Panasonic Wall Whisper Fan

February 26, 2016 by Evan Hart in electrical, construction

What do you do if you have exposed beam ceilings through most of the house and need ventilation?

No matter how historic your house, ventilation fans are critical for reducing moisture and odor. If you want your original bath to last forever, you need a vent fan.

Fan retrofits can be tricky since houses weren't built with fans in mind. The standard vent fan is about 12"x12" and fits in the ceiling with a 4" vent duct to the outside. Two of our bathrooms have beam ceilings and the original bath, which we are trying to leave mostly original where possible, has a flat ceiling.

Therefore I was thinking we would need one ceiling vent fan and 2 wall fans for the beam ceiling bathrooms.

However, I cut a pilot hole where the fan would go in the original bath and there would be no room.

Corner near the shower... The fan shouldn't be directly above the shower or the moisture will damage it

Hard to see but the floor framing is shallow because the observation deck / master closet is above and there's a 2" vent pipe for the toilet going right through.

So I will need 3 wall mount vent fans. I got three of the gold standard Panasonic Whisper line. These are expensive and the best deal I could get was 3 for $500. It's a lot of work to install a vent fan and you want it to last as long as possible so you should get a good one.

Super nice Panasonic Wall Whisper fan. It's really cute, isn't it?

It should fit nicely into the corner.

It's venting out here near the top left corner of the window

The only problem with the whisper fan is that it's so quiet that people don't turn it off. I got a high tech switch so that it turns off automatically. You can get a moisture sensor built into the fan but this system is easier to service if the sensor fails.

I'm getting ready to install this fan and sensor switch into the back bathroom after the plaster is done. I'll update this post if it doesn't work as well as expected but it should be the bees knees.

#1 Maybeck Feature - Venturi Chimey

February 23, 2016 by Evan Hart in maybeck, outdoor

"Look carefully and if you see that Venturi chimney - it's a Maybeck."

Jacomena Maybeck from "Maybeck - The Family View", 1980.

The quintessential Maybeck feature is the Venturi chimney. Maybeck is known for putting in an oversized board-formed concrete fireplace with Venturi chimney in all his residential projects after around 1905 or so. The Venturi fireplace was patented in the 18th century by an Italian physicist who believed it would improve draft and Maybeck was apparently a big subscriber to this idea. His houses are full of many odd little details but none is so distinctly his as is the Venturi chimney.

Above you can see our Venturi chimney. The cap is a scrap of concrete. It's unclear what the cap used to look like but nearly all of them from this period appear to be flat concrete like on the J. B. Tufts house of 1931.

As Jacomena said, this is a distinctly Maybeck feature. The counter theory to our house being designed by Maybeck is that Maybeck's friend and builder from the time, Volney Rowland, builder of record for our house, simply copied Maybeck's style. But he also visited the house in 1951 and said it was designed by Maybeck. Maybeck was still alive in '51 and they could've simply went to Berkeley to visit him and ask - this fact is hand-written in the margin of the letter. We think it must have been some bureaucratic or tax reason why Maybeck wasn't on the building permit. Like Jacomena said, "If you see that Venturi chimney - it's a Maybeck." We agree

Annie Maybeck influenced features?

February 23, 2016 by Evan Hart in maybeck

Annie Maybeck, Bernard's wife and great love, had a big influence on the man and on his work. They were involved with what we might now consider the hippy or environmentalist tone of Berkeley way before the Summer of Love. California was still in its early phases of development around 1900 and Annie and Bernard, along with their artist, poet, and environmental friends were involved in a number of clubs and institutions that were intended to form the blossoming SF Bay Area towards a sort of utopian ideal. They were involved with the Hillside Club which was focused on the Berkeley Hills which intended to implement a set of design principles that would impart a uniform tone of harmony and a certain lifestyle focused on the beauty and outdoor lifestyle possible in a California. The homes were more seen as "shelter in case of rain" rather than asserting themselves above or over nature. The homes were humbly nestled into the hillside and raw and "exposed" natural materials of redwood, cedar, stone and concrete. Paint was seen as unharmonious with the natural surroundings.

(Our home matches very well to the original ideals presented in a Hillside Homes presentation and pamphlet produced by the Hillside Club. )

But the home being part of and second to natural California beauty wasn't the only concern in the development of the Bay Area. Another way to take a backseat to the natural shape and character of the hillside was to create winding roads that didn't require terracing or cutting down trees. Annie was especially interested in the preservation of trees in the area since nearly all of the old growth redwood had been logged by the turn of the century and it seemed development might mean all the big old trees might be cut down in the name of progress unless someone was there to stop them.

And that she did! In one case, Annie famously marched down to city hall to stop an oak tree from being cut down that was in the middle of what was going to become a street. It was dubbed "Annie's Oak." This article sums it up nicely:

http://berkeleyplaques.org/plaque/annie-s-oak/

So what does that have to do with us? Well we have a tunnel in our house through the master bedroom that we believe used to have a tree growing through it!

Tree ramp through the original lone bedroom

I'm not suggesting that Annie Maybeck designed our house, but rather that Bernard was inspired or influenced by her activism to build our house around a tree. The two fed off each other and shared a lot of strong views about the natural order and our place in it. I think this is a very significant detail for any Bay Area home as it exemplifies the the type of thinking and activism going on around that time, led in part by the Maybecks. B. Maybeck had always considered the landscaping to be a part of the design and he often had nature built in or built around the design but never to such a literal extent. One example is the First Church of Christ Scientist that many consider his masterpiece. It was built next to a huge old redwood tree (no longer standin) that Maybeck called "the Steeple."

The inspiration for this idea could have also come from something I read in Maybeck's Landscapes by Dianne Harris. She writes, "No photographs of [naturalist John] Muir's Yosemite Dwelling have come to light, but documents describe a structure constructed entirely of wood, with a stream running through the house, and ferns growing through the floor. The house sat adjacent to the Hutchings Hotel of the 1860s where Muir had once been a guest, the lodging famed for the enormous cedar tree that punctured the hotel's living room floor and extended through the roof."

Another feature of our house we believe was designed by Annie for 2751 Buena Vista in 1932 is our garage top patio. How could your 1927 house have a feature designed in '32 you ask? Our garage was built without permits between '27 and '39. The original permit does not mention the garage, while the '39 additions have it listed as existing. So our Maybeck looking garage was probably done in '33-38. From my research it seems Maybeck tended to use neat little design features for about five to 15 years and at that point they either became part of his repertoire or he shifted his focus elsewhere. One such example would be the exaggerated faux door hinges that were used from around the mid-20s until he retired in 1940. (From what I can tell - not all of his projects have readily available pictures of the front door.)

In Maybeck - The Family View by Jacomena Maybeck she writes, "[Annie] had the carpenters put a floor over a roof and on on top of the garage for decks. 'Don't waste space,' she said."

Our garage with Maybeck features: exaggerated fake hinges that match the front and side doors, a board formed concrete Gothic arch (a key Maybeck touch), and Annie's garage top patio

here are a lot of similarities between our house and the '32 Wallen Maybeck house on 2751 Buena Vista Way. I'm hoping to be able to visit the home soon, owners permitting. If that goes down you'll hear about it here!

In Search of Style

February 19, 2016 by Christina Flores

When Evan and I first saw this house, we were overwhelmed by its design and style. The staged furniture and decor was simple and basic and did not beg for attention in the slightest, which isn’t to say it was not well done because that is exactly what stagers strive for. But once Evan bought the house, we knew that this simplistic style was not what we were going to pursue.

For a second, we did consider furnishing and decorating the house in a way that would match what it must have been like when it was built in 1927, but not only would that be incredibly difficult and expensive, it would be uninspiring to our tastes. So instead, we decided to start off in a logical and budget friendly manner and use what we already had. Luckily, Evan’s love for all things thrifted meant we had a solid starting point. He already had numerous lamps, tables, chairs, and plenty of good ole “bric-a-brac” amongst other items. I had begun to accumulate a bit of decor myself from all the thrifting and estate sale shopping Evan and I had done since we started dating and before. Since the move-in process was quite strenuous (both Evan and I had to move all of our things down stairs from our previous living situations and then back up the way-too-many stairs to the new house), we kind of dumped all of our things in the music and living rooms.

The living room was quite honestly a huge mess for quite some time, but I did not feel it was worth cleaning and setting up until the roof construction was done since an incredible amount of dust and dirt kept falling down into the house. But once construction ended, I was able to clean things up slowly. Then, towards the end of October, I was lucky enough to have my parents and sister come up to help me speed things along. To everyone’s amazement, the room looked like a completely different space by the end of the day. With my dad vacuuming all surfaces, while my mom wiped everything down and I putting things away, we accomplished what I alone would have accomplished in 3-4 weekends in just a few hours.

From that day and on, I have been able to start setting up and decorating the room with all the items Evan and I already had before moving in and those we have since purchased.

If I were to have to name the style we are going for in the living room I would either say “eccentric” or “wonderful thrift vomit.” As I sit here writing this post, I cannot think of a single item in that room that was purchased new. But that is not to say that there won’t be a few someday since, really, the decor is a collection of things Evan and I love and find beautiful and unique. While I am very happy with the state the room is at now, with its budget friendly items and arresting aura, I cannot wait to see where we take it. This room will be forever changing and constantly unique.