Here in Part Two, we talk about the bun that makes that beefy patty look and taste real yummy–trim details.

For me, trimming a tub includes more than what my eight year old daughter refers to as “curly wood.” It’s about how a tub feels when you get in there and how long the details stay detailed as Calgon takes you away.

Step 1 of dropping a tub into its rough-framed pedestal is trimming the rim, or top plate of your little stud walls (which should be dead-level left-right/front-back.) The top rim of the tub settles onto these trim boards. If you want to go wood (budget-friendly I hasten to add) and stay true to some old-house materials and trim vernaculars Douglas Fir or Western Red Cedar 1-by are durable, attractive choices. I recommend priming and/or finishing all 6 sides–that includes cut ends–before final fastening. Some other choices are marble, granite or soapstone. Another great choice is PVC 1-by. It works like wood, but lasts like stone. Not for all old house purists I realize, but well worth a look in my mind.

Whatever you choose, install the rim trim and let dry before dropping the tub in. Also, as Mies van der Rhoe said “God is in the details” and one important detail is to make sure your rim trim cantilevers the wall cladding at least ½ inch. In other words, if you’re using 1/2 inch bead board cladding and a ¾ inch horizontal transition strip, the rim trim should cantilever the top plate 1 3/4 inches. Skimp on this detail and you’ll see why Mies is devilishly mis-quoted.

Step 2 is much less detailed but no less important. The tub must be set in a “wet bed.” And by wet bed here we’re talking 60-pound bag of concrete. Some contractors substitute a 5-gallon bucket of joint compound here but I accept no substitute. I’m going for rock-solid connection here. Mix up the mud, shovel in, then wiggle the tub into position.

Step 3 is to apply the wall cladding. In our case it was bead board. PVC is a good, authentic looking, long-lasting choice for bead board. The PVC I have used looks real and, once painted you can’t tell it from wood. Then add your base, shoe, and transition strip under the rim-trim. Note: While suitable for other areas of the house–and tempting due to low cost–MDF moldings will eventually get wet and then that’ll be all he wrote.

Step 4 is caulk. I have had excellent luck with DAP Dynaflex products all over the house. Step 5: paint. Semi-gloss or high-gloss is recommended for all bath applications.

And that’s all he wrote…for this installment anyway.

A few people who used the First Time Home Buyers Tax Credit to purchase an old house wrote in after that post, and I was really glad to hear that it was helping people. I recently

read that the National Association of Realtors is estimating that as many as 350,000 families bought homes through August because of the Tax Credit. I know that most of the homes that were purchased using the Credit were not old houses, but I’m sure that some of them were, and that some young families were able to take an old house and make it a home.

The extension of the Credit is to April 30, 2010. Buyers must sign a Purchase Agreement by that date, and must close on the home by June 30, 2010. An added bonus to the extension is that the Credit is opened up to purchasers who already own a home, and have lived in it for at least five years. If potential home purchasers meet those requirements, and any others that are in the extension, they may be able to take a $6500 tax credit. I won’t get into all of the criteria and fine print of the Tax Credit, if you are thinking about using it check with an accountant, or the IRS, to make sure you can qualify for it.

As I mentioned I am excited, I believe this Tax Credit is something which helps young families get started as homeowners. It is a great feeling when you finally become a homeowner, and have your own home to make family memories in. If some of the houses which are purchased are old houses then so much the better. I would really enjoy it if other people who have used this Tax Credit to purchase an old house, or plan to with the extension, wrote in and told us about it.

Of course the big job and cost is moving them, and having a location for them to go to. To someone who hasn’t been involved in the moving of a house before the project might seem to be too large to undertake, and more than likely cost prohibitive. I mentioned that I had been involved in the moving of a home in the past, and as long as you kept various factors in mind such as hiring a good contractor and the route that would be used for the move, it was possible to undertake a successful move and not go broke while doing it.

I happened to come across an article that shows what is possible if someone falls in love with an old house and wants to save it. The story is similar to the situation in Berkeley, this was an old house that needed to be moved or it would be demolished. The house was near Baltimore, Maryland, and this couple decided they wanted to save the home. They bought it for a dollar. They hired a contractor to move the old house, placed it on a piece of property they have, built a foundation for it, and had it lowered into place. This couple gave the old house a new life.

The house is a work in progress. They are restoring it as they have time, but it already has regained some of what its original splendor must have been, and the old house will live on for many more years. I think it is human nature that we enjoy something much more when we know we worked hard to accomplish a feat that many considered impossible and were reluctant to undertake themselves.

I believe this couple will feel that sense of satisfaction for the rest of their lives, that they were involved in saving an old house that deserved being saved. I also believe that anyone who saves those houses in Berkeley will feel the same sense of satisfaction, and hopefully after reading about this couple in Baltimore will realize what is possible if you put your mind to it.

Here’s my neighbor, Tony, setting up his display with his grandson,  Joseph.   This one has haunted sound effects triggered by a proximity sensor, as I discovered at 4am this morning when a newspaper delivery boy or stray cat set them off. Which in turn set off my dogs.

Tony’s display changes every year as he finds new items at Home Depot and Costco.

I saw some of these displays at Christmas Tree Shop and they’re not cheap. Twenty bucks here, thirty bucks there… it quickly adds up to real money! He probably has enough invested in Halloween decorations to pay for new landscaping for the front of his house.

On a neighboring street, the owner went more the DIY route with his decorations. This was a work in progress that he started on in early October. It extends vertically to the roof line, incorporating a psychotic clown hanging from the cornice. Note to self: I have to ask the owner where he got the mask because it looks like it’s from my favorite B movie of all time, Killer Klowns From Outer Space.

The Halloween displays get crazier and more elaborate as you head east towards 13th Avenue, where they also put on some of the best Christmas light shows in the country. You can see a preview of Dyker Heights Extreme Christmas here.

*ding* *dong*… and so it begins…

As I was driving along I passed a few new homes that were nearing completion. They were nice homes, very large, and I’m sure very expensive. In my area, and with the current state of the housing market, I would say they were probably in the $800,000 to $1,000,000 range. I also passed a number of small farms and old houses with a couple of acres for sale, and I know these properties have been for sale for a long time, maybe for more than a year. Homes are staying on the market for a months in this area. It occurred to me, why would someone spend almost $1,000,000 to build a new home when there are so many nice older houses for sale that I am sure the sellers would be willing to negotiate on quite a bit.

I built new homes for many years, but I have always lived in old houses. I was always proud of the new houses I built, the quality was always high, but to me they seemed sterile and without character. The buyers were happy with the homes, and some of them have been occupied for twenty years now, but when I drive past them now they still don’t have the character of many of the old houses I see languish on the market forever. I guess some people are new house people and some people are old house people.

Another thing that occurred to me while driving was that I never see barn advertising anymore. When I first moved to this area twenty years ago I used to see big barns with advertising painted on the sides facing the highway. I always found it quaint, and it kind of took me back in time to an era when things were simpler and less stressful, but I realized today that I don’t see them anymore. I don’t know if the barns have fallen down, or the advertising has been painted over, but they are definitely rare in this area now. I always found it sort of peaceful to see an old house with a barn off to the side, cattle and horses grazing, and on the side of the barn a faded advertisement. For some reason it never seemed as tacky as the countless billboards that line the highways, but I guess with progress they are gone forever now.

The design trick is simple: A raised bathtub. Execution may prove challenging because you have to deal with the floor system.

Raising our new tub enabled us to relocate it in the small room and decreased framing headaches.

Planning: What to look for when you want to move a bathtub

Before and after you finish demo work, you’ll need to plan and check the plans you made. For the bathtub, you need to plan the drain’s route to the soil stack. The straighter the path, the easier it is. If you have to go through a joist there are several ways to address it depending on site conditions. Sometimes I eliminate the joist where the drain pipe will go through and transfer the load to the joists on either side of it by building two headers on either side of the pipe (if you know how a skylight is headed off, this is the same technique) and securing it to the remaining joists metal connectors. Some contractors use a steel bracket made by MetWood that reinforces the wood after you cut a 4½-inch hole through the middle of it allowing you to leave the joist in place. There are a zillion other iterations, but here’s the main take-away: do not compromise the floor framing. Drilling a hole for a drain pipe, to be clear, is compromising the floor framing. Doing it through several joists goes beyond compromise to deal with the devil.

Framing: Getting the structure ready for the bathtub

Once you’ve determined that the floor framing is suitable to support the tub and you know where to daylight the plumbing, the rest is pretty basic and the pay-off is terrific.

It depends on if your floor is open and what it’s framed with if you should add blocking and metal connectors (joist hangers) between the joists. Check on this with your local building inspector. This goes back to the italics above: A tub full of water and a person (or people) is not exactly light. If you’re simply raising a tub that’s already there, you should be OK.

To support the tub along the wall we nailed a ledger–a 2×4 on edge–across the wall studs. Then we built what amounts to three very small stud-walls for the other three sides. We ran 2×4 “joists” from the ledger to the wall, then we decked it with ¾ inch plywood.

Once the pedestal is in place, frame the stud walls for the tub enclosure on top, specific directions for which should come with the tub you purchase. Next phase, adding trim.

The University of California is requesting proposals to move the homes from their present location. If you submit a proposal you must also submit a plan for moving them, and a location where they are going. You can submit a proposal for just one or for both, proposals must be submitted by November 16, 2009. They would like the houses to be removed by May 15, 2010 if possible. They will accept proposals for as low as one dollar for each house; there is one catch though, and that is you must also be able to place a bank check for $50,000.00 into escrow with the university. The escrow may be used for relocation costs once the operation is underway enough that the university is comfortable the move is happening.

Moving houses is expensive, but if you or someone who would like a home live close enough to the homes, it can definitely be worth while, especially if you get a house for a dollar. I have read articles about moving homes even by barge on the water, and I have been involved in moving one house over the road. The key is picking a route that will not involve having to disrupt a lot of utilities for the move, and that the roads are wide enough for the home to pass through. The houses are available for inspection by appointment.

Both of these homes appear to be very nice, one is presently empty and one is being used by the university for office space. Anyone interested in the houses can view Berkeley’s Requests for Proposals, which includes descriptions of the houses and photos of the exteriors. The school’s Historic Studies and Reports goes into the historic significance of the homes. If you go to the historic link first, the addresses of the homes are 2241 and 2243 College Avenue; there are other houses and buildings on the report also. The historic survey goes into fascinating detail about the history of the entire Berkeley area as well as the two houses.

These are two old houses that deserve to survive, and whoever gets them will own a piece of California’s history. There is no reason why with a little bit of work these old houses can’t survive and be a family’s home for another 100 years.

The best part of the mid 1960s sitcom for me was the Addams’ family home. The exterior of the house flashed several times throughout each episode. The interior was quite interesting too. If you ignore the 10 foot tall stuffed polar bear in the foyer, the moose head with one sagging antler over the fireplace and the suits of armor in the parlour, the architectural details were spot on for the period of the home. Okay, I realize now that was a TV show set and not the real interior of the house, but as a kid, I thought it was awesome. I wonder if a good therapist could trace the roots of my interest in historic buildings back to watching the Addams Family.

The show was based on a group of characters (I see the house as one of the characters) created by Charles Addams for a cartoon that regularly appeared in The New Yorker magazine. The Addams house portrayed in the cartoon is said to be inspired by two houses from Charles’ childhood in Westfield, NJ. One was a home he lived in and the other was one he broke into and was apprehended by the police. Another claim is that a house at the University of Pennsylvania, where Charles attended, was the inspiration. A fine-arts building at the campus was named for him.

The first episode of the TV series used footage of the exterior of a house in Los Angeles, rumored to be on Adams Boulevard, but has been demolished. The house that appears throughout all subsequent episodes is a matte painting on a photo of the original house, commissioned from artist Louis McManus. The painting extended the tower, added the gabled dormers, the weathervane, bare trees and the bent TV antennae. The house in the title card at the very beginning of each episode, is a simple drawing of the house by McManus.

The style of the home is Second Empire and the changes made with the matte painting were quite appropriate. This style, common between 1860-1885, usually has features that include mansard roofs with dormers, central square bays or towers at the main entrances, pedimented, paired and arch-topped windows.

I can’t understand why many folks, when seeing a dilapidated or neglected Victorian era home, label it an “Addams Family” house. In this inspectors view, The Addams’ house was rather well maintained and resplendent, considering Gomez, Uncle Fester and Pugsley were always shooting things off or blowing things up.

Yet, it always seems like there are people who will abuse a system for their financial benefit. We have all heard about the abuses that have taken place over recent years on Wall Street, the risky loans that big banks made to realize large profits, the problems of the large automakers, but the problems exist at all levels of our society. It seems like no matter how good intentioned a program or company is there will always be someone who will abuse the program for their own financial gain.

I remember a few years ago in the aftermath of Katrina how inspirational the stories were of the people and groups who went to Louisiana to help rebuild the area. The people who helped rebuild the damaged houses, the groups that gave newly homeless families a place to live, the animal organizations that helped the pets, yet even with all the great stories of assistance that came out of that tragedy there were also the other stories. The companies and individuals that took advantage of the situation to line their own pockets with funds that were intended for those who really needed the help.

The funds for the first time home buyer tax credit are evidently being abused in much the same way with thousands of people taking the credit when they hadn’t met the criteria. Realtors and home builders were starting to be more optimistic about the future, house sales were improving during the past year. How much of the increased sales activity can be attributed to the tax credit? I don’t think anyone can say for sure. If the credit was extended would house sales continue to increase? Would an extended tax credit allow even more young families to buy their first house, to perhaps buy an old house in need of being saved? Again, I don’t know if anyone knows the answer to those questions, but I do know that people abusing a program can ruin it for everyone else.

And what follows when you put steel on plaster, i.e. full-scale demo as we’ve done in our bathroom demolition, is a pile.

A big one.

Trash Planning: Curbing it

If you’re lucky, you can put all 60 or so contractor trash bags (60 pounds +)–I’ve used HUSKY bags from The Home Depot many times–out on your curb and the magic trash-man angels will spirit them away. Seriously, in the City of Boston where I’ve worked, I’m surprised those guys don’t take the streetlights. Most places, however, require you to haul construction debris–or get a dumpster.

Trash Pile: Hauling it

I can tell you from personal experience that a 12 x 12 room of plaster and wood lath weighs about 3000 pounds. It takes two trips with my 10×12 utility trailer towed behind my truck to the dump at a cost of about $160 (80-bucks a ton.) It’s way gnarly to unload, but using a trailer has its advantages, notably I can often drive it under the window of the room I’m trashing out and I can drop the bags right in (note: either protect the existing window by wrapping it in wood or replace it as we’ll do, it can get crushed. Nevertheless, it’s the best route to get a house out of a house! The trailer’s rubber tires means I don’t risk gouging a driveway with a dumpster roll-off. I can also un-load it whenever I want. Of course, I own the truck and trailer, which I also use outside of my professional life (towing stuff on vacation–kids’ bikes, etc.–is better than cramming it in the car and on various racks).

Trash dumpster: Renting it

A dumpster–costs vary based on size, locale, and weight–is often a great, affordable choice. And you don’t have to unload it. If you live in a tight old neighborhood like I do, with little maneuvering room, getting one in the driveway may require an act of Congress. Or God.

Trash bags: Reusing Them?!

Whether you use a dumpster, trailer, or some other means along with store-bought contractor bags, you have to throw the bags out with the trash–literally throwing money away. Another–and excellent–route is DemoBags. These are re-usable, tougher-than-tough trash bags. I used them stripping a roof–we’re talking mondo nails/sharp edges–and they survived several drops from 20+ feet and several dump runs. They saved me time and money and lasted several more projects. They don’t last forever, but do last eons longer than contractor bags for getting rid of that pile a house quickly becomes when you decide to put steel on plaster.