Hallway - 8 months down the line

Today we finished the hallway, it only took 8 months and some possible black lung.

When we first moved in it looked along the lines of this:



Then it looked like this:




Now with a satisfied smile, it looks more like this:




And here's a shot of the backyard from the now sealed-up second floor doorway:

People with even more free time than me make wonderous things...

House update...

Down with the stairs! And the precariously perched 'outdoor toilet' - how it got there is a mystery to all. Sealing the missing door to outside, too many polar bears getting in during the winter weather.

BEFORE:



DURING:


AFTER:

The view from above:


BEFORE:


AFTER:


Upstairs hallway nearing completion, and some hired help is resulting in the outside being sanded in preparation for painting. Getting less punk by the day

May it be filled with cheer...

Backyard update

After just witnessing a hawk try to pick off a chicken in my backyard (in the middle of one of the densest urban neighborhoods in L.A.), I figure its time to post some photo updates on the backyard. Since returning from Tucson in September, and inspired by those that make use of their space there, I set to liberating some of the garden from the masses of weeds, and building an access point from the back of the house in to the yard. We have also got a compost pile going, and I'm slowing reading up on the ins and outs of composting. After a few months of me dragging shit out of the yard and piling it up, we also borrowed the neighbors truck to remove the tons of crap that had accumulated over the past 50 years.

Some things found so far:
- 8 crack pipes, 3 syringes
- Rotten chicken eggs
- 1 wheelchair
- 1 bicycle
- 1 car door
- 3 car batteries
- 1 television
- 50+ playboy magazines, circa 1970
- 10 solar heating panels for a pool

BEFORE: Back in April the back of the house looked like this. No way to get out in to the backyard.



AFTER:

December: I built some sketchy stairs with bricks and no mortar, and the woodpile was removed, along with all the trash in between. The staircase is being dismantled next.

BEFORE:


AFTER:

BEFORE:
AFTER:


In case there was any doubt in your mind about the status of our yard/neighborhood, I recovered 8 crack pipes in the last few months from our yard. Gloves are always a good idea it turns out.


I also did a shitload of weed removal that we had started back in May. This strange weed I realized was enveloping whole trees, and a more garden-savvy friend noted at the potluck in November that there was an orange tree underneath some of it. This weed was over 90% of the mass, slowly killing all it covered.

After raking out some other weeds and mess, I noticed a puddle. That puddle got bigger, then I realized I was actually excavating a pond, which for the previous 14 months did not know existed...

During the excavation:


After completed excavation. The pond was so covered you could walk over it, and not know it was there


Two truck loads emptied from the yard, filled to the brim:




Next step: remove staircase, start garden, actually use massive amount of space that no one else has in L.A.

Within a few blocks from my house...

Mariachi's by the 100s...

(from L.A. Times blog)

and bodies in trash cans...


Boyle Heights Murder Suspect Caught in Las Vegas

We often see rewards announced, but more rarely see them work. Police are announcing today that they've caught Adam Quintana, who they believe killed his friend Fernando Garcia with a hammer on November 17th before dumping the body in a trash bin just east of downtown on the 200 block of Breed Street. "The combination of the media coverage and reward of $50,000 played a role in finding Quintana in Las Vegas. He was taken into custody on November 28, 2008, by Las Vegas Police investigators and was brought back to Los Angeles to face murder charges," the LAPD said in a statement.