One of the perks to living a double life (one as Tierra’s office manager, the other as an aspiring pastry chef), is that you get to see important aspects of one from the perspective of the other. Case in point: the iphone. We make apps, talk apps, make up apps and trade apps at work and help guide our clients in the process of creating their own iPhone apps. Tierra is well versed on what’s up in the app world.

But I never expected to find the iPhone to be a must have tool in kitchens all over New York City. Chefs seem to love the camera and the timer that are standard with the iphone, but are also big fans of many applications which have become apart of their process. Locavore helps the chefs develop menus based on what is available at the market that morning while the Pantry app helps keep track of what is available in the kitchen already and their use by dates. A few chefs even mentioned using the Wordpress app to update their restaurant’s websites or their own cooking blogs.

Some of the rockstar chefs are even launching their own apps to expand their brands, like iEats from Chef Marco Porceddu or Gordon Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen app.  While restaurants strive to make sure they are included in apps like Urbanspoon and keep up with all of the Yelpers on Loopt.

The iPhone is clearly not just another phone, but a tool of the trade not just for us at Tierra, but even all those Twitterific chefs about town.

Gmail - Gmail offers a great way to keep track of all communications with contractors and each other.  The Labels are awesome and help keep everything organized and easy to find.

Blogger - Hosts our blog that is our one stop to share our progress with friends and family, but also to see where we are today and what’s next.

Google Calendars - We use this to keep track of contractor appointments, when everyone is working, etc. This is a great calendar that can be shared among a group, we even use it here at Tierra.

Google Docs - We keep all of our contracts, budgets, and any other house related documents on Google Docs for accessibility from anywhere at anytime.

GoogleSites – An interactive To-Do list provides us the ability to divide and conquer, but at the same time keep on the same page. The countdown on the side is to our desired move-in date. As of today we are are still on schedule and getting ready to move from our temporary rental.

Picasa - Hosts all slideshows and photos taken of our progress and shared on our blog.

YouTube - Hosts our little bit of comic relief as seen on the blog, our silly cross-eyed cat never ceases to amuse us.

Google Notebook - An online resource that can keep all of our renovation ideas, contractor’s websites, and inspirations in one place.  You can just select text or images and right click “Note This” and it will save it to the Google Notebook of your choice.  I love how we can daydream and come up with ideas and share them online.

GoogleMaps - Our families do not live in the area, so sharing our house’s location with family on GoogleMaps helps my family gain perspective on where the house is in relation to NYC and to the beach.

All of these resources allow us to see not only the current state of our work, but also how far we’ve come in the past few weeks—which is very encouraging.  Since I embarked on this Google journey, I have learned of other people using Google to plan their weddings, prepare for babies, and coordinate all kinds of parties and events.  Wish us luck and check back to see if we survived this adventure. 

And YES I am trying to see if all of this free Google advertising will get us some money to buy some new windows