You hear jokes about guys who fix everything with duct tape. If using a small amount of duct tape is kind of funny, the hardcore use of it in 7487 made our new home a laughing stock! It had been used on everything from light fixtures to pipes to the kitchen sink, literally. When we moved in, we had to renovate the main bath immediately, and wanted to save anything original that we could. In this case that meant the bathtub, the tile around the tub, and the large mirror above the vanity. We needed to strip it down to its core, but we wanted to keep this simple, which is what we did. We started by removing the glass tub surround, taking up the floor tile, taking down the mirror and putting it aside for safe keeping, removing wallpaper, taking out the old electric wall heater next to the window and throwing out the old toilet. To put it back together we ground the concrete floors, put on a clear coat of urethane , patched the holes in the walls, cleaned the tub and tile, had the tub resurfaced, painted, made new baseboards, ordered a hospital track and shower curtain from a hospital supply, got new light fixture from e-bay, new bathroom door, ordered Kohler sink and fixtures and then my favorite part of the bathroom, a new vanity made by T.K.. Aside from looking exactly like I had wanted, it created so much amazing storage that the Costco toilet paper pack would never be a challenge again! Made of Maple Euro-Ply with a white Formica counter-top, by putting the vanity back where the original was, we saved money by not moving plumbing  or electric, although we did add a few additional outlets. TK installed the new sink and simple white tile as a back splash and put the original mirror back in it’s place. A few paintings and accessories later and we had a clean, simple modern bathroom. The vanity in this bath was the first of many cabinets throughout our house, and other homes as well, that T.K. has built in this style. We think the clean design works well in any era home. They can be made of maple or walnut plywood. Check out “before” and “after” photos on flickr. What renovations do you have planned for the new year? Maybe we can help?

We’re the kind of people who always live in  the midst of construction. We buy a fixer, because we wouldn’t think of buying new, we say we are never doing this again, and as soon as it’s complete, we sell and start over.  So here we are, in year 5 at 7487 and although on the surface it looks pretty good, we still have a long way to go until it’s “done” in our minds. Moving forward, we will share before and after stories of what has changed to this point, and where we will take the house from here. It’s a 1960 long and low mid-century California ranch. TK as usual had good vision. I had a harder time seeing through the layers of 1980′s  country floral covering up the simple design that the house was meant to exude. We have been peeling it back to it’s original design, while adding modern convenience. The screen above, on the front of the house, replaces a screen originally made of redwood, but unfortunately, it included wood that had rotted and had been painted many times. It had to come down. TK  took scrap wood from the original screen, glued it together, cut out and created the shapes that you see, used a wire brush to get a wood grain texture and made a mold so that he could duplicate the pattern in concrete. He used square tubing to create the frame, welded on the concrete forms and attached 2×6 doug fir to give a vertical appearance to contrast with the horizontal lines of the house. You can view “before” photos and  more detail in flickr. Many mid century homes have screens and allot of them have been damaged. TK can custom create or duplicate any screen in metal concrete or wood.

Well we finally have our site up and running and I’m really happy to share my work! Check in with us often as we will be showing and always updating our progress on current client projects, personal projects as we finish “7487″ the home I share with my wife and partner Jill, I’ll show some “how to” tips for those of you who like to “do it yourself” and of course, information on an array of services we can provide for those of you who don’t. We’ll talk architecture, tools (vintage, American made are my preference), furniture and fabrication. We may even throw in cars and guitars once in a while. It’s going to be a blast so take a look around, ask questions and drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you.