House Week 3: Bare Bones

So far i haven't lost my mind...though i do believe that it will all happen in due time.  I have managed to lose all of the walls, ceiling, and floors in my house.  Luckily all of this was done on purpose my father tells me.  It is very exciting to finally be done with the removal phases and to be moving on to the beginning of building onto the bare bones of the house.

This week they will dig and pour the new foundation for the house that i've been told can withstand a 9.0 earthquake and support a second story if i ever build up the desired to go through a massive remodel ever again.  Not much to show as we are finally down to just the studs in the walls and the team begins digging for the new foundation.  Next week should have foundation pictures!

My Naked House from the Street


Some Neat Floor Bracing


Still intact Sunroom (i can't wait to get rid of)

Crochet to Kill Bacteria and Save the Planet

Well maybe crochet can't save the entire planet, but there are a lot of little household items i'm being inspired to replace the disposable versions of with crocheted washable versions that won't ever have to see a landfill.  The latest book from BookSwim i've been reading is Organic Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck.  This so far has been an awesome and straight forward read with lots of fantastic ideas to get anyone cleaning less with some easy preventative cleaning things and detailed walkthoughs on germs/bacteria and how/where they live.  Who knew that even biodegradable sponges are perfect breeding grounds for bacteria.

In the book Sandbeck discusses using dish cloths instead of sponges when washing dishes, when done letting them dry and then putting them in the "to be washed" pile.  The next load of dishes, move on to a new Dish Washer.  Reading about the evil-ness of the sponge and it's bacteria farm type personality i thought about crochet, and how those little bits of left over cotton yarn could be put to a good use as Dish Washers!

So out came the Granny Squares Now book for inspiration and some basic patterns.  I finished two Dish Washers this evening based on patterns: a) Five-Petal Flower (In Green/Yellow) and the b) Eight-Petal Flower.  If i am going to switch over i figure i'll need at least one a day for seven to 10 days so that i don't have to run the laundry just to get a clean Dish Washer.  Here are a couple of things the new dish washers will save me:

* money (no more buying sponges)
* time (no more going to the store to buy sponges)
* no waster (once not longer usable all 100% cotton items can be composted and saved from the landfills)

More to come on my new favorite book/reference manual

House Week 2: Who needs a roof anyways?

The demo work is nearly done!  They finished tearing out *all* of the kitchen and have moved up to the roof.  It's pretty exciting to walk into your house and see the sun shining in through the ceiling.

I have begun Phase A: trying to remove the 6 to 8 layers of paint on the original windows (which will be put back in their rightful place at the front of the house) and original doors.  The different layers of colors are amazing.  Who knew that anyone had a turquoise colored exterior to their home four layers back (guessing the 70's?).  Since the house was originally built back in 1921 i don't think anyone has "removed" paint prior to putting more on top.  The paint "rings" seemed to go newest to oldest:

* White
* Beige
* Baby Blue
* Deep Red (so far only on the windows)
* Turquoise
* Off White
* Tan
* ???? [haven't conquered the tan yet...]

To help with the removal of the paint i knew i didn't want the super toxic standby, i wanted to use something that could be washed into the grass without it glowing in the dark.  I found an awesome product that even smelled like oranges!  Citristrip, and it actually worked!  Today i layed out the bathroom room and a couple of windows to get going on my phase of removal.  The Citristrip went on super easy and even...and came off nearly as easy.  I found that leaving things in full sun for a couple of hours before getting to them the product dried and was more difficult to get off, but i just sprayed a bit of water onto the surface and was able to get it up super easy!  I don't know if i'm enjoying stripping off paint, but i am super excited about being able to see all of the molding details on my windows once i get this all done.

Well, one side of one door and one side of two windows down.  Only 14 sides of windows and 9 sides of doors to go!!!

Mend, Repair, Repeat

I have finally caught up with 90% or so my my "life".  Laundry clean, house not dirty, house things all caught up and in order, work back to it's old self, yoga being attended mostly, and cooking has even nuzzled it's way back into my routines.  It's nice to feel like i have routines again.  Well all of this being caught up~ness let me dive into the ever growing pile of items that needed to be mended.

I have a major problem getting rid of clothes i like.  Basically if i want to wear it and always want to wear it and never have it die or become unwearable because i know i'll never find the exact same thing again.  Sure, something close...but not the same.  This evening was dedicated to relaxing while watching House (yea, i'm addicated), ripping out bad seams and sewing new seams and things back where they belong.  Some interesting things made it into the pile:
* Button on a Back pocket of a pair of pants to be reattached
* Straps on a cami to be shorten
* Straps on a dress to be shorten (yes, i'm short...i get it!)
* Cami to have stupid elastic removed (it was just bad...)
* Solid Cotton Tights to have elastic waistband replaced (so they'll stay up for once)

In the pile that i'll coninute to pick at for the rest of the evening:
* (2 pairs) Hand knit socks to be patched/darned at the heels
* Hand knit sweater to be torn back to yarn (too wide to wear so it's dusty, my first sweater evar!)
* Elastic to be replaced on a Bra

The socks shouldn't be hard, but i'm glad there is only a first time for everything once.  The sweater is for the best as if it fit i'd totally wear it, so i was like ... i can fix that!  The bra is super sewing experiment #9856817XZ124.  Basically I can't justify throwing away something that cost $150 just because the elastic is shot, so it means i am going to kinda take the whole thing apart?  This could be a disaster, but at least i'll go down trying!

I have really enjoying the last month being at home and having time to do things like pick lemons and darn socks, life is good...

House Week 1: Demoloshing the Inside

Work has finally begun on my house!  It's super existing to see what's behind all of the walls.  It's crazy to peek inside of the house, makes you wonder how it hasn't fallen down so far.  There are places where the wall studs don't run the entire length of the wall, pipes that don't go anywhere, and lath and plaster on each and every wall.  So far most of the walls are out and they are beginning to remove the cabinets and the fixtures in the bathroom.  Here are some pictures from the house as it is tonight...so exciting!!!

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Returning to normal and a Beautiful afternoon in the city

Two countries, a huge release at work, and a spring dance season later I'm glad to have been part of everything ... but am very much enjoying my first
weekend without any demands.

Hong Kong was amazing and someday I'll finish going through the photos and get them up on Flickr for all to enjoy. I don't think I was expecting all of the shopping that the culture seems to revolve around, but towards the end I found some fantastic out of way places to explore and discovered some interesting history.

Japan was...well, still japan. Not much seems to change expect for the handheld technology, bt even that felt like home as most of the Tokyo-ites had joined the dark side and were one with their iPhones. I think I may be a bit traveled out. I found that I was super unimpressed with nearly everything I saw expect the art museums, and even then only mixed media modern art. I don't think that the temples of the world have gotten any less amazing, but after seeing them in nearly ten countries over the last four years I think I could use a bit of a religious break.

Not like I can afford to travel anyways with all the crazy new house stuff. Yep, the house stuff has begun! Plans *mostly* approved and it looks like I'll be moving sometime May/June. I'll be looking for people to help with painting, interested?

Separate posts to follow about the stupendous, amazing, an georgeous outfits from Double Vision's spring season, hopefully coming to a New York stage near you soon.




With the beautiful weather I was reminded of last summer where I spent many weekends in new york enjoying Central Park and thought Golden Gate Park sounded like a perfect Sunday activity. Somehow I managed to get I to the city and parked along the park from home in less than 20 minutes, and yes there was traffic. Don't know how, but I'll take it! Cal Academy was fun and with no line I finally made it into the rainforest dome and got to explore. So many frogs! With a few hours of day left I strolled over to the Japaneae Tea Garden for some Cherry Blossom viewing. Since when are there any two cherry blossom trees here? I must have dreamt the ten plus I thought I saw here last time. Everything else was as remembered an fantastic. The wisteria smells amazing and the snaking ponds are a treat to walk though. I think the only think that's missing is an ice cream filled crepe, Japantown here I come!