The House of Betty's Dreams (Continued)

There is a lot for the eye to take in. Lovingly detailed, wood craftsmanship is everywhere. The warm afternoon light, streaming through the nearly wall to wall windows, highlights a seemingly endless variety of wood tones and details.  Dark walnut, teak, and light birch dress an array of sculpted furniture, built-in cabinetry, and furniture in every room. There are sliding drawers within sliding drawers, natural wood compartments within compartments to hold an assortment of items.

Years earlier, John and his first wife used to drive around Ladera Heights admiring the elegant homes. He dreamed of living there one day.

After their marriage in 1982, the newlyweds hunted all over Ladera Heights for the right house. "Ebony and ivory" was on the radio, "E.T." was in theaters, and "Dallas" and "Mash" were top television programs.

"We looked at thirty houses, before deciding on this one." John remembers. "Not only was it affordable – the owner had not paid on his mortgage in a year and a half – but it had a killer view."

Betty, a former technical editor at Hughes in Culver City dealing with government studies and proposals, added, "He forgot to mention it was a shambles. I didn't think John and I realized what we were getting into. I certainly didn't. I had never lived in a fixer-upper. Fortunately, I soon learned John knew his way around a straight-edge, a saw, and a whole bunch of other things."

"When we first moved to Shenandoah," Betty recalled, "We spent a lot of time walking around, studying each area of the house, and making notes. We thought in terms of both design and practicality – what was going to be built and where. So, we did our homework, before we remodeled."

"I would stand in one area of the kitchen, like the sink, and decide what I wanted close at hand. Maybe a built-in chopping block should go here and a pull-out waste bin underneath it." Betty recalled. "If either one of us did not like the location of a planned cabinet or closet, we could change our minds at the last minute.

John added, "Since I did the construction, we did not get slapped with a big, fat contractor's change order charge. That was a good thing, since Betty's kitchen took 16 months to complete."

"My father always started things and never finished them." John commented. "It would grate on my nerves even as kid. I would swear up and down, I'd never be like that. I've always finished what I started."

Each and every project started since April, 1983 is meticulously noted in a house repair log. John's entries continue to this day.

"I would think of what needed to be changed or built around the house," Betty said. John would do the 'heavy lifting'. Since we would work together on concepts, nothing was written in stone or, I should say, in wood or tile."

John gave her a choice for their first project – a new kitchen or redo their 3/4 bath. Betty' answered, "By all means first do the kitchen."

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Betty's "Upside Down" sliding shelf over refrigerator

Another priority for Betty was a sewing room.  Betty had fashioned and sewn beautiful, intricate doll clothing all her life. She also sewed all of her own clothes, as well as designed and created John's sports shirts.

John created built-in cabinets and drawers for every conceivable purpose. A large hand-built fabric assembly table dominates the room.

One wall is lined with illuminated glass display cases, highlighting the exquisite detail work of Betty's hand sewn doll outfits.

Betty searched everywhere for concepts that appealed to her own design sense. When she spotted an amazing photograph in a designer's magazine of a $5,000 beautiful sink, "I told John, that's what I want."  

The magazine photograph was of an elegant round sink consisting of alternating bands of dark and light wood. John tracked down the craftsman who had created the unusual design and met with him. Then John came up with his own construction and design plan. It took him over eight months of nights and weekends. Betty got a beautiful sink composed of alternating layers of beautiful light ash and dark walnut (See sidebar article below and accompanying photos).

"You begin to see how it took 20 years to remodel this house," John quipped. "I designed and built 230 drawers, aside from any number of cabinets, bookcases, shelving, and storage spaces."

"Don't forget the kitchen counter mosaic tiling, cabinets, and the flooring," Betty reminded him.

The kitchen has what Betty calls her "upside down" drawers above the refrigerator and above the oven. John designed them so Betty could put items in from underneath, rather than dragging out a two-step stool and climbing up high enough to reach inside.

John's engineering practicality led to his installing a FASAR magnetic induction range top. It is safe to touch when it is on.

The service porch includes a pantry consisting of 8 floor-to-ceiling pull-out shelves of various depths.

All those years of woodworking projects were executed in John's spacious garage, equipped with a variety of radial arm and table saws, electric planers, and drill presses. He had everything he needed to fulfill Betty's latest idea.

"I settled on Baltic birch for the drawers. It does not warp and buckle, when properly cured."

John and Betty tackled the design of  their outdoor area with equal fervor.
Landscape architect Takeo Uesugi designed the backyard. A beautiful, meandering stream and rustic  koi pond was constructed by Glen Koyami, who had been a student of Takeo's. The koi pond specialist had honed his skills working in Japan for two years.  An impressive 22 tons of stone were used.

John and Betty love the time they spend together in the home that they both carefully and slowly remodeled. Between his custom woodworking projects, John works on a variety of household handyman chores and catches up on his space engineering reading.

Betty stays busy planning the next neighborhood block club meeting and finishing her latest hand-made doll wardrobe creation.

Eventually, John knows he'll get the call to action as a highly skilled wood craftsman. He will go to his woodworking shop in the garage and turn another of Betty's idea into a beautiful reality. 

How John built a $5000 sink – for next to nothing

John could only find the beautiful light ash and dark walnut wood he needed in very narrow, 5-inch wide widths by 19-inches long. He puzzled out how to create much wider sheets from these ¾ inch thick strips. John patiently glued, hardened, and sanded four of the 5-inch wide wood sheets together, width to width, to get 20 inches across.

Then he repeated the whole process another 6 times with the ash and 7 times with the walnut. Each panel took 7 days to dry, so he had a long road of nights and weekends.

Weeks later, he finally had 14 separate sheets – 7 light ash and 7 dark walnut. Then he cut down each glued 20-inch sheet to 19 inches needed.

After all that, John was only half-way through gluing, hardening, and sanding.

The next step was for John to carefully make a sandwich of the walnut and ash pieces. That meant more gluing, hardening, and sanding.

Many nights and weekends later, he had a 7 inch deep by 19 inch by 19 inch square block of alternating ash and walnut layers. A large woodworking machine carved, sanded, and polished the bowl. Betty's sink was about to be born.