Zip Car launch, and another wall bites the dust

On Tuesday of this week, we attended the launch of Zip Car's Low Car Diet. It was a blessedly quick affair, with some goodie give-away's, etc. The best? They included Andy in the Low Car Diet as well! As a token of our affection and gratitude, we decided to take goofy pictures.

Yesterday, Andy started to take down a most ridiculous wall. It has presented a bit of a mystery from the start. Without seeing it, my descriptors will be meaningless, so I won't bother. Simply study the picture. If you look closely at the construction of the wall, you'll see beams and headers that don't connect, severe over-construction, and a downright goofy build. Some materials are new, some are old. We wonder what story this wall could tell. Perhaps it was a post, then a wall? Maybe a half-wall? Anyway, it was a bad idea...so, goodbye wall!

Here is the old wallpaper found under many layers.

We'll spend the next couple of days pricing out a materials list from our contractor and get a move on the structural stuff. Yeehaw!

Loving Zip Car

On a whim, I decided to submit an application for Zip Car's Low-Car Diet. As I alluded to in a previous post, we've been laboring over our decision to sell our car, and I have been looking into whether or not Zip Car or a similar car service could work for a growing young family.

This is essentially what I said in my application. I think they liked it, because within a couple hours, I had an email saying that we were chosen as one of 25 people to take the Low-Car Diet and live car-free for a month, with the help of a free Zip Car membership!

It's really been weighing on me. If we can't live a car-free life, with BART 4 blocks away, bicycles at our fingertips, Trader Joe's within blocks, a great weekly neighborhood farmers market, who can?!? Maybe it's unrealistic to think that our planned cities are ready for a massive walking/biking population. But we've always prided ourselves on pushing boundaries and walking the talk. So, here's our chance.

Because there is a tremendous amount of coordination involved in building our house, I won't be able to avoid cars altogether. I will ride as a passenger when Andy drives a non-Zip Car, and I'll only use Zip Car when absolutely needed.

The kick-off for the Low-Car Diet is Tuesday, September 14 at noon at AT&T Park in SF. I'm under the impression that friends and family are invited, so if you want to join in the celebration, please come (and let me know if I should look for you there)! We'll get our brand new Zip Car membership in addition to a bunch of other goodies designed to help us in our car-free journey. This is gonna be great!