October 20^th, 2004

I’ve sort of moved in to a new phase with the house. A more destructive phase. I think I told you I finished the major upgrades and all of the permits were signed off on by the city. At that time I also finished (sort of) the upstairs bathroom. I am now, for the first time in more than 80 years, using the original bathroom and kitchen of the house as they were intended. The kitchen is FAR from finished but at least I’m using it.

Now for the destruction. About three weeks ago I started to remove the 2 story addition that was added to the house in 1920. This addition contained the kitchen and bath that was in use when you and Mike visited last summer. The second story of the addition contained another kitchen and bath for one of the upstairs apartments. What I am doing is more of a dismantling than a demolition. The lumber that the addition is constructed of is all old redwood. I can use it to mill the missing trim I need for the inside of the house. That is why I’m am slowly dismantling it. To buy this wood new (if you could even find it) would be very expensive. One foot of redwood lumber goes for between $3.00 and $8.00 a foot depending on the width. I’ve been able to salvage hundreds and maybe even thousands of feet of old growth redwood lumber.

I’ve been at it for about 3 or 4 weeks now. I have the roof and top floor completely off. Most of the first floor is gutted. Unfortunately on Sunday (2 days ago) it started raining. I mean really raining. I put up tarps but it only helped a bit. The rain pours through. It is not really all that bad because the addition is coming down any way but it does make it hard to work. The worst part is all of the wood gets wet. This is wood I’m trying to save so I can reuse it. You can’t stack it when it is wet because it will mold and mildew, and eventually rot. So I have to dry it before I can stack it in the garage. This means that I have boards leaning up-right against the walls all over the place. The house is a huge mess. I hoping to finish the demolition this weekend. I can then start to put back the few parts of the house that are missing from when they built the addition. This means shingles.

As you recall the second story has the octagon shingles. I have to replace 3 or 4 rows where the addition was, and replace them were they cut a hole through the wall for a door to give access to the addition. Along with some other work I want to do I figure that I will need about 600 shingles. Shingles come in different grades for different uses. I need the top grade called “#1”. Last Monday I started calling around to different lumber yards and mills and no body has them. I called every place in the county I could find and they simply do not exists. I got different reasons as to why every one is out but nothing concrete. From what I’ve gathered there is only one small, family owned saw mill in this area that still makes #1 redwood shingles. For some reason – and the reason changes depending on who you talk to – they have stopped production and there is no telling if or when they will start up again. It was a little depressing. I have my house exposed to the elements and no shingles to cover it up.

As I said this was on Monday a week ago that I was on the phone trying to find shingles. Later that day I had to go back in to work to take care of some things dealing with the new computer system. I was complaining to my boss about the fact that I could not find any shingles and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. He then told me he just happened to have 20 bundles of old, #1 redwood shingles in his barn. He said they were there when he bought the place and they looked like they’ve been in there forever. One bundle is about 60 shingles. He has 20 bundles which equals 1200 shingles! I need 600. He has agreed to sell me 12 bundles for a lot less than I would have paid for them retail. That will give me all of the shingles I need and give me extra for future repairs.

The Universe works in mysterious ways.