Books read in January.
John, Hex and I spend the weekend in Big Bear with Sam, Justin and Taylor. Sam makes breakfast each morning: bacon and soft-scramble eggs with Boursin; drop biscuits and sausage gravy. John makes dinner and a brunchy nosh: Andy Baraghani’s steak and leek stir-fry, smashed cucumbers; a brie, pear and prosciutto galette; rosemary and thyme focaccia. Taylor makes dinner: a massive dutch oven of slow simmered bolognese. I make snacks and treats throughout the weekend: an asian spin on romesco with a sprawling charcuterie board one day; pears, ski queen cheese and crackers another; warm, blood orange-marinated spicy olives; David Lebovitz’s fresh ginger cake.
The weekend is only slightly marred by a non-stop snow storm, resulting in an impassable road to get out of our rental. On the morning of we spin out of our snow chains twice, then Justin does the same on his car. We shovel almost 500 feet over the course of two and a half hours to finally leave: it rains, snows, and hails the entire time.
I accomplish my second and third renovation projects while John leaves for the second day to work on the float. “Get ready for a surprise when you come home! I’ll have knocked down a wall and installed a water feature.”
He leaves and I jet out the door behind him to the store to make a final decision about a media hutch / console thing. We’ve been using the same, ramshackle ikea sideboards since I moved to San Francisco in 2016, and it’s time for them to go. I’ve got ~$600 in my pocket in the form of a digital Visa giftcard from a work rewards cash-out so I’m trying to do all this for essentially free. Console looks good, so I order it online while in the store for in-store pick up because this digital gift card can only be spent online. Order placed, I also order paint for pick-up from Sherwin Williams, and painting supplies from Home Depot. After running to all those places in reverse order as my phone dings that the times are ready, I make it home, clean out the living room, and dismantle the furniture.
I summon all the deep memories of painting and edge cutting from home renovations since I was 11 and bang out the wall in 45 minutes flat. While that coat sets, I assemble the hutch, make some executive decisions about what will stay in the room, and have a mild freak out over how light the paint looks. I stress for another 20 minutes before noticing that where I started is substantially darker than where I finished, and just decide to trust it. 3 hours later, the paint looks great, and I immediately undo it by painting the second coat, which while wet looks worse than before.
I reassemble the room, get things moved into their semi-final positions (read: 3 inches from where the wall is currently still drying) and hope it dries dark enough for John to be impressed. It’s the least ambitious episode of your favorite home makeover show, but when John comes home, he’s over the moon.
I use my holiday break in a way the surprises even me: non-stop activity, home improvement, art projects. It’s a burst of energy that comes from a resolution-adjacent place — less about self improvement, more from a big, churning desire for capital C Change.
I didn’t want to take my house frustrations from 2022 into 2023. So, while John was volunteering to help assemble a float for the Rose Bowl, I stealthily embark on a trio of minor renovations. On day one, he leaves the house, I kiss him goodbye, and immediately spring into action. I clean the kitchen and dining space, truthfully planning to maybe make a process video. Things are spic & span and I start to film and think… what-the-fuck-am-I-doing and who-the-fuck-am-I-doing this for? I scrap the filming part, and get down to business. Our house has this insane bar space that the builders threw on in a last-ditch bid to increase the kitchen space when the house wasn’t getting offers. It is five inches taller than the counters, made of a single long wooden countertop sawn in two and bolted together. Nearly everything about it bugs us, but the height is the worst offender so it has to go.
I unbolt both pieces, and take the vertical board outside, where, sitting on it like Wile E Coyote, I trim off the offending five inches with a newly purchased circular saw. I adjust the height of the wall bracket, and in less than 40 minutes, a gripe that has needled us for 18 months is resolved. I put the house back together, and prepare to see how long it will take John to notice when he comes home: it’s a significant change but not an obvious one. The room works better but you’re not entirely sure what is different. There’s still a bunch to be done to maximize the cabinet space. So much shit has to be out right now due to the lack of storage, and that will come sometime this year.
He gasps the moment he walks in the door.
Books read in December!
Books read in November
A thing I drew a while back, and recently dropped some color into. I’ve been trying to assert myself as an art-focused person lately on Instagram. Alarming how many people I’ve met and made friends with here in LA and SF that have… no concept of me as a person who draws. Which is primarily how I view myself? It’s weird.
Books read in October