Category Archives: 1920’s house

Had you never been my friend, I wouldn’t be quite what you see…*

*Lyrics from The ShinsFall of ’82 from their album Port of Morrow. I’ve been hearing these guys in my Pandora mixes of late, and this song reminded me of a long lost friend who I recently tried to reconnect with. So, I guess I’m feeling a little introspective and sentimental, which is good, especially when you try to do art. Helps to let it all out.

Here she is, small and elegant. The frame around the mirror was custom made from scraps of trim to solve the issue of the sides of the medicine cabinet showing. The newly framed art helps to make the mirror look more at home here.

A few days ago I hinted on facebook that with the addition of a few DIY art pieces that one room in the house was mostly, very nearly, certainly almost, done. Well, I hope it’s not disappointing that the room I was referring to was the master bathroom. I mean, it’s the second smallest room in the house, and it has all of it’s infrastructure installed already. All I had to do was hang up some fresh towels, clean the sink, and hang a few pieces of art. Well, I’m calling them art… they might be considered craft projects to someone artier. But to me, to us, they’re arty enough.

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This. right here. is my. pretty boy swag…*

*Lyrics from Pretty Boy Swag as sampled in the Girl Talk All Day album. I finally saw Girl Walk All Day, which if you haven’t seen it you must (it’s streaming online, in 12 chapters, and it’s amazing), and have been obsessed with the soundtrack ever since. It even inspired me to get back outside for my first real exercise in so many moons I daren’t count. And, ok, I might have danced a little while walk/running.

Despite your ill-fitting nature, your presence has been integral in my personal growth.

It’s hard to believe that two years ago in April we were signing the contract for our kitchen remodel, and were already in the midst of planning, shopping and preparing for an experience that would quite literally change our life. In the past two years babies have been born, conceived and born, and some are about to be born – of course that’s always true of any two years, but we actually know some of those babies this time. Our life has transformed since that fateful meeting (perhaps not as significantly as those new parents’ world), transformed most definitely for the better.

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I’ve learned my lesson, it left a scar, now I see how you really are…*

*Lyrics from You’re No Good, as sung by Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers. Their van sessions have been making their way around the interwebs, and for good reason. They’re good. I expect we’ll be seeing/hearing more from them in the not too distant future.

With this kind you really only need to trim off the dead heads. The plants are less mysterious. No growth = not gonna grow there. You just have to be patient and wait for them to begin to grow.

Every year, around this time, I start the process of waking up the yard from its long winter’s slumber. Now, this particular winter has been unusually mild, so the cleaning up post-winter, post-nothing has been mostly effortless (I should reveal that we have our lawn cared for by our local organic yard care guru, so we don’t have to seed, fertilize, aerate, de-thatch or de-grub). The only real task at hand was to cut back the dead bits of hydrangea to make way for the new blooms. I’ve read many a conflicting report about when to do this – some say fall pruning is best, after the summer blooms have faded, while others say never to prune them – but I’ve found that the two-fold benefits of pruning in early spring, just after the leaves begin to sprout, works best for me. The fact that I can remove dead stems, dead heads and give the plant fewer areas to focus its energy on (and therefore send all its energy to producing blooms and leaves) is a win-win in my book.

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If I were a season I’d surely be spring…*

*Lyrics from “If I Were a Bell” as sung by Beverly Kenney which can be found on her album Come Swing With Me. I know this song from Guys and Dolls (the movie), but this version is decidedly sweeter, and somehow fresher than the version I know so well. Maybe it’s because I have Mad Men on the brain, or maybe it’s because I’ve been listening to the Ella Fitzgerald station on Pandora. Either way, this song, combined with the crazy-beautiful weather we’ve been having, has been lingering in my mind.

Ok, so, remember how at the end of last summer I teamed up with Dave, Jonas and Pappy to help some clients renovate their kitchen and powder room? Of course you do. But, in case you may have forgotten, allow me to refresh your memory.

Remember this?

BEFORE: As if I had to tell you that. (Note the framed poster - it's likely one of the few design elements that re-emerged in the kitchen after it was finished.)

Well, now it looks like this:

AFTER: Talk about dramatic changes.

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Ooo, it feels good to be free…*

*Lyrics from Rilo Kiley‘s song Breakin’ Up from their album Under the Blacklight. Jenny Lewis has a beautiful voice. Listen to her, either solo or with her former band. Reminds me of Texas, and makes me think of Erin from Design-Crisis every time.

Goodbye carpet! Jeff was unable to help with brute force since he accidentally chopped a bit of his finger off (he's fine, just bandaged), so I heaved and he hoed. Well, I tore out the carpet and he hauled it to the garage.

Basement! Here it is, the long promised, long awaited update on the state of affairs in the dreaded basement. When we started our journey, the basement was a sad place to be. Wallpaper from the late 80s that had seen better days (the actual paper wasn’t the issue – it just hadn’t held up well), carpet that was stained, and just generally gross, and gobs of knotty pine woodwork just screaming ‘hey, I’m old and grungy, look at me!’ all over the place. Something had to be done.

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You make it so good, you turn a woman around…*

*Lyrics from Aretha Franklin’s version of Something He Can Feel. I am in need of a little soul, and who better to sing it for me than Aretha. We’re on a first-name basis, have been since I was a child. Though, I suppose, every woman is (or should be). Sing it, Aretha. Ladies, let me see your hips swaying to the music. 

AFTER: The latest view from my kitchen. Vast improvement.

Well, first, I had planned on updating you with the status of the basement. But, well, the basement has more transformations to come, and the exterior, well, that’s pretty much complete. Of course there are more stages of finish to complete – filling holes, more staining, sealing, painting, caulking, etc. – but the overall effect is one of completion. Which is thrilling.

read on…

Time and light, I guess you are afraid of what everyone is made of…*

*Lyrics from St. Vincent‘s The Apocalypse Song from their album, Marry Me. I just love them, and since we’ve just lost an hour of darkness (or gained one in the morning) the refrain of this song was particularly poignant. And the Pandora station for her/them is amazing. If you’re into that sort of thing. Which obviously I am.

When we last met, this was how my kitchen entryway was looking.

Since I last updated you on the state of affairs at the ol’ (so happy) homestead soooo much has happened. And yet nothing has really changed. Sort of. Ok, so we changed our entryway decking and stairs, but the overall effect is the same. They’re still just stairs to get inside. I suppose it’s like wearing a grungy pair of pants to paint/stain/joint compound/generally be disgusting in and then changing into a nice pair of slacks. Still pants, but soooo much nicer to look at.

Ta-dah! Look at that! Red cedar decking, stained Burnt Hickory in Cabot exterior oil-based semi-solid stain.

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I used to love it, it used to be pretty…*

*Lyrics from Neptune City by Nicole Atkins. I heard this song on Pandora the other day and really liked her voice. Not sure how I feel about her more recent album yet, but I can confirm that her voice is attractive to me. Have a listen and let me know what you think.

DURING: Our plan is to redo the railings to match the other side of the house, use cedar to wrap all the pressure treated (i.e., ugly) lumber, and to replace the storm door that pretty much failed after our kitchen renovation.

Yeah, so, yeah. I’m a crap blogger. I mean, I hope you like what I post when I get around to it. But, I’ve been pretty unable to keep up lately. I have (what must be) a hundred half-finished projects sitting around the house, ones that I’m hopeful will be worth posting (I’m taking pictures as I go, but nothing is ready to share), but for now you’ll have to settle for some progress pictures of half done-i-tude.

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And all the nobody people, and all the somebody people…*

*Lyrics from Five Years by David Bowie. I already used this song for the other master closet renovation, but thought that since this closet is really an extension of that one, well, it fit to use it twice. Plus, I mean, it’s Bowie. 

AFTER: I shot this looking into a full-length mirror we hung (which is why the bathroom is on the right and not the left). The stencil is in metallic silver (like I used in the family bath for the stripes).

Ok, so, closets. Who knew they were so important? Obviously having recently finished the last touches on our master closet renovation we’ve been eager to tidy our bedroom into a livable state. Of course then we took a mini-break to NYC and have had travel bags and suitcases strewn about the room looking for a home (previously stored in either the basement or the white room closet which is now our second master closet – confused? me, too). So it was time to finally tackle the other closet in the master bedroom.

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My motto’s always been, when it’s right it’s right…*

*Lyrics from the Ron Burgundy and the Channel 4 News Team’s rendition of Afternoon Delight. Feel free to oversaturate your love for Anchorman by watching this clip from them singing it in the movie, too. 

The living room, open to the dining room (and foyer), has handsome drum fixtures on the ceiling, but needs some fresher lights in the face space.

With our new thrift/antique side tables in the living room settling in nicely, and with new curtains beginning to give the space a more homey, lived-in feel (only took us 5 years to nail down a curtain choice), I thought it might be an appropriate time to examine the lighting scheme. As Brick said so eloquently in Anchorman, “I love lamp.” But, as Ron Burgundy questioned him, “Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying that?” I, too, had a similar conversation with myself, and then with Jeff… did he really love our lamps? Because I certainly did not. Specifically in the living room where IKEA lamps reign supreme, where each lamp is merely a shade balanced on a spindly little tube of chrome (which can be beautiful, don’t get me wrong), and where the only lamp we have that has any mass is too tall (and therefore a tiny bit blinding while sitting) for the space. It’s not really working, and so I’m on the hunt for better choices.

Our sole sofa-side lamp sits just a bit too high causing a bit of a blinding spot on that side of the room.

read on…