the cat... and some progress photos.

before the excavation work began on our house, i asked our contractor to please save anything of interest that the crew found in the sand. it's always interesting to see what gets unearthed when digging under historic homes.

well, everyone got a bit more than they bargained for this time around...

gino, one of the more jovial guys on the crew, was shoveling more of the never-ending beach below the house, and let out a yelp of surprise. he had found a mummified cat (we think) that curled up and went to sleep under our house, permanently.

if you don't have a strong stomach, scroll quickly past!

kitty must have been quickly covered up by the shifting sands. much like mummies seen in the terrifying photos from our childhood world history classes, the dry sands created a spontaneous mummy via natural desiccation. spooky, but kind of cool too.

we also ended up with a lot of interesting historic ephemera - i'll post about that another time soon.

meanwhile, here are a couple of new photos of what's happening below deck!

lots of interesting temporary shoring

and a look at the first section where concrete will be poured

here's one of the most lovely songs about mummies one could hope to hear, and an utterly charming video, from one of my all-time favorites, the incredible josh ritter:

i've never seen anything like it..."

"i've never seen anything like it." these are not the words one wants to hear from her contractor when working on a big excavation project.

so it turns out that, not only was there nary a footing to be seen under our bay windows, we have virtually no foundation to speak of under the entire house. just a couple of rows of bricks in some sections along the outer walls.

"i can't believe the building is still standing." or that it has survived such big earthquakes. eugene says that he believes our house is being held up by a couple of tenuous spots where our house meets with our neighbors on the downslope.

well, at least this explains alot about the house and the settling we've seen in such a short time.

here are a couple of fun photos of current progress. so glad we're getting this done.

daily bin exchange to haul away the sand removed in the last 

24 hours

now we can really see the space taking shape

a look at the temporary shoring that is updated each day 

as they continue excavation by hand

it's pretty incredible to see how fast the project is moving in the first couple of weeks - and to see a space tall enough for some pretty big guys to stand below the house very comfortably. they've also made it all the way to the back of the planned garage space; if you look closely at last photo, you can see the chimney of one of our fireplaces.

please wish us luck that this is the extent of the "surprises" to be found. you know, other than gold coins or some other treasure.

beach baby, beach baby, there on the sand...

sleep is for wimps.

now, i know that i should never, ever, ever complain about our contractors getting an early start and being dedicated to the work. but... 7:30 a.m. jackhammers on a monday morning? not my favorite.

maybe if i imagine tipper and friends out there it will make me smile.

probably not.

dreaming of silent mornings

and so it begins. again.

well, we certainly had a bit of a break, didn't we?

not much has happened on the house front in quite some time but we're *finally* getting started with a huge project that we anticipated from day one: replacing the foundation of our very old house.

it's been a long time coming, and has involved years of sketches and planning and interviewing, but we've finally broken ground this week. for those of you most interested in interior design, new updates to this blog may be a bit of a bore. but for those of you who are interested in what it takes to replace a failing brick-and-mortar foundation set on a sandy ex-creek bed in the middle of a very busy city, well, stay tuned!

a bit of background... when we bought the building in 2009, g and i knew that we'd eventually have to get around to this work. it was obvious, inside and out, that we had a bit of a situation.

before getting started

from the outside, you could see that the bays, each two stories high and over 30 feet tall, were sagging away from the center of the house. on the inside, you can both see and feel the effect of the foundation sagging on both sides. g and i have both become accustomed to the unusual experience of sleeping with our toes above our heads due to the sag along the outer walls in both units.

so, when the time was right, we started working with a structural engineer on plans to replace the foundation - and to add a garage while we are at it. this took much longer than expected due to san francisco's tedious approval and permitting process (for example, they approved the removal of both concrete retaining walls but would not approve the removal of the ficus tree that grew on top of the one on the left?!) and because we had to make some concessions due to our proximity to the uphill neighbor's above-grade brick foundation (we won't be able to excavate to the property line and have a garage as big as the house's footprint).

when the dust settled on our plans, and permits were finally issued, we started with removing the trees from the front of the house. it is always a sad thing to see mature trees removed, especially in an urban environment which is already starved for them, but we had to do it. one would prevent us from accessing the site and the other was a risk to both the current and future foundations.

the (very sunny!) day after the trees came down

while it is was sad, i have to admit that it is quite nice to finally see all of the beautiful victorian features of the house without obstructions. i still love it very much and am excited that we get to care for this amazing place so it will last, hopefully, at least another 100+ years.

that being said, with the trees gone, the problem with the foundation is even more obvious when viewed dead-on. you can see in the photo above that the sag is particularly bad on the left. in the dining room, there is about a 5-inch slope from the interior wall to the outside wall. makes for interesting post-dinner moments when everyone feels they maybe had too-too much local wine to drink!

here's what we intend it to look like when finished.

plans for the exterior

the paper was a bit wobbly, so please try to imagine that everything is finally level! you'll note that both retaining walls are gone in the bottom/ "after" sketch, and that we'll have a carriage style garage door on the right. on the left, we'd planned on victorian style wrought iron railing but, with all of the wonderful sun we now get, we're leaning towards a low- or no-water garden that everyone can enjoy.

and now for the fun stuff: set-up and demolition. on tuesday morning, our awesome contractor (eugene of oak leaf construction) came by with some of his crew to get the prep work started. sadly, my favorite member of the oak leaf team, tipper, was unavailable that day...

our foreman, tipper, on another job

we started with taping construction paper down on all of our floors on the lower level of the building. this was a much bigger undertaking than i'd thought - it took over 4 hours just to finish up in my unit. as a reminder, our floors are gorgeous wide-plank old-growth douglas fir. the problem is that these are actually the original sub-floors for the house - at some point the oak floors that were installed above them were removed in favor of plywood and carpet.

floors and long-gone paint job, pendant

as we'll be excavating tons, literally, of sand from below the house, the likelihood of it blowing up through the floors is high. so here are our *fancy* new floors...

beautiful new pink paper floors

i also spent a while taping up the bottom bay window with a heavy plastic drop cloth to keep sand from blowing through my 100+ year old, no-longer-square sashes.

lovely new window coverings to match

and then we were ready to frame out the construction site on wednesday, and start the demo on thursday. here's a look...

framing the site so no one can access on off-hours

    

closed for the night!

after the site was secured, they removed the siding below the bay on the right and found a WONDERFUL surprise. there is no foundation at all under our enormous two-story bays. whomever build the house ran a brick foundation around some of the perimeter but decided to build the bays right on top of the sand with no actual support! the guys doing the work said they'd never seen anything like it - yay for us!? 

at least this is a good explanation for why we've seen so much settling, even in our short time here.

once they'd built a temporary support for the bay, they were able to start removing the concrete retaining wall. ah the dulcet sounds of a jackhammer at 8AM on a friday morning...

a slow and tough business

by the end of the day on friday, the guys had removed the front of the retaining wall and started trucking out the sand by hand. this has to be done with extreme care, especially at first, to make sure we don't destabilize our building or either of our neighbors'. just the excavation portion of the project is slated to take about 2 months. 

so, one week down, and SIX TO NINE MONTHS left to go! please keep your fingers crossed and wish us well!

the incomparable bill withers - he's been on repeat in my house of late

dog days of summer.

dear readers,

i can't believe it's been so long since i've updated my little blog!

i know you are all AVID readers of fog city sparkle (ha! that was funny!) so i do hereby swear to begin updating this more regularly again - espcially with summer waning here in san francisco.

indian summer in san francisco: this morning's sunrise from my stoop

[tip for non-sf readers: always plan to visit our fair city in september and early october to get the very best weather. we don't have perpetual summer like they did on 90210 (the real one - not this silly remake filled with walking, talking twigs).]

so, what have i been up to on the home front? not too much that is of interest to you probably. we are working on converting our building from tics to condos and, with sf's myriad ridiculous laws, it is enough to make you bonkers. so our house fixes of late have all been of the "bring this up to code" variety - and not the "ooh, look at this amazing fabric i have to do something with it" kind.

however, i have some ideas percolating (and some new silk curtains to make), so it's time to get to work - and get to posting!

in the short term, here's something fun: my first (and only) tomato of the season!

it's finally been hot enough to ripen the two tomatoes that have been on the vine for months. one get eaten overnight but i managed to pick this one (a black cherry heirloom) this morning. huzzah!

okay - be back soon with some good stuff for you!

jen x

the first time....

"can you tell from the look on my face that i... love you more TODAAAAAY..."

one year ago today i walked into this house for the first time. i didn't know it at the time, but i had finally come home.

this year has been a whirlwind - and rather like falling in love. joy, doubt, fear, butterflies, and hard work. and i wouldn't trade a single second.

here's a quick look back at that first day. these are the photos i took at the open house (click the photo to see a larger version). and click here for an intro to this crazy project.

we've certainly come a long way!
(top row, l-r) entrance, downstairs hallway, formal dining room, living room

(2nd row, l-r) downstairs (illegal) bathroom, kitchen, view of city hall from kitchen, upstairs hallway

(3rd row, l-r) master bedroom, master - 2 closets. w00t!, view from master (you can see the bay!), guest bedroom

(4th row, l-r) upstairs bathroom, office, view from office, backyard

(last row, l-r) backyard, backyard entrance to basement, basement

"although sometime has passed
i still remember just like it was yesterday.
the time is moving fast.
the love i have for you
time won't ever change -
i'll always feel the same
now until the end..."

damn you, ikea! *shakes fist*

damn you, that is, for having such utterly charming things at such low prices that i think i can afford something like 2000 hours of labor to furnish my home!

in all seriousness, though, i believe that good design should be available at any price range. and along those lines, i also believe, that if with good vision or proper guidance, you can make a lovely home from places like ikea, target, cost plus and pier 1 (not to mention that almost my entire wardrobe is from forever 21).

so, while my dad was in town, off to ikea we went with my pre-printed shopping list. we bought about *5000 pounds* of furniture; here's a look at some of the pieces i chose.

next week i'll show you where it all went with some pretty amazing before and sort-of-after shots of the house.

a four-poster bed (edland)!

a couple of nice dressers, also edland line, 5-drawer and 2-drawer.
(these came with AWFUL pulls, so i swapped them out with some knobs that i picked up at anthropologie - appropriately labeled "diamond gal" - that i loved for their sparkle and organic feel)

a sideboard (trollsta) to use as a tv stand and a great b/w rug (stockholm rand)

and a fantastic stainless steel topped desk (vika) with a matching rug (alvine rand)

and 3 billy bookshelves waiting to be assembled *sigh*

this was an incredibly productive shopping spree - all for well under $2000.

aren't you curious how i put it all together...?

our trash is better than your trash!

we were left this amusing little message by our trash guys this week. they, apparently, think that we are too stupid to sort our own trash.

the problem is, because we live in a "transitional" neighborhood and because the house was vacant for some time, we have (a) many neighbors using the front of our house as the local landfill and (2) lots of homeless folks mining our trash every night.

so, when we clean it up, we do our best to redistribute into the correct bins - but, honestly, it is just too grody to be very precise.

but, it's nice to be popular!

super dad to the rescue! (and a mini preview of the living room)

as i've mentioned, my dad was in town for 5 days to help with the house. and *bonus*, he brought bonnie as well - who, despite a pinched nerve in her shoulder, did a ton of work too (especially on an antique duncan phyfe i have been holding on to for 15 years - but more on that in another post!).

i took a week off of work for what i thought would be a vacation. it ended up being 12-hours days of manual labor *ugh* - but we got a lot done and had a ton of fun while we were at it.

some of the highlights: countless trips to home depot, 2 trips to ikea (totalling 5+ hours) and hauling about 1000 lbs of furniture, hours putting together said countless ikea products, installing new molding where it was mysteriously absent, installing new thresholds, cleaning and de-vining the exterior, re-finishing that duncan phyfe, fixing the washing machine...

the list goes on and on.














thank you both for the super-human effort (and for the fabulous celebratory dinner at absinthe - i'm still dreaming of that risotto and the '86 diamond creek!).

love you, dad!

"you know what you gotta do when life gets you down?

just keep painting.
just keep painting.
just keep painting, painting, painting.
what do we do? we paint, paint, paint.
OH HO HO, how i love to paint.
when you WAAAAAANNTTT to paint you want to paint..."

okay, so those aren't the EXACT lyrics, but pretty damned close.

gina's lease is up on the 1st - so how did we spend the the beginning of this week? painting until it hurt. literally. i have taken more advil this week than i did when i thought i had the swine flu!

the floor guys were scheduled for wednesday morning, so we had precious little time to use those foul carpets as built-in drop cloths. and, by god, we were going to take advantage!

so monday night, with the help of super sarah and kate the great, we knocked out the office and the upstairs hallway, including the ceiling (but minus the area under the chair rail, where i will be installing anaglypta or lincrusta - is there a difference?!).

tuesday we took a half day and headed to home depot - and lunch at in-n out to fortify us - to buy 15 (!) more gallons of paint and planned to knock out the rest of the house. ha! well, a girl can dream...

nom nom nom

with the addition of maggie & melissa the magnificents, we managed to put a dent in things (and i made a great game-time decision on the color for the guest bedroom). we completed the master bedroom, the guest bedroom (including ceiling - ugh), and started on the stairwell and living room. neglected the dining room altogether because, by the time i could finish cleaning, i knew i'd be stuck at the house past 2am again.

gina, kate the great, and magnificent maggie

melissa works on the 24-foot stairwell ceiling

bathrooms we can save for later - just a fresh coat of "super white" should do. kitchen will require some strategy - want to paint the ikea cabinets but have to figure out if i can do that without ruining the birch veneer. (suggestions, please!)

here are a few before and after shots for you. colors look a bit ish-y as i was using the camera phone.

what do you think??

master bedroom in "solana beach" from ace hardware - a gorgeous grey-blue

guest bedroom in "beach water" by ralph lauren. it's like a mint chip milkshake - so pretty!

office in "super white" by benjamin moore

half-baked upstairs hallway in "marilyn's dress" by benjamin moore (waiting for textured wallpaper and molding) - this is the most lovely gray i have ever seen

ugh. living room, peppered with "blue shale" by behr

and a sorely neglected dining room

severe sleep deprivation.

i'm punchy today. and emotional. and cross-eyed. i promise you, it's really not a pretty picture.

gina and i are sprinting towards move-day, next thursday, and i have hardly slept for a week. i've been painting and cleaning brushes (yes, i'm a good little girl who tidies up every night) into the wee hours, fueled by white wine and pizza, for days. (klassy, right?)

and then, when i get back to my apartment, i have to catch up on gossip girl, glee, and bones. it's a rough schedule to keep, people!

the side effect of all of this is that i have developed an inappropriate giggling-slash-crying thing - at work and at home. the contractors think i am crazy and i'm sure it does not instill much confidence in the engineers at work. and my parents are worried.

i might just about have it under control, but the big floor reveal is bound to start the waterworks right back up again.

i think i need to start posting video here...