Labor of Love

My two year labor of love - the home at 2704 14th Street in Sacramento - is finished!

My mission is to resurrect the craftsmanship of Frank P. "Squeaky" Williams. Often remembered as an architect, Squeaky Williams was in fact a builder. Williams so shaped his projects with high quality construction and design, his craftsmanship became a defining architecture in the Sacramento area in the early part of the century.

This house in Old Land Park began as a cramped 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath eye-sore on a tree-lined street where I delivered newspapers as a boy. Except for one wall and window, the house was torn down to make way for a big aspiration -- a home that captures the beauty of yesterday and offers today’s modern luxuries.
The result is a complete transformation: a new Tudor revival home combining old world master craftsmanship reminiscent of Squeeky Williams with clean, open design for modern living.

Now a 5 spacious bedroom home with 3 luxurious bathrooms, the house features a large family room upstairs (“morning room”), formal dining room, formal living room and dream-come-true kitchen, all with an open plan for entertaining. Common rooms are spacious. Bedrooms are big. Ample windows and doors to multiple balconies and porches provide natural light – connecting the outside with the inside.

Finish details are rigorously faithful to the Tudor revival style of the home. The wood/gas burning fireplace in the living room was constructed around a vintage mantle rescued from a Bay Area home with European old world interiors.

Excepting an original kitchen window that was lovingly preserved, the entire kitchen is new: floor, walls, ceilings, fixtures, appliances, custom cabinets, sink, granite counters, custom island, media nook/desk, walk-in pantry, and more.

The custom wainscotting is handcrafted with enduring design. It took several weeks and countless hours to handcraft all of the custom finish trim and wainscotting -- and complete the sanding, prep and painting for the intricate woodwork -- but the final result is worth it.

The upstairs floor plan revives the design concept of a "morning room," a large, central open room popular in large homes at the turn of the century. A "morning room" is a place for families to spend time together in the morning, a common space for the upstairs bedrooms which can be used as an upstairs family room.

The downstairs great room, with a ceiling soaring two stories, easily makes way for large gatherings.

An upstairs bedroom with two separate doors leading outside to a large balcony, a flexible layout enabling the bedroom to be shared if desired. Fabulous 18 solid six-paneled 1 3/4" interior doors, complete with original bronze hardware, were rescued from an estate in Atherton. These thick interior doors reduce noise throughout the house. The original door hardware is matching throughout the interior, with stylized matching door hardware that is different for each type of door (closet interior, closet exterior, bedroom interior, bedroom hallway, etc.). Even the roof has design details; the shingles were carefully cut to mimic a 3 point style used in the early 1900s. Top quality elements are used throughout (example: new Kohler sinks and fixtures in every bathroom and a spa-like master bath). What you can’t see – what’s behind the ceilings and walls – are details to yield huge benefits over time (example: extra insulation designed to keep the house comfortable year round).

This home is a work of love. It began with an aspiration to revive high quality workmanship of a past era, and has stayed true this intent all the way to completion. The exemplary master craftmanship and visionary design of this home will serve its families and the neighborhood for generations to come.

Front entry (more about the front door). Living room The fireplace mantle in the living was rescued from a home in the Bay Area with old European interiors and completely restored. Marble in the hearth of the fireplace mantle in the living room. Detail in fireplace mantle in the living room. Living room flows into dining room / great room with arch entryways. Both the living room and the dining room / great room have doors leading out to a porch. Large windows and doors fill the living room and dining room / great room with gorgeous natural light. Great room / dining room has a soaring 2 story ceiling. Majestic chandelier in the great room / dining room matches with chandelier on the staircase. Finish detail on ceiling mount for chandelier. Grand staircase (read more about the staircase)Kitchen (read more about the kitchen) Stairs leading to second story
Upstairs family room
Master bedroom - upstairs - with double doors opening to balconey with custom ironwork railing and tile. Master bathroom - upstairs Second bathroom (upstairs)Laundry room, conveniently located upstairs near to bedrooms and complete with built in custom cabinets, granite counters, double sink, tiled flooring and window for natural light. 2nd bedroom - upstairs - with 2 doors leading out to large front balconey.
3rd bedroom - upstairs
4th bedroom - downstairs, with double doors leading out to covered porch and backyard. Bedroom is also suitable for an office/den/study, with built in entertainment center.
5th bedroom - downstairs, with double doors leading out to porch and backyard.
3rd bathroom - downstairsLandscaped sideyard
Mature trees, including orange tree in backyard

The Kitchen is Finished!

This week I got a big grin when my sister - who loves to cook - saw the finished kitchen for the first time. She called it a "dream come true" kitchen, with designer showroom quality. The cabinets throughout the kitchen are custom, created with the highest quality of workmanship. The cabinets are finished with many, many details. Even the kick board has curved finishes. The granite is also decorative, with carved edges. There's a built-in china cabinet with custom art glass doors. The island is both gracious and functional, with sink and serving area - plus room for seating to keep the cook company or serve a quick meal and loads of extra cabinet space. The window above the large sink is the only original window (on the only wall left standing so the project could qualify as a "remodel" instead of a construction project). My mom - who always knows how to resurrect the beauty of the past - helped completely restore the window, and it is beautiful. It keeps the kitchen filled with lots of natural light. The cook's grotto is both a centerpiece as well as a high performing cooking center. The grotto hides the large, powerful overhead fan. The tile behind the professional cook's Viking stove and oven has lovely decorative elements, but is also made from high quality tile designed to wear well. A stove faucet was built into the wall behind the stove for convenience (think of filling that pasta pot!). The small side cabinets and drawers can hold spices within easy reach.
The long stretches of granite counters provide ample workspace. Although it made for extra work, we designed the kitchen to include lots of extra electrical sockets. We wanted the cook to have maximum flexibility in use of workspace.

The backsplash has both small decorative tile and a band of larger tiles, providing a beautiful aesthetic offset.
In the picture below, on the left is the walk in pantry. (You can see iron willow art pantry door here.) In the center of the picture is a stainless steel microwave, second oven and refrigerator, all Viking appliances. To the right of the fridge is a work area with a cabinet above. This corner could be accommodate a little television (love those cooking shows), or a laptop, or a kids homework area.
Most of all, I love how the kitchen flows easily into the big, open great room, connecting the kitchen to the rest of the house.

Door Knobs: Pieces of History

With each of the rooms, careful attention has been paid to details. The doorknobs and doors provide a good example.

In exact keeping of the style of houses built in the early 1900s, the bedroom doorknobs and finish plates facing out into the hallways and common spaces are highly ornate (pictured immediately below).
On the opposite side of the same door is a glass doorknob, which in turn is matched exactly to the same doorknob on the bedroom closet, which is shown below. Even the interior of the closet has a brass doorknob.

18 fabulous six-paneled 1¾ inch thick solid wood interior doors -- complete with original bronze hardware -- were rescued from an estate in Atherton. All of the door hardware was painstakingly restored.
The design the doorknobs corresponds to their placement. The above hardware is for a bedroom closet. The glass doorknob matches exactly to the doorknob leading into the bedroom. On the opposite side of the closet door is a brass doorknob with a separate design.

These highly ornate doorknobs and hardware, and their timeless construction, represent pieces of history.

Take a Look!

It's been a while since the last update back in January and a lot of progress has been made throughout the entire house. I'm going to give a quick overview in this post.
The front door is finished.

I am proud every time it swings open. The door is heavy, beautiful, solid, rich and warm mahogany - making the house feel secure, welcoming, gracious. (Staggeringly heavy, it took all my strength to install it.) The floors are done and they came out as I had hoped. As you walk into the living room, you can see the new mantle. It was resurrected from a turn of the century home in the Bay Area and was missing many components when we claimed it. I had to recreate what I envisioned the original piece to look like, using what was there for guidance.
The custom made radius topped windows and true divide 15 glass paned doors provide lots of natural light throughout the downstairs. The doors are solid yet add an airy, light-filled feel to the house.
The solid wrought iron handrail on the staircase is now installed and the first of three gilding colors have been applied to embellish and accent the metal scroll and panel work.
Both of the downstairs bedrooms are completely painted, and each have double doors leading out to the backyard. The hardware and trim work will be complete soon.

The downstairs bathroom -- with old world tile floor and wainscot as well as custom trim and cabinetry -- is nearing completion. The dining room chandelier centers majestically in the room and matches the newly installed handrail and balustrade. I envision a table with a comfortable seating capacity of 12 people.
The wood stairs look warm next to the raised paneled wainscoting and newly installed wrought-iron handrail.
The wrought-iron handrail and balustrade is both heavy and delicate, inspired by the handrails found in other Tudor homes we visited while designing the house. In the next post I'll include more pictures of the upstairs, which is nearly finished!Upstairs there are three more bedrooms. One includes two doors leading out to a 7' x 14' front balcony, built-in custom cabinets and computer work station.
We need to install carpet in the upstairs bedrooms, one of the final tasks upstairs. There are 5 bedrooms: 2 downstairs, 3 upstairs. The second upstairs bedroom has a 10' closet with three 6-panel doors that match the rest. All bedroom closets have custom shelving and closet poles inside. All bedrooms are equipped with multiple TV and telephone jacks for various options for furniture positioning. The second upstairs bathroom has a custom vanity and cabinet, custom granite work and a large shower. The entry door to the bathroom is fitted with a full length mirror.
The laundry room is upstairs and closely connected to where the majority of laundry will be located. It is functional yet elegant with granite tops, custom cabinetry, can lighting and a full size stainless steel sink. The laundry also serves as the mechanical room where the electrical sub-panel and telecom panel can easily be accessed. All electrical breakers associated with the upstairs are located in this upstairs panel for convenience. This prevents having to go down stairs and outside for servicing. The hot water heater is also located here and equipped with a recirculating pump to minimize water waste and to avoid having to wait for instant hot water at any faucet in the house. The master bedroom has double doors with a private balcony for the morning retreat. The balcony has a custom wrought-iron railing and tile deck overlooking the backyard. The master bathroom is a large spa-like retreat. The large custom shower is equiped with two shower heads with separate controls, a seat and heavy frameless glass enclosure and door (to be installed).
It's painted in a soothing color and contains double sinks, a huge soaking tub, custom his and hers sinks and vanities and an option for TV and cable/telephone connections.
Stay tuned - the house is changing quickly every day as the finish work nears completion.