Just a catchup on what I’ve been up to the past several days, besides creating a line of historical and vintage postcards and trading cards. I’ve been wading through 39 years of accumulated household stuff, first organizing the “stuff” into piles of similar things, then sorting them into piles of “dump”, “sell” or “hold”, kinda like stocks in an estate portfolio. An “estate” does NOT mean “dead person’s leavings”, although it CAN mean that also. It merely indicates a condition of personal belongings, including any liens or encumbrances that may lie upon it. In short, it’s everything you own or derive any personal benefit from, see?
And in my book, that means “mostly dump”, saving only what’s being actually used at the moment. Of course, if something is going to be used for sure a week down the line, you can’t allow your neurosis to control you into throwing it out anyway, unless you’re an alien-dominated zombie, of which there are already plenty, in case you think of it as a job opportunity.
Yesterday afternoon I climbed out on the balcony and pressure-washed the redwood deck, which hadn’t been worked on for some time — about 15 years. It looks great! We’re organizing the art storage, the sculpture studio, the jewelry atelier, the Brane-Power workspace, the art class area, the coinology department, the ancient bead shop, the antique & vintage shop, the student store (books, cds, dvds, incense, candles, altar supplies, etc.) and of course the antiquarian bookseller’s shoppe, whilst not neglecting the broadcasting space, gorby’s cafe, the Darshan Room, the entryway, the bathrooms, the hallways (new carpet just laid in a few days ago) and the Rembrandt Room, my bookshop and art “back-room” for the time being.
If you’ve never met the Time Being, it’s time you did. It is for the Time Being that we do most of what we do. The Time Being is the God of Haste, and applauds all efforts in the direction of elegance sacrificed to speed.
I haven’t any photos yet of the changes, but I can get the idea across very easily, I think, by explaining some of the changes.
The kid’s counter in the kitchen, and the “dirty dishes” counter near the waste collection area (which is getting handled to look like something out of Town & Country Magazine) area getting an unusual overhaul — I’m creating a ceramic mosaic inlay for the tops of both counters. The idea at the moment is to make an abstract “modernist” image, drawing it directly on the base, then fitting “brise” or broken tile into it to fit the pattern.
I’ll glue in the pieces, then grout between the tiles, sand and finish the base with its hardwood sides, then wax and install it onto the existing countertop, which makes it easy to install and even easier to make.
Today at art class, I’ll be painting about a dozen 24″x36″ and possibly half a dozen slightly smaller canvases, to go between the windows of the dining room (gorby’s cafe, to the initiated), taking the place of the White House pieces for the new installation. This month’s featured paintings are from the Prosperity Path Wine Label Series; these large paintings will be photographed and used on our wine bottle labels for our winery, being created right now, as we speak.
My hat factory has a good workspace, too, as well as the fiber-arts space. I’ve also been doing a bit of gardening. I’ve wanted to grab a weed-whacker and show these wild grasses who’s boss, but I can’t lift things anymore, so I was temporarily blocked, but then I had an idea, and went into B&C to the gardening section, and asked if there was any such thing as a weed-whacker on wheels, or if one could be crafted up.
Husqvarna makes one at $350, and it’s at the Bonsai area now by the side of the house, where I’ll be teaching bonsai to anyone who comes to any of the workshops, just as you can also learn the Chen-Rig Levitation, chocolate making (oh, the chocolate room is incredible now, with the new California Country Kitchen Law in place!!!) and copper and silver smithing.
The wheeled weed-whacker is intended by me to re-establish the paths in the Zen Garden and to keep them open to usage. I’ve been working to clear the paths — all of them, including the amphitheater area — with the small clipper. Using it, I’ve cleared away over two tons of overgrowth.
Speaking of tons, if anyone wants to donate for a specific project, I need $350 worth of river stones to be used in the streams and ponds I’m digging in the picnic area. I’ve also cleared away the Old Bridge in the Zen Garden. My plan is to open that up to more water features, so we can show our handmade water fountains.
The smaller table fountains are, of course, going inside the house at various choice power points to coincide with the local vortex and my superbeacon power station. Speaking of Brane-Power, my plan is to install it in the Granny House. Lots of great ventilation for the soldering (can’t use the new leadless solder, it just doesn’t work) and great area for my broadcast antennae, plus a place for a truck to get into and out of, parking for clients and a handy kitchen for the dogs.
Yes, the dogs get their very own kitchen, with a fridge, microwave, lots of storage space for those many things that dogs need, especially farm dogs, like ours.
I’d like to be able to install a “sub-zero” refrigerator in the kitchen, to accommodate all our guests. We really need a commercial fridge like that to handle all the stuff, especially for workshops, but the cost, about $4500, is prohibitive at this time. The new kitchen addition that Dick built a few years ago was planned to handle the sub-zero, but to date, we haven’t been able to carry this project to completion.
I bought some bronzed cabinet handles — 60 of them — in our kitchen remake. The most important item in the appraisal of a house is the kitchen; it’s obvious why. This is the heart of any home, and the pride of any homeowner, so it’s #1 on the appraisal list.
Then it’s about the Master Bedroom. There, we’re going to fall down considerably, because my bedroom is very modest, actually a bit too modest for the appraiser’s taste, so we have to spice it up a bit, make it look more … well, more … prosperous, but I’m unwilling to put money into my bedroom. It works fine, and I rest well there — what more does one need?
Apparently, a whole lot more than what I would put into a bedroom. Some bedrooms are so … so … well, let me put it this way. I ended up, by accident, in a lavishly enormous and richly-appointed suite at the Helmsley on 5th Avenue in New York, back in 1987.
They’d accidentally double-booked my prepaid $85 a night room at the smaller, very vintage and very worn-down Helmsley hotel uptown, and the suite was the only room they had available. They gave it to me at the same $85. It was like trying to sleep in the middle of Grand Central Station or the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.
Back in ’87, my stepdad Donner offered me a Jaguar 12 cylinder car like the one he drove after the $15 million dollar lottery win by my mother. I’d endured many bone-jarring teeth-rattling drives in Donner’s spectacularly expensive new Jaguar XJ-12, and shook my head. “No, thanks,” I replied, “I’ll stick with my nice comfortable New Yorker, which is the car we still have and love & cherish. If you’ve never had the experience of driving in a Jaguar, you won’t appreciate my choice, but if you have, you’ll know what I mean.
We also remade my office, which is now four times the workspace size with my desk moved over to the window. We’ll be putting my hardwood filing cabinets back in place, adding even more elegance and spaciousness to the office.
We’re entirely remaking the hall bathroom and back bathroom — expensive but necessary. The appraisal is all about kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms. Nothing else counts, and it’s all measured by the International Standard.
In short, it’s all in the doorknobs.
I’m off again, to organize the upstairs studio/atelier paper arts department and the wine-cellar, which I put together a few days ago with the wines remaining from our 1970s and 1980s collection. The wine rack came out from the utility closet, which is now, finally, actually a utility closet.
My dad, Horace, left a large library of science fiction books, which I’m organizing into a coherent collection with an index.
Other than that, I’m not doing much these days, except an occasional android app game, which are now available on amazon.com, I’m told.
Okay, enough chit-chat. I’ll get back to my housework and yes, I’ve lost a bit of weight in the process, and gained some muscle-tone back in my arms, legs and back.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby