An Answer to the Spooky Mystery...
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Contributed by Sam (the previous homeowner)

The coffin size hole under the front porch was built by my son and a neighbor boy in the 70's as a hideout when they were 10 to 12 years old. They didn't play there much as there were to many spiders. OOPS I forgot the cedar strip paneling under the back deck hope you put it to good use.

It was nice to get a tour of the house today. We're excited to see all the good effort being put into the house and are looking forward to see it completed.

A Few Tricks and Treats of the 1909 House
October 28th, 2004
Contributed by Richard DeWolf, Founder, Arciform LLC

Trick. Seven layers of previous flooring had to be ripped up off the kitchen floor.

Treat. The oak floors downstairs in the main living room and dining room are particularly unusual given the narrowness of their strips.

Trick. The back part of the kitchen was actually an exterior porch that was enclosed.

Treat. The fir floors upstairs are in relatively good shape since they were covered by shag carpet all these years.

Downright Spooky. There is a coffin size hole under the porch and a hidden storage area under the back of the house that has a whole lot of unused 70's paneling still fresh in the box and ready to cover up more walls. No implications with the word use of coffin... just trying to keep the theme of Halloween up!

Happy Halloween! Hope to see many of you out there this Saturday!

On the Level - The Whole Story
October 23, 2004
Contributed by Richard DeWolf, Founder, Arciform LLC

The house is now officially level. Wow, it needed a lot of help. The house is upgraded and straight. We needed to replace some structural members in the basement, properly frame the structure for the dormers that were added sometime in the past. The slightly altered plan that was designed by Anne helped immensely by letting us add new structural members hidden within built-ins and nice closets. We used two 20 ton and two 15 ton jacks to assist in lifting the structure. By placing them in key areas, we were able to straighten the structure in systematic order. A laser transit assists in making sure one end of the house is consistent with the other. The house is now ready for another 100 years. We found a hidden stash of everclear between the floor boards. Somebody in the past liked to take a nip while working in the basement.

More News on the Exterior Design
October 22nd, 2004
Contributed by Anne DeWolf, Co-Owner & Designer, Arciform LLC

More news.
I did not have time to update the drawings but I am so excited so I had to write.

As it shows in the drawing, we are going to have stairs facing the front of the house. But now we are also going to move the center porch column to one side and add another column to the other side of the stairs so we can center the stairs in front of the main door and add extra support to the porch beam. This is makes it possible to take the side light window away to the right of the door and move the door over to give more space to the living room. If my explanation doesn't make sense I am sorry, but that whole set up regarding the front of the house has been bothering me and I am happy we came up with a better solution. New drawings to come!

Richard also had a very cool idea as to how to treat the beam over the two columns between the entry and the living room. But more on that later!

I hope to see everybody tomorrow.

A Design Update
October 21st, 2004
Contributed by Anne DeWolf, Co-Owner & Designer, Arciform LLC

As people may have noticed by my lack of entries that I am not a diary person. But, bear with me, I will try to tell about the last week's development in the design of the 1909 House.

After last weeks demolition of the kitchen it was necessary to revise the floor plan to work within the space. The biggest struggle is the ceiling height change. I placed a peninsula island at the ceiling change which houses the downdraft stove and creates a separation between the seating nook and the work space. The nook will have a v-groove ceiling to give the feel of an old fashion back porch space and will be defined by a box beam and two columns. This creates a nice work triangle and allows for separate and flexible seating.

I also designed a built-in buffet cabinet for the dining room. There is a book called Old House Measured and Scaled Detail Drawings which I love to use for this sort of design. It was written by William A. Radford and published by Dover Publications and recommend to anyone looking for architectural detail ideas.

And as for the "wow" factor in the house...Richard and I have decided to install all the woodwork in the entry and the living room in stain grade. This will make the space feel nice and formal and extremely bungalow appropriate.

Also at the persistence of Melissa Fryback, I am going to make the windows in the two back dormers bigger creating better lighting in both the bathroom suite and laundry center at the top of the stairs - better task lighting and natural light will reduce the need for lights being on all the time. Happy now Melissa? ;)

Melissa Mc Call, another designer here at Arciform, is currently working on the tile pattern for the space. We are using the Bungalow Bath book for inspiration. Melissa has it on her desk. I will get the author and publication info in my next update.

Be sure to take a look at the new drawings that are in the Media Gallery!

And now... "the rest of the story".
October 21st, 2004
Contributed by Melissa Fryback, Arciform LLC / Jack Bookwalter, Volunteer with the Bosco-Milligan Foundation

(I just got this email from Jack our wonderful volunteer and had to share. I respect his hard work at trying to uncover the 1909 House history... seems like certain people made it a little harder than need be. I guess this is good information to anyone who might trying to do their own home research - it's never that easy! So as Paul Harvey would say and now the "rest of the story!")

Dear Melissa,

I went back to the OHS library yesterday afternoon to get a final determination if the 1909 House was in fact the first house in Beaumont. I was surprised to learn that I had been misled by the librarian on duty the day I first came in. This is my first year belonging to OHS and I requested help from the librarian regarding their resources for the period 1909-1930 (the years after 1930 are pretty straightforward and I could handle those myself). She brought out the Metzger Map for 1914 and asked me the subdivision name and lot and block number. From that she produced the name of this P.A. Cowgill guy. But when I checked it again yesterday afternoon I saw that Cowgill's house sat on lot 6 of his bock of 44th, not the lot 6 of our block further down 44th. I just asumed she knew what she was doing (a bad assumption). So the long and short of it is that Cowgill had nothing to do with the 1909 house, other than their both living on 44th and being #6 lot of their respective blocks.

The person owning 1909 House (in 1914) was in fact an A.E. Imbler. I tried checking the City Directories for five years either side of 1914, but nothing is listed for him. Perhaps an absentee owner. Or perhaps just missed in the directories.

I'm sorry about this turn of events. All the other info I got from City Directories is accurate though. Their really was an Ada Z. Wigglesworth who did live there. And the drugless physician too.

One good thing did come out of this though. I saw a couple of Metzger Maps laying in the corner and went to look at them. They were from 1922 and 1928. I had been told initially (by that same librarian) that there were no other Metzger maps other than the 1914. Just as I located 1909 house on the 1922 map, the librarian came rushing up to me and said: "You are not supposed to be looking at those! They are RESTRICTED". I thought now this takes the cake but nevertheless asked her politely how I could take a peek at these restricted documents. She replied frostily, " You must REQUEST them." So I requested them and she presented me with the info of who owned the property in both years. It was the Arthur Tarlow family. I checked his name in the City Directory and yes, he really lived there. His occupation was listed as "mattress maker". I traced him in other directories then. Looks like they lived there from 1918-29. And that takes us up to our drugless physician in 1930. So really, we have an unbroken chain of owners now from 1918 on up.

In spite of the confusion with Cowgill, I still feel that this house is one of the first, if not the very first house in what is was the Beaumont Sudivision. It was built in 1909, three years before the actual subdivision. And it appears to be the only house whose lot was "tweeked" to accommodate an existing structure. So I think it would be fair to say that this house "appears from all evidence to have been the first house in the subdivision". How does that sound?

Please pass all this new info along to your readers along with my apologies for the initial inaccuracies.

JACK

History in the Making
October 20th, 2004
Contributed by Melissa Fryback, Arciform LLC

This last Saturday was a real learning experience for me and the 35+ people who attended. Jack Bookwalter, a Volunteer with the Bosco-Milligan Foundation gave an extensive overview of the history of the 1909 House (see his report) as well as shared architectural elements/details of the bungalow... how many of you knew that the word bungalow comes from India? Or that components of bungalow design come from Japan, Switzerland, and other parts of the globe? I sure didn't!

And while the bungalow may be derived from other corners of our planet, it is uniquely American. And in Portland it isn't only quite a common home, but because of the boom that occurred after the Lewis and Clark Exposition, homes of this style were being built at a rapid pace! The simplicity of structure and design suited even one hundred years ago the emerging Northwest lifestyle... and how amazing that it works as well now as it did back then!

We learned about the informality of the structure and the beauty it holds in its simplicity and the many types of bungalows there are... ours as it turns out might be considered a craftsman "bungaloid" as it is a larger 2 story interpretation of the "original" 1 story design. It does however have details like the deep overhangs, pillars, broad at the base, slightly tapered at the top, and a three part window design with the central window being the largest of the three panels.

The 1909 House was one of the very first homes in this area. And in the span of over 90 years, it had many inhabitants. Originally it was a part of the Beaumont Neighborhood - and actually based on Jack's research, it preceded the official neighborhood. Today the 1909 House a part of the Grant Park Neighborhood.

Surely the house will give more up and I would like to do some follow-up research on the previous owners, but that will have to wait for another day.

The 1st Floor is Level!!!
October 19th, 2004
Contributed by Richard DeWolf, Founder, Arciform LLC

In one day no less! Tomorrow the second floor to tackle. I'll talk about how we did this on Saturday (10/23) or you'll have to wait till my next entry to find out...

The New Floorplan Sheds Light on Existing Challenges
October 12th, 2004
Contributed by Anne DeWolf, Co-owner & Designer, Arciform LLC

The new plan for the 1909 House has a "few" main design objectives:

1. Keep original if possible. Besides coming up with some preliminary ideas before the demo was complete, until last Saturday I had no real idea as to what is worth preserving and what is not. This is not only important to me with regard to design but also with regard to budget. Now that we know better the scope of the project I can make decisions based on priorities and necessities.

2. Create a more useable living room area and make a better first impression. Currently, you walk straight into the middle of the living room making it impossible to place furniture and creating a lot of wasted space. The new plan moves the front door to the right and 2 half walls with bungalow columns will be added to create a real foyer with closet at the end.

3. Improve kitchen work flow. What we discovered last weekend changes my first few ideas so I will get back on that.

4. Improve natural light in the rooms. The front room, kitchen and upstairs front bedroom all need better light so larger windows will be added. Code specifies that if the window openings are to be changed, they need to meet current codes. In bedrooms that means they need to meet egress and the particulars on that vary with each manufacturer. The city of Portland hands out little pamphlets on windows which explain the details.

5. The hateful garage. I already have that one designed. No problem. I am excited on experimenting with some siding patterns.

So far the kitchen has been a challenge. Now that I know what is under the acoustical ceiling tile it should go a little easier. Richard told me we could raise the ceiling throughout as long as I keep some structure exposed. No problem.

I look forward to sharing the bungalow design details/aspects of this project with people that come through the house this Saturday.!

Demolition is Done!
October 11, 2004
Contributed by Richard DeWolf, Founder, Arciform LLC

Well demo's pretty well completed. No "real" hidden treasures in the house, no time capsules, just a lot of bad remodeling materials. A house should stand for hundreds of years without needing to update everything. A kitchen, yes. A bathroom, most of the time. But how much paneling and bad acoustic tiles does one little house need? Most of the original finishes in the 1909 house were fine behind all of those crazy updates (except for the installation of them ruined the original) Argh! Respectful and environmentally friendly remodeling usually is cheaper and easier than unnecessary vinyl siding, paneling and layers of vinyl flooring. It's ok if the wood siding might need paint in a few years, or the wood floor has a scratch. Vinyl siding doesn't need paint, but look at it in twenty to thirty years. Are you still going to be happy with the trendy color of today? Taupe and grey of today might be the mint green or dusty rose as was popular in the sixties and seventies. Mmmmm, yummy.

At the end of all this, we had one twenty yard container of miscellaneous construction debris that was un-recyclable. Mostly vinyl and plastic and one complete twenty yard container of wood scrap that will be turned into fuel. All of the metal has been recycled by a local resident and a large truckload of usable items will be taken to ReBuilding Center for re-use in someone else's future project. If you need a lipstick red bath vanity, let me know before it is too late.

Happy Remodeling!

The 1909 House has Made the "Switch"!
October 11, 2004
Contributed by Melissa Fryback, Arciform LLC

With Pacific Power participating at last Saturday's event, the commitment was easily made to using 100% renewable energy!

According to Pacific Power, the house is now supporting a mix of 100% renewable energy: 61% new wind, 38% biomass, and 1% solar. Almost all of this renewable energy is from sources in Oregon and Washington--of the three wind farms, 2 are located in Oregon and one of the Oregon/Washington border, the biomass is coming from a landfill gas facility in Washington and the solar is from the Eugene area primarily. Beginning in 2005, there will be even more sources located in Oregon and Washington due to the commitments of Oregonians to renewable energy through Blue Sky including solar from the roof of a Montessori School in Beaverton, and Cow Power from the Rickreall Dairy!

For every 1,000 kilowatt hours (or 1 Megawatt hour) of electricity that the 1909 House uses, our commitment to renewable energy will offset 2,000pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere--the equivalent of not driving the average car 2,143 miles (.889 lbs CO2/mile driven).

So with every whir of the saw and scream of the drill in the next five months, we'll be doing our part. Visit on November 6th and PGE and Pacific Power will be on hand to help you do the same!

A Fine Turnout Despite the Weather
October 9, 2004
Contributed by Melissa Fryback, Arciform LLC

Even with ominous rain clouds ever present, people continue to come out in droves to see the house. I believe the furthest away being Oregon City / Milwaukie. Everyone has their own home story. Whether it's "Been there done that." or "I am about to start.", they all have some connection to what we are trying to accomplish here at the 1909 House.

With a hot cup of coffee in hand, people toured around the job site looking through the timbers and talking to some of the experts that were on hand.

Bryce Jacobsen with Metro Solid Waste and Recycling shared how important the effort of sorting construction debris is and how much of it can be kept out of the landfill. He passed out useful toolkits and shared information on what can and can't be recycled.

Amanda with DeConstruction Services shared what services they offer and explained what items The ReBuilding Center would take. A lot of those items from the 1909 House were around her neatly gathered and ready for their departure by way of a ReBuilding Center truck on Monday.

Rebecca with Pacific Power came as well and explained green energy as well as made it possible for homeowners to switch over their homes right then and there by filling out a short postcard! The 1909 House made the switch to wind power today and so did 3 others! In the future someone from PGE and Pacific Power will be on hand to do this at these Saturday mornings for people who tour the home.

I was impressed by the questions that were asked of Richard and Anne. Many of which we will post on our FAQ page for future reference.

I can't wait for next Saturday when we focus on the history of the bungalow and what are bungalow architectural details - lead by Jack Bookwalter a volunteer of the Bosco-Milligan Foundation. I know many that were here today will be attending as they left saying "See you next Saturday!". I better make more coffee!

The 1909 House Continues to Reveal Herself
October 8th, 2004
Contributed by Richard DeWolf, Founder, Arciform LLC

As of October 6th all of the vinyl siding is off and the interior work of deconstruction has begun. Most of it has been pretty text book, but there have been some nice surprises. An area under the front porch has hidden for an unknown number of decades a "secret" room where 2 of the old interior doors and a couple of the windows have been sealed up - thank goodness they didn't go the way of the poor old siding! Sandwiched between the exterior vinyl and interior paneling in the living room, a previous window location has been discovered. The reveal behind all of the dark wood paneling is akin to Geraldo Rivera opening up Al Capones safe... is there anything of "value" in hidden in these old walls? Of course there is... returning the home to it's original plaster walls - with improved insulation! Without any major transformations at this point having taken place, just the removal of the dark paneling makes the spaces feel so much more light and open.

More surprises include an old linoleum "rug" in one of the upstairs bedrooms - we'll have Lansing's take a look at it and see if it can be saved, and some newspapers from around the time of WWII sealed up in the wall. Newspapers were also found dating to 2003 in a narrow little passage off the 1/2 bath upstairs. They were used to sop up water from a leak that must have been discovered around that time by the previous homeowner. Water damage is pretty bad in that location and a permanent solution was forgone and a temporary fix of plastic sheathing and newspapers was the remedy to the problem - albeit not the right one.

Structurally, the knee braces (corbels) all have to be replaced as they were cut off from the house - from the street you can see the sag of the eaves on both sides. And what once was thought to be an addition on the back of the kitchen is in actuality an existing sunroom / porch that was framed in to enlarge the kitchen. It's not structurally sound and will have to be redone. This also will create a redesign of the kitchen for Anne. The good news is that we once thought the drop in that part of the ceiling would have to remain and be lower, but now we can make the entire kitchen ceiling height the same with reframing.

Next step... straightening the house from the basement up...

"Stung" by the Siding
Saturday October 4, 2004
Submitted by Melissa Fryback, Arciform LLC

What an exciting first day this turned out to be! Wonderful weather and a great turn out! Earth Advantage was on hand as well as Robin Wang of the ReDirect Guide along with his adorable daughter Amelia. Many neighbors and locals who read about it in the At Home section of the Portland Tribune's Friday, October 3rd edition, turned out to find out what this home project was all about.

Originally it was to just be an overview of what lies ahead, but it turned into something more like one of those popular reality home shows. Early on Richard DeWolf of Arciform LLC could wait no longer to begin exploring what lies beneath the vinyl and climbed up a neighbors ladder on to the roof to take a peak. With crowbar in hand he began to remove the siding. First the good news - the original wood under the eaves is intact and the one corbel he exposed looks good, then came the bad news - ALL the original siding was GONE!!! For Arciform this is very unusual to see. Typically siding was kept on and the vinyl put on top. In this case, they took it all off!!! To add to the moment, a very unhappy wasp that made the safety of the vinyl eaves his home, stung Richard on his ear! OUCH!

This bit of news has redirected the exterior idea. It was originally planned to use the original siding - always the best route when possible, but without it, fortunately there exists an alternative manufactured by James Hardie Siding that not only is a sustainable substitute for wood, but will work well given the period appropriateness factor. The details need to be "hammered" out, but it will work fine for the house. In fact, this allows now for wrapping the house with Tyvek house wrap - used to increase air and water resistance, help lower heating and cooling costs and provide better protection against water and moisture intrusion.

Anne DeWolf, the designer on the project and co-owner of Arciform, lead people on tours of the 1909 House showing them the preliminary drawings. I think the luckiest people are the ones who came this first Saturday because their appreciation of what is about to happen to this house will be most
profound. It's a good thing though that we have been documenting the before's well so that everyone has a chance to see what was.

My favorite "before" is in the kitchen. I'm not sure how many people have had a chance to go to the "House of Mystery"* outside of Medford and stand in The Oregon Vortex, but this kitchen is a close second to that. The addition on the back has a real slope in it, and with the acoustical tile
ceilings not even making the room 7' 6" tall, as you approach the outer wall, you get the feeling of going down and getting taller due to the change in the grade! This room will undoubtedly be the biggest improvement in my opinion.

Well, Monday will hold a lot more in store for this house. I can't wait to see what will be discovered next!

Deconstruction Starts
Friday October 1, 2004
Submitted by Melissa Fryback, Arciform LLC

Today is the first “official ” day of the 1909 House project. The design of the project is nearing completion by Anne DeWolf of Arciform LLC and the initial challenge of what to do with the “odd ” kitchen addition on the back is behind us now.

The first set of working drawings have come together and the improvements that will occur to the exterior are quite exciting. The awkward nature of approaching the home from the street and the design inappropriateness of the dormer window are being addressed. Monday will be an exciting day as we are able to reveal what lies behind the vinyl siding.