turtle + mole

mathew and i took today off. i had sushi with my grandmother and helped her finish up some christmas stuff. mathew worked on the house.

he installed the 2nd window in the upstairs bathroom. (right) the old window. does that even count as a window??

after dinner we organized and cleaned up the “workshop.” it was so covered in wood, sawdust, pipes and tools; just a few hours ago you could hardly tell the carpet was blue. (right) time to install more insulation!

before and after, one side of the bedroom. tomorrow night we’ll do the other side.

and we must not forget the bathroom! it sure is satisfying to get stuff done before the weekend. hope you all have a good one!

on saturday mathew worked on the house while i visited my grandmother and helped with holiday stuff.

but turtle wasn’t completely alone, he got a visit from daniel (his dad) and younger brother elijah (visiting from santa barbara.) they had a short ben & jerry’s break together. my parents and older brother also dropped by to check out the progress.

we’re both happy to say the upstairs plumbing is almost done! (above) some late night pipe soldering (looking turtle-y on the right.) i wanted to watch a movie but i helped with framing, pipe cutting and prep instead.

daniel brought us a housewarming carrot cake! yummmm… and it was made by my client: just desserts (i do their labels.)

and another housewarming gift: a beautiful, japanese, hand-blown glass pod (bud vase) a gift from midori and andy during thanksgiving weekend.

i’d better get to work now…

i had big plans for the weekend: get the water for the kitchen hooked up (again), and start framing in the walls of the bathroom. didn’t quite get there, but we got most of the way.

after plastering the the bedroom wall, we noticed that it cracked when janeen jumped in the doorway! not promising. i’d noticed beforehand that when the plumber had installed the sewer pipes in the old bathroom, they had destroyed one joist, and left a second one next to it almost completely cut. i think this is the reason for much of the cracking in the wall – so this weekend i resolved to reinforce the joist that was in the worst shape, and runs under this wall.

janeen spent hours stripping layers of old paint from the old trim that goes around the bedroom door. difficult to see (maybe janeen will upload a better picture…) but theres green, gold, beige, white…

my second goal was to get the pipes connected into the kitchen. had to tear up the carpet to install them. when i was in the middle of pulling up the carpet, janeen said, “it just gets more and more ugly. when’s it going to start looking pretty?” soon. i hope.

didn’t quite get the pipes all connected up, but janeen did some framing.

we have been trying to reuse as much wood as we can. this means we spend a lot of time pulling out old nails, and unscrewing screws. so far, we have filled seven cans with nails.

“no – but man, that’s a good idea.”

during a moment when we weren’t making any noise, mathew thought he heard the doorbell. he went downstairs to check and someone asked, “did someone here order a pizza?” well, it wasn’t just some pizza guy, it was our good friends making a “home invasion” pizza delivery.

a fun lunch break and yummy chicago-style pizza from patxi’s. (l-r: nancy, mae, turtle, philip, alex and mole.) mae had been planning a lunch delivery for weeks, we just didn’t know it would be a surprise.

and nancy brought a beautiful housewarming gift basket which included homemade chocolate ginger granola and 3 rolls of chocolate pecan oatmeal cookie dough! don’t we have amazing friends?

mathew installed the new window and we got the siding back up on the outside of the house. it’s all sealed up again, just in time for the rain that’s coming this week. doesn’t the new window look a lot nicer and more air-tight than the old aluminum-and-glass-slat window that we replaced? maybe next weekend we’ll get the other window installed, and the flooring down and wall panels up? there we go being overly ambitious again…

on saturday mathew hoped to get a new bathroom window installed, replace the removed (and improved) siding on the outside of the house, and install the sub-floor. we’re always so optimistic about what we can get done in the 8 or 9 hours of daylight and noise-making time each saturday and sunday. mathew usually spends much of saturday running around buying materials.

here mathew is removing the old framing for the bathroom window. to get at everything, he needed to remove siding and framing from the outside of the house. and i was scraping, sanding and painting (sealing) the siding, to put back after the window is installed.

(above left) we received a delivery of plywood (for the new bathroom vanity), cedar flooring (naturally water and mold resistant) and more insulation. (above right) our late afternoon view of the mission district and potrero hill, as our laundry dries on a cold, windy but sunny day. the mission seriously does get the best weather in san francisco.

everything was ready for the window to be installed by the time the sun went down so i convinced mathew to wait till the morning. we don’t need him climbing on the outside of the house, after dark! but we’re no where near putting in flooring or interior paneling…

and later, in his workshop, mathew made these pretty frames that will go around the upstairs, bedroom window.