I hope to be told that I can start packing to return home in the next month or two. I don’t have a confirmed target date, but I was specifically told NOT to make any travel plans for the next few months, which feels fantastic!
Meanwhile, I think very conscientiously about where the items in my rental will end up when I go home. Here are some pieces I’ve recently “acquired” by looking in less obvious places for things one cannot just get in the ordinary course. I have been enjoying Facebook marketplace and Etsy more than ever, especially for some of the custom or one-of-a-kind things that will mean so much to me, including this framed Streisand picture.
I love my newest Streisand acquisition, which I got on Etsy, and how I have it lit here with some of my other Barbrabilia. Some of you know that I lost most of my Streisand collectibles in my fire in January, and they were so unique and large that they will never be replaced. They were just things and nothing compared to my lost pets, but I will miss them too as they were a part of my life for decades. I also always had a connection to my dad who was a fervent Streisand fan himself, even though it made my mom jealous. He obviously had good taste. When I was 14 I was scanning through the channels and came upon Funny Girl. My life changed that day as I saw exactly what he was telling people when they dared to suggest anyone else was a better singer.
I’m displaying very minimalist (so unlike me) xmas decorations this year in the rental. I have these two ceramic trees that my mom hand-painted which survived the fire, but I’m already looking forward to decorating my home when I’m back for xmas 2025. A surprising amount of my holiday decorations survived the fire since the garage was relatively untouched, but I don’t even feel like transporting them over here.
While I’m still counting the days to go home as the house is being rebuilt, since I have these tapestries that are so nostalgic for my siblings and me, I found a place to hang them for now, which cheers me up a little. A year ago I was taking pictures of all these dogs I miss so much with their xmas outfits. I don’t know if it’s healthy to constantly see their pictures rotating on my slideshows around the house. Still, it’s so important that I remember them and their distinct personalities, not to mention the other dogs I lost in more expected endings where I had a chance to say goodbye. This is the first time in my life I don’t think I will put up decorations or a full-size tree because this isn’t the home I planned to be in, even though I’m lucky to have a partner and two amazing dogs to be with this season. My mom’s ceramic xmas trees survived, so they will suffice. I might change my mind and see what other holiday decorations survived the fire, but this is the current plan. Shea doesn’t seem to mind that I’m not rearranging the house for the holidays and there is plenty of other projects we’re working on so it’s not a priority.
Circa 2023 after it was professionally cleaned from an April 2016 fire at my mom’s house, but before my January 18, 2024 fire.
Summer 2024 after it was professionally cleaned a second time.
Replacement from Warsaw, Poland with me on November 22, 2024.
Yes, I know this blog title is a corny Michael Jackson song, but after what I’ve been through this year, indulge me for a moment, as this is quite the saga. I always stress that NO material thing matters nearly as much as the five precious souls I lost with my dogs taken from me that day. Still, through some miraculous connections, a bit of my heart (I’m sure my siblings would agree) was restored today when a hand-carved (or is it?) piece of furniture that I mistakenly thought was one-of-a-kind was delivered from Warsaw, Poland, of all places.
The original piece, which my parents bought when we lived in rural Catalonia, Spain (my dad was in the United States Coast Guard and was stationed there in the mid-1970s), was transported with our military moves, in the normal course, from Spain to New York and then to California, where my parents retired. In 2016, it survived my mom’s house fire and was professionally cleaned. After my mom died later that year, I kept the piece, which my siblings did not want, only for it to get pretty incinerated in my own house fire this past January 18.
At first in the chaos of my soot-laden wrecked home, I had it in the junk pile on my driveway, but it meant so much to me. The damage seemed somewhat superficial, so someone convinced me that I could have it professionally “cleaned” again and/or repainted. Unfortunately, it came back even after being treated still smelling of fire, so I’m storing it in the rental house’s garage for now. I was frustrated by the daunting task of having it professionally restored to what it looked like in the pictures. I was ambivalent about whether it would be worthwhile.
On a whim, I posted it on social media, and a friend of mine who I used to swoon over regularly on the subway when I saw him during our commute years ago when I lived in New York chimed in and said he found a replica for sale in Warsaw, complete with the Polish language e-commerce link. I contacted the seller, who spoke no English. With the assistance of a translator website, I explained my unique interest. I was pleasantly surprised that it was selling for only 1,000 PLN, which amounted to about US$255. I knew the challenge would be shipping. I asked him if he would ship to California and he said he would not. I think he was only looking to ship within Europe.
Periodically, over the last several months, I would check the Polish site. It continued to be on sale, which blew my mind, but I’m sure it’s a niche market. Several weeks ago it occurred to me, after a few false starts with distant connections to Poland, that I had some of the people on my annual holiday card email list who I have been in touch with for years who are Poles. So on another whim, I wrote an email to all of them with the the before and after pictures and the Polish e-commerce link. I think there were 19 who had working emails, and one of them who I’ve had a reciprocal crush on since at least 2008 replied. His English is excellent because he lived in the UK for a while, so he was a perfect candidate, especially because he also lived in Warsaw.
At first, my handsome cub friend Artur suggested that if the seller was unwilling to ship it to California, I could have it shipped to his house and then he would facilitate shipping it to me. It turns out, that by having him communicate on my behalf, and after securing a quote for shipping that I obtained from DHL at his suggestion, the seller agreed to let it be picked up from his location. Artur, who I’ve never even met, even took care of the Polish customs paperwork for me! It was then purportedly en route! I could hardly believe I was able to track the progress online. I remained on pins and needles, thinking it would take months, but spending US$717 to ship it was enough to get it here in under two weeks. It arrived today, just in the nick of time, because Shea and I are getting on a plane to Hawaii tomorrow morning. To my glee, I didn’t even have to make arrangements for it to be brought inside from the pouring rain.
It’s now safe and sound in my rental and will be ready to transport to my home months from now when my house is ready. I want to take some pictures of the two cabinets side by side at some point. I’m also still contemplating what I should do with the original. I might use it for gardening supply storage outside if I can avoid it getting water-damaged. That way any remaining smell will hopefully diminish, but I’ll still have it on the premises and can tell this story. It will make a fine storage cabinet, as long as I don’t let it succumb to the elements in my mild climate here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
So for under a thousand dollars, I have a beautiful nostalgic piece in excellent shape to look at, together with the two very similar tapestries that my siblings and I had growing up. For the rest of my life I’ll be able to enjoy the memories that pieces bring me, even if they are facsimiles of the originals and they are pieces I would not have bought if I just saw them in a store myself.
As for what I’m putting in the new cabinet, I think I’ll start with the ashes of the beloved five dogs who I lost that day.
Thanks Patrick Sheehan! The Filipino traditional dance tapestry that my parents had bought when we lived in Spain in the 1970’s has arrived. The original one with the blue background survived my mom’s fire in 2016 and was then professionally cleaned. However, it was then incinerated in my fire in January. Now it is officially replaced thanks to Patrick’s efforts in finding this redder, reflective version. It’s still very nostalgic for my siblings and me. The fact that I have a Filipino partner now makes it even more cool. The pictures below demonstrate what it looked like with my cathedral ceiling before the fire. When my house is renovated and I move home I intend to replace it with this new one and uplight it with my smart home at sunset every day like I used to do. It was really cool to look up and see this when one walked into the foyer, even though it was nerve-wracking getting that high on a ladder to hang it.
It’s so cool that they can still grow this time of year. I know one tomato may not seem like a big deal to other people, but this plant was almost discarded as a weed from a “junk pile” of compost buckets at the site where my house is being renovated after the fire. We got one cherry tomato from this plant already, which we split and savored, but this second one is now coming in, so it’s all a bonus to us. You can barely see it coming in at the top of the plant in this photo.
Some of my patio furniture (that I loved placing all over the backyard so there were places to nap in the sun as it moved across the sky) was completely incinerated in the fire. Some of it was untouched, but others were scorched and damaged, perhaps even in the chaos of the firemen and moving things around for the first construction to secure the house.
While they look like simple pieces of furniture, I’ve enjoyed having these large ottomans to turn a regular couch or chair into a lounge. They are also specifically enjoyed by my dogs, including the blind ones. However, when you have blind dogs there are certain furniture accommodations one should make.
First, you should not arbitrarily move furniture around if you don’t have to. You should also not have ROCKING chairs that are likely to catch tails or paws. Gliders are far safer! Lastly, you should not have cushions that slip off as soon as a dog jumps on them. That was one of my biggest problems with these.
Below are all the steps I took to fix them after the fire, but here is a gallery of the damage and fixes.
Both of these ottomans had one or two legs each which had broken. I was going to throw them out, but one by one I fixed all the problems.
Legs Broken Off – With at least one of the ottomans I could sit it down and have it look even, but the moment it moved a millimeter, it was lopsided again. One morning I thought I had nothing to lose, so I took very long screws that were literally discarded in the garden of my home under construction and drilled them straight up the legs for these, not caring what they would look like or if they would scrape on the concrete, and regardless of how much rattan material had come loose on the leg. To my amazement that fixed all the legs and so the lopsidedness was gone on both ottomans. If the screw head gets scraped, no big deal.
Stains, Rips & Residue – As you can see in the pictures, some of the cushions through the fire were scorched so they have holes. Some of them were ripped and torn. Turning them over to make sure their “best sides” were showing works well, but then some of the residue from the damn velcro pads remained. Velcro is what these pieces originally came with to supposedly hold them in place, which never made sense to me because the cushion covers were sold as “washable.” How are you going to wash something that necessarily needs to be stuck with velcro in five different places? Not only that, but when I put my legs on the former velcro sticky areas, it stuck to my pants. I’m sure it would have stuck to my legs and was probably unpleasant for the dogs as well, so something had to be done. I used AI to search best ways to remove sticky residue from fabric and one of the options was to use baking soda. I had accidentally ordered a lifetime supply of baking soda, so I liberally applied some and used a silicon scrubbing pad to remove almost all of it. The footprints for these velcro patches remain, but the appearance of that side of the pillow is still devoid of tears and scorched holes, so it reminds me less of the fire and is still the best choice to be facing upwards. You have to struggle to see the orange discoloration from the fire on the pillow when it is face down, so that is also a good argument for the former velcro side being up. So much of the residue is gone, that one can now comfortably use the cushion without any resistance.
Adherence to Rattan – Speaking of velcro, as I mentioned, the velcro that came with them was always insufficient and never quite seemed to fit right. The pillows always seemed to be askew. Recently, when I bought brand new ottomans with glider lounge chairs I noticed that these new ones came with clasps like in the picture below. I thought to myself how brilliant it was. I Youtubed and Google’d and AI’d the best way to buy them, but the problem persisted on how to adhere them to the cushions. Then I came across this guy in the video below, whose cushions would always fly away. I also live in a windy area and have learned that especially in Spring I need to weigh or tie things down. Well his solution of using a sharp object like an ice pick (I used a small Philips screwdriver) to poke a hole next to the piping of the pillow at a diagonal, allows one to poke a zip tie through. I then put the zip tie through the rattan and voila, no more floating pillows! My blind dog definitely appreciates this when she jumps up on the ottoman and everything stays in place!
Material things were never the priority in my thoughts when I suffered the horrible fire in January, but a lot of people don’t know that I have been surviving fires since I was a child and the one that killed my five precious dogs was the SIXTH one of my life. Eight years ago my family home was destroyed by fire.
The tapestry that was extremely similar to the one Shea is holding here was “lost” even though the other tapestry below was professionally cleaned and was returned to me. When I started looking for the Filipino-themed tapestry that survived the 2016 fire, coincidentally this “Aladdin-themed” one (as my parents described it) came up first. You can see that the blue-er version of the Filipino traditional dance tapestry hung in my home before the January fire that burned up 99% of my belongings. I almost gave up my search, but my amazing friend Patrick Sheehan (who I used to swoon over when I would see him on the subway when we commuted to work in New York City years ago) found it online within a few seconds when I asked him about it.
Similarly, he did the same thing for a hand-carved dresser that is currently en route from Warsaw, but that’s another long story I’ll post about when it arrives.
Now I will end up with BOTH tapestries replaced even though this first one wasn’t in my life these past eight years. This is very healing and helps me cope with the bit of family nostalgia, even though they are just close facsimiles to the ones I grew up with.
November 2024
This carpet is similar to the one that never got cleaned after Mom’s fire in 2016. My parents bought a very similar one with the reddish part a more blue color in the 1970s when we lived in Spain. I was upset that the original was not professionally cleaned after Mom’s fire, so I assume they stole it since nothing in the main part of my mom’s house was incinerated (only the garage).
I did notice that the blue and red versions of the Filipino tapestry are reflections of each other. That is NOT the case with the “Aladdin” one.
This carpet was bought at the same time and WAS professionally cleaned after my mom’s fire in 2016. Unfortunately, I lost it in MY fire in January 2024.
So, I also ordered another that an art expert friend found online for me, so this is what it will look like:
I started to collect cranberry-colored glass from thrift stores inspired by Barbra Streisand’s book on design. Before the fire, I had an entire bay window full of different colored glass, but there’s something magical about varying hues of the same color juxtaposed in odd numbers of pieces, of course. We’ll see how much I can find in the years to come.
While I’m still biding time until I move, I do like to see art, even if it was not of my own choosing completely, but donated to me after the fire. Some of it will make great placeholders until things that are more “me” are acquired.
Rental backyard with Bonnie and Snoopy before their baths and grooming today.
Before baths and grooming:
Shea gave the dogs baths with his homemade soap! After drying them off and blow-drying them, I groomed them and clipped Bonnie’s long nails. She is so patient with all of that. Snoopy not so much! Now it’s time to put their dog sweaters on for the brisk mornings.
Pictures Shea took of me with the dogs after their cuts (with and without yawning):
