Our countertops are in, we went with a black (slate) Paperstone. We were waiting to get a cabinet installation so that was the delay. We have a new faucet and a new undermount sink and because of the new cabinet, more counter space. We already got the BlueStar range aka flamethrower, it’s pretty awesome. And we’re going with a Vent-A-Hood and waiting to get that installed.
What’s left is an Oceanside glass tile backsplash, cork floors, we have to paint our refrigerator black, paint the room, and probably update the lighting. A skylight would be nice too.
Bathroom is next after this and then the house is pretty much as done as can be unless we do solar panels (which we won’t until the price goes down to $5k - $7k).
The address is 5335 College Ave, Oakland, CA. It used to be Hiro’s Sushi but the family sold the business to the new owner who used to be a sushi chef at Kirala. Which, if you extrapolate, means the sushi at Rikyu is really, really good. One sushi chef and the sushi chef is the owner. We went there tonight and I guess it was the grand opening. The location isn’t the area of College Ave where there’s lots of foot traffic. It’s not a restaurant for ambiance, it’s a nice every so often, I don’t want to wait at Kirala or go into the City, type sushi place from someone who knows how to prepare and slice fish.
I like the trend of new restaurants opening in Oakland and we seem to be poaching from San Francisco and Berkeley and also keeping our talent in Oakland…e.g. from San Francisco we’ve got Wood Tavern, Somerset, Mono Restaurant, Levende East, B Restaurant. From Berkeley we’ve got Bakesale Betty, Pizziaolo, Cesar’s. And we’re keeping the Dona Tomas owners in Oakland via Flora.
This oyster po’ boy from Brown Sugar Kitchen, in West Oakland, is going to give Bakesale Betty’s fried chicken sandwich a run for her money. You watch.
There’s Flora Restaruant, B Restaurant, and some new restaurant that just opened up near Jack London Square (folks from San Francisco) that I can’t seem to find, that I want to try. Flora is in my favorite building (blue Art deco across from the Fox Theatre) in Oakland, that I’d love to own one day. We tried Sura restaurant, a relatively new Korean restaurant on “kimchee row” on Telegraph, and it was pretty good. Good soondobu.
The (household) consensus is that the best restaurant in the East Bay is Rivoli.
I don’t have an event/race this year. Not doing Honu Half in Kona, not ready and too expensive right now. Instead going to do the Marin Century on August 2, which is a 100 mile bike ride around Marin. On August 3, I’m going to do the San Francisco Marathon. I’m not planning on doing a 2 mile swim on Friday, the swim part of an Ironman race is just a warm up anyway.
Something to train for finally (after my sprained ankle heals).
We’ve got Atrium vinyl double pane, double hung windows. They’re pretty good and we’re happy with them, we had them installed when we first got the house 6 years ago. I don’t know if Ultrex Integrity from Marvin windows were available but may have chosen them instead; these ones are made out of fiberglass. Milgard makes a fiberglass window too. Fiberglass is supposed to be the best replacement window which also means it’s the most expensive (I hear). Vinyl and wood both have their pros and cons, and aluminum is just bad all around.
This is for future reference. Would also like to go with Sinan’s Windows for the installation.
Went for a stroll to The Wine Mine, which is just a block away. Wine Mine is an alternative to Paul Marcus wines in Rockridge, cozier and cooler than BevMo, and is another one of those “yeah, this is Oakland…people just don’t know” type of places (good, substantive, real deal).
They have $1 wine tastings and really good and nicely priced wine from all over.
Across the street is Casper’s hot dogs (really good old school hot dogs and milk shakes). Next door to Wine Mine is Cafe Mariposa, this gluten-free bakery. They sell their food to a lot of places including Whole Foods.
We have this euphorbia plant at the new house but it’s overgrown and in a bad location. I hope i can move it to somewhere better in the backyard. There’s a lot of these plants in Oakland/Berkeley, it’s a nice but strange “architectural” plant.
Other favorites because of the smell are brugmansia, clematis armandii, and jasmine. Brugmansia is what people can smell in North Oakland (especially on Shattuck) and Berkeley, it’s a popular plant and smells really good. It might be popular too because Angel’s Trumpet can be made into a hallucinogenic tea. I wouldn’t recommend it. Jasmine, apparently, is the National Flower of the Philippines.
