A Day in Heaven

My mom-in-law and I spent the day at the Bungalow Heaven Home Tour. There were 7 houses on display today, each an inspiration to the commitment of the individual homeowners and the power of organized, neighborhood activism. From the Bungalow Heaven Neighborhood Association's web site: Bungalow Heaven Landmark District is a rare and mostly intact collection of over 800 homes built from the turn-of-the-century through the 1930s.

Again, from BHNA web site: Because of the great number and rich variety of early 20th Century homes that still exist in this neighborhood, city architectural and historic surveyors in the 1980s nicknamed it Bungalow Heaven. The name became official in 1989 when it was designated as a city Landmark District -- the first city Landmark District in Pasadena. Attaining Landmark District status included development and approval of a neighborhood Conservation Plan designed "to assist homeowners . . . with restoration, alteration or additions, so that the historic and architectural qualities of the District are maintained and preserved."

The stewards of all these homes have done a remarkable job in restoring and preserving the historical character of their lovely little homes.
I admire them. I envy them. I simply could not do it myself.

I have always said that it is not our mission to restore our 1909 Craftsman. I only want to respect the character of the home. When we moved in, over 80 years of rental-dom left our house stripped of any historical character it may once have had. And we simply do not have the patience or the resources to bring it back, piece by piece.

I cannot have the missing built-ins rebuilt. I do not see myself with the cute little kitchen cabinets, all painted white. And I cannot live with Stickley or Stickley reproductions. It’s just not in me.

Those homes are beautiful. The antiques are lovely. They are just not for me.

There is a coziness, a modesty, a humility to these homes. They are balanced and tranquil and in the best possible way – they lack drama. And that is just not like me – or the me I want to be.

And I feel a little guilty. It’s like I’m not trying hard enough. Why shouldn’t I be willing to live with a vintage stove? Others do. And why must I have a dishwasher at this stage of my life? I haven’t had one before in all the years that I was renting. Why must I insist on having one now?

I don’t have a good answer, other than to say it’s just not me. But still, I feel guilty. Maybe that’s what a glimpse of Heaven is meant to do.

K's M & I go to the BHNA Home Tour

This morning, I picked up the M-in-law bright and early (early for me) to whisk her off to Pasadena for the Bungalow Heaven Home Tour.

Here's the M-in-law, enjoying some precious shade in front of a lovely (and large) Craftsman.

She's wondering when her son's house will look like this.

The final house behind her at the end of a long, hot day.

And the Last Window is In!!!

Lured by the promise of pizza and beer, today we drew a good number of male friends to assist with the installation of the last and biggest and heaviest of the windows.

On Friday, K did the prep work - outside and in

The view seems almost too good to obscure with a window

The gents wait patiently for instructions

It's in, but they can't let go yet.

K shows off his Arabesque en Ladder . . .

. . . and smiles for the camera, all while directing the gang.

and that's it! (there are those ladders again!)

from within


Thanks, guys!

Speaking of Earth Day (and you know you were)

Why does a receipt from Lowe's for a single item ($10.95) take almost two feet of paper?

Another Weekend Means 2 More Windows!

The two windows in the living room are in.

Ecch! Here's the ugly thing that was there before.

On Saturday, K prepared the first space to receive its replacement;

And on Sunday, he worked on the second space.

This is the old window that faced the porch. It'll probably take a trip to the Habitat for Humanity store in Pasadena.

View of the two empty spaces from the porch.

From the living room.

How many ladders do we have?

With a helping hand from a friend on Sunday, the two new windows were in!

The new side window

The new front window

The space left by the former front window wasn't exactly square;

The kitten imagines her view of the squirrels can only get better.

More About the Devil I Know

Earthquakes were different for me when I rented. Since buying our house, we haven’t yet had one big enough to test that theory, but I’m pretty sure it’s true.

The Northridge quake was huge. We were jolted awake; sprang out of bed and held on to a door frame until the chaos came to an end. Then we went back to sleep. "You did what!?" was a common reaction. We went back to sleep because the power was out; there were no lights, no television. What were we supposed to do? Sit in the car and listen to the news? Might as well put my Olympic-sized talent for sleep to good use.

In the morning, we went out for breakfast to the only restaurant in West Hollywood that remained open.

We lost some glassware and I think some crystal that had been left out from the previous night’s entertaining. No biggie. We were renters. Our apartment wasn’t one of those on the block to be condemned. We were grateful for that and moved on with our lives.

That was 14 years ago. Today, I’m not sure I’ll be so sanguine about the next one. Even if we came through ok, I’m sure I would worry about something in the house, the foundation, the framework, the tile. "Please, don’t make us have to re-do the bathroom tile!"

It’s different when you own. Now, every little shimmy gives me pause.

At least our chimney’s already down. A lot of chimneys were felled by the Northridge quake. We had a recent fireplace/chimney-ectomy. More about that another day. Briefly, they both had to be euthanized.

Now the old fireplace and chimney are just a big pile of bricks on the side of the house.


I might miss them more if somebody hadn’t painted the fireplace bricks bright red.


But I won’t worry about anything today. I’ve got water in the basement and comfy shoes in the car. Today’s weather is cool and clear and the ground is still - so far.

Better the Devil You Know

Three days ago, this headline appeared in the Los Angeles Times:
Scientists: Big Quake Likely in California

Which is little like saying:

Bartenders: Heavy Drinking Likely on New Year's Eve

Duh.

But then today, we had this headline:
5.2 Earthquake Shakes Up Midwest

Interesting.

You always hear stories about how Californians are not prepared for The Big One. K and I have done what we can. We have extra supplies of bottled water, canned food and plenty of cat food. Of course, it's all in the basement, so if that collapses, we're out of luck. Yes, we have the rare California basement. Relatively rare. I think its an advantage of the house's age. Yay, more storage!

In addition to food and water, we have $1 bills on hand (for when the ATMs all shut down). We keep shoes by the bed. Actually, I keep plenty of shoes by the bed. You never know. And, I keep walking shoes in the car.

And, we’ve had our foundation reinforced. Maybe I’ll have K blog about that one day. He loves to show off the extra-supported cripple walls. I don't know much about the process because whenever K gives the tour, I always fixate on the very un-comforting name - cripple walls.

And yes, there are flashlights but I can never find one when I want one. Their whereabouts seems to be a secret K likes to keep to himself. Fine.

But my greatest comfort lies in knowing that we live within spitting distance of the Wilshire fault and the house has managed to survive for 99 years, so far. We all take comfort where we can. I don't like the idea of the Big One but no one I know worries about it.

I was in the Midwest once - for a weekend. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I started worrying about tornadoes. I was in Nebraska and I thought it as brown and flat as a Triscuit. A perfect twister breeding ground. My hotel room was on the 13th floor and I was constantly looking out the window.

I had a aunt who lived in Texas with a special obsession with tornadoes. She had a cellar. I remember it as dark and there were always spiders. Faced with a tornado or a dark room full of spiders, I'm not sure which I'd choose. I'm glad I don't have to make that decision.

Tornado attacks seem personal, directed. Not like earthquakes. Earthquakes are democratic. When they hit, they hit everybody. Not just the few. Not just the trailer parks. Earthquakes spread their destruction around. Tornadoes destroy like a laser beam. And they have a season! No thanks.

So I imagine those people in Illinois were pretty surprised this morning. I'm sure many were frightened. As frightened as I would be to see a tornado roaring up Sunset Blvd.

But lucky me, I have a basement.

So which natural disaster most concerns you? And are you prepared?