Author: janeen

here’s what’s new

(left) a couple weeks ago my “little sister” wylie was visiting from seattle. i forgot to take photos, we were so busy running around the city, cooking, baking and watching twilight movies, so this is a photo from may, but we still look pretty much the same… (right) mathew bought an old brass strike plate from building resources. he cut off the amount he needed then cleaned and polished it up. pretty cool, huh? he drilled a couple more holes and it’s now a new, smaller strike plate for a door. and in case you didn’t know what a strike plate was (i didn’t) it’s a protective metal plate that goes in the door jamb that receives the latch when the door is closed.

CORRECTION: the strike plate was actually used as a receptor for the deadbolt, not the latch (which is connected to the doorknob.) above are photos of the strike plate and the deadbolt (which is vintage, purchased from building resources. pretty, huh?)

(left) here is mathew wiring cable and internet hook ups, having a much easier time than he did in the pink room last year… (right) while i paint the crown molding.

mathew playing with his new tools in the garage. (left) a drill press and (right) a big dust collection thingy. it’s like christmas down there.

(left) and new green gloves that make him look like some weird super hero. (right) staining the top of the window trim.

(left) the chandelier in the office had decades of dust that needed cleaning… (right) while mathew polished up a brass lock knob that he bought from building resources.

(left) i cut the hole for the medallion to fit over the light in the office. (right) mathew used what he calls “janeen’s technique” to apply the medallion to the ceiling with adhesive and allow it to dry.

the last medallion. as much as mathew loves medallions, this is the last one we will buy and install. there are no more rooms that need medallions! i am not as medallion-crazy as mathew and i was hesitant about adding a medallion to a tin ceiling, but we picked a simple one that doesn’t compete too much and mathew says it hides the fact that the light junction box didn’t fall exactly centered between the tiles. he was right, it worked!

looking up

we’re making some real progress on the office, so that means time for…

(left) dumpy’s glamor shot. (right) and here’s my new brass light switch.

(left) here’s the cove crown molding detail shot i should have taken last weekend. see the “c” shape? it’s made from lots of pieces of poplar wood, finger jointed together. pre-made from the lumber yard, mathew did NOT make these! (right) see that dark gap between the small primed molding and the tin ceiling? i’m filling it with caulk. it started out as a really frustrating project but then i finally got the hang of it just about when i finished my last wall.

(left) mathew doing some trigonometry to figure out tricky angles for the crown molding that will go in the little alcove above the bay windows. (right) his calcs. when was the last time you worked with sines and cosines? ack.

(left) taking a little break. (right) towards the right in the photo above, you can see why those angles were tricky…

here we are trying to decide whether to add the 3rd piece of molding below the cove. in the end we liked the clean lines of the cove and left off the 3rd molding even though we already purchased it. it also meant less measuring, cutting, filing, installing, filling and painting…

as mathew is working his way around the room filling the nail holes in the trim, i am priming the cove molding. here is how the ceiling looked at the end of the evening.

turtle work/play

people are always telling mathew to take a break from working on the house. this frustrates mathew, because to him it isn’t work, it’s FUN. he’d rather work on the house than relax, socialize or even eat or sleep.

(left) pieces of wood recycled to make trim for the cabinet. mathew cut then routed them, sanded, stained and polyurethaned them to match. (right) here he’s trimming out a complicated notch so the trim can fit around the picture rail (see below right.)

now that my grandmother has moved out we need to make some changes to the downstairs unit to make it rent-able for someone new. this includes adding a new lockable door (recycled from upstairs) leading from the entrance. mathew cut out the top half and will add tempered glass to let light through.

during one of the heat waves we had recently, mathew realized the skylight installed by ‘professionals’ was still not done correctly. part of the flashing was getting in the way and bending the metal of the skylight making it impossible to close. mathew got his ladder, tools and flashlight and was determined to fix it. this is what happens after 11pm at our house, when most people are sleeping…

mathew doing a load test on the cabinets!

last weekend mathew and i started adding crown molding to the office. i’m realizing these aren’t the best photos to show what’s happening… but the main molding is like a “C” shape, called cove, and when two pieces join in the corners you have to cut the second piece at an angle then cut and file the backside so that they fit together perfectly at the corner. it’s quite complicated but of course mathew knows what he’s doing. there will be a second smaller piece of molding that will go above the cove molding next to the ceiling. and eventually it will be painted white.

it was a 3 day weekend so the other days were spent prepping for the new center window which we finally received. mathew used a heat gun to remove old paint from frame. and there was a weird bump of old wood on the sill so mathew planed it off…

…then chiseled it out and added a new piece which will match the new stained sill.

(left) late on monday night as the sun went down, we got the new window in! (right) and then wednesday we received a delivery in a wooden crate that managed to scratch the floor in the entry really badly. i know these delivery guys are always trying to be helpful but no one seems to realize how damaging it is to drop a heavy box on a wood floor then push or drag it! i was pretty upset about this all day but mathew says he can probably fix it.

the windows are finally in!

festivals of the mission

as you may have noticed, we have a lot of festivals here in the mission district, often just blocks from our house. the weekend i came home from southern california we had the sf street food festival.

it had a huge turn out and was a fun (yet ridiculously overpriced) way to sample food from new local businesses.

i thought it was strange that people would pay too much to drink mediocre canned beer in a caged pen…

there was live music…

and lots of bicycles,… the best way to get around in the city, especially when they close the streets for festivals.

and our local ice cream shop (with the blue awning) mobbed as usual.

when i returned from southern california it was quite an adjustment to go from 100 degree weather to wearing long pants and sweaters. and i think because i complained just a little bit, we’ve had 3 (?) crazy heat waves in the past few weeks… be careful what you wish for!

the lost weekend?

a few weeks ago i went down to southern california to spend a week with my friend, margaret and her family. mathew stayed home and worked on the house.

here’s a photo from the week before i left, of the giant stained cabinets.

while i was gone mathew added brass window handles in the office…

…and put up shelf hangers for the giant cabinets.

mathew said that my uncle ken was visiting and saw mathew in the process of putting these heavy cabinets up. he came running in to help and then realized mathew had the whole process under control. the shelf hangers cleverly held the shelves up and in place so that mathew could then screw them to the wall studs.

and all around the ceiling he installed angled crown molding backing for the crown molding to fit against.

meanwhile, my week in southern california looked completely different… (left) me and walker doing some grocery shopping. (right) max hanging out in his jumpy chair.

on one of the sweltering days during my visit, margaret, max and i went to visit the warner bros studio lot. margaret used to work here and some of her former co-workers were kind enough to give us a tour. (above right) the fictional connecticut star’s hollow town square from the show ‘gilmore girls.’

more ‘gilmore girls’ buildings: (left) lorelei and rory’s house, (right) luke’s diner.

(left) the star’s hollow high school was also the courthouse from ‘dukes of hazzard.’ this town square set has been used many times for different shows over the years including ‘seinfeld’ and ‘the waltons.’ (right) we also took a cart ride around the studio and got to see merlotte’s bar from the HBO vampire series ‘true blood.’

back at home after a long, hot day. max looking tired and then sleeping while mommy cooks dinner.

finally a photo of me and margaret! the week went by too fast. (right) me riding the train home…

bursting at the seams

this may be the most photos i’ve ever included in one post. we had a getaway last weekend, saw leo and dan before their big move and still managed to get work done on the house…

(left) crossing the golden gate and leaving the summer fog behind. (right) first stop: rio nido.

we stopped into rio nido the day before the annual party, to put some food into bob’s refrigerator. we got to tour the new decks, stone walls and seven secret gnome doors. (sorry, no detail photos. maybe next year.)

then we headed to dawn ranch lodge to check in. (left) our tiny cottage! we were at the end of a row of cottages, lined with lots of trees and twinkle lights. a beautiful spot to come back to in the evening.

next we headed out to explore the grounds, we crossed a bridge…

(left) and found chairs set up for a wedding (right) and apple trees!

of course, mathew can never resist fruit off the tree. there were also blackberry bushes everywhere. we had dinner at boon then wandered around downtown guerneville until it got dark.

that night we fell asleep to the sound of (we’re guessing) wedding guests singing karoke after the rehearsal dinner. fun!

the next morning we decided to skip the overpriced restaurant at the lodge and figure out where the locals breakfast in downtown guerneville. we found coffee bazaar with a constant stream of customers.

after breakfast we wandered a bit more around the grounds at the lodge and found bamboo lined paths leading to the russian river.

we also found 3 huge plum trees heavy with fruit. of course we had to try them and they were the best plums i’ve had in a very long time. i wish i’d managed to go back for more. maybe next year.

besides fruit trees and berry bushes, the grounds were covered with beautiful flowers and inviting benches.

and then it was party time in rio nido! paul frank bikes on the badminton court welcome us.

and beautiful new cedar benches and redwood decks. plus amazing, local, fresh fruit.

the prep begins…

the party consisted of meeting new people and old friends, conversation, revolution ping pong…

eating… and more talking… there were citrus prawns, lamb, filet mignon, tamale pie, salmon, ratatouile, grilled nectarines, cabbage salad, corn on the cob and an assortment of cheeses. i think i was too busy eating to take photos of all the beautiful food. sorry, i guess i’m not the kind of person who has the patience to pull out a camera before digging in!

and more eating… and in the fading sunlight, more revolution ping pong.

i’ve just made up that name because i didn’t know what to call it. basically you’re playing ping pong with an unlimited number of people but once you hit the ball you run around to the other side of the table, wait in a short line and hit another ball. if you miss one, you’re out. players revolve around the table until 2 players are left.

after dinner, ping pong, badminton and bike rides, there was dessert. (left) andy brought homemade marshmallows and green tea mochi. the main dessert was strawberry shortcake. again, i was too busy eating to take photos. sorry!

(left) one of our hosts, bob, with a teenager visiting from japan. (right) me and janet, a student visiting from germany.

(left) a small group photo. (right) our generous hosts, bob and irene.

the next morning we drove back to san francisco and were greeted by fog. and a partially empty house.

my grandmother and her kids have decided to move her into an assisted living senior home in fremont. she moved out on saturday while we were away. due to her ailing physical and psychological health it was just time.

but she left us a funny, intriguing note. we think this is the jesus she’s talking about.

later that day we met up with mathew’s sister leo, her boyfriend dan and their friend andy at moma.

dan, inspired by an exhibit where patrons were encouraged to explore their own creativity with large printed sheets of paper, he created an origami icosahedron.

it takes a while to create a 20 sided design from a large piece of paper…

and finally it is done! of course mathew felt the need to jump in and sharpen the edges.

there was a brief pause in the construction when dan heard that my grandmother had moved out, “what?! no more crazy christmas celebrations with grandma?”

the plan for the icosahedron is for me to return to moma and add it to the display upstairs. the trick is going to be getting it safely back to moma and finding the correct exhibit, then waiting to take photos to see if and how people interact with it…

it was really nice to see leo, dan and andy. leonora and dan are currently driving across the country headed for boston where she will begin her graduate program at harvard in less than 2 weeks. hopefully we will see leo and dan at christmas.

later that evening, mathew routed the center supports for the giant built-in cabinets he’s building for the office. there are two shelves and they will go on either side of the fireplace and extend all the way to the ceiling. on paper they were just shelves, but in real life they’re massive!

(left) one of the cabinets glued and clamped. (right) this is what happens when you hang large pieces of laundry (a mattress cover) out on a really, really windy day. i suppose we should be happy that the lemon tree was there to catch it.

august already?

two weekends ago we visited our friends, midori and andy, 3 weeks after the birth of their son adrian.

andy and the “bunny” i knit for adrian.

the following evening we took a hike with mike into bernal heights, our neighboring district.

we had indian curry and indian pizza at zante.

on friday mathew and i were home and not working. we got a surprise visit from leo and dan. they wanted ice cream so we walked to humphrey slocombe, the city’s of-the-moment, trendy ice cream shop, less than a block away from our house. they offer flavors like, secret breakfast (bourbon and cornflakes), government cheese, mcEvoy olive oil, russian imperial stout and pink grapefruit tarragon. on hot days the line goes out the door and down the street. we’ve even seen, on more than one occasion, people jumping out of cabs to buy this ice cream!

the humphrey slocombe two-headed calf. dan got blue bottle vietnamese coffee and leo got carrot mango and tahitian vanilla.

later, back at chez turtle+mole, we harvested some peaches off our backyard tree.

last saturday’s project was installing tin ceiling tiles in the office. mathew worked out the grid measurements on the computer and we were ready to start snapping chalk lines on the ceiling.

mathew giving me his best puppy-dog look.

and the fun begins! each tile is 24″ square with holes on 2 sides for screws and folded grooves on the other two sides. after the first tile is installed, the second tile snaps and locks into the first tile and screws secure that tile in place. we worked this way in rows across the ceiling.

to fit around the light fixture, the corners of 4 tiles had to be trimmed.

the last two pieces!

mathew admiring our work. it’s done! now it needs crown molding around the edges.

but before crown molding can even be measured for, shelves on either side of the fireplace need to be built and installed. mathew cutting plywood, then using a cabinet making kit that was a gift from his brother, misha.

that night mathew played now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t with his beard.

beautiful, wood trim mathew routed from recycled wood, sanded, stained, then polyurethaned, will go around the windows in the office. a clean-shaven mathew demonstrates how the trim will look in place, too bad i forgot to use a flash!

summer weekends

it’s been the strangest san francisco summer… very sunny, hardly any fog.

last weekend mathew insulated the gaps around the office windows, then installed the side windows. we’re still waiting on the new center window to be made and sent. the new wood windows look so much nicer than the cheap, old aluminum windows, especially with the bars removed.

last sunday was another ‘sunday streets’ and mathew volunteered again.

here he is making sure people don’t get run over.

everyone was out, children, adults, bubbles, custom-made bikes with stereos, unicycles…

and we got a semi-surprise visit from deborah, eva, leo and dan!

(left) a skating-dance demo. (right) our group got smaller.

later mathew and i went for a nice long walk enjoying the quiet, car-free streets. we made a big loop through our neighborhood and had a lovely noodle soup lunch at ‘cha-ya”, a vegetarian japanese resturant.

oh, and really fun news: our neighborhood is getting an ARIZMENDI! those of you familiar with the bakery know how exciting this is.

on our way home we stumbled across mirrors for sale at a local framing store. mathew was surprised that i didn’t choose the plain, modern, silver mirror, but opted for this ornate, victorian-like, gold mirror.

check out our weekend wheels! a rental for our sweltering drive up to sacramento this last weekend. since it doesn’t go back till monday, i suppose we could be out tooling around town in it but it’s just sitting in the driveway.

we attended a wedding and reception for mathew’s karate friends christina and marcus.

we’ve known these people for as long as we’ve lived in san francisco and they are like family to us. (left) mathew with his “little sister” yvonne. (right) me and yvonne’s mom, geri, also known as one of mathew’s moms. we all look happy but we’re actually MELTING in the sacramento heat. it was over 100 degrees that day. so hot i forgot to get a big group photo of the dojo family. hopefully someone will send or post it.

back in san francisco where it’s sunny and warm but not at all dangerous to spend time outside. (left) mathew checking on the garden. (right) and we have peaches!

SuperTurtle!

as active as our social lives have become, mathew still manages to get A LOT done on the house. i’m just a little slow at posting. maybe we should change the blog to “SuperTurtle+snail”…

on a warm morning i helped mathew with masking of the wood trim using paper, tape and plastic.

the room ready for painting. after all the masking was done i think it took mathew about 30 minutes to paint with the electric paint sprayer and about 3 hours to clean the silly machine.

now with the primer on the walls we were ready to start trying out colors. since this will be my office mathew wanted to paint it my favorite color, a medium blue-purple which i often call “blurple.” the large swatch proved to be too much for the entire room. (the colors are not showing up correctly in these photographs, it’s a fairly bright periwinkle but my photos look more like a medium cornflower…)

we decided to choose a warm ‘elephant grey’ for the room and the ‘blurple’ for two accent walls, where my desk will go and above the mantle.

i’m not sure if i even like this… i find it ironic that friends ‘hire’ me to choose colors for their homes and businesses but i can’t even choose colors for myself!

the skylight saga continues..! so you may remember back in april we hired roofers to re-do our roof and put in a new skylight. they completed the roof but completely messed up in installing the skylight, they even threw out installation parts! so two months later, after the drama of not being able to replace the parts, they returned to finish the job. just to make sure things were done correctly, mathew took the morning off work to supervise and even help with some of the work. i think they found him helpful, he thinks they found him annoying. (above) here he is happy that it’s finally done and making some adjustments to things that were still done incorrectly.

later that day he came home from work excited to finish the interior details of the skylight. (above left) cutting and installing gypboard to fit the curves above and below the skylight. (above right) not sure if you can see, but our friend mike is here visiting and mathew is STILL working.

after a late night and a fairly early morning, mike heads off to watch the world cup with their mutual friends while mathew stays to complete the skylight. (left) he bought this rigid plastic corner reinforcement and is cutting it to fit curves.

(left) installing the corner reinforcement. (right) applying plaster.

the skylight after a few coats of plaster. it still needs sanding and painting but it looks pretty amazing and very professional.

here’s the finished skylight after more plaster, sanding and paint.

mathew is very happy with how this turned out. he likes the modern, contrasting curves of the ceiling, sloping wall and skylight opening. i love that this project is where we have all of our meals so mathew can sit and enjoy his work every day. (above left to right) top and bottom details.

but wait there’s more!

mathew ordered new wood windows for my office. they are double paned, argon filled with a low-e coating. this means they are going to insulate against heat, cold, sound (neighbors!), and protect against the sun fading things when the sun streams in in the afternoons. it also means they’re expensive! (left) here mathew is fitting the top piece into the left window frame. (right) because this house is old and has done some settling, the windows aren’t totally square. here mathew is down in the garage planing the lower piece to fit.

after all the side windows have been adjusted to fit and sanded until incredibly smooth…

(left) staining and polyurethaning of the insides happens, (right) and priming the outsides after that.

unfortunately there was a mistake in the ordering of the larger middle window, the lower piece was made with only a single pane of glass, so that window will have to wait. these windows are custom built and may take another two months to receive the correct window… no worries, there’s always other stuff to work on!

turtle+mole lives!

friends have started to ask “what happened to rabbit and mouse?” i guess we’ve been a bit delinquent in our blog posts…

what can i say? the weather’s been amazing and there have been a lot of parties. mathew has been busy working, working, working. and the computer that i use to make these posts seems to be coming to some sort of end, so i’m often hesitant to even use this computer for fear of it crashing on me. we’ll see how far i get…

at the end of may, mathew attended his first baby shower celebrating two of our closest friends, midori and andy, and the upcoming birth of their baby boy.

in early june we spent a sweltering day at farshad and meny’s. (left) mathew helped farshad rebuild a gate that a contractor failed to do successfully. (don’t you love that? mathew’s friends call HIM when contractors fail them!) and i spent the afternoon by the pool with meny and the kids. (right) the guys enjoying a few beers after an afternoon of hard work, followed by dinner and gelato in downtown walnut creek.

the next night we were attending a really nice private dinner party at absinthe celebrating von’s 5oth birthday. the following weekend we were back at farshad’s celebrating his 50th at a huge surprise party with 80 of his closest friends and family.

father’s day marked the first of two ‘sunday streets‘ in our neighborhood. i LOVE when the evil cars are banished and pedestrians, cyclists and skaters rule! in a short while our street was filled with people.

mathew volunteered for the event and spent the morning directing traffic. i got there too late and didn’t get to catch him in action! our friend mike came up to the city for the day and said mathew wore a neon vest and held a large stop sign, doing his job well and looking very official.

the weather was perfect for the event and everyone was out enjoying the day. (right) we were lucky enough to spot a cycling piano-man as he made his way up and down 24th street. not only was it an impressive sight but he was an excellent pianist!

(left) a while later we met up with mathew’s sisters, eva and leo, and father, daniel and another friend, mark. (right) the day would not be complete without at least one visit to a trendy, local cafe. here they are enjoying the neighborhood’s latest edition, ‘haus.’

(left) there was live music, dancing, capoeira and hundreds (thousands?) of people as far as the eye could see, literally. (right) and everywhere in the mission: beautiful murals.

mathew’s sisters, eva and leo celebrating a new mural just added to balmy alley.

it is now fireworks season in the mission, possibly my least favorite time of the year. for weeks leading up to and after the 4th of july i’ll be jumpy from the large and small explosions that happen right outside my house, day and night, often waking me in the middle of the night. you may think i’m over exaggerating, but our neighbors take their fireworks very seriously and this year they’ve got those huge ones that cities usually set off for masses of people to enjoy. at random times during the day and night i’m seriously shaken by what sounds and feels like bombs! i’ve taken to wearing ear plugs…

happy 4th of july everyone. hope you’re enjoying your summer!