This first shot is my car in front of the house. You can't really tellthe color scheme from this picture, but the house is tan colored and the trim is greenish-dark blue and maroon. Not really subtle, but not bad either. Nanci and I live on the second floor and some college-age party animals live below (joy!). Yes, we have bay windows! My room has the bay window on the left of this picture. This picture makes it look like we live on a hill, but that's just the scanner that I used to scan the photo - our street is actually pretty level. You can tell it's California by the palm tree.
This is another shot of the front of the house, this time looking South, towards the University of San Francisco (not UCSF, where I work.) The construction in the background is where they are building some new dorms. Fortunately, it's a union job so they only do work Monday thru Friday 7-4:30. That means I don't get bothered by construction noise. Having the construction there does make parking a bit more difficult because that's the only street I can park on all day, but all of the space by the constuction is off limits. Oh well...
Notice the person wiping off their car in the center of the photo. There is a 24-hour coin operated self car wash on the corner of my block. You know, one of those with the hoses and brishes that you spray yourself... Anyway, it's really amazing the times people pick to wash their cars. I've heard the vacuums running at 3 a.m. some nights. Now that's got to be a desperately dirty car to warrant that kind of attention.
This is my room from its doorway. You can see my bed on the floor and two of the three sides of my bay window (no window seat, but oh well...) The bed is a queen size futon on a full size frame and it's very hard. I think I might have to buy some foam or something to soften it up and let me sleep through the night.
As you can see, the room is pretty bare. I have a closet to hang my clothes and two little stacking type holders for my shoes, underwear and other things. You wouldn't be able to see it in this picture anyway, but after this was taken I got a great dresser from my high school friend Devon. Now I have drawers to put everything that was just piled up in the closet and on the floor. The floor is still a main storage place, but it looks a bit respectable at least.
This is the living room/TV room right next door to my room (containing the other bay window seen from outside.) The fireplace works, but I haven't used it and the couch is great for lounging around in. The furniture and decorations give the room a nice Pottery Barn feeling (I should tell her "Ad busters" friends...)
This is the kitchen. Behind the door you see is a utility room that has shelves and a washer and dryer. The washer and dryer are a big bonus. Out of all the appliances the place could have had (or lacked) no laundry stuff would have really been a bummer. I can live without a dishwasher or disposer. I couldn't live without a microwave, though, and had to go and buy one. Luck smiled on me with that because I found a used microwave store that sold me a good one for $45 and I think will take it back when I leave (90 day return policy rocks!).
Unlike the "Pottern Barn" living room, the kitchen is more "thrift store" appointed. The kitchen table chairs are 70s style steel and vinyl chairs wih an orange flower pattern and none of the seats is actually still affixed to the chair base so you have to be careful about how you get in and out of them. The silverware and dishes are a mix and match collection with the bulk looking like what one might find at the end of the aisle at Safeway. At least I've learned which utensils taste like metal, though, so I can avoid those. I miss my kitchen in Denver, but am doing okay cooking foods that I like here. I always cook more simply when there's just myself anyway, so a basic kitchen works fine.