it’s official, we now have too much growing in our garden! let us know if you’d like some.
Category: life
strange san francisco summer
instead of the standard summer cold and fog we’ve been experiencing heat waves along with the rest of the bay area this summer. the garden likes it…
there are also lots of mystery plants that are also thriving. last night we harvested cilantro and two types of basil.
i’m not sure if it’s normal for our neighborhood or because of high fire danger, but every time anything happens lots of trucks and fire engines show up! i counted 6 today, with one in our driveway, but i don’t know what the emergency was.
the 4th
on the 4th of july we had dinner at our friends’ house in north beach. it had nothing to do with the 4th, we were just having a casual dinner with two good friends we haven’t seen in a while. most of the city was at the wharf for the fireworks show. later that night we could hear the fireworks but from what i’ve heard, the show was pretty much just colored clouds and fog.
just before midnight we made our way back to our neighborhood, which was still in the middle of celebrating (which it has been doing for the last few weeks…) there were mini fireworks shows going on all around us. we tried to photograph some from our bedroom window but they looked better in real life.
hope everyone had a nice 4th.
visitors!
last tuesday we had our first visitors in our new space upstairs.
midori and andy have moved back to the bay area from portland. we’re very happy to have our good friends back.
the heat wave ends
last week we had a heat wave in san francisco. it got into the 90’s, which is especially unusual for june, when it’s supposed to be cold and foggy…
it wasn’t until saturday afternoon that it felt like the fever had broken; the temperature started to drop and we finally had clouds and a cool breeze.
i spent the entire day painting the living room. originally when we stripped the baseboards we considered polyurethaning them instead of painting them white. but they were quite uneven in color, had been very abused over the years and needed lots of filling. in the end we decided to paint them white and we’re pleased with how nice they look.
as usual, mathew was working on a hundred things at once. (left) here he is wrestling with (installing) a GFI outlet in the kitchen, much safer than a standard outlet if installed near water. (right) and on top of that he installed a 6 plug outlet.
i’m not sure if it’s the mission district, or just our street, but there’s always lots of drama and entertainment to be found outside our house. we’re not sure what happened to cause 3+ fire engines to arrive, block off traffic and for three teams of firefighters to go inside the yellow house across the street. perhaps an over exuberant barbecue? ah,.. summer.
on sunday we had our first meal upstairs, breakfast. then it was off to work! i got busy moving into the kitchen and organizing all the cabinets and drawers.
mathew further organized his workshop while searching for the glass cutter i used to use in college (for stained glass work.) in the end he borrowed one from our neighbor to cut this mirror in half. the two pieces will become our bathroom medicine cabinet. next he cut, glued and clamped the wood frame.
late in the afternoon i cleared out the living room of all of our paint and construction tools and we started moving up furniture and boxes from the garage. (left) here mathew is putting together a shelf we built together in college. the ceiling height in this upstairs unit is much lower than we’ve had in the past, so he took the pieces back down to his workshop to size it down to fit the room better. he also decided to bevel the edges with his router and sanded it. in the past it was an unfinished shelf, now we’ll polish it with beeswax. (right) the kitchen is starting to shape up. it might look small but it’s quite comfy and functional (plus we’ve got tons of storage in the dining area.)
hope everyone had a nice weekend.
last week
we were in berkeley last saturday and sunday, spending time with mathew’s family and attending and celebrating leonora’s graduation from berkeley.
bottom row: evamarie, leonora, elijah. middle row: anne, gail, reirin. top row: turtle, mole, daniel, mia, misha, matt, jim, sue.
contrary to what these photos show, we do not put our house guests to work! (left) mia putting weeds in the compost bin. (right) sue sweeping the back porch and steps.
(left) mathew transplanting jasmine and carnea after a day at work. (right) sue cleaning the upstairs refrigerator.
during the last week we’ve had eva, misha, mia and sue staying with us. we ran a little low on bedding but everyone had their own space during their stay. and everyone took showers in the new bathroom upstairs. it got rave reviews.
blog post
mathew’s family is in town again so there was another reason to get the upstairs bathroom functioning. i tried out the shower yesterday and it was awesome!
my flor samples arrived! i’m really excited about this product and company.
it’s made from recycled carpet, they even take back your carpet when you’re done. but the thing i like the most about it is they don’t use toxic adhesives so i won’t get sick from the off-gassing.
mathew’s siblings started arriving on thursday. here is eva. even though we’re having a heat-wave, she couldn’t resist the urge to get outside and start gardening. she and mia (not pictured) weeded a few of the garden patches in the backyard. eva has plans to plant vegetables!
family day
saturday was our family visit with my grandmother and a belated birthday celebration for my older brother, jason, my dad and me.
my younger brother, justin and his wife, najia arrived early and got to watch mathew install the shower fixtures. justin got in to try it out. mathew told him to turn the top lever but he didn’t fall for it.
(left) showing the different trim color choices used throughout the years. (right) najia and justin laughing at something mathew is doing.
(left) my grandmother. (right) mom and grandmother.
(left) najia, dad, justin. (right) jason, mole, justin.
while my grandmother was here she kept complaining about how long the remodel was taking, complaining that she wouldn’t get to move in till september, complaining that it was going to be years before she could move in. she wanted everyone to leave so we could get back to work. i don’t know about you, but i’m not motivated by complaints! but when everyone left we did get back to work.
all work and no play…
the weekend went by too quickly.
the bedroom is now ready for us to move in but that won’t happen until the bathroom at least has a toilet. i finished painting final bedroom trim while mathew put moisture barrier paper over the sub-floor.
next he started cutting cedar flooring to create the border for the bathroom floor. since it’s such a small room, we decided a single border was enough.
sunday was tax day. doesn’t mathew look happy? we’ve never put off doing our taxes before… mathew’s freelance business is so lucrative, that even though we pay estimated taxes during the year, we still owe the equivalent of 2 years of our old rent! this year will be different, mathew just accepted a position with arup, an engineering company he’s always wanted to work for.
after taxes were done it was back to work upstairs. in the left photo above, you can see him using ‘daniel’ (to keep with naming tools after the people we’ve borrowed them from). it puts special serrated nails into the side of the tongue-and-groove board. not many people use this old mechanical version any more; the more modern version is air-powered and shoots staples instead.
while mathew finished installing the floor i sanded the dining area. i got about half of it done. in the photo above right he’s routing a groove into the bottom of the board to fit over the tongue on the border boards. the router is attached to the vacuum to catch the sawdust– sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
pretty.
singin’ in the bathroom
mathew has been in new york this week visiting his brother and hanging with the guys at another one of those crazy destination bachelor parties. he made sure to leave me with enough house projects to keep me busy. (as if i need more projects to keep me busy..!)
(left) on friday genanne brought me early birthday flowers! tulips and daffodils are some of my favorites and they opened to greet me saturday morning. (right) first i vacuumed the dining area which we had been using as a workshop.
then i gave all of the trim in the bedroom a second coat of paint. i moved onto the bathroom trim and wainscoting giving them a coat of primer. we can’t use tape on the unfinished plaster walls so i just have to be super careful when i paint. i think i spent 8 hours painting yesterday!
today i went back up to put a 3rd coat on some bedroom baseboards (although i forgot to sand the 2nd coat! …hope that’s not a problem.) i put a coat of white satin on the trim and wainscoting in the bathroom and i remembered to sand this time. and i’ve also discovered that this bathroom has really excellent acoustics for singing (not that i’m worth listening to..!)
we’re not sure if we will paint or polyurethane the plaster walls in the bathroom. i want yellow paint but mathew has gotten very attached to his plaster walls and wants to keep them exposed…