The Monster On The Roof

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!

Everything About Us Says 'Class'

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.

The First Project Begins

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 into a second bathroom -- if we decide to do that, the water lines are still there, ready to go.

The old lineoleum.

This morning, I washed down the painted/shingled walls, & pulled up the lineoleum. By 1pm today, the yellow paint on the shingles was much yellower, & this is where we stood with the floor:

This is the threshold, with the original fir softwood floors under the much newer oak hardwood floors.

We're going to pick up some primer & some new flooring this week. No need to pick up painting equipment because Roger generously lent us all his stuff, & no need to pick up paint because Amanda & Matt generously gave us a can of paint left over from when they painted their bedroom. Thank you, Roger, Amanda, & Matt!

Hopefully by this time next week, I will be posting photos of the room all finished. Wish us luck!

Mars in 1938

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!

BREAD!

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!!

Roses in January

...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 Couch!

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.