Author: janeen

a full house

my dad’s annual family christmas party was at our place this year, my mom volunteered our house with the incentive that there would be a vegetarian feast! mathew and i have had so much going on this month that we didn’t allow ourselves to think, plan or stress about it until that day. the work started in the morning but we didn’t have time for photos until the sun was setting and guests were arriving. there was shopping, cleaning and cooking to do. and mathew took advantage of another break from the rain to put in a few more hours of work on those stairs.

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my brother justin putting up some twinkle lights and having fun with mathew and slow exposure photography.

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(left) i’m still prepping upstairs while family is arriving and taking a tour of the house. (right) my sister-in-law najia and my cousin julie (and me in the background!)

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my parents cooked and prepped in popo’s downstairs kitchen.

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(left to right) steve, najia, warren, alvin, janet, walt and chet.

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(left) sisters! (right) sisters! and lots of food… in the end my dad insisted on serving some meat, so they hid that in the corner.

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dinner time! (left to right) najia, justin, jason, sherry, janet, walt, chet, popo (popo = grandma. aka: muriel.)

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(left to right) darren, steve, alvin, warren, mathew, mathew, kayleigh, landon, deb, lynne.

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(left) sherry, kayleigh and landon. kayleigh loved playing on the daybed and with popo’s musical rudolph. but she wouldn’t let you turn it off, so there was constant noise. i’ve repressed it now, i’m sure rudolph was singing that reindeer song over and over and over again. (right) alyssa and deb.

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(left) alyssa showing off her portrait drawn by kayleigh. quite a surprising likeness! (right) mom, julie, mathew and linda congregating in the hall.

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my aunt janet knitted and crocheted hats and/or scarves for EVERYONE! my family felt the need to pose with our gifts. perhaps this will be my family’s holiday card photo? perhaps not.

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(left) the girl cousins on the daybed. (right) the boy cousins in the hall because the girls would not leave the daybed. where is mathew? why isn’t he in this photo?

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(left) popo and justin listen as kayleigh gives an impromptu christmas medley concert. (right) a round of applause for kayleigh.

mathew said it was another test run to have 24 people over for a party. the house held up fine and i hope everyone had a good time.

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mole enjoying a mellow sunday afternoon. it was a nice christmas party. but turtle never rests, the sander was buzzing on the steps outside…

hope everyone is having a happy and healthy holiday season!

’tis the season

it’s that time of year again. holiday parties, dressing up, shaking hands with strangers, eating finger food (my pet peeve, a bad combo during cold and flu season!) and late nights.

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here we are two fridays ago, after attending a dinner party at a “bread museum” at fisherman’s wharf on a very rainy, cold night. we came home with so much sourdough bread (restaurant party favors) we even gave some to the taxi driver.

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on saturday we finally hung the rest of popo’s photos in the kitchen. (left) first we laid out the photos on the floor. it was a challenge to arrange them because they were all different sizes. (right) popo sat and watched the entire time, laughing and thoroughly enjoying “the show.”

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(left) photos of popo’s 7 kids. (right) photos of those 7 kids’ families.

that night we attended a beautiful piano and cello recital in berkeley, met up with friends and had a late dinner.

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on sunday i started sewing a cover and pillows for popo’s new daybed. mathew really liked the sketches i made to help decide the color scheme.

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we finally got a break from the rain and mathew was outside sanding, scraping and paint stripping the stairs again.

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this is how the daybed came out. i made a fitted, quilted, pink cover for the twin mattress, 4 pink cushions, 4 green pillows and 2 fancy, floral, accent pillows. that was my first experience with cord piping. it went well!

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this is how popo’s living room is looking after she put out all her christmas “decorations.” all of these toys sing and dance and i can’t spend too much time with them when they are on. that christmas tree on the table (with the santa hat) is motion sensing, so you think you’re walking into a quiet room then suddenly the tree comes to life singing and talking to you, LOUDLY. somehow it has a moving face and freaks me out every time. there are also other singing things in the kitchen and in the hall.

ho! ho! ho! scary christmas?

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Janeen decided to make curtains for a friend of hers. They went out and bought hundreds of dollars worth of fabric and Janeen had the sewing machine running all weekend, dawn to dusk. [that is not true! since when do i even get up at dawn? -mole] ok, noon to night…

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Meanwhile, I went shopping… well, I got a Zephyr hood for the kitchen. The old fan was the fan that came with the house. I cleaned it and reinstalled it last year, but it had two problems: Most annoying is that it had no damper, so we basically had an open hole in our kitchen ceiling letting all the heat out; and it made a racket. I was planning to get a fan with more power, but then this one was on sale at half price. Couldn’t resist saving $200. So, finally we have a working hood in our kitchen that doesn’t sound like a ‘plane taking off.

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I am a little disappointed in the lower than expected power (the spec sheet and the store said it was 400cfm, but it feels more like 200) and the cheap feeling controls, but it works, and the lights and damper are great. The photo above left is after I’d taken out the old fan. Janeen says it makes our kitchen look like a “Real Kitchen” (above right). To test it out, I made a really spicy Indian inspired lentil dish for dinner.

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Oh, and I started working on the front steps. Bad timing, really, because rain is coming. I managed to strip the loose paint on most of the steps, but now they have no paint on them and it’s going to rain for a couple of weeks straight. Oops. Hope it doesn’t ruin the wood… Janeen says the photos look like I fell asleep on the steps.

new/old projects

some of you have been asking what we’ve been doing and where the posts have gone… now that popo has moved in the focus has changed slightly.

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we’ve spent a lot of time finishing popo’s space, hanging photos and making adjustments for her. mathew created built in shelves for her dozens of photo albums in the living room.

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here mathew is hanging her very large chinese painting.

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last weekend we got to do something we hadn’t done in a long time, we continued working on our unit upstairs.

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mathew climbed into the crawl space to check on wiring.

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our living room upstairs had one electrical outlet. one! so mathew cut some holes in the baseboard. (left) yes, those are christmas cards. no, they are not from this year. i never took them down from last year…

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and together we worked on the wiring and put in 2 new outlets and rewired the old one. hopefully soon we’ll work on adding outlets on the other side of the room. this will involve cutting a hole in the wall so mathew can climb through. previously we had access to that side before the bathroom walls were done so we were able to insulate that side of the house but didn’t have time for the electrical work.

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and we finally finished insulating this one side of the living room. we cut fiberglass insulation down in the garage, carried it upstairs in a big bag and i passed it to mathew through the opening. it was a tiring, strenuous, dirty process. in some places mathew was dangling over the rafters sliding insulation under parts of the living room floor. at some point i couldn’t even see him because he was lost in some tiny crawl spaces. (right) he was extremely happy when he was done! he had bruises and scrapes all over his body but was ready for dinner and a good night’s sleep.

is it winter yet? the temperature has really dropped. hope everyone is staying warm and well.

family, travel and thanksgiving

now that my grandmother has moved in things have relaxed quite a bit.

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here we are celebrating my mom and mathew’s belated birthdays.

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(left) justin and najia. (right) me and popo.

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(left) popo, mathew, me and friends, andy and midori, who have spent time with popo in the past. (right) my immediate family + popo.

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this is what mathew and i look like relaxed…

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a few days later i got on a train, fell asleep and woke up in a different state…

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…to snow! somewhere in oregon…

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it takes 22 hours to get from emeryville to seattle. if you want to truly relax, take a long train trip somewhere. there’s no where to go and nothing to do but read, knit, listen to music, watch movies and sleep. ahhh. it’s a beautiful way to just slow down. i had a nice lunch in the dining car and met people from all over the country. (left) i sat outside during a stop in portland. this is the guitar playing guy i met from new york.

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here are i am with my “sisters” in seattle. we watched “new moon” on opening day. (left to right) laura, me, elissa and wylie.

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elissa had a group art show opening. i was so glad i could attend. and i bought 2 pieces! (right) elissa and her mom, chris.

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(left) this is the view from my bedroom. (right) on my last night the family cooked an amazing early thanksgiving, going-away dinner.

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(left) back on the train. i’ve done sleeper car trains in scotland and didn’t enjoy it. these are coach seats and i found it much easier to sleep. plus you get to meet all kinds of nice people. the seats recline and there’s tons of leg room, similar to business class on a plane. (right) a bridge. in oregon?

i’m excited to plan my next train trip. i want to visit my “other family” in seattle again in the spring. and i’d like to travel by train to chicago with mathew.

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my family’s thanksgiving celebration in sacramento. if everyone had shown up it would have been 51 people, but that night we had 43? crowded but festive.

hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving!

turtle + mole + mole

it was a stressful, tiring, crazy weekend…

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(left) mathew doing some last minute work on the kitchen (right) while my parents, older brother jason and uncle winston helped move boxes from my grandmother’s house to our house. we tried to get others to help but because it was halloween, no one else was able to…

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(left) as the moving continued throughout the day (right) mathew worked his way around the kitchen finishing things up.

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(left) they put in a long hard day but you wouldn’t know it from their smiles. i think because they were ready to go home! they left before it got dark and made it home in time for trick-or-treaters. (right) mathew and i worked that night. mathew is very proud of this cable/telephone junction box he created and organized in the garage.

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(left) the butcher block my mom refinished, how nice it looks in place. (right) mathew scrubbed the kitchen floor until it was reflective.

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on sunday mathew and i joined my parents for another day of moving. (left) here is a view from my grandmother’s old apartment. (right) that night we went back to work finishing projects. here is my grandmother’s bathroom with a new mirror above the sink and a medicine cabinet to the right. we worked as late was we needed to then had dinner at midnight.

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monday was another day of moving. my parents helped move more stuff over and professional movers brought the large furniture. it was a challenge trying to fit furniture from a 2 bedroom apartment into a 1 bedroom apartment, especially after all the boxes had been moved in! i did not take photos of any of the mess or chaos. even my office was completely filled and climbing was required to find things. (above) my auntie em, my grandmother and my mom unpacking in the kitchen. for anyone who questioned the bright pink we painted the bedroom, notice what color my grandmother is wearing…

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i was worried because my grandmother’s first night was also the night of the annual day of the dead (dia de los muertos) parade. (left) it consists of hundreds (thousands?) of people dressed as dead people holding candles, dancing, music and drumming till after 11pm. it’s a celebration of those we have lost and our street becomes completely filled with adults and children in costumes. everyone ends up in the park one block away, where there are altars and photos remembering the dead. we have a great view from our front steps. we wandered around a little bit but it was so crowded. this was the first year where we weren’t working during the parade, we enjoyed being able to sit outside on such a warm night and take it all in. (right) our neighbor created this dead light sculpture, a woman in costume poses beside it.

“Don’t just cry mournfully over the individuals, dreams and influences that have helped make you what you are. Dance for them; sing for them; honor them; leap into the air and kiss the sky for them.”

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(left) during a really great musical portion of the parade i went inside to check on the noise level. my grandmother was talking on the phone, sharing her new phone number with relatives. she had no idea anything was happening outside. those new windows were expensive, but worth it! (right) my auntie em unpacked and organized all day and continued that night. we are so thankful that she could stay for a few days to help unpack and ease the transition for my grandmother.

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on day 2 my parents were back to move more of my grandmother’s things and my uncle gilbert stopped by for a visit. i expect to enjoy many more family visits in this new kitchen.

oh, i almost forgot to explain the title: turtle + mole + mole. my grandmother, like me, doesn’t enjoy the sun either, but she is more extreme, she likes curtains closed during the day and rarely leaves the house. but she loves visitors so let us know if you’d like to drop by, we’d love to see you!

and sometimes there’s cake…

it’s the last week before my grandmother moves in. there are lots of little finishing projects left.

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(left) this is the original wood switch plate frame in the kitchen. it’s now pretty after all the old paint was removed. (right) a brass plate cover completes the look.

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we had my mom paint this cabinet pink. my dad really doesn’t like the pink but it will be a fun pop of color when you open this cabinet.

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(left) i put a second coat of white paint on this living room wall. (right) mathew and my dad put up this final kitchen cabinet to the right of the refrigerator.

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(left) this is what FRUSTRATION looks like. i can sew a wedding dress, knit a cabled afghan, assemble a model car kit. i thought one of those closet organizer kits from home depot would be simple to assemble. the kit is perfect for an 8′ wide closet, but for this 5′ wide closet it took some design and customization. (right) i won’t even tell you how long it took me to get these 5 silly hooks onto the wall!

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on a happier note, saturday was my mom’s birthday, and she brought ME flowers from her garden! mathew’s birthday was on monday so i had a little cupcake birthday surprise for the two of them.

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we cut each cupcake into 4 so we could all share the vegan carrot and chocolate cupcakes. my dad thought his were very romantic! so cute.

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(left) a safety rail was installed in my grandmother’s bathroom. (right) this is what her shower looks like. (more safety rails.)

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a frustrating evening. (left) i continued working on my closet. grrrr. (right) mathew having trouble and getting mad at telephone and cable tv wiring. “i don’t even watch tv!” maybe the cable wires sensed his negativity?

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sunday: (left) my dad putting doors on that last cabinet. (right) mathew installing picture rail in the kitchen. it’s just what this room needed.

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(left) i finally finished the closet organizers! because of the size of this closet i have left over shelves and pieces. i installed a shelf and rod in the second closet. i may install another shelf in the living room closet. (right) sunday night i painted all the picture rail in the kitchen. (sorry, it’s really hard to see in this photo…)

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on monday, mathew’s birthday, he took the day off work and did various projects around the house. i didn’t follow him around or take any photos. (left) he built this cabinet that will act as a support for the counter between the dishwasher and the refrigerator. (right) because the old vent fan label was really old and messed up mathew had me design a new one, complete with turtle + mole and symbols instead of words.

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that night i made pizza for mathew’s birthday dinner and a yummy chocolate cake.

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are we done yet?

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last weekend my parents were here helping with paint prep in the kitchen. (left) my dad masked off the cabinets with plastic and tape. (right) my mom vacuumed trim, walls and floor.

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(left) here i’m caulking the gaps in this cabinet. (right) on that corner just below my knee in the previous photo, mathew added this little bit of chair rail. he felt like the wall/corner just needed something. only a perfectionist would do something like this!

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(left) after prepping the room we sealed off all the openings so the paint spray and fumes would be contained in the kitchen. here mathew is painting primer on the walls.

before they left, my parents helped me move some of my office furniture from my temporary office (my grandmother’s future living room) into my office. after my grandmother moves in we’ll be working on my office next. it will be a challenge since we won’t have any more spare rooms to store furniture in while we work. we’ll probably have to move everything into the center of the room and cover it like we did with the refrigerator in the kitchen.

(right) later that night i painted the remaining unpainted wall in the temporary office/living room. because the kitchen was sealed off getting to the garage became a challenge, we couldn’t just walk down stairs from the kitchen we had to go through the back yard or front yard first, luckily there are multiple ways of getting into the garage. but things like getting a paint brush, a ladder or the mail became difficult, but that only lasted a few days.

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on sunday my dad worked on the door that goes on that tall cabinet in the kitchen that i was caulking the day before. (left) the family that used to own this house had 5 kids and the boys seemed to enjoy working on old cars, especially chevys. we know this because the inside of the cabinet door had labeled hooks. we like all these old clues about the previous life of this house but it will probably look better to remove this one. (right) my dad sanding the door after all the hooks were removed.

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while my dad worked on the door my mom and i sanded and scraped the door that connects the kitchen and the laundry room. it’s the last door we’ll be refinishing. we’re pros at this now.

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mathew attaching this medallion to the kitchen ceiling. mathew has gone medallion crazy, he loves them and wants them everywhere. this one was actually a gift from our friends jennifer and doug. they had it left over from their remodel and gave it to us when we had brunch with them the weekend before. they were happy it was going to a good home and we were happy because we got a medallion for the kitchen!

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i wanted to paint the kitchen an off white beige, similar to what had already been there. mathew wanted a warmish yellow similar to what we have in the entry and hall. what did we do? mathew took a couple gallons of leftover white and yellow paint from previous rooms, added 20 drops of red acrylic art store paint and this is what we got, sort of a lighter version of what’s in the hall. not exactly what either of us wanted but cheerful and close enough. and the price was right. (right) we’re still not sure what to do about this crazy orange lamp. i suggested painting it a different color or getting a new one. we’ll see… this house is full of color!

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another post?! aka the final lap

okay, so this doesn’t really have much to do with the house. except to prove that we do actually get out and have some fun occasionally…

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last friday we went to see ingrid michaelson play at the great american music hall. (i bought tickets back when we thought we’d be done with the house by now.) ingrid’s one of my favorite artists. we even had dinner there before the show! mathew calls her “ingrid michaelperson” he wanted that to be the title of this post, but that makes no sense.

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(left) this is a photo of the ceiling. this is one crazy, ornate building, built in 1907. (right) the opening act was matthew perryman jones, all by himself with his guitar. we’d never heard him before but we loved him unplugged, impressive guitar skills with a voice that sounded like bono. during the break i wandered downstairs to meet him and tell him i liked his performance. he was very nice.

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and then ingrid and her band played: THE MOST FUN CONCERT EVER.

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lots of audience participation, stories and zany performances. mathew and i were cracking up the entire time. we can’t wait till she’s back in town. here’s a taste of what she’s like on youtube (but a little more subdued since it’s a morning radio show.)

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the next morning we had brunch at jennifer and doug’s. sorry no photos! but they made us yummy breakfast burritos and smoothies and we stayed a little too long, talking and catching up. (left) that afternoon our friend mae came over to help with some paint stripping. she didn’t want her photo taken. i was going to blur out her face but it’s so small, it’s already blurry. (right) mathew buzzing away with the sander in the kitchen.

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that night after dinner mathew went back downstairs and tsp’d the kitchen ceiling. (left) here mathew is showing how dramatically different the ceiling looks when cleaned. (right) so shiny! doesn’t that make you want to get up on a tall ladder and bend awkwardly backwards and clean YOUR ceiling?

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on sunday the parentals were back to help. (left) my dad filled around the new outlets with grout he tinted with yellow paint to match the “vintage” grout. (right) my mom, big surprise, did more sanding.

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(left) mathew stained doors in the garage. (right) i sanded in the kitchen. sanding seriously goes on forever.

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the kitchen coming together… outlet cover plates! when we first moved in, this kitchen counter had one electrical outlet. ONE. and everything in the house was on this circuit, so if you used the toaster the lights dimmed. if you used the coffee grinder the lights dimmed. you get the idea.

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whenever i think i’m going to take a spontaneous photo of mathew doing something, he moves! (left) classic mathew working photo. (right) please hold still. thank you.

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that door that mae and i stripped has a big glass window that mathew wanted us to avoid with our heat guns, for fear of cracking the glass. he used chemical paint stripper on one side. not only is it a gross, smelly, toxic mess, but it doesn’t even work that well. mathew is thinking we’ll risk it and use heat guns on the other side.

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mathew took tuesday off work and worked on the house. (left) i found him in the garage polyurethaning 3 doors. i tried to get a photo of all three at once but couldn’t fit them in. (right) the bathroom door in place. it is possibly the narrowest door i’ve ever seen.

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(left) really pretty ORIGINAL door knob plate that was hiding under 95 years of paint! sorry, the photo is blurry. (right) mathew filling and putting the finishing trim pieces on this kitchen window frame. looks like there was some sunlight after a crazy, rainy morning.

delayed post

for a couple of days this week you might have noticed our blog was just a blank white page. what did it symbolize? complete neglect! not really,.. but we’re back!

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mathew paint stripped most of the trim in the kitchen in one day. (left) door, window and chair rail trim. (right) i’m not sure what he’s trying to capture in this photo of the door trim, maybe how thick it is with almost 100 years of paint?

sometimes we wonder why we go to the effort of stripping the paint just to paint it white again. but it does make a difference especially when we fill all the cracks, dents and holes. afterwards the trim looks crisp and new again.

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my parents sanding a door that will be stained and polyurethaned. these doors used to be white and become a rich reddish brown. very noticeably different!

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mathew stripping the window frame and i take over so he can work on other projects…

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…like making this wall above the kitchen cabinets pretty again! there’s new plaster above the kitchen entrance as well.

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my parents again (left) filling, gluing and sanding, the same door? a different door? my dad says they’re smiling underneath their masks. (right) finally released from the garage, more sanding for my parents…

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(left) for some reason the kitchen window sill and frame had been abused beyond recognition. we think the previous owners cut part of it to fit their refrigerator in. nice. but we can’t guess why the front edge looks like it suffered from years of gnawing. as far as we know there were no pets in this house, but there were 5 kids… (right) after filling, sanding and replacing a corner piece we’re bringing this window sill back to life. once it’s painted you may never know its past life.

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another effort in our environmentally conscious remodel: resizing closet doors to fit the new smaller opening. yes, they’re cheap, (ugly?) hollow-core doors but with a little of mathew’s time they are resized. money is saved and nothing ends up in landfill.