Our House(s), Part Three: Tanglewood, Irvine, CA.

 

Our townhome on 31 Tanglewood in Irvine, CA.  Note that the parking space right in front was NOT our private parking; instead, it was a common guest parking spot, something we didn't realize until we moved in!  Gotta read the fine print in the contract!

The story of our townhome at Tanglewood in Irvine really started in the fall of 1997, when I decided to go to work for Home Depot in Laguna Hills, to earn a little extra money.  Kathy was pregnant with our little Matthew, so in order for her to stay home for a while, working for Home Depot gave us a little financial cushion (my stint at Home Depot is also told at my blog post “Working for a living, Part Three”).  Little did I know at the time that I would stay at Home Depot for more than three years, from September 1997 through May 2001.  I had originally planned to stay at Home Depot for some three to four months, but after Matthew was born, I decided to stay on, in order for us to pay off some credit card bills, and saving up for a down payment for a house.  At the time, Home Depot was growing rapidly, and I was lucky enough to work there at a time when the stock price was growing rapidly. Since I bought all the Home Depot stock I could under my employee stock purchase plan, I made some decent money on the stock, in addition to my regular hourly pay.  With Kathy also working, we were able to save pretty much every penny I made at Home Depot, and with 10 years since our bankruptcy in 1990, in the summer of 2000, we started to look for a “new” house.  With the bankruptcy behind us, we could now qualify for a conventional home loan, and with about $38,000 in savings, and no debt, we were in good shape financially.  Also, with my dear friend Jeff Marandi as our realtor, we were confident that we would find something that we liked.  We looked at a couple of places, and in the end we decided on 31 Tanglewood, a two-story townhome in Woodbridge, Irvine.  Since we had been living in Woodbridge since 1992, we felt very comfortable with all the amenities that Woodbridge has to offer, coupled with the great Irvine schools.  Also, finally having a place of our own again was a great accomplishment, and it was the start for us getting back into California real estate, something that we have never regretted.     

Our Tanglewood townhome was built in 1976; with three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms, and at about 1,655 square feet, it was just enough for the five of us.  The house has some really cool features; 10 foot tall ceilings downstairs, and the kitchen is big enough for a little breakfast table.  Also, the master bedroom is really big and light, with a walk-in closed (that I used for my drums), and four windows that would let in a really nice breeze in the afternoons.  Coupled with some decorative arches, it is a really cool townhome, centrally located to all that Irvine has to offer, and we were sold! 

However, it needed a bunch of work to be livable, and after Kathy had painted the kid’s bedrooms, we started redoing the backyard.  Originally, the backyard had a brick patio, but with two giant fir trees, the root systems had pretty much destroyed the patio.  One of the first things that had to be done was to cut down the fir trees, then we removed all the broken bricks, and took it all to the Irvine dump.  Fortunately, I had “help” from Matthew and Michael, who turned the rubble into a little playground! 

The two fir trees being cut down.  As you can well understand, this job was left to a professional! 
 

Michael and Matthew “helping” with the backyard demolition. 

 

The boys were my best little helpers; after we had removed all the broken bricks, and dug out all the fir tree roots, it was time to build the form for the backyard patio slab, something I had already done at Ward Terrace, some 15 years earlier.  The old wooden fence was also replaced by the homeowner’s association, but we had to paint it ourselves.   

Matthew helping with the painting; I had to rent a jack hammer to remove some old steps.  Below is a picture of the finished backyard remodel.  My friend Eric from Home Depot, who was a concrete worker during the day, helped me with the patio slab.  I built the patio cover, and we put in a free-form planter.  All in all, I think it came out really nice!    

After we finished the backyard, we started in on the inside; and if I remember correctly, first on the list was the little downstairs powder room, that we pretty much completely demolished.  We took out the old vanity and toilet, and replaced the vanity with a free-standing pedestal sink. 

The Tanglewood downstairs powder room, before and after.  

Then we moved over to the upstairs bathrooms, where we put in new tiled countertops. 

Working on the two upstairs bathrooms.  We took out all of the old countertops, and replaced them with ceramic tile.  In the master bathroom, we also put in beadboard, to freshen up the look. 

We also started to remove some old floor tiles, both in the kitchen and the entryway. 

 

Removing some old floor tiles; this was way before I finally got an electric demolition hammer.  Here I’m just using a hammer, chisel and screwdriver.  Lots of work, but I was still a relatively young guy, so hard work didn’t scare me!  

   

However, the biggest project we took on at Tanglewood was the complete kitchen remodel.  We had done some kitchen work at Ward Terrace, but at Tanglewood we replaced pretty much everything.  The old cabinetry was downright ugly, and all of it was worn.    

The Tanglewood kitchen before we did our remodel.  Everything was outdated, worn and in need of some serious overhauling. 

We decided to put in all new kitchen cabinets, starting with the uppers.

 

I started by ripping out the old upper cabinets.  In order to connect the over-the-cabinet lighting, I cut the drywall, and pulled electrical cords through the stud wall to the two new electrical outlets that you can see on either side of the sink, close to the ceiling.  As usual, Kathy did all the drywall repairs.  For some reason, we didn’t rip out the bottom cabinets just yet… 

Kathy had decided on white cabinets, something that we continued in our house on Soaring Hawk, and also down in San Clemente (but more on that later). 

 

Installing the upper cabinets at Tanglewood.  Since Kathy wanted crown molding, I had bought a compound miter saw, something that was a must, especially when cutting the weird angles over the corner cabinet!  In the lower picture, Michael and I are starting to rip out the lower cabinets. 

Starting to install the lower cabinets.  In the bottom picture, we are finally done!  In addition to all new cabinets, new tiled countertop, backsplash and new tile floor, I also moved the dishwasher from its old location over by the stove to the right side over by the window.    

This picture is from 2019 (when the property was last sold), which proves that the kitchen remodel we did in 2002 stood the test of time.  Not bad for two amateurs!   

Even though we did a bunch of work on Tanglewood, we pretty quickly realized that with three kids, a three-bedroom place just wasn’t enough.  Also, living in a townhome was not what ideal for a family with three young kids, and we really wanted a single-family detached home.  So, in late fall of 2002, and after we had completed all of the remodeling, we called up my friend Jeff Marandi again, to put Tanglewood on the market. 

Nevertheless, even though we only lived at Tanglewood for just a little over two years, we had great memories, and being so close to parks and pools was great.  One of the most vivid memories was that of being surrounded by some 10,000 bees on a Saturday afternoon, when all of a sudden we heard what sounded like a crazy buzzing sound, and they bees all showed up.  We quickly ran into the house, and the bees all settled in the light pole right by our house, where they stayed for a few days.  Now that was weird!  If I remember correctly, they came back another Saturday, same thing, but this time “just” some 5,000 of them.  Anyway, in January of 2003, we sold Tanglewood, and moved to our next house on Soaring Hawk, also in Woodbridge.  Now that’s a story for Part Four!