainer. Though I see Amazon has now raised the price to $1179.99, only after two weeks. I think someone initially mispriced this item...

Photos!

2006-04-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

There is a link to my pre-move in photos in the first post, but it hidden in a bunch of text and not easily found. So, I'll repost the link here:

Click here to see the pre-move in photos.

2006-04-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

Boron The 5th element in the Periodic Table, was discovered by Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis-Jaques Thénard, French chemists, and independently by Sir Humphry Davy, an English chemist, in 1808.

Among its many uses, the most common is of a low toxicity pesticide that penetrates and protect all types of wood, including plywood and composites, from infestations of wood boring insects such as termites, Powder post beetles, carpenter ants and decaying fungi. My specific problem is dry rot fungus, contained in some of the sub flooring and foundation sills in the basement.
After doing some research, I found the best solution was a topical application of a borate/Boron solution directly onto the infested wood itself. This method is used in many historical house restorations throughout the U.S. and outlined at the U.S. Dept of the Interior historical house restoration guides. This will kill off any current infestations and future ones for many years.

But the problem was finding a supplier. No one sells it anymore (if they ever did), from the huge box stores, down to the to the corner hardware stores. They either never heard of it, or didn’t know where to get it. I finally found a source at a company call Quality Borate, that sells a product called BoraSol™ WP (Na2B8O13). A molecule consisting of 8 boron and 13 oxygen atoms, has a high boron content, aong with all that oxygen, must be a good oxidizing agent as well.

They usually sell in large quantities (inquiring if I wanted just one ton or two), but graciously agreed to send me a sample of 25 pounds (see photo), which should adequately treat all the exposed wood in the basement. (This should finish off just one of a hundred different projects that need attention - and no, I don't feel overwelmed yet.)

2006-04-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

Smoke and Fire!

A friend of mine had a fire at his place, after Air Comfort Solutions, an HVAC company incorrectly hooked up the electrical service. And now they are trying to get out of paying for what is due. My friend has put up a site, with photos here:

http://www.acfromhell.com/

Beware of Air Comfort Solutions and their contractors.

2006-03-28T16:27:00.000-08:00

“First step in avoiding a trap, is knowing of its existence.” Frank Herbert, Dune, spoken by Master of Assassins (chief security officer) Thufir Hawat.

Mortgage Strategy

For those spring house hunters out there, let me give you some advice on dealing with mortgage brokers, and how not to fall into their traps they lay for the unwary.

It was last year, in the early spring, that I began searching for a house. I knew I had to get my financing setup first before serious looking. Marsha Stephens, my real estate agent, suggested Choice Lending as a mortgage broker. Marsha is a great agent by the way, going all out to get my house closed on time; telling me afterwards that this was her most difficult deal to date.

So, I got all my paperwork lined up, everything filled out, stamped and ready to go. I found my house; they accepted the final offer and the closing date. Then with the closing less than a month a way, feeling lucky, I faxed in my mortgage rate 30 day lock in form and ordered the appraisal.

Unbeknownced to Choice Lending, I was working with another broker and a large bank on the same deal, going through the same process, same paperwork. I got them to use the same appraisal ordered by Choice Lending as well, which saved a few dollars. Usually a lender requires their own appraisal order, but in this circumstance they accepted the one already completed.

You ask why? Time and again, I’ve head this identical horror story from prospective home buyers. Right at the last minute, within a week or less of closing, their locked in interest rate could not be honored, due to some deleterious mark on their credit report. This same credit report, usually ordered by your broker himself, had in his possession for months on end. This happened to my brother when he bought his house and it happened to two of my house buying friends. I wasn’t going to get trapped and sucked down into their little game.

And guess what, just five days before my closing date, wam! My locked in interest rate could not be honored, due to some deleterious mark the lender found, but would require a ¾ points increase. I wrote the lender an email thanking him for his time, saying I will no longer be requiring his services and will be closing with a competitor on time. He freaked, called back, saying how much work he put into it, and so on. I held firm and didn’t hear from him until the next day, saying there was some mistake, they pulled ‘different’ credit reports (aren’t there only three?) and they would honor the original rate, with no lender fee thrown in.

I took it. Why? Because its business and he still had the best offer. I had nothing against the guy trying to pull a fast one, trying to make a little more and getting caught trying it. The moral of the story is: the primary concern of a broker is making money. The customer will always come second, every time.

Heed my warning!

2006-03-28T10:31:00.000-08:00

Primer

Last night I started priming the front entrance alcove and the stair hall way with Killz2 Latex Primer, tinted with a light green. It comes out of the can very thick, but goes on very light, always like a watercolor. But I'm thinking I put it on a bit too light, spreading it too thin. And then I forgot to use a 1/2" Nap to produce that ubiquitous clam-shell texture on the walls (atleased those platch places that where sanded smooth). I've only used 1/3rd of a gallon so far, while the can indicates it should cover 300 square feet. So, atleased another coat or two. And at $10 a gallon...

For the past two months, I've gone though close to two gallons of 'patch' spackle. Patching various dents, dings, gouges and other deformities throughout the house, preparing for the job of priming. The walls have been just sucking up the primer and leaving a very nice matted texture for better paint adhesion. I didn't bother washing the walls with TSP, since Killz2 will suck up any dirt that might exist on the walls. I've used wire mesh to patch about the power outlets and switches, which where cut a bit too large to the box.

I'll wait until I've starting hanging the crown moldings, side boards, box frames, window and door trim moldings before I put down a 100% acrylic resin paint. But atleased the grime from the pervious owners is gone...

2006-03-27T18:55:00.000-08:00

Shipment Rejected!

The shipment from Woodmaster Tools came on Saturday morning via Walter shipping. The driver called me up early Saturday morning, asking for directions and was soon at the back door. When I stepped into the back of the truck, looking at the three boxes, two with holes still in them after a rough re-taping job and the third, the largest, with a big dent on one side . I picked up the medium size to only have a few broken items leak out into the floor of the delivery truck.

Who did they think they would deliver this to? That they could get away with a delivery of odd shaped boxes that where square at one time? That I wouldn't notice a massive amount of tape, wound up desperately in hopes that I wouldn't notice? Hah! I rejected the shipment and sent the driver on his way. The poor driver, who apologized, claimed not to see what was actually loaded back there. I had to reject the whole shipment, and called Woodmaster, who will be sending out a new unit in the next few days.

I ordered the 718 model a few weeks ago. A machine that will produce unlimited quantities of shiplap siding, crown moldings, victorian panels, chair rails, window and door casements, and pieces of cabinetry. After figuring in the cost of purchasing all these pre-made items, it turned out to cheaper to buy a machine, have custom knives made and wood stock blanks. It also has a good resale value if I where to part with it.

Next month should be exterior crown molding month!

2006-01-17T17:04:00.000-08:00

Cobalt Blue Floor Tiles
Its been awhile since I've posted, with the holidays and work taking up the majority of my time.

But it appears I'm at a loss now. I've been searching for a floor tile in the color of cobalt blue these past two months, with nothing to show for it.. Sure, there are walls tiles in that perticular color, but no floor tiles. Nothing to be had anywhere in Seattle or surrounding areas. My search has now expanded to the 'net, with little success as well. One would think cobalt blue would be a popular color for floors...

I have my upstairs bathroom floor all ripped up, awaiting a new set of tiles. Anyone out there know of a supplier for 4" x 4", or 6" x 6" (or even 12's)?

2005-11-27T13:00:00.000-08:00

This weekend I started the demo of the second floor bathroom. I started by disconnecting the water and waste lines to the claw foot bathtub, and hawled it out into the hallway that went no where which I now believe was the original bathroom. As the bathroom approaches completion, I'll have the tub restored with a clown white ceramic finish and cobalt blue underside with silver claws. I disconnected the vanity water and waste lines and put this item as well as a free standing hunch on Craig's List; they where gone within a few hours with over 50 people responding. They where fairly new, but more of a contemporary style. I'm going to leave moving the toilet until the last moment.

I picked up a new chisel with a hand guard, which is a great idea for us newbie demo people. It pretty much guarantees no smashed fingers. And the price? It was the same without a hand guard...

After chipping away at the tile, I found it was attached to a tile backing board that has been screwed down into the original hardwood floor. My original plans are to take the floor down to the studs and build it back up, since all the waste and water lines are required to move, as well as adding two new waste lines, to accomidate the new design. Another issue to take into account lies below the bathroom, which is the formal library. No matter how much splashing or over flowing takes place, this bathroom cannot leak; it must not leak. To insure this, I'm putting in a centered floor drain as well. Is this the right approach, I ask myself? Taking it down to the studs, removing all the subflooring, move all the plumbing, build it back up with water proof membranes and retile the floor and kickboards?

Update
The first step is completed: digging up the tile and backerboard from the hardwood floors. Pictures follow:

2005-11-04T15:29:00.000-08:00

This week’s work entailed preparing for a workshop on preservation and landmark nomination, sponsored by Historic Seattle. It’s an eight hour workshop covering such topics as preservation ordinance, new construction, zoning and planning, dealing with local historical properties, etc.

I suspect most of these topics won’t be applicable to my situation of submitting the Urban Queen Anne for historic preservation. But I’ve obtained the copy of the original deed from 1889, a 1937 photo of the house as well as a present day photo and a few other tid-bits of information. I’m hoping to get some tips on where to locate census and tax records from the last 120 years, along with cross references on previous owner’s bio’s.

In Seattle, landmarks must be older than 25 years, and maintain enough integrity to convey their significance, in addition to meeting one or more of six established criteria:

• How is it an outstanding example of its style or an outstanding work of the architect?
• How did the building contribute significantly to the development of the area or the city?
• What does it represent that is important (such as a social or architectural trend)?
• Is it related to an important person? Why was he or she significant? In what way was he or she connected to the building? Is the connection significant?
• Is this building unique in some way or are there others like it (style, building type, historical use, etc.)? Is this the city's best example?

The workshop should provide some ‘high brow’ entertainment never the less.

2005-09-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

Safety and security. People don't realize they need it too until its too late to do something about it. I knew I needed a security system and monitoring service. I started the due diligence asking for a full install with the largest, ADT. The ADT installation bid consist of 100% batteried wireless door and window contacts (they won't do wired) at $2200 and monitoring at $34 a month. HomeGuard where roughly equilivant. Brinks would do a wired system, but only a few hundred less. I finally went with a local security firm who monitors banks and highrises in the region, who would work with my own installation and wiring. They would do the final inspection for $59 and monitoring at $19 a month.

I chose the ELK M1 security system for the house. The base unit's cost ($300) is a little bit more than the Ademco, GE Concord or V15P systems, but the features of the ELK blows away those other systems. Along with security monitoring and with proper sensors, it can detect the water content of the soil in your yard and turn on the sprinkler system if needed, or automate your home (with PC) and control every electrical device in your house by voice recognition (via RF, X-10, et al). Every geek should have one! Had to order it via mail order, since WA has a strange law about selling security systems to non licensed installers (regardless if they are home owners).

I thought I'd hire a company who specialized in alarm wiring installations for commercial businesses, thinking they would be reliable. Pro-comm is their name. It was a simple job: wire 3 doors, and 10 windows (I would do the rest of the windows myself, since they are at basement level). They could make holes in the walls and window sils if required. It took them 4 hours to do 2 doors and 2 windows. They also showed up at a day and time when they weren't scheduled, and I had to race over from work to let them in, and old me (when they arrived) they couldn't finish because they had an emergency to attend to 4 hours from then. They said they would come back next week. It took them two weeks to come out again, while I was at work. I didn't bother to race from work this time. They appologized, saying they would call to setup an apointment. Guess what, they called 5 weeks later!

I have since picked up a 3 foot flex drill bit ($23) and fish pole ($10), and completed the wiring on my own... Contractors, can't even trust the commercial kind.

2005-09-10T17:54:00.000-07:00

Toys! Gotta love 'em!

A few nights ago, I responded to an ad on craig's list tools section:
Kity K5, French made multipurpose woodworking machine and #695 very powerful shop vacuum/ dust collector that attaches to the K5. The K5 was intended to compete with Shopsmith. It has a table saw, planer, jointer, shaper and slot mortising attachment and has numerous accessories and instruction manuals.
I was soon on my way to a garage that sits upon a hill, over looking Portage Bay and the famous Sleepless In Seattle floating house. B was selling the K5 and dust collector (see pics below) that his wife bought when she was learning woodworking. She had made one table about 5 years ago, and hadn't used it since. The machine looked almost new. The motor's hum on the K5 was so quite, one could hear whispers. And with only a few spots of surface rust on the chuch (the tables are made of some rust inhibiting alloy), I was sold. I talked him down $380, and he threw in 500' of 1x2's of alderwood left over from a project.

I rented a van this morning to haul my new toys back home ($33). I had to disassemble and reassumble each of the tables to get them down to the basement shop (the machine weights over 200 pounds). I ran a few scraps though, and they cut like butter. Toys! Gotta love 'em!

2005-09-08T17:45:00.000-07:00

I’ve made a decision. After getting quotes from numerous mills around the region (as well as from other states) for the custom shiplap siding, I’d decided to venture down the wood workers path. I’ll build up a basement shop and mill the siding myself. The shiplap siding was only the first in many molding and trims I’d have to replace on the house. The exterior crown moldings (3 different styles) and trims (4 styles) need replacing, along with all the window casements. Did I also mention the interior is devoid of any window, door or stairs trim as well? I also wanted to put up a box or a frame type of molding as well.

Last week I started combing the free section of Craig's List; a great resource for the avid pack-rat. One can find free lumber, free tools, almost anything free. The problem is that one usually has to be the 'first caller'. I was lucky on a Friday morning. I picked up a Delta 50-850 dust collector (which only need a new hose, $5), a Delta 34-444 table saw, devoid of motor and 60 dry 2x4x12s that came from a botched remodel, that had some nails. I'll buy a new (or used) motor for it soon. There is also a tools section as well. I'm just about out the door on my way to look at a French machine that has 7 different power tools in one, driven by one motor; switch the belt around to run the other tools (joiner, planer, shaper, band saw, table saw, sander and ?). I think he wants $375 for it...

2005-08-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

Shiplap: (planche à feuillure) a siding or cladding of horizontally laid boards with notched edges that make an overlapping joint, applied to the outside of a wood-framed building, or a stone wall, to make it weatherproof; the face of each board is parallel to the plane of the wall (also called drop siding).

I estimate about 20% of my shiplap/drop exterior siding on the house needs replacement due to dry rot, decay and/or just old age. Since none of the local hardware stores stock this stuff, I had to cut a small sacrificial piece to get an accurate measurement. Its 7/8" x 5 and 5/8", with 45° notched angles on both top and bottom of the front surface. Common stock (so I’m told) about 80 years ago in this part of the world, but only now available by a wood mill.

I brought my sample to Blackstock’s (a local in town mill) who quoted between $3.50 - $5.00 a linear foot! I might be able to find a cheaper mill on Bainbridge or across the boarder, which would be lower, but still over my budget.

Another option would be to use standard blanks of 1” x 6”, which sells for $0.31 a linear foot, and mill it myself. That would require purchasing a planer (maybe with a joiner option), and a router table. It could mill it down to the proper width, and with three different router bits, I could reproduce the butt joints and notches to recreate my 120 year old siding. We’ve all seen Norm on Yankee Work Shop mill his own stock, but I’m not sure how easy it will be for someone who took shop in high school. (A photo of the siding it shown below.)

2005-08-28T17:42:00.000-07:00

The Works Progress Administration (later Works Projects Administration, abbreviated WPA), was created on May 6, 1935 with the signing of Executive Order 7034, as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. It was a "make work" program that provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression. One of its many projects included documenting each and every structure on the West coast of the U.S. Workers would would be trained in photography and library research. They would go out, take a picture of the house or structure, document who was currently living there, how much they paid in rent and other information. They would also research who was the original owner, builder/architect, and how much was paid for the land and house. All this information was then placed on a bifold placard, including the photo, to be stored at a regional archive for future use.

And thanks to those WPA workers back in 1937, I now have front profile photo of what my house looked like back then. Only the front porch rails and lower drop siding has changed, from almost 70 years ago. Not bad.

2005-08-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

I finally have time to sit down and create a blog, for what I'm calling the Urban Queen Anne. Preliminary pictures can be found here.

We're located in Seattle, a few miles East of downtown in a fairly diverse neighborhood. A link describing the neighborhood can be found on the Seattle P.I.'s website here.

The lot is small, coming in at around 3600 square feet, but is an average size lot, taking into account lots that fall within a few miles radius of downtown Seattle. The lawn is pretty much a war zone; it has been abandond for the last 15 years.

The house itself is an unusual style of Queen Anne Victorian, in which I'm still investigating its exact classification. Its a two story structure, with a logarithmic slopping side roofs to north and south. The south being more pronounced. With dual 'A' frames, 90 degrees on one another. It was once a 4 bedroom, but has been converted to a two bedroom. It contains 1.75 baths, a formal library, a large dining room, a good size living and kitchen and a hall way upstairs that leads to no where (more on that later).

This blog will describe (in detail) my over all experiences, for the last four months as well. From:

Putting offers on the house that where ignored
Dealing with the the extremes of a great buying agent (John L. Scott) to crooked selling agents (Windermere)* and manic relocation companies.
Going though the seven different expections that where preformed on the house
The negotiations that went on after first acceptance, from what was really fixed versus what was on the contract
The actual closing
And the whole lending aspect on this endeavour.

This information should be very valuable to anyone attempting to buy a house and avoiding the pit falls that I happen to stumble into.

And over time, the blog will also document the restoration of house Urban Queen Anne, from its very beginnings, to its completion, while adhearing to specifications on preserving landmarks that are layed out by the Dept of Interior (US). I'll be proceeding through the City Landmark application process in the coming months as well, with hopes of a successful landmark (but nothing is certain).

Welcome.