Author: janeen

a wedding road trip

mole here! it was a busy summer for us, socially, so there wasn’t a lot of work done on the house. last month we took a road trip to attend mathew’s sister eva’s wedding in los angeles.

(left) jacques the groom with a woman representing the church, followed by mathew and his sister leonora. (right) DaDaniel walking the lovely bride down the aisle.

(right) eva was very happily surprised by the rented, decorated, chauffeured wedding car.

after dinner at hugo’s, we went back to our rented house for cake.

eva’s friend val caught the bouquet.

leo made the cake!

(left) except for the meal at hugo’s, aja shopped for and prepared all of our meals at the house. she made it a delicious and relaxing retreat. (right) and misha surprised us with his first concert ever! he sang one song in italian (which made me cry!), one in german and an original eight two song in english. it was all very exciting and moving. i felt very privileged.

(left) mathew saying good bye to his brother. (right) the hollywood couple and their new car.

on the way home jim, reirin, mathew and i stopped at the beach for lunch.

and we stopped in san luis obispo for coffee. everything felt exactly as we’d left it many years ago. linnea’s was still there, downtown looked great, and the creek was still a nice place to stop and sit. we feel really lucky to have called this town home while we attended cal poly.

(left) my self portrait in front of the creek. (right) arwen sitting in mathew’s bag, happy to have us home. or maybe she’s saying, “next time i’m going with you.”

i promise to include more kittens in the blog… soon!

new stairs and other stuff…

Other stuff: Janeen ordered carpet tile from flor which we put into the front lobby.

The kittens helped with cutting the tiles to size…

And Arwen was in charge of inspections.

The front stairs for our unit have been in sore need of replacement for quite a few years now. Engineer friends of mine won’t even walk on them (wise). I finally got round to replacing them over the last few weeks.

My goal was to pre-fabricate as much of them as possible so that we don’t have to go without a front door. Above, I’m cutting the stringers (structure that supports the steps.) This has to be precise, as any variation in step length or height is dangerous: People are much more likely to trip. The building code restricts the variation between any two steps to 3/8″ at the most.

We also cut out and painted (above right) all the parts for the steps themselves. The stringers and steps are made from pressure preservative treated wood, and I’ve also treated all cut edges.

The top landing was the most derelict of the whole stair (if that’s possible). Once I’d chipped out the mortar under the tile, the wood was completely rotten and just fell away.

This was Janeen’s view out of the front door. And the black hole is where I would have gone when I walked through the front door if we’d waited much longer…

We completely tore out all the stairs and framing underneath; it was too rotten to save. Above I’ve got the framing for the landing back in place, with help from John (sorry no action photo).

When the stairs were built, they were built right over windows in this area. Above left is the view out of my workshop; it’s never had daylight since we’ve been here. One neighbor told me that he’s lived here over sixty years, and has never seen this window from the outside. The window on the right I filled in so that it did not interfere with the new stair framing.

Our neighbor’s son helped me tear out and rebuild these stairs in two days. It helped that we’d already cut, assembled, and painted most of the stair parts (just the bottom riser was cut to fit). Still more to do: I need to seal all the edges, and put a couple more coats of paint on the stairs. I also need to lay tile on the landing. More about that in another post 🙁

Bella liked the new tile for the landing. Here I’m laying out pattern ideas to include hand made tile that a friend gave me years ago.

Visit from baby brother Elijah (well, he’s getting closer to seven feet). He and dad are comparing methods of cheating in scrabble with your iphone (what’s the point?)

Breakfast time neck-warmer anyone? This was a once-only performance, but it really did warm up my neck nicely.

These cats love watching fish almost as much as they like eating them… Sadly our fish Ludwig died last week after thirteen years. Above left, Bella is wondering where the fish went. Above right is what happens if you let the kittens into the closet with Janeen’s dresser: they get into it, and clothing gets pushed in and out as they scramble up and down inside it.

I wasn’t feeling well, so I went to lie down for a nap (above left): The kittens came to investigate. Above right: They are helping to (dis)organize the paper recycling in our office.

Arwen has turned into a rubber band thief. And she does not care if it’s attached to a roll of drawings.

Happy Easter!

turtle and mole go to england!

maybe i should change our blog tagline from “home in progress” to “life in progress”..? i know it seems like all i ever write about these days is kittens or social events, but sometimes they just make cuter photos! don’t worry, all you home DIYers, more “gritty” house stuff coming soon.

i thought i would cry saying goodbye to my kittens for a week, but they had so much fun with uncle larry, they hardly noticed us packing and leaving.

our first stop: king’s cross station to pick up train tickets. of course i had to visit platform 9 3/4. we didn’t see harry potter or the hogwarts express but it was fun anyway. (note: because the station was under construction, they had this (left) temporary fake display. (right) this is what it normally looks like.)

after an hour on the train we arrived in brighton. stella and chris were busy-busy as usual, unloading puppets from the van. we got to see darren and meet beccy and returned later that evening for indian take-away. because of the plane flight and time change i finally got some sleep after 32 hours of being awake!

(left) this is where we stayed in brighton, with stella’s 87 year old friend magda. (if you look closely at the top, right balcony, you can see magda waving.) you’d never guess she was 87, this woman has more activities and social engagements than most people half her age. (right) this is the view from our room on the 8th floor.

the day after we arrived the weather turned surprisingly sunny and warm, even hot by california standards. these are views of brighton beach. mathew visited a couple years ago but i hadn’t been here in 20 years!

(left) we wandered around brighton and found a cool graffiti cat, then took the train and arrived in london (right) and found some very unusual looking cats on a window sill. they looked like show cats, slightly creepy but still cute. my brother thinks mathew and i often meet cats when traveling, i guess that’s true.

(left) the very blue building and door of the apartment we rented in fitzrovia, near soho. (right) a very cool bridge between buildings? or is it art? this building was just to the left of the royal ballet school in covent garden.

(left) everywhere we went, people crowded the sidewalks and pubs, enjoying the warm weather. (right) priscilla queen of the desert, i’m sure it makes a good broadway show, since it was a great musical, visual movie.

(above) our night walk by the thames.

happy birthday to me! (left) on my birthday we had sushi for lunch and (right) various baked goodies around london.

(left) later in the day we wandered to hyde park where lots of people were enjoying the sunshine. (right) a chocoholic birthday pig out. various cupcakes, a whoopie pie, a brownie and a triple chocolate cake. honestly, all a bit disappointing (by san francisco standards) but a fun way to celebrate my birthday.

the next day we took the train to hassocks and stopped into a pet store beccy recommended, not for their supplies, but for their free-roaming animals. there were more cats than we could count, rabbits, guinea pigs and a parrot who could say “hello,” meow and “bock” like a chicken!

(left) sleeping kittens that reminded me of arwen and bella. (right) the largest black cat i’ve ever seen, sleeping in the scale on the counter. does mathew look concerned?

the reason we were in hassocks was to help decorate and set up the wedding reception hall. (above) mathew and his cousins, jethro and darren testing the sound system and listening to misha’s cd!

they liked it!

taking a break from the prep work.

after we finished with the hall, we met up in brighton for an indian dinner with beccy’s family and friends. (left) beccy! (right) brothers, darren and jethro, trying to demonstrate their facial similarities…

the next day was the wedding day! (left) here we are all dressed up and waiting for the bus with magda.

darren and beccy are thespians so the wedding was held in a theater and felt very much like a once in a lifetime performance. guests were asked to dress theatrically, and that was definitely open to interpretation.

darren is a puppeteer, so his friends gave a puppet show. there were poetry readings and also songs where the audience was asked to sing along.

it was a beautiful ceremony and probably the most unique and creative i’ve ever attended.

(left) darren’s mom stella with someone’s baby. (right) mathew’s mum, sue flew back from thailand to be there with everyone.

after the ceremony mathew, sue and i went out to lunch. little girls stopped and stared at me on the street. most brighton visitors don’t dress up like princesses. i definitely felt like i was wearing a costume that day.

(left) after a short train trip to hassocks, we were greeted by singing tigers at the reception. after a while darren and beccy looked like they had had enough of the singing tigers, but the singing continued as the tigers crowded in on the bride and groom. (right) dave, sylvia, mathew and i seemed to be the only ones who found this hilarious and slightly disturbing; we couldn’t help our laughing fits.

a happy bride and groom.

happy parents of the groom.

(left) darren’s brother, jethro gave a hilarious yet touching best man’s speech. (right) apparently darren found it hilarious too.

since we missed the official family group photo after the ceremony (we were catching up with relatives from sweden) we did our best to take some photos during the reception…

…but it was difficult to gather everyone together at once.

(left) mathew with his aunt karin and cousin sylvia. (right) me and sylvia.

(left) there was a really great band that played swing music. (right) and of course, it wouldn’t be a party without DJ jethro. here he is posing with cousin aaron. mathew says we wouldn’t have had music at our wedding reception if it wasn’t for jethro; he was the only one who knew how to work the professional sound system we rented.

(left) sue and jethro. (right) mathew and karin.

it was a late night followed by an early morning as the brighton marathon was starting just below us at magda’s. as many as 15,000 people were running in the race and it was amazing to see all those people warm up on the field then queue up for the start.

(left) we spent 4 nights at magda’s and every morning we sat down together to a breakfast of cereal, toast, fruit and tea. (right) here i am watching the start of the race on the balcony with magda.

we spent that afternoon with mathew’s mum, aunt karin, cousin sylvia and sylvia’s boyfriend, dave. the visit was over before it really began so i’m lacking in photos, but i got to snap a few of interesting buildings and design. (left) i love the contrast between the old and new that you see everywhere. (right) this shop window was filled with cool antique sewing machines. the display even continued around the corner on the left.

that night we had dinner with stella and chris as they were winding down and just starting to relax after all the wedding festivities.

the next day we packed up our bags, left a surprise thank you gift for magda (she was out being her busy self) and headed to london. (left) we spent the entire afternoon catching up with sylvia in a cafe. it was a really nice visit. just before we left, the rain started pouring down, signifying the break in the amazing weather we’d had. (right) we got on the tube and headed north to visit phil, a high school friend of ours who now lives in england with his wife, hannah and daughter, lily.

after a nice indian take-away dinner (did i mention how much indian food we enjoyed on our trip?) we sat around talking until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer. the next morning phil left for work much too early and we got to spend a little time with hannah and lily before they rushed off to work and daycare.

next we were subjected to very grumpy flight attendants and sat uncomfortably on a plane for over 10 long hours. i’d never been so excited to get home, i couldn’t wait to see bella and arwen. and i think they were happy to see us.

destructamonkeys!

“destructamonkeys,” that’s mathew’s new nickname for the kittens…

their favorite bag. or what used to be a bag. now it’s two pieces of mangled, well-loved paper. this is after they climbed into the recycling to rescue it.

bella figured out how to climb up onto the fish tank and stick her paw in! ack. we put tape, sticky-side-up on top of the tank to stop her from doing that.

now they can both get up onto the refrigerator…

another one of their bags. this one lives downstairs, and still resembles a bag.

a quiet moment. (left) bella in the cat tree. (right) arwen hugging the heater.

(left) they love playing in the closet. i’ve been avoiding figuring out which garment they’re climbing up (destroying), to sit on the hangers… (right) bella jumped from the closet onto my shoulder. that dark thing in the bottom right is my head.

(left) classic arwen. how did she get her head stuck in the head massager? (right) she soon discovers the fish tank and figures out how to knock the lid off. we’ve since taped the lid down and put tape deterrents around the tank…

bella loves watching oprah with me. arwen couldn’t care less. i find this hilarious.

the girls helping to put away our organic box delivery. what are they looking for? kale stems! broccoli leaves are also fun.

bella having a second go at the space above the closets. the dismount was a little scary.

(left) trying to sleep together in a basket that is too small for both of them together. (right) arwen up above the cabinets in the downstairs kitchen.

arwen playing with another one of her favorite toys, a metal coil. she will run, jump, chase and carry this thing all over the house.

(left) arwen and mathew “going to work.” (right) i framed misha’s lost puppy flyer and put it on mathew’s desk.

mathew decided to help the girls out by adding another shelf. now they both can play “upstairs.”

my parents have been coming “to visit the kittens” quite often. (left) my dad “telling them a story.” (right) my mom hugging arwen.

mathew and bella

bella and mathew.

turtle goes to new york and other adventures…

a couple weeks ago mathew flew to new york to visit his brother misha and to attend a party celebrating misha and aja’s birthdays.

siblings! (left) misha, mathew and leo, visiting from harvard. (right) leo and mathew.

(left) misha and aja. (right) misha and mathew.

(left) pretty snow covered trees. (right) a snowy, mathew-made eight two.

eight two and misha. (misha, you can download the original photos by clicking these photos. xoxo)

(left) someone putting up a lost puppy, eight two, music flyer.

(left) mathew and misha. (right) aja, misha and mathew’s hat.

(left) when mathew returned home late one night, bella was so excited she jumped onto a shelf then up above the closets! but she needed mathew’s help to get down. (right) the girls playing with our organic delivery box. can you see bella peeking out?

(left) bella loves to jump onto us, climb onto our shoulders and try to get onto doors! ack. she’s extremely ambitious. before mathew left for new york he made the mistake (?) of helping bella get on top of a door then letting her explore an overhead bedroom cabinet. ever since then, whenever she has the chance she will jump onto our shoulders, chests and heads in the hope that she will be allowed to explore that cabinet again. unless we’re wearing sweaters, it can be quite painful!

and the work continued that weekend. here we are priming steps that will become our new side entrance stairs. the weekend before going to new york, mathew and my dad cut these together.

the following weekend mathew decided to try out a crazy plan for getting a new rain water collection barrel into the back yard. it’s bigger than our other barrels and didn’t fit through the door leading to the backyard. so the obvious solution? hoist it over the fence! (left) here’s the ladder ready for me. (right) mathew on the other side of the fence with the barrel. fortunately no one was parked in that spot that afternoon.

(left) my view from the ladder. (right) can you see me in the shadows? i’m holding that huge barrel up with rope! of course there are no photos showing how the barrel got into that position… if there were photos, they would show mathew on the ladder pulling the ropes up while i held them tight. after he took this photo he carried the ladder around the block to the other side of the fence where he pushed the barrel up and over the fence while i gently let the barrel down into our yard.

(left) the last bit wasn’t so gentle as it landed with a thud onto some plants… my dad and our neighbor thought we were nuts for attempting this! but it worked! (right) clothes line poles!

we decided to swap out my grandmother’s daybed with this very modern and comfortable convertible sofa bed. we got it at a local furniture store, the box called it “click clack sofa bed.” it clicks up to form a sofa and clicks down to form a bed.

and over the last few weeks mathew has been finishing a box to hold my dad’s tile saw.  the wood box replaces a cardboard one and also supports the tile saw when in use. we’re gotten some good use out of this tool over the years. mathew had me design the top. only after he finished routing and carving it did he tell me that originally he was thinking it would just have some simple letters or words. of course mathew is always up for a challenge! my parents were really pleased with the end result.

now who’s the turtle?

progress has been happening on the house, i just haven’t been very fast about documenting it. all i can say is: the kittens sure take a lot of my time!

in january before mathew’s mom left, she helped mathew paint his workbench ORANGE. sue also did some planting in our garden.

we’ve been working on lots of miscellaneous things around the house. but finally it was time for the NEW DOOR! i think we’ve had it sitting in our garage for 12 months. mathew was intimidated by the idea of working on it, getting it to fit into the existing door frame, making sure it seals well, attaching the new hardware, staining and polyurethaning it… the whole process took about three weekends and some week days.

(above left) it started with carrying it upstairs. (it’s HEAVY.) then taking off the old door and pushing the new one into place, planing sides to make it fit and checking the fit, over and over again.

(above right) after that was done mathew chiseled out spaces for the hinges.

once the door fit into place, the hardware (pretty!) was attached and then the door frame was reworked, sanded and repainted.

next the door was taken back down to the garage, sanded, stained and polyurethaned. i think mathew said the exterior side got 6 coats of poly!

ta-da! (right) mathew even installed this automatic weather strip on the bottom of the door. it involved cutting out a groove and inserting this metal contraption that when you close the door, it actually pushes down on the floor. mathew had to plane down the hardwood floor threshold because it was interfering with the weather strip. of course, that involved sanding and re-polyurethaning that section of the floor…

since mathew is self-employed again, it leaves some weekday afternoons to do things like… tear up the sidewalk! the city of san francisco has been going around tagging sidewalk squares, encouraging homeowners to repair cracks themselves. if they choose not to do the work, the city will do it and charge something like $80 per square! (i thought sidewalks were public, not private property.) we had quite a few tagged with white paint dots. mathew repaired the cracks and even went to the effort of renting a jackhammer and chipping out and refilling some squares. a lot of the dots are gone now and it makes us wonder, will the city approve of his work? will they even know which squares were once tagged?

meanwhile inside the house, the kittens are growing fast! here they are “helping” mathew change the fish tank water.

they get along the best when they’re asleep…

(right) arwen has now learned how to play fetch too! her toys of choice are bones i knit for her.

these little girls get into plenty of trouble! (left) we had this plastic film on our living room window, to act as a double pane until we install the new window. one day arwen figured out how to cut into it and step into a see-thru tunnel… (right) bella has proudly learned how to jump up onto the handrail above the stairs…

(left) and that also means she can jump onto counters and the fireplace. the big orchid had a bad fall but is recovering well. (right) bags and boxes are endless fun. and one night while we were watching a movie they even figured out how to push the chair cushions around to make forts and tunnels!

hope everyone is having a fun february!

kittens! kittens! kittens!

a few of you requested more kitten photos,.. so here we go!

bella exploring the bookshelf and checking out her neighborhood.

arwen exploring our plants (the christmas tree isn’t real.) we had to put our pothos plant in the laundry room as they are poisonous to cats.

day two: nap time. this was the first time that bella really relaxed and slept out in the open. (right) they have really big furry paws.

more exploring…

they like water! they love playing in the sink and the shower. their cat parents take showers so we’re going to introduce them to real showers soon, but the sound still scares them.

(left) arwen being her sweet self. bella has since done her best to destroy this chair… (right) bella playing with a really long piece of packing paper. bella is definitely the more playful and athletic of the two, while arwen is more friendly and cuddly.

enjoying the cat tree mathew made.

enjoying the afternoon sun. most days they will sleep from lunch until dinner.

making new friends. (left) bella interupting sue’s knitting. (right) arwen and my mom.

arwen meets my parents while bella hides. in their first two weeks with us they met a lot of people, friends and family came to visit almost every other day. they’ve been really great with adults and older kids.

their new favorite toys: paper bags with rope handles and fresh cranberries!

mathew and bella.

bella and arwen. a peaceful moment when they aren’t attacking each other. they are still trying to figure out who is the dominant cat, so sometimes the fighting gets a little intense.

(left) bella has learned to play fetch! here she is with her favorite felted ball made by sue. (right) we finally introduced them to the downstairs and i bring them down to work with me when they can behave. arwen got up on the fireplace mantel by herself.

(left) bella enjoys watching ludwig. so far this isn’t a problem even though the breeder told us “that fish is dust”… (right) another quiet moment.

they can be a lot of work but it’s fun having these little girls around. i made my first batch of raw cat food for them last week. training and discipline has been challenging. arwen is endlessly fascinated by my knitting and anything associated with knitting. our lives have been changed.

happy new year everyone! hope all is well.

the biffar family visit

my good friend margaret and her family visited san francisco after christmas and finally got to see our house for the first time!

i was excited for them to meet the kittens, who had only been here for 2 days. but arwen and bella took one look at baby max, enthusiastically crawling towards them, and started hissing and growling! i’m sure they thought he was some big, scary, hairless animal, but as you can see he’s adorable.

after lunch walker (age 4) asked mathew to show him the garage and his power tools. above, a conversation about the miter saw.

there were a lot of questions! “what is your most dangerous tool?” “do you have tools for working with metal?” “what is that?” mathew demonstrated his drill press and explained how we use these barrels.

they went outside to see more rain water collection barrels. and they played with water, flowing leaves down streams.

they looked at plants. then walker said, “i’m freezing. can we go back inside?” back in the garage he had more questions. 🙂

upstairs sue was talking with margaret and wes. and when mathew and walker came back they all played “ben 10 alien creation.”

me and margaret in our almost matching outfits. when we worked together in palo alto (12 years ago?) our boss would call us “the bobsey twins” at least once a week. i guess we still dress alike!

(left to right) wes, max, margaret, mole and walker.

it was a nice visit.

happy holidays!

december was a busy month for us. we tried to continue working on the house, but in the end we gave in to all the holiday gatherings (one of us was more reluctant than the other…)

on a strangely warm night, after working on the house, we met our cal poly friends, alex and mae, downtown to see the holiday windows and decorations.

we caught up in union square over hot apple cider and desserts, while ice skaters happily crashed into the rink wall beside us. alex was wearing antlers!

we took the bus to alex’s house, added a couple more friends, and had a fun fondue party that went on into the early morning.

the following rainy weekend we decided to buy an electric fireplace. they’re a funny invention, basically a heater with fake flames, logs and embers that look surprisingly realistic. they must be popular this year because most stores were sold out of them. we got it for the downstairs rental unit, to give it a more homey atmosphere, but decided we might as well use it upstairs until the downstairs is ready.

while mathew cooked breakfast i decided to unpack the fireplace. it’s pretty heavy and awkward and mathew found my efforts entertaining.

i managed to drag the thing into the living room and set it up. eventually we’d like to add a gas fireplace to this room, something really modern that fits into the wall and preferably one with purple flames. but for now this will do.

while we enjoyed our new fireplace, mathew started plans for a cat tree. the one that we liked had two beds and two cradles and cost $450!

mathew used left over wood he had in the garage. he started with the round beds, the circles were made from long strips of plywood that were scored and then attached to round pieces of plywood.

next to make the cradles, he cut curved forms out of plywood, then took thin sheets of plywood, scored these, glued them together, then clamped them into shape with the forms that he already made. so cool! we bought carpet remnants from a local carpet store but i had to order sisal rope online because no one seemed to carry it in 3/8″ widths. of course the time and effort is a huge part of the cost of a cat tree but the hidden cost is the sisal rope that winds around the posts. we bought 365 feet of it!

i mentioned that we had a lot of holiday gatherings to attend, right? i think it was 6 or 7 this year. here we are in palo alto visiting with high school friends who we don’t see that often anymore because of kids and distance. this is the annual “goat” gathering, where hal (the goat) and his wife kelly fly in from colorado. mike and junko just moved back from japan, two wives are pregnant and mark’s epicenter cafe is doing well, so there was a lot to celebrate.

we had a special guest, mathew’s mom, sue and a very rare ben (“yeti”) sighting. later that evening we went to my dad’s family gathering. sadly there are no photos but we had a really fun night. (and i was given some beautiful sock yarn!)

on christmas eve we had our annual bittleston family gathering, complete with an abundance of food, drink, gifts, conversation and charles! we missed dan as he was visiting his family, but we got a surprise phone call from eva in panama! i put her on speaker phone and placed the phone in the chip bowl. we all huddled around the table to talk and it was nice to hear her sunny voice from so far away.

the next morning my immediate family joined us for lunch and then we were off to hercules for my mom’s huge extended family gathering. sorry, no photos… just imagine a fun, chaotic, all-ages group of about 50 people. my cousins and i had a white elephant gift exchange game and collected donations for a family in need. my mom made an impressive assortment of home made pies and desserts.

and then the morning after christmas we left before the sun came up to bring home our kittens! they were finally old enough to come home. at the breeder’s suggestion we took them out of their carrier and let them wander around the car. at first they were freaked out and we were freaked out. they walked around scared and crying, they seemed more scared when they looked out the windows.

eventually they calmed down and i had them sleeping on my lap by the end of the trip.

they spent some time wandering around the house then went to hide under our bed. eventually, with the help of my brother (a cat lover) we got them out and playing. mathew spent the entire afternoon finishing the cat tree and justin helped him carry it up two flights of narrow stairs. the kittens love it.

this is what we were doing before meeting our friends downtown. more insulating! glamorous, huh? this is the crawl space above the downstairs bedroom and kitchen. i cut insulation and handed it up to mathew, and for most of the day i just saw his feet sticking out of the ceiling opening.

(left) later that weekend i worked on packing up my grandmother’s old trinkets and sculptures. so many cabinets and shelves of objects that her children don’t want and i don’t know what to do with. i may venture into the world of ebay selling, but i need to work up the courage. (right) there was one morning when i had no idea where mathew was, i found him walking up from the garage carrying these curious creatures saying, “i fixed them!” 🙂 they are a fur trimmed fish and turtle on skateboards, when you pull them back they speed away. just a small example of the many things left behind by my grandmother.

and mathew just couldn’t resist refinishing this table that my grandmother left behind. the wood veneer surface had been badly water damaged. i was doubtful about refinishing thin veneer but mathew sanded, stained and polyurethaned it and now it’s so glossy it’s reflective. it makes a fancy litter box holder in my office.

sorry it’s been a while since my last post, hope you don’t mind the random assortment of news. my life feels like it is suddenly all about the kittens. in the new year i will try not to inundate you with kitten photos, but i can’t guarantee it… i hope everyone had a fun and festive holiday season.

the adventure continues…

brown friday

a lot of people go shopping on “black friday,” the day after thanksgiving. mathew and i never follow that tradition. this year we decided to paint.

the downstairs living room was a very pale pink because my grandmother loves pink but mathew never really warmed up to the color.

since my grandmother moved out, we decided the room needed a drastic change. i liked a painted wall in a west elm catalog, mathew liked it too, so that morning we walked to the paint store.

we came home and got to work. we put down drop cloths and masked off the baseboards to protect from stray drops, but otherwise decided to paint around the trim free-hand, without tape. the first of the new color goes on…

it’s brown! but i think it looks much better in person than in these photos. in the can it looked like chocolate pudding. dried on the wall, it’s a difficult color to describe, a kind of grey-ish, purple-ish, brown. it’s from the same color palette as the grey in the office, just one shade darker. the shade in the office is called “elephant grey” this one’s called “smoked oyster.”

(above right) while we were painting mathew decided he wanted a color in the built-in shelf, similar to what we’ve done in the closet and other rooms. we have a lot of different left-over colors so i said, “let me think about what would work best there.” but within the next hour i heard mathew rolling paint onto that wall as he said, “oops!” he just couldn’t resist painting it but i think it works.

ta-da!

later that weekend we bought a media cabinet (soon to hold a tv), a rug and a floor lamp (not pictured above.) we’re getting the downstairs unit ready for use as a short-term vacation rental. there’s a lot we still need for this room, but it’s a start.