THE CABIN HOUSE

sheets?

2012-01-17T14:06:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, C's mom bought us new comforters for our bed. I can't believe it took us so long to replace our old blankets. We were so cold for so long!

Inspired by this photo of Laure's bed, I bought us clean white covers and some throw pillows. Now we need new sheets. We've had Ikea sheets in the past and they're rather scratchy. I like the sheets below but am not sure about the quality. Anyone familiar with bedding from these companies?

pottery barn

west elm

target

winter projects, small and big

2012-01-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

backyard in transition, again

small projects for the winter:
+ finish E's night-lamp

+ build bookshelf for E's room

+ build two frames and hang pictures in E's room

+ close back area ceiling hole/attic access (it's been open for 4+ years, blowing down col)

+ fix C's grandmother's lamp

+ hem curtains

+ buy new sheets!

big project for this weekend:

+ backyard revamp version #1028 (to create a more child-friendly play area) which includes:

+ leveling out dirt area and removing excess dirt

+ digging large holes for planting

+ creating "natural barrier" along retaining wall with large rosemary plants

+ moving vegetable boxes**

Any winter gardeners out there? What edibles can we still plant?

**the vegetable garden was woefully neglected during the summer and fall. we're scaling back from the 2 small and 1 large box system we had going and trying to plant more realistically and efficiently. any tips?

Spring in Winter

2012-01-11T15:14:00.000-08:00

we've been having the most beautiful weather.views from the top of our hill, overlooking the city.

we emptied out one compost bin this weekend and re-stacked the second. look at those worms! there were BALLS of worms. pure gold, i tell you.

moss beach

2012-01-06T13:40:00.000-08:00

what a wonderful way to say hello to a new year.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-29T20:22:00.001-08:00

We spent the week down in LA with my family. The weather was amazing...fall in LA is something to be seen.

We spent a lot of time outside. My parents' backyard is stunning; it's not huge, but the flowers are always in bloom and the Meyer lemon tree is never empty.

E decided to try walking (with a little help from Papa and Uncle D).

Obligatory pumpkin pie, with an improvised walnut crumb crust. It was so good.

E with Grammy, my grandmother and her great-grandmother. Words can't express how much it means to me that they get to spend time together.

bed head

2011-11-22T16:36:00.001-08:00

tiny toes

2011-11-10T22:08:00.001-08:00

new shoes from grandma for her tiny feets

lampe

2011-11-10T21:39:00.001-08:00

E took an unusual 2 hour nap last Sunday and I got to play with the jigsaw. I haven't used a power tool since the early days of pregnancy, before my belly was a hazard. I forgot and then suddenly remembered how satisfying it is to cut through wood.

This project is just a mini one for fun, using all recycled materials and pure German innovation. I plan to paint the lampe this weekend and then C will wire it for E's room.

mobile

2011-11-07T11:30:00.000-08:00

A friend made this mobile for E. She painted every little animal and cut out a variety of sizes. Each side of each animal is a different bright color. Every time E points to it I tell her, "Pferde" (horse in german). The animals are more of a vague horse/zebra/dog but I like them non-specific.

The mobile hangs above the changing area because E is now squirmy as a slippery fish when it comes to diaper changes. Sometimes the mobile helps keep her distracted, other times a song or having her "help" me by holding the clean diaper. Wriggly babies are amazingly hard to manage.

fall happenings

2011-11-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

tiny pink lady apples from our tree

bougainvillea in the garden

oranges

succulents and rosemary run amok

haircut #2

dressing

2011-10-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

love this tunic (way out of the budget)

This isn't particularly house related but it's certainly part of my current everyday life.

I'm having some style/clothing issues. It's been nearly a year's time but I can't seem to get a hold on clothing or a style that fits my new life. I'm still going in to an office a few days a week but it's a casual place so I'm looking for clothes that can mostly do double duty. I suppose more specifically, I'm having a hard time not just throwing on jeans and t-shirts every day. I'd like to look and feel a bit more pulled together and sophisticated. With a teensy-tiny clothing budget (and a post-baby body), it's a struggle.

The internets is fantastic for beautiful inspiration, but I find it can often be a bit daunting for those of us with $$ taste and small budgets. I completely understand and respect the high prices for independent designers. And as much as I'd love to support them, it's simply not in my budget.

Any words of wisdom from stylish time-crunched and budget-conscious ladies out there (preferably ones who, like me, can't sew their own clothes)? Favorite non-soul-sucking places to shop? East bay thrift stores?

Hoot!

2011-10-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

A few days back, E and I took a little nature walk around our backyard before her nap. The birds were unusually talkative, chirping non-stop and fluttering back and forth between the trees as if something exciting were on the way. We also noticed tufts of white feathers sprinkled throughout the yard; never a good sign for little birds.

Later that same evening, just before sunset, the four of us (dog, too) walked around the backyard and noticed the same erratic activity amongst the birds. And then we spotted it....an enormous owl in the eucalyptus tree! We broke out the binoculars and tried to take some photos but it was more exciting just to watch him spin his head around and give us the stink-eye.

With some help from google we figured out that it's most likely a Great Horned Owl.

Us

2011-10-20T15:00:00.000-07:00

E is on the move. For the past month her activity level has skyrocketed every day. I'm having a hard time keeping up with her and she's not even walking yet.

C commented the other night that it's amazing that the tiny, crying baby from those shaky early weeks has morphed into a real person. It no longer feels like the two of us (plus dog and baby). We've become a threesome (plus dog) almost overnight.

I'm not saying life is all perfect these days, I'd hate to imply that idea--there's enough "perfection" out there on the web to make a new mom's head spin--we've just become more accustomed to the ever-changing nature of our new lives (and the continuous lack of sleep).

I can't really help but live in the moment, as I'm mostly too drained to really think past the moment, but it's fun to see our new routines becoming our traditions. I wonder which ones will stick and become part of E's collection of memories over the years.

a few nice things

2011-10-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

C found two bottles and an old Ajax canister hidden in the framing when he tore out the old bathroom drywall. It made me really happy to see one bottle stamped with "Oakland, Calif".

My brothers brought me the hippopotamus planter from my parents' house. I've always loved it and will plant something nice for E in it.

My very talented friends with excellent gift-giving skills left me with beautiful neon candles they found in Napa while visiting from Deutschland. The candles are meant to drip fantastic globs of colored wax all over a wine bottle. I like the way they look luminescent in the photo.

Almost there...

2011-10-06T14:18:00.000-07:00

Day 7 of no toilet or shower but we're so close. E and I booked it down to LA while C tore apart and then rebuilt our bathroom and last night was my first peek after a week away. I knew it would be good, but I had no idea how good. Also C snuck in a major surprise that's a real game changer for our tiny bathroom. More on that later.

Our bathroom is now officially the best room in our house. Would it be wrong to spend most of my time in a 5' x 5' room? Do you think my daughter would miss me if I just lived in the bathtub?

2011-10-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

A few images from the bathroom inspiration file.

here

via mrs. french's pinterest

WC

2011-09-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

This is happening around our house right now.

The ceiling and walls have been ripped out. We discovered that our bathroom fan wasn't doing us any good at all. The fan wasn't connected to anything and the air was being blown straight into the attic so we have a bit more rot than expected.

Spiders, crickets, insulation and plaster keep falling into the bathtub and onto the toilet seat but we're used to living in a mess.

Besides, it's a small price to pay for what will soon be a stellar new bathroom. No more bumping into the sink when we walk through the door. No more water leaking through the floor into the basement. No more stupid 3D shell and fish shaped shower tiles. And I never thought I'd be so excited about a new toilet...

AlphaZirper

2011-09-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

Outside the bedroom window, our nightly music.

According to wikipedia: Tree cricket is also known as poor man's thermometer. It is because if you count the number of chirps in 15 seconds and add 37 you get the temperature close to the Farhenheit temperature of outside.

Life, of late

2011-09-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

I've taken an unexpected hiatus from the world of blogging. I'm not done with it, just a little busy living life these days and hard-pressed to find the extra time to sit down and post.

Our little home is still chugging along, presenting new challenges with the addition of an extra person. Rooms feel smaller, the cool old stove seems suddenly treacherous and the floors are forever too dirty. I've learned to ignore the pile of dishes on the counter and the spots of blueberries, mashed carrots and pureed spinach that dot the floors, kitchen chairs and most of my clothes.

Here's our summer, briefly:

We became members of the zoo. E loves the chimpanzees and giraffes. The train ride is also pretty cool.

L came for his annual summer stay. We spent a week outside of San Diego with my family. We swam every day, ate too much, played Monopoly, Sequence and Scrabble, took care of my mother and her poor sprained ankle and laughed like crazy. On the way home we stayed a night in Cayucos and a night in Cambria. We threw lots of sticks into the ocean for Elli and stopped in Big Sur for breakfast. We spoke German and English and a bunch Germanglish.

We camped, taught E the beauty of the hammock, swam in the lake while E napped in her stroller, swam in the lake with E and ate some more.

We had another round of beloved house guests from Germany. They were relegated to a blow-up mattress on the living room floor but then it popped in the middle of the night so they had only the floor. We've added "sleeper-couch" to the growing house wish-list.

The bathroom sink fell out of the wall which means that our long awaited bathroom remodel day has finally arrived. The toilet has been purchased and we're working on figuring the new shower fixtures. The floor will be retiled with gorgeous blue tiles that C found on craigslist.

I finally caved and gave E her first haircut. It was only two little snips but I teared up while cutting her bangs. Now her hair doesn't get stuck in her runny nose and she can see again, so I suppose it was a wise move.

We've enjoyed the random summer/fall heat waves, eating garden tomatoes and passing the long afternoons in the kiddie pool in our backyard; turns out that E is a swimmer/splasher/rabble-rouser extraordinaire in the water. To say that she loves the water would be an understatement.

I've had some time to knit. E seems to outgrow each sweater faster than I can make them.

I've had some time to peruse the newly redesigned Bon Appetit. It's still not cutting it for me. For sure it's better than before, but not inspiring like my much-loved Gourmet (RIP)...

And I've had some time to start books and not finish them.

I'll be back here a bit more often. Probably posting a little bit more about random life/thoughts than exclusively about our house and garden, I hope you won't mind.

Vegetable Garden, Spring 2011

2011-05-23T22:16:00.000-07:00

purple spinach!

Last summer the vegetable garden was sorely neglected. I was too busy being pregnant and enjoying the hammock to be bothered by watering our poor spindly tomato plants. This year, with the prospect of a youngin' who will be able to enjoy carrots from our backyard, we found renewed enthusiasm for planting. We started by emptying out the boxes and refilling them with a new mix of planting soil and a bunch of composted horse manure from the nearby stables.

Each tomato plant got a huge fish head, a couple of crushed egg shells and some pulverized aspirin per this method.

A few years back I put in a drip irrigation system but we still hand-water occasionally to make sure everyone gets enough water and nutrients. We use fish emulsion and compost tea for fertilizing every once in a while.

Here's a list of what we planted this year:

- carrots

- radishes (red, purple and watermelon!)

- bunching onions

- 7 tomato plants (a big mix)

- basil

- cucumbers, persian and a regular variety

- beets

- sugar snap peas

- haricot verts

- buttercrunch lettuce

- wild arugula

- lacinato kale

- purple hillbilly spinach (!)

- celery

- an entire 4'x4' box of strawberries

- a pumpkin for little E to harvest in october

and then 2 herb pots by the kitchen door with:

- chives

- orgeano

- thyme

- purple sage

- lemon verbena

- parsley

- cilantro

- savory

pumpkin relegated to a wine barrel

***fruit tree update coming next

Guest Posting

2011-05-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to mention my guest post over on Hank and Lucy today.
Jamie and Celia were kind enough to ask for my thoughts on new motherhood.

Flowers from the Garden

2011-03-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

A gift from my favorite German...collected from our yard: california poppies, sourgrass, wild artichoke flowers, toyon berries and peppercorns from the pepper tree. Isn't it gorgeous? Probably the best bouquet I've ever received.

Little Owl Lost

2011-03-02T22:31:00.000-08:00

This is one of ~~our~~ my favorite books lately. The story is super sweet but the illustrations are my favorite part. The style reminds me of David Weidman's work.

I found a "making of" Little Owl Lost on Chris Haughton's blog. I think it's such a great example of the creative process that goes into a project. It makes me excited to start collecting inspiration for my own projects.

Stripes

2011-02-27T18:36:00.000-08:00

Hummingbird Family

2011-02-23T19:31:00.000-08:00

We watched the mama bird sitting on her eggs and now we get to watch her feed the babes.

quandry

2011-02-22T20:09:00.000-08:00

I have this other blog. It was the first blog I started and was really just a way for me to keep track of inspiration, etc. that I came across while perusing the interwebs.

The Cabin House was supposed to be a separate place to keep a journal of the work we do on our home. I've gone back and forth trying to figure out how to maintain the two independent places but I think it's just too much. There's so much that crosses over.

Do I merge the two? Allow for random posts over here that have nothing to do with our home? Share pictures of the cows we see on our walks and the sketches I hope to start making again? Hm, not sure yet but we'll see what happens...

Early Evening Light

2011-02-15T19:54:00.000-08:00

Acacias in the backyard

Crash!

2011-01-26T21:55:00.000-08:00

This was a tough week.

E had her first set of shots and was a brave little girl at the doctor's but was a major fuss-pot the rest of the day and night. She was not a happy little girl. Happily she's back to her adorable self but it was rough. So hard to see the little one not feeling well...

Earlier in the week a crazy windstorm toppled one of our Eucalyptus trees. In the middle of the night we heard a loud crack, a woosh and a crash. That morning C discovered that our aprium tree had been squashed, our nectarine tree suffered a pretty killer hit and the cherry tree up on the hill barely escaped. The pictures aren't easy to decipher but I wager the Eucalyptus measures in at a solid 80-90 feet tall. We're having that other big one cut down on Friday...too damn scary.

And we (or more specifically C) had yet another bad run in with that damn poison oak. If someone could come up with a vaccination again poison oak they'd be a millionaire. That stuff is so nasty and serves no purpose. No beautiful flowers or unique nutritional benefit to other animals that counter the viciousness. I don't get it.

Lastly, we seem to have a major and disgusting fly infestation somewhere in the house. We can't figure out where they're coming from. There must be a breeding spot somewhere. Not in the trash, or the compost....in a plant? Ugh.

Oh, but we did find a hummingbird nest in our orange tree!

Baby E

2011-01-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

Born 10 days late on her great grandfather's birthday and named for her great grandmother. We plan to keep her.

Gate: part 2

2011-01-13T18:32:00.000-08:00

After the steel framing and posts were all in place, C fit pieces of wood to the interior of the steel framing using scraps from leftover redwood boards from our previous projects.

He found the boards we used for the fence via Craigslist. They're old-growth redwood floor boards that had been removed from an old home. He planed the boards, sanded them and treated them with rosewood oil (the same treatment we used on our front porch and platform).

The boards are tongue and groove and fit together seamlessly. We had a really hard time trying to decide if we should use them for the gate/fence project or save them for future interior projects. The grain and color of the boards is really amazing. Obviously we went with the gate/fence but it was a tough choice....

And while C slaved away on the gate/fence I spent time on our other big summer project...

Gate: part 1

2011-01-07T21:31:00.000-08:00

Just a little hiatus...

One of the most involved projects of the past 3.5 years is nearly complete...and I didn't have a single thing to do with it.

Salvage wood atop our "transporter"

before

first gate-post in

C dreamed up, designed, collected materials and built our new gate. It's built nearly entirely from salvaged materials (save for the custom welded frames and the electrical components) and every detail is customized to fit our wonky driveway and old house.

There are many, many photos so I'll break it up into parts.

It started in the summer when our pint-sized assistant was here to help us get the project started.

Of course the minute you mess with something, the entire house seems to fall apart. In our case, it was the retaining wall at the side of our house. We ended up pouring an entirely new wall and added a new walkway and a few stairs.

Steel gate and walkway framing up, new walkway and retaining wall in place. Up next is the wood...

Summer 2010

2010-08-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

We're still here but life somehow got in the way of blogging in the last few months. Instead of a wordy post about all that we've been up to, I'm throwing up some photos of the summer thus far. It's been less focused on projects but I'll update you on those shortly. Thanks for your patience (and nudges)...

backyard pool party

intense wrestling matches

baseballllllllll!

en route to Big Sur

Big Sur

en route to southern california

ferry to Catalina Island

Catalina

body-surfing

campfires

s'mores

leaving Catalina Island

waffle making with Pops

too many waffles with Pops

on the way home

How's your summer been so far?

Fences

2010-05-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

We recently had a property survey in preparation for the first big project of the summer. We're finally putting up a fence.

This way Elli can run free, we can grow berries up the fence and we'll get a bit (more) privacy.

We decided against metal in favor of wood posts with deer fencing. It fits the surroundings and almost disappears into the hillside.

Part of the fence project includes hanging out our driveway gate from funky chainlink to a nicer wood/metal gate. We're moving the gate closer to the street to give us more room in the front.

We found a local shop that welds frames for super reasonable prices and to save $$, we'll be installing and finishing the gate ourselves.

This (now funky) area will be enclosed:

C's already started the hardest part and spent 3 days digging a massive 4 ft. hole, by hand.

ps- today is our 3 year anniversary as homeowners!

Brick Wall

2010-05-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

I'll put a real post up later this week, this is only a snippet of one of our weekend activities. That photo is me working magic on the one brick that I put down on that wall. It's kind of like making a layer cake, but more permanent.

Around the Garden

2010-05-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder how kohlrabi grows? I (wrongly) assumed it grew in the ground like a beet or radish. What a surprise to see the bright purple bulb snuggled in amongst the leaves. The leaves are also very tasty.

Other goings-on around the garden:

Last year we planted 12 strawberry plants. When the first set of blooms appeared, we followed my mother-in-law's advice and pinched off all of the buds. We continued for the first few months and harvested maybe a handful of berries. She swore it would help them develop strong roots over time.

She was very right. This year we've had non-stop strawberries.

Lettuce and wild anise. Any ideas for what to do with anise? So far we've eaten it straight and sprinkled it in salads. We have it growing all over the backyard.

Our lovely nectarine tree has some funky leaves. We're thinking maybe leaf curl? Ideas?

Apricot tree with no funky leaves and tons of fruit. Looking forward to eating apricots....

2010-04-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend's shenanigans. I know, a little late but things seem to be moving slower 'round here these days.

By 11am last Saturday, the temperature was already above 80 in our backyard. We took off for a quick overnight camping trip outside of Napa. I managed to not take a single photo and spent much of the day in the hammock.

These photos are all from C's iPhone.

Hammocks, mountain lions, not doing much and TONS of food.

Preparation for the amateur knife throwing contest. We sacrificed a picnic table.

Post knife-throwing and hammock-napping, a quick game of wiffle ball...devastating loss for the other team. Good thing none of us are the tiniest bit competitive.

Elli and her favorite Uncle Eddie:

Office Nook Clean-Up, Part 1

2010-04-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

the contents of our office nook, yikes...

For the past few months we've had a sad, sad Ikea bookcase (junky and made from paper, gotta love the cheap Ikea stuff...) sitting in the "office" nook of our kitchen. Honestly, it was so bad that I couldn't even bring myself to take a photo. I was too embarrassed.

It was first in our living room and took up the entire room. Then we moved it to the office nook and shortly after the move, the shelves collapsed under the weight of the books. When we brought home our sweet pup and her crate blocked access to the rest of the shelves. It sat that way for a few months.

Until C bought us a beautiful and simple bookcase off of ebay. My brother brought it up from LA to our little cabin and it looks like it was made for our home.

(this is the ebay photo) photos of the bookcase in our home to follow shortly

In honor of the move, we decided to clean out the office nook. And then we decided to recaulk, repaint, build a shelf and install said shelf all in one day.

The best part of the project? It was absolutely free. We had all of the supplies on hand and C made our new office shelf out of a leftover piece of redwood from our porch rebuild. We treated it with the rosewood oil and it's good to go.

We still have more work to do in the nook...pictures to hang, shoe racks to build, etc but it's such a relief to walk through the kitchen and not see the disaster shelf anymore.

Fava Beans and Maintenance

2010-04-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

I've never grown fava beans but they are just so darn easy. I planted them and really haven't done a thing. I'm also excited to taste them (I've never eaten fava beans!). Any favorite recipes to share?

C pointed out that the pretty white flowers look like butterflies.

I've been feeling slightly unmotivated to post over the last week or two. Maybe it's just a phase or maybe it's the weather. We've been working on the house but it's been maintenance, maintenance and more maintenance. For how much I love our yard and garden, it's an amazing amount of effort just to keep the grass cut, the weeds pulled and the trees pruned. We spent the entire last weekend (when it wasn't raining) just cleaning up and man, it's exhausting. Gardening is nice but yard work...not my favorite.

What keeps you motivated when you're stuck in those dreaded maintenance periods?

***Michelle over at PrettyMommy asked me about my "Everyday Obsessions". Check them out here, thanks Michelle!***

Raffle Prizes, Boeuf Bourguignon and Agave

2010-04-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Rainy weekend, most of it spent indoors. We went to see The Ghost Writer on Saturday night and randomly won 2 of the 3 raffle prizes they gave away before the show started! Neither one of us ever win anything so it was pretty funny that we cleaned up. The prizes were a movie poster (not so exciting) and two passes to the Pacific Film Archive at UC Berkeley (exciting).

Sunday I made Boeuf Bourguignon from Mastering the Art of French Cooking (I found an old copy dumped on the street a few years back but this is the first time I've cooked from it) and we picked up some free Agave plants from craigslist.

Wish List: Kitchen

2010-04-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

pepper grinder: because ours is ugly and this is not

dishtowel: lovely design and affordable

picardie glasses: pretty, stackable, classic, affordable, not too big and not too small

water pitcher: somewhat indulgent but so much prettier than the Brita pitcher

apothecary Jars: for my spices

cereal bowls: love Heath for quality, beauty, history and for being local

Welcome!

2010-04-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

before and after**

Howdy to all the folks who made it here via sfgirlbybay. This is the (almost) three year story of turning a funky, dirty and much neglected tiny house into our cabinhouse. We do the work ourselves and though stressful at times, it's pretty damn awesome to live in a home and really understand the work that goes into it. As my wise grandmother likes to say, "It's a learning experience".

Sometimes we talk construction, other days we're hacking through the overgrown forest behind our house, occasionally we'll share some inspiration and there's always some sort of scheming about the next big project.

Take a look around:

- Blog-It-Forward: Inspiration

- a few before & after**

- around the garden

- look-out platform

- front porch

**we're never quite "finished" with any project, at least not yet... any before & after comes with the caveat that there are approximately 5,000 other things that still need to get done.

SFMOMA

2010-03-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

My momma was in town last week and we spent the afternoon at SFMOMA. The Luc Tuymans show was good but the Anniversary show was fantastic. My favorite pieces:

This was a group of drawings by kids between the ages of 6-13 (I think...) from Rhodesia (today known as Zimbabwe), depicting daily life in their villages.

Of course, I lost the piece of paper where I wrote down all of the information but I believe these were created through an art program led by an artist (whom I can't remember) and then exhibited at the museum.

Two other favorites:

Theophilus Brown, The Referee

Clyfford Still, Untitled (previously Self-Portrait)

Oh, and the little room of Paul Klee's work left me fairly awe-struck. It's been a while since I've felt so invigorated and inspired by an exhibit. It's good to feel excited about art again.

Nature is Amazing

2010-03-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

I spent a good part of the weekend exclaiming, "Nature is so damn amazing!".

I think finding the sprouting acorn kicked it off for me. I was weeding the garden and found this little beauty nestled in between the strawberries. We have mini oak trees poking up all over the place but this was the first time I really saw how the magic works.

That crazy alien-like pink area will unfurl to become the oak leaves. I planted this little guy to watch him grow but ~~someone~~ some puppy pulled it out of the pot.

C spent the weekend on super-speed. First he leveled out more of the upper hill area, added 3 new steps, a winding path and an area for a bench. Then he climbed up a 30 ft. oak tree, pruned it and freed it from the encroaching Acacias. On to the next Oak trees for pruning and then an epic battle with poison oak. He also managed to cut the grass and hang the hammock (for me to nap in!).

Sunday we planted some more flowers and though C spent most of the day in another working craze, I managed to take only one photo of him; sleeping in the hammock with Elli.

I found this yellow spider on our Rosemary plant. I've never seen a yellow spider before!

And because C says, "Sometimes people want to see what you eat", here's what we had for dinner:

Roast chicken over potatoes and a side of roasted kohlrabi and watermelon radishes.

Oh, and Saturday night (in keeping with the "Nature is amazing!" theme) we watched this great documentary about the search for the first flower.

Animals acting like animals...

2010-03-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

My heart broke to find Elli with a sweet little bird in her mouth; one of the very same that we watched singing from the top of our neighbor's redwood tree last week. She dropped it the second I told her to but it was too late...

We'll find it a nice spot in our backyard next to our friend's cat, Jimmy.

Imaginary Living Room, 1

2010-03-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Stephanie of even*cleveland and her imaginary outfits; an imaginary living room. Click on the image for more details.

2010-03-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

(in the upper right you can see our little house)

Weekend activities included building more stairs up the path to the look-out platform, re-potting cacti, pruning a newly discovered walnut tree and weeding, weeding and more weeding.

I also planted more radishes and we spent some time birdwatching.

Fancy Pots

2010-03-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

I saw this idea in a display at a local Anthropologie store and snapped a few photos for future crafting reference.

It took me nearly two years but I finally got around to pulling out the puffy paint. It was a quick 10 minute project and dirt cheap. I had the pots on hand and the puffy paint was a couple of bucks.

I didn't plan the design ahead of time and after going a bit overboard on the first planter, I held back a bit on the second one and I think it's more successful. A word to the wise: thinner puffy paint looks nicer and less like a 5 year old playing with puffy paint.

I had planned on filling the fancy pots with some sophisticated succulents, but two of my favorite flowers (daisies and ranunculas) were on sale at OSH so I had to go girly.

Magnificent Obsession

2010-03-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

Douglas Sirk is one of our favorite directors. His films are perfectly old-school Hollywood with lovely colors and insane melodrama; the subject matters are bold for their time but hold true today.

All that Heaven Allows (later beautifully remade as Far from Heaven with Julianne Moore) and Imitation of Life are both excellent. We watched Magnificent Obsession a few nights back and it was not my favorite (a little too hokey) but look at those windows!

I think these windows are quite nice. Wouldn't you like to have a wall of windows (and Rock Hudson asleep on the couch!)?

Weekend Activities

2010-03-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Two long, exhuasting days spent cutting and pruning and dragging branches from the backyard down to the driveway. We're clearing the area where we'll build the studio.

The above photo is about 1/3 of the way done on early Saturday.

Spencer from the Oakland Zoo came by again to pick up all of the branches for elephant "browse". We sent him away with an overloaded truck and another pile to be picked up tomorrow.

Spencer says that if you put a pile of Eucalyptus, a pile of Palm, a pile of Oak and a pile of Acacia in front of a hungry elephant, they would probably chose the Oak first and then the Palm.

I took Farmgirl Susan's advice and sprinkled some Diatomaceous earth around the plants that are being eaten. I poked holes in the lid of a mustard jar to make a little cannister. I'm crossing my fingers we'll actually get to harvest some kale and kohlrabi soon.

Around the Garden and More Windows

2010-03-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

The tiny flowers on our almond trees smell like honey.

We snapped some cuttings from a renegade neighborhood plant (aloe?) about two years ago. The flower is new this year.

Rosemary that I clip to make winter roast chicken and summertime rosemary lemonade.

New (salvaged) windows that C found for my studio.

***Karey couldn't be sweeter and said some ridiculously kind words over here today. Thank you, lady.***

***Joslyn whipped up a batch of these cookies over her lunch break yesterday and posted some excellent notes about the recipe on her food blog***

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-03-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted too much about cooking or baking over here but seeing as how that's a lot of where my time goes these days, it seems only fitting. Goat cheese in the morning and cookies for tea-time.

I know there are already more than enough chocolate chip cookie recipes out there but these are my favorites and they are delicious.

A fair warning: I'm a true believer that a chocolate chip cookie without nuts is not worth eating. You can adjust the recipe if you disagree but you'd be wrong.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Neiman Marcus

Makes 2 dozen cookies

1 stick unsalted butter, divided
1 cup brown sugar, packed (I actually use a little bit less than 1 cup)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 cup of chocolate chips (I like Guittard chips but Ghiradelli chips will work, too)
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a baking mat or parchment paper.

Set aside one half (4 tablespoons) stick of butter and let soften. Cut the other half in chunks and melt over a medium flame, swirling often, until it's light brown in color and has a nutty aroma.

Pour the melted butter over the softened butter and beat on high for about 30 seconds until the butter has a creamy texture. Beat in both sugars until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until completely mixed.

In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Add this to the butter mixture and beat on low until just combined. Stir in the espresso powder, chocolate chips and walnuts and finish mixing by hand.

Drop the dough on to the cookie sheet (the dough is rather dry and I usually roll the dough gently into balls) about 3 inches apart. Lightly press down to flatten. Bake about 20 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. For chewier cookies, take them out of the oven a few minutes early.

Cheese and Vegetables

2010-03-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

And again with the pests. Something is eating my radishes.

Also spotted on the lettuce; tiny little bugs.

I'm feeling a bit frustrated with the vegetable garden right now and looking forward to nicer weather so I can spend more time and energy tending to the vegetables. At least the arugula is happy these days.

Last week I made some very excellent goat cheese. It was more like a soft ricotta than a chevre, supremely easy to make and most tasty (grainy photos due to the cheesmaking happening late night).

Baby Blanket

2010-03-08T08:59:00.000-08:00

Spent a rainy weekend down in LA with my family. My ma and I threw a baby shower for one of my oldest friends (we've known each other since we were six and seven!). I knit a little blanket for the tiny girl that we'll soon get to meet.

First Signs of Spring: Front Porch

2010-03-05T08:00:00.002-08:00

We've had a few clear, crisp days with sunny skies for the first time in weeks. I'm thinking of spring and looking forward to long weekend breakfasts and afternoon cocktails on our new front porch. C wants to leave it empty and uncluttered; I'd like to add a few perfect items.

hanging tray + parrot pot + alligator feet pot stand + industrial iron clock +
pitcher + picardie glasses +bistro set + birch and lepto wreath

Ana Botezatu: Dream Pillow

2010-03-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

My dear friends in Germany sent us a Christmas package. They mailed it in December and I just received it on Monday. Sometimes real mail is funny like that. It was almost like receiving a double gift; I had long forgotten about the gift and assumed it long lost.

Inside were boxes of marzipan, cookies, super clever buttons, yummy smelling beauty goodies and the most amazing hand-embroidered dream pillowcase. The pillowcase was a belated Hochzeit gift and it is almost too beautiful to use.

The pillowcase is the creation of Ana Botezatu, a friend of my friends and a wickedly talented artist. I got a little carried away with the photos but I couldn't decide which little guys not to show off.

Even the button is amazing.
***Ana's work was also featured yesterday on Erin's blog, Design for Mankind.

Mushrooms and Spotty Kale

2010-03-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

The heavy rain has been amazing for our yard and trees but it's led to an explosion of mushrooms. The mulch that we put down a year or two back has been blanketed with layers of oak leaves. Underneath those layers it's warm, moist and a perfect mushroom breeding ground.C's father used to hike through the German forest to forage for mushrooms and would bring his treasures back for a tasty Abendessen.
I know nothing about identifying specimens of the mycological world and rather than risk serving us a nice plate of poison, I dumped my collection in the green bin.I'd love to be able to identify the edible mushrooms from our backyard but I'm not sure I'd ever feel truly confident (ps- for locals, The Bay Area Mycological Society holds regular mushroom forays).

On a different note, can anyone help me figure out what's going on with my kale? The poor leaves look like they've been attacked by a viscious hole-punch.

Blog-It-Forward: Inspiration

2010-02-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

Victoria over at sfgirlbybay has organized a little blog mash-up wherein we all share a little bit of what inspires us. Anna of the baker's daughter took a turn before me (you really should go see out her beautiful photographs) and Stephanella of The Creative Identity will share her inspirations tomorrow.

These days, most sources of inspiration fall into one of two of categories for me. The first category is something that strikes me as inspiring for our home, our yard or construction. Neither of us are professional builders or have experience in construction and so our ideas are spurred by something we've seen or frantic scheming. These ideas can come a mishmash of places: walks around the neighborhood, campgrounds with surprisingly attractive bathroom buildings, old magazines, drives through the hills on rainy days, steps in a state park....

photo of Ken Meffan's fantastic home in Dwell

The second category of inspiration is more what gives me a kick in my daily life outside of days spent with a hammer or garden shovel. These days the two categories are finding funny ways to overlap. What inspires me in a cookbook is suddenly influencing what I plan for our vegetable garden. Images and color ideas that I collect for a painting have me thinking about the space where that painting will be created. And not to throw the cheeseball alarm into overload here but I'd have to say that, happily, one of the strongest influences/inspirations in my life these days is my favorite German. While I'm not a risk-taker, he's the first to scramble up a rock to jump off the edge.When I pick up a paintbrush he starts collecting windows for my future art studio. Last June we sat in the dirt on the hill and talked about how lovely it would be to have a real place to sit up there. Last weekend we watched the sunset from the platform he built in that very spot. During the summer when we had a (glorious) heat wave, he began researching how to build a pool.I'm happy to dream about big ideas but this guy likes to make it a bolder dream and then get busy making it happen and really, that's all the inspiration I need.

**all images are by me unless otherwise noted

String Garden

2010-02-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

This project is so incredibly beautiful. I would like to have a glass greenhouse filled with my own string garden.

Go here to see more here.

(via AT-SWIM-TO-BIRDS)

Redwoods and Pretzels

2010-02-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

We spent Sunday afternoon on a rainy walk through the redwood groves in Joaquin Miller Park. Before moving across the bay from San Francisco, I had no idea that Oakland was so beautiful.
Other weekend activities included making granola and baking pretzels. (The back of our stovetop is the best place for letting dough rise. Yet another reason to love the Wedgewood.)
I thought the pretzels were rather tasty but they received a pretty major thumbs down from the resident German. The comments were: too thick, too doughy, not crispy on the outside. True, they were not like the Brezel that we ate in Germany (and apparently I didn't even have a good one...) but I'd happily make them again.They were surprisingly simple to make. That whole boiling-in-water process had always intimidated me but it's much easier than poaching an egg (and kind of fun). I see bagel-making in the near future.

**Tio, had we brought the granola with us to the redwoods we might have seen Babar and his forest friends...

Olson Kundig Cabins

2010-02-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

I'm fairly certain that these have made more than a few rounds out there in blogland but they're new to me. When a friend sent them over last week, my jaw dropped. Then I sent them to C and his jaw dropped. And then he started planning.While that little studio that I keep talking about is still a long while away from becoming a reality, the scheming and collecting is in full force. We've now collected all of the windows we'll need and we're moving on to scouring for doors. Sketches are being thrown around and when I say, "Wallspace! I need wallspace!", C's brain goes into overload and figures out how to give me more wallspace.Our studio will obviously be simpler and more ~~amateur~~ rustic than these beauties but one of the best parts of planning is gathering the inspiration.***all images from Olson Kundig Architects***

Wedgewood Love

2010-02-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

This is our Wedgewood stove. It was here when we bought the house and quite possibly the first reason I fell in love with our home. I've always cooked and baked but this baby has thrown me full force over the edge. There is nothing like cooking on this stove, and don't even get me started on the magic of the oven. We also discovered that the world's best quesadillas are made on our Wedgewood griddle. Unfortunately a few weeks ago the griddle knob broke off. Wedgewood parts are hard to come by and we thought our perfect melted cheese days were over. Luckily we have a local Wedgewood specialist who had the necessary and rare knob for our little stove.A picture of our happy stove with its missing knob back in place. By the way, notice that door on the left? The oven is on the right and the left side is a storage space....so very cool. And yes, the clock sitting on top of the stove works.
ps- We installed the hood ourselves as the normal ventilation system for a Wedgewood scared us and that's a railroad spike hanging on the wall above the light switch.

Foggy Days and Huge Waves

2010-02-15T10:34:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning was like a magical storybook land. We woke up to a heavy fog that covered the tops of the trees and part of the backyard.

We went over to Ocean Beach for the day to see the huge waves. Driving across the bridge into the city was breathtaking. The Golden Gate bridge had been swallowed by the fog along with Alcatraz and Angel Island. We could barely see the entrance to the Treasure Island tunnel!

Most of the beach had been taken over by the massive waves so we walked over to Fort Funston where the sun was shining and a small piece of the beach was still relatively dry. Dog heaven...

Small Projects List

2010-02-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

image (a guess): Elle Decoration, France

Another goodie from the older inspiration files. Yes, I will post my inspiration board as soon as it's back and gussied up a bit. Currently it's in flux and looking rather pathetic.

The image above makes me want to finally hang some art, find some lovely floor pillows and maybe move to France. Only kidding about that last one. Sort of.

My small project list:

+ build (or have C build) frames for the posters we've had rolled up for the last 2 years
+ design a wall box that C will build to house all of the little trinkets (ie. seashells, stones, mini tractors built from machine parts) that we've collected while traveling
+ frame the Gee's Bend stamps that I stashed away a while back
+ sew some cushions to keep our lone couch pillow company
+ recover my bedside lamp shade that is has a large coffee stain on the side (how it got there, I do not know)
+ convince C that we need to repaint the bathroom

Cracking Walnuts

2010-02-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

Last month a friend gave us a massive bag of walnuts from his farm.We've been cracking them open with a random tool we dug out of our junk drawer. It does the job but not well. Anyone know what it should actually be used for? We've also used it to crack open some tasty crabs. Again, it functioned but not without poking holes in the wrong places.

I would really like to invite this squirrel nutcracker into our home. He would definitely make me feel better about the time it will take to crack open all of the walnuts required for this cake. Oh, and for these ridiculously good brownies (which we've been making with the cocoa powder C's mom sent over from Germany...yum).

**I forgot to mention the little spending hiatus experiment that prohibits me from buying non-essentials for the next month Building materials are exempted. Squirrel nutcrackers are not. However, I am allowed to accept gifts.

2010-02-08T08:00:00.001-08:00

After so much rain our backyard is exploding in all sorts of yellows and greens. The weeds have overtaken the grass, the plants and the pathways. The Acacias are in full bloom bursting with yellow clouds of tiny flowers and our fruit trees are starting to bud. Sunday was crisp, sunny and dry. We spent much of the day cleaning up the yard and uncovering all of Elli's disappeared tennis balls. In the morning we had a visit from Spencer from the Oakland Zoo. He loaded up his truck with our freshly cut Acacia branches and answered our questions about the elephants. There are four elephants at the Oakland zoo. The three females are originally from Africa while the male is American born from the northeast. They each eat roughly a truckload of "browse" per day. The zoo groundskeepers do not get to ride the elephants (this was not one of our questions but the most commonly asked question when Spencer tells people what he does for a living).

We also suggested that next time they could just lend us the elephants for the afternoon but Spencer thought the neighbors might not enjoy the visit as much as we would.

2010-02-05T08:00:00.002-08:00

image: Elle Decoration (maybe UK?)

I've had this image tacked up on my inspiration wall for about 2 years. It's one of the few images that hasn't been taken down and filed. I should have remembered it when we struggled to figure out house paint colors last spring.

Somehow the cabinhouse just doesn't take well to bold exterior colors. It's small, square and old. White suits its simplistic nature.

The front of our house is now white. This year we'll paint the sides and back to match. (This image reminds me of the scene in the Anne of Green Gables miniseries when Anne walks across the roof and falls off. Maybe that's why I love it so much. I loved that movie.).

2010-02-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

Another fantastic craigslist score; nearly 750 bricks for free. It took us 2 trips with both of our cars to bring all them back home. Our cars hated us but it was worth the haul.We're not exactly sure what we'll do with them. Maybe rebuild our much beloved/used but crumbling outdoor fireplace?

2010-02-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

I have a few small interior projects on my list that will get done this year. The elephants will become a pillow for the couch and trees will be used for a new footstool pillow cover. I bought both fabrics from Superbuzzy over 2 years ago. Sewing is not a talent of mine. I do it begrudgingly and often leave the projects half finished. I wish I was more gifted with the needle but I'm not patient enough.

2010-02-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

Salvaged acacia blooms and branches from last weekend's chainsaw massacre.

2010-02-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

The area in front of our house is huge and difficult to maintain. The hill slopes and we've struggled with what to plant there. We'd like something that requires almost no maintenance. More importantly we don't want to plant anything that needs much watering as we have two, giant oak trees in the front. Other than rain, we were told they shouldn't be watered at all in order to prevent fungus and disease.This weekend C cleaned off the slope, got rid of a massive tree stump and we cast around fistfuls of wildflower and poppy seeds. We hope to have our own field of wildflowers in front of the house.
And from a few weeks back, some new plantings in front of the new porch:
Madagascar Jasmine we received as a wedding present:
Pride of Madeira, C's holiday gift from my brother:
Two Lilac vines:
Elli watched it all from her favorite look-out spot on the front porch.
C finally had a chance to pull out the chainsaw and get it cleaned up. The Oakland zoo recently got into some trouble for cutting down acacias to feed the elephants. Apparently they didn't have the right to chop down the trees and now the elephants no longer have their favorite snack. We plan on donating our felled acacias to the elephants. We have more wild acacias than we can handle. They grow everywhere at an alarmingly fast rate.

2010-01-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

image: maybe elle decor, france? i can't remember...

One of the larger projects we have on our list for the (nearish) future is a small art studio space/guest house where I can spread out my paints again and where we can stash our out-of-town guests. We'll be reusing a lot of materials that we've salvaged from previous projects but we always have our eyes out for good deals on wood, windows, doors, cabinets...pretty much anything we can find. (which reminds me: if anyone bay area local has materials that fall in that category, by all means please contact us!)

I love the above photo. We're not planning on building the studio as a log cabin but wouldn't it be fun?! It's so rustic and casual without being funky. We plan on including an outdoor shower and a lovely platform with enough room for me to draw or hang out and read.

2010-01-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

photo by Maggie

This is so not related to our home but I'm kind of ridiculously blushing and flattered over this one so I'm sharing anyway. I met Maggie (yes, of Mighty Girl) at the Alt summit and she was beautiful and hysterical and sweet as pie. She also made me pose in the hotel hallway and then posted some photos of me in my get-up over here with some very kind words. I'm blushing from the tips of my ears down to my toes.

There were a few questions about what I'm wearing so here's a list:

- gold bead necklace is from Dores (tipped off by Alyson)
- skirt and scarf are both from Anthropologie
- turquoise necklace is my own creation
- boots are Dansko (yes, same makers of the infamous "Berkeley clogs"). I bought them about 3 years ago.

Thanks again, Maggie!

2010-01-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

Thinking about creative and attractive ways to corral the open-shelving cabinet clutter: bottles of vanilla extract, tea, baking soda, vitamins, etc.

bread tins

metal trays

wooden boxes

2010-01-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

Oh boy. I feel some changes coming on. Not huge ones, just some nice solid changes that have a been a long-time coming and are fed by the last few days that I spent in design heaven. I just got back from the Altitude Design Summit in Salt Lake City where I sat in on some inspiring talks and met gobs and gobs of amazing people. I haven't felt this inspired or driven in a good long time and I'm excited to see where this new-found fire leads.

The most immediate reaction I'm having to the last 3 days of design immersion is that with only 800 sq. feet of actual home and minimal storage, we have way too much stuff. I'm in purge mode. If it's not deeply loved or used then it goes and everything should have a place. No more paintbrushes in the utensils pot and no more vitamins stashed behind mixing bowls....yikes.I'm more than a little embarrassed to show off our too-crowded kitchen and top of the fridge but I'm hoping that in doing so, I will be shamed into proving that "I'm not messy" (ha). First purge and reorganization is well under-way. Updates to come as they occur; wish me luck.While we've really maintained this blog as a space for sharing the work on our little cabinhouse, I've been missing parts of my first and now long-neglected blog. This space will continue to focus on our home, but I'd like to start sharing some random bits of inspiration and finds over here now.

For starters, some links to my newest friends and co-conspirators: Design For Mankind, Mackin Ink, Simple Lovely, Design Crush, Greedy Girl, SF Girl by Bay, You Grow Girl, Design Milk, Oh Joy!, Mint Design and Okay Grea t. There are many more people and sites to list...I'm overwhelmed by the creativity out there in the world...thanks guys!

2010-01-18T20:51:00.000-08:00

In all of the hullabaloo over the new front porch, the poor Aussichtspunkt (look-out platform) has lost out on all of its well deserved praise and love. Contrary to the story the photos tell, I had really nothing to do with this project.

C and a friend started the project and then said friend disappeared off the face of the earth (yes Jay, we're pointing at you...). My suspicion is that he didn't fully understand the utter insanity that is a German set forth in to nature with a hammer and redwood planks.
Even in the dead heat of summer C was unrelenting. And thank goodness because we're all completely in love (Elli most of all) with the resulting Aussichtspunkt. The views are outstanding and the sunsets even better.
Elli is the ruler of the upper hill area and when she's not lounging, she patrols the platform and surrounding areas with a prance and a fierce growl.

After C finished the actual construction, we lugged a few gallons of the Brazillion rosewood oil up the hill and spent a day sealing the redwood. (I'm not sniffing my armpit. I'm kissing my killer bicep.)

It's a special place up on the hill. It's another climate than down by the house and different plants grow up there. We found a black walnut tree along the path up, unfortunately it's nestled in a thicket of poison oak...thankfully the poison oak dies off up on the hill.

Right now the area is open and natural. Almond trees and blackberry bushes grow wild next to fennel and small oaks. C spent some time pruning the trees and taming the bushes but it's wild-land up there...

2010-01-12T22:41:00.000-08:00

old horse-shoe found in our yard

2009 accomplished list:
- master bedroom carpet picked and installed
- interior molding and baseboards installed
- dangerous front yard devil acacia cut down and turned to wonderful mulch
- backyard leveling and landscaping, part 1
- front yard landscaping, part 1
- new vegetable boxes, again (this time with drip irrigation and critter protection)
- tried out some an exterior trim color....most likely changing it this year
- repainted the retaining wall
- new potting bench from reclaimed wood and scraps!
- puppyhund elli!
- *ahem*
- stairs and aussichtspunkt (look out platform)
- foundation and water collection tank
- new front porch, gutters (!) and painted the front of the house

And that brings us to January 2010. We have a long list of projects for the coming months and at this point we're still working on collecting materials and scheming. It's going to be another tight-budget year but we've become pretty good deal-sleuths and material-recyclers. Necessity breeds innovation, after all.

As anxious as I am to get back outside, I'd like to spend some time pulling together the inside. We still haven't recovered our couch, or figured out how to deal with our books, though we did finally hang a few pictures on the walls. We continue to downsize to make sure that our small home doesn't burst at the seams from too much stuff.

Looking forward for 2010 and our home, I've made myself the following promises: I will make more time to enjoy gardening (not just killing our plants), take a few classes to achieve the previous promise, continue to explore new recipes and make sure to invite our friends over more often to enjoy the fruits of the aforementioned goals. Oh, and the couch will get recovered!

I'm rooting for 2010. It has some mighty big expectations to live up to but I think it can rally...

2010-01-11T09:02:00.001-08:00

A belated happy new year!We took a bit of a hiatus at the end of last year and fled for a warmer climate.
As the days grow longer and warmer, we're anxiously awaiting the start of some brand new projects.
Look for a quick recap of last year's completed projects later on this week.

2009-10-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

new front porch! done done and done again! i can't even explain via words or pictures how great it is. we finished a little late to cash in on the heat wave, but next summer will be one of porch lounging and mint julep sipping. i probably won't be able to wait that long...hot chocolate on a winter porch sounds pretty nice, too.we added just a nudge of extra space when we rebuilt but it feels worlds larger. we also swapped out the scary mini-pole that was holding up the roof for a heftier more substantial 6x6.
the floor of the porch is super shiny with a fresh coat of rosewood oil in these photos. it darkened the redwood boards and brought out all of the grain and knots. it's supposed to keep the wood from "graying" with the weather. i really love how it shows off the different colors in the boards.
oh, and of course a few Elli shots just because she's so darn happy.
upcoming projects include some planting in the front yard. we've already planted a small madagascar jasmine plant and a red bougainvillea. our yard and garden have been severely neglected over the past few weeks as we worked on the porch. hopefully we'll have some time to work in the yard in the next few weeks.

2009-09-27T21:01:00.001-07:00

hm, weeks later and the promised post has failed to materialize. it's been a busy summer.

about that promised surprise under our new front porch....here's a hint (look close):
in the meantime, we ripped up the rotten boards, knocked down a wall, cleaned out the dirt and put in a foundation.under the porch we now have a 300 gallon food-grade container that formally held kosher cooking oil. we hooked it up to our gutters and the new drains on the front porch and will use the collected water to keep our front yard nice and lush. FYI, in a recent summer rainstorm (before we had our gutters hooked up to the tank) we collected 5 gallons of water in about 10 minutes. we're thinking we need a few more of those containers for the backyard...

since then we've finished the front porch (still need to seal the wood, but that's next weekend's project), installed gutters and given one coat of fresh paint to the front of the house. i've also rekindled a dormant distaste for prep work. oh, and C built platform on the top of our hill.

2009-08-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

this summer is almost over and i can hardly remember when it began. i've been lazy with posting, mainly because it's been kind of busy around these parts. i'll try to post some more photos this week. we're pretty darn excited about all of the work...

remember way back when we bought all of that redwood off of craigslist?

we deemed august the month for using up that wood and we (well C, at least) have certainly lived up to that promise.

we knew that we would be using a good portion of the wood to rebuild our rotten front porch. what we didn't expect was that we would not be doing the work ourselves. after ripping up the all of the wood porch, we took one look at the non-existent foundation and the one rotten loose 4x4 that was holding up THE ENTIRE house and knew that we needed some professional help.

first a few pictures of the porch before: we interviewed a few people and picked the one who seemed least frightened by our floating house and most willing to put up with our constant questions. now we have a beautiful concrete seismically-sound foundation and a water-proof basement.

to save ourselves some money, we opted to finish off all of the non-structural work ourselves. at this point, the porch is still unfinished and waiting for the redwood decking and railing.

we saved the siding (it was all redwood!) when the guys tore down the wall and asked them to reuse as much as possible when they rebuilt the front. we just spent 3 days patching old holes and cracks, caulking gaps and sanding the surfaces so when we repaint the house it won't look so frankensteinian.

i won't bore you guys with gobs of construction photos (just a few dozen), but i do think it's pretty darn exciting...

also, there's one very cool secret hidden under the new porch that i'll share with you later this week.

2009-07-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

first, something awesome:
my new kitchenaid (a big thanks to my aunt, uncle and favorite backyard helpers) (making a batch of meringues...yum.)

and then something seemingly awesome until closer inspection:this whole backyard vegetable gardening adventure has been a tough one...
first there were the mushrooms, then we had a minor infestation of cucumber beetles and now, finally as all of the fruit is starting to ripen, i think my poor tomato plants are suffering from late blight. do i really have to pull the plants immediately or can i wait until we're done harvesting???

2009-07-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

time for another backyard tour:

you probably recognize this area that C cleared and leveled out a few months back:instead of it leading into the great abyss of overgrown poison oak for any longer, C decided to open up the backyard even more and built some stairs. the massive acacia trunk that blocked off our backyard from the canyon became a set of steps leading down to the canyon and to the path up the hill.the trail follows along the path of the redwoods that we planted a while back and then up to the next set of stairs that C built.it's pretty steep, but manageable (if you're not lugging 80lb bags of concrete up and down). the poison oak is happily growing back but it's avoidable for now. we also discovered a large walnut tree hanging out on that hill. as soon as we figure out how to harvest the nuts without climbing through the poison oak, i'll be making vin de noix.the view at the top of the stairs looking up to the hill. that little oasis there is home to at least one almond tree. more almond trees all over the hill.
we planted our magnolia tree on the right side of the hill, amongst the blackberry bushes.and at long last, the deck. i was away this past weekend but C was home with elli working away. i haven't climbed up to check out the latest progress but this is where it was last week:this is the view we'll have from the deck:when it's clear you can actually see the red of the golden gate bridge.
and then there's the enormous eucalyptus tree that stands next to the deck:

2009-07-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

the announcements that i made:

oak tree, redwood, california poppies from our yard. the 3 birds represent the redtail hawks that have nested in the eucalyptus tree. i printed these on brown cardstock on my gocco. though it was a bit of a hassle (i ran out of gocco ink and had to improvise with other ink and had to figure how to register the print), i'm pretty darn pleased with how they turned out!

2009-07-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

on sunday C spotted a nest at the very tip of a branch on one of the oak trees in our backyard. we watched the momma bird bring her babies food as they peeked their little heads up over the edge.

yesterday morning i found this little guy hopping across the yard. i watched him for a while to make sure that he wasn't injured and then let him be. i hope he figured out how to get back home!

2009-07-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

the past 2 weekends have been a bit unusual in that C has been focused on one insane project up on our hill while i've spent my time inside working on a separate project. a nut-job friend of ours got the idea that we need a deck at the top of our hill, and that it needed to be done by august. C happily obliged and the two of them have spent the past two weekends digging 6 enormous holes (in dry clay dirt), hauling 24 80lb bags of concrete up the hill and then carrying concrete footers up after. progress as of last weekend:by now, they've constructed the footers of the deck and will start framing on friday. more photos to come.

while this chaos was unraveling, i quietly set out to collect all of the wild plums in our backyard and make jam. they're not very tasty eating plums but make yummy jam. they're yellow, just larger than a big cherry and require pitting...after 2 weekends of collecting and tinkering i've made 14 jars of sour plum jam, 20 jars of plum lavender jam, 8 jars of plum chutney, 2 jars of pickled plums (per this recipe) and 3 big jars of plums covered in vodka that will hopefully become something lovely in a few months. we still have at least 2 trees that remain covered in plums not to mention the neighbors trees that they're begging me to harvest. any other plum recipes i should try out?

2009-07-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

newly planted huge magnolia tree (thanks eddie and sophia!)

vielen Dank to everyone for your sweet well wishes.
the pace hasn't slowed down a bit over the last few weeks and i have many more projects to share.
look for them in the next week or so!

where we've been:

2009-07-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

June 19th, 2009 in Oakland, California.
Elli is no longer a bastard puppy-hund.

2009-06-08T12:48:00.000-07:00

i have no photographic proof of any activity this weekend because lately our camera seems to mysteriously only take photos of puppies. i offer, instead, a brief list of what happened around the house, with photos to follow soon:

- planted the cantaloupe and peas, finally
- cleaned out the front yard and planted another small area. this job is HUGE and will be completed tiny bit by tiny bit. we're making progress...
- moved the huge pile of wood, AGAIN and turned the side yard into an outdoor elli play-pen.
- finished painting the carport
- replaced and restrung the old christmas lights on the carport
- strung outdoor "ball" lights along the back of the vegetable garden area

oh, and a friend told us last night that our backyard looks like how she imagined fairytale forests when she was a child (except that it's missing the fairies and elves). that made me a lot giddy...

2009-06-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

lest we forget that there was a world before elli...remember that project i mentioned a week or so ago? here it is:an incredible potting bench designed and built by one talented german. it's made completely from recycled wood. the top pieces are redwood from our giant stack and the bottom pieces were salvaged from an old deck via craigslist. C sanded it all when he was done and then applied a thin coat of beeswax. he even added a few special details, pulled from a collected pile of old construction parts, to finish it off.i especially love the way the wax really brought out the different colors in the wood he used...while C was working on the table, I painted the funky carport. we figured it as long as it's still there (until we tear it down), we could at least spiffy it up a bit....and yes those are indeed overalls that i'm sportin'.

barring weekend-long thunderstorms, there are many more projects underway for this little area (and a special side project for elli!)...

2009-06-04T12:14:00.000-07:00

Correction: after weighing her last night using C's grandmother's market scale (from a zillion years ago), Elli weighs approximately 8 kilos or roughly 16/17ish lbs.apparently, this is how you spend your evenings after you get a puppy: finding new and exciting things to put her in so that she looks even tinier and impossibly cuter.
she loved the bag.

2009-06-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

we knew it would come one day...after all, a cabinhouse needs a cabin hund, nein?

Here she is: all of 12(ish) weeks old and weighing in at 14 lbs of pure puppy....Elli!

2009-05-27T13:38:00.000-07:00

let's go on a little tour, shall we?

if you take the stairs from the concrete patio area and walk up past the cherry tree, along the nature trail, you'll notice the pretty ivy growing back near the hammock.
go up the wood steps and then down the funky concrete stepping stones and take a break in the sitting area. go ahead and leave your beer on that bench/retaining wall, that's what it's there for...from the sitting area, head up along the new (still in progress) path that leads to the second cherry tree. it's there, hidden in front of the massive overgrown acacia trees.
take a rest on the bench that's made from recycled redwood and an old acacia stump. one day when the cherry tree is huge you'll be able to lean against the trunk while you enjoy the view of the bay. for now just enjoy the sunset....

2009-05-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

long holiday weekend = many projects

i was too wiped out yesterday to document all of what went on this weekend but will take some photos this week.

here's a list:
- drip irrigation system installed
- moved picnic table to new picnic area
- cleaned out trashy zone (moved stacks of pressure treated wood scored off of craigslist)
- cleaned and recaulked the wall
- C built me a bench under the cherry tree!
- C finessed our "upper sitting area" bench/side table (photos will help explain)
- C started a really cool project that needs more time 'fore i can reveal but here's a sneak-peek:

and somehow we still managed to fit in our first Oakland BBQ (that we didn't host), play a fun but freezing game of baseball with the gang and eat fish tacos with an old friend...i love holidays.

2009-05-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

our new vegetable garden is growing right on schedule. all of the vegetables look pretty darn happy and seem to be warding off unwanted diseases and nasty pests so far ("kenna hora nicht pooh pooh pooh", as my grammy would say), save for those damn mushrooms that are back with a serious vengance!
ms. wolfie wisely noted that i shouldn't worry about them (and interweb has confirmed many times over); their presence signifies good organic matter in our soil...but they are pissing me off. BIG TIME. ugh.
short of replacing all of the soil ($$$), i don't know what to do. really, just turn a blind eye and let the fungi live in harmony with my heirloom lettuce? that's the plan, for this summer at least. might rethink in the fall....