A long belated post...

Hello, all of you missed friends. Despite all good intentions, this blog has sat in a state of neglect for some time. I assure you, it is not due to a lack of thoughts, well-wishes, or missing going out in your direction. Those have all remained constant. It is purely out of necessary, indescribable busyness balanced by the need to have SOME moments of rest to recuperate.

The attic is partially framed and structurally reinforced. We look forward to having the insulation blown in to the attic within the next two weeks. This is solely dependent on my efforts to complete massive brick reconstruction, as usual. Insulating our attic should help reduce global warming and save much money on our heating bills!

Plague update: one bat and two more birds in the boiler vent.

Hopefully, you are aware that Alicia has been in film school and temporarily living in NYC since early September. She has found her metier and is a great film maker in every facet: screenwriter, director, editor. I am very honored and excited to be working on the film's theme song with the help of Amy, Betsy and Tara in Seattle!! Check out Alicia's Facebook page and website (aliciaberger.com) for some beautiful stills from the shoot.

I continue to model almost full-time, take painting jobs on the side and work on the house as time allows.

I hope you are all well, happy and warm and urge you to keep in touch as time allows!

Jodi

Two Main Floors

It just occurred to me that we've never put the floor plans on the blog, so here they are. These aren't the final plans, but they're close. Each floor is about 750 square feet and this doesn't include the guest room floor (2 bedrooms, a landing and bath) or the basement - which is just one big open room. I'll post those plans in the future. Some changes to this set of plans include: the laundry room - which will be located next to the toilet with doors facing the landing and there will also be a door off of the dining room leading to a back deck.


Main Floor


Master Bedroom Suite
The oval in the middle of the room is a freestanding bathtub. The room with the shower will be a wet room, completely tiled and ready for water.

Metal for Electrical

We recently visited the salvage yard in a 14-foot U-Haul with all of the metal from the demolition of our house. This was a day that had been discussed with much anticipation for a very long time.

 Jodi painstakingly separated aluminum and steel from copper -- (Jodi's note: pulling literally thousands of fins from old radiator pipes and then cutting out . . . every . . . single . . . joint, totalling hundreds and hundreds of pieces of metal)

-- and when all was said and done, we walked away with a big wad of cash in hand. Twenty dollars shy of what we needed to pay the electrician today to install our new electrical panel. 

From this...

    

  

 To this!

A nice trade.

We laugh at how many times a MAN has offered to "take our metal to the dump for us".  Boys, boys, boys!

This house was a conglomeration of ancient wiring meets even more ancient wiring. Sometimes a breaker in the off position still meant power at the site of our work. Needless to say, the threat of a good jolt of electricity is a little off-putting even when your feet are touching the ground, but when standing on a ladder, well, it's downright scary.  One of our first acts of business  was removing all unnecessary electrical from this house. What this means is that if you want a piece of toast, you must unplug the microwave, plug in the toaster, toast the bread and then eat your toast in a dimly lit house.  This box marks a new era. One I used to take for granted. 

Let the stringing of new wires begin!

Sizzlin'!

Well, we're in the midst (hopefully tail-end) of a heat wave, if you haven't heard. It's been scorchin'! 103 yesterday, 100 today on the Jeep thermometer. Phew. I am sorry to say we've been pushing 90 inside the house... Gee, is that what attic insulation does?? We'll have to get some!

Alicia is in Washington state (3rd time in two months!) on an artist's residency -- writing her screenplay, well, two of them actually. It is about 40 degrees cooler where she is.

I've been crazy busy, working an exterior staining job (lots), modeling and keeping things up at home. Oh, yeah, AND moving (literally) every-single-item-that-we-own from two storage units into one. To anyone who has ever helped me move my green couch, that remains to be moved with a helper.

Today was catching up with the garden, which is looking gorgeous and lush in this jungly humidity and heat. 

I picked four bags of delicious mixed greens, herbs and arugula and thought of all of you, to whom I used to give garden produce in Seattle. There are already 1" tomatoes out there...quite a bit ahead of the season in the Northwest. 

Had my first taste (no, not literally, although I read that they are quite delicious!) of stinging nettles whilst cutting the grass yesterday. 

I can adamantly say, that stinging nettle does, in fact, REALLY sting. Youch. It looks much better today -- about half as big.

Oh, I must include these photos for Amy V. and my mom, who never got to see my flowing tresses 

before they got chopped off. (I NEVER wore it down). 

Please note, for your amusement the pseudo bun that I sported during many a modeling gig... Tee-hee! 

Time flying

Yikes, it is already June, and I don't know where I am -- torn in every direction. More so than ever, there are never enough hours in a day, and there is never enough money.

Alicia and I had a lovely weekend, which included her getting a motorcycle riding lesson, finally. And so, it begins. She likes it!

One of my recent thrills is wearing my new glasses that make me look like a male euro-model-nerd-spy. 

 Seeing clearly is a good thing. They are JUST READING GLASSES. Alicia says I'm in denial...

She will soon be leaving for her residency on the Washington peninsula. I will be doing things. We are having several visitors in the next month, so I have a lot to do.

Memorial Day Weekend

Hello, all. I hope that amidst all of our lazy or celebratory activities this weekend that we stop for at least a moment to consider the gravity of those throughout history that this day honors...

Alicia and I returned from our Seattle trip with momentum. I worked in the basement digging out mortar for repointing this week. Alicia did some major spring cleaning and removed most of the clutter from our first floor living area -- clutter in the form of those huge bales of insulation stacked everywhere. They've been banished to the garage until installation time. Of course, this required making room in the garage...

Our architect invited us to a bbq later today, so we are rescued briefly from our social isolation. YAY! Mmmm.... smoked brisket and pork butt..... Can't wait.

Alicia will return to Jersey tomorrow, sigh. So far away. She got two pairs of super cool new glasses.

We played tennis yesterday and this morning. I do so love tennis. The weather is gorgeous, though windy. It's supposed to hit 83 today.

Newest addition to the bird family at the feeder: gold finches. I am thrilled! We got our sweet little garden planted before we left town.

For the moment, we're winning against the ground hog(s).

So good to visit Seattle and see those I miss, well, at least some of them. I got a cute new haircut the day we left. No more ponytail!

Happy day!

Sorry!

This will not satisfy, I know. Suffice it to say, for now, that there's been too much, that's TOO MUCH going on to keep up. I sincerely apologize for the blatant abuse of my word...every day, HA! Lies, all lies.

I will give you the update of all tomorrow.

Regarding the poison ivy...I believe that I'm winning. I've only suffered singular rash dots thus far for the most part. I have discovered an AMAZING product (thanks, Mom) called Tecnu. It actually pulls the poison oils out of your skin.

More later,

Jodi