While Al continued with the yellow cedar shakes, we haven’t forgotten about our red front door.

We made progress on all fronts today.

Our Red Front Door

The last step in the fabrication of our red front door is to paint it (designing and fabricating the red front door has been quite a project in, and of, itself) .  We wanted the new door to match the color of the original red front door, exactly.  During the deconstruction of our house, we sold our red front door to another Eichler homeowner, who lived in Willow Glen.  That was fine as we had a tin of paint from when Bryan and his father, John, painted the red front door in 2002.  After moving between two rental homes, we can’t find the tin of red paint.

Bryan searched through his archive of e-mails and found the correspondence with the person that bought our original red front door in September 2008, including his telephone number.  Bryan called Brad and explained the need to match the color of the original red front door.  Brad said that he could get a paint chip from the door as it is in his garage, and hadn’t been installed yet (hey, it’s only been 2-1/2 years – we understand completely!).  Bryan asked if he could simply come by with the truck and ‘borrow’ the door for a while.  ‘No problem, come by anytime,’ said Brad.

After picking up the red front door, Bryan took it to American Ornamental Iron for Nathan Merrill to match the color with.  Nathan explained that he would take the door to the shop that will be powder-coating the steel door so they can get a perfect match.

Cool … way cool. 

That door is getting around.

Jerry Ditto Drops By

Our advisor, Jerry Ditto, dropped by unexpectedly today to check on our progress.  Jerry has been involved with our project since inception (he spoke at the public hearing for our Site Development Permit on July 16, 2008).  Jerry subscribes to our e-mail updates and had seen the recent postings on the roof.  Since he was in the area and had a couple minutes, he dropped by.  It is always good to see Jerry.

Jerry thought the roof looked fabulous.  He noted how prominent the yellow cedar shakes are from inside the house.  We have had a number of unsolicited positive comments on our yellow cedar shake roof, which is very visible to traffic going North on Winchester Boulevard.

Jerry did ask about the completion date …

The original red front door from our Eichler home, which was built in 1969. Nathan will take the door to the firm doing the powder coating so they can get a perfect match on the paint. It is, after all, a remodel ...

The final row of yellow cedar shakes are going onto the West side of the East gable. Note the standoffs for the solar photovoltaic panels.

The remaining bundles of yellow cedar shakes in the garage - we will have sufficient shakes to complete the roof.

The site needs to be safe and the railings need to go around the entire perimeter of the atrium, including both bridges.  This was the task today – get the railings in place so the site is safe.

Cutting the Decking

We still needed to put the plywood decking over the bridge going to the master suite.  Paul and Laura were going to San Francisco for the day so David Staab agreed to help Bryan for a few hours.

Everyone had fun helping cut the plywood and then Bryan was able to complete the posts and railings by himself. 

Our good friend and Eichler mentor, Jerry Ditto, dropped by at the end of the day to review our progress.  He approved.

And, yes, it was another beautiful, blue-sky California day.

Bryan and Paul, standing on the bridge deck (with no railing), planning their work.

The boys are ready to go to work ...

Measure twice, cut once ...

Starting to cut ...

Finishing the cut.

Having fun before Paul and Laura leave for San Francisco.

The decking, posts and railing are completed on the bridge to the master suite.

Bryan has the posts in place on the bridge.

Bryan has the first railing on now.

Jerry Ditto dropped by to review our project (and, he approved).

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