reside architecture

the airstream has arrived at its new temporary home at area 63 productions in orange, ca.

area 63 productions from david doucette on Vimeo.

that's a nice dinner!

there comes a time in a young father’s life when he realizes that his son (or daughter) is all grown up and won’t be asking for advice any longer, you know somewhere around 16 or 17. for me, that day came a couple of weekends ago when i took my 2 1/2 year old son, jake, on his first camping trip at leo carillo state campground, just outside of malibu, california. jake has amazed me for some time, but this is the first real one on one time we have had in a long time. we had the whole weekend together. i felt like i was spending time with a 5 year old.

when it was time to unpack the tent, i heard “daddy, can i help you?”, when it was time to stick the stakes in the ground, “daddy can i help you?”, when it was time to put the sleeping bags in the tent, “daddy can i help you?” jake has always been a good helper but this time it just seemed different, he just seemed more mature. when i was lighting the campfire, he stood there and said “can i say a pear?” 4 or 5 times and i really couldn’t figure out what he was saying, then it hit me. he wanted to say a “prayer” because he remembered when he and  mom would light the minorah and they would recite the jewish prayer. he said ashare a couple of times (which is more than i can remember) and i think i said something about sleeping through the night, so in essence we did say a prayer. i was in awe.

then, when we were sitting across the picnic table from each other, my back was closest to the fire , i asked him if he wanted to come over and sit next to me closer to the fire as it was getting a little cold. he waved his hand around and said “no, i like to sit here and look at all this.” what he was referring to was the trees and the mountains in the background. yes, he definately had the better seat and even at 2 1/2 years old, he knew it. that, he surely gets from his mother.

he listened to everything i had to say and when i asked him to do something, he would do it. i never had to repeat myself (and for the record he is pretty good at home too, but as anyone who has had kids will tell you, they don’t always, shall we say, listen). at night, while sleeping in the tent, we both lay on our new air mattress (yes, i’ve prided myself as a die hard camper who would never use an airmatress, but what can i say, kids?), i realized jake is a real snuggler. we don’t share a family bed at home so i’ve never spent the night with him and i have to say it was one of the more special things i can remember about the weekend. i woke up at one point and he is strewn across my stomach, completely asleep. another time he was nuzzled under my arm. by the way, he is a super sleeper and this was no exception.

the point of all this, GO CAMPING! i really mean it. in that short weekend, i feel like we bonded in a way that we hadn’t before. i’ve moved up the airstream on my priority list to have it finished be the end of the summer. our whole family will be going on a camping trip at the end of april to new mexico and in october we’ll be going to the world famous balloon fiesta in albequerque, new mexico. i’m really excited about enjoying the outdoors with my family. it doesn’t get any better than that!

i’m thrilled to finally be introducing my pet project, a 1956 airstream travel trailer, to the blog. this particular model is aptly named “the flying cloud”. i look forward to posting updates on the restoration progress.

intro to the airstream from david doucette on Vimeo.

here is the final layout for the romaine kitchen. we’ll be using maple multi-ply plywood with a white caeserstone countertop. stay tuned for 3d renderings coming soon!

the romaine kitchen – final layout from david doucette on Vimeo.

in this short video, i explain what we did for the existing stucco and show you the almost finished product. it’s really starting to look gorgeous!

westbourne – stucco 3.13.09 from david doucette on Vimeo.

this month’s cool product is sigg cups. yes they sound like you can by them at ikea right next to the dunkfurr or lack but they don’t seem to be there…yet. why am i deciding to feature the sigg cup and why is this a cool product? well, i’m glad you asked.

reason #1. unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock the past year, you’ve probably heard about the plastic bottles being made that leached bisphynol-A. i didn’t read enough of the hoopla to really find out what bisphynol-A really is, but i figured when they throw in the word “leaching” in there, it can’t be good. my wife is especially hypersensitive to this kind of stuff since we have two little boys (my nalgene bottle has served me fine for 10+ years but that’s another story).  we had made the switch to sigg cups long before the plastic scare last year, which brings me to…

reason#2. we drink a lot of water in our family, and i mean a lot. it is pretty much the only thing our 2 1/2 year old drinks with the exception of almond milk at school. he keeps trying to get us to give him some coffee but so far we have resisted. we knew by using a re-usable water bottle, we’d be saving a lot of water bottles from ending up in the landfill. I started looking around for cool re-usable bottles, ones that would be special to us and ones that we’d take the time to take in and out of our cars/home/office on a daily basis rather than toss in the back next to the baby wipes and strollers. i stumbled upon the sigg cups and read a lot about them, everything good as far as i could tell. they are an aluminum bottle with a special leach proof liner. on top of that, they have cool designs and frankly just look cool. one of the competitors, kleen kanteen just doesn’t quite have the cool factor. my wife, jake, and i each have 2 sigg cups so we always have a clean one to take with us (or when we leave one in the car and are too lazy to go out in the morning to get it, just grab the other. in fact, since we actually have 4 sigg cups between my wife and myself, i’ve been known to collect 2 or 3 in my car before remembering to bring them all in. in fairness to my wife, she does the same thing).

sigg has a great website that allows readers to read all about their products and the company. they also have an environmental message and is a member of 1% For the Planet, donating 1% of their worldwide sales to protection of the environment. sigg cups are available online as well as rei and whole foods. i’m sure more retailers will be selling them in the near future as they are really catching on. they have several designs to choose from and some very cool colors. they also have kid sizes too although we quickly found out that our son, jake, wanted the bigger size like us.

a sigg cup justs makes sense. for the environment and for your health. i remember when we used to buy the arrowhead or crystal geyser bottles, we could end up with a lot of empty bottles in the backseat in the course of a couple of weeks. now we don’t do that anymore, and that’s a good thing.