House Made

Big Island us

I feel sooo out of touch. Work has been insane and I haven’t been able to check up on what all our house-bloggin’ friends have been doing. You’re all going to break up with me, aren’t you? Virtual divorce for not holding up my end of the relationship?

Anyway, I was catching up with Greg over at Petch House and I saw that we were tagged with the “5 Things.” Oooh. 5 things you don’t know about us. Ok, so here goes.

1. My brother-in-law knew, and announced, that Beth and I would end up together before anyone, including B & I, knew it. Beth and I were just friends. We hung out a lot both solo and with other friends but that was the extent. Then one weekend while camping my sister asked if anything was up between us. I replied in the negative and my sister said that’s what she thought but that B-i-l thought otherwise. He said something to the effect of “I don’t know, M. has a way with the girls.” Turns out it wasn’t my way but B’s way. She made her intentions clear later that weekend and the rest is history.
2. I love, love, love old movies especially anything featuring Katherine Hepburn, the greatest actress of all time or Paul Newman, the sexiest man to ever not run away with me. Beth loves crappy teen movies and I mean luuuuurrrrves them. Cutting Edge just arrived in our mailbox today. Yes. Cutting. Edge.
3. Beth is freakishly strong but had never picked up a power tool before we bought the casa. I am freakishly un-strong and was nicknamed “Noodle” by my high school volleyball team because of my skinny arms.
4. Neither of us has any career-based ambition. We both prefer quality-of-life to corporate life and have made conscious decisions not to climb the ladder despite quite a few really attractive offers. While some may consider this apparent lack of ambition a flaw, we find truth in that great cliched adage: “Nobody’s last words were ever ‘I wish I’d spent more time at the office.’”
5. We both give excellent presents.

It’s not too interesting. It’s really no Cold War love story a la Greg. But there it is nonetheless. Now you know our secrets.

Beth here.

As Merideth noted earlier this week, I spent last weekend sanding doors.  Any normal person would not think that this run-of-the-mill task would negatively affect my work week, but normal people haven’t had the chance to notice how restoring a house can change one’s way of interacting with the world.

For example, while we are on vacation, we go to open houses to see how people around the country/world are decorating.  And when we visit museums/places of interest?  We both spend a lot of time admiring interesting floors, mitred corners, and paint jobs. 

At work, though, I usually don’t think about the house, unless it’s to remind myself to go to the hardware store during lunch to pick something up.  This week, however, I have had a constant reminder whenever I try to go to a different floor in my office.  The main doors on each floor are locked with a fingerprint recognition thingy (my office is fancy that way), and I apparently sanded down the fingerprint of my right index finger.  I’m spending a lot of time in the elevator lobbies these days, hoping someone will come along and let my sad fingerprintless self through.

Let me know if you need me to participate in any sort of heist that involves only the one finger.  I’d totally get away with it.

salvaged door

Our “hallway,” if you can call it that, is like the set up to The Lady or The Tiger. Five doorways lead off a landing that’s basically big enough for you ro turn around in place…if you keep your elbows in. So in the past, someone replaced SOME of the doors with hollow-core doors and, everyone’s favorite, gold-tone door knobs. Puuurty.

This situation prompted a trip to the salvage yard where we picked up three solid wood, paneled, interior doors. We’ve been working on them mostly as fill-in projects. We’d do a little sanding while waiting for trim to dry, a little hole filling while epoxy was setting…you know. So this weekend Beth, who, as resident door maven, has been installing all the doors, hung the last and most difficult one: the bathroom door. Added coolness: it has a keyhole lock you can actually peer through in manner of old-movie-spying. Don’t worry, privacy is preserved as long as the key is in place.

So now all the doors, while not matching exactly, definitely look like they belong to the house. Next up, paint. We’re fixin’ to paint all the trim back there and decided to do the doors at the same time. I know, we should have painted them while they were flat, but frankly that’s a pain in the ass. And no one wants to live without a bathroom door any longer than necessary. See dog regarding trash and toilet-as-waterbowl.

lava on the Big Island
shot by hoodwinks

We’ve had record lows here in California. The governor even issued a state of emergency. Have we noticed? No. No we have not. We have been in Hawaii. We love going to Hawaii. It’s like travelling to a foreign country where they speak English, take American money, and sell your brand of antiperspirant. It’s tailor-made for relaxation.

This was our first trip to the Big Island though and let me tell you, go for the lava. Then stay for the…well stay because it’s Hawaii. But dude. Lava is AWESOME. It’s easily in the top five coolest things we’ve ever seen. It’s astounding and fascinating and eerie and beautiful.

But we’re back home now so we’ll soon gear up this winter’s indoor projects. Stay tuned for many things less cool than lava.

our christmas garland

I love how the house looked this year all gussied up for the holidays but I’m glad that as of today all the Christmas stuff is stowed back in the garage. It’s a damn good thing that de-decking is easier than decking. Otherwise it would just be depressing. As an added bonus, the house feels suddenly much larger without all the extra trees, lights, poinsettias et al that fill the surfaces and corners during December.

We rang in the new year with chores: landscaping and truck sprucing. Most importantly though, Beth cleaned out the garage. I know! So now all the stuff, whether storage or tool, has been grouped, classified, and assigned an area. Real storage is taking place in the corners and the central area has been freed up for use as an actual workshop. You’ve heard me say it before but here it is again all minty-fresh for 2007: awesome! There MIGHT even be enough room for me to build a workbench on casters that can be moved around the small space as needed. Beth rocks the most! Happy New Year to you all!