Monday, December 22, 2008

PBJ


I'm trying to clean house and get packed before we leave at 5:30AM to Wednesday, but here is my Baby Boy eating PBJ!

Friday, December 19, 2008

More gushing about Alan

Did I forget to mention that Alan also gave me a few awesome 1960s lamps to aid in my ongoing battle against overhead lighting?

Bath AA

Henceforth I shall refer to my bathroom from a time either AA or BA. That would be before Alan and after Alan. Alan is the wonderful man my landlord sent to fix the crumbling walls surrounding my tub. You may remember the joys of our bath from such previous posts as this
and this. However, when the walls (which were really just wood paneling) litteraly began to crumble, I had to call in the big guns. Alan is wonderful, Alan is amazing, Alan is my new hero. Even though he had to jury rig a solution and work with-in a limited budget, he left my claw-foot tub exposed and fixed the surround in a non-hideous, even attractive way. I didn't really take before, before shots, so here are some of bath in progress:


This is a nice detail shot of some wood rot and mold:

Here is the AFTER (please add your own chorus of hallelujah):

This is my favorite bit, formed from a scrap of marble left over from another project:

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Playhouse


This is the box our mattress came in last year!!! I finally got tired enough of it falling over, and desperate enough for something to entertain B with, that I built a playhouse yesterday, or at least started it.


Playhouse in progress.


B when I told him it wasn't ready yet.


Happy B, when I gave in and just let him play in his roofless playhouse. (Notice the Frank Loyd Wright, Falling Water cornerless window detail.)

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Chicken Soup with Rice

Note to self: when you have a very particular 2 year old eater, try to find Carole King ballads accompanied by Maurice Sendak animation to encourage intake of previously rejected food.



He even asked for seconds. (Thank you Penny for the delicious soup!)

Nice House



Forgive the photo quality, my camera was low on batteries and the day was low on light. There is just about nothing I like better than a little urban renewal, particularly thoughtful, inexpensive, modern bits like this house. I especially love the simple entryway and unfinished wood slats (so in keeping with the neighborhood vernacular, but natural and modern at the same time).

Friday, December 12, 2008

Baby Boy's Art Wall

BB and I cleaned his room this morning. Getting him to help me with this is usually terribly unpleasant, but this morning I decided his growing stack of paintings , which is continually getting strewn across the floor, was driving me crazy. In an effort to get them out of the way I started to just tack them up with painter's tape. B loved this!! We ended up spending a lovely morning putting away all his toys and books so that we could "discover" more paintings to hang. Every time we found a new one B would ask to be lifted up to hang it. Here is the result:

Quite stylish and bright I think.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Clean House

I took pics of the house in all its cleanly glory on Thanksgiving morn and am just getting around to posting them.


Entryway with postcard collection (I have about 10x what is hung here)


Living Room


After I took a pic of these chairs I decided that they needed art of their own and dug out the painting.


Living Room with napping husband (and a lot of orange!! I never noticed that before.)


Long view of the apartment.


Another kids chair.


Little B's Room, sort of clean.


Little B asleep in his bed nook with Auntie's painting.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

I did not finish the dining room


I did not even finish the wall, but I put the table in, and a wonderful dinner was had by all.

Found Wallpaper

They are working on my bathroom right now, and there were 3 different wallpapers lurking under the layers. First up, the most recent, from the late '60s, early 70s, maybe:

Please note that there are two different different depictions of pink swans, one with a blue bow...does this conotate maleness?

Second is a beautiful, simple all over pattern from maybe the '40s:


The final pattern is a hand-printed fish border (which appears to have been accompanied by a peptobismal pink and black sponge paint job!!!!) :

Despite dubious design pairings, I am very charmed by the pattern. I wonder when it dates to? It is the oldest, on the bottom layer of renovations...maybe the late '20s, early '30s?

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

First Strip


Yesterday I got all of the boxes and crap cleared out of the room (though some of it is now cluttering up my living room and will need to be dealt with before thursday) and got liner paper up. Today I started to wallpaper. I have to say this paper is so beyond my skill. It is handprinted, and has the selvage, which you are supposed to cut off, but I can't get it to line up correctly....It is also very heavy, and I was trying to do this all by myself. This first strip took me about 2 hours....at the end of the day I only got 3 strips up. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Can I get my Dining Room together for Thanksgiving?



This is my dining room (almost the same as yesterday, just minus the laundry pile) I want it to be together, at least somewhat, for Thanksgiving...5.25 days from now, really 4, because I want everything clean and ready to go Thursday morning. So how much can I reasonably expect to do? Paint....should I wallpaper?



I bought this 1960s handprinted wallpaper on ebay for a song...I have been hesitant to use it (rental, etc....) but there is a lot of it, at least enough to do a small room. I am out of paint, and out of money, and the walls are pretty f**ked up. I have liner paper too, paste, everything. Design wise I love the thought of this paper in the dining room. I think I am going to go for it!!!!

Quick to do list:
Paint Ceiling
Paint woodwork, trim, etc.
Closet doors?
Liner Paper
Wall Paper
Reattach seats to chairs
Add leaves to table

Thanksgiving Bounty


This is my haul from the Farmer's Market this morning.....all ready for preparation on Thursday. Usually we do dinner at my sister's, but this year we are doing it at my apartment and I am pretty excited. Another project to get done by next week, but I will post about it later, as baby is being very quiet in the other room.....

Friday, November 21, 2008

Revised Living Room to do List

Living Room First:
Fix Hole I didn't exactly fix this, but I have a temporary solution covering it up.
Buy 1/4" veneer drywall, 1 sheet should do
--this project is gone Buy scallop edging for the LR side of shelf
(do they sell that at Dyke's Lumber? probably...)
Go to Dyke's
Have sofa and rug cleaned
*Order Curtains & Rods
*Hang Curtains & Rods
Purchased, but not hung Purchase and hang bamboo? blind -- Pearl River
(measure for blind)
*Finish redoing found cabinet
--this project is gone Buy taller legs and attach
Polish brass handle
Paint?
What should I do with fireplace wall???????
Ideas:
Canvas with fireplace painted on it
Shelf, narrow
Wall-mounted flat screen tv
Leaning art
Hang wall paper in french moulding next to window?????
*Book shelves (Lack, IKEA, dark Brown)
add feet to shelves, Dyke's?
if not find source and order
Slip-cover for sofa
to pattern or not to pattern?
New Coffee Table, round, definitely!!! acrylic? if I can find
--this project is goneBench for inset by window
Fix Lamp
Find floor lamps
Replace light fixture (with ceiling fan?)
Replace light switch with dimmer
Paint radiator cover
Hang Art
*Touch-up Paint
*Throw out? broken record cabinet

My House this Morning

It has been so long since I added to this blog. I write the posts in my head, I take the photos, and yet I never seem to get them up. I wanted to record my daily process, sort of hoping it would help me stabalize my disorganized routine.......I always have a reason not to post, mostly that when I see something interesting in the neighborhood I don't have my camera (note to self: carry your F**KING camera!) or my house always seems to be a mess (no matter how much cleaning I try to squeeze into the day!) I have had a long standing discussion with my sister about product vs process, and I have always been a product lady.....but I never get where I want, probably because I don't embrace the process....anyway, I thought the best thing to do would be to just post pics as my house looked this morning after breakfast, mess and all. Jump all the way in, as it were.



My office/work area (in a corner of my son's room)

One corner or the Living Room.

Another corner of the Living Room, with the Lack shelf
I bought months ago, but never posted about.

My "Dining Room" with the laundry pile.

Our Bedroom.....someday I might buy a bed frame.

My son's room. (Oh my GOD!! This room is always a wreck!)

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Sometimes it is the smallest things....

The crib yesterday:


The crib tonight:

Monday, July 21, 2008

I just bought some curtains


I just ordered these curtains for my living room. I never order expensive things, and even though these were on sale the are very expensive for me...but they are silk and linen and fully lined and 108" long (that's 9' people!!) I've wanted them forever, and was going to order them months ago, for my birthday, but they were no longer available. I even e-mailed Anthropologie, and they tracked down a pair in California, however when I called the store they wouldn't honor the sales price and I couldn't even think about affording them otherwise...so I have just thought and thought about them. While doing a quick peek at Anthropologie, I noticed that they were suddenly available again, and on sale, so I bought them.

Now though, I am wondering how well they will really work. I bought my sofa since I saw them last and I really think the mustard color is going to look hideous with this taupe, and I'm not sure that the taupe will really go with the warm, almost peachy wall color I have going. If the curtains are exactly the same color as they are in the picture they will, and I am going to eventually have a slipcover made for the sofa, so I guess that is not such a big deal. Well nothing to do now but wait and see.

To-Do List, Living Room

I think I will start posting some to do lists up here, in a sort of effort to keep myself on track...

Living Room First:
Fix Hole
Buy 1/4" veneer drywall, 1 sheet should do
Buy scallop edging for the LR side of shelf
(do they sell that at Dyke's Lumber? probably...)
Go to Dyke's
Have sofa and rug cleaned
Order Curtains & Rods
Hang Curtains & Rods
Purchase and hang bamboo? blind -- Pearl River
(measure for blind)
Finish redoing found cabinet
Buy taller legs and attach
Polish brass handle
Paint?
What should I do with fireplace wall???????
Ideas:
Canvas with fireplace painted on it
Shelf, narrow
Wall-mounted flat screen tv
Leaning art
Hang wall paper in french moulding next to window?????
Book shelves (Lack, IKEA, dark Brown)
add feet to shelves, Dyke's?
if not find source and order
Slip-cover for sofa
to pattern or not to pattern?
New Coffee Table, round, definitely!!! acrylic? if I can find
Bench for inset by window
Fix Lamp
Find floor lamps
Replace light fixture (with ceiling fan?)
Replace light switch with dimmer
Paint radiator cover
Hang Art
Touch-up Paint
Throw out? broken record cabinet

My Living Room These Days


This is my living room right now (or at least a few days ago when I cleaned it up to put in my new rug) This rug is to replace my old one, which was the same color scheme, but a much nicer pattern, which my cats ruined by "claiming" it (other wise known as pissing all over it) in some bad behavior elicited by the birth of the baby and the move to Brooklyn. I don't love this one, but it is big (9' x 12'), the right color palate, and was $125 at Housing Works.
All and all the living room is looking not so bad, still needs a lot of things, but you know, livable. However, then we have the other side:

so when I moved in there was a piece of french moulding on this wall (there are still bits and pieces of it) It is actually all over the apartment, and I sort of like it, but this particular panel had a piece of framed drywall over a cut out, and just drove me crazy!!!
I can't find a good picture of it, but here is a before:

I have been complaining about it for months to my sister, who has obviously known me for a long time, and says constantly, "Don't touch it, I don't want to hear about you trying to pull it off!" Up until last week I heeded her advice, but one day the baby was asleep, and I decided that I could just take off the dry wall that was backing the shelf in the other room. So nice right, see through the shelf from both sides, let a little light into the interior room. I carefully cut the drywall along the inside of the frame so I wouldn't take off any more than necessary, and I started to pull it out.....however, it left an icky edge. I looked at and I thought, "if I just pop off this frame, I can just pop off the whole piece of drywall and then I'll put the frame right back in, and make a nice little finish to the living room side of the shelf." So, not wanting to destroy an old plaster wall, I gingerly tested my theory on just one side of the frame, and it was easy, so I decided to proceed.....but!!!!when I went to pull off the third side, it had been glued, rather than nailed to the old wall, and a good chunk of the wall came off to. Now I have a hole.

When my boyfriend got home, who, like my sister, has known me for a long time, he didn't scream or yell, he just said "oh, honey, what have you done?"

I obviously have to fix it, but for now I just hung a painting over it, which begs the question, why didn't I just do that to begin with?

Also, the library shelf below is a recent Craigslist purchase ($30!!!), this is not where it will permanantely go, but it is currently being used as a deterent to the baby messing with the hole.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

What should I do now?

I've been so sad lately. I don't know what's wrong.....I have a beautiful son, I love my boyfriend and my house. I think I just am unhappy with my career, I am abandoning what I have spent most of my adult life doing, and have been trying different things, but I don't know what I want. My lack of plan is leading, I think, to some general malcontent. What should I do now that I am a grown-up?

I can't even writhe pithily about it......I just need a project, and the time to do it......

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Camera still broken...

....lots of things afoot though. We bought a couch this morning and I can't wait to get it home this weekend. Its vintage, and a bit beat up, but it was in our price range, it has really nice lines, I like the fabric (for now) and somewhere down the line I'll want to get it reupholstered, rather than toss it.



In the picture it looks a little yellow/tan. It is much more of a mustard/brown kind of color......

We felt like since we finally had a piece of furniture baby boy really needed a chair of his own, so on an impulse we bought him this chair:
the Kapsule chair from OFFI (you can link for a better photo). I'm not sure about it, but I think it's cute, and I like the hole in the back for moving it around/storage. Baby boy didn't actually sit in it today, but he did climb on it, stand on it, and but block in to it...so it definitely wasn't a bust.

Welcome to Ludi, born yesterday. Congrats Lisa and Robert!!!!

Thursday, February 28, 2008

No Camera, Craigslist: Yellow

My camera didn't start working again.....I've been dying to take pictures of things, (my adorable son) but can't. Luckily this Saturday is my birthday, so guess what my gift will be?

In the meantime I found more inspiration via Craigslist. It is hard to miss the current blogger obsession with yellow, so here is my own homage to this sunny hue:




I know I already posted the ebay wallpaper, but it went so well with the yellow theme.....
The sofa isn't exactly yellow, but the hue went so nicely I couldn't resist adding it.
In fact if you were to combine the barrister bookcase, the sofa, and the armless mustard chair, you would have a nice beginning to a very beautiful living room, (that would go very well with the dining room I put together last post)

I can't find the link for the yellow table, but it was for sale in LIC.
I'm not posting the link for the egg chair, because I am trying to buy it.....
Barrister Bookcase
Armless Mustard Chair
Vintage Sofa
Swivel Chair