HFM

We have dandelions in the front yard/garden patch that are now literally taller than the hydrangea that's there, but in the back yard jungle, three rose buses are now in bloom. We also have these mysterious, yet pretty purple things: Adrienne thinks they are probably some invasive & difficult-to-deal-with weed. She is considering renting a goat.

We started stripping the built-in this weekend. We had started before we moved in, actually, but it was too cold in the house for the paint stripper to really work, so it's been on hold for all this time. Here's our starting point: built-in, we are coming for you! This is the bucket of allegedly eco-friendly (or at least less-caustic) paint stripper. mmm...smells like candy... This is the kind of stuff you just paint on & let sit for a couple hours: matches the pink paint nicely The stuff actually does work very well, but it's no match for the 10+ layers of paint that we can count on there: layers of pink, yellow, beige, & still more pink...so much pink A better method seems to be to first use a heat gun to take most of the layers off in one go, like this: Adrienne in action melts like butter! And then follow up with a coat of the paint stripper, to take off whatever is still there: the remaining paint just wiped off with a rag This really took no time at all with t...

As planned, we (mostly Adrienne) got through the last of the random-stuff boxes this weekend, & are now officially (more or less) done packing! We're as done as we can be for now, at least -- the furniture & books & other assorted things that will go in Adrienne's office obviously have to wait boxed up for that to be finished. And, as promised, here are photos of the house in its (more or less) fully moved in state. The front office/arts & crafts room: View from the hall. This is my desk. The glass table on the left is where Adrienne & some of her office stuff are currently camping out. Nice view of the neighbors' houses from my desk. The Kitchen: View of the long kitchen counter from the door. The back wall. That's the door to the porch/sun room. No photos of that yet -- that's where a lot of Adrienne's office stuff is waiting, so it doesn't qualify as (more or less) finished. More kitchen. The site of the terrifying Grizzly Squirrel sig...

Here come the yellow ones!

Three short updates from Mars today. First, we finally got some curtains up. Yay! Second, Mr. Bunkport doesn't feel that Adrienne's office is quite ready to go. When the linoleum was there before, it concealed the fact that the walls aren't actually attached to the floor. So yeah, not really ready for prime time. He's going to get the thing up to snuff over the next couple of weeks, & then we can get in there to paint & finish it up after that. Lastly, we have made a plan to devote a chunk of Saturday to just focusing & finishing the 4 or 5 boxes of random stuff that are still cluttering up the house, & making a real space for Adrienne to work while her office is under construction. So, photos of the dining room, office, etc to come next week!

The view from the kitchen sink is lovely, from sunrise straight through sunset. Here it is at 8:30 this morning: so lovely! Standing squarely in front of the window, it's mostly a view of the neighbors' roofs, but it's certainly not bad. neat & tidy! Well, I just had my first run-in with neighborhood wildlife, there on the neighbor's roof. I came around the corner into the kitchen, & a ferocious squirrel was running along the gutter, straight for me. Very startling! Luckily, I'm pretty ferocious myself, so when it saw me, it turned & ran away. artist's rendering Close call!

You know you've come into a classy home when you walk into the kitchen & behold magnificent art like this: It originally had a marvelous 80's-style gold-ish metal frame, but there was a tragic accident & that frame was smashed while we were trying to hang it. It was a very sad day.

We started our first real project today (not that unpacking isn't a major project all on its own): cleaning up & finishing what had been the laundry room, & turning it into an office for Adrienne. The washing machine went downstairs into the basement & the utility sink was removed when the rest of the plumbing work was done weeks ago, so the room is really only needing some paint & new flooring before it's ready to use. Some before photos: Shot from the door, with dining room behind me. Shingles from the original exterior of the first extension (the one with the kitchen). I peeked inside a crack in the vinyl siding on the front of the house & discovered that the whole house had been this color before the siding was put on in the 90s. The window that looks into the rest of the house. This is the original exterior of the house itself. Water stains on the sheetrock, from the utility sink that had been there. It's been suggested to us to make this room in...

I saw today on someone else's blog ( Bernalwood ) that a full set of 1938 aerial photos of SF have been put online, so of course I promptly looked up Mars. Here it is in a modern satellite photo: First, I have to say that the resolution on the 1938 photos are astounding. You can download the photos or use the Google Earth interface, if you want to poke around 1938 SF yourself: http://www.davidrumsey.com/view/google-earth-browser#san-francisco-1938 Second, this photo shows that the back extensions are way, way older than I had thought. WOW. No wonder the floors slope!

I am completely sick of running out of bread, & Adrienne is sick of hearing me complain about it, so when my mom & stepdad sent a housewarming/Christmas giftcard, the first thing we did was order a bread maker. Here is our first loaf: A little lump of goodness! The smell of baking bread definitely adds to a house's equity. Thank you Mom & Jack!!

...well, December actually -- this one bloomed just before Christmas. The bush two feet away has a couple dozen little buds on it. I think they might be yellow roses. I don't love everything about California, but roses blooming in the middle of winter sure is fun.

Happy New Year & Happy New Couch! A day early, here are photos of my new favorite thing, in our nearly-finished (for now) living room. This is the front window of the house. As you can see, I still haven't managed to get the curtains done. An angled shot, to give more of an idea of how the room looks. The picture cut off in the top right of the frame is a gift Jon gave Adrienne a couple years ago. This is the wall opposite to the bookshelves above. This is a gift that Adrienne's aunt & uncle sent for Christmas. Thank you, Jennifer & Patrick! I'm only posting these three shots today, because the dining room is a total disaster, so I want to leave it out for now. Hoping to get to that this week. Also making good progress on the bedroom. Stay tuned for that & the roses tomorrow.