Tiny Cat Warriors

Sunrise from Sausalito

iPhone photo from this morning.

Sonoma valley house - what a difference a few years makes

I've been in this house about 6 years now - I  moved in during June 2003.  The house was built over the period from July 2002 to April/May of 2003.  when I moved in there was virtually no landscaping.  There were two major landscaping projects undertaken during the time I've owned the property, but there's been a Winchester Mystery House sort of ongoing landscaping going on as well, new trees and shrubs have been planted pretty much continuously since summer of 2003. 

I took a few pictures today of the house and yard, with all the deciduous trees, the yard looks really great during the few weeks while the leaves are turning and I got to thinking how much the property has changed since I built it.  Here are a few pictures showing the changes over time.

This was the property as I first saw it - the builder had permits already done for the house and had just started the excavation for the footings.  View from the street to the Northwest.

This picture was taken in September of 2002.  The footings for the foundation were in and they were pouring the floor for the garage (I had them pour an extra thick floor since I knew I'd be installing a car lift in the garage).  The Bobcat was grading part of the backyard.

Picture taken in mid-September 2002.  The foundation was finished and they were starting the decking for the main floor.

End of September 2002 - they'd started the framing for the first floor.  I was hoping that they'd get the roof on before the rain season started, but that was not to be.

Third week of October 2002 - framing was nearly complete and they'd started sheathing the exterior while roof joists where being intalled.

First week of November 2002 - roof joists had been sheathed & some of the windows were in.  Rain season usually starts about that time of year, which would have been perfect, but in 2002 there were a few significant rainstorms during October.

February 2003 - the house had been enclosed, roofing intalled & all windows installed.  The heating system was operational by around January, which meant that the wood for the hardwood floors could be moved in and acclimatized for several weeks prior to installation.  In retrospect, I should have insisted for a longer drying time for inside the house.  The Brazilian cherry floors haven't been especially stable dimensionally - gaps in the floors after 6 years aren't terrible, but I'd hoped that there'd be no gaps.

Mid-March 2003 - side fences had been installed & the minimal amount of landscaping the builder did was partially complete.

I'm skipping ahead a little bit here, but this is the view from the street of the house after the first major landscaping project - pillars & walls near the driveway are in by this time and a number of [at the time, very small] trees have been planted.

You can see the current view of the house in the panorama at the top of this post.

Laying out the front path and the stone wall wrapping around the front of the house.  This was from October 2003 and shows the lay out of the drain system as well.

Different view of the area where the front walk & stone wall were going to go.

View taken a couple weeks later in October 2003 of the stone wall as it was built.

View looking down the driveway in mid-October 2003 of the stone wall as it was being built.

Current view of the gravel path and the low stone wall.  The plants have really filled in - New Zealand flax seems to do really well here.  The low green bushes are rosemary.

View from the back deck of the patio as it was being built with the ornamental gate in the background as it was being built.  Mid-October 2003.

View of the finished patio in late November 2003.  You can see the wisteria has been planted near the post in the left center & two ornamental maples were planted to the left of the path.

Another view in late November 2003 of the finished path and finished ornamental gate.  Newly planted small red-leafed ornamental maple on the right.

View from above of the ornamental gate - taken in November 2003.  Look at how skinny the tree trunk of the flowering pear is on the right.

Views of the patio, gravel path, ornamental gate & ornamental maples today.  The poplars on the left of the arbor/patio have grown from about 6 feet tall when they were planted in the Fall of 2003 to about 40 feet tall now.  The Atlas spruce in the center of the lower photo was about 4 feet tall when it was planted in late 2004.

View in October of 2003 of the area where the back gravel path would shortly be installed.  At this time there were no plantings in the back yard.  Anything green was just weeds and grass.

View of the same part of the backyard today.  There are mixed plantings of butterfly bushes, lavender, olive trees, madrona trees and ornamental grass.

Golden Gate Bridge from Marin headlands - 1994

Scanned from slides -68

This is from a batch of photos I took right after moving back to San Francisco from Seattle in November of 1994, so this photo is probably from November or December 1994. It's taken from the upper part of the road in the Marin headlands, so it's quite a distance from the bridge.

Right before sunset - the buildings in downtown San Francisco are still lighted.

I moved back to San Francisco after having been gone for 6 years to take a job with some friends who were starting their own company. It was somewhat of a risk, although, in retrospect, it wasn't as much of a risk as I thought.

I really truly loathed the people I worked for in Seattle (actually, Kirkland) and would have quit that job in any case. The lesson I learned there was never to work for a married couple, especially if the wife is utterly without morals or ethics of any kind. It was an absurdly depressing place to work, largely because the wife seemed determined to shaft low-paid employees out of amounts that even at the time seemed ridiculously small. Out of 15 or so employees, there weren't any who weren't looking for jobs.

Anyway, it was an exciting time to get back to San Francisco - the new company was growing in leaps and bounds and there was a huge amount of energy flowing there. San Francisco itself was starting to build up with an energy that a couple years later would take full flower in the dot com boom (and then the bust), but it was a very interesting time. Herb Caen was still writing, although only on a part-time basis by then - but his column seemed required reading every morning it appeared. The City lost a certain glue when he died.

Deborah Butterfield horse

Butterfield horses - San Francisco -12

Until last Friday, there was a temporary installation of horse sculptures by Deborah Butterfield at 425 Market Street in San Francisco. In the courtyard where all the smokers congregate, I'm guessing the smokers didn't know they were standing next to about $1.2 million in bronze sculptures.

San Francisco Opera Ball

Opening night of the San Francisco opera - the opera ball at the San Francisco City Hall.  

Sonoma sunrise panorama

Sonoma sunrise panorama

Panorama I took this morning with my iPhone and stitched together using the AutoStitch app from the app store.

Sept 2 sunrise

Sept 2 sunrise

Sunrise over Sonoma valley this morning.

Advice for tourists in San Francisco

 

One piece of advice for tourists visiting Baghdad by the Bay:

Unless it's raining, never step on a wet spot on the sidewalk.  If it's not raining, the wet spot is pee.  Carefully placed for your enjoyment by one (or more) members of the army of homeless crackheads that San Francisco maintains exclusively for your viewing pleasure.  Take care & enjoy your visit to our lovely city.

Morning clouds at Palm Springs airport

Morning clouds at Palm Springs airport

Yesterday morning, 6 am at PSP.

June sunrise 2009-1

June sunrise 2009-1

Taken this morning, June 27, 2009.