today is day 17 of my “extended vacation”. unlike many others who find themselves in this position, i’m enjoying every minute – well almost every minute! :)
going back to the first week of march, it wasn’t too much of a surprise. since architecture & design isn’t exactly a necessity, design services tend to suffer when the economy is down. it looks like no region or building sector is immune from the prolonged economic downturn since the ABI continues its historic low.
everyone in the office was feeling the crunch and it felt like only a matter of time until my days at gglo came to an end. although it’s never a good feeling to be the next to go in an office that you like, but i had been preparing myself. mark and i talked about the consequences months ago and he helped reassure me that we would survive if I did find myself without a job. he really helped keep me calm during the past few months of watching so many friends and colleagues lose their jobs. with all the negative outside forces, it’s been quite incredible to see how the seattle design community has pulled together to keep spirits positive during this devastating economy.
it’s amazing how fast the days fly even when i’m not working. january and february were extremely busy with legislative events for IDCW, so i’m taking this opportunity to catch up with friends and collegues, go skiing in the middle of the week, more house renovations, catch up on my favorite pastime of sleeping in, and i’ve kept my creative energy flowing with a new business idea on the horizon. i’ve always wanted to design a modern quilt collection, in fact two years ago i started working on the business plan. i’m really trying to remain positive and use this time to do all those things i’ve pushed aside because i’ve been busy. in the words of albert einstein, “in the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.”
i’m finally catching up… here’s what happened this fall:
august + september: [1] practically every waking hour was spent renovating the house. it was exhausting, but completely worth it. mom & dad came out for an entire week in september to help and we made incredible progress! i’ll just touch on a few things until i can elaborate on the details. the big highlights: all the paneling is gone, new drywall upstairs, cork floors throughout living/dining/hallway, tile entry wall & floors, fixed the rotting wall downstairs, new ipe stairs, new running trim upstairs.
[2] i can’t believe how time flies! when my cousin brad & cecilia moved to seattle 3 years ago they inspired me to live life to the fullest and never stop dreaming of the way life should be. they had a plan for their next few years and actually stuck to it! it was so nice to have cousins to share easter dinners, grab coffee in the afternoon, play bags on those random summer nights (or at the gorge), presidents day weekend ski trips, and hear stories about growing up around the world. cecilia & brad headed off on a south america adventure for 3+ months before they move to sweden. we celebrated with a going away party in late september. i’m looking forward to making a trip to sweden in the next year or two!
october:
[3] i joined ten other interior designers and industry partners from washington state at the interior design legislative symposium in little rock, AR. it was held at the peabody hotel, where the famous ducks march from their penthouse suite and swim in the indoor fountain all day. we networked with designers from all across the country who are working on legislative efforts in their states. we learned valuable lessons on messaging, the legislative process, and the hot topic this year: addressing the opposition. of course we hit a few local bars on our nights off and checked out the clinton presidential library the last afternoon we were in town. i highly recommend the prez library if you’re in little rock.
[4] we go all out for halloween at gglo, and this year was no different. i wasn’t in the mood to dress up, but our “allison spiderweb” won for the best decorated pod in the office. the office crits were pretty good too.
november:
[5] with all the hype leading up to the presidential election this year, i was getting really nervous that things might sway the “wrong way”! the palin/mccain ticket was just unbelievable, and it really opened my eyes about how conservative a large portion of the country is! on election night we left work a little early and headed to the showbox for the stranger’s election party. schack and denise had grabbed a prime table and kelley, alan, mark and i joined up with a bunch of other friends of friends. just after 5pm the place was packed and hundreds were in the line that wrapped around the block (lisa was stuck in the line and finally gave up). the screens flipped back and forth between all the news channels as the election results started coming in. i called my parents to see if they again cancelled each other out, and my mom said this was the first time in their history that they both agreed on the same president. i got a little nervous, and she said “your dad voted for obama” and i knew there was hope! around 7pm one of the channels went through a “worst case scenario” for the remaining states and it was evident that our next president would soon be obama… the energy of the showbox was incredible, everyone had on their red/white/blue, election signs were bobbing in the air, dan savage had everyone on their toes as the official count from the westcoast states would be rolling in soon. at 8pm, it was official… they announced that Barak Obama would be our next President and the showbox went nuts! it was exuberant mayhem; everyone was smiling, cheering “yes we can”, and toasting our victory! this was the first time in my entire life that i felt proud to be an american! it still gives me the chills watching these videos (our champagne toast even made this random video from the showbox- mark’s in the green shirt on the right side)!
we celebrated for a few more hours over champagne, watching both mccain’s speech (which was the first time i actually thought he did a decent job) and obama’s acceptance speech. then the celebration hit the streets where thousands of seattleites continued the peaceful celebration well into the night, when the group on first avenue headed up to celebrate on broadway in capitol hill.
[6] the worsening economy has had a huge impact on the A&D community over the past few months. too many projects have been going on hold and clients seem to be “waiting it out”, and it’s going to take awhile to get back to normal. we’ve had layoffs at our office and hopefully the worst is behind us. watching your friends pack up their desks is pretty miserable! i have my fingers crossed for the next few months!
[7] celebrated the launch of Schack A&D. we played a bit of rock band and tried to figure out what the “A&D” could possibly stand for! ;) i wish john + team the best of luck in their new business adventure.
[8] for thanksgiving mark, joe, kim & i once again headed to whistler. the snow this year was nothing to write home about… most of the mountain was off limits, but we managed to get a few decent runs in. and mark had a pretty painful run in with a rock. amanda & elliott came up to celebrate with us for a few days (and was the official photographer for most of the weekend). the lack of snow ‘forced’ us to go shopping (since the US to Canadian dollar is back in our favor) and i got REALLY spoiled… new ski boots (fanatykco is the best!), AT bindings & skins as an early christmas present from mark. and to spoil himself, mark bought a custom order splitboard from prior.
i’ve been slammed lately without time to catch up from the past two months of activities! house progress, crazy halloween, election night, updates on IDCW, whistler over thanksgiving… but still no time to catch up & post pics because i’m studying to take the LEED exam next tuesday.
my driving is down to only one day a week now, but just the other day for the first time in over a year, it was less than $50 to fill up my tank at the gas station. i just saw this article in the nytimes:
Just as a booming global economy had steadily driven up commodity prices for six years, the current meltdown means the world needs less oil, and is sharply driving down prices.
….
Some analysts predict oil could fall to $30 to 40 a barrel as the world economy worsens.
The pillars that had pushed up the price of oil and other commodities seem to be crumbling all at once: the American consumer is in full retreat; the Chinese economy is sputtering; financial markets are collapsing; developing countries are trimming their energy subsidies; and the dollar is strengthening.
yeah! althought they also predict that this is ramping up for the next price spike…
times are getting tough at work – our entire industry is getting severely affected by the financial crisis, projects are not getting the funding they need to continue and projects are going on hold. but in those times you would think your peers and superiors would ban together to attempt to keep the morale high… well not this week. perhaps i have a skewed view since i’ve been sick the past few days. but what is not cool is that i am sick and tired of double standards, working my butt off only to be called out as not getting things done… i’m going to need some motivation to keep myself together.
i found this humorous today… guess which one is mark and which one is kristi :)
Firstborn:
Personality: Firstborns are ambitious, assertive, dominant and disciplined compared with their younger siblings. They’re determined to succeed yet fearful of losing position and rank, and are defensive about errors and mistakes.
Youngest:
Personality: Youngest children love the limelight and are used to sitting in it. They are charming and creative, have a good sense of humor and manipulate others when they want to get their way.
it’s no secret that searching for a house or condo that fits your [long list of] criteria takes patience, hours/weeks/months of searching online, touring listings, and typically more money than your original budget. so how/where did we start? about mid summer we defined our original search area to be fremont at the north end, lake washington on the east, i-90 on the south, and puget sound on the west. the neighborhoods we were most excited about looking in were south lake union, madrona, capitol hill, leschi, and madison valley. with mark working at microsoft on the eastside we were looking for something that would have easy access to the bridges for his commute, yet easy access to downtown for me.
our main criteria was a house/condo with at least 2 bedrooms and enough square footage that we wouldn’t have to move for a few years, parking space/garage on-site, and something that had character to work with. after looking at a few townhouses around 1000+ sq ft, and with the real estate market being what it is this year (buyers market), we were drawn to the idea of a house. mark really wanted something with a garage so he could keep his bikes, snowboards, and misc. “man gear” in the garage instead of in the living room of a condo. we started looking for cosmetic fixers, something we could get in and update, but nothing that required structural changes or big updates that could break the bank. what we found in our search area under 500K was actually quite depressing. being in the architecture & design industry i’ve had a close eye on what’s been on the market over the past few years, yet it was still shocking that the price of city living has truly escalated beyond what the “average consumer” can afford (not to mention my skewed perspective of midwest prices). we toured about 10 listings over the first month (through redfin and a traditional real estate agent to get different perspectives on who we would later use) and had it narrowed down to 1 in madison valley that almost fit the criteria, it just didn’t have interesting character, therefore we weren’t really sold on the place… we decided to take our time and see if anything else came on the market over the next few weeks/months.
when our search first started i was pushing to use redfin (even with my not-so-pleasant-past with some of their staff), as i really do see the value of saving 2/3 of the commission if you’re someone who knows what you’re looking for, enjoy spending hours searching the listings yourself, and can see potential or problems when you’re touring. we decided to use a traditional agent based on a few factors: 1) a few month before our close friends lost their offer on a house because a less than motivated agent from redfin didn’t follow up on the details of their offer and we didn’t want to deal with the same issues, 2) it took days for redfin to schedule tours (or respond to emails) and unresponsive meant possibly missing out on future options, 3) knowing that we were looking at fixers we wanted the extra advice from an agent on what to look out for given that it was a more risky transaction (redfin’s site agents literally unlock the door and offer no expertise). if we were buying new construction or a condo the decision of who to use as our buyer’s agent might have changed.
after a few more weeks searching online, i came across a cool mid-century house that was not at all in our search area. we decided to drive by on our own the next day and liked the location and potential from the outside. after touring the interior a day later we knew it was at the top of our list. it had been on the market for 3 weeks and no offers had been made. we worked with jacob, our agent, to figure out a plan to submit an offer and found out that we could potentially be in a multiple offer situation. it was a crazy few days of emotions, not knowing if we would ultimately get the place, scheduling an inspection before submitting the offer (to make it as appealing as possible without any loop holes for the sellers down the road), and doing everything we could to put in an offer they couldn’t refuse. with great skills by our agent, we managed to come away with the house under asking price within the day of putting our offer in. we heard that the other parties planning to put in offers were quite disappointed.
what made the “treehouse” the one? we loved the style of the house, a mid-century modern was ideal with big windows and gorgeous wood ceilings. we also liked how remote and tree-filled the property was, the feeling that we were towering high above in a treehouse. the house currently sits between two empty lots (both sides) so it feels like we have 2 acres of land when we actually have 1/3 of an acre (which is still large compared to the others on the block). we both love the wood ceilings and walls full of glass. structurally the house is very sound, in fact, the inspector told us that he would make an offer on the place if we decided not to… :) the layout itself needs minor work, but we have plans down the road to open up the kitchen to the living room and make a master suite by combining the upstairs bedroom with the formal dining room (“useless room” as mark likes to refer to it). the interior finishes need the most work, not much had been done since 1961 when it was built (by the previous owner’s father) where we have paneling on every wall that you could imagine upstairs. it had stayed in the family since it was built and incredibly all the appliances are still working. the previous owner must have loved pink, especially in the kitchen where we have a retro pink range, pink double wall oven, pink sink, and pink marbled plastic laminate countertops. the bathroom upstairs has a pink countertop, the bathroom downstairs has double sinks and toilet in fabulous pink porcelain, and the exterior accent trim is (you guessed it)… bold pink! as soon as our offer was approved mark realized that he had bought a pink house, which could very well be karma from painting bernhard’s office “pretty as a princess pink” while he was on vacation a few years ago.
so, how do we plan to bring the treehouse into the 21st century? stay tuned… until then, here’s a few pics from our first walk through during the middle of july:
it’s been a crazy past few weeks of working on the new house. house update will hopefully come soon… amidst all the long hours, mark and i just celebrated 1 year together (he was actually the one to remind me a few days before). it turned into a two part celebration. the official night we went out for an amazing dinner at i love sushi and worked on the house. after painting and installing all night (including getting smacked in the head), i fell asleep with a migrane.
the following night i arrived home late after the ASID annual meeting to find a tea light trail from the entry to the bedroom (i know he’s such a romantic – don’t worry the full details will be omitted) where he had a bottle of wine, fresh berries, cheese and a movie all ready to watch. it was our first “night off” in months and i fell in love all over again.
don’t worry it didn’t go down at all like the movie… :) the schwesinger clan came out to visit a few weeks back. i had a great time hearing childhood stories about mark and their perspectives about politics (which i rarely discuss with even my close friends). i missed out while i was at CLC in calgary but came back to catch the last few days of their time in seattle.
the past month has been a whirlwind, an exciting yet exhausting month to say the least! i started a couple posts over 2 weeks ago now and haven’t sat down to finish either one, or start the 3 others that i want to post about updates. let’s see how long it takes me to fall asleep tonight, i’m just exhausted… :)
in the past few weeks i’ve:
traveled to calgary for the ASID chapter leadership conference (CLC)
met + hosted mark’s parents, brother, sister & nephew while they were in seattle on vacation
watched mark sign his life away on a new house
got keys to the house + started budgeting + designing phase 1
celebrated mark’s birthday @ the new house with friends, fireworks + a crowbar
started to demo upstairs (almost done with phase 1 demo work)
still in the process of learning how to drywall
went to rachel & conor’s wedding
spent many hours of volunteer work for IDCW & ASID
our gglo softball team is 8-0 after last night’s win against rollunda architects. we were down by 12 runs going into the bottom of the 4th and rallied over the last two innings to pull ahead as time ran out. We were missing some power from our lineup but picked up our defense and slugged our way to an 8th straight victory!
casual biking has been my outlook on biking, mainly because i enjoy other sports more than biking. i bought an old bike from oya a few years ago and it wasn’t meant to do anything besides get me from point A to B on the streets in seattle. it’s heavy and isn’t meant to be a road bike, and doesn’t have real suspension so it’s not good for cross country either. it needs to be replaced, but before i spend any money on a new sport i decided to go on a few rides. over the past two weeks we’ve gone out 3 times. the first two rides we went to beav on the sammamish plateau and i attempted to take it pretty easy learning all the basic skills of riding on trails (over roots, logs, mud puddles, etc.). i took one big fall going out of control down a hill (while everyone was watching) so i slowed down after that! :) beav is more of a cardio workout with very little change in elevation throughout the trails.
today mark and i went to tolt just outside of carnation. i borrowed abby’s bike and it was my first time using clip in pedals. i had no problem testing them out in the parking lot and the flat ride to the trail, but ended up falling twice before even getting to the real trail… once i got up the steep first section i was starting to get the hang of it and only fell once more the rest of the ride. i will definitely have bruises from this one… attempting to figure out the new bike and use clip in pedals was a little too much all at once. my plan is to get more comfortable with clip in pedals before going on another more technical ride!
