Nursery!

We are just eleven days away from our due date (!) so before life upends I wanted to share a few nursery photos, as it is today. I'm sure it'll shift and change a bit more in the coming weeks, but here we are. Remember what this room looked like when we bought the house? Click here - yikes! Also the hallway - yikes again! I'm slightly conflicted by a few things in the room (the mobile, the constant glare on the ABC picture, some of the clutter) but I'll work it out. :-) I'm curious to see how things change once it's all put to good use by our lil bunny. The room gets great light and feels really good to be in. A few things to point out: the knit blankets on the chair were all handmade - the top two by her great-great-grandmother (for me as a baby) and the others by friends of mine. That book, Sohntage (Sunday in German) is from Tocco's sister and is the cutest. It's a picture book of a dad and his kid as they go about their day together and the illustrations slay me. I might love it even more than Tocco. Our friend Joanna gave the baby a Grumpy Cat, which I think is so funny. She won't always be happy with us so she can carry that cat around and then we'll know. We got these cute bunnies and awesome clothes from my mom and sister and I cannot wait to get this baby born to dress her up in them all. The little hummingbird hanging on the tree represents my dad and T's mom, always with her. So many of the other items are gifts from friends, so it's all pretty amazing and we are so blown away by everyone's love and we are so excited. See you soon, baby!

Wallpaper house

We are always searching for a new house to renovate, this time in Alameda, CA. This one has a strong hold on us... But the timing couldn't be more tricky- we have a baby coming in 2 weeks! But it's such a fun one to imagine fixing it up. Can you imagine how beautiful it'll be? Because it will. So. much. wallpaper. It was built in 1870 and hasn't been touched in 60 years, as you can see. But the BONES! hahaa

Last big project completed!

[If anyone can tell me why there is this huge space up above and how to get rid of it I'd appreciate it. The text is all the way to the top of the text box on the edit screen, so I don't know...)

We have had so many small and large renovations completed lately, which, combined with the holidays and a general laziness means I have fallen very behind on updating this blog. ergh. But, behold the latest, greatest, and LAST (yaaahhh!) major home renovation for us! The Garage turned Storage Room! It used to be a scary, cold, damp, dark weird little space with a giant hole leading to the underbelly of the house (which was filled with everything from brand new '80s Samsonite suitcases, 4 track albums, about ten different ladders, folding chairs and tables, etc. .. all left behind by the previous owner) for a full year, but we have now completed it's renovation and it's niiice.

We've never actually fit our car into the garage because Tocco and I have amassed an enormous collection of tools from all of our renovations, which fills the space instead: saws, paints, garden supplies, electric gadgets, glues, fluids, you name it, plus all of the surfing and everyday STUFF needing a home. So this space needed not to be a garage so much as a storage room. We had our trusty contractors, Soto, come over and work some magic. They always deliver. They covered up the big hole on the side where someone unwelcome could hide, patched the walls, added dry wall, and painted so the walls became solid, warm, clean, white, and functional. We also had a new garage door installed since the old one didn't technically lock and could have been opened quite easily from the outside (oops). To top it all off we added brand spankin' new storage solutions, including a rad custom display/storage shelf made by Tocco for all of his kiting/surfing stuff, a few hefty containers, and we are all set. Now the garage feels totally different and 100% warmer. A few photos...

Getting insulated:

New walls:




Painted and purdy:





A new garage door installed:





The mess from the garage now needing to find a new home in the storage room:

Tocco building shelves and racks for all of the kitesurfing/fun outdoor water stuff:

So cool. For a guy who does corporate branding all day he is 100% handy:

Ta-da!

Now he can't wait to find his next project. Oh yeah, a crib:

A new makeshift workbench from our kitchen counter leftovers:

We pared down like crazy here. This is about a tenth of the house renovation stuff we've had to buy and use in the last year... yikes!



And everything is so organized now:























A dorky little sign I made Tocco a few years ago:

Yippee! You can (nearly) go in there barefoot if you want. ;-)