Locked in!

One of the many hazards of living in a shared community environment is turf in front of your front door being compromised. Our existence is of course on a hush-hush basis, but not so much to the point that we cannot enter and exit the premises!!

Our door, which is on the right, was blocked from opening!
This happened for a couple of reasons....our neighbor Beto, who had a massive marble shop, was forced to clean up and move out a lot of his outdoor work area into 1 of his 3 warehouse spaces. He had a ton of shit left to make a temp wall. It was exra windy on saturday night which caused one of those temp walls to fall....smashing one of our chairs into splinters, catapaulting one over a car....and otherwise causing stress and havoc. Feeeeeelings have been mended and things are ok now :)

Fun with plumbing and paint!

For a short while, we had this really fun problem of the kitchen flooding every time somebody took a shower. At first we couldn't figure out exactly where the water was coming from. It started as slow pooling, which happened to coincide with rain...so the first thought was "Oh my god, our foundation is melting beneath our feet!" Thankfully, the pools got bigger, and more consistent, leading us to believe it was an actual leak somewhere. Our landlord wanted nothing to do with it, so we used our available resources and called in a few plumber buddies to diagnose what was wrong.

The bathroom is right over the kitchen, so we knew it was coming from there. We had to do a couple experiments to pinpoint exactly where the water was coming from. We knew it was the shower/tub given then the timing of the pooling. Our first test, which was kind of fun, was to rule out the drain in the tub by filling it with water and food dye. The theory was that if it was a problem with the drain (which would have been disastrous) we'd see colored water seeping into the kitchen. We filled the tub, added the color, drained. No water at all! Yay!
This lead us to two other possibilities...either there was a leak in the handles, or one in the head. One of the handles had been getting progressively more stripped every time we used it, so naturally we thought this was where the excess was seeping through. I put in a call to my awesome friend Ray, who promised he'd be there in a couple days. The VERY next day, when trying to adjust the shower head, however, I pulled a bit too hard and ended up with a head in my hands and a GIANT answer to our questions. The damn shower head!!
Ray was over that same day and did some lickety-split demo on our wall, diagnosed and fixed what had been all-around shoddy plumbing, and set us up with brand new parts..minus the leak!

Having the hole there is actually better, since now that dampness can dry out before we patch up the wall. There is an active stream of air flowing through there, so we're pretty sure the job is getting done.

The retro pieces that made up the rest of the gig needed replacing as well, but to our disappointment, they've long been discontinued and would need to be special ordered. Hence, the makeshift broken-handle handle!


We've all learned a lot about shower plumbing as a result of this mess.

As a second result, the flooring we layed down in the kitchen was pretty destroyed! From the water damage to the heavy traffic of our friends, it couldn't stand up to its duty in our busy kitchen. SO, we decided to go back to the plan I had a year ago, when we moved in, and opted for concrete floor paint. My thinking was that its ultra durable, cheap, and will match the whole "industrial" look of living in a warehouse. Heck, I can find some area rugs in no time to pretty things up! Here's where we are so far. Barrett has taken on this task single-handedly, and he's doing an AWESOME job!



I have to say I'm super-thankful that we're close to people with actual skills. God knows paying a random plumber to fix this mess would have cost an arm and a leg! So now, instead of money passing hands, we owe Ray a favor, or dinner, or whatever...which will surely include his and his wonderful girlfriend Kristi's company, which can't be beat!!!

What is art?

It always fascinates me to see what people decorate their homes with. One can immediately tell the difference between a home that is largely personalized by handmade, found, unique or sentimental treasures, and one that ascribes to whatever the big box tells you is fashionable for the moment. I think that's one of the main problems I have when on that very very rare occasion I MUST go to Target or some other large chain for something...I feel as if I'm immediately having the interior design inclined hand of Big Brother thrust down my throat until I choke out the words "uncle!! uncle!!" and opt for a vintage-inspired faux wood picture frame with a girl sitting in a martini staring at me in lushy bliss. I ask her where the socks are that I trudged in here for, and all I get is the dazed glare of a $14.99 "you should have known better" harlot.

Tsk tsk. This may not have actually happened to me...but you know you've seen that print in a girlfriend's kitchen...

I was walking around the warehouse the other day and got to thinking about the pieces that I've chosen to surround myself with. Even in this expansive space, certain 3x5 pieces bring me back to a comforting time. I'm sure everyone has a bit of that...or at least I would hope so...

Hence, an abbreviated guide of the oddities that comfort me.

A Murder City Devils tour poster, carved wood, two ceramic owls...


Framed Alice In Wonderland drawing, the White Rabbit gesturing towards the way Alice must go through the wasteland, found at a salv army...framed postcard of bird's nest...gifted pottery.


Dead Meadow show poster, hand drawn...cast iron eagle, meant for outdoors...old carved Buddha and sake set from the estate of my grandparents.


Four frames, painted black by me, of different pieces of gift tissue paper. I chose one rose from each to paint red, and framed them. These have been with me through at least 6 moves.


My kitchen must-have. Thin piece of wood covered by delightfully old-farmhouse style print found in an old roommates left belongings. Tacked the rusted meat cleaver to it, from the same grandparent's estate, as a reminder to me of its use....


In the end, there are 10,000 things that one might find daily comfort or inspiration in. Each of which I'm sure is entirely personal...the means to which allowing something mass-manufactured to become personal is what troubles me. My entire existence has been parallel to malls, chain stores, catalogs, MTV. When does one make the break from the feeding tube of this formulated "nostalgic" crap? When does one truly admire something for its workmanship, its artistry, or its sheer originality from the pack? Todd Oldham and China should not dictate your personal taste!

For now, I'll let my cat tell me what he prefers...that guy has never had a reason to lie in his life...

Gutting 1970

Going through some old phone pics, I found these gems.




When we moved in here, the previous dwellers had left some pretty odd vintage furniture. It was all in really terrible, beaten-down shape. We had a few of the pieces set up outside our front door for a while, in true ghetto glory, but after a few rainstorms they became downright disgusting. We wanted to break them down as much as possible, to see if anything was salvageable, but the years, the wear, and the weather had taken its toll. At least we got a glimpse of the inner construction, for future projects!

Framing Light, and Things to Bite!

So the prettying-up of the window is a couple steps further! My master craftsman Barrett (who btw had NO idea what he was doing when he started this) has pulled off another amazing aesthetic feat! Check it out...

From the loft looking in...


From the room looking out..check out the frame...classy!


p.s. the Gypsy in the corner is an original from our buddy Chris Lacey. The big one on the left is mine..


Just to give a lame "shout out". I bought this window at this freakin rad warehouse in Berkeley, Urban Ore. They do mostly reclaimed de-construction materials...with some thrift store type used furniture and fixtures...and other odds and ends. Its a reuse nerd's heaven (imagine how long I spent poking through stuff!). It ended up costing me $60, brand new, when it normally would have been a couple hundred! Long live local economy!

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The other topic I wanted to blab about is vegan comfort food. I've gotten my fair share of cocked-head looks lately at the question of "what do you eat" when I'm talking about veganism.

Here are some examples of staples I've converted. Granted these aren't health food by any means..but they taste good sans dead animals!

Creamy, "cheesy" mac!


Spaghetti Squash pizza!


"Chicken fried steak", gravy, mashed sweet and red potatoes, baked kale and carrots..


Purple, red and sweet potato scram. Spicy beans and rice. Corn on the cob!


Pig out!!! but let the pig live :)

Let There Be Light!

So, we've finally got a window in our bedroom!

This little guy was a long time coming. We had been discussing different ways to get natural light into the room, since it had been completely framed in w/o it when the original warehouse converters built it. I (as well as many others) find it stupidly hard to get out of bed in the mornings, even though I do feel I am more productive and do my best work in the morning. Of course, one of the reasons for this is probably due to not having morning light in the room at all. We have literally had no sense of night or day since last March. No wonder there are motivational problems about! No more!

Here is our new window in its infant stages, from the loft view looking in..



From the bedroom view looking out..



There will still be a lot added to make it absolutely wonderful!

While Barrett was hard at work giving us light, I set to work on making a comfy workspace...


I dragged the removed window bars that I was originally planning a vine-climbing for into the space for a makeshift bulletin space. There are so many opportuities to stick both papers and items in the spaces for inspiration...I couldn't turn it away!


So goes another day..

The Beginning of the Beating Heart

So this weekend I got really feisty for a change in my surroundings. We always talk about being able to do whatever we want to this place, to make whatever we want, to alter whatever we want. Dammit I'm taking advantage of it! The little corner area under the loft that I blocked out to make a work area needs updating. This is the area where I want to spend most of my time at home, given that its where my sewing machine (thanks Bert and Heather!), the computer, my painting stuff, bookcase, and all other miscellaneous productive materials live. There is a waist high wall shelf that was here before we were, which I want to keep and use as main work space. Step one was updating my computer monitor. I had a big, heavy, awkward one that took up quite a chunk of space on every desk I ever had it on. So, in order to slim down and use my little space as efficiently as possible, I splurged a bit on a refurbished Dell Ultra Sharp 22" monitor.

It was about half the price it normally would be, which settled the feeling of "oh my god I just spent way too much money on a material thing".

Second step is actually painting the space in a warm color. I want it wo be welcoming. Right now its an icy baby blue, like so many of the walls in the warehouse. I wasn't going to skimp on the quality of paint this time around, so I searched out the best quality no VOC version I could find.




I will recaim this little space!! Barrett was good enough to muscle that giant ugly desk out of the space for me, to open things up.


I'm thinking of building a tree in the corner of the desk...with branches running across the ceiling....

Kitchen Updates

This once much neglected room is still slowly coming together. I can barely remember what it looked like with wall to wall grey carpet, graffitti'd walls, a desk running the length of one wall, and the Incredible Hulk in a golf shirt looking down on us from the north wall.... well ok maybe I can remember!
Anyways.. I've taken to creating what I think will be a cross between old west saloon, Beat generation poetry lounge, gourmet kitchen, and possibly wooden ship galley. My lines of inspiration are long and tangled, believe me! I'm also not going to be buying any new items..a true "re"model!

The eating/sitting area. I'm going to cover that wall with pictures and add another cushy chair..probably in another lovely shade of 70's.

Cooking Area. The shelves were bought used, I painted them. We mounted a secondhand spice rack and wine glass rack. I made a little coffee station from an old wine rack. The chocolate brown we chose for the walls was meant to give the huge room a smaller, warmer feel. The red is pretty punchy, eh? I'm also pretty stoked about the silver bread box I found from a fellow Freecycler's goods. Its got to be an older piece, as its got a functional cutting board on the inside of the door.



We have all of our food stored on open baker's racks on the opposite side of the cooking area. I've got grand plans to convert that all into open shelving. I also want to add a music table, bookshelves, and some other comforting things. My goal is to make this area a sort of "gathering" place. A place to feel warm and safe and even a bit confined...sort of a departure from the rest of the expansive open warehouse space right outside the door.

Under the Sea, or, work with the Bee

Problem:
I share this place with 3 boys..one bathroom. Space is at a premium. I desperately needed a girl corner; somewhere to keep the jewelry, makeup, hair-stuff, etc. We didn't necessarily have space in the room for a desk or vanity, so I came up with something different.
Solution:
I found a guy selling big floating shelves for CHEAP, that he had used and gotten tired of. I snapped them all up and have found quite a few uses so far! Two are painted red and hung in the kitchen to hold glasses, spices, etc(pic to come), two will be art shelves over our bed, two will be a makeshift linen rack outside the bathroom, and the last two I painted the same deep blue as our accent wall and did this with!

The corner space is only about 3 feet long, so we did have to cut them down a bit, but I really like the snug, unobtrusive look! I get the combined storage of a bookshelf and a little vanity table all in one. For so little money! As part of the little vanity nook, I needed somewhere to hang the miscellaneous jewelry. My little rack was overflowing, and I had all this open wall space...sooo.... Bees!

Hammer, nails, superglue, leftover Bee buttons!

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The green stuff is all comin up nicely!








Our goals are modest...this is a first time effort! I do have some big plans for fall planting though!
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Jon Choi's going away party..."Under the Sea" theme...









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My detailed list to the guys what can and cannot be composted...and tips on recycling.

Down on the corner

So I realized that I've never shared what the outside of our little urban compound looks like. Here we are, hidden in plain sight, at the end of that drive, sharing space in what used to be dry storage for Dole.

Oh the possibilities I wake up with on a daily basis! There are literally 10,000 things we could be doing with the amount of space we have...
The building is situated right between the rapid high-density development of Japan town (which can be seen in the right background) and the older, somewhat decaying neighborhoods of East San Jose. Living in this area is quite a trip..
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I finally finished this book..


The author lives in Berkeley, (not far from us), so I gained a new perspective on the availability of local food sources in our area. The winding stories of the way each of the four meals come together is well-written and easily digestable..not to mention funny, sad, and eye-opening at the same time! I've been reading about food, food chains, and everything related pretty consistently for the past 6 years (thank you Fast Food Nation), and found this book to be one of the better selections. I'd recommend it to a first-time American food-system detective anyday!