Category: life

it took me a while to make a post about last weekend… it’s been a busy week and it’s only wednesday morning.

(left) midori and andy were in town from portland. they stopped by for a short visit friday morning. (right) a detail shot of mathew’s rounded corner travertine tiles. a labor-intensive project!

here i am prepping the tile for grout: after scraping excess thin-set, we vacuum then apply grout release. these travertine tiles are very porous so grout release is essential. without it, the grout would proabably stick to the tile and become one big, ugly mess.

(left) mathew sponging off excess grout. (right) the bedroom door trim with one coat of paint. and a janeen-painted switch plate cover from our old place. its nice to have something familiar.

mathew’s sister leonora called on saturday and said she’d be in town. she stopped by and we went out for burritos for dinner. she offered to help with the house so we put her to work helping paint trim with me in the bedroom. it was fun, we got to talk a lot while painting. after a break with water & “lemon-cubes” and  luna and larry’s coconut bliss (really good vegan ice cream made from coconut milk!) it was too late for leo to take bart back to berkeley so she stayed over.

the next morning leo offered to paint some more! i think she really wanted to paint that little cabinet door green but there wasn’t time. (right) here mathew is cleaning up the dining area, moving his tools to his workshop and prepping for paint.

it was a full day of work that started fairly early.

some picture rail trim mathew used for a paint stripping test. on the left is an example of what the heat gun can produce, if you look closely there are tiny plaster bead details on the upper half. on the right he used a chemical stripper which completely removed the plaster detail.

as i started to paint i worried that this was the wrong color…

our friends (nancy, alex and mae) dropped by with a delicious lunch (salad and quiche made by mae.)

…and for dessert, yummy homemade shortbread. and as if all of that weren’t enough, mae even brought a gift of towels! they will go nicely in our new bathroom. whenever mae visits, aftwards we always say, “i can’t believe she did all that! we don’t deserve her!” THANK YOU MAE, we truly appreciate all of your generousity.

alex gave mathew some great ideas for the bathroom. later mathew finished up the window framing. and while i was painting, mathew installed the ledge that goes above the wainscoting.

i finished my painting, and after 3 coats and a proper drying, the color looks the way we’d hoped. it’s a little unusual for me, but i wanted a warmish-cool color that would go with the blue carpet (staying for now) and compliment our bedding. so we went with a yellowy sage green. it’s called “pale avocado” and looks yellowy in the daytime and more green at night.

we finally got to grout the tile, but we ran out of grout so we’ll finish it today.

it was a busy saturday. but all along mathew was sad, thinking it was sunday. so now today is his bonus day!

friday was all about the letter “p.” paint, pandas, pizza, pears, plaster and ptoilet.

our first color purchase! (inspired by potterybarn.) on the walk back, panda and heart cookies from the bakery around the corner.

(left) every friday is homemade pizza night. last night it was tomato + cheese, and potato, onion + rosemary. (right) one of our lemons grew up to be a pear.

(left) mathew plastered the last (mini) wall in the bathroom. (right) mathew’s solution to the ptoilet size problem.