As-Purchased Photos: Lower Level

The lower level of the house is completely unfinished, providing a blank slate for us to realize our vision for the home. The character of this space was among the top reasons we purchased the property, and there are many notable points here.

First of all, nearly the entire square footage is available to work with on this level, which contrasts with many homes where the grade, masonry, or critical parts of the structure interfered with potential development. The old shed-like interior structures here are easily torn out. The rearmost ten feet of the upper level are actually cantilevered over the back, and we intend on enclosing that space and claiming more square footage for the interior.

Also unusual for the lower level is that the ceilings are eleven-and-a-half feet high. This means we don't need to excavate the floor, and after finishing we're likely to have around ten-foot ceilings on the lower level. Such high ceilings on the ground floor will provide a great sense of space and match the airiness of the upper level nicely.

The massive asbestos hydra seen in the first photo is an old gravity furnace; we'll be removing it almost as soon as we take possession of the home, eventually replacing the heating system with hydronic radiant floors.

The quality of construction evident in the lower level is good, but some structural work is required to bring it up to code. In particular, we need to bolt the frame to the foundation, add plywood shear walls over the studs, and add brackets where the posts meet the beams.

When remodeled, this level will house the master suite, a sitting room, laundry room, garage/workshop, and wine cellar.

As-Purchased Photos: Backyard

Directly off the back of the kitchen is a laundry room. As mentioned earlier, that's going to be assimilated into a great room. The laundry room has a door that opens out onto a small deck, with steps down to the backyard. The deck is rotting something fierce, and although it's still safe to use we're going to demolish it at some point soon, to be eventually replaced with something considerably more attractive.

The backyard is also in a somewhat sorry state of affairs. It's a compartmentalized garden that's gone untended for quite a while. The retaining wall preventing it from spilling into the neighbors' property is crumbling and bulging, so at some point in the next several years we'll need to reinforce or rebuild it.

We have roughed some landscaping plans and ideas, but the interior living space is our priority for now so we'll be focusing on that for the near future.

As-Purchased Photos: Living, Dining, and Views

The view from the rear of the house is amazing, and looks north and east over downtown and the Bay Bridge. There is currently a living room, bedroom, and laundry room off the kitchen, but we're going to transform them into an open, indoor/outdoor living and dining space that exploits the sun and views to maximum potential.

To join all of the rooms into a single great room, we will likely need to use a steel moment frame to provide structural integrity and protection from shearing in an earthquake. This could be very expensive, but we're open to it for many reasons. First and foremost, it enables a much more open floor plan. Steel frames also provide unparalleled strength to the structure, especially during shaking from an earthquake. Finally, an exposed moment frame can be a dramatic architectural detail.

Exposing the bones of the house in places creates tension, as the structural elements protrude from the skin and hint at what lies beneath. To me, visible building reinforcement is a reminder that I live in San Francisco, a highly seismically active place. Simultaneously reassuring and ominous, a moment frame will be an emotional addition to the house.

As-Purchased Photos: The Kitchen

The hallway opens up into the kitchen. Right now it's a throwback to a simpler time when preparing food didn't require counter space, and people didn't mind how awkward it is to have knobs in the center of doors. The stove is a 60s Wedgewood, complete with built-in salt and pepper shakers.

Our plans are to remodel this completely; new floors, cabinetry, appliances, etc. We'll also be changing the floor plan drastically, knocking out all of these walls and making the kitchen totally open to the living and dining rooms.

As-Purchased Photos: Hallway and Bathroom

The first photo is taken from just outside the two front bedrooms. On the left is the third bedroom, just down the hall to the right is the existing bathroom, and at the end of the hall is the kitchen and living area.

We intend to open up the whole kitchen-living-dining area, removing the wall and doorway at the end of the hall so it won't seem quite as far away.

The ceilings have a popcorn texture which we've been told frequently contains asbestos - we'll provide more details on our travails with asbestos soon.

The bathroom is horribly dated, and we're going to remodel it completely. We will leave the layout the same, but give it new everything, including making the windows more modern and uniform. The house has two big light wells; one serves the bathroom and entry stairway, and we intend to take full advantage of it.

As-Purchased Photos: The Front "Bedrooms"

The front of the house contains three bedrooms. The first has a decorative fireplace and a view out the window all the way across the city to the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands beyond. This bedroom will become our studio, for music and capoeira.

The second bedroom is slightly smaller in size but has a closet. We intend to make it into an office.

There is a parlor doorway separating the two front bedrooms at the moment, and we aim to leave it that way and install glass-paned French doors to separate the two spaces.

There is a third bedroom, adjacent to the first but not pictured, which will ultimately become the guest bedroom. We will most likely use that as the master bedroom until the master suite downstairs is completed - but more on that later.

As-Purchased Photos: The Entrance

While we're waiting to close on the house, we took some photos of the place to start our records and to share with others. In order to keep the posts manageable I'll be limiting the scope to just particular aspects of the house. This first post is all about entering the place.

The facade is, let's face it, not great. New windows, re-detailing the eaves, some new paint and a nice palm tree will give the place the welcoming appearance we're after. But that's down the road; we want to focus on the inside living space first.

The front door opens into a small foyer. To the left is the unfinished basement (pics later on), and straight ahead are stairs up to the main level. We'll be removing the carpeting, and want to expand and modernize the window in the stairwell to maximize the amount of natural light that comes into the entryway. The vent, along with all of its brethren scattered throughout the house, will be removed when we say goodbye to the gravity furnace, to be replaced with radiant floor heating.