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?

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.

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.....

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!)

Sometimes it is the smallest things....

The crib yesterday:


The crib tonight:

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.

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......

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!!!!

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

Virtual Fleamarket/Dining Room or Entryway Design

Vintage chrome and marble dining table
2 Antique chairs with sunburst pattern seats
1960s Style Hanging Lamp
Vintage Bookshelf
Vintage Schumacher Wallpaper

Plus these curtains from Anthropologie.

So funny story...I couldn't find my camera yesterday, I finally found it today. However, I discovered it in a zippered pocket of my son's bag after a yogurt exploded and I rinsed it out. Hopefully it will dry out and work....we'll see. So my plans to post pictures of my living room in progress with sofas and curtains I am thinking about was foiled. I did finish (mostly) painting my entryway, and started to assemble a collage of my collection of postcards. It is the first "art" I have hung up and it really made me start to feel like this might be a home for us.

Anyway, all of that aside I was surfing craigslist for, well for anything really because I have hardly any furniture for this apartment. I found this amazing dining table (pictured above) and was really trying to figure out if I should get rid of my little Paul McCobb dining chairs I've had forever (they just wouldn't work with the table) Good thing I am pretty broke right now, because it was really a moot point, I can't afford the table. Instead I made a little imaginary dining room, all from Craigslists finds, some vintage wallpaper off ebay (meant to line the back of the rather dusty looking, but awesome vintage shelf) and some sale curtains from Anthropologie (I can't figure out how to post pictures from their website so I just have a link) So, if anyone were to read my blog, I designed a nice little entryway (or add some chairs and it could be a dining room) for them.

PS The whole thing costs less than $500.

My Living Room Before

So today the baby was sick and slept almost all day, in fact after waking up for about an hour he went back to sleep. I could have gotten a lot of stuff done on the house, but instead I figured out how to make a photo montage on Photoshop. Which, since I am shockingly computer illiterate, ended up taking me most of the day. I was going to take pictures of the living room as it currently looks, and post pictures of a sofa and curtains I think I want, but instead here is the montage (8 hours in the making) of one side of my living room before we moved in and I started working on the house.

MUST HAVE THESE RUGS

If I don't get one of these rugs from brocade home I think I might die, that's how much I want one. Should I get a runner for my entry way, a 5 x 8 for my work room/dining room/library (or it will be anyway)???? What if I got both, too much? (also know as could I afford it?) The entryway is almost painted and the bathroom just needs wallpaper (well, and a mirror, and some shelves, and a toilet paper holder, and some hooks, but close) When they are done I can look at them and decide if the rug should go there.

bathroom photos (forgot)

Shoes and Bathroom Floors

Since I only have a few minutes before the kid starts freaking out and I have to get to work I thought I would do a quick double post. So baby boy almost out grew his last pair of shoes, and then threw one in the garbage can (we think) and no one noticed and then had only snow shoes. So one day, in desperate need of shodding for my son we took a trek over to Manhattan Ave, where I found an odd little Polish shoe store with a ton of cute cheap shoes. I bought 2 pairs for $30, which is great considering his last pair cost $50 on the Upper West Side. (I really do try to frequent local businesses and thrift shops rather than super stores, though it does sometimes cost more. Or maybe not, I think I buy a lot less. Everytime I go to Target I come out with 3 bags of stuff and have spent $100, and I went in to check out their newest home goods line and buy some Method dish detergent) Back to the shoes, I love them.....even their awesome packaging. Baby boy loves them to, he keeps bringing them to me and making me put them on. Then he runs around the house in his diaper and new shoes growling. (Yes, I let my child wear nothing but a diaper, sometimes not even that, and he loves to growl, it is his main form of communication these days.)

As for my bathroom floors, I will let the pictures illustrate my frustration. (just imagine the smell of cat pee soaked into a few layers of glue that some how appears to be going bad) I am not sure that I won't get into trouble for pulling up the tile, but it started out innocently enough. One tile was loose and I pulled it up to see if I could locate the odd, unpleasant smell that no amount of cleaning seemed to be getting rid of. Pulling up that tile caused the one next to it to come loose, and revealed the full force of the smell. So then I tried removing just the next layer below and the top layer which worked sort of, until I got to the edge and another layer pulled up with the glue from the layer on top. It was linolium and had gotten so brittle it was breaking apart, so now I am 4 layers down and half-way through the bathroom, because of course the first few tiles were just itching to come up, tempting me into a tile peeling frenzy. However the remaining tiles seem intent upon staying attached.

Son freaking out, gotta go.

475 Kent

So I haven't been posting very much, just started a new job, after traveling for almost a month and after moving.....I had friends who lived at 475 Kent, the building that just got evicted in Williamsburg. Tonight was the first night I really sat down and read all the press and buzz in the blogosphere about the evictions and I am shocked at the vile, hateful, comments and reporting.

New York is not always the easiest place to make it, we all do what we have to and one of the things I have always loved about New Yorkers is their homes. Rich, poor, artist, wall street broker, we all live on top of each other. Space is the biggest premium. I have been in places where people pay thousands of dollars per month and spent millions decorating and they still lack much of the luxury I grew up in because they lack space. I have also been in tiny studios, broken down tenements, illegal squats (in the days before they cleared them all out of alphabet city and turned it into a hip neighborhood), upper-west side pre-war classics. People make their homes here, rent or own, they find their corner and they claim it. When I go home to Kentucky no one ever understands why I would spend money on a rental, paint it, love it, stay for years....to understand you have to understand New York.

Part of me watches the rise of the condo with interest, the designer in me (though most of this is a lot of poorly built, poorly designed shit with a veneer of trendy modernism that attracts me in spite of myself) wants to see what happens, but then I know that what is really interesting to me lays not in destruction and reconstruction, but true development, which I believe should embrace the community. Otherwise we are just building some homogeneous over-developed monolith where everybody has the same Design Within Reach "licensed" reproduction Mies sofa, at the expense of our communities and our individuality.

I read a thread of comments accusing the parents who lived at 475 Kent of being irresponsible for raising their children in such a building...what the fuck???? What right do we have to judge each other. I believe that good design should be design that doesn't make our children sick....should I judge you for buying a condo in a brand new building where I know that the glue they used to lay-down your new hardwood floors, and the sealer they used on them all produce toxic gas that can give your child asthma? I just moved into an old Victorian and my child (though I hate to say this) is in more danger from fire because of the nature of the wood frame construction and old wiring than any child at 475 Kent, a concrete warehouse building, ever was or could be. Do you want to judge me for putting my child in danger?

475 Kent was an amazing community, to say people broke the law and got what they deserved is so nonconstructive. New York is a lawless place in many ways, and the laws about buildings, codes, residential, commercial are a myriad maze of both the arcane and the necessary, which have waxed and waned based on developers greed for almost two centuries now. It's New York, we find our corner and we claim it, we make our homes. No one, especially not rent-paying, tax-paying, members of our community deserve to be thrown out of their homes in the middle of a cold night. Regardless of where you fall on the political side of this issue, as members of a community we should all be there for each other as humans, as fellow New Yorkers, as fellow Brooklynites, to give at least a few words of sympathy to our neighbors.

I'm sorry if this is a bit rambling and disjointed, but I was really upset by a lot of the ignorance and cruelty I just read.