About Us

Sonoma County, California
We are two teachers in love who took on an enormous renovation project over three years ago. In the words of the inspector, "This house has been abused." When we're not educating young minds or working on our place, we are busy with many other interests. Dominic could blog with authority on the following topics: zombie infestations, home-brewing, origami, medieval recreation, and surfing. As for me, my blogging repertoire could include these topics: breastfeeding, guitar for the musically disinclined, bellydancing, and the quest for the perfect matzah ball. This is our story.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Trim

So, is the house done? Not exactly. Will it ever be? We hope so, but for now we’re just relaxing and enjoying life in the happy little home we’ve created here. We've come a long way from where we started, and there are so many cool things that we want to do, with the house and beyond. Most of the indoor projects that we have left involve trim and paint, so we consider ourselves lucky. Sure, we’ll break out our toolbelts, screwdrivers, and cool painting hats again at some point, but for now, we’re fortunate that Ronan is not too particular.

The New Boss






The new guy in charge has a different idea of work. When Ronan Alain sprang onto the scene on March 7, 2007, he had some new ideas for this place. House priorities would now include comfy spots to nurse, furniture that hid stains, rugs that softened falls, and gates that contained little explorers. Everyone wanted to know if we would have enough space for a baby, and, yes, it’s just wonderful to share our home with him. Not surprisingly, we haven’t put too much work into the house lately. Instead, we’re spending time napping, chasing each other, and looking at goats. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Motivation / The Cave II






While I was enjoying my hiatus from home improvement thanks to the best excuse EVER, Dominic and the men in his family returned to conquer the cave. First Dominic went to work on our faux foundation, sort of smoothing over our questionable stabilizing measures with a more solid-looking exterior. The new windows, though dangerous (I was still nursing my finger back to health), added so much light, and Dominic’s brother, dad, and brother-in-law all helped hang the drywall, beginning with the ceiling that we had raised. This time Dominic did the texturing himself, beginning in the closet that would someday house our stackable washer/dryer and shelving (it’s always smart to begin a new project in the closet, don’t you think?). It looked great, and he later trimmed out the windows (though they have yet to be painted). We added sconces for light, laid another pine floor, and the central beam across the top of the room will look even better when we really do cover it with pine to match the floor. We were creating some necessary lounge space.

A Little Distracted


After we returned from our European adventure, we were a little distracted. We found ourselves unable to focus on the many final touches of our remodeling project. We would alternate between this contented apathy and a frenzied quest for completion. We were sort of schizophrenic do-it-yourselfers during this phase of our lives, but very, very excited ones too.

Don't Wait to Go to Europe



As we’ve previously asserted, we don’t believe in letting life pass us by, even if we’re not done with the house and even if we’re low on money. When we got the chance to visit friends abroad during the summer of 2006, we took it. We had a newfound appreciation for European drywall, trim, and plumbing traditions, and we had a much-needed break.

The E.R.

My finger

Dominic's finger

New Side Window

Dominic shows our neighbor the window that led to my demise

Okay, I admit it. I wasn’t using OSHA certified paint-scraping techniques when I was cleaning the caulk off of our recycled windows, but still, I was unprepared for the flash of pain (note to self: point the paint scraper away from the hand that is innocently holding the window steady).

Though I was grateful to get an excellent deal on gorgeous windows, it was annoying to begin a project with clean-up and as a result, I was in too much of a hurry. Dominic rushed me to the E.R. (yet another milestone in our relationship), where no one was in much of a rush at all. After the four-hour wait and two stitches, all agreed that I was very brave. For comparison, I’ve posted a picture of Dominic’s bruised finger from our floor installation days. The results are clear – I win in the category of “bodily sacrifice to the house.”

The Cave






We did want to use the additional 120-ish square feet in the back of the house, but we were also afraid of it. A dark, illegal addition (though my friend Mike prefers the term “unpermitted” instead) and home to many rodentia, the back room wasn’t something that we initially wanted to deal with. However, once the main part of the house was inhabitable, we dreamed of making the cave into its direct opposite – a sunroom. It needed work on the inside and the outside. We planned to open it up with bigger windows, which we’d already scored at garage sales. We also wanted to create more space by getting a smaller, stackable washer and dryer, and replacing the old water heater with an energy-efficient, on-demand Takagi water heater that would be externally mounted. As with everything else, there was some leveling that needed to be done. Dominic got started using the jack and the skills he’d honed replacing the floor joist.

Kitchen Tile Style (Viva Los Links!)






Yes, can you believe it, we did, indeed, tile again (you can see in the photos that Dominic has his “tiling face” on). But this time would be different. Inspired by a beautiful tiled mirror I’d picked up in Guanajuato, Mexico, a couple of years earlier, we chose forgiving Talavera tiles. Heck, the tiles start out irregular, so they’re not supposed to be perfect (we appreciated this lack of pressure). Dominic had the idea to edge the tiles with a wood strip that was stained to match the counter – it really tied everything together. We added a few more fun touches later. A strangely blank part of the cabinetry was decorated with red-bordered Mexican Loteria cards, and Dominic’s stepmom encouraged us to use all different Talavera knobs instead of coordinating to match the tile. We added tin switchplates later to complete the look.

So Jacked Up!



It is not a good sign when your front door is suddenly difficult to close. It means dark forces may be at play underneath your house. In life as in home improvement, "settling" is sometimes inevitable but can lead to disaster. Dominic peeled away some siding and discovered that we'd overlooked a floor joist that was disintegrating due to dryrot. Worried that the whole house would soon tip to the left, we jacked up the house (exactly as if it had a flat tire) gradually over a few days, and then Dominic replaced the joist before gradually lowering the house. Raising and lowering the house?!?! I don't think my concern was an overreaction. In the end, it turned out fine (knock on wood that we don't veer to the side any moment now) with the exception of just a couple character-building cracks in the living room drywall.

The Hippie in the Hardware Store

During this phase of our consumer spending, we tried to spread our money around to the three different hardware stores in our area. We spent more than we would have liked at the big box stores, largely because they sweet-talked us with financing deals that enabled us to stretch our current cash flow farther (we supposed that we'd pay off all the bills when we became millionaire teachers in the near future). Anyhow, Dominic noticed that, some of the time, the (mostly male) employees at the hardware stores treated him as if he didn't know his gasket from his elbow joint. We guessed they didn't expect Dominic to be much of a handyman because of his long hair, but, hey, this is Northern California, and Dominic is full of surprises. That's why I love him.

True Confessions



We had two gates to build, and we went for the classic, cottage look of a pergola (or is it called an arbor?) above each gate. The first gate was a pain to paint due to the perpendicular top pieces, so we began painting the second gate without those pieces. Truthfully, it was still a hassle. And, if I'm being completely honest, both gates could use another coat of white paint today. We never finished painting the top pieces of the second gate, and the first gate was painted but went through a winter without rain gutters, so it's seen better days. I do like the shabby chic look of worn paint, but these two go a bit too far. Hopefully they'll achieve their full potential some time soon!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

A Good Premarital Test




Remodeling a home requires lots of teamwork, communication, and flexibility. Dominic and I learned to make decisions together, to work toward our goals, and to maintain a sense of humor, and the process was enjoyable (though not easy). Our home project was even mentioned by the rabbi during our wedding ceremony, which got quite a laugh from everyone. Before you decide to spend the rest of your life with someone, I recommend taking on some sort of a big project together. If you don’t kill each other, then it must be true love.

Everything Must Be Yellow




At this point, we were feeling much better about the interior of our house, but not a whole lot had changed on the outside. We wondered if this confused our neighbors, who heard us making an awful lot of racket without showing much progress in our curb appeal. We, on the other hand, embraced our external scruffiness as a valuable anti-theft device and a necessary evil in order to finish the main work inside. We decided, however, that it was time to spiff things up a bit. Dominic was not surprised when I wanted to paint the exterior yellow, but he did ask if every house that we live in would be painted yellow. I told him that I’d have to get back to him. “Lemon Ice” was just so darn cheerful.

Cabinet Chaos





We supposed that we should actually finish putting in the cabinets and countertops. To do so was a little bit of a pain as it required shuffling all of our stuff and moving appliances around, but it was definitely worth it. The free sink (another “flawed” reject) and slightly used stove (another giveaway from Dominic’s stepmom) that we scored really enhanced the look of our kitchen, as did our affordable Ikea countertops. I hadn’t quite realized that cabinets are just boxes affixed to the wall. Hanging them at that critical point between level and the ceiling line was, as usual, a challenge.

Tiling Can Be Fun!





We were dreading the next tile project in store for us after our “issues” tiling the shower, but tiling the bathroom floor was SO much easier. Again we’d inherited beautiful surplus tile from Dominic’s dad’s house, this time Italian porcelain and very natural-looking. The tricky part was actually before the tiling, when Dominic used varying depths of floor leveler to make the bathroom less like a carnival funhouse. But it must have worked, because no one has ever fallen off of the toilet.

According to our usual paradoxical design scheme, we spent very little money on simple shelves and trim, but splurged on the Devonshire widespread faucet. To me, it makes sense to spend more money on those finishing touches, especially when upgrading at that stage usually involves just a little bit more cash rather than thousands. The sink itself came to us free after a more discriminating customer returned it to the plumbing supply company due to an almost invisible black mark on the underside. The medicine cabinet is from EBay, and it’s distressed (in a good way). The seller happened to be from my mom’s tiny hometown in Illinois, which seemed like a good omen.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Cosmetic Fixing (!)





Things really started happening around here. Our second cheapest kitchen appliances and Mills Pride Cabinetry (we did upgrade to glass doors for their magical, space-enhancing qualities) were partially installed, our junk was barricaded in the unfinished (and scary) back room behind a French door, we had a new front door, and Dominic’s dad came by to help trim out windows and doors. Trim. Isn’t that a beautiful word?

Don't Wait to Have a Party





You shouldn’t put off important matters until your house is “complete.” Doing so will only kill the spirit of your adventure, and make you feel bad about all of the small projects that haven’t yet been completed. Instead you should relish each unique phase, and cast off your “what will people think” mentality. Because what people will think is that you’re pretty damn brave, and the quirky, half-done features of your abode will make for more interesting party banter. Thanks for coming, you guys, and thanks for bringing your own chairs.