Thursday, January 17, 2013

Lucky Seven Party February 1

We had a really great party.  Thanks to Lauren Venell for letting us join her show.  A huge thanks goes to Brian McHugh, a great friend and client.  He made an interactive art project for the party -an 8' long see-saw balanced precariously with building blocks highlighting Divisadero Street old and new.  Our job was to keep the see-saw in balance.

Brian playing with the blocks.






Seven years in business and I feel lucky.  Lucky to have started when construction was booming.  Lucky to have made it through when it was not.  Lucky to have clients trust me with their homes, their businesses and their savings.  Lucky to have developed a great team of contractors and consultants to work with.  Thanks to all of you who have made me so lucky!

Please come help me celebrate Lucky 7 on February 1, 2013 from 6-9  at 600 Divisadero St. x Hayes.
The party is in the Rare Device store.  Our office is located in the loft space at the back of the store.

As an added bonus local artist Lauren Venell will be showing her work and a curated show called Sustenance about the history of place that is 600 Divisadero Street.


Lauren's show description: 600 Divisadero Street has provided nourishment to everyone around it for over 150 years. Since 1876 this piece of pasture has housed an orphanage, a neighborhood meat market, and now, Rare Device and Red Dot Studio. Each of these institutions has fed the community--sometimes with food, and sometimes with more spiritual sustenance, as a place for neighbors to gather and feel at home. The community also feeds 600 Divis, much like tributaries feed a river. Generations of San Franciscans have flowed through here, sometimes stopping and spending time with the people, goods and spaces that have grown and changed here over time.





Thursday, January 3, 2013

Nantucket



We spent a week in Nantucket. The beaches were  beautiful. The town was charming. Fun vacation but I wouldn't want to live there.  Not because it is a sleepy town in winter with 12,000  residents which swells to 50,000 in August. I love sleepy abandoned winter beach towns. No for me Nantucket is just too Nantucket.

Our house was near town- gray shingle  with white trim- Classic Nantucket.  Actually all the houses are gray shingles with white trim.  It is part of the charm which comes at the cost that even a blue door seems  like a subversive act. I can't help but think of the planning and zoning codes that have emerged over time to keep it just so- preserve Nantucket. It also reminds me of our west coast version, Sea Ranch, where shed roofs and brown shingles have been codified.  It leaves me with an uneasy feeling both understanding the impetus of master planning seeking to keep a place defined apart from the sway of cheap  construction  but leading to a stylistic conformity.  For me the real charm of Nantucket isn't in the architecture but in the 75% of the island in land trust- limiting development and preserving the coastline. Ultimately that is what will keep me charmed with the island.

Photo is by Alison Seger.  

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Last year I got a paper-shredder for Christmas.  Just what a small business owner needs.
My kids made snow and decorated our tree.

That's My Boy

The person may be a stick figure in my son's drawing but the p-trap is shown more or less correctly.

Watching Plaster Dry

Watching plaster dry can be quite fascinating.  Really. Crew is KD Stucco.




Photo Scavenger Hunt



I hired a dear friend and past client, Janel Obenchain for a photo scavenger hunt; to come up with images to support my design approach.  Since we were both once philosophy majors, we spent quite a bit of time discussing the pros and cons of certain images.  For instance does the red really matter on the abbreviation dot image above or is the red inconsequential making it a dot image and not a red dot image.  Below are some thumbnails of other great photos that did not make the semantic cut.






Cornerstone Gardens in Sonoma

These are the kinds of things that stick with me and find their way into my work somehow or other.