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Originally Posted by speeder
With all due respect, you don't sound like the guy who should be working on a house like that. There are many diffrerent areas of trade and specialization within the construction industry and while you may be good at what you normally do, this is the work for restoration specialists. Restoration is very different from construction; one builds new things and the other fixes and restores old things. I have always found that very few people in construction understand anything about restoration or even value it.
A G&G house is like an old Ferrari or a Pre-A 356, if I had to use an automotive analogy. Just as most people who work on cars for a living have no respect for originality and simply replace parts or think that they are "improving" an old car w modifications, most old Craftsman and architecturally significant houses have been ruined over the years by modification. Plenty of old cars that were special as well.
This is why truly original C2 Corvettes or G&G houses that somehow have escaped the butcher's hand are so valuable. Sorry for all of the car comparisons but houses and cars are both obsessions of mine and I am a restoration guy. The right person to work on either would have no issue w preservation people and in fact would go to the ends of the earth to keep things correct. If I told you the stories of searching architectural salvage yards for old windows to harvest glass from for a 1915 house project in Minneapolis, (glass from the later 1920s or 30s will not do, they changed the manufacturing process), you would think I'm crazy. You would not understand. 
I have an acquaintance here in Los Angeles that is the pre-eminent guy for restoring Lautner houses. Not coincidentally, he owns several concours level collector sports and racing cars that he regularly drives. A mint, original '73 Carrera RS is probably the least valuable and most mundane of his cars. He understands and reveres the craftsmanship and artistry of a bygone era of construction and design. No detail is too small in his projects.
There are jobs for everyone when it comes to housing around here w the demand. |
I cut my teeth around those old home in Pasadena doing their woodwork and finish carpentry during college. Moving on to small remodels that grew into much larger ones. We did nothing but rehabbing grand old homes for 10 years then the economy kick everyone's butt and people stop spending. We did 9 grand old homes in 8 years, all were in Pasadena but one. While they aren't as intense as having to look for period correct glass like you did, sometimes it isn't possible and it can't made. The job must move forward people needed to move in. These jobs take 3 times as long and 10 times more complex, with blown budgets, always, but still they need to get done and within a reasonable amount of money. From your description, only few owners or houses out of a thousand have the time and budget luxury. Chemosphere was one. I much rather work on those because there's no time nor budget constrain making it a lot less stressful.
Old Ferrari, G and G or not, the owner's pocket always have the say so and how deep of a restore they want to go. 15-20 years ago, 700 k was a lot of money spent on a remodel on a home worth 1 mil+. I chased after them because it was fun, and I discovered that I was up to the task. I moved on to the west side during that time working for a bunch of movie folks and most I come across weren't interested in restoring old homes but love the shiny new designer stuff. That kept us going for many years and much easier to control. I am getting done with them too and slowly moving back into Pasadena and La Canada due to west side traffic. I am not really interested in restoring an old house anymore, unlike before I was chasing fame within that community. Depending on the owner and the designer, ofcourse. I still do some work in Los Feliz and Silverlake. Maybe I will run into you sometimes.
Which Lauther house did your friend restore? There's a Lauther house within walking distance from my home and I love to restore that to the teeth. Its in pretty bad shape. Since I am out of the loop, they would never hire me.