So JSF bought a Loft downtown. Well Karen and I did, wife’s get inaugurated by default. It’s a sweet space in a small building of only 4 units close to freeways and BART. We are super stoked. It’s not a fixer upper but it didn’t match our style in every way and we decided to make it our own as soon as we got the keys. Literally minutes after gaining access we excitedly ripped out linoleum in the kitchen , and carpet in the bed mezzanine. No bottles popped just some eagerly awaited destruction. After work Friday the deshtruction continued as wall cabinets came down and another layer of linoleum. As we approached the weekend and canceled appliance orders by Sears we had no idea what was in store or possible for us.

Build Day 1: Sat May 17th

We got into the bright space ready to work. Look how small our junk p

ile was.

Small Piles Grow fast..
Kitchen Almost gone

Too bad I only had my iphone today. Saturday concluded with Brian bringing our new bamboo flooring for upstairs, and learning how it needed to be prepped for 48 hours, the entire kitchen being disassembled, baseboards ripped out and all electrical fixtures discarded for poor taste. Saturday also brought about the decision to spray paint the entire place white, thanks to Brian and his arsenal of tools.

Build Day 2: Sun May 18th

Bright and early we dropped off our newest house-guests Carmi and Phillie at Amtrak and headed to Ikea to purchase our kitchen cabinets, sink, faucet, range hood and other parts. $2500 isn’t so bad considering the fancy sink, faucets and door stops. Happy with our purchase we headed to EcoHomeImprovement in Berkeley to buy our eco friendly countertop and kitchen floor, only to find out that our daily spending limit at Wamu is $3000 and they don’t take AMEX. Disappointed we met withe Brian and headed to the house to begin taping and preparing for painting.

Fast Like a NasCar
Adios 90’s
High on Fire Safety
Master Tape Artist
Spiral Tenting
Dont Explode
She loves Baloons
Suited and Ready
good night Tentville

Day 3: Monday May 19th

Mad drama, had to skip class, and our final presentation. Driving to San Jose for a 1 minute presentation part in a group wasn’t as satisfying as a second coat of bling white. Tonight was quick and easy, even took the time to prep the bathroom for painting. Removed the floor covering too at the end so by tomorrow we can see how amazing the white with the blonde floors look.

Tent City Day 2
A fine Mist
A nice and clean kitchen
A well needed rest

Day 4: Tuesday May 20th

Whew, Monday finished with a bang and Tuesday started with some banging. Installing the bamboo flooring was a challenge especially since we were consistently scared of running out of material. Fun. We didnt in the end and Brian made some executive decisions and a back corner was filled in with left over pieces. Noone will see the back corner which is good.

Day 5 : Wednesday May 21st

We picked up th kitchen marmoleum, a really nice dark grey. Should look killer with our white and cherry kitchen design.  Unfortunatley, our guru Brian is gone and off to a bachelor’s party in Vegas. Lucky him, meanwhile Carmi and Phille are back and with their help we toiled with this gosh darn marmoleum and only got 2/3rds finished before realizing we would need more. So another order will go in tomorrow. Oh well. We got so close to finishing too.

Day 5 : Thursday May 22

Every crew needs a day off, and after picking up one more box of marmoleum from Oakland we decided today would be our first day of in a week. So you think you can dance was on and it did not disappoint. Yay. Welcome back my favorite show.  We will get back to the grind tomorrow with a nice three-day weekend coming up. Im tired already.

Day 6: Friday May 23rd

Woke up really preparing for deliveries and a short work day but delays and what not caused me to be home all-day working, with no breaks. Can you say hungry and tired.  The day started off with breakfast at Dotties, such an amazing place and 35min line. Jeez. After some great starter grub, I feasted on potatoes, eggs, french toast and bacon. A full meal to prepare for a long day. We get to the house an immediately try and finish off the kitchen floors. Not only do we realize that its not working so well, and not clicking but of course as the day goes on….we need more marmoleum. Cripes. A quick call to ecohome and to Superman Scott Moore, and our new box was picked up. Thats two extra boxes if you are counting and  another $240 yucks. Budget, what budget? Ikea finally got delivered, can you say 62 boxes and only 2 of 4 flights taken up. I think we are going to have this problem every time, blasted 3rd floor living. I hope not with the appliance cus a carrying a fridge even up half the flights is gonna suck.  After much ado the kitchen is almost finished, IKEA cabinets were made and doors, and baseboards were 50% finished. It was a long productive day, even figured out what our magenta feature wall is going to look like. After 1Am and finding J-Lo’s window smashed we called quits and headed back to GP for some rest. Till early tomorrow.

Day 7: Saturday May 24th **updated**

Today we copped the accent wall color. Benjamin Moore Magenta. A flashy color, not too electric or pink but with some excitement. It is important to go with a tinted primer, as we saw, even with it there are a lot of coats needed. As Carmi, and Devin laying out the tape, Karen cleaned up the mess our house had become. A nice, neat pile was formed out of the enormous one thanks to Karen and a great fellow we met on craigslist named Nathan. Nathan is rebuilding a house in Bernal with cheap and free materials, so our range, old cabinets and countertop went to good use and not the dump. Good luck Nathan.  So with this little garbage pile the IKEA madness began. I still dont understand but somehow our IKEA pile became too much for our tiny kitchen. After measuring and remeasuring it became apparent that some things needed to come out, and rearranging was needed. We looked at bringing all three 12″ slide out cabinets to the wall between the bathroom and kitchen. We shall see how that looks in the morning. This set-up is not ideal for our range as it would put it withing 3″ of the corner wall. **Karen finished the day off strong by painting the spiral staircase a nice charcoal primer, real flat. She lookeed so cute with aerosol all over her fingernails and rea. She then proceeded to paint a super liquid gloss all over the window trim, looks so clean.**SSF photo magnet BSmithers showed up with Thomas blade and JJ as they were skating in the neighborhood. they promised me a Monday session and Karen okay’ed it so I hope they call, I need a good skate. **After schmozing I went in and primed those squares, icky pepto pink. Everything looks like a whompers…not feeling it yet, a colored primer should make the magenta look really good though.**

Level the whole way through - wall to wall

Get yourself a graphic designer in your toolbox

Day 8: Sunday May 25th

Finished priming all the squares today and applying two coats of the real magenta. Color looks great but its hard to tell with the green tape, it all looks a little like a watermelon or Christmas. Cant wait to tear off this tape.

Day 9: Monday May 26th

Woke up late today which was nice, really nice. Not planning on doing much at the house. Actually hoping to get some skating in with smithers and crew. Lucky for me my skate session was cleard and after taking apart some things in glen park I headed to meet up and get some clips while Karen, Carmi and Phillie went back to project HGTV to do second coats of magenta.  After a lengthy and super fun session with B, JJ and Tommy Boy, I arrived at the house with a nice picture for Be-mag and the surprise of some very exhausted painters finished with many hand coats of magenta and some sparkly new semi gloss accents in the bedroom. We eagerly got to removing the tape from our wall design. Not so fast….The latex paint and complex corners made removing the tape difficult in many places but with the help of exacto knifes and patience we made it through and the wall looks amazing, thanks Devin.

One foot roll up bank to TTS - Not going in Be-Mag….peep the i-beam behind my but, it left its mark all week.

Day 10: Tuesday May 27th

Back to work after the longest of weekends is tough, but knowing that a short week lay ahead is nice. Carmi and Phillie have left for Portland and taken the Mazda with them. In its place is a very sluggish Ford Fusion, sorry Danilella, not my favorite and they even stripped it of its sync, Budget come on. After picking up the car we met with our friend Bailey who is going to help us with our permits and such cus he passed his contractor’s test recently, way to go Bailey. No work was actually done today which  is strange but a necessary break from the weekend. Color looks amazing, very electric during the day and early evening when the sun is drenching the wall, very red wine colored in the night when its time to sleep.

Day 11: Wednesday May 28th

Used today to pack up Glen park house. We have to downsize from a 3-bed house with a living room and eat-in kitchen, garage and car port to a 782sqft all inclusive loft. We are happy to do it because its ours, oh what a feeling. In case you didnt know So you think you can Dance returns for season four tonight. Stoked.

Day 12: Thursday May 29th

Big day, comcast is coming and we have a moving van reserved and ready for a big day of stair hauling. Thanks to U-Haul my stair hauling has gotten harder as they have no dolly’s to rent even though i reserved one, wonder why they chose this location. Will the wonders of customer service never cease? Ive got major help today and really need it. Big props to Devin, Victor, Brandon, Ryan and Timmy for helping with the three trip 4 flights into the new place drama. The biggest piece of furniture and drama came from cookie and her 6′x2′x3′ cage, the move was facilitated by a little guard rail removal, which Im sure will be nice tomorrow when the appliances come. With the day coming to a close Karen started to organize the new mess formed in the house and I rode down Mission street sitting in a flat bed truck watching my plasma tv like a hawk, moving is fun isnt it? Karen made the mess into a nice living space and the construction site is looking more like its a home. Tonight was the season finale of Lost and it was the best to have the crew hanging in the new house. Made it feel even more like its finally ours and we are finally here.

Day 13: Friday May 30th

Today started with a great surprise, two guys from Brooklyn rang the bell and delivered our shiny new stainless appliances. Its always nice to start your morning with some new york talk and the dopest mail ever. Now armed with internet and TV we can get down to business and finish grabbing the left overs from glen park, which involved leaving poor Karen there for hours as we embarked on a mission to buy a TV mount. Karen is such a trooper, she packed the rest of the house in glen park and hopped in the car with us as we raced to meet Scott Moore, waiting to help install my 50 inches of beauty onto our wall. In no time flat Scott was doing pull ups on the mount and we were hooking up the cable and xbox, not too mention (thanks to Maria and Scott) our Mac Mini.

Plasmicity making Britt Murph look good

Day 14: Saturday May 31st

Last day in Glen Park. Carmi and Phillie returned from their trip to Crater lake last night with some sweet photos, promptly displayed on the new computer setup, its nice to see iphoto on a 50″ screen. Karen and I made a quick 300 pound run to the dump to get rid of some mess and make space in the new house.  Afterwards we all headed over to Glen Park to finish what Karen had started Friday. Two more loads and we were almost completely in the place, some small stragglers left but we are almost out.

New stainless noises for sleeping

closet?

Week 3 : June 1st-5th

This week has seen more down time, yay. We are very weary. this process, as well as playing host has for sure taken its toll on Karen and I. We are all out of old house and ended with a 900 pound dump run sunday. Its always fun to go to the dump even though its not as eco friendly as Id like. We alwasy craigslist things fro free but there is no end to the questions Cl users will ask before just coming to get some free stuff. Beggers will be choosy. Carmi installed the range and refrigerator while we were having fun tossing things into junk piles, so nice to come home to a Boston beef patty nicely heated up in our professional style oven. We have slowly been moving in but more importantly we have been getting adjusted to out new neighborhood. SoMa is great, nice new park where dogs get to run, Angus has already made new friends, cool restaurants and Im sure even more. We have to check out some furniture stores and lighty specialists. Our plants have also been adjusting to the 12′ window quite nicely, stretching out and overall looking very healthy. Last night as Karen and I fell asleep to So You think You Can Dance (shameless plug) we commented on how nicely the place was rounding out and starting to feel like home. It will real soon cus our first mortgage payment is in like 15 days.

Week 3 : Saturday June 7th

So we got back to work, or shall I say IKEA. finally decided to get the wardrobe we have been needing, hopefully it will clear some of the mess and clutter that is our bedroom. We were hoping it would contain our clothes that are currently spread out in three dressers or the like. We gave ourselves the opportunity to create our own separate designs and of course our are identical. I guess we have the same needs. Space for jeans, and shoes. Ha, of course I cant count my t-shirts but almost all are either Monx or Paul Frank. Perhaps Im in need of some new t-shirts, my newest of course is thanks to Mr.Reed….carcolepsy rules. Back to the house, Scott once again came to the rescue in his truck and helped us cart off the 82″ pieces that would never fit in the Mazda. Once back at the house unloading went well until one of the glass panes for the closet doors broke, not sure how Ikea is going to like this return but we have made more than one trip to the morose girl running the return department. ** The bug also left my life today. My car since 2000 my 73 super beetle got donated today to some cause, I cant even remember the name probably some kids. It was so hard to get a car donated, people make the process really difficult unless your car is sitting on the street. Mine was nicely left in a car port which made some tow drivers look really stupid. I tried to donate it to the SPCA but their towing company was the dumbest of all, and after a week of trying I had to tell them that I was going with another group. In one day the guy was here, ready and quickly we pulled the bug out and away it went. with it a lot of memories and rust. **

Week 3 : Sunday June 8th

My little sister came into town today and I couldnt have been more excited. After countless trips around the airport and a very aggro security lady we picked up Terrance and Jade and headed to Oakland so they could meet with family and prepare for a graduation celebration. Karen and I spent the day travelling to Oakland with Jade’s massive bags and finishing the wardrobe and its many doo-dads, including screwing in the 64 individual shoe trees. With the fate of the doors in question we finished building the monolith that will house our gear and marveled at how nicely 10 pairs of dunks fit inside. Overall the piece looks awesome and closes off the space upstairs creating a more cozy environment. Too bad downstairs is less than cozy. All of our sweatshirts, jeans, pants, shoes and hopefully jackets will fit because closet space is at a premium here and is currently occupied with miscleaneous boxes, I hope they’re labelled.

Gucci Loafers and dunks is how I roll

Week 4 : June 9th and 10th

Monday Devin came back, which is nice he was in SLC for what else a graduation, its either wedding or graduations right now, completely seasonal. Also WWDC returned to Sf and its funny living a block away from the place where so much blogging will happen. C-net is running a blog that appears to be every two minutes. There it is iPhone 2.0 released and damn cheap, but you all know that by now. Jade and Terrance met me for lunch downtown which was an great way to split up the day and see some sun. Back at the house momentum was slowed by a crazy adventure in dining at Tryptych, thanks to the center for something cultish, bastards shshhh’d us out of the restaurant, 40 mins to make a burger didn’t help Tryptych’s cause either. Neither did the 15 min wait for beer in a bottle. Silly waitress, don’t name your kids Aura they will inevitably put off bad vies and completely weird people out with their energy. We didn’t get anything in the house accomplished and actually felt a bid down cus we really wanted to keep the momentum going. Tuesday we got it going though. Serious renovation going on. We must’ve moved the futon a million times, and may have found a good orientation for it. We may have also found the massive enclosure for Cookie my snake a home as well. Of course I didnt cover it as I left the house today, and if it gets too sunny today I may be one sad camper with a  stiff snake. I hope the weather is chill and there are clouds for the first time. We really need to get cracking on some shades for our windows. Jade came by to drop off her bags as she headed for LA with her aunt, she and Terrance got to see the place for the first time and I can see the suburbs haven’t quenched Terrance’s desires for city living. Lets all abandon our cars and move downtown, please. I hope when I get home today not only will cookie be alive but I will retain some love for the new orientation of the couch and our desk moving upstairs. Still lots of work left to do but we are getting there.

Chuck Norris…nuff said

Possible couch config # 1

Getting closer to the final configuration

Weeks 4-5 :June 10th-20th

Wow, that was a long time in between updates. The past two weeks have been great. My sister Jade was in town from Atlanta and it was amazing having her around. People keep telling me its not often that they hear of a 15 year old whose company was appreciated but its super true with Juice herself. We haven’t grown up together but have a lot of similarities. It was fun to blame them on genetics since there couldnt be anything else…right? It was super sad to see her go and now have to wait probably a year until she comes back. With Jade here, we ate out, bowled, rode rollercoasters and had rollercoaster dinners, unfortunately we did not build a thing and as she left we realized that a big weekend was needed in order to get back on track, plus Karen is sick of living with all these boxes….me too!

Juice recharging…

Week 6: June 20-24th

We got going in a hurry this weekend. Another trip to IKEA was needed, and it had been two weeks, so of course we started our saturday with a 10Am shop at our favorite place of massive frustration. This time around our agenda was storage, shelving and hacking. I have become addicted to Ikeahackers.com. It’s the perfect place for those who like IKEA but want to add some personal flair or find new ways to use things. We had one extra base cabinet from the kitchen that we planned on using for bathroom storage, that hack was number one on my list. After realizing a nice way to flip the unit so a missing countertop wasnt a problem, new legs and doors were put on, creating a nice cube that looks very different from our kitchen. while I was hacking, Karen was painting Lack and other shelving for our toy display. We painted two lacks white, and one with the magenta underneath. Painting things white is the easiest way to appease me, somehow I have really taken on to this white out. After installing our awesome hair curler chandelier above the spiral staircase, we went right into installing the shelving for the toys and plants. Devin came over to help and on Tuesday our team leader, Brian came back to help us get rolling on the kitchen remodel once again. I swear while he was gone it just became this scary, ominous project that I wasn’t sure I could finish. Now we are ready for countertops and wall cabinets….fun times ahead.

Pre-Hack

Post-Hack, looking good…

Also looking good….in shorts shorts

Angus inspecting the structural capacity.

July 1st -7th:

Things are finally slowing down and construction is nearing an end. Spent the Independance weekend building a credenza. Yet another IKEA hack to showcase, but pics will come when the wall is complete. Its a pretty good hack, and I think Im getting the hang of making all things IKEA look, less IKEA. We basically took our old credenza, took of the legs and floated it on the wall with some shelving adjacent. Looks super cool and soon everything on the TV wall will be all floatishish… I like. Other than that, we have finally put away some kitchen stuff and can cook meals a little. Dishes are still a problem as we only have one sink but soon enough our countertops will go in and all will be gravy.

July 25th:

Its so nice to finally begin seeing things completed. Our entertainment system has seriously been upgraded by adding the Mac Mini and iphone 2.0. I can now control itunes from bed and listen to it in all the surround speakers. Very cool considering the amount of music I have to listen to.  Some more finishing touches have been done as well, we added the doors to our closet finally and Karen exquisitely put up the city, adding some much needed dimension and color to the corner. We also spent the much needed 6 hours to finish our doors to the closet. We had to return some broken glass 3 times to get replacement parts but in the end it was worth it and the new clean lines of the glass doors sprung us into design mode. Looking at the last bastion of clutter, our bedroom and the new doors we needed to spruce up our living quaters and Karen hung our collection of insects, bones, and art. Sitting below the overhang to the livingroom they look great from bed. We still have a little work left in the bedroom but its coming together and has become much more comfortable.

Its all floating now.

Bumble Bee (red an yellow) for Alora, apparently he just had a birthday!

Devin does awesome sketches….

We were just babies thanks Claire for reminding us how old we have gotten.

August 1st-10th

What an amazing week. My mom came rolling into town with her centered swagger and nonchalant peacefulness. I really miss my mom and enjoy her visits to no end. This time around it was extra special with the addition of this crib and the news that our countertops were going to make it in before she left. My mom was kind enough to help us pay for the ecotop paper countertops we so desperately desired. We really wanted her to be able to see the product in the kitchen and lucky for us she was able to. We started her trip with a great trip to the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park. This place is amazing, the landscaping and grounds surrounding are really cool but the main event was the Chihuly exhibit. Dale Chihuly makes amazing works of glass and this exhibit is the first in San Francisco. Walking around the rooms you become encapsulated within the art, it surrounds and overwhelms you. If you live in the bay area you should for sure see his amazing neon and glass creations.  My mom’s trip also included lots of walking into furnaure stores, some bets, and lots of fine dining. On her last night the creshendo was a dinner at Millenium, San Fran’s premier vegan reseraunt. As sad as it was to know that it was the last night it  was a most delicuois meal of beets, peas, tempe and great flavors. After mom left on Saturday  we threw a nice dinner party and invited Mona and Devin over for some grub and midnight How’s moving munchies/Castle. With the addition of some plants the space feels so much more complete and warm. The added green brings the plant life from the shelf down to the rest of the room.  Sunday morning got off to a blitz with a 9AM trip to Randy at Ace hardware. It was our goal to do a load of dishes in our dishwasher before the night was done. Properly adding an air gap for the dishwasher into our ikea sink was the first challenge. After decided not to drill/cut a hole, we used the knockout provided and some great chisel work from Karent to complete a very “to code” plumbing job. Add in completed dishwasher and garbage disposal installations and today has been a wonderfully productive day. Except for a melted icemaker line behind the range, success has been our greatest achievement today. Now for a much needed rest. Hello Kitchen…finally you made it.

Seriously go see this shit !

It needs a V8

Countertops son

August 17th

Last weekend we thought we had figured out home plumbing but it turns out plumbers may want to be called in at least to check your work. After springing several leaks and deciding that our own kitchen situation had gotten over our heads, we called in a plumber. Dude waddled in with full on plumbers physical accessories and re hooked up some old unions and redid some blunders, a full service, I even learned a little something. We tried to run a load of dishes, my measure of success, but a nice flood of water coming from a new place….so close. Today however, after a nice saturday of frustration and naps, we finished our kitchen off. It looks great too, we even filled it with groceries. When I say finished I mean like 95% but its close enough, and everything works. Even got some ice being made and I swear its made it a little quieter.

Labor Day, Sept 1, 2008

Karen and I have moved, sike!  We have moved to a new blog page so we dont take over this one.

http://usandthebigu@blogspot.com

Check it out, we have kitchen pics….!

Reppin’ huard.  Valo Euro Tour Conference Tour

Murph doing lines at SF state.   

Bagozzi battling a rather large gap.   

OG JSF!

seriously this weather has got to end. Ill go anywhere (except ramp rats) saturday. Is Zero Gravity any fun, if it is puddly. I need to get my skates backn on my feet. Holler sons, JSF Saturday session?

The rainy season is starting here in norcal, so we decided to hit the only local indoor skatepark for some blading.

Kennan was nice enough to let us chill at his place, and hooked everyone up as soon as midnight struck. JSF styles!


They both killed it.


Im pretty sure everyone on the block heard Fonseca singing.

Nobody can hang with ESG when it comes to nostrils.


Brought the photo booth for some more portraits.


That’s not Kells tounge.

Looks like they’re happy for 08.

Practicing the myspace angles.
Happy New Year!