and the lovely, lovely after:

We even washed the windows:

So far this year we have...

• Had an underground oil tank removed
• replaced the gate to the back yard
• had all the windows restored to working order, cleaned and painted
• had a damaged part of the house re-built
• had all the gutters replaced
• replaced the door to the screen porch

plus numerous small repairs and projects. at the moment, J is stripping and restoring all the HVAC registers, which are pretty gross with paint and rust.

and there's oh so much more to do...

on one part of the house, the painter also found some rot. he's also a carpenter so on his recommendation, i asked him to take out the rot and repair the damage.

it started with just the corners and the top...

and then he realized that the brick veneer wasn't attached, it was just kind of balancing on the foundation and lightly held in place by the rotting siding that had been removed.

so i gave the go-ahead to take off the brick.

which is going to allow him to access all the water damaged structural areas:

it looks like bad flashing around the chimney allowed water to move along the chimney and soak the wood repeatedly. i think a bad gutter was also to blame - it soaked the ground, water moved up through the masonry and soaked the wood at the bottom.

the flashing has been fixed - in fact the rotted out wood was all dry despite a good rain the day before - and the gutters will be replaced.

i'll also be getting rid of the obnoxious herringbone brick veneer, which never looked right.

In your brand new Honda CVCC hatchback - super fuel efficient!

You're listening to The Cars:

J is taking a class - where I work! So we eat lunch together every day. He gets amazing catered food served on a white table cloth, I carry my cafeteria lunch (which is also quite good, I should note) up to his "reserved" area and sneak a place at the table where all the students are eating. But they all are curious when they find out I'm an employee.

Things are being done to the house!

This is our new gate. I really loved the old gate and felt it was part of the charm of the house, so I asked them to reproduce it exactly. The old gate was next to some crappy fencing; they improved over the original by carrying the scalloped design into some picket fencing. This will all be painted white (except for the beautiful redwood post caps, which I'd like to seal) - by the painter! Who is starting tomorrow and will scrape and paint all the peeling wood on the windows and everywhere else.

I'm shooting video! At work!

I'm in charge of a project to produce four video tutorials for our intranet. We're doing them in the style of old educational films. It's a really fun project. We were lucky to find a room in our building that is perfect and almost never used.

We didn't really want to go outside, either. Even at night.

We wanted s'mores, though, and although I am sure we're not the first to hit upon this, it was a novel idea to both of us: roast the marshmallows over candles.

Fondue forks make an excellent way to hold the marshmallows over the flame. They don't get quite as hot all the way through as they do over a big fire, but this method is fairly effective. And delicious!

once upon a time i wanted to be a filmmaker. that didn't happen, but i wonder now if i missed becoming a film editor. i don't really have a strong enough eye to be a good cinematographer or even director, but i'm pretty detail oriented and i generally find editing to be quite enjoyable. it's the same combination of creative and technical that i find satisfying in web work. who knows?

indeed yes, they are iphones.

theoretically they are on trial in our household; we have thirty days to return them for a full refund and cancellation of contract. however, after only a day i am already in love with mine and things would have to take quite a downturn for me to return the thing.

here are the two experiences that really turned my head...

1) shooting a video and editing it on the phone. eleven years ago i did this the old fashioned way, with a big camera, tapes, and a copy of final cut "borrowed" from a filmmaker friend. i scored web streaming hosting for free via other friends. the thought of accomplishing all of this so casually on a little slab of glass that i carry in my pocket makes my mind melt.

2) walking the dog in a new neighborhood. we routinely scout neighborhoods where we might like to live. i used the maps and directions function to navigate to the neighborhood, then we planned our route through the neighborhood using the map. since i'm incredibly directionally challenged while on foot, i appreciated having a map with my current location right in my pocket. it was so bloody hot, i really didn't want to miss a turn while on foot and get lost. the real killer was that as we were walking i was able to bring up the online listings for houses we saw that were on the market.

there's also been lots of fun and goofiness with the video calling, camera and being able to check things on the internet wherever we are.

we've decided that we can't do much more paint removal without taking out the windows and taking off the bumpers and pop-top. which is a big stage, one i've been anticipating for... well, years.

it gets complicated... we have to make a rack to store the glass in, and hope it doesn't break during removal, storage or replacement. the pop top might take several people to remove and the garage is going to get crowded with all the stuff taken off the van.

we're also approaching the point where i need to make some artistic decisions. we could put a pattern of marks in the metal before the final coating is put on; i need to figure out what, if anything, i want to do about that.

and now i have help! help in the form of a husband who knows his way around power tools. and we've acquired an angle grinder which is a great addition to the stable of tools we're using to remove paint, bondo, and the galvanizing layer.

many years ago i happened to catch a few episodes of dr. andrew weil's "six weeks to optimum health" and for one of the weeks a news break was the goal. "if something big happens, you'll hear about it," i remember him saying. i still think it's pretty solid advice.

in other, um, news i've started photographing my outfits after work every day because you know what? mirrors lie! i am kind of horrified, and after today feeling a little demoralized. tomorrow i plan to break out my favorite - and what i think is my best looking - cold weather ensemble. we'll see how it stacks up.

no plans to submit said photos to wardrobe remix at this time. they're pretty much for me and me alone to be horrified by. still fascinated by fashion blogs (or, in the parlance of the community, personal style blogs).

looked at my christmas present, which is now ready. it's beautiful and perfect. it's furniture.

drove out to my company for a special walk - through the woods behind my building, where i discovered recently you can get a pretty good view of the solar farm if you make it up this one really steep hill. it's such a nice place to walk. i really consider the campus to be one of the side benefits of working there.

drove around and looked at some neighborhoods i've recently become intrigued with, and saw some incredible houses.

had sandwiches at parker & otis.

inspired by reading vintage vivant i bid on an inexpensive vintage silk slip on ebay.

cleared a lot of residual clutter that's been hanging out in the bedroom for the last year and moved furniture around to accommodate my birthday present. this feels like a big accomplishment to me after having this stuff sitting there in my way and bugging me for so long.

one category of stuff i had to deal with in the bedroom is costume jewelry from one of my grandmothers. i realized a few things; first, that any clutter tendencies i have, i come by honestly. she had a LOT of jewelry. second, frankly some of it was just crap - broken, earrings without mates, cheap bits of plastic, findings that are showing signs of corrosion.

i found i was able to sort through it fairly dispassionately. i threw away the things that were no longer usable. most of it i will offer to a friend who makes jewelry to see if she can harvest from or remix any of it. anything she doesn't want i'll give to goodwill.

i'm still left with a pretty impressive collection. much of it is clip on or screw on earrings, which i won't wear. i'm hoping to convert some over to pierced earrings and some to brooches.

after getting the bedroom ready for the new furniture we went to WFM for a few things then made dinner.

now i'm super tired. whew.

we've been getting a LOT of all three the last couple of weeks and i HATE it now. this doesn't mean i'm going to go sun myself on the beach, ever, but i'm kinda wishing it would warm up, dry out, and start looking a little greener outside.

WHO have i BECOME???