This Old House of Ours

[beyelzu]

We got our fence stained, it looks really good. We chose a semi transparent redwood for the stain.



Before picture of front gate.



After. The pic is a bit backlit, so the brightness of the color doesn’t come through.



But it is really bright right now when the color is fresh.



Side fence.

Raul our landscaper did a really great job.

[JoeP]

[beyelzu]

Yesterday, ES picked this mandarin oranges off the tree in our front yard.

Tasty.

[Sock Puppet]

Nice. We have an anemic little mandarin tree that Mrs. Puppet planted a few years ago. This year, it produced its first fruit! One fruit. We finally picked it yesterday - I was amazed that no critters got to it while it ripened. Thought I had taken a pic, but apparently I dreamed that.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by Sock Puppet

Nice. We have an anemic little mandarin tree that Mrs. Puppet planted a few years ago. This year, it produced its first fruit! One fruit. We finally picked it yesterday - I was amazed that no critters got to it while it ripened. Thought I had taken a pic, but apparently I dreamed that.

Maybe you dreamed the fruit itself?

Maybe you dreamed the entire tree? And your family? And an internet forum that no one links to?

[ceptimus]

I didn't know that oranges were harvested in February. I would have guessed around September.

[viscousmemories]

I wonder if I can grow orange creamsicles.

[Sock Puppet]

Originally Posted by ceptimus

I didn't know that oranges were harvested in February. I would have guessed around September.

Pretty much all of the citrus trees that grow in California fully ripen in the dead of winter. My grandfather had orange and grapefruit trees, and there were always at least a few ripe ones on hand every Xmas.

[Ensign Steve]

November will mark the end of our first year in the house, which means we are still in our first growing season and continue to identify more and more plants when they bloom.

I had no idea that a lot of the streets around here, including our own, are lined with jacaranda trees. They started blooming a couple weeks ago in every color imaginable. White, red, pink, other pink, purple. I am gagged.

[ChuckF]

Oh was this your thrad? Did you think I would start a new one?

Today we signed a design contract on a major-ish renovation. Gut and re-do kitchen and bathroom. Go to tankless hot water heater. Probably replace the 70 year old plumbing while we're at it. Replace some truly bizarre bank of casement windows from the 1950s that seem to have been painted shut since the 1980s with a set of sliding doors that opens out on to a new deck. Depending on if there's $ left, replace a large chunk of the yard with a rain garden - the municipality reimburses up to 75%, up to some amount, if you keep it for 5 years.

The kitchen is just getting old and the storage is not very functional. The bathroom is tiny, and it's just time for a nice shower and a floor that is easier to clean. I'm also ready for a bunch of little stuff, like new molding, less cheap interior doors, a new front door, and better overhead lighting. Part of me is like fuck it, why don't we just move somewhere new? But the location is good, this place has appreciated several hundred percent over the past decade, and we own it outright. We don't really need anything bigger for just us and the dogs, and buying seems more stressful than renovating.

I am super excited. I think my husband is going to be more stressed about it. The only thing I am not looking forward to is emptying out the house. In addition to the big work, we're going to have the floors done, the roof replaced, some new lighting installed, so they'll need attic access. We're going to relocate for a month or two (hopefully not longer) and put all our shit in one of those pod things on the driveway. Then, we will screen everything to determine whether it goes back in to the house or not. We've been here for over a decade now and there is quite an accumulation of crap.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by ChuckF

Did you think I would start a new one?

[Ensign Steve]

We have a wee babby bird of paradise fixing to bloom. She will be our first.

[beyelzu]

Any day now.

The other bird of paradise plant has a leaf that is starting to differentiate as well.

[JoeP]

You can't even the individual bricks - oh wait, wrong thrad

[Ensign Steve]

You can in the close-up.

[BrotherMan]

[beyelzu]

Check out that plumage

I also included a couple other leaves that I think are beginning to turn. They have a reddish stripe and curve sharply at the tips.

One year in, I’m really enjoying our little ecosystem.

[Ensign Steve]

I have been obsessed with birds of paradise since I was a little girl and my grandma had them in her garden.

Shortly after we moved in to this place, bey picked up a pair of them and we planted them. I didn't know how long it would take them to flower, but here we are.

I am legit thrilled.

[JoeP]

And rightly so.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Someone tell ES to go to sleep. I would but I’m popping more melatonin in a futile gesture.

[beyelzu]

Yesterday, ES and I took the VTA light rail downtown and had dinner with a friend of ours.

There is a Brazilian steakhouse that we have enjoyed for years called Taurinus.

We had a pleasant walk back and I got to see this mural that was painted in the last few months.

I love our house in our city. I can sit with my front door open and listen to the highway, the trains occasionally passing by or a plane overhead.

The mural was paid for (and probably designed by) a local tattoo parlor. It’s got a large jaguar and is gorgeous.

[beyelzu]

ES loves California poppies, so when I had to fix my sidewalk and fill (the landscaping between sidewalk and curb), I got poppies planted and they are in full bloom.



Biebrach park is one block from our house, they have a pool. For the summer, lap swim is free 8-9. When I take ES to the train early and it’s sunny, I go swimming. The pool is heated.



So Ant swim school runs the pool. I do see swim classes there but the lap swim time is not overrun by kids. The people at Ant swim are nice, they told me they wished more people in the neighborhood would come and seem happy to have me. So far it’s been mostly just been me and ES.


Then there are the flowers that I noticed on my walk to the pool.

[BrotherMan]

What is that? A swim school for ants?

[ChuckF]

We are FINALLY going to start this renovation towards the end of the year. We're going to vacate for a few months, and were planning to rent in the area. The idea of renting grates on me a little bit, so we're considering just taking the plunge and buying a place in the mountains and capture some equity instead. The idea would be that we would live there during the reno and then use it as a weekend/vacation place afterwards. We're looking for something in the mountains, but within 3-3.5 hrs driving distance so it's a feasible weekend destination, but it also has to have sufficient high-speed internet for us both to work from there for a few months. Looked at one a few weeks ago that was not the one; going to go look at another tomorrow. Not an easy needle to thread. Also uncertain: the extent to which my neurosis will tolerate buying a house and renovating one at the same time.

[JoeP]

DO IT.