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Filling Holes

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Ahead of the painters, and trying to get things sealed up before some coming rain, I scraped off the paint from a few windowsills on the south side of the house. In the inspection from the termite company, these spots were identified as needing replacement.  They were quoting replacement of these, along with few other places (stay tuned, coming up), at about $2300.  However, these sills seem to be in okay shape.  The sills are original and made of redwood.  There are a few places that need some filler, but certainly not in need of replacement.  I sanded/scraped them, routed out the soft spots, and prepped them with some Minwax wood hardener. I let it cure overnight.  Once cured, I used some two-part epoxy wood filler (sorry, forget to get photos of that) to fill any cracks and holes.  That was left to cure overnight, then sanded, then primed and caulked. I am not sure how much attention the painting crew is going to give to some previous issues, but th...
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Getting Ready for New Garage Door

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  I was informed by the lead maintenance guy that the painting crew will be getting to our house in about a month, so there is a bit of prioritizing projects around getting any exterior work done prior to paint.  One major issue is the garage door will need to be framed out and replaced.  I have the door on order and decided to remove the drywall on both sides inside the garage to get a gander at the state of the framing.  The garage itself is a converted carport that is post-and-beam construction, so the framed-out walls aren't really "load bearing", but the big issue was dry rot, termite damage, and door absorbing water over time.  The plan is to replace it with a steel door with PVC trim.  Luckily, the door opening was shimmed to accommodate a slightly smaller door than I ordered so there will be room to fit the new door.   The doorway is cut out of the old atrium wall and subject to water leaking in from a puddle that forms along the wall beca...
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Leaks! The Revenge of El Nino

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  El Nino, and Tropical Storm Rachel, came to visit and "water test" the house.  Three noticeable issues were found: 1) The sliding glass door in main bedroom that leads to the atrium revealed a slow drip that picked up to a major leak before dawn.  We peeled back the interior trim around the door casing to find that crew that installed the window ("The Flippers") didn't completely seal the sliding door.  One trip to Lowe's, one can of spray foam, stopped the issue, but we are definitely going to need to remove and reinstall the doors correctly at some point as there are other issues with their installation process--but that is something for another time. 2) Water pools toward the atrium gate because of excess build up on pavement in the driveway on the other side.  Having chatted with the head of maintenance (happen to be talking with a neighbor), there is not really an opportunity to install a channel drain to lead water out of that area.  A creative solu...
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Introduction

 Hi.  This is a blog to document the ongoing progress toward remodeling, repairing, and redesigning an older beach-community home in Southern California.  Neither myself, nor my wife, is a professional contractor, cabinet maker, trades person, but have an interest in DIY home projects, woodworking, and design.   Follow along as we take on the challenge of maintaining and updating a home with a strong focus on doing it all ourselves.   
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