some vintage photos - clearing out the digital closet.

Happy Birthday Big Blue! - Eclipse run notes!

Big Blue has had some adventures in his years on the road. Today - he celebrates 45 years cruising the west coast of the United States. And every year on his birthday, I like to post something from his past. Here are 2 scans that Monty (the previous Big Blue's Driver) sent to me from a trip he and the family took to Harris Ranch to watch an eclipse. You can click on them to see them big enough to read.

Happy Birthday, Blue! Many more happy miles ahead!

What we listen to when we listen

I'll make no apology for what has become an addiction to old records. We now eat under the "wall of records", where some 3000+ records are waiting for selection. We play them when we get home from work. Oak dances. We dance. Sometimes we all dance together. Here's what's been on the turntable the last few months...

Dig it.

Santa Fe VW Bug

About a month ago, EP, Oak and I traveled to Taos, New Mexico (via plane) to hang out with my parents who were vacationing there. I had been to that area when I was a teenager, but had no recall of it. There were several VWs driving around the high desert there. I missed most of them, but here is a bug that was in the Whole Foods in Santa Fe. Nice looking bug...

The current state of the Green Hornet

After the update on the house, it occurred to me that I should show you where the Green Hornet - the '56 bug - currently lives. He/she is living in the unused side of our garage. It's a good thing the bug doesn't have bumpers or I don't think it would fit. I have done nothing to it since the move other than attempt to get the gas tank boiled to prep for sealing it and painting it. And even that task stopped when the radiator guy who was going to boil it suggested it might be a little too thin to last very long. So when I pick this back up, it will start by hunting down a better original gas tank...

Where we are now

Since it's been so long, I thought I would show you what has taken my time up (aside from raising a 2-year-old boy).

It's been almost a year since we started work on our house. It was quite a project to start - having all the ceilings scrapped to remove the asbestos acoustic popcorn, repainting every room (literally every square inch of painted wall) and tearing out every shred of carpet and replacing with wood floors in the first 6 weeks.

At that point I thought the work was mostly over but I was wrong. It was way more work afterward than we ever thought it would be. There are several things you don't think about that became the longest "to do list" I have ever had in front of me.

Here's a small example of what is still on the list almost year later:
- Paint cabinets in both bathrooms
- paint kitchen cabinets
- install shelves in all closets except master bedroom
- paint deck
- replace backyard fence
- add new fence to surround new garden
- tear down 2 back sheds
- build new, larger, taller shed so I can walk around in it
- get new gas element for fireplace
- scare away all moles (the bastards!)
- turn outside flood lights into motion lights
- build storage shelves into garage
- install filter on kitchen sink
- replace remaining heat registers
- remove carpet from front steps and polish concrete
- turn front half of lawn into low watered wild landscape
- strip and paint front door
- replace outlets in bathrooms to GFI

So you can see I have alot in front of me. But I have not stopped working since we moved in last July. And the progress is starting to look good. I thought I'd share some pictures here. While not related to VWs - it is the reason why this blog has been quiet recently. And, if you look, you can see some VW influence in the decoration. And more than that, you can see how my addiction to authentic vintage items influences our decor as well. It's a thin line between the industrial vintage look and a frat house...

Old letters are found through out our house. This comes from me stopping a scrapper on the side of the highway and buying a truckload of letters from him.

VW-inspired warhol-ish-ness in our bedroom. Vintage record player with wonderful sound. Vintage light-up globe.

The 1960s Barzilay cabinets above were something I had wanted forever. I don't covet furniture, but I covet these.

Screenprinted airstream artwork on the office wall above.

Oak's room could not escape the antiques. This is an old school map.

In the photo of the office above, the shelves are made out of old bleacher stairs I found at a scrapyard. I used gas pipe to create the supports for the shelves.

Our kitchen shocks the generation of our parents. We eat under a wall of records.

The above photo came out really dark - but the opposite is really true. This fireplace is bright and cheerful and the first thing you see when you walk in the front door.

Vintage stool, a vintage break room poster.

Can anyone name where the letters came from? The "BA" combo gives it away...

Outside, I found an excellent spot for my vintage Brunswick bowling bench (note, this deck will be painted white soon).

Kill your TV.

We generally have a very clean counter with very little on it. Above is an exception.

Living room. Posters from my trip to Spain back in 1993 that I dragged with me for the last 20 years and just now got to put up.