Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Mar 19granolashotgun.comNuestra Señora del Viaje Inverso — GSYears ago I would wander around this particular neighborhood in Mexico City with friends and marvel at how magnificent the architecture was. Equally impressive was how many of these structures were...3
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Mar 7granolashotgun.comSlowmadding CDMX — GSOne of my oldest friends from my youth moved to Mexico City after she finished university. I would visit her and we’d have adventures together. On one trip her mom was also visiting from Spain and we...2
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Feb 5granolashotgun.comWatching Paint Dry — GSIn February of 2020 I sanded and stained the back deck and bought some new outdoor furniture. I was on the fence about whether I was going to rent the property again. This house was always meant to...14
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jan 28granolashotgun.comThe Electric Shuffle — GSI just listened to an episode of the GardenFork podcast about electric vs. gas cookstoves. The provocative title was, “Is The Fed Coming For Your Stove?” Short answer… No. The question was raised as...14
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jan 3granolashotgun.comReverse Engineering — GSI’m currently having a conversation with a trusted building contractor about how we might proceed with a relatively simple project. He asked me to be specific about my goals. I’ll use this blog as a...12
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Dec 14, 2022granolashotgun.comChurn and Entropy — GSI just helped a friend get settled in a small hotel a couple of blocks away from her home. A steady cascade of maintenance problems has been unfolding for the past few weeks and she’s decided her...1
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Nov 1, 2022granolashotgun.comHalloween — GSI’ve been told by many a die hard suburbanite that there are more dogs in San Francisco than children. Their point is that cities are a weird aberration that accommodates a sliver of society that’s...12
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Oct 31, 2022granolashotgun.comRorschach Test — GSI like to walk the dog along Crissy Field sometimes. It’s part of the usual rotation around various scenic parks in the city. San Francisco has an abundance of beautiful beaches, forests, and rocky...11
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Oct 30, 2022granolashotgun.comFin de Siècle — GSI’m always looking for tangible examples of how our towns and cities go through long slow cycles. Our places as well as our institutions have a lifespan. Day to day the forces at work aren’t always...114
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Sep 30, 2022granolashotgun.comFriends of the Urban Forest — GSCities are better when there’s a generous tree canopy. Vegetation keeps the city cooler in summer, trees help clean the air, absorb noise, and beautify the landscape. Properties on tree lined streets...15
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Aug 13, 2022granolashotgun.comOur On Again, Off Again, Infrastructure Future — GSOver a long summer weekend a group of the usual suspects got together and rented a cabin in the Sierra foothills about three hours east of San Francisco. It was an idyllic landscape of modest homes...115
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jul 21, 2022granolashotgun.comLearning From Las Vegas: Liberace’s Strip Mall — GSFor readers too young to have any memory of Liberace, in the 1950s and 60s he was one of the highest paid entertainers in the world. He had his own television show that rivaled “I Love Lucy” and he...15
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jun 26, 2022granolashotgun.comLearning from Las Vegas: Sustainable vs. Susceptible — GSI hear a great deal about sustainability in the built environment that sounds both encouraging and delusional. These messages come from well intentioned environmentalists as well as corporate...22
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jun 17, 2022granolashotgun.comLove the One You’re With — GSIn the last year and a half I bought and renovated two modest 1950s era homes in Madison, Wisconsin. Two beds, one bath, just under 800 square feet each, plain vanilla, nothing special. They were...3
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·May 31, 2022granolashotgun.comLearning From Las Vegas: Tony Hsieh’s Big Gamble — GSBack in 2014 I was in the live audience here in San Francisco listening to Tony Hsieh speak. He gave a presentation that was partly about the formation of his company Zappos. But more interestingly...1
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·May 11, 2022granolashotgun.comLearning From Las Vegas: Academic Taxonomy — GSI just returned from a trip to Las Vegas. I was ready for a little post pandemic adventure and Vegas is just so easy. It was good to get out into the world again and explore the ever evolving Vegas...3
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Mar 24, 2022granolashotgun.comFarmer Craig Hits an Oily Patch — GSFor years I’ve bought the majority of my meat and eggs from a farm family north of the city. Every two months Farmer Craig drives down in a refrigerated van and I fill my freezers with lamb, poultry,...12
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Mar 5, 2022granolashotgun.comHigh Water Victorians, Roosevelt Corner Shops, and Hipster Legos — GSAs happens from time to time a reader reached out to me and suggested we meet in person. A quick Google search provided a couple of links to podcast interviews where he talked about his life. He...35
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Feb 8, 2022granolashotgun.comThe Lickety Splits — GSKatie, an old tenant of mine, reached out via email to keep in touch as we do from time to time. She and her husband Dave had moved from Vancouver, BC to the Bay Area for four or five years to...12
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jan 29, 2022granolashotgun.comMonopoly Hotels — GSI recently enjoyed a podcast where the two hosts engaged in a bit of banter about real estate. One had gradually purchased a few homes in a row along the same street and compared them to the little...17
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jan 14, 2022granolashotgun.comThe Hibernacle and the Knights of Pythias — GSThis is the road to Central City, Colorado. It’s a classic Wild West gold mining town from the late 1800s that boomed briefly until the ore was exhausted. After that people moved away and the place...13
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jan 2, 2022granolashotgun.comRita, Warren, and Kyle — GSOn Christmas Eve I walked over to the nearest church in Denver. I was visiting my in-laws and their house happens to be close by. Now… I’m a nominal Catholic. (Sanphillippo.) By “nominal” I mean...2
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jan 1, 2022granolashotgun.comThe Irony of Fate — GSIt’s New Year’s Eve and we’re about to enter 2022. I have no Idea what the future has in store for any of us… and neither does anyone else. So instead of guessing about what’s to come I’d like to...2
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Dec 22, 2021granolashotgun.comThe Carpetbagger’s Guide to Home Ownership — GSIn March I bought a modest house in Madison, Wisconsin as a rental property. I worked with good local professionals to bring that house up to a better standard and in July I found excellent high...135
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Dec 15, 2021granolashotgun.comMuffy Van Moof’s Maiden Voyage — GSI went to the dentist and when I returned to the bicycle rack I discovered my broken lock laying on the pavement. No bike. I looked at the security guard standing by the door, pointed, and gave him a...
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Nov 7, 2021granolashotgun.comFrom the Office of Dodge, Wiggle,Hack, Shrug & DeCamp LLC — GSThe future is all about strategic adaptation within culturally acceptable parameters. I spend a lot of time with people who are passionate about building high quality places. I enjoy their company...15
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Nov 1, 2021granolashotgun.com“Democratic Architecture” — GSI’m fond of a particular local architect here in San Francisco. Donald MacDonald is originally from Canada, but went to university in Oklahoma and New York and built his professional life in Califo...2
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Oct 28, 2021granolashotgun.comA Slow Reversion to the Historic Mean — GSSeveral different friends have asked me about a new land use law here in California. Senate Bill 9 creates a state level administrative mechanism for single family homes to be restructured into two...3
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Sep 14, 2021granolashotgun.comSubsidiarity: Water — GSI’ll start with a definition: Subsidiarity “is a principle of social organization that holds that social and political issues should be dealt with at the most immediate (or local) level that is...24
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Aug 28, 2021granolashotgun.comThe Anecdotal Buy Back Effect — GSI spend entirely too much time listening to experts in business, government, and academia explain the economy in general and the property market in particular. Looking back, very few people who are...15
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Aug 26, 2021granolashotgun.comMaine Street — GSA woman reached out to me from Biddeford, Maine last week. There was a long phone conversation and a flurry of texts and emails as we discussed how she can move forward with her well established non...13
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jul 24, 2021granolashotgun.comGrandpa’s Basement House — GSMy mother-in-law was born in a small town in rural Nebraska in 1941. Her father was overseas fighting World War II for the first few years of her life, so she and her mother lived on her grandparen...126
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jul 16, 2021granolashotgun.comA Fresh Start — GSSometimes I head out into the world thinking I’m going to gather photos on a particular topic, but accidentally stumble on something completely different and more interesting instead. That’s what...2
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jul 8, 2021granolashotgun.comWe’d Rather Have the Iceberg Than the Ship — GSI recently bought a house in Madison, Wisconsin, but before I did I went through a series of adventures in different parts of the state exploring the property market. I was initially interested in...327
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jul 5, 2021granolashotgun.comRed Fog, White Fog, Blue Fog — GSSan Francisco has remained mercifully cool these last couple of weeks as the rest of North America baked under a thermal dome of intense record heat and summer storms. Western Canada came within a...12
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Jul 4, 2021granolashotgun.comVirtual Doll House — GSIn March I bought a modest two bedroom 1950 tract house in Madison, Wisconsin. It’s not going to win any awards for cutting edge design, but it’s solid, respectable and in a safe, quiet neighborhood...
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·May 22, 2021granolashotgun.comMaginot Lines — GSAn old friend stopped by out of the blue this afternoon and we chatted. It’s been a tough year for socializing so I was grateful to see her. She gave birth at the peak of the lockdown restrictions in...1
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·May 22, 2021granolashotgun.comHousing Psychographics — GSLast week I got a call from young friends who wanted my opinion on whether or not to buy a particular house. It was a simple two bedroom one bath 943 square foot (87 square meter) cottage that was...11
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·May 1, 2021granolashotgun.comPotty Talk — GSI was walking the dog along the Embarcadero here in San Francisco when I got an email from a Kiwi who currently lives in Australia. He sent this link along with the observation that, “When I visited...22
Granola Shotgun@GranolaShotgun·Apr 20, 2021granolashotgun.com“Takings” — GSA friend with Libertarian leanings down in Los Angeles reached out and asked about a particular legal case that’s currently working its way toward the federal Supreme Court. Pakdel vs. San Francisco...
