The Bamboo Bungalow

The Bamboo Bungalow

I'll build a bamboo bungalow for you,
Big enough for one, but room enough for two,
And then we'll marry, happy we'll be,
Down in our bamboo bungalow for two...
or three...
or four....
or many more,
Let your conscience be your guide!

This was a fraternity song that I remember from my college days. I think it stands out because it was one that didn't make you feel harassed hearing it sung to you. For me, it's always stuck in my head as a fond memory, because it captures that sweet time when you're starting out with your love, building a home together, building a family. I always think of my mom & dad in their pictures "before the kids" when they had a tiny apartment & were just starting out... cozy.

We've started a building project of our own, and on the urging of my sister, I've started a blog to try to capture the adventure of building (as we call it) "The Wonder that IS THE HOUSE!" - perhaps to provide a sneak peek into the daily trials (and errors) of our process, and maybe this will become our way to capture our future adventures once we move into what I think of as our own little Bamboo Bungalow.

Bungalow it is, Bamboo it is not (really). I'm not sure why we can't take the easy route, purchase a newly constructed 3-bedroom condo in a new development with parks, good schools, etc. Realtors hate shopping with us - our target market seems to include the worst houses in the best neighborhoods. There's our current 650 sq ft 1924 beach shack on the 18' wide lot, where we renovated the electrical wiring over the course of a year. We're very proud of this accomplishment - the work was all permitted, passed inspection.... and we're still married. This time around we're doubling our space, but quadrulpling the scope of the project. Piece of cake.

Our home is a 1225 sq ft Craftsman Bungalow in Southern California. We're not sure how old it is - by some accounts it's from 1910, by others, 1930. It's in the kind of neighborhood where people have a glass of wine on their front porch in the evening & watch the sunset or the neighbors walking their dogs. We can walk to our favorite Italian restaurant, our favorite playground, and there are 2 Starbucks options for me within 3 blocks.

We found this neighborhood by chance. We started looking for a home closer to our client - an attempt to avoid spending our lives on the 405 or the 101 or the 5 or the 73 or 210... you get the idea. A friendly couple invited us to join them at their table for dinner one night. They had overheard our discussions about potential neighborhoods closer to work, and felt they could share their 20 years of local knowledge. They talked of a place with fountains, trees, wood frame homes, with restaurants, shops.... it sounded dreamy, & it was. We checked it out the next weekend, and fell in love.

It took another 6 months of looking - The places we liked, we couldn't afford, even in a downturn; others were places where they forgot details, like... a kitchen. And then one day.... Christian found the place - 1225 sq ft. It had a guest room. 2 full baths. Huge backyard. Garage. Fruit trees. Gardens. Well below our price range. Hmmmm...

.... and then we looked at it. It's a beautiful home, with "good bones". And we're up for a challenge, right? We lived with one outlet in the beach shack... for a year! Ok - the house was a foreclosure that had been stripped of fixtures, windows broken, etc. One of the sets of previous owners had cut unpermitted points of entry into the attic space leaving gaping holes throughout the house. A shower was constructed of crown moulding. One bathroom was renovated mausoleum-style, in case of emergency baptisms perhaps? Those were the improvements. The most recent owners ran amok. Of the windows they didn't break, they painted over. Electrical lines were wired out of windows to provide light to extra living spaces in the garage. I feel my words don't give it justice, so I'll provide pictures instead.

Overall, we're keeping nothing but the floorplan. The house needs a foundation, new copper plumbing, new wiring, new furnace, HVAC, a kitchen, 2 new bathrooms, new roof, drywall, paint... and in the words of the real estate listing, it "could use a little sod".

This is all I'll post for now, as it's getting late, and the baby needs a bath & bed. We'll keep building the blog along with the bungalow.