They don't sell wood paneling anymore? Seriously? I gotta check that out...

this

That, and "wood paneling" wall paper. Yeah, I thought that was odd. I wonder if I couldn't get building materials through salvage yards, that sort of thing.

I smell a competition brewing-- Design S.H.'s M-I-L [strike]cage[/strike] cottage!

Sorry, I have to make a MIL joke.

plywood is not possible here for legal reasons (i guess you could put up plywood walls over the PB) regarding fires. outside the city is ok though. i would love to do that too, but always hit the expense issue. get a cheaper looking interior but pay more money? so far no clients willing to go for it.

oh yeah, hello from my holiday!

just spent the day at the beach yesterday and then spent night at an on-sen with a massive room overlooking the ocean. bloody fantastic. tomorrow we head to mountains for some camping if we get lucky and dodge the typhoon that is just working its way through the country.

i have however not escaped work AT ALL. In fact i just finished up most everything i was supposed to do before leaving on the trip. so now officially the holiday begins. my daughters are very happy. nothing like taking a trip when dad is on the phone with contractors every few hours. who said architecture is a lifestyle not a job?

hi all. Day two of my vacay. The weather in Cleveland is actually quite nice. Hoping to head out to a concert this week and get some bridal registry stuff done. Maybe head out for a bike ride and a sketchcrawl as well.

Thanks for the kind words nam - I've been fortunate with the garden mostly because the weather, second because of the bins. It took me a few months to design them and they still are far from perfect (should of been on industrial casters so I could of move them in and out of the sun, as well to line the base to preserve the base). We overdid it with the peppers and it choked many of the other things we tried growing namely the lettuce which sucked. So I have jars and jars of pepper pickles

veggie beds on casters? that's brilliant! I'd worry about them retaining moisture, though...

been slow around here this week... maybe everyone's on vacation... I need to be on vacation.

i want to see Eat, Pray, Love because i have been thinking that when i am done being separated, seeing the world, would be the best thing for me. i am thinking of even using my paltry 401k to do it too. happy days.

I was just referred t as a "maven", which in my mind I conflated with "matron", so today I'm feeling like an old woman.

But I'm a happy old woman, so it's OK, and apparently I'm a maven too, so that's something to feel proud of!

Hope everyone's surviving this heat.

donna for reals....

This heat?

Move to Orlando and this will be your life every single day from the 2nd or 3rd week of March to the 2nd week of December!

WOW, jump! The surface planes of your Tokyo house project are AWESOME!! Love love love!

this summer we have not had really hot weather in so cal yet...
i started my day reading the interview with donna's husband brian. great profile interview..
next week, watch for the announcement of a meeting of the minds talk/webcast event involving three archinect people including myself as a moderator. i hope i don't lock up in front of a live video cam. any 'front of camera relax yourself' tips to improve on my previous performances?

I'd say just pretend everyone watching the webcast is naked, but I guess that would be kinda creepy.

Chat Rouulette becomes an architecture panel discussion - creepy!

Orhan don't you live close to Hollywood? You must have picked up on a certain comfort with cameras? You'll do fabulously - you're charismatic.

Thanks for mentioning Brian's article.

hi thread central.

what's new?

Hi mightylittle!

mighty, purveyor of awesome.

orhan lives near hollywood? I thought he lived in ikea all Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler style...

you people are totally ruining all my fantasies about archinecteurs.

is eat, pray, love the lame female equivelant of sh*t, shave, shower?

Best movie review ever, holz. Bravo.

Thanks Donna. You are way too kind. Myself I am looking forward to getting some photos from the neighbours houses. It is almost impossible to photograph from the road.

David almost with every post you remind me how the guy is supposed to act with his sig other. Very glad to hear you are on hols in Cleveland. Hope you have blast.

We are currently camping in mountains where phone reception is eerily perfect. My family have left me to mind the tents while they head to a local on-sen. I burned my back snorkeling for too many hours with kids and getting into bath of volcanically heated water just ain't a good idea. But I have Internet and podcasts galore to watch so is amazingly relaxing. Rachel maddow and a beautiful view from the muddle of the Japanese alps go surprisingly well together.

Funny, most people camp to unplug, yet Jump is totally plugging in with awesome reception and an iPhone. Way to be different!

WIFI Access at camping sites is the new norm according to NPR.

Hello TC!

hi dapper and mighty!

Hope all is well?

thanks Jump those are truly kind words, I'm humbled.

Donna I quoted you earlier this week on my blog, and used the statement in casual conversation...

hope everyone has a great weekend planned.

Huh, techno, when did I say that? Was it about the closing of the front door of the Supreme Court building?

I bought a baby gate today. First ever. Dang kid won't stay in his room, and figured out the knob-lock things. I can't believe I have to coral him like livestock.

This been a rough week, but we survived....did a little contemplative rock collecting in the back yard this evening. One project went south for another year. It is hard to understand why people don't want to live with Construction workers around for the whole summer...well least there will be none there next summer.

I have been doing alot of the busy work this week, cleaning computers and tossing drawings along with one day of meetings from early morning till early evening...and not being paid for it.

Donna....like the article about the Mr. damn he is a talented guy!
Then again I don't think he is as talented as you....

Jump...i want a volcano hot tub!

Archi....live good in Cin...City!

Good night all you princes and princesses of archinect!

Techno, since you're on this side of the ocean, make sure you go to TGIFriday's; I hear they have a "great" Caribbean menu! Have you seen the commercials?

SH- TGIF?

Heads up! I've gotten a couple of spam 'linkedin' invites via email (well not to me, but to bleckment and bjorn - wtf???) - so don't click on any links, but go directly to linkedin to validate all invites.

Barry, do you not have those restuarants up that way? I thought they were pretty national. The foods not so great, but the "new Carribian menu" commercials crack me up. They show a couple on vacation asking a local Jamaican to take them to a great carribian restuarant, and he bringsthem stateside to Fridays

i love me a good volcanically heated bath. but not so much with a sunburn ;-)

not sure if i like the internet connectivity since it is hard to escape work, but it was nice to have some english news after a week of no english of any sort at all.

Volcanically heated bath in Iceland = sublime nirvana.

SH - Good luck on your 20K House. I was going to post a while back about how difficult that could be, but didn't want to discourage you from taking on such a challenge. And $2200 for an IKEA kitchen without appliances and countertop?

DJ DubK - You're starting your ARE's too, huh? My first test is in a couple of weeks too. Good luck!

Jump - your vacation stories are awesome. I've always wanted to visit Onsens in Japan. Is it true they have unisex ones? Ahem, not that that is why I want to go. Sigh... It seems like years that I've been talking about visiting Japan again.

Slart, that included counters, but not appliances. I just did the "kitchen planner" on their website. Is that high or low?

I guess it depends? Before doing my own IKEA kitchen, I didn't realize how much of a range I could get out of IKEA. My local IKEA had more countertop options at the store than on the website. They basically partnered with local countertop suppliers/installers. And personally, I was disappointed with some of IKEA's cabinet door material/finishes so seeing it in person was helpful.

SH: there are some fabulous 20k houses done by an extension of auburn's rural studio...

with the wife nesting, i am kinda hating myself for not finishing up AREs before i have zero time to study. awww crap.

i don't know if they still have unisex baths slarti... i have jumped the fence in outdoor baths when they were empty of other customers so could enjoy the view with my wife. since baths here are basically enjoyed in the nuddy just like at home i guess that is technically naughty, but really is not such a big deal. the old ladies who inevitably are hired to keep the onsen clean certainly don't seem to care if anyone is naked or getting dressed or whatever. they just go about their business. that took a while to get used to i must admit, but when in rome...

Morning.

I think nesting was one of the best parts of pregnancy. I mean, you suddenly have the energy to scrub that 30 year old line of scum of the underside of the stove with a toothbrush! Although, when I nested, it only lasted a day, and was annoyed and crabby the whole time. But my kitchen has never looked better!

We watch "Men who stare at goats" last night. It was funny, but slow in spots. We also watched "Land Before Time" for the first time in nearly 15 years. Damn that movie is still so sad. Poor Little Foot.

Sh,

I unlike many people I knew really enjoyed Men Who stare at Goats although it was a bit slow. But hilarious in bits.

As for Land before Time... Man that takes me back and yes it was sad even to my childhood self. It amazes me sometimes how serious some kids films/books can be.

Hi Jump and Holz along with everyone else... It's going to be a busy week a fear!

My sister was addicted to Land Before Time. We watched it twice a day, everyday until Land Before Time II came out. Don Bluth made all the depressing cartoons with the dark animation. No bouncy sunshine Disney artistry there.

volcanically heated bath in Montserrat = permanent suntan

Donna the quote was a while back and I don't even remember the conversation, but it was good enough that I wrote it down for prosperity.

Sarah, we have a TGIFridays in Jamaica as well but they don't have the Caribbean menu - rightly so. But I've been enjoying middle eastern food and some local gourmet restaurants... this week I'm looking to hit a few of Michael Symon's places his food makes sweet love to my culinary senses

Orhan, I hope you see this:



I found a copy of Met Home from August 1989 in a box of stuff my parents sent me. It has pictures of a review at SciArc as well as profiles of Hodgetts and Fung, Michael Saee, Eric Owen Moss, Frederick Fisher, Frank Israel, Julie Eizenberg, Janek Bielski, Rubel Yudell, and a truly dorky picture of my heartthrob Thom Mayne (still partners with Rotondi!).

There's also a photo of a lady in her Israel-designed house in which she's totally dressed like Desperately Seeking Susan! God the 80s were an ugly, ugly time for fashion!

I think the above pic is bigger on my FB page.

Donna, even when bigger i couldn't tell is orhan named in that?

dilemma. got offer today, big firm, twin cities, a little more money, but 8-10 contract, and needs me to start within 2 days. i'm inclined to turn down offer, i have a job, with a very small firm, pretty much set my hours, a little more stability, and aside from that, i hate leaving people in a lurch. i am doing the right thing.

You ARE doing the right thing. RIght offer, wrong time. You'll have the opportunity again, I am certain, IF you decide you want it.

Slart, good luck with your exam! Which one are you taking first?

I took PPP today. I wore my Architecture Sucks t-shirt. I think I will make this a tradition. I mentioned this on FB but an elderly man at the store this afternoon asked me why my t-shirt said "Architecture Sucks". I briefly explained to him that I had just taken my first Architectural Registration Exam and that I needed to take 6 more to become licensed. He said, "why yes, that does kind of suck". :o)

It was nice to finish that and then come home and work on all of the things that I had let completely go to crap while I was studying non-stop for the past 2 weeks (note to Slart: this isn't entirely necessary, I've decided. What they say on ARE Forum is true). I put up a shelf in my wall, put some things away, planted a small bush in the planter outside my door, and then the shelf fell out of my wall (oops) so I covered it with a photograph until I can patch it up.

I have to say though, the plant thing was really an accomplishment for me, right up there with getting something I designed built for the first time (a guard shack on an Air Force base, if you must know) and learning how to peel a peach by putting it in boiling water. Honestly, I know nothing about plants. I learned more about soil by studying for PPP than I ever knew before! So I was proud of myself this afternoon.

...Until that shelf fell out of the wall, LOL. I think the drywall is a little weak in that spot for some reason.

Anyway. I have a date with an industrial designer tomorrow! :-D

Ps. Beta, I agree with Donna. It sounds like you went with your gut/what the Universe was telling you, and that's always the better solution, IMHO. It's been my experience that decisions made solely for money turned out to be the wrong ones, versus decisions made about everything else. Good luck!

after every section of the a.r.e. i went to a bookstore and it was a rule that i had to buy myself a book. i thought it was a healthy way to decompress after the test.

Oh, Steven honey, you're a master at coming up with ways to justify buying books - and music! ;-)

DubK, congrats on getting the first one done!

That big gray site model in Donna's picture is awesome. I'm afraid that the big site model built collaboratively by the whole studio is one of the lost arts of architecture school in the digital age. Most of the site models that I see today, if they're even b...uilt at all, are sad, poorly crafted boxes of chipboard. Back at UF, sometime around 1998, I saw a studio build a big site model out of translucent cast wax that was lit from below. It was stunningly beautiful.

And who needs an excuse to by a book other than walking by a bookstore? I'm currently rearranging my office to add another bookcase. I've taken this opportunity to add all of the books that I've acquired over the past year or so to my book database/catalog and realized that in a year where I "haven't been buying many books because we've been poor and trying to save money," that I've still bought or otherwise acquired around 50 books.

Dub congrats! 5 more to go.

And Phillip what do you use for your database?

When i was in grad school my professor tried to get me to use something for my thesis research but i rebelled and relied on paper notes/accordion binder only.

Morning all.