A Moving Story

It’s been a busy busy week for me. Wednesday we had a major client meeting, so it made Tuesday into a long day, and a frantic Wednesday morning. After my two supervisors left, it was especially so going as we have really reached a point where we need to know what direction the project is going in. We are still lacking a floorplan from the interior designers, which can make things very difficult when you’re trying to create a 50% design development set of drawings. To kill time after updating everything possible, I ended up creating a 2D ninja for sketchup, and uploaded it to the company server library in case we ever get a project to design a clandestine ninja training facility. Got some cool wallpapers out of it.

Last weekend, I found out that my apartment complex had an opening in a one bedroom apartment opening up for the first of november, so I went ahead and got it, since it was essentially double the size with a dishwasher, for only a hundred dollars more a month. I moved in all this weekend with the help of Saori, mom, and Taylor. It’s just across the complex, so we were able to do the move with just a few cars to ferry loads of stuff in plastic storage bins door to door, and then we all manhandled the bigger items across the complex, the largest being the couch/futon, which took the combined efforts of me, mom, tay, and Saori to manage out the door and up the stairs. It’s still not quite done, as I need to go back and finish clearing out the kitchen and begin cleaning everything. Suki’s hair rolls across the floor in waves.

We went to a friend of Saori’s birthday party a few nights ago and picked up her guitar. Saori had a friend who took a class in guitar making, and their first assignment was to repair a guitar, so they all went out and got cheap guitars, which they broke and then leaned to fix. Makes me wonder how exactly, they broke them. Anyway, the friend ended up giving Saori his repaired guitar, as he had two other guitars in his possession, and was returning to Japan with limited luggage space. So, we got the guitar after it spent many years relaxing in Saori’s friend’s apartment. Neither one of us knows how to play, but Saori has an advantage in knowing how to read music and play a few instruments. We found a few websites detailing how to hold the guitar, and where to hold the strings on the frets to make chords, but we’re not much beyond that at this point.

photos with my new old camera

Analog

meeting days

We had another all day meeting today with all the consultants. Mechanical-Electrical-Plumbing, Structural, Civil, Landscaping, and of course the interior designers-cum-architects. The first half the day was really good and we got a lot of stuff resolved since we had the MEP and structural guy working together in person on how to run ducts around structure and ventilate the whole thing. I think we have a good handle on how to run all the ductwork in and around the main spaces, which is really what I've been focusing on in the last week.

I know, really exciting stuff. Ventilation.

Well, its a good excercise for me to learn about ducts, HVAC systems, etc anyway.

The second half the meeting turned into a design charette with the interior designers presenting several schemes and all the other consultants coming up with their own design ideas. In a bitterly funny turn, the interior designers are coming up with designs closer and closer to the original floorplan we had, that they said they could beat but are now realizing that was probably the best solution. Oh well.

Last friday I met mom and tay for dinner at Los Olivos in Scottsdale. She's back in town now, and probably for awhile. Saturday Saori and I drove around to the Desert Broom library in way north Cave Creek, and to check out the architecture of the Arabian library in North Scottsdale. I liked the arabian library much better than the Desert Broom, although they were both by the same architects. The new Arabian actually has a little cafe inside which is pretty cool since the entire building is clad with rusting metal panels. We also hit a yard sale way out in the desert and we had to drive on a dirt road to get to it. They were selling saddle blankets with a bunch of other horse stuff. I actually drove a quarter mile down a private road following another car I thought was heading to the garage sale. That night we played the card game asshole for five hours outside with some of Saori's friends.