March 2, 2011
I have learned a lot of new things about tile, plaster, HVAC systems and the like during our remodel. But perhaps the most interesting fact that I have learned throughout this process is that there is a neighborhood in Los Angeles called Frogtown.
Frogtown is an area in the Elysian Valley between Glassell Park and Silverlake where cabinetmaker Larry Bucklan, of Bucklan Design Woodworks,has his workshop. It is also an area where the Los Angeles River (yes folks, Los Angeles has a river) has a natural riverbed, and therefore is home to a surprising amount of wildlife, including great blue herons, white egrets, mallards and the western toad—the animal responsible for the area's name. It is fitting that this unique area of Los Angeles is where Larry works, because he is also one of a kind. Larry brought not only his excellent woodworking craftsmanship and design sensibilities to the project, but also a marvelous sense of humor, which has been a wonderful stress-buster for us throughout this process.
Larry created all of our cabinetry for the house but his work in our kitchen has been the most stunning. 
Kurt and I had only basic ideas for our kitchen design so we met with Larry, as well as Home Front's Steve Pallrand and Shelby Roberts, to give them our thoughts and then let them brainstorm the best possible layout for the space. They all agreed that the arched doorway from the old kitchen nook (now the "gentleman caller" area) into the kitchen needed to be walled in, since we would have two other entrances into the new kitchen and needed space for cabinets and appliances. 
They also came up with a plan to have the plaster in the kitchen meet up flush with the cabinet faces to give the cabinets an inset look, as if they were almost part of the wall.This was hard for Kurt and I to visualize, but conceptually it sounded pretty amazing. We decided to go for it. Larry also wanted to incorporate the Moorish archway shapes into the cabinet design and have corbels similar to those on the outside of the house to continue these themes in the kitchen. 
The cabinets are completely installed now, and the craftsmanship is wonderful. The details are what really make them gorgeous. Larry was spot-on by suggesting the arch design and the corbels.The housing for the fridge is pretty spectacular, too. Even Norm Abrams was impressed!
February 17, 2011
Because our careers are in the animation industry, Kurt and I have been lucky to work every day with many amazing artists. What has been particularly fun for us during this remodel is being exposed to a whole new genre of artists—the men and women working to design and build our home. Instead of making art you look at, they make art you live in.
One of the fabulous craftsmen we've met is Alfonso Garcia, Home Front's plaster specialist. Alfonso has been responsible for re-creating one our home's most unique features—the "cat face" interior plaster texture. To create "cat face" texture, a plasterer (like the gentleman shown here) 
runs a trowel across the finish coat before it sets up, producing a pattern of both smooth and rough areas. A great deal of skill is required to make the finished product look even and natural. When we embarked on our remodel, Kurt and I worried that the plaster texture wouldn't be able to be re-created simply because that kind of workmanship seemed to be a lost art form. We joked that there was one 90-year old master craftsman out there who knew how to do it, then wondered how in the world would we find him.
Fortunately for us, Home Front found Alfonso (who, by the way, is not 90 years old), the Michelangelo of plaster. Not only did Alfonso do an exceptional job of matching our original plasterwork, he also re-created the "cake decorating" plaster detail 
in all of our bedrooms. It is so nice to see that there are still people like Alfonso out there who have spent a lifetime learning and perfecting a specialized craft. His work could easily grace the walls of a museum.
February 14, 2011
Is it possible to fall in love with a garage door? I would have said "no," until I saw ours installed. It seems so silly to love a garage door so much, but I can genuinely say that I am smitten. Not only does the door substantially change the curb appeal of the house, it is quiet as a whisper.
Paul Goudreault of Designer Doors in Wisconsin—seen here standing between me (LEFT) and our site supervisor Angel Leon (RIGHT)—helped us design our new wooden door so that it fits perfectly with the Spanish Colonial styling of our house. It has metal accents to match our ironwork, and we chose to paint it the same chocolate brown accent color we used on the window casings and corbels. There was some debate regarding staining versus painting the door, but we finally settled on paint. The most sun-resistant stains are illegal in California, and paint would hold up better over time.
I am looking forward to pulling up in our driveway every day and seeing this beauty!
February 10, 2011
Our remodel planning started with a three-ring binder. I am an organizational junkie, so all projects—from big vacations, to recipes I've cut out of magazines—get a dedicated binder. I filled our remodel binder with photos Kurt and I pulled from the Web (or periodicals such as "This Old House" magazine", and sorted them by subject matter. Farmhouse sinks went into the kitchen section, medicine cabinets went in the bathroom section, etc. All of these clipped-out photos reflected our vision of the ultimate dream house. So we hired the construction team at Home Front, I handed my precious "Look Book" over to their designer, Shelby Roberts, to give him an idea of what Kurt and I were thinking style-wise.
Soapstone countertops were prominently featured in the kitchen section of our Look Book. Soapstone is a metamorphic rock, which is gray to green in color, and notable for its high degree of resistance to acids and heat. Each slab has a varying degree of veins throughout. According to Home Front's Steve Pallrand, soapstone needs to be oiled or waxed periodically to maintain its depth to the finish (turns out, this is as easy as dusting a piece of wood furniture with Pledge). The stone itself is non-porous, extremely food safe, and stain-resistant. Since this is a soft stone, any chip or damage can easily be sanded out with 120-grit sandpaper, then oiled back to the original finish.
I'm sure every remodel starts with an elaborate dream—which is then tempered by the harsh realities of the remodeling budget. As it turned out, soapstone was beyond our means. And while we half-heartedly started looking for alternatives, we couldn't get that beautiful stone out of our minds. 
Fortunately for us, we met Tim Farr and Denise Pierce of Soapstone International, who showed us affordable options at their Anaheim, California warehouse. Turns out, there is a wide array of soapstone slabs, which vary in price. We were able to find slabs with minor flaws, from which Tim's installation company, Erazo Brothers, could carve out enough material to fit into our kitchen. It's hard to express how stoked we were when it became clear that we would get our fantasy kitchen countertops! When it was installed yesterday, the soapstone sure looked pretty darn dreamy.
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January 20, 2011
We are proud to announce the arrival of the newest This Old House team member.
When we first walked through our house back in 1998, one of the things that struck us as uniquely beautiful was the Art Deco tile work in the kitchen and the bathroom. Despite decades of use—and more than a few earthquakes—the tile in both rooms had managed to stay in great condition. Unfortunately, these were two of the rooms in the house that would need to be completely torn out during the remodel.
It seemed a shame that we had to demolish one of the very things that made our house special, so we decided early on that we would strive to mimic the original style of the tile work. This decision led us to meet with Tisa Adamson, owner of Mission Tile West in South Pasadena, California. Mission Tile West is known for its vast selection of both contemporary and historical tile, including a revival line of Art Deco tile that would be perfect to recreate the style of our original bathroom and kitchen. 
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December 8, 2010
As fast as the house came down, it's coming back up even faster. Angel Leon and his crew have been working at an intense pace to keep us on schedule. Consequently, we have the benefit of seeing big changes each time we visit the work site. Soon after demolition, there were two-by-fours laid out on the subfloor mapping out the new room layout. The next time we came to the house, framing had already begun.
Up until that point, we were making design judgements based solely on two-dimensional drawings. And no matter how clear those drawings were, we couldn't really know how the room layout would "feel" until we could actually stand in the newly created space. Would the kitchen and family room feel too big? Would the bedrooms feel too small? We had a very very limited amount of space at our disposal, so we went through many iterations of our design with our architect, Nancy Ganucheau, and debated many of the options. Now, the big questions was: Had we made right choices?
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November 23, 2010
When we started fantasizing about remodeling our house, we talked a lot about which tile we would use in our new shower, or how great it would be to have air conditioning on those hot California summer days. What we didn't discuss was the foundation. While this "invisible essential" is just as important as any of the cosmetic changes we're making, it's not exactly the first thing people will notice once everything is done.
Living in the land of earthquakes, we were well aware that city building codes would mandate our house be brought up to current earthquake-ready standards, including a foundation capable of making it through "The Big One." So what will it take to create an adequate foundation for our addition?
Five full cement trucks to start. That seems like a heck of a lot of cement, right? It certainly explained that line item in our budget that we had looked at and said, "Really? Is it going to cost that much?" Well, seeing those trucks pull up and then pour yards and yards of cement into the foundation forms that Home Front had built made us feel like we got our money's worth. Our house's foundation is now solid as a rock, up to code, and ready to support the weight of our new second story.
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October 19, 2010
With the whirlwind of being selected for the show, and quickly moving into a rental house because of TOH's accelerated schedule, we hadn't actually processed what was going to happen next. Consequently, when we stopped by the house to check in and pick up the mail, neither one of us was prepared for what we saw. Mind you, from the front of the house, everything still looked as we had left it. But when we walked through our side gate and took a look out back, we were met with this gruesome site.
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October 12, 2010
OK. So, admittedly, we are seriously geeking out right now. It feels like we've stepped into some alternative universe in which the house project we've been talking about for more than a decade—and actively working on for four years—will actually be done someday. And, oh, by the way, "This Old House," the original home improvement show that we both grew up with, wants to be a part of it. Surreal doesn't even begin to describe it. We feel so privileged, not only to be chosen for a show that we admire, but also to be the first to represent the city of Los Angeles in the show's 30-year history! We hope that TOH viewers will enjoy getting to know the city we love through the eyes of Kevin, Norm and the whole TOH crew. We also hope everyone will enjoy seeing the evolution of our remodel.
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