redneckmodern

Blinds.com Savings

As you can tell from the past couple of posts, I'm a fan of the Phifer Solar Shades from Blinds.com... a few hiccups with the last order, but the staff was wonderful in sorting them out.

So... I just got this and thought I'd share...

Save 20% on Phifer solar shades during the month of July! Solar shades have the ability to cut glare which makes them ideal for media rooms, studies, or any sun-facing room where sun control is desired.

Use code: solar20 at checkout.

I also got a paper-coupon in the mail valid for a bit longer...

20% off of Phifer Solar Shades / code#: PHIF-TRYEG (good thru Aug 10th)

Now that the summer's heating up, it's a good time to get shades on you windows. It helped ours tremendously.

Fun on the Fourth

We've started to form a sense of community here in Rancho Del Diablo -- neighbors like Kyle (see the red-nosed trumpet player below) and Sarah are excellent catalysts to get out and meet new folks (note 8mo. pregnant woman on the bike below -- that's Sarah. I think she ran a marathon at month-7, so she's got moxie)... They organized a neighborhood parade for the 4th. Pretty low-fi and impromptu, but high on the fun factor and it brought even more neighbors into the street.

Sara G. is our neighborhood photographer and has captured a lot of good images on her blog.

Squirrels are also lazy...

Looking for a Landscaper/Paver...

We've one last landscape project to tackle: the laying of pavers in the side yard... and it's a big job that we'll need to hire out to someone with a stronger back... and a bobcat.

We'll need to regrade a bit (and remove some material... so a bobcat and a dumptruck), lay some decomposed granite, tamp and place the pavers, which we already have. It's about 600sqf of paving area. If you know of anyone, let us know.

More Landscape Pictures...

Mulch, some more rocks and some final plantings on the driveway side... we'll see how the mulch path holds up.

More Landscaping...

The yard between ourselves and our neighbor, Steve, had been a bit of a twister. We didn't want grass and we needed to maintain some sort of pathway for things in/out the gate. Fortunately, Steve is very easy-going and was on-board with the plan to envision the space as one large one rather than two small ones... especially if we did the work and it was low-maintenance. I proposed a sort of "dry creek bed" arrangement and it was a go.

Ryan and Jaime showed up at 10am after Casie and I spent Friday night and Saturday morning gathering plants and some more rocks (free from the Ewing parking lot -- someone dumped a small load of baseball-sized cobblestones and I asked if I could have them). So, on Friday, I got an idea/motivation, to tackle the rest of the front landscaping and by Saturday afternoon, we had something in place. Not a bad showing.

We tried to buy smaller sized pots so that (1) they'd be cheaper and (2) grow-in a bit more naturally... and ended up with a lot of native or low-water plants like Ceanothus, Wax Myrtle, Tea-tree (definitely not native, but low-water), Flax, Sedum, Fescue/Grasses, Cotoneaster, Juniper... and a Corylus -- which looks cool (but will take the most water). The most expensive plant (not counting the Burgundy Lace maple) was a sculptural, knobby (San Jose) Juniper for $40, which will serve as a specimen/focal plant next to the Corylus (Filbert/Hazelnut tree). All have a 1/2 gallon/hour drip head... hopefully just the right amount of water in the right place... and should be pretty low-maintenance.

We were also able to use up the big pile of rocks that we had in the back yard -- gathered from various places in the yard when we stripped many of the overgrown trees.

Presently, there's not yet enough scale differentiation... there's still a lot of growing-in to do (some of the plants will triple in size), but...

Original Eichler Literature

I'm not sure why I haven't posted this earlier as we've had it for a while.

One of the great things about the previous owners of our house is that they saved a lot of stuff -- in this case, original Eichler literature. When we first looked at the house, there was even the original check for the $100 deposit, but the kids likely kept that one. Fortunetely, for us, the eldest sibling sent these to us after the closing (thanks, again!)... so it seems good to share.

I'll eventually properly scan them in (these are copystand-like digipictures) and there's sme great old articles, too, from 60's home-magazines I need to add... but we've lots of things to tackle first. Enjoy.

New Back Lawn

The back yard is shaping up with the installation of a dwarf-fescue blend of sod. Thanks to Nathan from Labor Ready for the help with the installation. Sod from The Sod Shop in Martinez -- Mello Jade. Thanks to Jacob for the installation of the redwood separators... one more to go and then were on to paving the side yard.

Blind Finish

So, getting the correct hardware for the second order from Blinds.com was about 3 weeks in the making, but we finally got it right -- and my faith in decent customer service was restored, thanks to Annette.

The main reason for the posts and pictures was to explain what was going on to folks on the other end of the phone (and ultimately, the vendor). Hopefully, too, these images will help them to get future orders correct.

The initial order came with bracket that were too short (that would not fit the blinds) and no covers. The second order came with brackets that were too long, and covers that were too thin and not a good color-match. The third order came with the correct brackets and covers -- the same that came with our initial order last year. And now, we have lots of leftover parts...

It's useful to note that the mechanism has changed a bit. The new design is a bit easier on the install, but more visible in the end. Given that the measurements were not that hard to begin with, I do prefer the original, less-visible design, but this is what we've got.

We've installed two of the nine blinds... hoping all goes well for the other seven (which are side-by-side blinds for the sliding doors).

Thanks again to Annette and the team at Blinds.com...

Exhibit: Matt Kahn at SFMC+D

Admittedly, we don't get out much, so when John-Paul (a friend and neighbor) mentioned a great exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design, I made a note to pay attention. Matt Kahn was not a designer that I was familiar with, even though I actually have some of his work in the form of vintage Eichler collateral. That's been rectified.

We're between semesters at work/school, so I took the opportunity to stroll up to Sutter and Powell at lunchtime and check it out. Some nice stuff -- illustration, design, furniture, jewelry, painting and textiles -- and definitely worthy of checking out if you're close.

I snapped a few pictures before I noticed a "non photography" sign in the very back of the room, so enjoy... and in the spirit of "pictures say a thousand words", here you go:

And, thanks, John-Paul, for the tip.