Siittin' Around, Hangin' Out, Doin' Our Thing

It's Tea Time at the Junkplex

Recently at the Junkplex

Sittin' Around, Hangin' Out, Doin' Our Thang

The Princess and the Tom

There is always a bit of theater and drama here at the Junkplex.
Bow, sometimes called the Duchess of York Street, thinks she's a bit higher up on the scale of royalty as her "charmed to meet you" limp paw demonstrates.
Lately, Sam, the peeping Tom from next door, has become braver about spending time in Bow's garden though never brave enough to be out there while she's there. Fortunately the two have yet to meet face to face.

Interactive Friday: PG&E Update

Discuss and rate 1-10.

And How Is Your Monday?

Besides the fact that someone from Lisbon called my cell phone six times between 3:00 and 3:18 a.m. before agreeing with me that they had the wrong number, we are now dealing with the bangs, rattles, shakes and shatters of the PG&E crew wrecking our street this week.
Despite the burly charms the workers may have, they can't justify the noise.
Bow has taken the appropriate strategy of hiding under the pillows and hoping it will just all go away. At least I have a back sitting room to retreat to.

Bow, Resident Design Consultant

Our kitchen updating will be finished Friday when the new range hood is installed. Today our new rug from Crate and Barrel arrived, and Bow just could not resist "initiating" it. Watching this process -- which basically involved a lot of twisting and rubbing but (thankfully) no transmission of liquids or solids -- I was reminded of what "initiation" of new items in the house was like when I had cats. It definitely involved liquids. And to think I was said things like, "I will always be a cat not dog person since cats are so much cleaner." Well, I still don't have a dog but a nearly odorless basenji.

Good-bye Pupusas, Hello Borscht & Vodka

The Salvadoran electricians are about finished, having installed the
last light above, finally giving much needed illumination for the back garden should Bow and I decide to go out for a little midnight air.
Now the Russian plumbers are here for the bathroom redo, and it will look like the above shot for the next few days. And then we will have to negotiate with the tile man, and the wall man and...

I don't plan to get too spunky since these guys sort of look like a Moscow version of The Sopranos or Goodfellows. They promise it will look just like the shot on the right when they're finished.

While We Were Out

Sorry for the lack of recent entries, but it's been a busy week. Transformation of the JunkPlex is heading forward, and it seems that every day there is something new and another gasp at how many zeros there are in the check written to the latest contractor. Well, it's an investment as they say and it's not as if it's being blown on parties and bad movies.

Speaking of bad movies, over the weekend I collaborated with "Friendatella" and The Blue Elephant on a short video entry for the NY Artists Unlimited International Cringe Festival 2009. It's not completely top secret, but I'm keeping details a bit vague for now. If all goes well it will be screened at the festival in late July to early August. So another Eastern Time Zone meet up may be in the offing.

After the shoot, we stopped back at the JunkPlex to watch about half of 1965's Life of Juanita Castro, one of those early Andy Warhol films I'd always been vaguely aware of but don't think I'd ever seen. Like most of his films from that period, they are much more fascinating in concept than executition, which is probably the whole point. I'd also always been vaguely aware of Marie Menken, cast in the titular role. She and her husband were supposedly the basis for George and Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and I am now obsessed with this experimental film maker whose Glimpse of the Garden (1957) is supposedly her greatest work, and not what you'd expect to be film of a foul-mouthed, heavy drinking dame.

The Carnival of Light

It's been a case of The Electricians, The Plumbers and The Carpenters the past 24 hours. No, that's not the porn video the octo-mommy has been asked to star in but the reality here at the Junkplex.

Much as I don't like to make generalizations, the three professions have lived up to my experience with their peers in this city. The plumber could pass for a wrestler from northern Mexico, and his assistant is a goth band wannabe. He's surly, fussy, overpriced, tracks in mud, is prone to say "That's not gonna be an easy job, and it's gonna cost you," and breaks things.

The carpenter is a chubby, pleasant, kind of homely, probably hard drinking Irish guy with enormous hands, the heart of a poet, and prone to quote Velvet Underground lyrics. He knows and speaks City of SF D.B.I. code by heart. He wants to do a good job and save me money.

The Salvadorean electricians have compact soccer player bodies, have a sweet sense of humor, are respectful, efficient, speedy, discovered my computer and furnace were on the same circuit and fixed it for free, cover everything meticulously with plastic before starting any job and clean up and put back in place everything and remove all their tools at the end of the day, leaving the room looking like they'd never stepped foot in it. I'm really sad they are moving on from my unit to the rest of the building tomorrow. I'll miss little Edwin and Jorge. (Sob.)

All of this renovation has brought up stories about this three storied and much storied building constructed in 1885. I'd love to see what it was like until 1917 as a single family, 7,000 square foot home. It had a rough time from the 1950s onward. Just before I moved in back in 1998, it had been one of the most notorious addresses in San Francisco and home of the leading crack dealer. A crazy woman lived in my building with a dozen or so huge dogs that she slept with in the back yard in the summer and never picked up after them.

I learned today that the man holding the pit bull terrier in a mural down the block was once a resident here, and now I am anxious to learn his story. Maybe Bow and I will be on a mural some day.

When I moved in, my place had been stripped of every Victorian detail stripped, half of the place covered in the infamous BART carpet that loyal readers know was removed earlier this winter. All the lighting fixtures looked like what you'd see in an Econolodge -- at best -- and probably none cost more than five dollars. The overhead light had conduit from the switch box mounted on the wall -- not recessed and flushed with the wall. The worst offender was the hall light -- one you turned on by pulling a chain. That has been replaced with the new track lighting to accent my glorious objet du junque. All overhead fixtures have been replaced with the ones featured.

A big challenge with the overheads is that most of them have gas lines leading into them. Some of my friends can't wrap their heads around that there were once gas lights in my home. A near moment of panic hit when the electricians encountered on of the lines and asked me to go down to the basement to ask the plumbers if they could check the gas line. "Duh, I don't do that kinda work. Tell them dudes up there to be careful in case it's an uncapped line." Seconds later I gasped as I saw Edwin unscrewing one of the lines, his eyes widening as he smelled gas and quickly plugged it back up. I was less concerned about the house than it exploding in his beautiful face. All was well, and now they have moved on.

Now on to carpentry and having my ugly bathroom sink replaced with a sleek pedestal sink which, as the plumber so aptly put "is gonna cost ya."

Walking into the Light

I know you've not been able to sleep without another update on the conversion of the Junplex. Here's one of the fixtures -- in the dining room -- that went in today. Discuss among yourselves.
The carpenter came by this afternoon to start working on his bid, and the plumbers arrive tomorrow at 8. The Carpenter, The Plumber and The Electrician. Isn't that the film script the porn producers offered the octo-mommy?

What We're Seeing at the Junkplex

My Salvadorean electricians arrived bright and early today to begin two weeks' work of adding outlets, putting in new fixtures, dimmers, bringing some past work up to code and installing some outdoor lighting as one of the final stages of the condo conversion of the Junkplex. This place is of an old enough vintage that most overhead lights are on top of what once were gas lamps. So that's always an issue.

Bow has been calm but not thrilled to be quartered off with me in the back part of the flat so she doesn't interfere with the workers. She feels this is their loss since she won't be able to share her encyclopedic knowledge of electrical and wiring codes and matrixes.

Miss Bow Says...

Yippee! The sun has been shining for the past 30 hours in San Francisco, and I have been enjoying sun paths in the afternoon in the front parlor. My daddy has a furlough/leave day Friday, and we're going to be in the back yard pulling weeds, chasing cats on the back fence, and enjoying the sun. At last I've broken free of the chilly temps and snow of Chicago and am a true California girl!

Finished!

Home Improvement Project Update

We're getting there. Four days to go. I'm sure you want every detail.

How Do You Take Your Mimosa?

I believe it was 2002 or 2003 when I changed the ruby red grapefruit walls in the hallways of my hovel to its current color that I've always thought of being a retro-harvest gold. Now I am reading about mimosa being the IT color of 2009. I've never been fond of mimosas as a Sunday morning drink. Though I always loved to go to the pre-holiday gatherings that my sister's neighbor M____ hosts and asks if I would like a MY-moe-SAW in his West Texas twang.

Thanks, PG&E, for Adding Just a Little More Stress Today

In These Uncertain Times...

...the view from my front window, the berries on the trees the only sign of autumn in my immediate world, I take comfort and unease in remembering the transient nature of everything, everyone and every emotion. And I take solace in knowing that I planted these trees ten years ago after two others died.

Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine

Following the lead of Tugboat Dave's photo challenge I am posting a shot of my work space. I think we've done this before, but feel free to chime in again. Is it just me, or does it appear that Dave and I have the same wall color? This has served as both my real work and play work office, but I am about to launch a new play work site in my utility room. Also, that's my work not Junk Thief computer.