turtle + mole – Page 16 – home in progress

now who’s the turtle?

progress has been happening on the house, i just haven’t been very fast about documenting it. all i can say is: the kittens sure take a lot of my time!

in january before mathew’s mom left, she helped mathew paint his workbench ORANGE. sue also did some planting in our garden.

we’ve been working on lots of miscellaneous things around the house. but finally it was time for the NEW DOOR! i think we’ve had it sitting in our garage for 12 months. mathew was intimidated by the idea of working on it, getting it to fit into the existing door frame, making sure it seals well, attaching the new hardware, staining and polyurethaning it… the whole process took about three weekends and some week days.

(above left) it started with carrying it upstairs. (it’s HEAVY.) then taking off the old door and pushing the new one into place, planing sides to make it fit and checking the fit, over and over again.

(above right) after that was done mathew chiseled out spaces for the hinges.

once the door fit into place, the hardware (pretty!) was attached and then the door frame was reworked, sanded and repainted.

next the door was taken back down to the garage, sanded, stained and polyurethaned. i think mathew said the exterior side got 6 coats of poly!

ta-da! (right) mathew even installed this automatic weather strip on the bottom of the door. it involved cutting out a groove and inserting this metal contraption that when you close the door, it actually pushes down on the floor. mathew had to plane down the hardwood floor threshold because it was interfering with the weather strip. of course, that involved sanding and re-polyurethaning that section of the floor…

since mathew is self-employed again, it leaves some weekday afternoons to do things like… tear up the sidewalk! the city of san francisco has been going around tagging sidewalk squares, encouraging homeowners to repair cracks themselves. if they choose not to do the work, the city will do it and charge something like $80 per square! (i thought sidewalks were public, not private property.) we had quite a few tagged with white paint dots. mathew repaired the cracks and even went to the effort of renting a jackhammer and chipping out and refilling some squares. a lot of the dots are gone now and it makes us wonder, will the city approve of his work? will they even know which squares were once tagged?

meanwhile inside the house, the kittens are growing fast! here they are “helping” mathew change the fish tank water.

they get along the best when they’re asleep…

(right) arwen has now learned how to play fetch too! her toys of choice are bones i knit for her.

these little girls get into plenty of trouble! (left) we had this plastic film on our living room window, to act as a double pane until we install the new window. one day arwen figured out how to cut into it and step into a see-thru tunnel… (right) bella has proudly learned how to jump up onto the handrail above the stairs…

(left) and that also means she can jump onto counters and the fireplace. the big orchid had a bad fall but is recovering well. (right) bags and boxes are endless fun. and one night while we were watching a movie they even figured out how to push the chair cushions around to make forts and tunnels!

hope everyone is having a fun february!

kittens! kittens! kittens!

a few of you requested more kitten photos,.. so here we go!

bella exploring the bookshelf and checking out her neighborhood.

arwen exploring our plants (the christmas tree isn’t real.) we had to put our pothos plant in the laundry room as they are poisonous to cats.

day two: nap time. this was the first time that bella really relaxed and slept out in the open. (right) they have really big furry paws.

more exploring…

they like water! they love playing in the sink and the shower. their cat parents take showers so we’re going to introduce them to real showers soon, but the sound still scares them.

(left) arwen being her sweet self. bella has since done her best to destroy this chair… (right) bella playing with a really long piece of packing paper. bella is definitely the more playful and athletic of the two, while arwen is more friendly and cuddly.

enjoying the cat tree mathew made.

enjoying the afternoon sun. most days they will sleep from lunch until dinner.

making new friends. (left) bella interupting sue’s knitting. (right) arwen and my mom.

arwen meets my parents while bella hides. in their first two weeks with us they met a lot of people, friends and family came to visit almost every other day. they’ve been really great with adults and older kids.

their new favorite toys: paper bags with rope handles and fresh cranberries!

mathew and bella.

bella and arwen. a peaceful moment when they aren’t attacking each other. they are still trying to figure out who is the dominant cat, so sometimes the fighting gets a little intense.

(left) bella has learned to play fetch! here she is with her favorite felted ball made by sue. (right) we finally introduced them to the downstairs and i bring them down to work with me when they can behave. arwen got up on the fireplace mantel by herself.

(left) bella enjoys watching ludwig. so far this isn’t a problem even though the breeder told us “that fish is dust”… (right) another quiet moment.

they can be a lot of work but it’s fun having these little girls around. i made my first batch of raw cat food for them last week. training and discipline has been challenging. arwen is endlessly fascinated by my knitting and anything associated with knitting. our lives have been changed.

happy new year everyone! hope all is well.

the biffar family visit

my good friend margaret and her family visited san francisco after christmas and finally got to see our house for the first time!

i was excited for them to meet the kittens, who had only been here for 2 days. but arwen and bella took one look at baby max, enthusiastically crawling towards them, and started hissing and growling! i’m sure they thought he was some big, scary, hairless animal, but as you can see he’s adorable.

after lunch walker (age 4) asked mathew to show him the garage and his power tools. above, a conversation about the miter saw.

there were a lot of questions! “what is your most dangerous tool?” “do you have tools for working with metal?” “what is that?” mathew demonstrated his drill press and explained how we use these barrels.

they went outside to see more rain water collection barrels. and they played with water, flowing leaves down streams.

they looked at plants. then walker said, “i’m freezing. can we go back inside?” back in the garage he had more questions. 🙂

upstairs sue was talking with margaret and wes. and when mathew and walker came back they all played “ben 10 alien creation.”

me and margaret in our almost matching outfits. when we worked together in palo alto (12 years ago?) our boss would call us “the bobsey twins” at least once a week. i guess we still dress alike!

(left to right) wes, max, margaret, mole and walker.

it was a nice visit.

happy holidays!

december was a busy month for us. we tried to continue working on the house, but in the end we gave in to all the holiday gatherings (one of us was more reluctant than the other…)

on a strangely warm night, after working on the house, we met our cal poly friends, alex and mae, downtown to see the holiday windows and decorations.

we caught up in union square over hot apple cider and desserts, while ice skaters happily crashed into the rink wall beside us. alex was wearing antlers!

we took the bus to alex’s house, added a couple more friends, and had a fun fondue party that went on into the early morning.

the following rainy weekend we decided to buy an electric fireplace. they’re a funny invention, basically a heater with fake flames, logs and embers that look surprisingly realistic. they must be popular this year because most stores were sold out of them. we got it for the downstairs rental unit, to give it a more homey atmosphere, but decided we might as well use it upstairs until the downstairs is ready.

while mathew cooked breakfast i decided to unpack the fireplace. it’s pretty heavy and awkward and mathew found my efforts entertaining.

i managed to drag the thing into the living room and set it up. eventually we’d like to add a gas fireplace to this room, something really modern that fits into the wall and preferably one with purple flames. but for now this will do.

while we enjoyed our new fireplace, mathew started plans for a cat tree. the one that we liked had two beds and two cradles and cost $450!

mathew used left over wood he had in the garage. he started with the round beds, the circles were made from long strips of plywood that were scored and then attached to round pieces of plywood.

next to make the cradles, he cut curved forms out of plywood, then took thin sheets of plywood, scored these, glued them together, then clamped them into shape with the forms that he already made. so cool! we bought carpet remnants from a local carpet store but i had to order sisal rope online because no one seemed to carry it in 3/8″ widths. of course the time and effort is a huge part of the cost of a cat tree but the hidden cost is the sisal rope that winds around the posts. we bought 365 feet of it!

i mentioned that we had a lot of holiday gatherings to attend, right? i think it was 6 or 7 this year. here we are in palo alto visiting with high school friends who we don’t see that often anymore because of kids and distance. this is the annual “goat” gathering, where hal (the goat) and his wife kelly fly in from colorado. mike and junko just moved back from japan, two wives are pregnant and mark’s epicenter cafe is doing well, so there was a lot to celebrate.

we had a special guest, mathew’s mom, sue and a very rare ben (“yeti”) sighting. later that evening we went to my dad’s family gathering. sadly there are no photos but we had a really fun night. (and i was given some beautiful sock yarn!)

on christmas eve we had our annual bittleston family gathering, complete with an abundance of food, drink, gifts, conversation and charles! we missed dan as he was visiting his family, but we got a surprise phone call from eva in panama! i put her on speaker phone and placed the phone in the chip bowl. we all huddled around the table to talk and it was nice to hear her sunny voice from so far away.

the next morning my immediate family joined us for lunch and then we were off to hercules for my mom’s huge extended family gathering. sorry, no photos… just imagine a fun, chaotic, all-ages group of about 50 people. my cousins and i had a white elephant gift exchange game and collected donations for a family in need. my mom made an impressive assortment of home made pies and desserts.

and then the morning after christmas we left before the sun came up to bring home our kittens! they were finally old enough to come home. at the breeder’s suggestion we took them out of their carrier and let them wander around the car. at first they were freaked out and we were freaked out. they walked around scared and crying, they seemed more scared when they looked out the windows.

eventually they calmed down and i had them sleeping on my lap by the end of the trip.

they spent some time wandering around the house then went to hide under our bed. eventually, with the help of my brother (a cat lover) we got them out and playing. mathew spent the entire afternoon finishing the cat tree and justin helped him carry it up two flights of narrow stairs. the kittens love it.

this is what we were doing before meeting our friends downtown. more insulating! glamorous, huh? this is the crawl space above the downstairs bedroom and kitchen. i cut insulation and handed it up to mathew, and for most of the day i just saw his feet sticking out of the ceiling opening.

(left) later that weekend i worked on packing up my grandmother’s old trinkets and sculptures. so many cabinets and shelves of objects that her children don’t want and i don’t know what to do with. i may venture into the world of ebay selling, but i need to work up the courage. (right) there was one morning when i had no idea where mathew was, i found him walking up from the garage carrying these curious creatures saying, “i fixed them!” 🙂 they are a fur trimmed fish and turtle on skateboards, when you pull them back they speed away. just a small example of the many things left behind by my grandmother.

and mathew just couldn’t resist refinishing this table that my grandmother left behind. the wood veneer surface had been badly water damaged. i was doubtful about refinishing thin veneer but mathew sanded, stained and polyurethaned it and now it’s so glossy it’s reflective. it makes a fancy litter box holder in my office.

sorry it’s been a while since my last post, hope you don’t mind the random assortment of news. my life feels like it is suddenly all about the kittens. in the new year i will try not to inundate you with kitten photos, but i can’t guarantee it… i hope everyone had a fun and festive holiday season.

the adventure continues…

brown friday

a lot of people go shopping on “black friday,” the day after thanksgiving. mathew and i never follow that tradition. this year we decided to paint.

the downstairs living room was a very pale pink because my grandmother loves pink but mathew never really warmed up to the color.

since my grandmother moved out, we decided the room needed a drastic change. i liked a painted wall in a west elm catalog, mathew liked it too, so that morning we walked to the paint store.

we came home and got to work. we put down drop cloths and masked off the baseboards to protect from stray drops, but otherwise decided to paint around the trim free-hand, without tape. the first of the new color goes on…

it’s brown! but i think it looks much better in person than in these photos. in the can it looked like chocolate pudding. dried on the wall, it’s a difficult color to describe, a kind of grey-ish, purple-ish, brown. it’s from the same color palette as the grey in the office, just one shade darker. the shade in the office is called “elephant grey” this one’s called “smoked oyster.”

(above right) while we were painting mathew decided he wanted a color in the built-in shelf, similar to what we’ve done in the closet and other rooms. we have a lot of different left-over colors so i said, “let me think about what would work best there.” but within the next hour i heard mathew rolling paint onto that wall as he said, “oops!” he just couldn’t resist painting it but i think it works.

ta-da!

later that weekend we bought a media cabinet (soon to hold a tv), a rug and a floor lamp (not pictured above.) we’re getting the downstairs unit ready for use as a short-term vacation rental. there’s a lot we still need for this room, but it’s a start.

kittens!

the morning after a crazy storm, we decided to take a short road trip.

we drove and drove and drove.

we saw some very dramatic clouds.

and then we saw kittens! (l to r) kitten D, B and A.

(left) mathew with kitten B. (right) kitten C.

(l to r) kittens C, D, A, E and B. i think…

when they weren’t playing with toys and attacking each other, they sure liked to sleep.

(left) when we left the kittens that afternoon we only signed a contract for one, kitten B. she was relatively calm and got along well with me. (right) but when we woke up the next morning mathew realized we also needed kitten A. she was incredibly fun, loved her sister and got along well with mathew (but didn’t care for me too much…)

these are siberian kittens, an interesting, special breed from russia, also known as forest or snow cats. they have very dog-like personalities, a thick water-resistant coat, enjoy water and are supposedly hypo-allergenic. so anyone with cat allergies, please feel free to visit us in the new year. we’d love for you to meet bella and arwen and to see just how hypo-allergenic they really are!

the reyes family

marisa and her husband arthur have been avid fans of our blog since the beginning. but when they attended mathew’s party they didn’t get a proper tour of the house, so we had them back for brunch.

kyle, trevor, marisa and megan, hungrily waiting for the food to be ready.

(left) marisa trying to keep the mole out of trevor’s mouth. (right) after our feast, trevor sneaking chocolate chip waffle leftovers from his sister’s plate.

(left) kyle busy making spider webs on the stairs. (right) megan playing a game.

arthur and mathew talking about house stuff…

(left) tangled? (right) marisa and arthur showing me their tile and color ideas for their master bathroom.

(left) tangled again? a dynamic family photo! (right) trevor showing off his apple. at 21 months, he has got to be the youngest foodie i’ve ever met!

checking out the backyard and all the work it needs.

megan and kyle discover these very round, flat leaves in our garden. (right) megan’s sparkly, red, dorothy shoes.

(left) a HUGE spider. (right) plants growing out of the fence…

just a little more playing on the stairs before they had to go. mathew was there to keep the monkeys in the trees…

trevor saying goodbye to ludwig.

it was a fun afternoon.

visitors

mathew’s birthday celebration continued with a surprise package from his brother misha!

an assortment of granola, chocolates, candy, stickers, coffee…

(left) and misha’s new music cd! visit eighttwomusic.com for more info. we spent that saturday morning listening to misha’s music, knitting and sue’s new obsession: needle felting.

some of sue’s creations…

a near-sighted turtle!

and a dragonfly…

the following afternoon we got a surprise visit from a cute grey cat. she wanted to come in but i decided it probably wasn’t a good idea…

(left) a bedtime story for sue, mathew-style, involves photos of our house remodel, “…and in this photo i’m making lots of sparks by cutting metal. we didn’t think to use a drop cloth, so for months after we moved upstairs we were finding little bits of metal in the carpet…” (right) sue waves good bye and heads to the airport to spend time with friends in canada.

a hospital visit

don’t worry, no one got hurt! i just thought you might be interested to see what mathew works on when he’s not working on the house…

on a warm evening in early november we attended a big opening reception for the hofmann family patient care tower and cardiovascular institute at john muir medical center in concord. this is an engineering project mathew has been working on for many months.

(left to right) two structural engineers: sin and mathew.

we went on a tour and got to see the examining and patient rooms and lots of fancy equipment.

(above) a cardiologist enthusiastically telling us about this new operating room. mathew had been telling me about the headaches of engineering and installing the extremely heavy boom (movable equipment) on the ceiling. it was interesting finally seeing it for myself.

(left) a nurse showing off their super-high-tech beds with music playing near the pillow and controls at the foot of the bed that offer dozens (hundreds?) of programmed languages and phrases. each room could also be sectioned off to give privacy for nurses, patients or guests. (right) cool ceiling lights in the hallways.

(left) more patient rooms. (right) mathew said they even had to do calculations for engineering the small pieces of art onto the walls!

we spent some time in the courtyard looking at the large water feature sculpture that also involved quite a bit of their engineering expertise.

(left) mathew and sin were laughing because the anchorage of this small art/light/circle was so over-engineered. (right) waiting for the train at the bart station.

i think the engineering work mathew does is still somewhat of a mystery to me, but it was fun to see where he used to spend his wednesday afternoons, to meet some of his co-workers and see the project he’s spent so much time on.

vampire + dragonfly

what did you do to celebrate halloween? this is what our evening looked like…

our friends, bob and irene, throw an annual halloween party that’s more like a street festival than just your average costume party. it was rumored to be their final celebration after 9 years of parties, so we knew we had to ditch the sandpaper and respirator masks and join them this year.

turtle, mole and mumsue too!

with irene, one of our hosts.

mystery child standing in front of bob and irene’s transformed garage and driveway.

the party happens on the sidewalk, street and inside bob and irene’s house. 100 guests were expected.

mystery child checking out the instruments of the new orleans jazz band while everyone listened to the giants game on the radio.

the theme was mardi gras/carnival and there were some amazing costumes!

and haitian dancers…

and a parade as we followed the band up and down the streets, stopping traffic and trick-or-treaters and bringing neighbors out of their houses with cameras.

the other one of our hosts, bob with turtle enjoying the music. the band was awesome and even played one of mathew’s favorites, “Bourbon Street Parade.”