fetching's Profile

Current rental. Bungalow in a wooded canyon in the Oakland Hills, quiet neighborhood, close to a massive regional park where we hike daily. The house is a small two bedroom with a detached garage and a hot tub in the back under a magnolia tree. It's not cheap, but our landlord is awesome; he and his wife brought us a complete meal for us to make after I had surgery for cancer in December. They are responsive to any issues we have and treat us more like friends than tenants, yet don't hover around or bug us. Our only issue is the high number of break-ins, even though this is a nice area. But that's Oakland for you.

We have owned both the Kivik and the Karlstad, and I prefer the Karlstad. The Kivik sat lower, and the cushions would not stay put. We had the Kivik with the chaise and the bottom cushion on the chaise is made of a different material which didn't remain as buoyant as the sofa cushions. We replaced that sofa after a year or so with the Karlstad in the nubbly gray fabric and so far we really like it. We got the ottoman as well and it's much more comfortable and affordable than the Kivik chaise we had.

Individual pieces are nice here and there but overall feels too cluttered for my personal tastes.

Where does one start?

The couple with a baby next door who have instructed their friends that they can pull into our driveway to load/unload them after they have given them a ride somewhere. It wouldn't be so bad except for the baby is car-seated in and that takes time to deal with. After asking them nicely multiple times to use their own driveway (which requires that they walk an extra 20 feet) I finally went down and yelled at them. That seemed to do the trick.

The girl downstairs who gets wasted every once in awhile and has all her friends come over who like to hang out on the porch to smoke and drink. I have had to run the gauntlet of sketchy looking characters to get into my own apartment.

Any neighbor with windchines. Screw you and your windchimes. Put them in your home and turn on a fan if you like the sound so much.

Neighbors that won't help with shared spaces or garbage day. Wouldn't hurt you to empty the laundry room trash or drag the garbage cans out 10 feet to the curb.

But I've had far worse. The neighbor who took on two puppies and decided after they were full sized and no longer puppy-cute that he was bored of them. He would leave them in the yard all day and into the night where they would bark and cry around the clock. He worked nights so he didn't care. After months of sleepless nights, myself and several other neighbors successfully took him to court over noise and won. He found better homes for his dogs and peace returned to the neighborhood.

PS: for all of you who are bothered by barking dogs, there are usually city by-laws that deal with that. To address our problem, we made a complaint to the city and then we were asked to keep logs for a few months, which was a giant pain in the ass. A hearing date was set and we got to face the neighbor in court. It didn't cost us anything to do, and we eventually got the problem dealt with.

My husband and I have been on a mission to pare down for awhile now. More than anything clutter affects my ability to think straight, feel happy and be productive.

Last week I decided to tackle our linens and towels. I realized that there are only a few towels I really like and will use, the rest are standbys for when I haven't done laundry. Then I realized that when I do laundry I might end up schlepping 5 baskets of towels to our laundry downstairs, which is costing me time and money to do. So I pulled all the towels that I don't like and vowed to do laundry more frequently. The same went for sheets and duvet covers. I went out and bought some new sheets and covers in colors I like that go with everything and got rid of the rest.

My big project, though, has been breaking down boxes of magazines where my work has been published (I'm a photographer) into just the pages my work appears on. So far I've reduced about five boxes of magazines into one box of tear sheets. That's a lot of space freed up in our closet.

your mom has a good eye!

love the vase.

@inkybrushes ikea has a new wall lamp...it looks like a backlit eye chart. kind of cute, in the right place.

yeah, these prints are incredibly dull.

i bought a gorgeous one at a yard sale across the street for $25. One of my best yard sale finds, ever.

One of the nicest beds I've tried, but can't afford are the ones by European Sleepworks in Berkeley, California. http://sleepworks.com/

They are firm without being hard, soft and enveloping without being mushy, and are made with organic wool, cotton and foam. I have a friend who swears by hers.