Maybeck Feature: Observation Deck uncovered

I've been deconstructing the building phases and analyzing the features as they relate to Maybeck's Hillside Homes pamphlet where he goes into his philosophy of building residential hillside homes. The pamphlet has been a godsend as it shows how he liked to build houses like ours and the specific features he liked, most of which are features on our house. Our house is actually a great example of a Maybeck hillside home and the observation deck is one of those very specific details that he liked that were pretty unusual on other homes.

I was thrilled to pull off the tarp of the master closet to see it was (poorly) converted from an observation deck as this is an excellent piece of evidence.

Above you can see the sills of the windows that used to be the open railings of the deck. I know it's original because it has the stucco splatter that's only on the original 1927 part of the house. Above you can also see the drain of the deck coming out under the eave which would allow the rain water to drain through the floor.

Here you can kinda see the interior of the closet used to be the stucco exterior of the house. 

Below you can see the roof line is cut out, for an open area to stand and "observe", I suppose. The roof rafters are also cut back in certain areas to allow light into the windows past the large eaves around the house.

The flat roof that was added did not perform well. The "skylight" is simply a plastic pane top screwed to a wood lip. The rules of flashing dictate that you do not penetrate the top of something that is supposed to be waterproof because it will inevitably fail

The roof and skylight as well as the weird homemade clerestory windows were built poorly and the whole thing was covered in a tarp which is why I didn't notice what the closet used to be until I started pulling off the tarp to do the roof. 

In Maybeck's hillside homes lecture, he says "an observation deck to the West." Ours is facing the East so the house must not be a real Maybeck. Just kidding. The Hillside Home pamphlet is is for the Berkeley Hillside Club, and the views up there are probably mostly to the West. Our house is in a valley so the view is better to the East in our case.

Below is an odd transition to the music room which was added later to the west. This could have been a dormer window or something like that facing the West originally. I'm still doing research on the appearance of this back corner of the house. It's hard to tell as this hall seems to have had the dormer and a back door somewhere which have been redesigned as two different additions at different times were added to this area.

These details will become more clear as we work on a 3D model of the original house and the additions. 

Cabinet Wood Repair, Old Growth Redwood and Cedar, Clear Grain, and a $50 piece of wood

I needed some pieces of cabinet wood. I took a piece to MacBeath lumber in Berkeley

I thought it was cedar, but the expert there said it was old growth redwood because it was too heavy to be cedar. "If you really want to match this, you need to go to the Lumber Baron in Albany." So it's old growth redwood, and that's hard to find and expensive. I decided to look at their cedar because if the only difference is weight, that won't matter when nailed to the wall. Plus this isn't meant to be a forever fix. In maybe 10 years I want to expand the kitchen and that's going to be super expensive and at that point I'll get some new cabinets made out of clear grain cedar or something for like 35K... Yikes

I looked through their boards and got the brownest one to match the oxidation of the old wood. I had to get "V.G. CLEAR" redwood which means clean, tight grain. At 1x6"x12', it was about $7.50 a board foot. (6" is half a foot so 6"x12' is equal to 1'x6' so 6 board feet). It was $50

$50 but it matches so well! 

I think I can darken it with a yellow stain

Matching the finish will be hard...

It's hard to see but there's a "Mary Kay" white type finish which is a milky finish. 

The milky finish is a closest match to "pickled oak"  which looks like this on pine

FUN FACT: The above finish was used on Fender guitars in the '50s and '60s over Ash under the name "Mary Kay White." 

Fender "Mary Kay White" Stratocaster '57 reissue

But our cabinets are actually a little purple

Back door is very purple. The picture doesn't show it but it looks more like blueberry ice cream

I had to shrink the cabinet up 3" to fit a modern fridge. 

Now I need to cut down the door. 

OK! I got the original cabinet trimmed up about 3" to fit a modern fridge. I'll figure out how to reproduce the milky pink stain in another post. 

Range Backsplash

I added a hood above the range. It originally had nothing and then a homemade vent hood and it was greasy and sucky.  

After adding a hood, I needed more backsplash tile up to the hood so that the grease from the cooking surface can be wiped down. I decided to make it match the bathroom tile I extended up when I raised the shower head. 

The tile was sticking out because it was done over the original backsplash which was a weird red painted cement thing

With the old backsplash removed, I can set the tile close to the wall

I put up two different thickness backerboard. 1/2" for the 6x6 because they are thin, about a 1/4". 1/4" hardibacker for the clay tiles since they are about 1/2" thick. This puts the tiles in the same plane.

I did the white tile first so it is parallel with the floor and hood.  

Clay tiles sitting in place for layout to match other side. 

I cut out tile for the wall light fixture because I decided to keep them as a theme like in the bathroom

Set first row. Tiling down is not the natural way

I had to carefully chip out the old mortar bed to reset the corner tiles since I moved the adjacent wall back

Got them all set. Also fixed the plaster.

Here it's grouted.

I used "natural grey" grout so hopefully it'll match the old stuff and look good behind the wedgewood.

Laundry Hookups

The laundry room is a mess. I believe the small room was originally the servants quarters because it is next to the kitchen, used to have a "toilet closet", and has a back door so that the servants can enter the house unseen by the owner. This is a feature my parents used to have in the exact configuration - a room connected to the kitchen with a back entrance. They turned it into a kitchenette that opens to a back deck.

The kitchen even has a gate and double sided serving cabinets so you can get your food without touching the servants. Yuck!

The '39 breakfast nook addition has no gate as a "Servant Free Home" had become the norm. What a concept. 

I needed a place for the laundry so I'm putting a stackable front load washer and dryer where the toilet closet used to be.

Adding a laundry requires a LOT of plumbing and duct work. 

From left to right (non-essential in parenthesis) - dedicated laundry circuit outlet, gas dryer hookup, (main water pipes), (2" galvanized toilet vent), laundry box: hot and cold supply lines and 2" drain for washer, and 4" dryer vent ducting to the outside 

I'm happy to have all that done. Boy there's a lot of tubes in there! I'll follow up when the washer and dryer are installed.