Exterior Painting

So blame us; we were not too hot about the fobby-blue trim that highlighted our downspouts and eaves. So even though a few people (who shall remain unnamed) thought we were crazy to blow money throwing a fresh coat of paint over a fresh coat of paint, we went ahead and repainted the outside of our house.




Before we had our familial housewarming party, we thought we'd cover up all the blue parts with a shoddy, drippy, rather messy job of Ultra Pure White Behr paint from Home Depot. It didn't come out too bad, but because our house's main body was such a light tint of grey, the overall effect was a rather white-looking house. Plus, it took us 5 weekends to complete the job, and if you bothered to look, you'd see we did a sloppy job around corners and crevices with our rollers and brushes. Another lesson learned: when you're this inexperienced and cannot tolerate less than perfection, leave it to the pros.




So, time to choose some paint shades. Our painting contractors put up some shade samples for us to choose from and suggested we go with the better-quality Kelly Moore paint. The first two, Oyster and Graystone, are his recommendations. The third in line was our attempt to match a Behr shade called Cornerstone, our original choice for the body of the house. The Kelly Moore equivalent was Pale Pollen, but it came out more yellow than we expected on a large sample swatch, especially when viewed in the sunlight. The fourth sample is Swiss Coffee, what our contractor suggested in lieu of Ultra Pure White for the trim and details, which he explained could turn yellow over time. The Swiss Coffee makes this less evident as the paint wears because it's got a little yellow tint mixed in, but to the naked eye, especially when in contrast with a darker paint shade, it appears white. The things ya learn as a house owner.


Tung is all for darker shades, but he already got to pick the dark-gray roof color. I'm into the pale/pastel/bright-house look, so after a bit of debate and several viewings, we decided to go with Oyster (Sample #1) for the body of the house.







The painters did a good job overall--they were very prompt and quick. In three days, they had already pressure-washed, caulked, primed, prepped, and painted the house, with very few mistakes. We called them back for three touch-ups, including the garage door that was supposed to be in Swiss Coffee instead of Oyster. Here it is below, primed for its true shade.







Okay, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want that very awesome, super-quick, heavy-duty, professional paint gun that homeboy has. He turned what is probably a 3-weekend job for us into a 30-minute job, which includes the prep work. The actual spraying took about 3 minutes. It's like watching an airbrush artist at work, very cool.

Here are some Before's and After's for comparison. The top picture shows the old paint colors and our new, gray roof.

Here's a frontal shot of the house with the new colors (note, old roof alert in the top image).





And finally, a full shot of the complete job. Am I ever so glad I'm coming home to this every day now instead of what was there before! Loving the house more and more--fresh paint makes such a huge difference in terms of overall feel and newness.

The California Pepper

It's not that I don't like trees. I understand their value and contribution to a greener earth, to provide shade, and to make the air cleaner. But when it's a weepy-foliaged, gnarled-trunked California Pepper sitting on the park strip right in front of my house, dropping spicy-smelling peppercorn during certain seasons, we may have a problem. When the root structure ended up causing sewage reflux by jabbing through my main drainage pipes because the tree was planted too close to the lines (thanks, City of San Jose), we really DO have a problem.

Since a park strip tree is city property, I went through the process of getting a permit, which was surprisingly relatively painless. San Jose law requires you to plant a replacement tree if you happen to remove one of theirs. I had initially wanted a Japanese Maple, as the Sweet Gum trees lining my neighborhood drop these brown spiky balls called "liquidambar" that are like a giant bur--not fun to step on, and even less fun to clean up after the trees shed. However, the city would approve only certain trees for park strips based on some bizarre criteria of having to be a shade tree with a relatively fast growth rate and be of a species that conforms with the rest of the trees planted in the neighborhood.

Once the permit was granted for tree removal, I called around for arborists. Must be a tight market for the arborists--some would just come up knocking on my door offering to give an estimate after having seen the city's sign for removal stapled to the tree. Others would offer me a better deal than the initial estimate after having heard about the competition.

Along with the permit, the city sent a packet with instructions on how to proceed. You could:

A.) Let the City of San Jose do the entire job of cutting down the old tree, removing the stump, and planting the newly approved tree for a total of $1,375 for a 19"-24"-diameter tree, or opt to do either of those jobs with the city according to their price list. The price includes an "administrative fee," which is what you pay if you're too lazy to do your own research.

B.) Hire your own licensed and certified contractors to remove the tree, get rid of the stump, and plant a new tree according to city specs.

C.) Go through Our City Forest, a non-profit organization that will give you a free tree if you take their one-day educational course on how to properly plant a tree, agree to maintain the tree according to city specs, and return the tree stakes to them after a period of a few months.

Being of medium laziness, I went with Option B and hired Bay Area Tree Specialists. They ended up doing a great job with the tree. Here's a view of the California Pepper from the kitchen, facing out. Way too major obstruction.

Here's a view of the tree from the front of the house, with a Bay Area Tree Specialist employee for scale.

Within 15 minutes of arriving for the job, they had already felled the tree. Does it hurt to pay $750 for such a swift job? Yes. Would it have taken us a lot more time, labor, and effort to figure it out ourselves? Heck yes. Wise investment? Probably, if it means my sewage won't reflux again next winter during the heavy rain season.

Finally, here's the same front view of the house after the California Pepper has been cleaned away. Bay Area Tree Specialists also neatly trimmed the Mimosa (Silk) tree on our lawn for us.

Here's the clean new view from the kitchen. Wow, look, we have neighbors!

And finally, the city-approved Red Armstrong Maple, "Acer Rubrum," planted and staked.

Shadow Training

“When you are injured and decide to come watch class anyway,” Sensei said, “there is a word for that. In Japan, they call it ‘Shadow Training.’ You are still training, because you pick up things while observing that are not so obvious when you are absorbed in a technique.” In the last few weeks, I’ve managed to bust up my left knee doing something I don’t even remember, and my lower back from taking a bad fall from koshinage. I can’t say I’ve gotten clumsier lately, as I keep up with my stretching and take care of myself through class, so it must be that the training has gotten more intense, and I am trying out different techniques and ukemi that I have not touched upon much before. These are the first few injuries that actually took me off the mat, but because I cannot resist the pull of the dojo, I come to watch.

Learning with the eyes is different than being able to feel it out with the body. You catch more things by observing other people’s postures and movements, and yet you miss that element of trying it out for yourself. I take notes, keep my eyes on the mat, and even catch my hands going up now and then in an effort to imitate Sensei’s movements. This is my body’s way of yearning to get the motions right. I get frustrated when I see how a technique should be done correctly, but cannot mirror it myself. So much of aikido is based on feel.

I think back to when we were doing kaeshi-waza, reversals. To turn a shihonage into a kokyu nage, there is this brief transition of turning around uke and extending the leading shihonage arm from the center to set up the reversal. This transition was something I had trouble on, and no matter how it was explained to me in different ways, I couldn’t grasp the concept. Finally, Sensei had my Sempai perform the technique on me, so that I’d be able to get a sense of the movements involved. It’s hard to describe what it felt like—the movements were so controlled and concise, the extension was swift and sure, leading my body out and around a certain way, and then I was wrapped in this brief, spiraling feeling like I was caught in a cyclone before my arms were lifted below the elbow and my body was launched forth in a kokyu-nage throw.

I think of how I can replicate that when I get back on the mat. But while I sit on the side, I pay close attention, absorbing aikido into memory, mulling over the concepts, grasping at the shadows to form words that make sense in my mind.