October 30, 2007
Exterior decorating.
With the inside of the house finally coming into focus, it felt right to start to turn some thought to the outside.
I have hardly noticed that I have a large back yard. It has been a construction dump and weed patch for the past two years, but it could be a demi shangrala with a bit of sweat and smarts.
First off however, it needed grading out to get rid of the slope that prevented the yard from ever being used as a living space... a job for a bloke with a Bobcat.
I have started to plan things out in sketchup. Its from Google, it's free and its totally nuts.
The t&g siding on the side of the "barn" is a wreck, so I plan to loose the window and put a big slider around the back with a small deck. I want to re-side the barn with flat siding and paint it out with a trompe garden (ditto with the fence) blurring the join to make the brain take the illusion for granted. This is going to be fun!
Posted by Barbara at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
May 29, 2006
The BIG hole.
I had been noticing a slight depression in street at the bottom of the driveway over the weekend, and came home from work on Monday to find a 3'X 4'X 4" sinkhole in the street. "Holy shit!!"
I quickly figure it to be my broken lateral clay sewer line, and call the city. They show up and tell me "you have a sink hole in your street"... no kidding.
What they meant is it was my hole. They also told me it would cost $6,500 to make the hole go away and have my tiolet flush again.
.... Next stop, Home Depot!
$120 bucks later I had the pipe fixed and got to keep my new pickaxe:)
The city inspector is moaning about about the cold patch I used for the black top, but my tiolet is flushing again, so they can kiss my freshly wiped ass.
Posted by Barbara at 9:23 AM | Comments (0)
from tundra to eden... almost.
We were recently given a root bound Redwood tree by Barbs sister Jan, and it spurred us into starting to untangle the garden.
The Redwood was soon joined by a London Plane, a Silver Birch and a Japanese Maple. I redressed the nondescript slope into a terrace, and used my cave building skills to fabricate some huge rocks.
Throw in a couple of hundred bucks of bedding plants from Home Depot and a few quarts of sweat and ... Boom!
A garden.
Posted by Barbara at 6:49 AM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2005
Dropping walls, raising sprits.
Well, now the fun starts.
The frustration of the paper and money juggling seems to be getting further from the focus, and I can finally put my hands on the beast.
I went in the other day, just to remove the disgusting stove and fridge, and got a little carried away. By the end of the weekend, I had torn out all the kitchen and dropped three major walls, as per the plan.
The experience was cathartic. I felt as though I was performing some exorcism, and ridding the house not only of walls, but also the echo of its uncaring previous tenants.
The effect is real and dramatic, and the house feels bathed in light and energy as space is liberated.
Posted by Andrew at 7:39 PM | Comments (2)
May 8, 2005
Our little piece of planet Earth.
So what do you get for $360,000 in the Bay Area real estate market ...well ..humm ...Potential!
We closed escrow on Friday, and started today to take stock of the huge task in hand.
It really is dreadful. It's so icky that you have to wipe your feet when going out into the street, but the neighborhood is great and we will love the place into submission and make it gleam once more.
We have already started to figure out where we can bust out walls and start to turn this into place of light and style. We will open up the kitchen, taking it back to the studs and place a center island and cooktop. We will expose the long hidden oak floors and bring the garden to life again. I have spent my career working on some of the finest and most beautiful homes in the world...now it is my turn. I can't wait to get started.
This would be a good time to thank some people who worked to get us into this, our first home.
Jim and Janice Judd...Great Pharaohs of World Savings Bank, who saw beyond paper risk and took a chance on us.
Peter Robertson.. My 'brotha from anotha muvva' and guru in the voodoo arts of real estate.
Our Families; Ray, Judy, Bernard, Florence for helping us over the last humps.
Our great friend Jim Pire has offered to take some shots as the metamorphosis develops, and these can be seen by clicking HERE.
Posted by Andrew at 8:57 PM | Comments (3)