Month: July 2010

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!