Wheetley

This house was born in 1902. The owners like it the way it is, but need more space. A second story is made out of the attic by raising the roof just enough to get the required head room. While we’re at it, we’re putting in some dormers, similar to the ones in this street side elevation, to give additional space and light to the new bedrooms. The house will be brought completely up to date with new plumbing, electrical, heating, drywall, and the new windows are Marvin wood with insulated glass.

The foundation has been re-fitted following a clever design from a local engineer who has lots of experience making big old Victorians earthquake-proof. When we’re done, you’ll never know we were there, at least from the turn of the century outside. From the inside you’ll know, because everything around you will be new and comfortable, while the “feel” of the wonderful old home remains.

Lehman

This beautiful Queen Anne has just been painted, good for another 20 years. Oh heck, we forgot to work on the foundation. But it’s never too late for that kind of work. We brought over the same engineer as the Wheetleys, and presto, another clever design for retrofitting the existing building without changing a thing on the outside.

Each day we go into the subfloor, almost high enough for a human to stand up in, and fit the posts to girders and posts to piers, and joists to girders with the latest simpson hardware and straps, In strategic locations we add sections of footings with foundation walls, sheer up these sections with studs and plywood up to the girder, and we’re done. None of the skirting has been removed. From the outside nothing new is visible. From the inside, that is, inside the customer’s head, confidence has been established. This building is going nowhere.

Sweet

This late 40’s ranch style masterpiece has just one garage. Long as the house already is, it doesn’t mind getting longer. The new garage will be turned to break up the horizontal lines slightly, while keeping the roof design and huge overhangs. Adding to a building like this one is no different from adding to a 100 year old Victorian or Craftsman. Things have to match so it doesn’t look like an addition.

Where are we going to find the redwood to make one by twelve bevel siding? Who’s going to make the squarish redwood gutters designed for this home 60 years ago? It gets harder and harder to get this stuff done as the materials become scarce. We, who are experiencing the last days of old growth redwood, have a hard enough time, but he carpenters to come will have it even tougher than us. I have no doubt that they will find a way, however, like us, to get it done.