This past month I’ve been playing a complicated game of hide & seek hoping to find just the thing I needed without unearthing too many other objects that would make the hunt harder. With each passing week more things have found like things and I can now go to the closet where I stashed pillows and blankets or the cupboard that houses red wine vinegar and soy sauce and find guest bedding or marinade makings. Some of the open shelves–like these at the entrance to the laundry area–are filled with artfully arranged objects.

Others, like these utility shelves off the laundry room, still need a little work. This weekend we unloaded boxes of kitchen and craft supplies onto these sturdy Uline shelves. Here’s what they looked like before we unloaded the boxes.

Here’s what they look like now.

It will take a few days to gather the fine china into a corner, cake pans into another, spools of wrapping ribbons onto one end of a shelf and jamming jars onto another, but at least I know these second-tier essentials all have an accessible home.  I’m almost the master of my little domestic universe and that feels So Good.

One thing that’s become clear in all the sorting is how vertical and varied this house is.  It tumbles down the hillside so gracefully that at first you don’t realize how much elevation you’re covering as you move from one level to another. Then, at the end of a long day of unpacking, you understand why you feel like you’ve hiked a mountain or two when you collapse into bed.  In describing the house we say there are three levels—the master bedroom on top, the public rooms in the middle and the guest bedrooms below—but there are actually six levels that we use every day.  Along with the main three there are the street entry level, the laundry/storage level and the large storage room/crawl space on the way to the guest bedrooms.

Then there are the many decks—one at the front entrance, two off the kitchen/dining room, one off the guest room/office, and three others before you make your way down to the back garden.  Entering from the back and taking in all the decks surrounding the central redwood tree you might think you’d stumbled onto the Swiss Family Treehouse North. (Really, we need a rope bridge or two and we’d be set to charge admission.)

For a relatively small house (2200 sf), it’s a lot to decipher. Given all these different, modest spaces, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what things should stay and what should go.  For the interiors, that’s meant some serious editing–furniture and rugs that don’t work with the style or scale of the house have been relegated to the garage and I’ve been judicious about what new pieces are allowed in.  The style differences aren’t so pronounced outside so for the decks I’ve been able to use a mix of refurbished and new furniture supplemented with old and new pots and plantings. (In case you haven’t noticed, July is a great month to pick up deals on outdoor furniture and accessories as stores make way for fall merchandise.) For example, here’s how the two decks off the kitchen are shaping up. The southwest deck showcases all new furniture and pots from West Elm–a good resource for this modern house.

The east-facing deck is anchored by two old Adirondacks from the now defunct Smith & Hawken outlet in Berkeley. We painted the chairs the same grey that we used for the living room bookshelf and added two more West Elm clearance pots to hold shade tolerant plants. These two decks were recently rebuilt to put the house on the market and we’re expecting the wood to darken up within the year.

I love how these little seating areas visually extend the interior spaces. Even if we don’t spend much time resting from our unpacking adventures—it’s mentally refreshing to see that we could.  This is all by way of saying Home Making can be challenging—at least when you’re getting to know a place–so it’s good to pace yourself and provide some rest stops along the way.

Oh—and yes, the refrigerator was finally installed.  It’s so beautiful it makes me almost forget the hassle it took to get it up and running. Even without any rope bridges to navigate.

Hello! I’m finally reporting in from the other side of the move.  We only uprooted 2.4 miles—a longish stroll, really, but a move is a move and even a short one can make you feel like you’ve traveled a very great distance.

The move itself went smoothly but was exhausting.  Six professionals did the bulk of the heavy lifting—including a hair-raising transfer of our tall upright Yamaha piano.  A number of men from our church joined them at the new house and helped unload all the boxes once we arrived. Bless them!

Two friends brought dinner and another stopped by that evening with freshly laundered sheets and helped make the bed. (What a treat—something to offer when other friends move.)

As luck would have it, the next week was full of can’t-say-no commitments—mostly for M.J. who was asked to speak at a memorial service for an old friend at the beginning of the week and officiate at the wedding of some of his students at the end. Work and other night time commitments kept him away from home and I was left alone to unpack while doing battle with the cable and phone companies—a challenge worthy of an entire unpleasant blog post but I’ll spare you.

Meanwhile construction continued.  Gustavo was able to get the stove, cooktop and dishwasher in the morning (!) of the move. But the refrigerator—where this whole kitchen appliance switcheroo began–was still on backorder. About that time, Steve attempted to repair a few busted boards in the front walkway before painting and discovered this–

We knew all the decks of the house needed some work, but we didn’t realize how significant the dry rot was at the front.  Thank goodness the walkway held through the move and no one was injured, but we couldn’t just slap a coat of paint on it and ignore it.  So everyone shifted focus to the front deck.

The refrigerator arrived just after the walkway was finished but the interior entry stairs to the main level were steep enough that the deliverymen decided it was best to take the long way around.  Here they are lifting all 500 lbs. up the back deck stairs on a misty morning (such weather we get up here).

I’d like to say that was the end of the refrigerator saga, but alas, it continues.  Though Gustavo had carefully measured and allotted for the specified refrigerator dimensions, when he came to install it, the refrigerator fit in the space but didn’t have enough room for the doors to clear.  Furthermore, one of the handles the appliance company delivered was too short and couldn’t be attached.

We decided to take a break from all things kitchen related until Monday. And I spent some time outside trying to take the long view.

But today, Monday, I’m writing this to the familiar sound of a drill running as Gustavo and his coworker Geo modify the refrigerator opening again.

It’s easy to focus on how far we have to go, but I should also note how far we’ve come. We can find clothes in the closet and food in the cupboards.  The laundry is up and running and the garage door opener finally works. Last night for Father’s Day we straightened up the living room (isn’t that what most Dads like to do on their day?) I’ve added a new jute rug from West Elm and had the painters paint our old bookshelf a dark grey (BM “Iron Mountain”).  We haven’t filled it with books yet and the new slipcover still needs to be hemmed but at this stage of the game I’m less concerned with perfection and more grateful for the many things that are perfectly fine.

I’m whupped from simultaneously managing the construction project and packing up to move, but so pleased with the results.  Yes, there are things missing—the refrigerator is on back order for a month!—and we didn’t make all the deadlines we were working towards, but we did accomplish so much.

Today I made my final run to Home Depot for some odds and ends—a temporary shower curtain rod for the guest bath, more red rosin paper to protect the floors during the move, and  parts to repair the garage door opener including some doorbell wire.  A friendly employee named Cassandra led me to the wire then pointed to the doorbell display above and said, “This is my favorite thing in the whole store.”

Then she showed me how the doorbell can be programmed to play different ring tones like “Silent Night” or “The Star Spangled Banner.”  She giggled as she turned the switch to Beethoven’s “5^th Symphony” for a little drama.  I laughed and asked to take a photo of her demonstrating the different rings.  Another customer jumped in at the last minute.  It was a silly shared moment that highlighted how much fun so much of this has been.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.  Catch you on the other side of the move.

Yes, yes we have. The new house is still very much a construction zone, but through the haze of drywall dust I can see what a lovely home we’re making. Here’s some of what transpired over the last week and a half.

In the kitchen we analyzed the cabinetry to figure out what could and couldn’t be modified so we could order our new appliances.  For example, the existing cooktop is ventilated with a downdraft.  It would be a major undertaking to add a ventilation hood to the kitchen, but also some work to incorporate a beefier downdraft.  We’d need to modify the pullout drawers beneath the cooktop, which would mean that my 12″ skillet couldn’t live there comfortably.  So for now, we’re sticking with what we’ve got ventilation-wise and hope it’s enough.

However, we opened up the refrigerator box to make way for a cabinet depth refrigerator as well as the original pantry cabinet. Yes, I know it looked this way in my last post.  You can see why Jill’s a little skeptical about our timing.

Gustavo worked on the defective copper tubing that feeds the refrigerator icemaker but called in William the plumber to install the new faucet and InstaHot–something I didn’t think I needed until I had one in my last house and missed it so much in our rental that I decided to forgo the sink soap dispenser and put one in its place.

While he was there, William the plumber (not to be confused with William the decorator or Bill the electrician or Willie the floor refinisher) also moved the powder room sink pipes over a few inches to the center of the room.  Then he worked with Gustavo to cut out an opening behind the existing washer and dryer so the appliances could be inset into the laundry room wall and not jut out two inches into the opening of the adjacent storeroom.  Another example of little things making a big difference.

We’d been warned that the washer also leaked, but hopefully with new hoses attached that problem is solved.  And look at the nice new floor covering–a remnant of white hospital grade vinyl that M.J. found at Anderson Carpet and Linoleum. “We could do surgery in here,” says M.J.  Top of my list, honey.

Gustavo spent many hours reconfiguring door openings and hanging doors.  Here’s the new entry closet door–remember the utilitarian bi-fold doors that were there before?  We closed up the closet opening just a bit so the closet door was the same distance from the front door as the garage door to create a pleasing symmetry on the entry wall. Then we replaced the garage, closet and powder room paneled fir doors with solid doors that will be painted Swiss Coffee like the walls so that they mostly disappear.

All the doors on this level now have more modern hardware–Helios by Emtek.

The Miracle Method guys spent a couple of days spiffing up the master bath shower and guest bath tub. In my dream house I have a beautiful deep freestanding tub, but for now I’m just grateful to have one that isn’t significantly gouged and scratched on the edge.

In hopes of finding a replacement handle for the shower, I visited several plumbing vendors.  Turns out this handle and likely the others in the house are from Moen.

I didn’t have any luck yet finding an attractive replacement kit, so I’m still on the hunt.

Along the way I saw these cool pipes at Emperor Supply and this jaunty shark sign at Moran Plumbing. I like to think about sharks in my plumbing pipes–don’t you?

The same day the refinishers were finishing up in the bathrooms and Gustavo was hanging doors, Bill from Early Light Electric showed up to tackle a laundry list of small items–in the laundry room and elsewhere! He modified an old track lighting box so we could hang our West Elm capiz shell chandelier in the dining room, got the other bathroom and laundry room fans running, installed lights in some of the storage areas and put junction boxes for two yet-to-be-purchased sconces in the powder room.  Here’s his truck along with the rest of the workmen’s fleet in the driveway. Holy Moly, we were cooking with gas that day!

The reason everyone showed up All At Once was because we decided to do the floors after all.  I initially thought we could live with them as they were since they’d just been refinished to sell the house, but the color kept bugging me.  The red oak planks had been covered with an amber stain that made them turn orange–not a good match for the white-washed ceilings and kitchen cabinets.  And frankly, the job wasn’t all that good.  Nail heads peppered the floors and looked streaky in spots. We knew we had to have several areas repaired but was it economical or ethical to also redo newly refinished floors?

“You’ll never do them again if you don’t do it before you move in,” said my sisters and friends.  ”If you can stretch at all, this would make such a difference visually,” said the pros–William the decorator and Steve the painter. Finally convinced, I searched for a recommended floor refinisher that could work with our rapidly approaching move-in date and ended up hiring Amber Flooring in Emeryville.

It was tricky to choose a color from the many lovely samples in the showroom. I knew I was looking for something on the coolish side, but was tempted by that hot red.

Regaining focus, I settled on something in the medium gray range after William showed me some planks from another project he’s working on.  Here are some samples painted on the floors after they’d been stripped.  We ended up choosing the sample on the upper right–3 parts white wash to 1 part Ebony–because it looked best with the kitchen cabinets close up and therefore we assumed would work well with the similarly whitewashed ceilings above.

I was surprised at how battleship gray the stain is when it’s first applied, but then it quickly turns a more ashen/bronzed gray as it soaks into the wood.

Today, all work ceased in the house as we waited for the stain to cure. This is what I saw standing outside on the deck as I–yes–watched the paint dry. It was a lovely, calming sight. NOTHING else can be done here for the next few days. Which means I can stop running around and go pack. Because, yes, we are moving in next week.

It was a stormy departure as moves mostly are.  Packing up all your earthly possessions—even to move them just a few miles away—whips up gale force winds of change.

In addition, we agreed to let our buyers do some exterior work the last week we were in the house.  But the scope of the project was either vastly misunderstood or seriously misrepresented and we spent our final days packing in a construction site.  Funny how the sound of workers yielding pickaxes and backhoes all around you makes you feel anxious and unsettled.

Even before the jackhammering started, the unexpected uprooting began.  A month earlier, the buyers reneged on their promise to be flexible around our move date and since our new place wasn’t available for a couple of weeks beyond the end of our contract we faced an unforeseen period of homelessness.

But then I shared our predicament with a long lost friend over lunch.  Miraculously, she just happened to need a house/dog sitter for the exact period we needed refuge.

So for the past ten days we’ve had a lovely suburban vacation with a friendly old Lab who likes short walks.  Here are a few shots from my morning constitutionals with Chipper.

Golden Hills in all their glory.

 Two well-camouflaged deer make their way through the grasses and up the hill.

Purple clematis cover the fence of a nearby yard.

One of the neighborhood’s many English cottage garden designs shines in the sun.

How fitting for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Chipper is obviously thrilled for the queen!

Soon enough I’ll be surrounded by boxes, wondering where in the world I’ve put my best black T-shirt and my Felco clippers.  But for today, I’ll take in the thwap-thwap of women playing tennis next door during my morning swim.  I’ll work on my daughter’s wedding invitations before meeting friends for dinner in a nearby new-to-me bistro.  And I’ll continue to toss out the anger and frustration over our buyers’ insensitivities in order to make room for the gratitude I feel for this calm, beautiful eye in the middle of our Moving Storm.