From Reno to Rebuild

John and I are here on Galiano Island overseeing the work on our house which was torn apart and is now being put back together. It all started as the classic “cabin on an island” dream. Speaking of which, I saw this poem/ditty on a headstone as I was wondering in the Galiano cemetery a few days ago and thought it captured some of the romance of being on an island.

However, the house we bought last year on Galiano Island wasn’t a cabin. And once we got started on our moderate renovation of the mid century (1967), 2100 sq. ft wood frame house, perched over the Salish Sea, the project turned into a total rebuild. Many folks around here weren’t that surprised. I guess it’s happened to others. There were several reasons this happened.

First it was the rodent hotel that had set up shop in the basement, the walls, and the floors of the house. Rats and mice are all over the island. Our friend and neighbor Kate, in whose home we are currently staying while she goes on an extended road trip, doesn’t let them bother her as long as they don’t get in her house, which they don’t. She is a “live and let live” animal lover and she likes to feed the birds, which provides lots of snacks for rodents as well. We, on the other hand, have become territorial about our real estate, having battled rodents in Berkeley and now having put in tens of thousands of dollars to evict them from our house here including coating the entire hillside under the house with a thin layer of concrete so they can’t get back in.

Then, there was the asbestos. What we’d expected would be a limited amount of asbestos removal turned into a complete house mitigation/removal job because all the walls and ceilings had to come down. There was asbestos in the dry wall mud that was used back in 1967 so that meant most of the demolition had to be done by the hazmat crew, slow and expensive. Photo below of bags of asbestos tainted materials that had to be hauled out.

Finally, our house is in an archaeological red zone as it is apparently built on top of a midden, an indigenous refuse heap that could include bones, among other interesting items. This meant that we are not allowed to dig unless we are willing to pay $40k-$50k and an extra year or more of delay to get archaeologists to come and take samples to figure out what is there. Since we wanted to avoid this extra expense and time, we chose to revise our architectural plans so that there would be NO digging. It meant finding an alternative place for new stairs from the upper to lower level of the house. In the end, the only option was to remove the entire chimney and put the stairs where the chimney used to be.

All of these unanticipated issues resulting in our tearing out all the walls and ceilings triggered code requirements that meant we had to upgrade the insulation, the windows and doors, and many other systems for energy efficiency. We’ve had to improve structural features of the house as well. What started as just a medium sized renovation became a down-to-the-studs rebuild involving new walls and floors, windows, doors, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical even though we did not change the footprint of the house. While I’ve overseen two previous renovations in Berkeley, this project was at a different scale altogether and has stretched my design capabilities.

Luckily, we’d put together a crack team to help us. Our builder, Justin, a young fellow in his 30’s who grew up on the island, has been great to work with and has excelled both on the work itself, managing the subcontractors, and communicating with us as the project has progressed.

Sarah, the architect who helped with the renovation on my Berkeley home, has also been a pleasure to work with. We had her come visit the house last year before any of the work started so she could get a feel for the place and could meet Justin. There’ve been many others who have contributed and we hope to have a party for all the workers later this year or next summer when it’s well and truly done. Photo below of workers, minus Justin who took the pic, before the walls were back up.

We’re planning to move into the house in late July when the inside work is largely complete and then, after we leave in September, Justin and Emily (with dreads above), another terrific carpenter, will finish the outside work including new siding, the rebuild of one of our decks, the front porch, and a few other items. Justin will take time off to work on his own home while we are in the house in August and early September.

John and I can hardly wait to get back in. Many evenings, we mix up cocktails in jars and walk down to the house with them, sit in our comfortable outdoor chairs that we’ve put on the lawn below the house, and enjoy the view of the water.

Frequently, there is still work going on at 5pm so we also get to see the workers buzzing around above us in the house. This week, the tile crew was here and completed the tile in the bathrooms, the laundry room, the entryway, and the hearth. They are originally from the Czech Republic and are an impressive group of highly skilled hard workers. The kitchen installation has also begun.

Meanwhile, John and I have been doing some work ourselves. This morning, we packaged up some asbestos tainted refuse that the Hazmat crew did not get to. We donned protective gear and double wrapped it in 6mm plastic sheeting in order to take it to the dump next week. It feels good to do a few things ourselves even though all the skilled labor is being done by those with actual skills. Hopefully, I’m only imagining that I now have asbestos in my lungs. :-\