Apple Pruning Season in Humboldt and the Tsunami

Friday's Japanese Tsunami hit hard north of Eureka up in Del Norte County.  There were evacuations in the low lying areas of Humboldt County but no damage here.  This does remind us of the January 2010 earthquake and the similarities between the coast of Japan and our fault laden coast.



It's mid-march and the north coast rain is relentless.   We tried to sneak a little painting between the squalls but gave up early.   Instead it was time to look at the old apple tree in the back yard.   The tree looked pretty bad, it has produced a small crop of small spotty apples of an unknown variety.

pruning the mystery apple tree

Restoring an old house is always about more than just the four walls, it's also about the garden and the people who have lived there over the past 100 years.   If we can bring back the apple tree then that's part of the restoration too.


Julia has used her recently acquired knowledge of apple tree trimming and proceeded to give the tree a long overdue and much needed winter trimming.

The tree needs a trim

"Yes, that's where I threw my hat"

New Victorian-Style Porch

We've added a new porch recently, and to our surprise, a charming dog came with it!

So far we've painted the railing, but there's still more to go.

We tore the original porch off as part of our foundation work.   We had a Victorian reproduction made of redwood designed and built for us by Dane Cowen from Ferndale.  He handcrafted the pieces, we painted them, and he put the whole thing together!

(Before)

New Nail Gun!

There has been an exciting development in my world of historic renovation. New nail gun! Here I am breezing through some home repairs! We had to take the skirting off of the house to replace the foundation, but its going back on, thanks to my new nail gun.

Foundation Work is Underway - first things first

More unsolicited advice to home restoration fans.   A new foundation will just make you feel better.  Even if its not the most visible or glamorous part of a remodel, the real aficionados of vintage houses will always comment on a new foundation.  So the Eureka Redwood Victorian has a shinny new concrete diameter foundation and a 3 ft wall.    The house has another hundred years.

Despite the great work that George is doing on foundation work, we still have some troubling jobs.  The house has several feet of skirting around the base of the house.  This all needs to be removed and hopefully replaced once the foundation is poured in place.   Unfortunately we see a lot of nice new foundations covered by pretty unsightly paneling and siding.     Our plan is to carefully rescue the 3 to 4 inch vertical skirting, clean it up, remove a fair amount of rot and then re-install as much as we can.  

The Slow Road to Recovery

The January earthquake is a distant memory, but the house is still jacked-up and waiting.  We have had great luck with local contractors.   Some advice to Humboldt County Restorations --- just call George Kurwitz,  the legendary Humboldt County foundation and house moving contractor.   George has been working on the house for a couple of months now,  we are in no hurry and the work is getting done.

You can see some of the damage, both piers moving off post and in those cases where the posts were secure the earthquake splits the posts.


After the quake George jumped right in and put in the cribbing to make sure the house didn't slip anymore.


The next step is to put in a new diameter foundation and a concrete wall to connect the foundation to the house.   Stay tuned.


Lucy, the restoration dog, is surveying the damage to the carriage house.

After the Shake --- Eureka's January 10th Earthquake!

Humboldt County got a good shaking on Jan 10th with a magnitude 6.5 earthquake. The quake was centered in the Pacific Ocean northwest of Ferndale, but it came ripping into Eureka.  The little redwood house was rocked.  It's now been several weeks and the damage, which initially appeared minor, has become clear and more widespread, but ever so subtle.

The post and pier foundation was suspect to begin with and we had budgeted some funds for foundation repairs. But after the house shifter northward while the foundation stayed put, a large number of the post were moved on their piers and the pier were pushing the house skirting outward.

Our neighbor's house took a nose dive and is rapidly headed for the street.  Here is a picture of the County Sheriff looting the house.

The only houses that seemed to take a beating were the old post and pier foundations – anything with a moderately current foundation came through just fine.

It's now looking like we will be the proud owners of a new foundation in both the house and the carriage house.  Eureka has some of the finest experts and putting houses back on their foundations.  I'm looking forward to seeing our little house jacked-up and getting a shinning new foundation. You will love the pictures.

What's next with our floors?

We are facing the great floor puzzle.    We have pulled up carpets and vinyl by the tons and now we are actually getting to the wood floors.  Our house was not some fancy upper class house with hardwood oak or maple floors; in fact we have mix of redwood and more redwood floors.  We’ve found some nice tongue and groove floors in one bedroom and in the kitchen,  many of the other rooms having broad planked redwood subfloors that are now exposed.

The North coast of California, including Eureka, was a very isolated area with no rail service until well into the 20^th century.  As a result of this isolation many of the houses had only softwood floors, mostly redwood, and very few original hardwood floors, or so we have been told.

Once we got to the redwood floors we called in the carpenters, floor restorers, and everyone with an opinion, to come up with a plan to deal with the floors.   The floor experts are pushing for new hardwood floors, while we would like to find some way to use the wide planked floors. 

We are looking for others who have had these redwoods floors to help make a decision about new hardwood, or trying to "finish" the redwood planks, cracks and all, or some other plan.

Here is one of the redwood plank floors --