I still view the place my insurance company is renting as a temporary staging ground before returning home. Toward that end, Shea and I really liked a store in the Castro featuring many Turkish lamps. I do have a small one already, which replaced one lost in the fire, to pair with my Tiffany-style lamps. However, this more elaborate one was on my wishlist for a while, so I saw it was on sale and made the purchase. I love how ornate it is.
Here’s a revised version:
Meanwhile, I’m making small changes to the backyard to prepare the plants and furniture for when I move back to Wellfleet with him. I’m also meeting with the contractors to choose materials like floors and countertops, which is exciting and a good sign that we’re getting closer to the end of this exile. I’m glad Shea is involved in the decision-making process, especially for the appliances, since he’s much more inclined to cook than I am.
Today marks four years since I bought my house and moved to Vallejo during COVID, before the vaccine, and during the fires that made the skies bleak and orange, as you can see in this picture taken at the time!
So much has happened since then, but I have no regrets about moving to this city and community that has been so kind to me. I still love the house I chose, even though it’s in pieces and has months left to be rebuilt since the January fire. I’m looking forward to finally having the housewarming I never got to have, hopefully sometime in 2025.
Shortly after closing on the house in September 2020.
I had to raise the Spanish Moss because the squirrels were brazenly harvesting it for their nesting, I presume. To preserve some of the decorations I hung some of them up, as I’ve lost so many things bringing them back and forth to my home under renovation.
I’m still looking at everything that I’m setting up in the temporary yard as a staging ground for my home when I finally get back, but it feels good to make a space that is good for hosting and helps me imagine how things will be when I move this back.
Shea and I recently brought back several pieces that I’m going to try to clean or repurpose artistically, including some plants that needed some TLC. We might even be able to get one of the fountains to work again when we get a new motor installed. Several items need to be de-rusted. I also assembled this white rocking chair which had been lingering in the rental backyard under plastic for many months, but I don’t remember who gave it to me or where it came from.
The temporary home I’m in is where I’m storing the things that I want for my real home under renovation. While this house has a little charm, such as a nice view when we wake up in the mornings with trees and hillsides, I still long for my corner lot and my unique backyard layout. I miss the spots in that backyard I could go to any time of day to bask in the sunlight with strategically placed seating and lots of nap areas, not to mention the hot tub I miss so much. I’m still deciding what furniture I’m going to bring or donate or “stage” for donation in the garage, not to mention repurchasing some of the same items I loved to make me feel like I never lost them. A Turkish lamp, three Tiffany-style lamps, and even the Barbra Streisand barbie-doll I was gifted are examples of things I try to convince myself were the same ones in pictures from before the fire. There’s something to be said about mass production when it comes to nostalgia. This brown glider chair is another example. It looks so much like the one I previously had, and gliders are so much safer when you have dogs with tails, but especially BLIND dogs with tails. Not only did I get this brown glider for inside, but the blue outdoor couch I just put together is also a glider itself, so tail and blind dog safe!
Shea and I brought a few things back from the ruins of my garden which we tended to a bit yesterday. I had a sudden inspiration to try to resurrect a few more items. I think I can bring this plant back to life, and some of these other items can simply be washed, including this vase from Spain that my family had since the mid-1970’s. I’ll always be able to point to these items (among the less than 1% of things that I used to have) and say that they were among the few things that I had in the “before time.”
Clippings from this plant, which is more of an indoor plant that I had in a covered patio area, have been propagated by me several times, so it will be a big win if I can resurrect it from the dead when it’s been subject to the fire and exposed to the outside for over eight months. Some of the clippings were in my home office that perished.
The contractor suggested I periodically stop by and work on my garden which was great advice. Rather than feeling sorry for myself for not getting home sooner, it’s nice to stop by the house and make some concrete changes that will help my garden to be ready for me incrementally. Shea helped me water the plants while I cleaned up a lot of the materials and did some serious pruning to be able to see some of the garden features and release the windmill from the newly grown bamboo and other overgrown plants. Snoopy and Bonnie were happy to chill out while we worked back there. I found it very therapeutic.
We went to visit Shani Simmons today in her lovely home and yard. She’s a board member of the Bay Area Butterfly Festival and had a garden tour. There were many monarchs and finches in the yard, so she takes her volunteerism seriously! I’m glad Shea got a chance to meet her and I got to meet Shani’s husband Steve. I just realized I neglected to take a picture of the huge portion of her garden which was comprised of milkweed!
