A lazy Christmas

California Street with a zoom lens



It was a lazy decorating Christmas

Yes, the tree is supposed to be the root ball with the red ornaments. We were just not up for a tree this year. We'll bounce back next year. When you don't have kids running around it's easy to make excuses. This is our first time. It seems we are not the only ones. A quick drive through the neighborhood shows a significant decline in outdoor lighting etc.

 

Upon returning to SF for a month during the holidays it doesn't take long to get right back into our fur lined rut. Museum exhibits, most of the movies contending for academy awards, dinner parties, great walks, boxes of chocolate, the perfect car to drive, HOT water, you know, the normal things. We basically cram into one month what we probably would have done together in SF over the previous five.

 

This holiday season was especially nice, lasting almost seven weeks. I arrived the day before Thanksgiving just catching my bother and sister in law from Australia.

It's not all play however. I generally bring home a long punch list of "things" I have to buy that fit in my luggage.

 

 

http://www.sfmoma.org/about/press/press_exhibitions/releases/937

 

the Presidio walk that never gets boring

 

a new house--a rare event in this area of SF

Another Andy Goldsworthy installation in the Presidio. Three cheers for his liking SF. I'm for anything that cuts down the Eucalyptus trees. Not native and they burn hot. Make sure you check out the google link of his work. Very interesting stuff, a lot of which disappears with the elements.

http://www.presidio.gov/explore/Pages/andy-goldsworthy-spire-wood-line.aspx#.Usx_m8jD_Dc

 This is a google link to pictures of his work. http://tinyurl.com/kog49qh

 

The best movie of the seven we saw.

 

A great private collection. Walking through it is hard to imagine having so many wonderful paintings hanging on the wall. I'm glad someone got to enjoy it.

 

William Paley

 http://www.sfgate.com/art/article/A-Taste-for-Modernism-review-artistry-flair-3866009.php



this would look good on St John   ;~)


In art related news from St John.....heiress Lisa de Kooning was found dead at her home.

http://tinyurl.com/mpoyx57

 

 

Not everyday is sunny. The famous fog horns as freighters pass under the Golden Gate.

 

Her 21st birthday. Only 125K miles.

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaJ3XQBqKn0

 

If you like ballet, I think they are some of the best athletes in the world maybe the best, this was a great installation. You felt like you were backstage, all the while with life size videos of several performances playing, shrouded by thin curtains. It was great. I had no idea he got busted in the Haight at a party. Too perfect.

 

 

Even if you think you don't like ballet give this a chance. Margot Fonteyn was in her mid forties while Nureyev was in his mid twenties. She retired at 61! Full screen of course.

 

The one exhibit I missed. She came just after I left SF.

 http://www.thestylesaloniste.com/2013/01/girl-with-pearl-earring-opens-at-de.html




Tennis buddies

New Years at Lake Tahoe. Denise's friend Carolyn and her husband have a wonderful home overlooking the lake. What a lucky invite. As it turns out her husband Bob and I practically lived in the same tenement building in Manhattan when we were still in diapers. What are the chances. 

 

 The view out our bedroom. Cut a tree down? Go to jail. 

 It's a crazy world. A couple of days later, a different beach, the sand is white and the temps are in the 80's. It's back to work.



I'm back at the beach....



 

  



And coming around the far turn

 

Teenager

Adult

 

Upon returning from St Thomas with the lumber to finish trimming out the kitchen baseboards and the front door porch I stacked it to left it dry out for a couple of weeks. The stuff is literally dripping with the treatment. It gets all over the truck when it is really fresh. Like I said, I put it up wet but not dripping!

 

Home Depot finally received more of the travertine bullnose I needed to trim out the porch. Because they never had enough I had been buying 8-10, one foot pieces, whenever they had any over the last year. Now I had the forty I needed. I was really looking forward to getting this work done. Despite my best efforts water was still finding its way in along the edge. Not a lot but just enough to piss me off on occasion, leaving a water mark after it would dry.

What you can no longer see in the photo above is the seam between the 2x12 and 2x4 that I used as a combo fascia board to encapsulate the red iron i beam. There were no 2x16's available and even if there were I couldn't afford it--not to mention the weight. To cover the seam I cut the 16" tiles in four inch strips. They are already in place above waiting for the bullnose.

 Place camera on scaffolding, run down plank, pick up bullnose and smile!

 

There's always drama with everything. As I mentioned I bought all the bullnose over the course of a year. All from the same supplier in Turkey. I was so looking forward to put it up. I laid it out to get the color mix right and got to it. Well as it turns out every batch while looking the same was slighly different, each in a different way. Either the curve was bigger or smaller, likewise for the height, depth and all the ways it could be measured. Basically everything was off about an 1/8". Maybe no big deal to a professional but a huge headache to me. If you know where to look you will see it.

The finished look before grouting.  

 

A baby burro having its leg fixed after being hit by a car

 

In what has to be a first, Tortola's Road Town Ferry sunk in the harbor while being worked on.

 

http://www.bviplatinum.com/news.php?page=Article&articleID=1342093661

Drying out!

 

With the lumber dripped dried I set about encapsulating the small front door porch. You can see some of the rippled milling I have to deal with.

Priming the baseboards before putting them up.

I had not shaved in so long that when I did, I had this! Denise's worst fears about me turning into Grizzly Adams came true when we did a Skype call. She can handle a lot of things but facial hair is not one of them! I figure with the gray hair folks will stop thinking I'm in my 40's. ;~)))))

 

Tropical storm Rafael taking shape

What a nice hurricane. Changing course several times to miss everyone!

 You have your info commercials and we have ours! ;~))

 

September, October and November, my favorite months. Empty beaches, well almost, and warm water. Every time I have to jump to town for fresh produce or other supplies I try to get to the beach about 3:30pm. That gives me an hour before the showers close at Trunk Bay.

Full screen a must....

 

Next up, downstairs.

The router, miter saw and the table saw you don't see.

I should have taken some before and after pics. What you don't see, this area was piled high with everything that had been stored inside and was moved to pour the floor during the last concrete work.

It was a good two days before I had everything stored and new work benches in place. I relocated everything from upstairs. All future messes will be made down here. It feels so good. Progress.

The work benches also doubled as my scaffolding while I put in the electric for the fans, lights and put up metal furring strips to drop the ceiling below the red iron. I screwed up the electric. More on that later.

After trimming out the columns etc I started putting up the ceiling. A lot of the 4x8 beadboard panels had suffered some cosmetic termite damage with their long years in the containers.

No worries however. These two products, which I tested by applying them to another board and leaving it out in the weather for several months, passed the test. One for bulk, the other for skim coating. With time and patience it makes crude treated lumber look like its been milled.

 

Same drill as everywhere else, multiple coats of paint to get a build with wood putty skim coats in between. In the end four or five coats. Hey, its new construction--that's what it takes.

It feels like a death in the family. My sander of 17 years gave up the ghost. I can't bring myself to throw it in the garbage yet. I'm getting pathetic!

After multiple coats the columns are starting to look pretty good. A half column will be put up on the far concrete corner, housing a two way light switch for the covered porch lights. With all the small changes I make as I go along, things I thought out years ago sometimes get overlooked. This time it was the layout and location of the lights. I got carried away with the idea of wall sconces on each side of the bedroom doors and another by the utility room. Wired everything and put up the ceiling only to remember why I did not do that years ago--the storm shutters have to go where the sconces would be! Duh. My hope, with four inch recessed lights I should be able to get my arm up into the ceiling and get a hold of the wires. If not, I'll have to take down the ceiling.

This is how it happens.

 

The best nine minutes for anyone building, buying or remodeling.
 

 

In another surprise I found I was allergic to the new treated lumber. Blistering everywhere the saw dust and sweat mixed. The itching later was worse than poison ivy. The first attack was everywhere over my chest and arms. The old stuff never bothered me.

 

Back to the crash chronicles. I guess they are happy the retaining wall was done! Thankfully no one was hurt.

 

 On a truly sad note there was a small airplane crash at sea between St Thomas and St Croix. One survivor. The wreckage arrives in St Thomas.

http://www.stjohntradewindsnews.com/index.php/582-news/2012-10-news/8266-downed-aircraft-located-and-bodies-of-two-missing-passengers-recovered

 

 the day after

 

Back to upstairs....

The discarded original screens got recycled into the porch railings. Copper tubing with number 3 rebar inserts. Simple, strong and a very inexpensive to construct. Did I mention the patina?

Waiting for the top rail.

That's is far as I got when I ran out of my 10' copper pipe. I'll get the rest when I return from San Francisco. This year I'm leaving the day before Thanksgiving and staying for six weeks. Denise was not able to make her October visit so we are doing a twofer! See you next year assuming the Mayans are wrong!