ishouldbeworking's Profile

I second the praise for Oakland. I've moved all around the East Bay over the years and it was one of my favorite places. And yes, the weather is always nice!

As far as crime it really depends on what neighborhood you live in. I think what outsiders don't realize is that while the bad parts are really bad, there are a lot of other great neighborhoods.

The only thing not mentioned in the above "review" is the food - there are some amazing restaurants in Oakland.

What's the standard rate for tipping for a furniture delivery in the Bay Area? They will have to bring a sofa and loveseat up one flight of stairs with an only slightly tricky turn at the top.

We live in Berkeley on a little one block street at the back of a deep lot with no shared walls. It's a very quiet place and this is what sold us on moving in - we were desperate after sharing walls with neighbors who had drunken arguments and slammed doors all night, every night. Unfortunately, right after we moved in we discovered that the neighbor behind us has a rooster so we get a 4:00am wakeup call every day. We immediately checked with the city, and yep, it's allowed. Only in Berkeley...

Since I live 2,605 miles from home (according to google maps) I always have to hear "I'll Be Home For Christmas." There are too many good versions to pick just one. I tear up every time.

Oh, and the color is a no-brainer - red!!

Cactus blooms - cacti can be so stand-offish with all of those prickly thorns just waiting to attack you. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, they shoot up a huge, bright, showy flower. You have to be quick to enjoy it because it only lasts a day or two. It's as if they are letting you in on a secret.

I used to work for a disaster relief agency and as a result I have quite a few "earthquake kits". So, I have one at home, one in the car, and one in my office.

Without a doubt - our neighbors in our old duplex in Lafayette.

They would get drunk every night and then fight - screaming things like "why don't you go ahead and hit me" and slamming doors. Our walls would rattle. The worst time was when they did this on Christmas Eve.

They had two litter boxes that they kept in rotation so one was always sitting at our shared front door in various stages of cleanliness. He would dump the used kitty litter over the balcony onto the herb garden below.

He would accept our UPS packages (he didn't have a job) and then forget about them. They would show up inside our garage weeks later.

He never wore a shirt and would sit on the balcony right next to us so that he was always the view from our living room. If he looked like Brad Pitt I wouldn't have minded. He didn't look like Brad Pitt.

Their cats tested positive for feline leukemia but they still let them roam the neighborhood. They often came over the rail to our balcony to share in the water bowl we kept outside for our cat. It was weeks before I knew this. I was livid that their carelessness put my elderly cat at risk.

I could go on. There's lots more.

Moving away from them was one of the happiest days of my life.

Would you hang the two panoramic frames on the big blank space that we see to the right in your picture? I'm just wondering if that would look odd next to the high shelf and the plates that are hanging underneath it. Is there a way to incorporate the two items?

We have always collected vintage fruit crate labels. I bought a TON of square frames from Ikea (glad that I bought so many because now they don't sell that particular size anymore). Each label is matted in it's own frame. Since the labels are different sizes and orientations the uniformity of the frames brings it all together. In our previous home we hung them on a large blank wall in the dining room (the room wasn't big enough for any furniture along that wall) in a grid pattern. It actually covered the entire wall. The uniformity of the frames, large mats, and grid pattern kept it visually simple while adding quite a punch.

If you frame them in large frames with nice big mats you'll give them some importance and they won't get lost in the frame.

briankoenig - are you in the bay area?

-open studios can be a good choice. different neighborhoods all throughout the bay are open at different times throughout the year.

-in December CCA will be having it's annual holiday sale. there are lots of different media in a lots of different price ranges. I've paid anywhere from $20 for a painting to $250 for a print.

-as the holiday seasons approaches keep an eye out for trunk shows, I've been to the one at the SF Center for the Book and have found some really nice letterpress cards and prints.

-I know there are countless other shops and smaller galleries in the Bay Area that showcase local artists, but I'm blanking on any specific names right now.