all epic. all. the. time.

i've really been meaning to update every month. looks like we didn't do much during december. hopefully this brand-spanking-freaktastic january blog will make up for it.

some people like to relax during vacations. not anybody living at this cabin. well, the female persuasion would appreciate chillaxin' time, but that was not to be. and to be honest, the 3.5 days of straight up standing-on-chairs-taping-electrical-paint extravaganza was more than worth it.

the living room before:

the living room had many issues, spanning from a totally crapola color scheme


to a ceiling falling apart


and very poorly done electrical outlets and vent.

i mean, ridiculous work preceded our moving here.

so, we fixed things in a few ways. since we're in no hurry to strip walls to the studs in order to re-sheetrock (what is known in my family as "some real shit work"), we instead texturized the walls with this great pre-tinted stuff known as 'manda mudd. check it:



the guy also practiced his audition routine for stomp:






and ceiling painting is totally the best and most fun thing to do



preceded by almost blowing my head off with the super-charged ceiling texture repair



but, finally, we conquered city cabin.

just to remind you, before:



and after:


and then there's the kitchen and accompanying hallway. an unstunning underwhelming use of some potentially cool space. here we re-painted the brick, more new outlets and covers, and new color in general. it was his idea for the blue, i think he credits mad men (which is, stylistically, a time period i envy in every way).

before:


(notice the little yellow helper above?)


during:



and after:
before:





during:


after:


and thanks again, swank, for cool old affordable stuff to tie things in together. the fact that it's a cat was a very small factor. really. really.

and lastly, two new light fixtures, one in the kitchen, one in the hallway, work off the same switch.

before:

(let me preface this by saying that we don't leave fixtures dangling from the ceiling. this might have been influenced by an early beer and a "let's get new fixtures!" decree.)



check the excellent taping job on this light:



after:

so, that's it. hours of grueling labor. a fair amount of trips to the hardware store. but i guess we did manage to have some fun over our winter break aside from digging the new digs:

before. during. after.

pictures probably speak more than words here.

also, gratuitous cute (note how the orange cat is rarely pictured? that's because he spends most of his time destroying things in a very un-cute way):

snowbirds

we've been winterizing at city cabin. and our noble 26 cent friends have taken a well-deserved holiday south. to our basement. where they will live in dark foodless comfort for the next six months. kinda like taking a winter vacation in sweden.




it's true--i've been dying to scoop up these fish for a closer look ever since we've gotten them.





over-priced and under-located glutted condo market:

man vs beast

in the eternal struggle of man versus nature, paths collide, wars are waged, and peace is a notion of utmost futility.

the perfect day

garrison keiller has written quite a lot about why people love minnesota, and why minnesota people love fall. in particular i remember reading an essay in which he explains that out-of-staters tend to visit during one of the very handful of perfect october days, and then fall in love with the state. we who live here all the time, though, cannot perfectly enjoy this day due to 1) guilt at the notion of such utter giddiness; and 2) knowing that brutal cold winter is just days (but hopefully weeks) away.

so in celebration of this enjoy-this-october-day-but-not-too-much-because-we-don't-want-to-jinx-ourselves, here are some images of fall from city cabin.


the postman's walkway:



the migratorily-challenged male grosbeak:



covet thine neighbor's maple:






the following are from the dwindling days of outdoor chances at farmer's market:









and, of course, more birds....


juncos just returned to city cabin yesterday:




this flicker's cuteness must make up for poor photo quality:





wood thrush:



like a nightclub for birds. because it's full of champagne: