The housing situation
13 December 2007
I moved to Oakland from my home town of Portland, Oregon in March of this year. For six-plus months I lived in a tiny bedroom in the Temescal area of North Oakland, and in November I found my current place in West Oakland on Craigslist. It’s a live/work warehouse space in an industrial area of West-O. I was looking for a living arrangement that had the space necessary for all the projects in my mind, and I was also looking for room that I could modify and decorate however I wanted. I found it.
There are several bedrooms and mine is the largest. It’s 13 feet by 21 feet. It’s more space than I’ve had in years… definitely more space than I thought I could ever afford in the Bay Area. My room mates are all involved in creating art and working on their crafts, and as a guy who just likes to make stuff, I really feed off of their energy. There are plenty really nice power- and hand tools, there’s all kinds of art detritus all over, and everyone is eager to listen to project ideas and give technical advice.
The gallery below shows the “before” side of the story. I’ve done a lot already since then but I’m still working on a number of things:
When I first moved in I started thinking of the ways I could really make my room my own. There were several things that needed to be fixed and I started making lists of projects that I could take on to solve various issues. First, the paint was old and the drywall was damaged in a few areas, so I patched the walls and painted a coat of flat white, to act as a barrier between the old paint (and some weird murals) and whatever color/design I would paint later. I still need to put on a second coat but it’s hard to deal with painting my bedroom when I work from home… it will get done one of these weekends.
A big issue is lighting. I’ve started a project to make light fixtures, which I’ve written about and will be posting updates on as progress continues. Natural sunlight is also an issue. I’ve got a “hatch” window (think of a “safari window” on a VW bus) which faces the windows in the front of the building, but it opens only so far and doesn’t let much light in. It will be replaced with recycled windows from old homes. That’s the next “big” project, and I’ll of course be writing about that when it happens.
The great thing about this place is that I can shape my space as much as I want. It’s the reason why I moved in. I have all of the room I want for crafts and art projects, and I can also be handy and create some inventive solutions to some interesting challenges. This place is my creative sandbox, and I am so glad that I found it.
Tags: building stuff, home, Personal, warehouse
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