So, during the pull-up-everything and start from scratch period, we had to do a bit of makeshift room assembing so we could do things like...cook...sit...you know, luxuries.
Here's the livin room furni set up in the big space. That huge pile of junk in the background is what I've turned into my work space.
We had to make due with setting up a temp kitchen in the big space too. The drawers are the island we pulled out of there so that we could tear out the spraypainted carpet (!) paint over the spraypainted walls, reposition it, and lay new flooring. You can see in the windows behind the island that lovely neon orange artwork on the walls. We were also treated to an image of the Incredible Hulk in golfing gear on the opposite wall.
Once the carpets were pulled we had the daunting task of getting the decades old glue up off the concrete. We bought push-strippers, chisels, hammers, everything short of chemicals. Then decided we might as well give in and rent an electric floor stripper for a day.
A couple of passes with that and we were in a much better place. We were able to prime the walls, and bolt the island back down to the floor about 2 more feet from where it was.
Hmmm...the team decides on our next move.
Since the kitchen is such a gigantic space, I wanted to paint the walls with a color that was going to make things feel a big cozier. We decided on a chocolate brown, with red as our accents.
We also found some pretty cheap relatively nice laminate flooring that you pretty much just snap together. Its coming along, here's the start.
Since these pictures, We've put of floating red shelves over the island and space between it and the sink, painted the underside of the island red, knocked out and framed a window between kitchen and front room, and gotten about half the flooring down. However, my phone (my meager camara) has decided it doesn't want to charge anymore so I've got to see if I can get it fixed or get another one tomorrow :(
As for the other rooms in the place.. MUCH has been done to make them more liveable as well! Our bedrooms and the bathroom have all gotten complete makeovers. When those pictures resurface..I'll be sure to post before and afters!
Dan needs a break.
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As most everyone knows, there are currently hundreds of fires burning in California. Last count I had heard was reaching 1,000. The Santa Cruz mountains have definitely been hit hard. A few weeks ago, we were called out to help with the evacuation of residents and their animals in Watsonville, south of Santa Cruz. I went with a team of about ten other HSSV employees, to help construct temporary kennels at the animal services shelter, transport their adoptable dogs to our shelter so they could be free to house evacuated dogs, and assist in keeping the huge number of evactuated horses in order and fed.
The ever-present danger.
On a good note, we were able to get a few of the dogs adopted into forever homes before SC was ready to take them back!
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One of my recent fill-ups....bad.
Having access to fabulous farmer's markets...good! What could be better than local, organic, farmer-sold food?!?!
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I picked-up this awesome book at a used (and some new) bookstore in Santa Cruz
It's pretty much the guide to living sustainably and supporting and feeding yourself while living in an urban environment. More to come on our efforts to move in that direction...
The blog of the authors is at