Stacey and Joel: six years, three international moves and a baby | @offbeathome

Two years after it published I stumbled on an this article about us on Offbeat Home & Life. I'm tickled that they used it. And it's no surprise to our blog followers that we moved yet again in the past two years.
Stacey and Joel: six years, three international moves and a baby | @offbeathome

Halloween in a new scene

Let me be completely honest. I've never been much of a fan of Halloween. As a kid I enjoyed dressing up and going door-to-door. My mother made some pretty elaborate home-made costumes and I liked the costumes parades. As I got older I didn't find another part of the tradition to get excited about. Everywhere we lived, once you were old enough to to roam without supervision it was a celebration of playing tricks and more importantly, destruction. It was the day homeowners didn't want to leave their home in the evening because they wanted to be able to call the fire department if someone set their garden on fire. Fireworks and firecrackers whizzed down every street. Some kid always blew their hand off trying to make a mega bomb out of the various fireworks materials and there was often some sordid tale in the newspaper the next day of a cat or dog being killed. Teenagers with baseball bats would be driving up and down the roads bashing all the mailboxes off their posts. The day after halloween looked like a post apocalyptic world. Jack-o-lanterns's had been kicked to pulp, burned bushes smoldered to ashes and police tape fluttered over the former windows of whichever store had suffered the worst vandalism.

Now I have my own kids I'm trying to reclaim the fun parts of Halloween for them. This year we decided to venture out in Fairfax with our 2 1/2 year old son. I'd already driven through town a few times during the day and felt this vibe of anticipation and excitement in the air. As we cruised into town that night we observed that every human and pet of every age was in costume. We'd missed the parade this year due to a long nap but it appeared to us that the parade had spilled into every corner. My mother commented that it was more like Mardi Gras than Halloween. The park was lit up and decorated with hay bales and all the restaurants and bars were filled with patrons in full regalia. A main residential street was shut down to traffic allowing all the trick-or-treaters to walk safely from house to house and it wasn't just tiny kids, all ages seemed to participate. The town hall had collected candy in the week before Halloween to help the residents on this street keep up with the volume of trick-or-treaters. Teenagers were out with their friends and their families participating and engaging. It was entirely a different planet from what I was used to. And what a nice surprise. Fairfax, you just might have turned me into a fan of Halloween.

Hosting Thanksgiving, Canadian Style

Our first really big dinner party in the new house was our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner for 20. It was a big production with many helping hands and we all had a terrific feast. I'm hoping this will be a continuing tradition over here.

And now pictures

Meanwhile back in the Kitchen

"Lets just paint the kitchen cupboards and install new appliances" - Joel (sometime in August)

Naturally this Virgo got going on this project and noticed that nothing had ever been done properly in this kitchen and set to work bringing the plumbing and electrical back to code, re-doing the previous wrong kind of drywall, rebuilding all the supports for the appliances. And that's before we started on the paint... which needed 2 primer coats + 3 coats of paint and we needed to buy a paint sprayer and a sander. Then the drawer beds weren't good enough so those are all being replaced with custom made solid alder, dove tail, full extension drawers. Then drawer pulls needed to be ordered from Lee Valley in Canada because the solid oiled brass was the obvious choice. The island is getting a 350lb custom made butcher block which Joel is currently building a support system to hold up and this is just ONE side of the kitchen. We decided to do one side at a time. #saveme

Summer in the drought garden

Our first Summer in our new home has been a steep learning curve. Getting the air conditioning to cool at just the right time of day and mastering the extraction fan system for the attic which makes a pretty huge difference. We're sparing with the a/c as we were in Singapore. We adjusted to the heat and kick it in when the interior temperature is hovering around 80 and only cool to about 75-76. It's summer after all! Who wants to live like they're in a college library. Meanwhile outdoors most days are between 85 and 95 with heat waves here and there above 100.

Marin is fairly lucky for a lot of reasons when it comes to water. We have our own water in lakes right here so everyone can see where it's at on a short hike or drive and have that visual reality check. Residents aren't particularly interested in lawns, in fact I'm trying to think if I know anyone who has one here and I really can't say that I do. Most of us inherited a previously owner's attempts at drought proofing a property and either continue forging ahead or give up entirely.

Austen's succulent garden

Sea grasses are very happy

We have an extensive drip system over most of the 1/4 acre that works very well at keeping well attuned low-water plants happy enough to blossom and grow. New starts are not usually so happy so they get to move into pretty plant pots and not the heavy dry soil. We have several types of lavender in giant bushes, a rainbow of different sea grasses in tufts (can one ever get enough of these?) and a whole mess of shrubs that by some trick or another are making it. We also have a long suffering pear tree and apple tree and a huge redwood which is about 5 miles too far inland now to be happy. The fruit trees have been crippled by fire blight and the 100+ foot redwood is suffering from a fungus that hits these trees in these conditions. Both issues stem from drought. Joel spent the weekend driving huge watering stakes down into the ground near all the trees to try to deliver as much of the water on the drop line as we can down to their roots. Time will tell if it was successful.

My happy shade dwellers

From the fruit trees

This December our family is growing by 2 feet!

36 Hours in New York

Joel had a surprise. Weeks and weeks went by and all I knew was were were going away somewhere cold where I'd also need cocktail attire. Our first night away from Austen and our first trip just us together since New Zealand trip in 2012. And so we found ourselves at SFO at midnight a few weeks ago printing out our boarding passes and I finally saw NY on the ticket. I had an inkling that might be the destination but I had no idea what was really in store for us. 

Bjork Concert at Carnegie Hall

The opening of the Bjork Exhibit at MoMA

Tasting menu at the Gramercy Tavern

Long leisurely brunches

With this view of Mid-town Manhattan

The Palace Hotel was our home away from home

Balmy spring-like weather made for an unusually warm stroll through a snow covered Central Park

By the time we landed in San Francisco on Sunday night it felt like perhaps it was all a dream.