Our House(s), Part One: Ward Terrace, Anaheim, CA.

2231 Ward Terrace, Anaheim, CA.  

 We bought our house on Ward Terrace in Anaheim, CA in the summer of 1984.  We had been looking for a house for a while, but the only home we could financially qualify for was a little condo, and we really wanted a house.  My friend Dennis from the band Whiskey and his wife Helen had bought the house on Ward Terrace sometime in 1982, but after Dennis had his accident sometime in 1983, Dennis couldn’t work anymore (you can check out my blog “For the love of music, drums and lifelong friendships, 1965-1987” for Dennis’ story).  A super sad story; as Dennis was off from work for over a year, they needed to sell their house.  Even though the house was a bit more expensive than what we wanted to pay, it had an existing loan that was guaranteed by the Veteran’s Administration (VA), which back then was transferable, so we took over the existing loan, and with a second mortgage from Helen’s dad, we got our first house!

The Ward Terrace house was built in 1955, a time when Orange County was growing, and Disneyland had just opened.  Situated close to Lincoln and State Collage, it is centrally located, close to the 57 freeway.  At night, we could actually see the Disneyland fireworks from our house, and certainly hear them!  We were soooo excited to have our own house, and I even enjoyed cutting the lawn (that first time; by the 100^th time, it was no longer exciting).  Since the house was built when Orange County was filled with orange groves (ergo the name Orange County), land was plentiful, and it was reflected in our street Ward Terrace, which was really wide.  The house was about 1,100 square feet (it has since been added on to); three bedrooms, one full bathroom, a powder room with a toilet and sink, and a kitchen.  Out in the back was a free-standing two car garage, and the corner lot is about 6,000 square feet.  That was about it, but it was ours, and we loved it!  Since this was definitely a fixer-upper, we did a whole bunch of work, and pretty much all of it for the first time.  Before Dennis and Helen bought the house, it had supposedly been a rental for long time, with multiple renters living there over the years, so it was pretty worn down.  Since we were both working full-time (you can check out my blog post “Working for a living Part Two”), we did all of the work in the evenings and on the weekends.  Also, when the Home Depot store in Fullerton, which was situated on Placenta Avenue, opened in 1985, we would take the 15-minute drive from our house to Home Depot frequently.  (Ever since then, it seems like Home Depot has been a fixture in our lives.  Over the years, we have bought thousands of dollars’ worth of stuff, and we both worked at Home Depot part-time in the late 1990s and early 2000s…) 

A little caveat regarding the timeline; some 40 years have passed since we bought Ward Terrace, and our memory of what took place when is a bit muddy, so please take all these dates with a grain of salt! 

Summer 1984:  Moving from our second story Pinewood Village apartment on East Sycamore Street in Anaheim to our house on Ward Terrace, Anaheim.  My dear friend Janne Andersson his helping.  I have no idea how we got that big unit down the stairs, but I’m sure being young and crazy helped!  (BTW, Janne is featured in my blog post “For the love of music, drums and lifelong friendships, part one”.  We have remained friends since 1973). 

Since the house was built in 1955, it did not have a foundation slab; instead, it was built right on the sand on wooden plinths, with a crawl space underneath.  For some reason, I had occasion to crawl underneath, don’t remember why…  

The living room had an open beam ceiling, with no insulation.  Since Anaheim can get pretty hot in the summer (95F + is not unusual), and we only had one wall air-conditioning unit, one of the first things we did was to put in insulation in the living room ceiling.  This involved putting up 2”x4” studs between the beams and fastening them with joist hangers, installing the insulation, and then covering the insulation with drywall.  I had bought a Black and Decker circular saw (which I still use), but I didn’t have a compound miter saw, so I did all the cutting of the 2”x4” studs by hand.  Crazy!  

Fall 1984:  Insulating the living room ceiling.  As you can see, I’m wearing my most appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs); shorts and sneakers!   

 

Fall 1984:  Putting in the R-11 fiberglass insulation.  At least I’m wearing a shirt and gloves!  Love that respirator! 

 

I think the next thing we tackled was the little powder room in the hallway.  We had planned to just replace the resilient tiles on the bathroom floor; however, when I started to remove them they came up surprisingly easily.  After I ripped up the resilient tiles, I realized that there was two different thickness plywood on the floor; the plywood around the toilet had been replaced with thicker plywood.  After I removed the toilet, I realized that somebody had tried to fix a leaking toilet with two wax rings, but it was still leaking.  After some more investigation, I noticed that the toilet drainpipe was actually angled; that’s why the toilet had been leaking.  I ended up replacing one of the rotten floor joists, and also replacing the plywood.  In order to fix the leak, I bought a toilet flange that is used for mobile homes, and put that in the drainpipe to level the toilet.  We ended up fixing up the whole powder room; ceramic tiles on the floor, a new vanity and a tiled countertop complete with a new sink and a nice blue wallpaper.  I think this was our first tile job; if I remember correctly, Kathy bought a do-it-yourself tile book, which we used for reference for several years.  (Since then we have done a whole bunch of tile jobs in many of the houses we have owned; as usual Kathy being the tile designer and tile boss, and I’m being the tile cutter.)   

Our remodeled powder room at Ward Terrace.  Kathy hand painted the flowers on the tiles on the countertop. 

 If my memory serves me, sometime in 1985, the next job we took on after the powder room was the backyard.  Dennis had already put in concrete footers for a patio cover sometime in 1983, but after his accident, all work had stopped.  We were lucky in that Ed, our neighbor across the street, was a general contractor, so we contracted with him to have the concrete patio poured and set. 

Sometime in 1985:  Getting ready to pour the concrete slab.  In order to make a base for the concrete patio slab, I had to fill it in with gravel.  In the bottom picture, you can see the footers that Dennis had already put in.  

Since our neighbor Ed did a lot of concrete work, he set the form and he must have also put in the rebar, since he was a stickler for detail.   

Sometime in 1985:  The concrete truck and the concrete pump.  Our neighbor Ed is smoothing out the concrete. 
 

Clockwise from top left; I’m getting rid of some extra concrete; Ed is smoothing out the concrete (and apparently I’m supervising) and Ed is inspecting the final poured concrete patio.  (I think I still have that shovel…)

Sometime in 1985:  After the concrete patio was poured and completed, I think I put in sprinkler pipes in the backyard.  We also worked on cleaning up the backyard; as you can see, Kathy has pulled out a particularly nasty old bush.  

After we had put in the concrete patio slab, it was time to build the patio cover that Dennis had already planned.  After a couple of rounds, I had finally gotten building permission from the City of Anaheim to build the patio cover.  This was planned as a fully covered patio, with shiplap covering and an extension of the existing hot mop / gravel covered roof to make it a waterproof covering.  In order to put on the joists, we had to cut back a part of the existing roof; check it out below:

Circa 1985:  Kathy on the roof at Ward Terrace getting started to cut off a part of the existing roof to make room for the joists for the patio cover.  On the lower picture, across the street, you can see Ed’s motor home and pickup truck parked in his driveway.  You can also see our freestanding garage to the left.   

 

Circa 1985:  I’m on the roof tearing up the old hot mop covering.  Not a fun job…

After the roof was prepped for the joists, we had to get the header in place.  This was a giant piece of lumber; I think it was a 4”x12”, and some 20 feet long (I don’t remember how heavy it was, but it was heeeeavy…).  It rested on three 4”x6” columns.  Fortunately, I had my trusted friend Janne Andersson to help me, and I had also got my buddy Phil, who worked at Norco Delivery Service, to help us.

Circa 1985:  Janne, my buddy Phil and myself working on getting the patio header up on the posts.  Again, Janne is wearing his finest PPE; shorts and sneakers!!!  

Circa 1985:  Installing the joists for the patio cover…  At least this time I was wearing a hat as a PPE! 

More joists for the patio cover.  In the lower picture Ed is on the roof with us inspecting the work.  In the foreground you can see my little beige Toyota pickup truck I drove for a couple of years, and also Ed’s work truck. 

After the joists were up, the whole thing was covered in shiplap lumber, in order to make it a fully covered patio.  No nail gun, just hammer and nails (hundreds of nails I’m sure) and elbow grease.  If I remember correctly, in order to match the existing shiplap, the shiplap for the patio cover had to be special ordered.  After the whole thing was put together, we rented a paint sprayer to paint the whole patio cover white.  

Circa 1985:  Installing the shiplap lumber and priming the cover. 

More priming of the patio cover.  Kathy is wearing her best painting hat!  According to the pictures we have, it appears that after we primed the patio cover, we painted it dark brown to match the existing side patio cover.     

After the patio cover was primed and painted, we decided to tile the whole patio, including the existing patio.  We choose an unglazed Saltillo tile, to give the patio that Mission style look.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be a bit of a disaster, since we didn’t know that you are supposed to use grout release on unglazed tiles.  So, after we put the grout in between the tiles, we weren’t able to remove the semi-hardened grout.  I don’t remember how we finally resolved the issue, but I know that at some point we used muriatic acid to clean the tiles, and I think we also re-stained the tiles a darker red.  Nevertheless, in the end it looked OK, and we were quite happy. 

Circa 1985:  Getting ready to tile the concrete patio.  Cleaning off the patio and mixing the mortar.  You can see all the boxes of tiles in the bottom picture.   

 

Starting to tile the patio.  Kathy is in her element; I think by this time we had at least bought some knee pads…  In the top picture you can see the existing patio cover, which was to the side of the house, where the kitchen door and the living room slider lead out to the side patio.   

More patio tiling…  In the bottom picture I’m holding Poochie, our little street dog that we adopted sometime in 1985.  One day she just showed up at the front door, and we took her in and made her our own.  She was a great little dog, very friendly, but not really housetrained.  Unfortunately, in 1990 after the bankruptcy, we had to move into rented accommodations in Irvine.  One of our neighbors complained about the dogs barking, so we saw no other solution than to give up our two dogs Archie and Poochie, something that still makes me really sad.  After that time, we never gave up any of our dogs; instead, over the years we have adopted six shelter dogs, and we have taken care of them exceptionally well. 

 

As you can see from the empty boxes, the tiling is finally done, and Kathy is starting to grout the tile. 

Circa 1985:  I’m grouting the patio tile.  Messy…   

 At some point after we finished the patio and patio cover, we decided to paint the whole house including the garage.  It started with me renting a hot water pressure washer, and pressure washing the whole house, including the garage.

 

Circa 1985:  Pressure washing the house and the garage.  Now that was a messy job! 

 
The outside is done!  From the top; we had planted a bunch of shrubs on the side of the house in the existing planters, and also made sure the sprinklers watered the grass strip between the sidewalk and the street.  And little Poochie…  Middle picture, a look at all the shrubs.  We had hired one of Ed’s friends to put a final row of decorative cinder blocks on top of the existing cinder block wall, to add some privacy.  Bottom picture; the finished patio and patio cover, and freshly painted garage.  Toward the back you can see the planter that Janne A and myself built from cut-down railroad ties; I still have the chain saw that I bought to cut the railroad ties...  Kathy and I planted the Italian Cypress trees, and also the other shrubs.  By the way, I think these pictures were probably taken in 1986… 

Sometime in 1986(ish) we decided that we needed to do something about the outdated kitchen.  The kitchen cabinets had been painted who knows how many times, and we decided to strip them down to the bare wood, which was a quite nice red mahogany.  We probably spent a month stripping the cabinet doors, drawers and the cabinet frames, using cans and cans of Jasco paint stripper.  I think the cabinets had been painted at least five times, because it took forever to strip them down.  After the paint was stripped off, we sanded the doors, drawers and cabinet frames, and finished them off with a couple of coats of polyurethane varnish.  For the time (1986), they looked really nice, since brown cabinets were in style.  We also removed the existing back splash and counter top, and replaced them with some white tiles, which made a huge aesthetic difference.  As usual, Kathy did the planning and tiling, and I did the tile cutting.     

Circa 1986:  The Ward Terrace kitchen upgrade.  By this time we had stripped the old cabinets, and removed the old back splash and kitchen counter.  We tiled the counter and back splash in 4”x4” white tiles, which added a nice clean touch to the kitchen.  By this time, I was obviously getting tired of all the work…       

 

The completed upgraded kitchen.  For its time, it turned out really cute!  

 Also sometime in 1986(ish), we decided to completely refurbish our bathroom.  When you took a shower, the runoff from the shower doors would leak where the doors met the bathtub toward the back wall.  The wall where the runoff would collect was a bit bumpy, so I decided to check it out.  To my surprise, my finger went straight through the drywall, where somebody had crumpled up an Orange County Register newspaper, filled the hole with the newspaper, and just but drywall mud on top of it.  I guess that’s what you get when you buy a former rental!  So, we decided to completely gut the whole bathroom, and start from scratch. 

Circa 1986:  From top left; how the bathroom looked before the remodel.  Top right; the old vanity and sink.  Where the shower door met the wall is where the leak happened.  Bottom; it appeared that I started out by adding some more insulation by hanging 2”x4” lumber, as usual wearing my finest PPE!   

 
The bathroom demolition is in full swing.  In the top right picture you can see where we had to strip the bathroom walls down to the studs. Also, in looking through the window, you can see where the new patio cover was installed, which means that we did the bathroom remodel after the patio, so 1986(ish) is probably correct.  In the bottom left you can see the little alcove where the toilet was.   

Bathroom demolition and installing the new water-resistant drywall around the bathtub.  As always, a messy and tedious job! 

Cutting the tile for the bathroom.  I had rented a tile wet saw, since it would have been very difficult to do all that work with a breaker board. 

 

Kathy tiling the bathtub surround.  As always, she did a great job!     

 
Kathy doing even more tiling, including the countertop on the new vanity and the floor!   

I guess I helped a little bit…  I believe the bottom right picture is of the finished bathroom.  I think we had a right to be very proud, especially since this was our first complete bathroom remodel. 

After all that work, it is time to take a nap!   In the bottom picture, both Archie (our white little poodle mix) and Poochie are featured. 

 As you can see, we did a bunch of work on our Ward Terrace house, and we really did have a lot of “pride of ownership”.  I think we touched every wall, floor and ceiling in the house, and also most of the outside.  I have nothing but good memories from Ward Terrace, and this was the first house that our daughter Chelsea lived in, after she was born in 1988.  However, after we opened our bookstore “Little Professor Book Center” in Poway, which is located in north San Diego county, in 1988, we needed to move out of Anaheim to be closer to the store.  So, sometime in the spring of 1989, we put Ward Terrace up for sale, and it sold in June of 1989.  (If you are interested, you can check out the bookstore story in my blog post “Working for a living, Part Two”).       

Summer 1989:  Putting Ward Terrace up for sale, and moving to Poway.  The bottom picture is from our moving in day in Poway.  From left; myself and little Chelsea; Janne A and his girlfriend (soon to be wife) Sharon; my sister-in-law Eileen and my mother-in-law Theresa.